Tyler, Cody and Jackson

I had the wonderful opportunity to do maternity photos for Tyler, and Cody. Jackson will be Tyler and Cody's first child. Cody is 27 weeks pregnant at the time these were taken. We were hoping for a nice day to take photos outside but it ended up raining very hard. So we ended up shooting most of the shots inside.

Failure!

I try to be very good at making sure I have multiple copies of my data. I used to do DVD back ups of all my photographs and my i-Tunes library along with have a a copy on an external hard drive. Last June I started using Backblaze instead of DVD's. I always stored my DVD backups off site. But due to the large amount of photograph's I was taking it became cumbersome. I have over 250 gigabytes of data on DVD. Backblaze provided the solution. It offered real time, unlimited storage, offsite backups for $5 a month per computer. So I decided to see how it worked. After several weeks of it uploading my data for my initial backup, it kept up to my workflow and pace quite nicely. I was and am very pleased.

So Christmas day 2009 my wonderful elderly sheltland sheepdog helped me out. Since winter had taken hold she found a nice warm place to sleep, beside the desktop computer. Well on Christmas day she pulled the 500 gigabyte external hard drive off the top of the desktop's tower onto the floor. This corrupted the entire hard drive. The hard drive was half full with about 250 gigabytes of photos etc. on it.

So the day after Christmas I was rushing to Wal-mart to get a new hard drive and start restoring my data. I bought a new Western Digital 1 terabyte external hard drive and began recovering my data. I only had about 6 months of data to recover from Backblaze. I did find that several of my DVD backups were corrupted. After cataloging what I was able to recover from DVD's I began downloading my data from Backblaze. It was a slow process but I was thankful I had my photos back.

So now I have 3 backups of my data. I have 2 external hard drives now with matching data and an off-site backup thanks to Backblaze.

So I took apart the old hard drive and shot this photo of it.



This was shot with a black foam core under the hard drive. A 32" diffuser in the back with a Lumopro LP120 at 1/4 power with a red and purple gel behind the diffuser. The hard drive is lit with a Sony HVL-F58AM with a home made grid that is flagged from above and camera left. The shot was with a Minolta 50mm prime at f4.5 at 1/125, using CTR-301P radio triggers.

Symmes Creek Hike

Today I completed the 6 mile Symmes Creek loop in the Wayne National Forrest. I did this hike along with some friends and my Dad. The primary reason was to help a Boy Scout obtain his First Class Scout.

We have had more snow this winter than in a long time and it made for a wonderful winter hike. The snow was not deep and in places on the trail you could see bare earth. This was a very well laid out and maintained trail. You start out hiking up a ridge and following the ridge for the first half of the trail, then the second half you follow Symmes Creek. During the hike you pass several stands of evergreens and several cliff faces. We also saw many wildlife tracks including turkey, rabbit, coyote and of course deer.

I took the camera along and shot several different shots.

So here they are.





















Enjoy,
Chris

Pittsburgh, PA

My father is a Pittsburgh native and a while back he saw a panorama of Pittsburgh on the internet and thought it would look nice on his wall in his home office. With Pittsburgh being only 4 hours away, on December 7, 2009 I packed up and headed that way. I had planned the shots I wanted to get by searching Flickr, Google Earth, and looking over a Pittsburgh map. I was hoping for good weather but found none. I left the house and on the way up it began snowing. When I arrived in Pittsburgh the afternoon was heavily overcast, windy and cold. I started at the bottom of the Dusquesne Incline. I lugged my equipment on the incline. I rode to the top and shot the first panorama from the observation deck. When I got home I stitched the Panorama using Hugin and post-processed the image in Lightroom 3 Beta and as always click on the photo to see a larger version.



After getting this shot I headed over to one of Dad's Alma Mater's, the University of Pittsburgh to the Cathedral of Learning. I shot several pictures of this wonderful building but was not happy with the results. I am still working on the pictures so hopefully I can get something.

I planned the day so I would arrive in late afternoon and with dark falling early in December I was able to get some night shots before returning home.

This is the other shot I took. This is taken from in front of Heinz Field looking out toward Point Park. Again this image was shot using the Panosaurus head, stitched using Hugin, and post processed in Lightroom 3 beta.



Thanks and Enjoy.

It's 2010

Another year is gone, worse yet another decade.

I haven't blogged in a while because I have been very busy. I have decided to pursue turning my hobby into a business. So I guess you can say I am no longer and amateur I have officially gone Pro. This is a was a very difficult decision. I have spent many months researching this aspect of my life. I have been learning new techniques, software, and business aspects. I wanted to be sure my images would stand on their own and be sure there would be an interest in what my vision is. I have spent the last year taking over 25,000 pictures of everything I can find. I have used these pictures to find a rhythm and balance I am happy with and I am sure clients would be happy with.

I still have work to do. I have several upcoming announcements so stay tuned.

So here is a few things I have been up to.

I am continuing to partner with the Home Place in Gallipolis. This is a local outlet to display and sell some of my fine art prints of the Gallipolis area and beyond. The Home Place is an antique and craft mall at 842 Second Avenue in Gallipolis. You can see my fine art prints displayed there. All the items are offered in framed and unframed versions. To see the current offering take a look at my Fine Art Gallery.

Also if you are interested in any type of portrait session feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Chris

Bridge of Honor

You may have remembered I posted shortly after starting my blog about the demolition of the Pomeroy-Mason Bridge in Pomeroy, Ohio.

Recently the false-work was removed from the West Virginia Side of the bridge allowing me to get some shots of the completed span. The span is a 1852 foot long 4 lane cable stay bridge. The bridge took over 5 years to build. The first delay was caused by an unforeseen slippage. The second delay in construction was caused by concrete that was used in the Mason Tower failed testing and a 20 foot section had to be removed and replaced. Then a form of shale was found that had to be contained and resulted in the construction of the 730 x 35 foot retaining wall. The wall was designed to depict life along the Ohio River in Pomeroy. Look for pictures to come to the blog soon. The final delay came when the form travelers had to be redesigned and rebuilt after a failure on a bridge under construction in Puerto Rico. The bridge was originally supposed to cost $45.6 million and ended up costing $65 million. You can read more about the construction of the Bridge of Honor here and here.

The bridge was named the Bridge of Honor to honor four star General James Hartinger of Middleport who was the first commander of NORAD and Congressional Medal of Honor winners Staff Sargent Jimmie Stewart of Mason West Virginia, and Corporal Edward Bennett. You can learn more about General Hartinger here. You can learn about Staff Sargent Jimmie Stewart here, and Corporal Edward Bennett here.

The bridge is illuminated at night making it a spectacular structure. I stopped the other night to get a few shots.

The first shot is from close to downtown Pomeroy looking up the Ohio River. The river was calm and you can see a wonderful reflection of the bridge in the water.



The second shot is a 5 shot panorama stitched together using Hugin. Both shots were shot using a tripod and a 30 second exposure.



Enjoy

Fine Art Prints

After selling a few prints here and there, I have partnered with The Home Place in Gallipolis to display and sell my fine art prints. I have 11x14 both framed and unframed and 16x20 unframed available at the store. 20x30 prints can be ordered. Please stop by and see the prints, they are located at 844 Second Ave, in Gallipolis. They are open from 10-6 Monday through Saturday.

The following prints are available.

The Bandstand at Gallipolis.


Hocking Hills


Boggs Road at Fall


Cora Mill


The Bob Evans Homestead


The Bandstand at Fall

Enjoy