A couple videos from Christmas. More than a little inspired by Woody Allen's Manhattan. 

Kentuck Knob is Frank Lloyd Wright's lesser known house in the Laurel Highlands (Fallingwater being the other). There's a lot to like: oriented to make the best use of seasons, plenty of windows and open rooms let in light and air very nicely. It's not as spectacular as fallingwater but it's a gorgeous place to live. Fascinatingly, the house is currently owned by some form of english royalty (I think) and the house is only open to tour a part of the year. The house is famous for it's grounds which have variety of art installations. That, coupled with the expansive view of the laurel highlands, must be an incredible place to live. 

Check out the wiki, I didnt do a great job of trying to take pictures of the place. They dont let you do take pictures inside, as it has some personal belongings of the current owner  (It was pretty creepy to get a tour of someones bathroom, bedroom and creeping on their family portraits etc). And it's hard to take pictures when everyone else around you is swinging their cameras around (thats probably just me).

I realize that instead of being a photoblog, this is turning into a seasonal photo dump. I've yet to completely grasp how to juggle this and work. 

 

I did a project at this hospital. I figured it would be nice to have a picture of it for posterity.

 

I took a ton of long exposures of this place hoping I would get at least one right. As it turned out each shot came out perfectly. I'm not complaining, but it would've been nice if the shots from the other locations I shot that night turned out half as well. 

 

Alleycat.

 

I dont even. Trying to be documentary photographer with giant studio camera. Or something. 

 

Lawrenceville Sky

 

A middle/high school in the Northside, Pittsburgh. The lights change color it's very interesting.

So I got another bike, I'm not done obsessing over this one yet so this is how much I'm willing to show anyone

 

 

Fresh cut alfa alfa smells really nice

    Instagram dump funk trunk

Weekly instagram dump

I got a new bike. Not surprisingly it's another American made Cannondale. I've been riding quite a bit with after work to blow off steam and I end up taking a lot of pictures of it. Here is it on pedalroom for dslr pics of it and a list of components

Stadium lights, Lawrenceville.

Baseball cage thing? Lawrenceville.

Lancaster

I was walking around Lawrenceville looking for things to shoot and found this locked up community pool, activity area. It was a really cool space, and really unfortunate that it wasnt open. I wish I had taken better pictures here.

Sorry about the lazy crop, but the picture really isnt the point here. Look at this. It's done so casually, in seemingly one stroke, with a matching black eye. I really like it. Lawrenceville

Last shot on the roll. I think I wrapped it up wrong, or took the back off too early. Either way, this magical looking picture happened.

A big part of what motivates me to shoot is seeing people do new and interesting things that kinda stretch my understanding in new and previously unexplored regions. From leica wielding documentary shooters to minimalist contemporary (my designation) photographers I've always had inspiration, or desire to emulate. Lately, possibly with real world things to worry about, I've been struggling to find inspiration and more importantly grow.

I tried getting really academic about photographs; trying to comprehend something not only aesthetically, but trying to really study photographs or understand the medium like an art. Or, how I though MFAs studied photographs. I figured the only way to differentiate yourself from a generation of mass adopters of photography was to dive into the abstract and non-aesthetics.

 Most recently however, the biggest source of photographic fun for me has come from, wait for it, instagram. It's incredible. The app itself has a competent interface and a collection of filters (some extremely mediocre) you can apply to pictures. But what is so heartening about this free service is how much creativity you can squeeze into a picture you take with phone. There are apps out there that you can use to mirror pictures, make dipytches, set type on, stack multiple layers on, all while being constrained to your phone and publishing it on this service. I find myself really motivated by some people on there (and massively discouraged by a lot of others).

 I realize that the few of you who read my blog (Have I ever mentioned how much I love you guys?), aren't on instagram and therefore dont see this new direction I've been expanding in. So I'm going to throw some of my instagram pictures on this here blog, so it remains an accurate log of my photographic journey.

See what some others are doing with it

A long rant, Sorry It's late and I'm tired.

I'm a working man now. Getting used to the 8-5 lifestyle has been a little difficult so far. Working leaves you really drained and without capacity to engage in anything but be useless. I am slowly building a tolerance to it though. I have a couple ideas for the blog, and a bunch of film to process and put on so here's hoping that I get a steady workflow up soon.

Taken Christmas day.