Monochrome. #2

Spring forward.

It hit 80* for the first time in 2011 last Monday which got me thinking...what are the best times of year? I'd have to say when it's warm, but there are few bugs. Hot enough for shorts but cool enough not to be drenched in sweat. Light on pollen is good too. Daylight past 8pm is nice. Long story short, I'd have to say we're in that lovely one month window before pollen and bugs are everywhere, right now. This fact helped me get material for this seasonal post before making my way to work.

I wandered around randomly as usual, remembering where I've seen the tell-tale signs of Spring during my local daily errands. I never have my good camera on me all the time, but I make mental notes when I see things I want to shoot later on, usually while travelling by car. Even though I never get to everything I want to shoot, I got some enjoyable pictures from what I did get to while on foot.

Spring is a good time of year for plenty of reasons; it's symbolic of starting fresh, growth and surviving darkness and cold, as well as the return of a cycle of warmth and strong sunshine. Regardless of how productive you are during the Winter months you can just about always double that productivity, without even noticing it, once it's 70*+ outside. Now that warm weather is here, make up any excuse you need to get out of the house and enjoy it...before the humidity, mosquito's, gnats and wasps dull the shine of it.

Up up and away.

As a kid I loved all things mechanical; typical DNA-ingrained "boy" stuff I suppose. I enjoyed cars, trucks, airplanes and helicopters. Not too much later I was infatuated with GI-JOE, Air Wolf, Blue Thunder, Transformers and other Japanese anime involving mechs (Voltron, Robotech, Gundam, etc.). When I was in 8th grade, I had the great opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Museum in Florida. I didn't have the pleasure of witnessing a shuttle launch in person, which is on my bucket list, but I still had a great time learning more about what mankind did to achieve the goal of getting to the moon as well as the science and experimentation behind it. I recently had a excursion that reminded me of being a child, hungry for information on flying machines, and got to share in the experience with a few good friends of mine. It was a trip to the Patuxent (Pax) River Naval Air Museum in Lexington Park, MD.

A southern Maryland visit to a good friend that moved for work, a couple weeks ago, led to an impromptu tour of the Pax River NAS. Before heading home we visited a place where I could take some pictures, the Pax River Naval Air Museum. The weather was cloudy and ended up raining pretty heavily, which unfortunately kept me from getting a good outside shot of the building, but before that happened I was able to get a few images of some of the airplanes I grew up seeing in videogames, movies and anime, which was quite a treat.

After wrapping up our walk-through of the retired aircraft parking lot, outside, we moved indoors to see the rest of the museum. There were flight simulators, model planes & aircraft carriers and more importantly some display cases showing the equipment used during the initial exploration of how much g-force the human body could handle, back in the 1950s. The equipment test pilots and scientists were using at that time (open cockpit rocket propelled sleds on train tracks) to test g-force resistance was nothing short eyebrow raising. The human spirit needed to sacrifice ones life for the sake of progress for future generations is a very powerful thing. Aircraft equipment from 60 years ago was brilliant yet crude in ways, which is typical of all early technology efforts in hindsight, but looking up at what rules the sky today helps you realize how important these baby steps were.

If you find yourself in southern Maryland and would like to check out the Pax Naval Air Museum, get all the information you need here to arrange a visit.

Beer of the Month - March

The beer of the month for March is Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's Midas Touch Ale {9% abv}. My introduction to this beer came a couple months ago at the Laurrapin Grille in Havre De Grace, MD. I was in attendance to check out the great tunes of my brother-in-laws band, The Rivals, and I ended up looking through the see-through fridge behind the bar for something I hadn't tried before. Fortunately for me, they had a very eclectic assortment of bottled brews. That's when I saw it; Midas Touch in a dark bottle with the fingerprint label. After three sips I knew it'd be claiming the BOTM crown for March.

Dogfish Head as a brewery began life in 1995, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The company aimed to provide original beers and great foods for the local beach community, but the business grew faster than they imagined. From an extremely small brewing setup which required use 15 times a week, to the current industrial-sized brewery in Milton Delaware, Dogfish Head's quality products have always found their way into restaurants, storefronts and homes of their fans.

Dogfish Head's exponential growth history repeated itself again in late 2010, with their involvement in the Brew Masters TV Series on the Discovery Channel. With even more exposure, they've unfortunately had to pull some distribution to better handle the now near-worldwide demand. Dogfish Head recently addressed the public online to calm the nerves of their constituency. Even though some feel slighted, with the current economy there's no point in expanding in a manner that only addresses the short-term, so I completely respect their actions.

Midas Touch Ale is a lovely golden color in the glass, with virtually no head. The first sip of this ale is an explosion of flavor, rare for most brews. You can definitely taste the labelled ingredients, including muscat grapes and honey, but it takes a skilled palette to detect the subtle saffron aromatics. For some background for those of you who don't drink wine, muscat grapes are typically used in dessert wines. Actually, wine is a good way to describe the feel of this beer. It's easy to tell this brew has fermented for a longer period of time than most, which lends both to the alcohol content and complex taste. Don't misinterpret the ingredient list, Midas Touch isn't sweet, it's a quite refined blend of flavors. This great brew from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's lineup is hard to find, expensive and comes in four-packs. Use the search function on the Dogfish Head website and call ahead. Seek Midas Touch out with vigilance. 4 stars.

Monochrome. #1

While I love color and everything that makes eyesight one of the best senses we humans possess, sometimes the most striking representations of a point in time have no color at all. This is the start of a new post series built on images composed only with tones. I'll post em' fresh as I shoot.

Beer of the Month - Febrewary

The beer of the month for February is Sapporo Premium Beer {5% abv}. I was laboring over what I was going to pick this month, but it all became crystal clear after going to a Japanese Steakhouse for my buddy Mike's birthday celebration. I hadn't had a Sapporo in quite some time, but when I heard it was on the beer list I immediately ordered a lovely 22oz aluminum can. When I later looked for these 22oz cans for the picture, I ran into storefronts selling bottles only; check out the Sapporo website to see what the can looks like.

Sapporo's notoriety comes from being Japan's oldest beer brand. Back in the 1870's Sapporo's founder, Seibei Nakagawa, trained in Germany to learn advanced brewing techniques. He returned to his home in Sapporo City, the first Japanese German-trained brewmaster (braumeister) in the world. There have been many aspiring brewers that travelled to Germany (or surrounding areas) to learn superior techniques, but unique to Seibei-san, he returned to make beer using all local ingredients. In 1876, the resulting brew Seibei-san produced under the Sapporo name became rapidly popular throughout Japan, and by 1964 it began being imported to the USA. The large star on the Sapporo label dates back to the origin of the company, symbolizing not only the pioneering spirit of Japanese inhabiting Sapporo region in the late 19th Century, but also symbolizing the Sapporo brand being at the very forefront of the Japanese beer industry.

Sapporo Premium Beer has a very crisp, light flavor which results from the use of aroma hops as well as brewing method. It makes perfect sense as a Japanese beer, given the amount of lighter fare common in the land of the rising sun where seafood is a mainstay. I would equate this brew much to a white wine, shining when paired with a meal starring pork, chicken, fish or shellfish. Sapporo Premium Beer is an easy drinking lager and shouldn't be limited to a seasonal snag. 2 stars.

First Friday.

A couple years ago I was at my now brother-in-laws wife's parent's house, which is within walking distance of the Chesapeake Bay. It was a lovely afternoon; light on clouds, bright sun and there was a large gathering with a pig roast, horseshoes and cold beverages. Across from their house was a neighbor whose yard lead to a small set of stairs that lead you down to the beach several meters down, but more importantly one of the best views for a sunset on the East Coast. I took a couple pictures early in the afternoon, then made sure to come back to catch the sun drop with my camera. My sister-in-law-laws mom (Jo) who hosted this party liked the pictures I took and told me about an Art event that takes place in nearby Oxford, PA called First Friday. After we conversed about the shooting I'd done over the years prior and her own love and production of artwork she suggested I find a day to come to the shop she manages in PA to be her featured artists during the First Friday Art Stroll.

Chesapeake Bay

Over the next couple years I saw Jo at the odd wife's-side family events; weddings, birthdays, pig roasts (mmhm). The same question would come up as I showed her new work of mine after travelling and what not, and I kept having to put it off for the trip/carshow this weekend, or the wrenching on my car that weekend. On top of that, I still hadn't found a trustworthy place to make prints of my images, representing my shots as well as my raws looked on my computer. Fast forward to this past December (2010) and Jo let me know there was an opening in her featured artist spot for February. I freed up some time away from other projects to track down a reliable printing house and assemble some prints to showcase at Jo's store. After some research I found a printer that lined up with my needs. I ordered several prints through this printer, in a variety of large sizes, primarily to see how my fullsize 350dpi jpegs would translate once printed on quality paper. I didn't get anything framed to keep costs down, just went with sturdy yet clean mat-board bases so the shots were solid enough to hang. Thankfully, I was quite pleased with what showed up in the mail.

February 4th (2011) arrived and it was time to get to work. I drove North and arrived at Jo's store, the Outback Trading Company at 29 South Third Street Oxford, PA 19363. I met Jo's and her colleagues, the Hatfield ladies, and we quickly worked together to get the store ready for the event. We ended up using a couple stand-up display boards they normally used for clothing, removed all the hooks, then used Velcro stickers to arrange all my displayed work.

Throughout the evening large amounts of people came by the store and checked out all the current clothing deals going on. Some of Outbacks' patrons also checked out my work and asked me everything you can think of about the images that stood out to them. It was interesting to hear the different takes as well as input on some of my subjects, especially since these are all people that just found out about what I do that day. I had some great conversations, plenty of close friends and family stopped by to check things out and I got leads on some places to shoot future work. Icing on the cake was that I sold a piece from the Vegas 2010 album; as you can see I'm gearing up accordingly. I was happy I finally made it out to support this event, even if it was just in a small way. Hopefully I can make time to bring some new work out later this year.

I'd like to thank Jo (right) and Trina (left) for the help they provided for this first public event of mine. If you're into quality suede and leather boots, hats, clothing as well as casual and active outdoor apparel, you definitely need to check out the Outback Trading Company. Outback Trading Co. gear is sold across the US and worn by adventurists, cowboys and cowgirls alike, but the Oxford, PA location is the place to get these goods, discounted directly from the source. Visit them online or give them a call, and tell them that Allen sent ya.

It's cold.

The Winter has come and, barring something amazing in the next couple weeks, has for the most part retreated. Going after a shot representative of this season was difficult, because what is Winter really? Ice? Cloudy skies? 20 inches of snow? Winter is whatever you're used to in your neck of the woods from Dec through early March; on the East Coast of the US, it's rubbing your hands together while you wait for your cars' airconditioning to warm up. It's Winter Weather Advisories every time there's a threat of precipitation. It's heat and electric bills doubling over the previous month. It's the sun setting before 5pm. It's warm tea on a Saturday afternoon after a couple hours of shoveling...I think you get the idea.

All that said, I figured a nice snowy day would be perfect for me to shoot in. Fool! The first problem with this plan is that when you have light snowflakes, they tend to float and drift upwards rather than falling straight down, which gets shot ruining water droplets on your lens. The second problem was that since the snowflakes during this days' shower were extremely small, the shots end up looking like they're soft on focus more than appearing that it's actually snowing. If I had all the time in the world, I would've shot a set when the flakes were huge, but ya can't win them all. I was happy to take on this challenge so I can keep working outside of my comfort zone. While the level of entertainment this post will bring you is up for debate, me enjoying this process isn't ha.

Keeping lens dry...sorta.



I wandered around for an hour or two in my area looking for a great representation of what Winter is; I ended up running into some old stomping grounds in the process. This old mansion below I spoke of in the beginning of the Fall ended up being a repeat destination. Something interesting to add about this building is what I learned while doing an Art exhibit of sorts a couple weeks ago. I had a large print of this same structure that I took this past November on display and we ended up getting into a conversation about it's architecture and history.

The gentlemen explained that this was likely an old plantation mansion which probably dates back to the 1800s. As you all know at that time, Maryland (and most of America for that matter) still participated in legal slavery (for my International readers who are unaware, slavery in the US was legally abolished with the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865). He also told me about a few other locations in Maryland where historical buildings like this are preserved and I think I'll try seeking a few out for the sake of documentation. I've always been into history, almost minoring in it during college, because learning about what was before your time allows you to put right now in perfect context. Being aware of previous successes and failures also does a pretty good job of keeping yesterday's poor choices by society from being revisited.

Now that we'll have a 50 degree-high day or two, during the next several weeks while we await Spring, all those thoughts of time flying by too fast come to the forefront again. The Sun staying out past 6pm makes it a bit easier to accept though.