It's been a while.
Tending to my website, telling visual stories, finding time and the ambition to get it all up and moving again hasn't been easy.
But with a New Year comes new goals, new routines, and most of all a renewed sense of purpose. As the days get longer, and the sun continues it's ascension towards summer a new light emerges--both literally and metaphorically--and sometimes we make our way back to where it all began, to our old haunts.
With winter depression taking its toll it was time for new sleep patterns, new exercise routines, new eating habits. The walk, as boring and mundane as it always seemed to me, brought me back from the brink, and with my camera in hand I've slowly made my way back to normalcy.
All images taken with the Fujifilm X100T
Newberg
NEW CAMERA, NEW INSPIRATION
While in West Virginia for my sister-in-law's wedding I came to the conclusion that my current (at the time) camera simply would not work for event work. We were in a dark hall, with some significant back lighting, and the Fuji cameras had a hell of a time focusing.
It pains me to say it, because I love the Fujifilm cameras for their weight, ease of use, and tactile controls, but they are not ready for serious event work. With that said, we came home a couple of days ago, and I found myself ordering a new Nikon D750 with the following lenses:
- Nikon 70-200 f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens
- Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 ED AF-S NIkkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens
- Nikon 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens
- Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S Nikkor FX Lens
Unlike the Fujifilm primes these things are build like tanks, and as a consequence they weigh like tanks. I can't say I'm thrilled to switch back to Nikon, but you should never have to fight your camera tooth and nail to get it to focus in light that DSLRs have been able to for a decade or more.
Nonetheless, the camera and lenses arrived yesterday, and it was time to walk around my property in Dundee, Oregon (close to Newberg, Oregon) and find something interesting to photograph. The Nikon system is nothing like the Fujifilm system, for good and bad, thus muscle memory has not developed yet.
My daughter is an easy subject, so you'll see a couple of her here, and a helicopter buzzed our house so it was nice to see that the Nikon D750 was capable of focusing in fractions of seconds with significant back light.
These were shot with the first three lenses mentioned above. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.
THE EARLY BIRD
in excursions, Winery
With coyotes yelling nearby, our Bernese Mountain Dog decided to let the whole house know at 4:35 am this morning. The dog quieted down quickly, but getting back to sleep wasn't going to happen.
With new blooms on the Pinot Noir vineyards, and just minutes from sunrise, it seemed reasonable to get out and see if there was something interesting.
HITTING THE BOOKS
in Excursions
Sometimes you have to start them young.
Sometimes you have to be social for your child even though you're an introvert.
Sometimes it's time to take your ten month old to the library for story time.
And so we did.
It turns out the Newberg Library has some history haunting the halls, walls, and architecture. Personally I was surprised as I expected our little, small town library to be pretty minimal-- but alas it has character.
Regardless, every Tuesday they put on a thirty to forty five minute story/activity time for babies under a year old, and it's really quite brilliant.
LOCAL HEROES
in Documentary
They never know when they'll get the call. The call to put themselves in harms way, to protect the citizens of the community.
Our local fire department is no different of course, but on this occasion they were tasked with burning a four plex, a house, and a garage, on the same block for the purpose of learning. They call it 'Burn to Learn', which is what this series of photographs chronicles, but make no mistake without careful attention to detail things could of gotten out of hand.
To the Newberg Fire Department I say thank you.
