"Seniors on the Go:

Had the opportunity to image those amazing ladies from South Carroll at the Annual Carroll County “Seniors on the Go” event at the Aug Center last Wednesday., sadly they were a lot more “On the Go” then i have been processing the images.  

Fear no I haven’t forgotten, just fell behind a bit,,     Some images have been up loaded to the event gallery located here More as time permits. 

Fall Behind?

Setting the clocks, maybe but not when we’re talking updating this site.   After playing around with several site designs I finally decided decided on a minimalist design. The final choice was “Strpped” by one of my favorite RapidWeaver designers. Henk Vrieselaar,  Of course changing a theme is no big deal with a CSS driven website.  But with so many options/looks/capabilities picking one is no easy task.  With the “look” set, now I can continue to refresh the content.

 I shot my first solo Bat Mitzvah this weekend, totally enjoyed the experience, but still waiting on the family’s take on the images I captured.  A few years ago I shot an equestrian event and shot images I thought would meet the customers need.  Not so, I had no idea a formal style portrait of the rider standing next to her horse wearing her prize ribbons just isn’t what they want.. Just the horse, i was told. maybe with the rider doing something..  Go figure.  Hopping history doesn’t repeat the experience.  

Why I Love/Hate going to summer carnivals.

 

The Food

Yes: Can anything top the smell and taste of Carnival Food. Yum!

No: The idea that one buys a side here, (fries) and the entrée way over there, (sausage sandwich) and the drink (Lemonade) somewhere else.

Yes: Taste’s great.

No: Have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it.   

 

Buy for me I good for the long exposure on the rides after dark. 

And then were none..

Almost at the exact same time as I reached the gates of Sandy Point State Park for the 2014 Maryland State Police, Polar Bear Plunge it was announced on 98Rock that the plunge was being canceled due to the dangerous weather conditions .  

 

By this time the State Police were turning away the faithful so the only activity were crews starting to dismantle the Plunge infrastructure z

Well the no activity didn’t apply to the ‘Super Plungers” Tent..  Everyone in the tent were in shock that the event had been called off.  Every hour for the past 23 it was out into the cold, in and out of the water and back inside to warm up.. I think all this involvement, and with a end in site they would never be able have, was the reason. With slight exception I knew no one in the tent.  Well no one but my hero local TV news star Rob Roblin, He looked just plain tired.

    

 

and 98Rock Morning Show Host Justin Schlegel who I had photographed this summer at the Baltimore Grand Prix.  I didn’t shoot any images but he told me this was the hardest super plunge he was involved in. He showed me a movie he took of the shore line at 2AM  where the waves were washing in layers of fine slush ice.  It looked real nasty and they did postpone plunges until 4am.  At this time he wasn’t sure if they were done plunging too, or were going to continue to the end.  Turns out they did go in one last time but we were on the other side of the site when it went off,  so we missed it… 

 

We did see some of the regular attraction The Ravens Roost guys and Captain “D”.  All hard core Ravens Fans. 

Wondered over to the fest tent for a cup-0-joe and ran into this really nice guy with a utterly fantastic beard. 

whats left cold and windy empty beaches and time for the ever vivacious Ms Tina Miles and mineself to head to our respective homes.  Smile for Tina.. 

By!

 

"Hot Day in January"

 In one of his songs, Cajun fiddle man, Doug Kershaw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Kershaw sang  “It’ll be a hot day in January when she'd ever leave me”.  I guess they were talking about today.  I’m showing 18° as I get ready for my 5th Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge. (Media) While not one of the brave plungers, braving the outdoor’s 0800 to 1600 has been a challenge at time.  Most of my family and friends think I’m nutz, and would rather spend the day bundled up, inside.  Thankfully I’m not at that stage yet..  And why, may your ask? That’s easy, I spend the day trying to chronicle the nobel efforts of the thousand of folks, plungers, staff, whoever,  who do this each year to support the  Maryland Special Olympics.  Plus I get to hang around with one of the best media pros I knew Tina Miles.  With maybe a bit of Rob Roblin thrown in.  Who know what this year will bring? Cold, yes. Snow, maybe, In the meantime here’s some shots from the past to pass the time..    

 

Over the years Beauty Queens,  Swimming Chickens, Ravens QB Joe Flacco , and even my man “Brittany Girl Dale” have all fallen prey to my camera..   

 

Off shortly, hope to see you on the other side 

 

What's in my Kit?

I promised a new post a week and a post a week ye shall get. 

This weeks saga will touch on those items of kit that I currently use. 

Canera’s

Canon EOS 5DMIII
Canon EOS 5DMII  (W/Magic Lantern  2.3 firmware Mod)
Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 30D  

Lens

Canon 17-40mm f/4L
Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake
Canon 50mm f/1.2L
Canon 70-200 f/4L
Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro
Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS
Canon EF Extender  2X I 

Flashes and Triggers 

Canon 600 EX-RT 
Canon  580 EX II
Canon ST-E2 Speedlight Transmitter

Of course this is part of a list for my use I  developed.  Tripods Heads and brackets will be addressed next week 

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.  

Dance they said, and it was good. Update

This year events seem to be few and far between. Almost at the last second, my young Child Bride (CB) and her dance companion decided to attend Nadirah Nasreen's Annual Hafl at the Pasha Land restaurant in Gaithersburg MD. Reservations were made over the phone for the following night (Sunday) and the excitement slowly started to build for both of us.  Her, because she loves the Dance , and has so for almost 35 years. Me, it was an event, my real passion, photographing events.  I have my favorites but as a rule, The Middle Eastern Dance events are not on the top of my list.. Don't get me wrong, I love photographing Middle Eastern Dancers of all shapes and sizes. And what's not to love, the colors, movements, music? No what's not to love is the venues.. It's a real challenge to capture a worthwhile images of the dancers in a High School Gym, Senior Center, parking lot or worse. Which with small exception is where they are. Fact of life, the girls love to dance where ever they can to show off their skills, and to do this "You takes what you gets."  

But I have, as they say, digressed.  We both went into our usual preparation modes, hers are not for public consumption, mine are more of a mechanical nature.  Batteries  to be charged, cameras & lens' needed to be selected. Which always proves to be a dilemma.  Most times not knowing the where's why and whens of the venue always makes it at best, a guess.  This time not being different, I  decided to travel light  with the 5DMII, a 50mm f/1.2, 100mm f/2.8, and one flash to deal with what ever lighting situations were presented.   

When we arrived at Pasha Land at the appointed time, I was a bit distressed to see the restaurant was really not that large, and was packed with dancers and guests, with space  already at a premium . which built when we came to find out our reservations had more or less,  "flown the coupe".  Lucky for us the owners daughter did some magic logistical redirection and we were ushered to our table, right out front.  This was much appreciated by CB and friend as they almost were out on the dance floor. For me any use of the 100mm F/28, was ruled out. The only other bullet I had was the 50mm f/1.2 which was still a little long for this space.  ("Darn why didn't I pack a wide angle?" )  As the excitement built, drinks ordered, menu choices made, I stated to realize the pickle i was in. When the dancers started to line up for the first group dance, the front line was only a foot and a half away from the front of the lens.

Nor perfect but Oh well, time to make some lemonade.. It's only pixels anyway.  The music started, the light dimmed (I wish) and the magic started. Knowing things were far from perfect but I  would get what I could i sat back, stretched my right pointer finger and started firing away.  The rest of the afternoon was a blur of whirling dancers, delicious food and trying to get that "perfect shot.  

A note of apology to the dancers, I was unable to capture "keepers" of all the dancers due to their proximity and lighting, and I'm still trying to mach the dancer listed in the flyer, to the images.. 

My thanks to all involved in making  Nadirah Nasreen's Annual Hafla!  a smashing success.  The images posted are from my Flickr site but many more are posted or are in process of being posted on my gallery site.  so check back often. . 

 

   

 

 

 

 

Changing Seasons, Changing directions

Look outside the season is changing, summer is giving way to fall, which will in turn give way to winter.  My approach to images likewise has started to change somewhat. Prior I would accept more of less what ever the camera had captured, perhaps with some minor tweaks in Aperture.  Now more and more I find myself using one, or more, of the NIK plugins, with an occasional forays into PhotoShop to use the AKVIS SKITCH plugin or to provide background effects.   

Above John Brown  - NIK HDR Efex Pro 2,  NIK Color Efex Pro 4 

Above "The Dancers"  Post processing With Aperture 3, NIK Color Efex Pro 4, ApertureExpert’s Preset Pack #5 “Film & Funk”

Above NIK Color Efex Pro 4 and Aperture core tools.  

NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 and Aperture core tool set. Also becoming a fan of the square crop in many circumstances.   

Above Aperture 3, Adobe Photo Shop, AKVIS SKITCH Photo Shop plug-in, NiK Color Efex Pro 4. 

The 90th Barbara Fritchie Classic

The Barbara Fritchie Classic Motorcycle Race promoted by  is somewhat of an "odd man out" in the world of motorcycle racing.  It attracts some big name Grand National and local riders. but is eclipses by the  AMA Eastern most Grand National Race at  Hagerstown Speedway.  But there is no shortage of great motor cycle racing action, or interesting fans here in the heart of Central Maryland.  

 But is has a history 
Like any bona fide classic, the Fritchie has stood the test of time. The Fritchie is held at The Great Frederick Fairgrounds. It is the oldest running half mile in the country. It’s a Fourth of July tradition in Frederick. But when it started in the 1920s, the race wasn’t even held on the Fourth. The Fritchie ran Memorial Day. And back then, it was called the Delphey Brothers Classic, promoted by J. Paul and Chester Delphey.

This years race was hot and dusty with no shortage of great racing action.   

 

Young up and coming "Hot Shoes"  like the #30s Jason Isennock. 

 

Or visits from older members of the racing family - 63 years old and still running.  The bike that is. 

 

And at the end we saw locals on the podium  Like #95 Samantha Bergman 3rd in class. But was the only one in the pre-race interviews seeing as the first and second place finishers crashed racing to the finish line. 

 

 

Or even #62 Luke Gough from "down under"  took 3rd place in Bababra Fritchie Classic.  

Thankfully the race was relativity incident free. Here's hopping the grand old Dam will see the 100th running in 2022. 

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