What do all little girls love? Clouds, stars, trees… unicorns. Well I shoved three of those in this shot. The colors are vivid, but a little too ’80’s maybe. I don’t know how I feel about it. I’m sure I could tone down the reds and magentas a little to make it look different. Either way, I think it turned out good. For those of you following along at home, this shot was a 30 second exposure with my 50mm at f/4 attached to my Nikon D700 set at an ISO of 200. For those not in the know, clouds were being blown across the sky at night. Because of this area’s terrible light pollution, the clouds are illuminated by the cities below them. The streaking of the clouds is caused by their movement. The tree and stars were relatively still giving the motion something to stand out against. The tree was lit by a light mounted on a building. The luckiest thing about this photograph is that the tree, completely by chance, was appropriately exposed at the same settings the sky was. If the light on the building were 10 feet closer or further away, this shot would not have turned out as well.

I am by no means a ventriloquism enthusiast, but I recently visited Vent Haven Museum in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky. It is the largest ventriloquism museum in the world. It was pretty neat.

A big goal of people in the industry is to raise ventriloquism out of the realm of novelty and to beat back some of the creepy connotations connected with the craft. Therefore the puppets are not called dummies and movies like The Puppet Master and Chucky aren’t featured.

The most interesting thing is how far back the craft goes, literally hundreds and hundreds of years. And the story of the founder of the museum is also compelling. Below is the multimedia piece I did on Vent Haven. Click here to read an in-depth story on the museum.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McDLLL5gGc0]

Vice President Joe Biden visited the old American Can Factory in Cincinnati last week. The factory is going to be converted into housing as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

This image was shot during the three or four minutes the press was allowed to shoot from right in front of the stage. It’s a cropped version of a “hail mary” with a 24mm lens. I strapped on my wide, stuck the camera up above my head and nailed off some shots. We were really too close/too low to get a really good angle. I think this worked out well.

This second image is of a potential protestor outside the event, although I’m not sure this person made the sign. There were a dozen or so people outside of the event. One with a bullhorn shouting in protest, several that we’re obviously there to support the Obama administration.

I had to make a tough choice to get this photo and the next one. The press didn’t have a good chance to shoot Biden interacting with the crowd as he entered. We were restricted to a riser in the rear. But after the speech was over, I could have shot from another riser with a great position to get him shaking hands with the crowd when as he left. When I heard the protestors, I made the decision to leave the event early (there was no chance the Secret Service would let me back in). I was able to get shots of the protestors, but I missed the interaction between Biden and the crowd.

You just always wonder if you made the right decision.

I’ve got a little more scanning to do, so I might have another image to pair with this, but here’s a little shot from Findlay Market. A few weeks ago, I took my mom and my step-dad downtown. My mom is a HUGE foodie and wonderful chef, but had never been to Findlay before. My step-dad grew up right down the street on Ogden way back in the day. It was a great day. I continue to fall more and more in love with the city, and while many of the things that draw me to our urban center may not have mass appeal, I love showing others something they can relate to in Cincinnati. Findlay Market didn’t let me down either. It was busy and full of life. My mom and Al have even gone back on their own for some black pepper goetta and mets… yum. Anyway, here’s a shot a took while I was there. I like the colors and the depth. It was shot with my F3HP on Kodak UC 100 film.

Representing situations accurately and without bias is an essential part of photojournalism. But occasionally, it’s really fun to pick out the stuff that’s odd and out of place. Despite the 1920’s thing this shot has going on, this was shot this year. It also wasn’t taken in a classy, high brow theater. It was taken at Franklin High School during a dance recital. This young girl was between performances.

This was shot on my favorite film, Kodak UC 100, which I’ve mentioned before. I was shot with my F3HP with a 50mm at f/1.2. The shutter speed was probably at 1/8 of a second or so. I was just as patient as I could be, braced arms on a chair and squeezed the shutter as gently as I could. It’s still a little soft, but not too bad.