'Merica

Cowboy hats, tight jeans, plaid shirts, manure, leather boots, hootin and hollerin - This was what I found at the Citrus County Rodeo.

Add to this twangy guitar songs about new loves, broken hearts, tractors, pick-up trucks, field,  creeks and farming and you've just been introduced to a whole subculture of americana -Country

I never realized what an over the top nation the states are when it come to National pride. Living in Spain has grown said appreciation. Americans are nuts about our country. Rightly so in some regards maybe not so much in others. I mean I like to think I appreciate much of what comes from growing up in the states but man.....I've got nothing when compaired to the Citrus County Rodeo.

There was special emphasis placed on the Military there. 15 minutes of "Honoring" the armed forces while calling the US the best-est and free-est thing ever. I mean it is a rodeo so there were some....shall we say conservativly minded people but wow. I guess it was catering to it's clientel.

It was an eye opening experience..... lets leave it at that.
I've been working through some more Island Photos too so I'll work those in somehow too.

There and back again - A lucky Alaskan's adventure to the Caribbean

I've mentioned earlier in this blog......such a fun word to say blog blog blog blog blog....must look up the origin.........As I was saying I mentioned ealier in this blog that along this epic journey of life I have had some amazing opportunities to connect and befriend some incredible people. One of my oldest friends happens to live on a little island in tropical paradise. I've been invited numerous times to come visit and acctually made I promise to. I recently fulfilled this promise and wow....just wow. This island was more than I could have ever believed or expected. 

For those of you curious blog was derived from the term "web log" -learn something new every day

I'm not going to go on and on about this experience but I will let you have some highlights:

Drinking amazing, highly alchoholic fresh picked banana cocktails after buying a pig a beer in the jungle.

On a paddle board and being told - " yea lets not go out too far, it's feeding time"

EPIC BEACHES and tidal pools .

Serendipitously puchased a bike for ridiculously cheap on ebay only to find I wouldn't have to pay shipping because the guy lived where I was going!!

Incredible Thai, Japanese, and Frech Cuisine

Wonderful food, drinks, and friends.

Iguanas!!

Slainte

Life in Black and White

I started to shoot photography in High School. I was dating a gal who loved it and was pretty good at classic black and white photography. I was working in an advanced ceramics class. She wanted to learn how to throw a pot on the wheel and I wanted to learn how to take pictures. It worked out so well that the next quarter of school we each took the corresponding classes.

As it turned out my father had a nice camera, which worked out perfect for the class. The camera was an old Olympus OM1. 

The thing was beautiful, and even today strikes me as what a camera should look like. My pops wanted to capture Alaska at its finest and did manage to get some good shots with it, but never got into the entire process. He always bought his own film and had his pictures processed at a store. I liked the complexity.

Knowing next to nothing about photography, I was amazed by the entire process. My Instructor Mr. Schnider built a great course. We started by learning the basics of optics – how an image is transferred, what things react to provide an image ect… The first pictures we shot were through a simple pin-hole camera that we built!!!

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/lessonPlans/pinholeCamera/pinholeCanBox.shtml

We spent a week working with those and getting use to developing the exposed photo paper.  We then learned how to process film – loading it, and unloading in complete darkness and what chemicals and concentrations to use to process film. –this while exploring how to shoot. We were given assignment each week of pictures to build or methods to process and took refresher quizzes over the parts and functions of the cameras. The second semester dealt with processing the film to the actual photo- using different enlargers, a variety of light filters and varied exposure time.  Science and art.  All in the attempt of creating that perfect shot.

I loved learning those basics- I really makes me appreciate the technology behind these new DSLR cameras.  It’s amazing and difficult to classically produce quality images, even in black and white! I was allowed to try the color darkroom a time or two and that was even more challenging.

While it is convenient, faster, and probably much more ecologically friendly with this Digital material I do miss classic developing-the process, the attention to detail, the time taken for each step. Maybe I’m just nostalgic. Still I feel i'm a bit partial to a quality hand processed B+W print.

More shots.....babbling to come later