Recharging The Batteries....

I think I may need to explain the rather odd title to this post. It seems like around this time every year, my internal photography battery starts running a little low. The snow is basically gone, the landscape is a rather ugly shade of gray and brown, and the weather is less than pleasant. So I usually look forward to the Two Rivers Photography Club Teach-In to get my photographic juices flowing again and I surely wasn't disappointed this year!!

The speaker for this year's seminar was Mr. Mark Bowie. Mark is a well known landscape photographer from Massachusetts. But the interesting thing about Mark's photography is that he is addicted to showing us what the world looks like at night. Long after the sun goes down, a different landscape emerges and Mark is a master of capturing the natural beauty of the night.

Rollins Pond State Campground - Photo courtesy of Mark Bowie - All rights reserved

Rollins Pond State Campground - Photo courtesy of Mark Bowie - All rights reserved

Mark is a very easygoing, genuinely nice person. And he is a very good speaker and teacher! And of course the day went by way too fast. The Teach-In was a success and it seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves and they got their batteries recharged too!!! Thanks Mark!
Mark also conducts workshops and photo tours, both by himself and in conjunction with the Adirondack Photography Institute. If you are interested you can contact him at markbowie.com

Barkin' at the Moon....

Two Rivers Photography Club, which I am a part of recently went on a field trip to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY. The trip was prompted by the Winter photo contest that the zoo was running. Considering the threat of poor weather we said the heck with it and went anyway. We were pleasantly surprised by sunny skies and seasonable temperatures, and the animals were very cooperative.

Everyone that went enjoyed themselves, and many thanks go out to Bill Bay for running the trip. I think we should do it again next year!!

Back in the Saddle....

Happy New Year everyone!!! Yeah, I know  I've been slacking off in the blog posts..... but hey, I've been busy!!! I recently had the chance to shoot the Stop-DWI Holiday Classic basketball tournament in Binghamton. It's a 3 day high school boys tournament that draws some of the best players on the east coast. And the purpose of the tourney is to drive the point home to the kids that drinking and driving could be the worst decision they could ever make.

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The level of play was top notch in both national and regional brackets with Christ the King (NYC), Maine-Endwell & Norwich taking top honors in their respective divisions. Congratulations gentlemen on a tourney well played! See you next year!

Teach-In Speaker Announced....

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Two Rivers Photography Club has announced that the speaker for the 2014 Teach-In will be Mark Bowie. Mark is an outdoor photographer and an instructor at the Adirondack Photography Institute.
Mark will be spending most of the seminar teaching us about night photography in all it's shapes and forms.
He'll cover photographing the stars, moon, planets, meteors, the Northern Lights and other celestial phenomena, as well as earth-bound subjects at night: mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, the ocean, cities and villages.
Details have not yet been posted on the TRPC website, but I can tell you the seminar will be on Saturday, March 22nd at Binghamton University. I will post more details as I get them.

Photo Expo & 9/11 Memorial....

Last Saturday we took a club trip to the NYC Photo Expo and we squeezed in a side trip to the 9/11 memorial.  

The photo expo wasn't much different than last year, except that it was about 25% smaller. And it seemed that the attendance was down this year also. To be honest, once you've gone for a few years in a row, there isn't a hell of a lot that is different. But if you have never been, it's a trip you need to make. The sheer amount of photo gear will put your brain into shock. And if you're looking for anything photographic, this is where you'll find it. 

After a few hours at the show, we grabbed a cab and headed down to the 9/11 memorial. Click on the photos to enlarge.

You really have to see this area to understand the magnitude of what happened here. And to appreciate the beauty and simplicity of the memorial. It was insanely busy the day we went, but you could still find your own little piece of solitude among all the people. 

And to see the new building rising beside the reflecting pools gives you a sense of how strong and resilient New Yorkers are. 

This is a view from the Battery Park area, where we headed next. 

This is a view from Battery Park. None of us had ever been here before, but we decided we would definitely come back! It's a beautiful park located on the southern tip of Manhattan, just a few blocks from the 9/11 memorial.

All in all we had a great time! The show was good, the memorial was something to see, but the company of good friends is what really made it a great day!