September Best of

Steps from Colored Smoke

I so wish I could claim tho photograph as one of my best of September, but sadly I cannot.  This was shot by one of my students parents ( an elementary teacher here) during an Army training graduation.  I was blown away the second I saw this image-everything is going for it-a point of interest, strong color, composition, framing and a strong strong subject (and secondary subject).  An award winner in my judgement anyway.

So even though this post is about our best of, I had to upload this image just to share it with others......photographs like this don't happen everyday.

'11 Homecoming Parade

The NHS Homecoming parade usually is a "target rich environment " for making photographs.  The expressions, especially on the younger kids, is such a treat to see and photograph.  The high schoolers are most of the time too cool to let much of any kind of expression out, so most of my favorites here are of the elementary students.

The Wardog Girls

Faces of the Parade

Miss. Neillsville 2011

Wardog Paint

Parade Shock and Awe

The Big City

A cliche to be sure, but you can take the boy out of the country, but......
SO I maybe get near the Twin Cities once a year, usually around midnight, just skirting it on the way to North Dakota.  The sky scrapers of St. Paul and Minneapolis are seen in the distance and I take pause to admire the architecture that is worlds away from Neillsville. This weekend however, the buildings were up close and personal and filled me with awe.  The structures here must be some of the finest anywhere-not as many as some cities, but still, so impressive.  A wedding of a close friend was celebrated in the downtown area along the Mississippi and we had a chance to stay right in the middle of these giants.  As we walked around the center of the city I just had to just start randomly pressing the shutter.  Not composing a thing-not even looking into the viewfinder (as maybe you'll be able to tell)....just walking and clicking.  With the massive buildings on all sides, just angling the camera up is all I needed to do to get a few interesting images.  I guess in the back of my mind, I didn't want to be seen as a tourist stumbling around taking snapshots in the big city, even though that was the most closest thing to what I was.  Still, I couldn't stand that thought, so I tried to be sneaky in shooting with my compact camera.

I took just 60 or 70 images and most, understandably were not worth a lot, but some, like this seemed to work for me.  As I flipped through them, I realized the ones I was most attracted to were ones with strong geometric shapes-well, dahhhh, of course, you're in a big city.  It is so opposite of what surrounds me everyday, plus everything is vertical.  Almost all needed (in my mind) to be black and white, and I used some film emulators and other pre-sets that seem to work for me.

Tenley in the Big City with Color

The Foshay Reflection

One Way

So maybe I did leave a lot in color......after uploading them here, I noticed that it wasn't just the B&W that made the cut.  Also noticed that Tenley makes guest appearances in a lot of them.  Oh well, she is a small town girl in wonder as well.