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This photo was a total accident, but I've really found myself drawn to it.  I was zeroing in on an exposure -- my biggest takeaway from the Maine workshop was that one reason I hated digital images I'd made was that I'd been letting the camera call the shots on the exposure, so now I do everything manually.  Which means, sometimes, I miss wildly on my first few frames and they're crazy dark or way blown out.  I took successfully exposed images after this one, but this is the one I keep going back to.  Sometimes our accidents turn out better than our intended efforts....

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Thanks, everyone, for the well-wishing and supportive messages I got wishing me luck on this photo assignment.  It was a feature story for the Baltimore CityPaper, about a once-beloved local beer -- National Premium -- that disappeared 15 years ago and is now being resurrected by a local businessman.  My job was to meet the businessman at the brewery and get a variety of shots to illustrate this.  Once upon a time I would have been apprehensive about taking this job because I have struggled so mightily to make pictures I like, using digital cameras.  For the past few years I've ended up hating the results of  pretty much every assignment I've shot. 

I left feeling pretty good about this one, though.  In Maine I'd made some peace with digital, and felt more like this would work, that I would make some photos I actually like.  It was a good experience -- the guy was friendly and, although he would pretty much just woodenly stand there waiting for me to take his picture, he would stand anywhere I asked.  After Andrea's class this time around I felt much more comfortable being very directive -- stand here, hold your head this way.  So instead of just photographing whatever happened to happen, I made some things happen, and that felt good.

So what might be funny about that experience is that the picture I like best is this one, a grab shot at the very end when he was walking out.  Which is exactly how I've always worked.  

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Late, getting ready for bed.  For some reason Jack became enamored of these foam earplugs.  The photo I saw was him sitting there just sort of deadpan, earplug hanging out of each ear.  But, like so many compelling visuals that fail in the attempt to translate to a photograph, it just didn't happen.

I'm crazed with work and trying to get ready for a somewhat extended (10 day) and arduous (to a very remote part of Wyoming -- no transportation in or out other than horses, and our own legs) trip that I depart for on Friday.  I'm looking forward to the trip in the most part because it will be set-aside time.  When I'm not worrying about work or what a mess the house is or all those daily distractions -- I can just take time to make photos.  Like my recent Maine workshop experience, only with less pressure (and, sadly, less engagement with other creative and articulate photographers).  In the past week or so I have really felt photography receding back to some neglected back corner of my life, and I want to fight to keep it front and center.  Because doing that equates to keeping something of my soul front and center, too.  To hell with the dishes. 

Wish me luck today.  Going on my first paid photo assignment since Maine. 

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Family game night!  I lost big at Trouble.  Could not pop a 6 to get out of home base to save my life!

(Completely photographically unrelated side rant: this is a vintage Trouble game, made in the USA in the 1970s, with righteous pop-o-matic action.  You can still buy Trouble new in stores, but it's totally flimsy.  You have to hold down the floppy cardboard surface with one hand to do a proper pop, which often skitters the lightweight playing pieces out of their holes.   Highly unsatisfying.  Pictured, however, is the Trouble of *my* childhood: sturdy, stable and satisfying.  Accept no substitutes!)

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This photograph isn't much in terms of composition or art, but it sure was fun to watch Coley style his hair with the hand dryer in our local library's family restroom (where big six year old guys who might hang out long-term, playing with the hand dryer can be accompanied by their moms, who can gently move things along after a little while....)