Spent part of this weekend, last weekend and the weekend before Phoenix, painting part of my house. I am using bold colors and really like what's going on. There is more work to be done, but here is some of the reason why I am not out shooting landscapes.

Firedrills at work remind me of school. Everyone is glad for the break but is kind of bored standing around waiting. As always I had the Pencam on me and snapped a few.

I like the fact that most of us are not really very near the offical "Assembly Area" red dot. But we did all have to check in. Some people (Vitaly and Rob) took the evac very seriously and proceeded to play game of chess. Ernestine (the dog) was very concerned.

Just got one of my new lenses (thanks to an ebay auction) and have been experimenting with the macros setting. The lens is a 28mm - 80mm with Macro settings at the 80mm setting. I shot all these shots late in the evening - 7:30 to 8:15 and used the built in flash. Some of the blasted out ones seemed pretty interesting as well, so they are here too. Roses provide some really interesting texture and form when photographed closeup.

Last weekend while in Phoenix for the AIGA Summit, I took a tour of Taliesin West. This is the Arizona branch of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture school and winter home. He came to Arizona in the 30's after working on some projects there, and bought up 600 acress. He built the buildings and school with his students and they spent winters there - and summers in Wisconsin at the original Taliesin. The school continues today and the buildings are part of the school as well as an active professional architecture firm. These are some of the images I took and they only show the outside, the cabaret theatre and the larger performance hall. Items of interest include the wall sconce in the cabaret theater and the baby grand piano tucked into a cut out in the concrete wall. We did not go into the living quarters of other buildings - although there is a tour where you can.

Leaving on a jet plane at an airport where you still walk outside to board the plane. And so starts a quick weekend to Phoenix.

Just got back from one of the most incredible concerts I have ever seen.


Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - jazz, bluegrass, fusion stuff - whatever you call it - these guys tore the house down. I was amazed and in awe of their talent. The bass player was astounding with what he could do on that instrument. People behind me were commenting about how no one could do that, it wasn't natural - he was that good. Bela Fleck played one set unplugged on his banjo and proceeded to play a slew of songs including a Vince Giraldi (the peanuts tune) and finally ended up doing a classical piece. If you had your eyes closed and didn't know he was on a banjo - you would swear it was a harpsichord. wow. The concert was at the Mountain Winery. The view was breathtaking. The whole of silicon valley can be seen from there. I took the PenCam - wasn't sure what the camera policy was there so I figured I'd be safe with the tiny thing. The shots off the mountain are cool because they look like paintings rather than photos, they are soft and nubby looking. This was my first time up here and it is definitely a place to come back to. Why haven't I been here before in all this time? Who knows.
The shots of the band basically suck - the detail is lost and Bela Fleck is blasted out because of his white striped shirt. But here they are anyway. Once it got dark the camera stopped working. Next time - the better camera goes - they are allowed. Band shots: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Summer. The word evokes impressions of heat, light and sounds. Bright colors of flowers and the drone of birds and lawnmowers. Sprinklers offer respite from the heat and the light is dense.

Tuesdays are guitar lesson days. Today was pretty typical, except we went off site to have lunch and it was hot as hell. Carrying the pencam around and trying to take candids and more spontaneous shots. check out the pics.