I’ve posted some new images in the Lightbox today with a theme on balance. There are a lot of photographic ‘rules’ out there that deal with symmetry and balance in composing an image and they generally work and hold true. I think each of us are hardwired to respond to a certain visual balance the same way. It generally finds its way into our art, the buildings we inhabit, and our dinner plate (the balanced meal). I love a good balanced shot and am a sucker for symmetrical lines found in architecture and nature. However, as much as I think we are all drawn to this balance, once and a while, breaking the rules in photography can make masterpieces.

Well they may not be masterpieces, but I’ve compiled some shots together that explore balance, either on purpose or in thought. Unbelievably, there’s actually a color photo in the bunch as well. I hope you enjoy them.

The Lightbox Share for this post is the compilation of images which can be found here.

After a brief hiatus (well it seems brief, but I know I’m stretching here it being over a year), I will attempt to provide more frequent updates other than annually.

A lot has happened between updates so I will use the little time I have for this post to quickly highlight a few things that have happened over the past year:

– In a previous post called ‘The Never Ending Contest‘, I talked about my efforts to get in the publication of a photographic book of the Lehigh Valley which consisted of local photographers work. I turns out that I did make it into the book and was surprised and pleased to have 5 of my entries published out of thousands of submissions! It’s fun to see the book in several of the local stores around town. Two of my submissions were chosen to be displayed at the Baum School of Art in the Art’s David E. Rodale Gallery in celebration of the books release.

– My photo of Martin Tower was selected to be displayed in the PA photographers exhibition at the Invision Photo festival last fall. This was great fun to be part of this exhibit and enjoyed seeing the high level of photographic talent we have in the area.

– As part of the Invision Photo Festival, there was a slideluck multimedia presentation event on one of the evenings. My submission for this event was also selected and part of the show for the evening. It was incredible to see all the selections that evening as there were several photographers that are sponsored by Olympus that were in the show whose works were amazing along with other great local photographers.

– I’ve also had fun doing some work for Artsquest throughout the year and appreciate having such an effective organization devoted to the arts in our little town of Bethlehem.

Looking forward to new opportunities in 2014 and more to come!

The Lightbox Share for this post is the slideluck submission that was picked this past fall. As part of my work for Artsquest I was one of several volunteer photographers capturing Musikfest. My submission was a collection of shots I took from the festival.

The South.  There’s something calming and restful to me in those words. I grew up in Florida, and even though many people may not think of Florida as part of the South, I can assure you that Florida exists well south of the Mason-Dixon line. A couple weeks ago, we (my wife, kids and I) were visiting family who live just outside of Camden, South Carolina.  Since I’m labeling here, Florida being in the South, I would consider Camden part of the Deep South. The difference measured in the increased ratio of churches per square mile and quality of barbecue.  For me, a transplanted southerner (ok so for those that know me, this may be a bit of a stretch, but lets pretend for the sake of this post), one aspect of the South is that there is a type of southern grace that exists, a sense of place where life seems to slow down a couple notches and folks say ‘Hi’ at the grocery store. Camden has this in spades.

I was able to steel a couple of hours during our visit and go take some shots of Camden with my daughter. My intent was to capture this character of southern grace, not so much in an individual shot, but through a series of shots which taken as whole would speak more clearly. In my mind, using homes and churches as the subject represents the foundation of the South, the origin of what defines the South. This was the intent. What I ended up with however is really up to you.

The Lightbox Share for this post is a shot from the project. To view the entire project, you can find it here.

This past Sunday I had the the opportunity to hop on over to Allentown for a couple of hours and take some shots.  It’s been a very busy spring here at the house and having some spare hours to take shots is like pure gold. I’ve been meaning to take the long drive over to A-town (I’m exaggerating here for you non Lehigh Valleyians.. it’s the next town over from me) and get some captures. I was pleasantly surprised by all the interesting things to photograph. I really only scratched the surface from what I could tell, and did not even finish the list of places I wanted to photograph before needing to head back.

So I’ve got the beginnings of a new project I will be posting soon of my impressions of Allentown. It’s an interesting place and has fallen on hard times in recent decades, which makes for more unique photography. If anyone knows of some interesting locations to shoot, just offer them up in the comments on this post or shoot me an email. I’ve got a couple places on my short list including the farmers market, but would welcome any additional ideas.

So for this posts Lightbox Share I’ve got some samples from the shots I was able to take during my visit, and a preview into this new project.  In addition to the shots below I was able to add Muhlenberg College to the list of colleges and universities in my ‘Doors of Higher Learning’ photo project.  I’ve added the shots from Muhlenberg to the project – in which they have all red doors apparently.

So in our digital world, the term photo roll is a bit dated. But for how I’m using i here I think it applies quite aptly. For this weeks post I just wanted to share a sort of photo roll and how I incorporated it into a quick video.

Lunchtime Antics

I was watching my youngest daughter sitting in her high chair after lunch making all kinds of funny faces, trying to get a laugh out of my wife and I. I grabbed my camera and proceeded to take a bunch of shots of her, trying to capture all of her expressions. This explains the food on her face and the bib she was wearing (which is an incredible bib for any of you with little ones that like to take off bibs and throw them, and the food captured in them, across the room. They stick on like vice grips). I think she likes to put on a show with a full stomach.

Still images stitched together at high frame rates makes video. Typical frame rates of these still images vary from 24 frames per second to 300 depending on the quality and smoothness of the video. My thought was just to create a quick video lowering frame rates down to just over 2 images a second, trying to portray motion in still images but not be mistaken for video. I’m not sure what I accomplished here, but it was a quick thing to put together and fun to make and watch.

The Lightroom Share for this week is the video of my daughter making some fun faces for us after lunch. Hope it brings a smile to your face like it did mine.