April 4th thru April 10th, 2011
Spring is here. The perennials are popping up, the temperature is in the high 70ºs this weekend. The government isn't shutting down ( as if it ever really would, what a game) and military action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lybia continues. However, here it is sunny and peaceful. You can hear the birds, the croaking frogs and the voices of the kids playing outdoors. And, this little creek quietly pushes it spring level flow through the pasture. In the summer this will be barely a trickle.
March 14th thru March 26th, 2011
Oops, I missed a week in there. The image was taken this morning. It was forecast to be a sunny day so I was up at 4:30 and out by 6:00 and down by the Buffalo River early enough to catch this early morning view of the General Mills plant from across the Buffalo River under the Skyway. If you have spent any time in downtown Buffalo you have experienced the warm sweet aroma of Cherrios roasting at the General Mills plant. At certain times the aroma permeates the city. Visitors often ask, "what's that sweet smell?". Well, now you know.
It was really cold for late March, and has been for days. Six to eight inches of snow on Wednesday of this past week. Standing on the Riverfront this morning it was 19 degrees (F), no wind but it felt really cold for some reason. I bet in a week we'll be seeing 60 degree weather.
March 7th thru March 13th, 2011
It was Phil's 30th birthday party. Phil is Callie's husband ( Callie is in the middle ) and I was trying to take some photographs at this party. I don't usually take a lot of pictures at family events as it is so hard to get good photographs in those kinds of venues. Flash is really just so hard to get really nice results. This image was so full of shadows as I bounced light when I probably, with these women (Erin , my other step-daughter on the left and Elaine, my wife on the right) should not have bounced. I was shooting AUTO with 580EX II and realized I thus was shooting JPG rather than RAW so DPP and Elements couldn't help my lack of technique as much as I needed. I played with this a tad and came up with this. The whole point is, flash shooting is something on which I need to spend way more time. I bought a book Mastering Canon EOS Photography by NK Guy. It looked informative and seemed to be Canon specific. I'll see if I can improve my technique at all here in the next few weeks.
February 28th thru March 6th, 2011
Covering events for a buffalo.com always presents a challenge. They vary in venue from the summer fund raiser for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mothers' March Of Dime Walk, a Phil Vassar Concert to the Queen City Roller Girls bout and all in between. What I try to do before each is determine what my objective is. What do I want to accomplish with my photography for the occasion. Last night I had the opportunity to cover the Buffalo Bandits, our professional lacrosse team, in the sold out HSBC Arena. I don't know the game of lacrosse well and so I set my objective to capture some of the emotion shown by the players as they compete. This was one photograph that I believe was successful in at least capturing some of the intensity of the game for these players.
February 21st thru February 27th, 2011
Last weekend I showed you a picture of the big thaw. This week we had more snow. I think it has been a beautiful winter. It has been long, but white. I'd rather have the white than the winter alternative. I took a ride in the southern part of our county. Well more southern than where I currently live in Erie County. This ride took me back to the area in which I grew up (check out the map). During the ride while on Irish Road I found this wagon that was set about 150 yards back from the road with a big snow field in front of it an a row of tall pines behind it. The pines were shielding a very large home sitting further up a slope behind the trees. There was a waterwheel next to it (see south towns gallery). This was hand held with my new lens on my old 30D. They seemed to work together ok.
February 14th thru February 20th, 2011
Last weekend this creek (Cayuga Creek), seen here as it runs through Como Park, was solid full of ice, completely frozen over. This weekend after the unseasonably warm weather we had the creek has broken up and huge chunks of ice line the banks. Tonight we are to get 7 inches more of new snow. It appears the thaw has not lasted too long.
I shot the Queen City Roller Girls for Buffalo.com Saturday night.
February 6th thru February 13th, 2011
This weekend was the weekend of winter festivals in Buffalo including the Labatt Pond Hockey Tournament. The city plows the snow off the ice on the Erie Basin Marina and forms 8 hockey rinks. 700 players on 124 teams then spend the weekend determining which team is the best pond hockey team. Basically it is a time for men and women who like to play hockey to get together, compete and drink Labatt's Beer. A great way to spend a weekend in Buffalo. I covered Saturday of the event for Buffalo.Com and this shot was one of a team getting ready to play in the early morning start on Saturday. It was a little cold and blustery in the early morning. The ice was in good shape and the weather got better as the day moved on. It was fun.
January 31st thru February 6th, 2011
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful! That has been our theme song here in Buffalo. This weekend I was back at freelance work with Buffalo.Com and had the opportunity to see the Harlem Globetrotters perform. A great group of guys who put on a super show. The Green Bay Packers have just won the Super Bowl XLV over the Pittsburgh Steelers 25-31. It was a good game with two deserving teams. Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback, I don't think that will be the last we see of Aaron.
January 24th thru January 30th, 2011
A big weekend for our family, my step daughter, Callie, the one in the middle in the white dress holding her niece and my new granddaughter, was married to Phil, not pictured. (The guys weren't important in this shot.) It was a beautiful wedding and Callie and Phil (new step son-in-law) leave for Aruba tomorrow (Monday, Jan 31st). These beautiful girls are, left to right, my wife Elaine, my daughter (step) Callie, her sister and my other step daughter Erin and the bright eyed little girl in the middle is Erin's new baby, and my newest granddaughter, Elise.
January 17th thru January 23rd, 2011
It has been winter around here and thus all the snow scenes. I'm kind of liking it as it is a good winter, one with snow all the time and cold temperatures. None of this snow, melting snow, slush, freezing slush, ice, snow, and then melting, dirty snow as many winters provide. Like winter should be, white and cold. Folks who handle winter are tough and determined and, well, maybe not necessarily inhibited by the challenges winter brings. Or, we could be just a tad ignorant of how nice the alternatives really are. Nah, anybody would like winter days like we've been having.
January 10th thru January 16th, 2011
There have been lots of opportunities for winter snow pictures lately in the Western New York region of the country. I keep wanting to show how white it is outside, but by the time I get out with my camera ( either very early morning or early evening) the major tint I get is BLUE. Never before did I quite realize how blue an early evening is in the winter.
January 3rd thru January 9th, 2011
The first full week of the new year was wintery in Buffalo, but not so that we couldn't handle it. Last night was the celebration of my father's 85th birthday. We had 30 family members snuggled into our house for dinner and fun to wish Happy Birthday to Dad. I have not been out with the camera much but snuck away for an hour today and visited the "Sinking Ponds" which is a little wildlife refuge and nature trail on the edge of the Village of East Aurora, NY. This stubby, crumbling, old tree trunk sticking out of the snow covered ice on the pond caught my attention. Maybe it was the way the little tad bit of light was hitting it.