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October 4, 2008

The Georgia Aquarium

I grew up outside of Atlanta, Georgia in the city of Decatur. As a young boy, Atlanta was a growing city and a place of great interest and variety. I left there in 1974 and since that time, Atlanta has exploded as the hub of The South. The city has swallowed up smaller communities that used to be distant as it has grown and spread, connected by an ever expanding network of super highways.

In more recent years, with the city hosting the Summer Olympic Games, Atlanta has grown into a huge international destination with great attractions. One of the newer ones is the Georgia Aquarium. We had nothing like this when I was a boy in Atlanta. Aquariums were usually located closer to the sea and a vacation attraction. But Atlanta now has an aquarium to rival those found anywhere else in the world.

The building sits right next to Centennial Olympic Park at 225 Baker Street NW at Lucky Street. Right across the plaza is the “World of Coca Cola”. You can see some other shots from the area at my other blog, Artcards. Look at #’s 137, 138, 139, 140, and 142. But back to the aquarium.

It’s an impressive building when you enter with a huge atrium surrounded by several exhibits including Tropical Diver, Ocean Voyager – Journey With Giants, Cold Water Quest, and River Scout with fresh water animals. The diplays are really well done, nicely lit, and there are people all along the way to explain what you are looking at and answer your questions.

Working in a museum, I have come to really appreciate nice displays and some of the finer details that many don’t notice. The little things that make your visit more comfortable and interesting. Not to mention, really striking architecture with great colors and easy access to everything.

I was particularly enamored with the baluga whales, white and graceful in their deep blue environment. The aquarium walls were huge and provided an amazing view of not only these huge mammals, but of the whale sharks in the Journey of Giants tank.

Overall an amazing experience and worth the $21.50 (with Senior discount) that I paid. If in Atlanta, it’s a “don’t miss” kind of place.

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September 24, 2008

Hannah and Mike at Six Mile Creek

I work with Hannah Dunn at the Johnson Art Museum at Cornell, and I was delighted when she asked me if I’d photograph her wedding for her. She and her husband-to-be, Mike Ryan, chose Six Mile Creek Vineyard for the venue and we met there to discuss their plans. She and Mike told me the wedding party was going to be large and they weren’t kidding with ten female attendants and six males, three flower girls and two ring bearers. And loads of family members, mostly from out of town. But the cooperation, planning, and great personalities of everyone made the whole day a true pleasure and everything flowed without a hitch. At least none that I could see.

We started with the ladies at Innovations Salon in Ithaca. The girls lounged and chatted as each took their turn. And all emerged glorious and beautiful. Hannah is a striking woman with large intense blue eyes and a captivating smile.

Later, I met the men at the winery where they graciously poured wine for the guys and gave us permission to shoot where ever we chose.

Six Mile Creek is a fabulous location for a wedding beside a beautiful lake with a central fountain, a pergola, and path that wraps around the water, small docks, and a backdrop of grapevines, woods, and flower beds. A small secluded tent was set up for Hannah to get ready out of Mike’s sight.

The weather cooperated all afternoon though the threat of rain was looming. We held on and didn’t see even a sprinkle until we were almost finished with the outside pictures.

John Simon played and sang for the procession and Janet Shortall from Cornell United Religious Work, as she always does, performed an absolutely beautiful ceremony that touched everyone with its love and tenderness and joy.

Afterward, Mike and Hannah made my job easy and seemed up for anything I suggested.

Everyone mingled patiently under the tent while we finished shooting formals and then some special stuff with just the two of them, then everything moved to the reception with wonderful food and tapas from “Just A Taste” in Ithaca.

Like most receptions, the bridesmaids are always the life of the party, inspiring everyone to have the grandest fun time. Everyone danced, laughed, and showered the bride and groom with love and attention, as it should be.

It was a beautiful, memorable night. My thanks to Mike and Hannah, to their great wedding party, their many parents, and all their friends for making me feel welcome and appreciated. You guys were great.

Images from Hannah and Mike’s Wedding are available at:

http://www.georgecannon.printroom.com/

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September 23, 2008

Running To Places does Damn Yankees

Running To Places finished their 2008 season in August with their production of Damn Yankees at Lansing Middle School, in Lansing, New York. And, as usual for this group, did it up so professionally and with such great spirit that would rival any cast of professional thespians. They are an amazing group of young performers and gave stellar performances way above my expectations. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

Timothy Fuchs and Eliza Vann were wonderful as Joe and Meg Boyd. Their duets and tender moments together touched the heart.

Emily Goodell played Gloria Thorpe, the reporter, with her always hilarious and high spirited enthusiasm. And Elias Spector-Zabusky as Mr. Applegate was so entertaining and diabolical.

The ball team gave great group performances with fabulous choreography and a bat juggling routine that was amazing.

Anais Duplan was, once again, so wonderful as Lola. She was comical, sweet, and, despite her devious intentions, became quite lovable in the end.

Hats off to all the cast and crew and support staff. And a big round of applause to Joey, Gail, Todd, and Mike for the great guidance and inspiration you have given this fantastic group of kids. They have done you and themselves proud and I can hardly wait for the 2009 season. BRAVO!

Images from Damn Yankees are available for purchase at:

http://www.georgecannon.printroom.com/

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September 3, 2008

Florida Over Labor Day

Labor Day weekend was spent back down on the Gulf Coast. I had a slide show accepted for inclusion in Digital Graffiti, a digital multi-media outdoor presentation at Alys Beach that included works from all over the world. I was delighted to be included, but disappointed when the weather didn’t cooperate. The community there is all white construction, sort of in the Greek style, and the works were to all be shown outside on the sides of the buildings throughout the development. The forecast was perfect, but the reality was that storms rolled through shortly before opening time and ruined some equipment and caused a serious disruption of the event. So about two thirds of the works never got shown. Many are up on their website now, though, and so can still be seen.

The weekend was not a complete bust, however because I was at least still at the beach and was able to get in some good shooting while there. On Saturday morning I got up early to catch the sunrise at Grayton Beach.

This is a neat small community, sort of old Florida with small cottages under the live oaks and a wide beach that allows permitted cars to drive right out to the waters edge. A lot of fishermen actually launch their boats right from the beach there. The community sits adjacent to Grayton Beach State Park with beautiful dunes and grassy marsh areas. I didn’t have a lot of images from the area so wanted to spend a little time there and try to get a few more. It was a beautiful, clear morning in a spiritual setting, quiet and soothing as the sun came up over the marshes and shown through the sea oats.

Grayton Beach is also home to the famous Red Bar, a must see for vacationers who visit the 30A stretch and one of our favorite hangouts. You might have seen it in “The Truman Show” which was filmed mostly just down the road in Seaside.

On Sunday, I went back down to Rosemary Beach to get some shots on the beach there. I have many from up in the streets of the community, the architecture and town shops. But not many of the shore there, so wandered down to take a look. The development there is nearly complete, with few construction sites left and most lots occupied. There seemed to be fewer people than expected, probably due to the threat of the approaching hurricane out in the Gulf that eventually brushed by New Orleans. The clouds were rolling through in waves so gave it a bit of a stormy feel at times, but made for a dramatic sky. The mass of umbrellas and beach chairs were there for anyone who had come for the last summer weekend and took on a life of their own in some ways, looking like bunched crowds or animal herds.

I strolled back up through town stopping again at one of my favorite spots in front of the Pensione where I always want to shoot the stacks of chairs against the pink-orange walls. The contrast and repetition and shiny reflections against the flat intense colors always make for great images (see Artcard #133).

I took some time back at the house to expand on my series of palms. I love the graceful nature of these trees and the variety that exists in the different species.

I always hate to leave Florida, knowing it might be months before I can return. But will always look for another good excuse to make the trip. It feels like a place I need to be.

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August 20, 2008

Sailing on Seneca Lake

Last Christmas a neighbor of mine, Martha, bought her guy, Chuck, a gift of my time as a photographer to photograph his sailboat, the “Delta G”. We had been waiting for the perfect weekend with great clouds, blue skies, and good wind, and this past Sunday seemed to be the right day for everyone.

His boat is a beautiful, not overly large craft that he has put a lot of work into, redoing and refinishing. And Chuck and Martha seem totally at home as sailors and love being on the water. That was evident.

We had to have a chase boat for me to ride on since they wanted pictures under sail, with the hills and clouds of the New York Finger Lakes in the background. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the lake and their friend, James, obliged with his boat for the chase. Chuck and Martha had been up the lake for an overnight with some other boats and were on their way back in the afternoon, so we met them as they approached the south end of the Seneca Lake.

We cruised round and round passing and circling each other while I sat on the bow and shot away. Fortunately the light was generally good with clouds coming and going, good bright sun and dappling light across the hillsides. The wind would come and go, but generally cooperated.

After a couple of hours of shooting Chuck’s boat, we swapped places. With both boats pulling up close together, I took my life in my hands and leapt from one boat to the other after passing the camera bag to safety. It was a moment of gasps and grappling hands as I almost went into the lake, but kept dry with Chuck’s quick assistance. And so the transfer complete, I sailed off on Chuck’s “Delta G” to shoot James’ boat for a while as a return gift to him for providing the chase boat for the first go round.

All in all, a beautiful afternoon to be on the water, and a great day for sailing pictures. Let’s do it again.

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August 9, 2008

Running To Places does Sweet Charity

On August 2, I was delighted to attend another stage performance by Running To Places at the Dryden High School auditorium in Dryden, NY. The production this time was Sweet Charity. I was knocked out by the professionalism and talent of these fantastic students.

Emily Dowd starred as Charity Valentine. Emily is a veteran of numerous shows and productions. She has nine years of dance training at Ithaca Academy of Dance and two years at Movement Untitled. She has an amazing voice and a commanding stage presence, a comfort and confidence on stage that makes her look like a Broadway natural.

Her scenes with co-star Travis Jones were amazing. The stage chemistry with these two was funny, sensitive, and totally charming.

Travis, also a veteran of Running To Places productions as well as Shakespeare In The Basement (a totally youth run Shakespeare company) played his roles with great affect and humor. Possessing an excellent voice, his scenes with Charity were incredibly entertaining.

Adam Beckwith and Shauna Belkour gave great performances as Vittorio Vidal and Ursula. The bedroom scenes with Charity, Ursula, and Vittorio were hilarious with Charity hiding in the closet and stuffing her face with food as Vittorio and Ursula express their real love for each other.

Charity’s best friends at the dance hall, Helene and Nickie, played by Rorie Dean and Anya Gibian, gave great performances, with their biting sarcasm and humor in the dance hall scenes, and fantastic vocal and dance routines.

The entire cast was dead on great, not missing a beat and credit goes out too to the stage crew who made the whole production really flow. Joey Steinhagen did a great job as director of bringing out the best from these talented kids, and Todd Peterson’s choreography made the whole thing look so professional.

Great music from Mike Wade and Erica Steinhagen and the pit band and all the rest of the support staff and production team doing their thing to make this small, young production company a joy to experience. Bravo, Running To Places, BRAVO! We can hardly wait for Damn Yankees.

All images from this event are available for individual purchase at http://www.georgecannon.printroom.com

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July 20, 2008

Florida Never Disappoints

Sad to say that vacation is over again. But a little longer this year and as always, Florida never disappoints me. I didn’t get in as much photography as usual this year, however, because I spent so much time working trying to market my work there.

After my trip down in April and this trip, things are moving along. The Artcards postcards are selling at Sundog Books in Seaside. I had a couple of great meetings with Anne Hunter who just opened World Six Gallery in Rosemary Beach. I think we have a good chance of a long term relationship there. I like Anne a lot and she has a great since of style. Also had a wonderful meeting with Alys Stephens, Style Director at Alys Beach in hopes of doing some work with that development. They have a Digital Graffiti exhibition coming up August 30th and I have submitted something for consideration there. I’ll keep my fingers crossed because I would sure love the exposure.

It was hot in Florida and didn’t rain during the day until near the end of our stay. The beaches are still recovering from all the storm damage of a couple of years ago, but the restoration efforts of the dunes and nature’s work at reviving the shoreline seems to be making good progress. We didn’t get in the water much since there was a serious seaweed/algae accumulation in areas all along the shore, and jellyfish were there in larger numbers than I had seen before. Kind of unusual, but happens from time to time. Gotta expect that sort of thing sometimes if you live on the coast.

I didn’t photograph the fireworks this year since I was setting them off for our group. We hadn’t expected a display by Alys Beach since they had said they wouldn’t do their regular beach side display this year. Surprisingly, they did a display from up in the development, so we got an extra show. The fireworks up and down the beach were great this year. I love the beach on the 4th. It’s so Americana. Even when we used to go to the Cape, it was the best time to be there.

The trip down was heavy traffic and high gas prices. The trip back included one day of torrential rain. But in spite of it all, vacation and the beach are the best, and well worth everything it takes to get there and be there. I only hope as my sales down there began to pick up, it will mean more opportunities to go back.

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June 29, 2008

Tips on Photographing Fireworks

It’s almost July 4th and soon the Fireworks will begin. In some places they already have. Families take the kids, and often the cameras to witness these wonderful pyrotechnic displays and often the results are somewhat disappointing when they just don’t capture the color and vitality of the moment. So hear are some tips for shooting fireworks.

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To start with you need a camera that you can control yourself. Very simple, auto everything cameras are not likely to give the results you want. You will need a sturdy tripod as well. Assuming you are using a digital camera, place the camera on the tripod facing toward where you expect to see the display. A wide angle (zoomed out) on the lens until you can see just where the activity will be, then you can adjust the zoom as the fireworks begin to go off. A vertical format works best. You want to fill as much of the frame as you can, but still leave yourself room for the randomness of where these explosions will occur. Depending on how close you are to the display, you may need to zoom in or out as things take place.

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Set your camera on manual focus. And set your focus for 500 feet to infinity, at least very distant. Auto focus will not have time or anything still and sharp to locate, so will likely just give you blurs as it seeks something to focus on. If your camera has image stabilization, turn it off too. You will be on a tripod with long exposures and do not want the camera trying to compensate for image movement. Start out with your ISO set to about 400. You may find as you shoot that images are still too bright. If so, reset the ISO lower, 200 or even 100 with very bright fireworks. Set your exposures to manual as well. Shutter should be set to B for bulb (time exposure). You’ll be experimenting with long exposure times, and trying to anticipate when to press the shutter release. Aperture should be set fairly small in the beginning. This will not only help make your exposures longer without over exposure, but will also give you the greatest depth of field (how much is in focus from near to far).

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When the fireworks begin, listen for the first low boom that signals the launch of the rocket or aerial bomb. Push the shutter release and hold it open for several seconds awaiting the burst in the air. Hold the shutter long enough to allow the explosion to pan out across the sky. This will give you the long trails and graceful curves. It also allows for other explosions to take place at the same time, giving multiple bursts at different points of expansion and multiple colors. You will likely find, as you review your exposures, that two to eight seconds will provide good results and as you shoot more and more and learn to anticipate the right moment to release the shutter, you can narrow down to a regular rhythm of two to four seconds at a time.

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If your bursts look too small, zoom in. If your shots are too bright, try smaller aperture or lower ISO. If they are too dark, higher ISO and larger aperture. If you’re not getting enough spread, longer exposures.

Be careful at the grand finale, it will get really bright!

Be safe, have fun, and celebrate!

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June 22, 2008

Spring Showcase with Running To Places

It seems my daughter can’t get enough of stage performances. Before she was finished this year with dance at Armstrong School of Dance, she joined a relatively new theater group called Running To Places.

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This is an organization formed to allow middle and high school students from all the area schools to learn how to be part of a theater company, the ins and outs of stage performance, and everything involved in a musical theater production.

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Talented kids across a wide age range work on sets, management, music, the actual performance, and all aspects of the overall experience. With an ambitious schedule that has already included Fame, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Pirates of Penzance, they came to our local elementary school auditorium to put on Spring Showcase, a medley of various musical excerpts from a number of different plays.

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Still to come this summer are Sweet Charity and Damn Yankees. The name, Running To Places, comes from the fact that they practice and perform at many different venues, where ever they can find space. Schools, church basements, and any space that’s available, in order to keep up with their rigorous schedule. These kids are amazingly talented and dedicated and the staff of adults that act as their mentors, teachers, and supervisors do an amazing job of assisting these talented students in making a top notch show. Money for the company comes from grants, donations, and sponsors. No kid is turned away for financial reasons.

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Several familiar faces of local people were among the cast, but it was incredibly satisfying to also experience some of the young talent from other schools that I had not seen before plus performances by the adult members of the production team of Running To Places who also joined the showcase.

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The show was professional, fun, and extremely entertaining. Thanks to everyone involved with Running To Places, and best of luck with the rest of the season. I’m really looking forward to it.

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June 12, 2008

ASD Late Performances

The 14th annual recitals and performances by the dancers from the Armstrong School of Dance continued into the evening performance that highlights the older girls and the team dancers. These girls are from about ten to eighteen years old and have generally been in classes since they were in the tots groups. The evening began with a long line of precision tap that these girls do so well. You get hints of Rockefeller Center and can almost bet that some of these girls could easily make it that far. It’s inspiring.

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Karen has a great sense for picking costumes for these groups. They are fun and colorful and as a group, enliven the stage and the performance.

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The team dancers and all the competitive dancers had a fantastic year again. After winning a national championship at PDTA last year, they came back this year to win numerous competitions and awards including a 1st and 2nd place at Tremaine, a 1st and two 2nds at Dance America and “Best Emotional Execution” for “I Run For Life” and “Best Presentation” for “Swing With Me”.

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They swept the awards at PDTA this year with three 1st place Junior Grand Champion Awards, two 1st, two 2nd, and two 3rd place Senior Grand Champion awards, and numerous scholarship awards for individuals. An amazing and impressive year for an amazing group of dedicated and talented kids. We are all so proud of them.

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Every year there are senior girls who graduate high school and leave the company. The seniors get to choreograph and perform a senior showcase piece. This year Sarah Mattison, Michelle Buchanan, and Fatima Sowe had the privilege with “Apologize”.

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Since our daughter has been with Armstrong it has been such a treat to watch so many of these girls every year as they grow and mature as performers, to see the same faces year after year go from the tiny struggling “duckling” phase to seasoned graceful artists.

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Next year will be her last year since she will be graduating and it will be so difficult to watch her be a part of the tearful goodbyes that take place on Saturday night when these girls say their thank you’s and farewells to a team that has become their extended family and to Karen, Karen’s Mom, and the other staff and teachers that these girls admire and love so much.

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