survived the Summer

Another Summer spent in photographic aestivation. But again, Autumn is approaching. Temperatures are dipping under 100F at least before lunch time. I'm starting to feel guilty about this abandoned blog and wanting to write. I attended a really inspiring photography group this evening, that kicked off various ideas in my head. I've got a week off next week, to explore some of those ideas and I'm all fired up and ready to go. Next Friday the Texas Photographic Society international competition opens and I have an image on display, after a couple of years of trying to get in. Things are ticking along nicely. Time to start blogging again.

I've been trying to work out in my head what to do with all the triathlon pictures I've been taking. Finally started to edit them and try to select some and tell a story. Working on what that story might be. Thinking it will be more of a multimedia approach than I'd initially planned. Time to do some more audio work.

pablo at la kiva

La kiva is a small bar out in far West Texas, in Terlingua and one of my favourite places in the state to get a 2 dollar beer (1 dollar at happy hour). Wednesday night is open mic night and we were lucky enough to be within about a 100 miles of the place, so it was just a quick ride over for some great BBQ and music. I'd heard of Pablo Menudo from others who've been there before. This was the first time I got to experience hearing him. Now you can too.

The audio was recorded just with the built-in mic on my Canon 1DII. I'm surprised how reasonable the audio quality is on the camera on the occasions I've used it. In this case I think it really adds to the image. From the crazy colours, you can probably tell this was shot with the available stage lighting. There were a few other photographers in the bar that night, mostly shooting with on-camera flash. Not only does that not help you get the full ambiance of the place, it was getting to be a bit intrusive to the other patrons in the bar. A fast lens and a solid table make much better options in a dark location like this.

red wolves

I went to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro today. The weather was on the miserable side; cold, drizzle with occasional sleet and snow. The main reason I went was to meet Paul Lester, who lives near by. We had a good time walking around the mostly empty zoo. The majority of the animals were sensibly ensconced inside, out of the cold. Some more hardy animals were out, such as these red wolves, which were making a lot of noise.

Hit play below to hear the wolves calling. This is one of the first times I've tried sharing audio I've recorded, so please let me know if there are problems with this.