This is a glimpse of my three hour commute on Monday morning. Normally, my drive into work is only an hour long, but winter weather triggered accidents that had the interstate doubling as a parking lot.
yellow barn in the morning
Sometimes, I am racing along the road and see a scene that makes me hit the brakes, turn around, and come back. Scenes like this are the reason you should always have your camera with you. you just never know what you will find.
The back roads of Ohio are full of these scenes and I love to wander the roads in the early morning, looking for them. In this case, I was on my way to Mansfield, Ohio to a shoot when I found this yellow barn. Against the dark clouds, it jumped out at me.
doolittle raiders
If you are not familiar with the Doolittle Raiders and their attack on Tokyo, you would read up on them.
After the war, they have had a reunion every year. A bottle of brandy was bought and the tradition has been that the last surviving raider would open the bottle and drink to the others.
More than 70 years later, the last 4 survivors decided that it was time to open the bottle. The ceremony was held yesterday, here in Dayton. To honor the ceremony, a flight of B-25 bombers (the plane they flew) was put together to fly over the ceremony. The planes spent the night at the little airport just north of here. Through some connections, I was given a press pass (my first!) so that I could go out onto the runway and photograph the planes.
Standing there, seeing how small the planes were. Listening to their engines roaring. Seeing the planes circle the airport and then dissappear into the distance. I thought how brave those men were.
P.S. Thought you might like to hear what the engines sounded like being warmed up: http://youtu.be/MDVFdsgceVs
sunset october 13, 2013
On the drive to Dayton, the sunset was spectacular. Who wouldn’t snap this picture as we were headed south west. To the west, the sun was a massive ball of orange
fall color is catching on fire
shooting sunflowers at dawn
This morning, my friend Jim and I got up before the roosters and drove to Yellow Springs, Ohio to photograph a field of sunflowers as the sun rose.
We come to this same field every year, looking for a new way to capture the flowers. The field is so large and there are so many flowers, that I have trouble figuring out where to point my camera.
barn roof
I often pass this barn on the way to the farm. It's one of the Ohio bicentenial barns chosen to represent each county in the state. The barn is in pretty sad shape, but currently undergoing rennovation. No matter what direction you approach the barn, you can see this roofline with all of its interesting details. It's a fine old barn.
morning clouds over soy
During a recent early morning walk, the sun was not up high enough to light up the gold soy bean field, but struck this cloud rather nicely.
good morning cows
on my way
As many of you are aware, I have been struggling a bit lately. Trying to find a direction for my photography. In some ways, I feel as though I've lost my photo mojo for the moment. So, I am going to try a little experimenting. This will be an attempt to rediscover what I enjoy about photography and have some fun with it.
A prime example is this image that I took yesterday morning on the way to work. The first twenty minutes of my drive winds through local farm country and, at this time of the year, I catch the light just prior to the sun's rise. When I saw this scene, I was struck by the saturated colors that looked as though they had come from the brush of Maxfield Parish, the American painter from the last century. I share a fondness with his work with my sister. She has often displayed prints of his work on her walls. This image is no Maxfield Parish and is not even similar to his work. However, his colors inspired my take on the scene. You just never know where inspiration will come from. Maybe that's why it is inspiring.
As part of my work flow, I often switch to black and white to get a good look at the tones. I find that the colors can sometimes be distracting and seeing the image in black and white helps me during the process. While, I have no intention of using the image in black and white, I thought it was interesting and that you might like seeing the converted image as well.
Have a fantastic Friday folks.
tim mcmurdo 