Leahy's Picture of the Day: May 2009

Point Defiance Pre-Quill

Next Saturday my photography class has the opportunity to get hands on learning from Darrell Gulin at Point Defiance Park. These are a few images of my pre-quill walk through. Nice stuff. I have photographed, much and often here...looking forewared to the next! My favorite in this photo set is: Duck Butts!

Reflections...

Spring is a Time for Rebirth

Point Defiance Park Rules.

Two of the Three Reasons...

...I get up in the morning. :)

Bike Shoot!

I put a lot of time and effort into the White River Photography Bike Shoot. This Spring Waylon Owen's brought in two of his custom choppers. These are works of art. I could spend a thousand words on this. Nothing in an art museum is more worthy than these bikes. My long time buddy and mentor, Tom Owen, helped out with lighting and expertise. Every time I am around him I learn something new! I love these pictures in that they show some of the people involved: Dale - bike owner, Greg - autoshop guy, students and bikes. This was a good day. :) Really, I mean it.

A Thousand Words is Not Enough...

hmmm...a picture is worth a thousand words. When I asked a rider about a good place to take pictures he immediately said "at the sand mounds!". I faked enthusiasm. I had been there before, covering the race two years ago, and come away with good photos, but not photography that really tells the story. I have ridden this course before. That's right. I know that a competitor is dog tired at this point, hoping for a bit of rest, then this ten foot mound appears and requires all your energy, all at once. And if you have a tiny bit of fun in you, that hasn't been worn out of you by mile after mile of tepid pace, you produce an extra bit of energy to jump off the top of this mound. This mound is steep. Really steep. Like the kind of steepness that can tip you over backward. Does this photo tell that. No. Did I need to climb a tree to show the steepness? What angle did I not think of? If I knew I would have shot it! This is good but not great.

And the Winner is...

As a photographer you like to fool yourself by saying you can capture at least a moment of a person...true...reality...who they really are. I really love senior portraits! I don't do a lot of them, but I really like them. As a photographer that aspires for the highest art form, senior portraits don't come as the first thing in mind usually. But as a confession... I really do like senior portraits. Maybe I am not cut out for lofty artistic photography, but just mortal, routine portraiture. Lesson learned. A mother knows her son better than any photographer. Period. This young man's mom picked out a photo as the one she wanted multiple copies of, and it was a big surprise to me! I didn't think this was him...but as I took a better look, after she picked it, I realized it was very good and a great portrait of a kid I've come to know a little bit in class over a couple of semesters. Note to photographers out there: "Mom's know best" bookmark it. Seriously.

Musicians (Young)

These are a couple of young musicians from the high school that I teach at. I love this picture, one in that it is a decent picture, and two in that the subjects are kids that have inspired me lately. The guitarist here gave his senior project speech to me and a couple others, on his hopes to become a composer and not lose his sense of being an artist. After the speech he brought me a book by Wagner that I am drudging through. Very high reading. Much of which I studied at UW. I am trying to summon my biggest brain to correlate the complexities, but I am out of practice. What struck me with this moment in life is that I am all of sudden Blake's "Experience" to this young man's "Innocence". The second young man is someone who played base for the first time in a church band that I was the regular bass player. When he played for the first time there, I was struck in that he found a way to interpret a song that I hadn't thought of. I was humbled. He was about 12 or 13. (I am quite honestly a pretty poor musician), but none the less, I was impressed with this young person years ago. Then lately I witnessed him play at a live performance at Relay for Life, and was blown away again. He is quite an amazing bass player. I am not surprised in his ability, only that he chose to stay with the base...which is quite flattering, in that I love the bass.

Game Face

B has his game face on for some impromptu badmitton, it reminds me of myself and every game I touched when I was his age. He is not so preoccupied with sports as I was. It was fun to see this in him. I misspelled badmitton! I retyped it about six times and didn't get it right. Normally I type it into Google and have it tell me, "did you mean"...then I say, of course, yes. I am too tired to go through the routine tonight...

Seven Years Old (Innocence)

This is my son and his friend. Innocence. I wish this day would never end. I studied William Blake's Innocence and Experience at University of Washington, it was a life changing experience, both simple and complex. No one agonizes over one's life more than his father.

Sunset on Relay for Life

This is Sheryl Lathrop's group at Relay for Life. She said she was out playing with them, but probably shouldn't have been because she has a bad knee. She said something about a knee replacement coming soon. She said hurting her knee tonight was worth it to have fun with her students. She is a teacher I respect a lot because of what students say about her. Generally they say they don't like her when they start her class, but learn to respect and like her by the end of the semester. Every teacher wants to be liked and respected, but it is hard to be both. She is accomplishing both. My hats off to her.

Late Night in Post

There was a time, when I was a graphic designer, that I loved spending endless hours in Photoshop creating. Now, it's a labor of necessity, and it wears on me like a rainy day in May here in western Washington. I wish I could shoot perfection and not have to touch anything in post production...some day...practice! Anyway, I like this image from the set I've been numbing my brain with over the last couple of hours.

Whidbey Island Mudder

The Whidbey Island Mudder was the first race in the Indie Series that I have covered. These pics are of some of the fastest riders in the race, and probably the oldest. I shared a 3 miles bike commute from the ferry with the guy in the orange, Spencer. It was nice to have some company, as I was solo. Fun day, good pics, and I got about 20 miles in while shooting. :)