Phillips Point before the start of the day - West Palm Beach (and the first post of a weekly subject - Time-Lapse Tuesday!)

I've been thinking a little bit lately about a new direction for my blog (not that it's earth shattering news or anything) but......

I need a little direction and focus. For the last year and a few months, its been random regurgitations of somewhat useless information, and although I am sure that will continue to be the driving force of this sillyness, I have decided to give it a bit of structure. So, that being said, today will be the first post of a regular installment for Tuesdays called.......ready drumroll.......Time-Lapse Tuesdays!.............(cricket, cricket, cricket...........)

I have a few more ideas as well, but lets just see how well this goes first (hehehe)

About 2 blocks from where I fall out of bed in the mornings is the seawall of West Palm Beach. There is a lot of great change happening down here. City boat docks, safe and secure waterfront paths, and a new park by the old library. This early morning walk and location seemed like the ideal place to practice my new time-lapse techniques.

So, here is the rig. A Nikon D300 with a 10mm fisheye lense set up on a Gitzo Traveler tripod with a Really Right Stuff ballhead and L bracket. I set the internal interval timer to give a 5 exposure burst every 10 seconds. I then batch processed them in Photomatix, brought them into Lightroom for noise and dust removal before creating a time-lapse in Quicktime Pro.

I think it looks a bit dark...even on my monitor, so I am sure that it might be a bit dark for a lot of you out there. Anyway, my first HDR time-lapse! Stop by next Tuesday for my weekly video!

Look up at the Minneapolis Skyline

Look up at the Minneapolis Skyline, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

I am always happy to get emails from people who happen to stumble upon my work. I love taking images....lots of images. Other than the inner passion, there is no external driving force. I have never been sent out on assignment or had any expectations placed upon me to produce a body of work (well, other than my Iceland trip I guess). I guess that's one of the reasons I still love it. There is rarely a day that goes by that I don't dream of wandering off to some far off place to bring back images of the world....."as I see it". It is that dream that continues to fuel my constant immersion into the craft and art I guess.

So, all that gibberish being said, I am always quite humbly honored when i get a complement or reply as was the case today. While working up in Minneapolis on the Republican convention, I had a few precious moments to wander the city to capture the "World as I see it". Well, today I received an email from some folks up there wanting to use some of my images from up there on their website. Like I said, that's not what drives my passion, but it sure is cool when those kind of emails come in :)

Published in Poland

Published in Poland, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

As someone who seems to spend what might be considered by some as an insane amount of time on a hobby and passion, its nice to be recognized on occasion for your art. Little did I know when I was spending a quiet evening in Sao Paulo, Brazil capturing the colors of the city from the Hyatt, that my work would not only be featured on the front page of a story on Brazil.....but I would be compensated for it. I received a copy of this the other day. The story on Brazil ran in a copy of Newsweek in Poland. Now, if I could only read Polish!

Sunset at the Jupiter Inlet

Sunset at the Jupiter Inlet, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

I had an urge to head out this evening to chase the light. I must have looked like a nut case heading out with 2 camera body's and tripods as it was pouring rain in West Palm Beach. According to the weather online, there was no rain in the area.....hmmm, go figure. Up north about 30 minutes or so, I had a feeling that the weather might break up a bit.

The Jupiter Inlet has a special place in my heart. Having spent my high school and early college years in this area, there were many memories to recall as I perched myself up on the inlet rocks to catch a view of the evening light. I set up one camera with a fisheye to capture a time-lapse of the water and fading light as I crawled around like a kid looking for just the right place to capture the mood of the evening. With a little Jami Sieber on the Ipod, the mood was perfect. Too bad that feeling had to come to a close so fast.

Its funny how people can be in the same beautiful place and mentally be in completely opposite places. As I was in my truck reviewing a few images and still listening to the cinematic music with one of the ear pieces, the other ear was picking up on some voices of a crowd of kids that seemed to be getting louder by the minute. It was when I backed out of the parking spot and glanced in my rear view mirror that my serene mood of the evening was shattered. It seems that the rowdy group had kicked it up a notch as the mob appeared to be in full rumble. Arms were flying, legs were kickin, hair was being pulled, ...... a full on chaotic confrontation ensued as the mass seemed to be beating the crap out of each other! WTF is going on! What happened to my peaceful inlet that our family used to enjoy when I was a kid? I hope its there the next time I visit :(

Here's a little clip of a time lapse that I shot whilst climbing about!

Seaside at Blowing Rocks

Seaside at Blowing Rocks, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

Its been a while since I headed out early, way way too early, to catch a nice sunrise. Just a bit up north of where I live is a place called Blowing Rocks. Along the shores of Jupiter Island, it is just about the only place along Florida's East coast that I know of that has a rocky coastline. The tricky part is the trek there however. You see, the park technically doesn't open up until well past sunrise. Not sure what that is all about. Kinda lame for the photographer for sure as the best lighting is just before during and after the sunrise. The solution? Park at a county park about a mile or 2 South and crawl up the beach in the wee hours of the hot, humid, Florida morning. But hey, who said this was easy, right?

Here are a couple from a photo shoot with a local camera club I went out with a while ago. I guess its about time to take that trek again!

A walk along Iguazu Falls - Brazil

A walk along Iguazu Falls - Brazil, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

I have always heard of this special place called "Iguazu Falls." On the border of Argentina and Brazil, this incredible force of nature has been carving is path for millions of years. This little peak into the falls is but a small piece of the labyrinth of rock and water that seems to go on for miles. While on an event in South America last year, I found the time to trek off to this magical place.

As a photographer, I was of course hoping to get the best in lighting conditions, but was presented with, well....., blah conditions at best. I still snapped several exposures....many that still have not even been processed yet, but this one seemed to stand out as a particular challenge. It seemed to have a few things going on...like composition, flow, and energy, but the lighting was awful! I eventually decided that I wanted to create a kind of painterly look to it, so I brushed in some color and texture with a plug in called Topaz, dodged and burned it a bit, and created this. The image below shows a before and after.

Eruption in Iceland

Eruption in Iceland, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

Long days, really long days, ....... thats what a privileged few are in for in the coming couple months in Iceland. Imagine the golden hour that lasts for, say, 4 or 5 hours! Ben Wilmore and John Paul Capinagro are only a couple of the very talented artists leading workshops this summer in this most fascinating location. I indeed hope to make it back there someday!

And now for something completely different.....

I've had the D300 with the fisheye on the balcony snapping an image every 15 seconds in an attempt to create a 24 hour time lapse video of the South Florida skys from my new apartment. I have done a couple already, and am quite excited by this new process. Look for this to be posted soon!

One more thing, I sold another image today. This one is of a mausoleum (an IR shot) from a while ago. Thru the grace of the internet and tagging/keywording, this happens on occasion. Very cool :)

Final night Aegis Party

Final night Aegis Party, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

Every summer I get to head out to a different location somewhere in the country to work on this event with a few really cool guys. Good food, good wine, good talk, and oh yeah......do the work that I love. Our annual event this year will be in Boston mid July. This image seemed most appropriate for the blog as I just emailed the plans for this year and, well, this image from last years event has patiently waited his turn in the outgoing post file......FOR A YEAR!

The last few days have been kinda camera free for me as I have been busy finishing the move into my new place. My patio is up on the 6th floor and has a great southern view of the Florida sky. I am sure many posts with be generated from here as well as some cool shots!

From the balcony in Key West

From the balcony in Key West, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

So, I am looking forward to catching up on a front page story that our local newspaper ran today. I guess I am one of a handfull of people left that actually "ocassionally" reads a newspaper......a soon to be relic thats for sure. Aaaaaannyway....

As you might know, I took an extremely brief trip to Key West a few days ago for a good client. We had plans to photograph a few ad concepts but never really got around to that. It ended up as just a nice little getaway, something we can all use now and then :) So, this shot was taken from my wrap around balcony at a hotel called "Southernmost on the Beach"......I highly recommend it by the way. As you can see, the iphone and the coffee are perched on the little table. I had to actually roll out of bed to take this one. If it wasn't for the desk, I think I could have taken it FROM the bed. Maybe I'll have to reaarange the furniture next time (hehehe!)

So, back to why I chose it this evening....

The front page story talks of what the Florida coast line is predicted to be like in the year 2099. I'll only be about 135 then, so it does concern me a weeee bit. It appears that my little balcony here will, if their prediction and graphic is correct, be at water level! Yikes! Guess I'll have to move up a floor or two then :)

More on this on a future post (and after I get a chance to digest the story)

Have a great week everyone....

(thats it, no more coastal investments for me.......)

Living in isolation - Iceland (and a Happy Fathers Day)

Living in isolation - Iceland (and a Happy Fathers Day), originally uploaded by Photomike07.

As the end of another Fathers Day creeps up on my, and my little munchkin is fast asleep, its time to reflect on the day. A day spent with her is another chance to create a memory, an opportunity to cement a lifelong relationship. I think I'm doing a pretty good job at that too! I seem to realize this more and more as the days go on. My tunnel visioned drive to reach frequent goals in my career at times seems to be taking a back seat to this. I am sure that is what my dad was trying to do in my early years, I am sure of that. I just sometimes wish, on days like today, that I could understand why he seemed to drift so far away from us in the later years. I am not even sure if he knew that he was doing it. Why didn't I ask him when he was alive? It sure would be nice to chat about that now, not to confront him of course, but just to get in his head. His life was taken too early. Miss you dad :(