Sometimes you take a trip downtown.
Sometimes you eat some tasty treats.
Sometimes you have a few cocktails.
But only once does your friend have his opening night as a food truck operator.
Good stuff, Dino. Nice job.
Find these dudes with the glory of meatball subs, bacon and green chili mac n’cheese, chicken ceasar wraps and more behind The Flycatcher on 4th Ave. (used to be PLUSH)
-Alex who might have partook in most all the edible glory last evening and feels great about it.
Business on top, party on bottom.
-Alex who secretly wants to be a tactical fashion model.
Want to make your own? Just ask the goog.
-Alex who credits David Harvey, who passed away in 2012, for showing him this technique. He was a fantastic man, and a great photographer. RIP Dave.
The service lady in the white jeep with the flashing lights pulled up slowly as I approached, a look of tired resignation on her face as she rolled down the wet window. Apparently she was expecting attitude and had had her fill already.
“Parks closing, please turn around and leave now.”
I smiled, “sounds good.”
If my happy compliance surprised her it didn’t show. The park closing at 6pm on Sundays was news to me, but also music to my ears. One of the two parking spaces on the outside of the gate was open and that was all I needed.
In my recent experience the peak is a madhouse on stormy evenings, but the limited parking outside the gate and the half-mile rainy uphill walk gave me sunny expectations of being left alone; the loud-ass car stereos cruisers and running/screaming/crying children having been locked out by the lovely annoyed lady in the white Jeep.
I did have to leave most of my crap behind, as I was now walking, but I think it turned out okay.
-Alex who occasionally likes to be left alone.
No, it’s not the pizza guy.
Phoenix SWAT.
Nice dudes, unless you are a bad guy.
Don’t be a bad guy.
-Alex who is full of good advice.
I know.
It’s been four days.
But it has been a potentially good looking four days, and I have little to show for it besides a dead truck battery, a indifferent millipede encounter, an angry rattlesnake encounter, and an absurdly intricate selfie (see above).
But there is always something on the horizon, even if that horizon is annoyingly far away and refuses to give you what you want.
Does this map look good?
I haven’t the slightest clue.
-Alex who thinks snakes should be happier.
Fireworks show from Sentinal Peak, commonly known as “A” Mountain, for some reason.
As I have said before, I don’t do a lot of landscape stuff.
It might be because I have little patience for mother nature. (Even though fishing can be exactly that, but the idea that next week, or tomorrow, or even ten minutes from the moment you leave may be ten times better makes me twitchy.)
It might be because I feel that besides having a good grasp on how your camera functions, this kind of thing is a lot about luck and being in the right place at the right time. (It is)
It might be because I have never found a flash bright enough to light a mountain range. (Most likely)
But seriously, I think there is something about relying solely on natural conditions for success that makes me weary. (Even though, again, this is pretty much exactly like fishing) I want more control, I want to be able to force the good photo, which is a problem. I don’t like driving around,
That being said, I had a friend move away during summer for work. She asked me to send her photos of the monsoon weather, as she is feeling a little homesick. So this season, I am going to commit to try to capture some good Tucson storm stuff, and in doing so perhaps polish this skillset in the process.
The image above is the result of the actions below. This was yesterday evening, and my first hurry-up-and-wait storm session of the season.
Fingers crossed.
-Alex who should probably buy an umbrella.
I have a problem.
And I have a solution.
Unfortunately, the solution is part of the problem. This, however, usually turns out to be a good thing.
If you said I was a lighting photographer, I would probably agree. I don’t remember the last time I took my camera somewhere and didn’t at least bring a couple speedlights. I guess I just feel better having them around. Like a safety net. Or a crutch.
“But why, Alex, would you consider that a crutch?” you may be asking. Well, I occasionally think that automatically going to the use of artificial light for subjects may cause me to miss a better (subjective) and easier setup using only natural light. Also, it usually means a few more pounds of crap to carry around and while I appreciate the muscle toning, usually lighter is better.
Now, that aside, I think that the combination of natural and artificial light is one of my favorite things in the world. Potentially on par with bacon. And that’s saying something.
Where the technique shines is in examples like the one below from a few weeks ago.
You can see in the image on the right that the natural exposure on this guy makes the sky look pretty colorless, which sometimes is exactly what I want, but generally I like some color.
Adding one flash and exposing for the sky did the job, and gave me the photo I had in my mind.
Which makes me happy.
-Alex who likes being happy.
But I do want one. So many things come to mind.