At the Grand Prix.

Well I'm I the paddock which is really cool. Cars Drivers what's not to like.

Here and there and back again.

Had to make the long trip from Maryland to Allentown PA this weekend to say goodbye to an old fried and mother of my wife. As with events of this nature I looked for opportunities to remove myself from the immediate family and allow them to deal with their loss in what ever way they might chose. A circumstance would have it my only "extraction" of note was to revisit a area recently revitalized in nearby Bethlehem, city of my birth.. (Which is another story, for another time.) The area in question was what is locally known as "The South Side" was the home of the sprawling Bethlehem Steel Complex "The Steel" an area roughly 1/3 mile X 2 miles. bordered by the Lehigh River and blighted neighborhoods. Crowned by the Lehigh University Campus on the slopes of South Mountain. It's lot was not helped when The Steel closed down and padlocked the site. Fast forward to the present. I was very happy to see the repurposing of the site as a entertainment area actually seems to be working. Anchored on one end by the "Sands" Casino. located in the former ore pits, going upriver to renovated buildings containing shops and such, to a large area for arts and entertainment known simply as "the Stacks". But what drew me and makes this area unique is the backdrop of one of the original Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. Surprisingly the area also allowed closer access to these massive modern implementations of 14th century technology, that dominated the city skyline and my childhood memories, then ever allowed me in the past. I was so taken back by these rusting artifacts, not only by their shear size but also by the historical significant and their dramatically different impacts to the area in the past. These mighty machines are literally what make America what it is today,. But I realize that modern technology has put these once mighty icons of our industrial age, out to pasture, but spared the demolition that befallen many of their contemporaries. So now they can sit in the sun, dreaming the soft dreams of a grand past. Slowly rusting way and occasionally providing a subject for a few tourist snaps.

A truly learning experience

You may quote me "One day you get the Lensbaby, but most days the Lensbaby gets you".  Last week mostly, out of curiosity,I let a Lensbaby Composer Pro  /w Sweet 35 Optic come into my life. And as after other life changing moments such as Marriage and Childbirth, things are never quite the same. I love the endless possibilities this little tilt shift lens hints at, but in practice worthwhile results are seeming to elude me.   

On Saturday I went on Andy Smith's Visual Reality (re)Photowalk in Gettysburg Pa. with the intent of making this a "Lensbaby" only event.  To compound the issue I decided to also shoot 3 shot bracketed images for HDRs.  Because this was my first real world outing with this little lens my lack of familiarity with it's operation became apparent quite rapidity.  Let me explain, as this is a manual lens, F stop's and focus are entirely up to the user. But what really bit me was setting the shutter. A very high percentage of images were either under or overexposed. To late i discovered if the cameral was set to AV mode, a decent shutter speed was set   But that was a day later, on Saturday my total capture of "Keepers" could be counted on my fingers.  Oh well, live and learn.  Maybe next time.  

A cold day by the Bay.

 Saturday the 27th of January, 2013 was the 17th Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge and my forth consecutive trip to cover the even.  And as per the norm, it was cold (air temp 34°/ water 35° ) but sunny. A great time was had by all.  While all the credit has to go the the plungers, some 11,000 of them who raised almost $2.000.000 for Special Olympics Maryland , In some aspects it's just as tough if not tougher on the media. For a lot of the plungers it's come an hour or so before, walk around, change, plunge, dry and change back. then go home. For our media team it was arrive at 0800, shoot the last 98Rock "Super Plunge" at 0900, then wander around shooting the normal and the maybe not so normal fellow attendees. Cover both the 1300 and 1500 plunges water side, shoot more and finally head for home around 1600. A long day in 35° weather to be sure. But I whine a bit too much, it could have been worse, like three years ago when it snowed and sleeted all day..  And I did get to photograph such notables as Miss Maryland, Miss Teen Maryland USA , Miss Teen DC USA

and Some of the Ravens Cheerleaders

did I mention Britney Girl Dale? 

   But apparently the Cold Air and Water Didn't Stop the Plungers from Having Fun..  So I guess a good time was had by all. 

For your viewing enjoyment a small selection of my images fro the event. 

                                                                                                       

Time Time Time into the Future

OK I know that an upgrade to this site was promised last year, Good intentions but life just got in the way. I'm happy to report  now that the Chris Klinefelter Tribute project is done over at Speed Vision of MD, I will have more time to focus on this ( www .dougmillephotos.com ) site and kick it up a notch.. Shortly I will be posting a piece on two recent projects/focuses .  The Trandscend 32gb SD WiFI card and the latest Magic Lantern Release, and how Aperture made finding and extracting 1000+ files for the Klinefelter Tribute, from a almost 30 thousand image collection to Zenfolo and  finally  Vimeo,  a relative snap.