I can’t believe it’s almost been a month since I was in Arizona. I’ve been slammed working on all sorts of new ideas for the studio. I stopped to play a bit with one of my images form the Grand Canyon tonight. I’m still working, but here’s where it stands at the moment. Some really great stuff is on the way. 
I’ve been trying to get in front of a computer with the internet for a bit. I’m sitting in the lobby of the Sheraton in Phoenix. I’m here for the Imaging USA convention. It’s PPA’s big national convention that is, well, really big! I’ll post more soon. Some great things going on here. We hopping in a car and hit the Grand Canyon and Sedona over the weekend. Here are some of the images. I’m still working on on getting a bunch of stuff out for you to view. It’s been a great trip. This is just a tasting. These are pretty rough. I’ll work on posting more as I get to them. Enjoy!
I have finally taken a bit of time to work on some of the New England images. This was photographed in Rhode Island at sunrise. We had to get permission to visit this site and it was so worth it. The image is completely from the original capture. There have been some obvious enhancements, but I swear it’s the original sky! I get asked that a lot about my images! I’d tell the truth if I cheated on this one, but it’s all original. This image is also a composite of 5 exposures taken in direct succession. For non-photographers this is called bracketing. It allows us to create a very wide dynamic range in post-production. Similar techniques are used with film. This one will be available for purchase when I’m finished with it. Stay tuned. I’m working on making more pieces available. Contact the studio for information. 
It’s Day 7 in New England and Shterion and I are packing up at our hotel in South Portland. I’d love to say that we went crazy last night and had one last great Maine dinner, but alas we ate at “On the Border”. It was good, but it was beans and tacos not clams and lobster. We ran out of time and ran out of energy. It’s 7:38 in the morning and I don’t think we’re going to have a chance to shoot anything today. In light of the fact that we didn’t have our last meal from the sea and we have nothing else to post, I thought we’d end our little journey with a reflective piece that is a tribute to two unknown friends that we never got around to naming. For lack of any other identity we’ll call them Shterion’s Lunch and Michael’s Lunch. Here is their life cycle as I saw it. It’s been a beautiful ride and there will be more. Operators are standing by for your donations for that Hawaii trip. Want to come along?
We spent the day in Bar Harbor today and on a 3 hour lighthouse tour off the coast of Maine. We got a good ways out and holy cow does it get choppy out on the water. It was a bit cold and overcast today. It was pretty cool seeing Maine act like Maine. We are in Portland this evening and are heading out to Boston tomorrow to come back to reality. I’ll look forward to posting some final edits. It’s been an inspiring trip. It’s been a hoot putting these shows together. More to come. . .
Ah, in the midst of these slideshows I thought I would post a map of my quest to see all 50 states. I put myself on house arrest about a year and a half ago stating that I couldn’t leave the country until I saw all 50 states. Well, after this week I only have 4 to go. 1 easy one, 2 relatively easy ones and then there’s Hawaii which is just a matter of time and money. I’m taking donations if any of you have either! I have coded the map to show you what’s left and where I’ve been. I originally had it coded in blue and red and thought that there might be a few heart attacks out there!
Yellow states are the states I have visited in the last 18 months (many of these I had seen previously, but it got confusing to add a third color!)
Orange states are the states that I have visited previously, but not in the last 18 months.
I am working on plans to knock out the last 4 sometime relatively soon. Operators are standing by for your contributions!
I was asked a great question today. I wish I could remember it word for word, but I was basically asked if typos were brown M&Ms! Ha. I hope not. I guess I need an editor right? That’s really funny.
Anyway, we spend the whole day near and in Acadia National Park in Maine today. Pretty inspirational place. I’m pretty wiped, so I’ll let the slideshow speak for itself. Not much in the way of mileage, though I’m working on a really amusing tribute to a couple lobsters that met a tragic fate today. That will be fun.
What can I say about Day 4? Wow, we could not have timed this trip any better. Vermont was on fire with color. I am not certain I have seen color like this before that’s saying a lot being from northern Illinois and growing up in the midwest. I think we take color for granted. Not today! These images are nothing like experiencing this ourselves. I wish I have the talent to capture what we truly saw. These will have to do. We started in Rutland, Vermont and ended up in Maine by way of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is incredible. I wish we had more time. We have been in Maine for only a few hours and well, we’ve already had lobster and muscles! We got in after dark and have no idea what we will see tomorrow. You’ll have to wait as well. It’s great having a soundtrack for this trip and can’t thank Mr. Martin enough for this!
Oh yeah, I got off my tail and figured out how people can join and post replies! Click on the register button if you want to add anything. Keep it clean!
Phew!! Time is flying out here. Sterio and I got up WAY too early today. We were out the door at 5:30 to shoot a lighthouse at sunrise. It was so worth it. I’m not doing the same tomorrow as, well, we’re in Vermont! Ha. No ocean to shoot, and well, I need the rest. We managed to hit a couple other sites in Rhode Island before we stopped by Mystic Connecticut (”Mystic River” fame!) Nice river. From there we drove through Massachusetts (Spell check gets that every single time. . .) and then spend most of the day in Vermont. WOW!!! We timed the leaves PERFECTLY. They are in peak as we speak. What are the odds? We wanted to hit the Adirondacks, but ran out of light as it was pretty overcast toward the end of the day. We literally saw 2 miles of New York before we turned back! Well, it’s now a 7 state trip. . . .Ha! I’ve already spent a lot of time in New York (even last month), so I’m not cheating. . . 2 more state to go on this trip. Vermont is state 44 for me. After this trip, I’ve got 4 to go until I’ve seen all 50. What a blessing. (There’s a little math exercise for those who are playing the home game)
Anyway, time for sleep. Enjoy!
