How To Pour A Beer

Dinner in stove to warm, killer good clam linguine. Dog sitting and have some time to write.

And I left the kitchen with a beer in a glass that my Mom showed me how to pour: “down the side, halfway up, in the middle”. She learned as a teenager, waiting tables in her Hungarian stepfather’s bar & restaurant, “Charlie’s Cafe”, an immigrant and workman’s saloon on Woodhill & Buckeye in east Cleveland , Ohio.

Charlie was a widower with a son, my Uncle Chuck. Married my Grandmother, Mary, a Hungarian immigrant divorcee.

Mom was 17 and waiting tables, when my 26 year old father walked in. Two weeks later, he drove her to Covington, Kentucky to get married. He swore, he was “shot down by a pair of 38’s”.

Later, with kids in a post WWII bedroom suburb, Mom worked weekend nights in a saloon near the factories, foundries and machine shops on Brookpark Road. To meet the bills. The old man hated it! She’d get $5 tips, multiple hours of current wages! Guys drinking on Fridays, after getting paid were generous with good looking waitresses!

I remember being half asleep in the backseat of a Hudson Wasp, in PJ’s, with a younger brother, to bring her home after her shift.

The minute they could get by without her tips, he forbade it. And for 54 years of marriage, till his last breath, he was wildly, completely, in love with her.

Old Guy, Musing

My first paycheck in 1965, was for 75 cents per hour, checking clothes and checking toes at a suburban, Municipal swimming pool. Aspired to be a Lifeguard, completed the required Red Cross Course but as I was not yet 16, was awarded a “Junior Lifesaving Badge”, so no Lifeguard Job. My first experience with meeting requirements but still, disqualified.

Later and wiser, I lied about my age and enrolled in a YMCA Scuba Certification Course, when it was still Tarzan requirements. Swim a mile, tread water with just arms for 20 minutes, then just legs for 20 minutes. Watched returning Vietnam Vets who could afford the gear, struggle. Took my open water qual in a Northeast Ohio quarry in February, in an ill fitting, borrowed wet suit (no money) and thought I’d never be warm, again.

Made E-7 money as an E-5 Submariner with Pro Pay and Boat Pay and FSA. And except for a year at the College of Charleston (GI Bill and VA part time job) after nine years of Canoe Club, worked. Until spring of 2010 – Lenovo, who’d purchased the IBM PC Company, my employer, made my further career, null.

From 2010, except for getting a Wake County “Certified Pool Operator” Certificate and managing our HOA’s Swimming Pool, I had an encore career as a Portrait and Dance Photographer. COVID and becoming a widower ended that, in the Fall of 2022,

So from 1968 to 2022, some 54 years, I paid my dues. Now, I’m just going to be at peace.

It Was, The Nick of Time

Perfect weather day with my newly installed Larson Brisa screen door on my apartment entrance. And playing this album (aka CD), I’m vividly reminded how good the music is.

Spent hours in a garage, at the end of a first marriage, listening to this on a cassette deck in a company car, a late 80’s Chevrolet Lumina Euro.

But in “The Nick of Time”, found someone who “opened up my heart again”. Lasted nearly 30 years, till death parted us. And as I recently told our mutual Primary Care Physician, I’m still goofy in love with her. Can’t be helped. We both, got lucky.

My Bob Seger Moment

Polaroid – in front of my first apartment. Back from my second patrol aboard a Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine. Me and my Mom in a newly purchased, well used, 1960 Corvette. Two years later, I had it right.

But that day, heading to the Menriv (Mendel Rivers) Convenience store at the Polaris Missile Facility, Atlantic, I was taking chances. Long two lane, in piney woods, looked and saw I was doing 85 MPH and maybe I should go to third gear and maybe, fourth. Mom had a NASCAR grin! Like a rock!

Recantation

Couple of posts back, I wrote “Taking a hiatus/retreat/sabbatical/down time/hiding out for awhile. Time to write, carefully. It will be a quiet time. Here and at home. Maybe, as Shirley Horn sang, September.”

I lied! True, ‘cept, like Lisa Lamont in “Signing In The Rain”, “I can’t stan it”.

Too much life going on for me to be quiet – as much as I treasure my new found quiet. And maybe, at 74, pushing 75, I’m shedding my Catholic upbringing aka “Our Lady of Perpetual Guilt and Responsibility”.

I am gonna write and edit my past work. Curated a Cary Players performance today, from May of 2011, in Jordan Hall – which pre-dates the opening of the Cary Arts Center and before it’s conversion to the Cary Fire Dept. HQ.Gallery is here: Puss In Boots, May of 2011

Lie II: Like A Rock

Early in 2005, I was abusing the family bus (aka Grand Caravan) for household hauling. Eldest son snagged an RA job at UNC Chapel Hill. So the Old Man (moi) decided we (Moi) could afford a pickup truck. Got an offer I couldn’t refuse from the very new “Internet” Sales Manager at Hendrick Chevrolet. Plus, a discount due to my younger brother’s employment at Chevrolet.

20 years on, since buying the truck, it’s moved mulch, appliances, drywall, lumber and students from UNC Chapel Hill and UNC G. And me.

It’s spent some time recently, at the mother ship Hendrick Chevrolet (aka NASCAR Garage). My last ride.

Do You See?

Like trying to explain to a horse, I’ve been struggling to explain to myself, what I want. So taking a hiatus/retreat/sabbatical/down time/hiding out for awhile.

This blog has two purposes: An audience of one and an outlet for my voice.

Time to write, carefully. It will be a quiet time. Here and at home.

Maybe, as Shirley Horn sang, September.

Memorial

As a Submariner, I only made two Surface voyages. Both, were as one of six Enlisted Sailors and a LTJG, as a USN security party aboard Merchant Marine converted WWII Victory Ships: USNS Norwalk & USNS Marshfield.

USNS Marshfield (T-AK-282)
USNS Norwalk (T-AK 279)

It was a long time ago. Charleston to Rota, Spain or Holy Loch Scotland were about 10 days, each way, at about 17 knots. Good chow and decent twarthship racks.

We kept watch on a cargo hold of Polaris Missiles. Thermonuclear weapons included. Monitored temperature and potential leaks of hydrogen isotopes.

Had an M1911A in a holster, riveted to a desk. Of boredom, on watch, I would field strip and reassemble the other five stored there. Like solitaire. After awhile, I would do it with eyes closed and time myself.

There is great spiritual peace to be found, alone on the fantail at 0300, mid Atlantic. No light pollution and the stars are clear.

Both ships have been scrapped, long ago. Memory continues.

Blessed

I am greatly looking forward to burrowing into a stack of books and finding my voice about the Art of Photography. Still, there are irresistible distractions!

Like making photographs of beautiful, healthy, well loved children at an extraordinary Elementary School. I had no idea that graduation from Kindergarten was a ceremony until a young neighbor and teacher and fortuitous confidant clued me in. So I went and made photographs. Norman Rockwell would be proud!

Today, anticipating a long, peaceful weekend of good food, monographs and medium bodied bourbon, she brought a stack of Thank You Notes made by six year olds after they saw my work. And reduced this 220 lb, 74 year old curmudgeon to a pile of goo and tears.

Child’s name is Anvi – a Hindu name meaning “reflecting on divine knowledge”, “breath of life,” “soul,” or “spirit.”

The Importance of Teachers

Early this week, I made photographs of a Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony at a wonderful nearby school where a young neighbor and dear friend, teaches. I finished the edit this afternoon. Gave her a USB Drive to share with the School, Faculty and Parents. Without parental permission, I can’t show them here. And BTW, anyone who thinks teaching is easy, in spite of being a Fitness Buff, she was wiped out from long days at the end of school year.

But I did have permission when I made this photograph. And I could not stop thinking about the fact that this young woman, guiding the very young dancers here, was adopted, from a far away land. And pray every child has a good teacher.

Cary Ballet Conservatory “Aspiring Dancers” 18 May 2019

Midnight Ice Cream – II

Sometimes, especially for old photographers, sleep is elusive. This, from almost exactly six years ago, was a child seeking refuge from Stage Fright. And the image has stayed in memory. I know exactly how she feels.

Cary Ballet Conservatory “Aspiring Dancers” 18 May 2019

Muse Redux

Late in 2018, I decided to let go of film & medium format cameras. New digital versions were astronomically expensive and the film versions were costly, in money and time.

This photograph is from a last portrait session with a Pentax 645N Film Camera and Kodak Ektar film. Had the film processed and scanned the negatives myself. The process after that is just the same as a Digital Negative.

But that’s not what this is about. It’s about Art and Artists. Which explains the rolls of Ektar film in my frig., that fit my 1914 Kodak Autographic Junior & 1925 Kodak Brownie Model F.

Old guy, responsible me, has been mulling selling my post widower, post house sale purchased, 645 Digital Gear. Nah. The Muse Provides. I got plans.

Portrait Session at Cary Ballet Conservatory – May 2018

Lucy’s Song

As I explained to my young neighbor, it’s all her fault! Bringing her dumpster rescue dog to visit after her work day, to visit and talk story.

And I told her about the N.C. State Vet Student who was fostering this rescue that was her proof of ability to spay. Who I connected through a connection of dog rescuers. And volunteered to a make adoption photographs. And we did!

Raleigh – November 2010

Still Learning

By now, I though I’d be further along, organizing and curating a dozen years of work at Cary Ballet Conservatory. The delay is mostly due to the luxury of quiet time and vivid memory. And reflection. An example is this photograph.

Eight years earlier, her Mom hired me to make photographs of her First Communion at the Church Altar. A new and agreeable Monsignor literally gave his blessing to me working during the Mass.

Cary Ballet Company: Space & Tech Rehearsal, 13 March 2019 – Cary Arts Center

One year later, nearly to the day after I made this photograph, there was another Space & Tech Rehearsal for the 2020 production – just days before COVID cancelled pretty much everything. And that Fall, I became a widower.

Things sort of got back to normal by late 2022 – but my “creative spirit” tank was on fumes and I retired.

Now my goal is to share what I learned about Craft and Art. Working on that!

Bitter Sweet

Today, FedEx delivered a lens that I’ve spent six months searching for. Bought my first copy around 2010, just as it was discontinued by the mfr. Paid $1,400 then, a sum of intense discussion between my newly corporate laid off self and my late wife. But embarking on my encore career, I’d promised myself I’d never miss another photograph of an actor because I lacked the right gear. That it was a youth theater performance, was to me, irrelevant.

Sold it after she died, with a bunch of other gear, no longer used or needed by a retired photographer.

Cary Ballet Company, March 2019

And then recently, volunteered to photograph, pro bono, some Elementary School events. Which caused me to look for a replacement that was, like a Hens’s Tooth, not to be found. So, bought some almost wannabe lenses that just didn’t resonate. And will be sold soon. Here’s the bittersweet part.

Covid changed everything. And caused an exciting, beautiful young dancer to return to Latin America. And unable to cope with his illness and crushed dreams, ended his life.

Into The Sun

Made this photograph nearly 15 years ago, on a weekend. Hiding out from some of my late wife’s about to visit relatives.

North of Hatteras, found an off season, duck hunters motel in Manteo. Cheap. And like the song “Sheets so thin, I could see myself grin”. The National Seashore is open 24×7. 0430, fuel up with guys filling boats with ice and gas.

Later, got a pre-dawn, cursory glance from an ATV riding Park Ranger, patrolling the beach. My tripod explained my presence.

So I was left in peace. It is, in a way, a prayer.

And my plan is, in about 10 years or so, or whenever one of my vital parts hits its expiration date, my ashes will be scattered, about three miles east. In compliance with North Carolina State Law.

Which allows that maybe, 100 years from now, I could be a speck of a kids sand castle on Nag’s Head. And so it goes

Saturday Service

This afternoon, nearly demanded an outdoor excursion, especially ahead of two days of forecast rain.

I visited what I consider a cathedral, the Wildflower Garden at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Reserve. A 19 year old lens and a beater camera body with 146K clicks on it. Old and worn, like me. Click an image for full size

“Every Time We Say Goodbye”

Listening to the 1958 recording by Tony Bennett, sometimes, inhibits sleep. Maybe because of the Cole Porter lyric.

Or maybe, because of some photographs I made at Camp Lejeune. The day of a year long deployment to a far away land, of danger, long ago.

And I told a very young friend about it today. And I showed her these.

“Every time we say goodbye, I die a little”

“Every time we say goodbye, I wonder why a little”

“Why the Gods above me, who must be in the know
Think so little of me, they allow you to go”

“When you’re near, there’s such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it
There’s no love song finer
But how strange the change from major to minor
Every time we say goodbye”

Bravo!

I made this photograph in January of 2022, about 10 months before age & widower grief convinced me to retire. And I remember being struck by the artistry of a very young woman. Told her that plainly, afterward, in the lobby, in the presence of her father.

This evening, at A J Fletcher Opera Theater in Raleigh, I watched her dance the lead role in the ballet “Coppelia”. I can’t even imagine the work she’s invested in her craft since. But I know great art when I see it. Makes life worth living.

Front Porch Visitor

Worn out after food shopping, exercise and vacuuming, I parked my tired old body next to an open screen on a gorgeous day, after the landscape crew mowers & blowers were done, savoring Bourbon & Beer, while dinner warms.

And watched this Senior Citizen Rabbit cruise by and chow down on low hanging Holly Leaves in front of my apartment. And thought about how many times I read “Runaway Bunny”, long ago.

Saturday

Today, the Postman (saw him) delivered my 2026 NC Vehicle Registration. I affixed the sticker to my, as of next month, 20 year old license plate.

Thursday, following the Tuesday NC State Inspection at the Mother Ship (Hendrick Chevrolet) and a Goat Rodeo Uber pickup, had all 4 tires replaced and a 4 wheel alignment done.

Wherein Brake Linings declared “Yellow” and “May Need Attention At Next Service” on Tuesday, were declared “Red” and need immediate replacement.

So I made an Online Service Appointment to fix up all four, next Wednesday, a day ahead of my Six Month Routine Appointment with my Primary Care Provider. I am, like my Truck, getting old and worn. But I am not, repeat NOT, getting any new parts!

Midnight Ice Cream

Literally up the street from my widowers apartment, is the hardware store I was parking at, on a Saturday in 2000, when I heard “Red Dirt Girl” on the radio. The program was “Prairie Home Companion”.

I’d gone to get something needed for a long sold house, filled with children and dogs and my sweetheart. Before the scars of the inevitable.

Music, like all Art, can be intensely resonant. So 25 years later, an old man, waking from an after dinner nap, in the quiet midnight, finds solace in memory. And ice cream.

Amen- A Very Good Sunday Service

Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra: The Way from Birmingham

My very young neighbor & Music Teacher & Cary Concert Singer member, told me about this performance – with regret – as she’d be away on a planned Spring Break. Bought a ticket and went to the Stewart Theater in the Talley Student Union on the NC State Campus. It was a luxury to be an audience member there instead of working in theater rear, photographing performances of the Cary Ballet Company!

The performance by Orchestra and Chorus was world class and wonderful.

There are benefits to living near a State Capital with great Universities.

Ain’t No Money In Poetry*

*”Cold Dog Soup” by Guy Clark

The last time I visited with this young dancer was during a Saturday Studio Session. I’d hired her to guide young dancer audition sessions. She had all the technical dance foundation I didn’t. Some “No Shows” allowed time to visit.

And we discussed how even though she had a contract with a professional Ballet Company, when she looked at the hours, it was barely minimum wage.

Later, I learned she went back to university and then entered the corporate world for far better money. Art is really, really hard.

Space & Tech – 3D Jazz Project Co. at Cary Ballet Conservatory Cary Arts Center – 18 April 2012

Permanent Collection

I knew the print was still hanging on the second floor of the Cary Arts Center but had no idea it was in the Town’s Website: Four Off The Floor

It’s well intended but displays the picture maker reflected in the glass (which I no longer use on displayed prints). And the focus is really soft.

Here’s what I wish it was displayed as:

Space & Tech Rehearsal – 3D Jazz Project Co. at Cary Ballet Conservatory Cary Arts Center – 18 April 2012

Heavenly

Made this photograph, 3 July 2011 – a Sunday. At the newly renovated and yet unopened, Cary Arts Center. There was a”Wet Paint” sign on the theater stage and I’m not sure if they had a CO (Certificate of Occupancy ) yet.

Didn’t know yet but I would spend a lot time there, working, until the Fall of 2022.

I do know that the adult male in the upper left, had just arrived from Belgium, with the rest of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. The three young violinists were members of the Triangle Youth Symphony.

I don’t understand how anyone can read music and play it. Some sort of mysterious alchemy. Art, I finally realized, is my spirituality. It sustains me.

Re-Engaging – American Girls

True story. Made this photograph in the “Annex” of the since sold & relocated Cary Ballet Conservatory. A Mom from the 3D Project Jazz Company left me a voice mail message (remember voice mail). Which I listened to on my laptop speakers in a Paris Apartment. Replied, we were flying home next day and yes, I could do a Sunday promo shoot.

No time to plan or rent gear.

Did have a 5 by 9 ft piece of black velour from Joann Fabrics. My late wife had sewn in rod pockets for hanging as a background. They’re laying on it.

Had one light up on a boom but was standing on a shaky piece of the lobby furniture while the Instructor, a big man named Yaqshaan Medan, was holding my belt & waist band, while I reached out over the very young dancers, with back button focus. And it worked!

Which explains why I entered it, this week, into a Digital Only Open Juried Photograph Completion.

That’s a lie – the real reason is, I have to remember to breathe when I look at it.

1 October 2017

The Moon & Me

I no longer live behind a golf course, my tripod on the empty expanse in the midnight, sky above the tree line. This week, a Lunar Eclipse will happen again. I’m pretty sure, it will look like this. Eugene Cernan, the last Man On The Moon, left his daughters initials, “TDC”, on it. Still there.

Wednesday Work – 2011 Diwali

Diwali, also called Deepavali or Deepawali, is the Hindu festival of lights. It symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Photographed for Cary Citizen, 22 October 2011.

Gallery here.

Back To Work Monday

I’m gathering speed on the array of photo editing & writing projects in plan! Today was editing and posting another Koka Booth Amphitheater event I photographed for Cary Citizen, in 2011. It was my sophomore year covering Town of Cary public events, which explains a lot more “keepers” than my freshman 2010 attempt. I was learning.

Eid al-Fitr is a holiday celebrated within Islam. Eid al-Fitr is the end of the month long, dawn to sunset fasting of Ramadan. It follows a Lunar calendar, so this year, 2025, it falls on 30 or 31 March, depending on location. Fourteen years ago, it fell on Aug. 30/31. The Town of Cary Festival was held on 8 Oct. 2011

Gallery here.

Day 2 of Meteorological Spring

(Disclaimer: These images are not mine, found on the wonderful Cornell Lab Macaulay Library site )

An upside of a ground floor Apartment with a large double window (open yesterday with 76 degree temp), is viewing the entertainment provided by a big, wildlife hosting Viburnum next to my modest patio. Underneath it today, was a Male Eastern Towhee rummaging in the mulch. The Viburnum and it’s companion row of Clarissa Holly are also on the local Grey Squirrel travel route.

Rick Simpson 28 Feb 2025
Riverbend Farm Trail , Cabarrus, North Carolina,

In summer, it shelters the nest of Chipping Sparrows and it’s blossoms attracts Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Bees. In the Fall, Monarchs!

Chippling Sparrow – https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/

And just like my previous home, I managed to shield it this Winter from the brutality of contract landscapers. Subtlety is a not, typically in their repertoire.

The Muse Provides – Again

Written about this before. The idea keeps revisiting me. It’s been 13 years since I made this photograph but I know the date and venue, like it was a tattoo. This young dancer, in full stage makeup and street clothes was, to my astonishment, my very first experience with a “Muse”. Trust me on this, Muses are very, very real. She and this appearance, changed my work and understanding of light for the next decade. And she appeared, in another form, 10 years later. And is currently helping with the nascent outline of a book (s).

As an “Old Guy” on the backend of my life on this planet, it is wonderful to be free to read and think (and cook) sans the pressure of all the stuff that younger folks are pressured by. No Mo Fomo ;-).

Cary Arts Center 12 December 2012

Artists I Admire

The post brought this book, and two others today, that will take days to digest.

I promise you, the prints are so good, you’ll look at your latest fancy, feature packed $$$$$martphone and wonder why.

His story is compelling and very human. As an artist, his discovery of theater lighting, his understanding of the mask we all wear – we are soulmates across generations. Art matters.

https://karsh.org/exhibitions/karsh-a-fifty-year-retrospective/

Walk Along A Country Road

In this Sunday memory, Departmental Road 9, Belleau, Departement de l’Aisne (France), FR. It was a Monday in Sept. of 2017, 99 years after War.

The local American / French Museum was closed, so we walked along farm roads in gorgeous late September sunshine and quiet, to our destination.

You can get there easily from Paris, by Metro to Gare de l’Est, then express train to Château-Thierry and local taxi to Belleau. And can walk the battlefield in silence. Click images for full size.

He Went To Paris – II

The Musée d’Orsay is a very favorite place – so much so, my late sweetheart tolerated me spending three consecutive days, exploring.

This 1/16th scale casting, ordered by the Sculptor Auguste Bartholdi in 1899 stunned me. It predates the inscribed poem by Emma Lazarus at the base of the full size version in New York Harbor.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris – 22 Sept 2016

Driving on errands today, I listened to Willie Nelson sing “Living in the Promiseland“. It reminded me of the poem by Ms Lazarus.

He Went To Paris

Paris is hard to explain. Atop Tour Montparnasse is, I think, a good place to begin. And the Châtelet Metro station, with “Prelude To Paris ” playing. These from 2016 & 2017. Late September is wonderful.

Click images for full size

Tour Eiffel from Tour Montparnasse
Tour Eiffel from Tour Montparnasse
Tour Eiffel from Tour Montparnasse
Tour Eiffel from Tour Montparnasse
Gare Montparnasse
Louvre & Eglise Saint-Sulpice
A Quarter Mile of Louvre
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
Saint-Louis-des-Invalides Cathedral
Notre Dame Before The Fire

Winter Garden Sunday

A few hours of afternoon Sun & 60’s was an irresistible lure to get outside in cold, gray, gloomy February. The Gardens at Page Walker Arts & History Center, in my home town of Cary, North Carolina were a very convenient venue for the students in the Photography Classes I taught there.

Today, they were a tonic for my Winter ennui. Click image for full size.

The Wisdom of Children

I’d forgotten that the 2010 EID Festival at Koka Booth Amphitheater was my first attempt at making photographs of an event for Cary Citizen . Eid al-Fitr is a holiday celebrated within Islam. Eid al-Fitr is the end of the month long, dawn to sunset fasting of Ramadan. It follows a Lunar calendar, so this year, 2025, it falls on 30 or 31 March, depending on location. Fifteen years ago, it fell on Sept. 9/10. The Town of Cary Festival was held on 9 Oct., so pretty close.

I had zero knowledge or understanding of Eid. Like nearly every community event I photographed, the children made sense of it for me. Gallery here.

Sunday Reflection II

Yesterday afternoon at the North Carolina Museum of Art got my creative wheels in gear. Working in theater was always magical to me. Especially with no audience to disturb and freedom to move around. I never found it work.

Cary Ballet Conservatory Rehearsal for “Cinderella” 11 June 2014

Sunday Reflection

I was on the edge of digital camera technology, in December of 2010. 14+ years later, this is still in my heart. Time since, allowed me to learn how to take an image to what I saw. And it’s good to have training as a painter. Caravaggio and Edward Hopper would understand. 20″x 16″ Print on order.

Cary Ballet Company Dress Rehearsal “A Gift For The Little Match Girl” 17 Dec. 2010, Jones Auditorium at Meredith College – Raleigh, North Carolina

2.0

Post retirement (old guy) reflection on my work as a photographer, created an itch I’ve been scratching, to curate and show the result of a dozen years. Still early on and skimpy. May take a year or so: http://www.brookemeyer.com

Photographer & Clients at “Picture Days” 2016

Bravo Academy of Dance – Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Parisian Dreams – Redux!

Discovered today, my research was real wrong and the chocolate shop, “Maison Georges Larnicol” at  14 Rue de Rivoli in Paris is still there! Dieu merci!

————————————————————–

There was and is, a “corner joint”, Le Bûcheron, just down the stairs and around the corner, from an apartment on Rue Ferdinand Duval, Paris.

View from our apartment window

Searching today, I discovered the Chocolate Shop next door is no more. Post dinner, it was a wonderful stop before late evening home.

The meals and memories, are delicious

Moms Just Wanna Have Fun!

Today’s news included Washington D.C’s Annual Snowball Fight! Which coincided with last nights onset of insomnia and finally, beginning to organize and curate a dozen years of photographs. This is, a favorite.

Bond Park, Cary, North Carolina – 4 Dec 2010 – Photograph for Cary Citizen

Early Christmas Arrival

A new copy of a book published in 2011, shipped from a Berkeley, California book store on Monday, arrived in North Carolina very early Wed. morning! Yes, it’s a present from me, to me.

Freebie version here: https://archive.org/details/kodakgirlfrommar0000unse/page/n9/mode/2up

My Favorite Things #3

Studio Rehearsal “Little Match Girl” 11 Dec 2010 – Cary Ballet Conservatory

I had no experience making photographs of a studio rehearsal. 14 Decembers later, this is still, vivid memory. It was an affirmation of joy without guile. An expression of, the best of us.

Today’s Treasures #4

An ad page from the April 1920 “The Ladies Home Journal”, 10.5 x 16 inches. Arrived today. My display is complete!

Not my photograph, the eBay reseller’s image. I can’t improve on this.

And yes, I’m going to make some photographs with the one I have. It may be awhile though – an upcoming 3rd Grade Christmas Choir Concert has priority. I’ll shoot that with some 100 year newer glass & digital camera. Stage lighting!

Parisian Dreams

There was and is, a “corner joint”, Le Bûcheron, just down the stairs and around the corner, from an apartment on Rue Ferdinand Duval, Paris.

View from our apartment window

Searching today, I discovered the Chocolate Shop next door is no more. Post dinner, it was a wonderful stop before late evening home.

The meals and memories, are delicious

Today’s Treasures #2

This Portrait, aka Close Up Attachment, fits my 1925 era No.2 Kodak Brownie Model F. Instead of a fixed focus distance of 8 ft. and beyond, it allows photographs at a distance of about a meter. Which suits a head and shoulders portrait.

Found it, the only one I could find, on eBay, in a vintage camera shop in the Netherlands. USPS, in cooperation with NL Post, delivered today. Original printed instructions, from 100 + years ago were in the tiny box. In French. No problem!

My Favorite Things #2

“Picture Days” 2017 – Bravo Academy of Dance, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Listening to KJazz 88.1 this evening, José Rizo played a wonderful recording of “My Favorite Things” by Laili Biali. And in the luxury of my new found peace and contentment, thought about things that I treasure. That’s what this will be about.

Truckin’

In late spring of 2005, before I knew my employment with the IBM PC Company would be transferred to Lenovo, my eldest son, following his freshman year at UNC Chapel Hill, enlisted in the U.S.M.C. Reserve without mentioning that to moi. He got an unforgettable summer at Parris Island, followed by assignment and drill with a Reserve Unit in Greensboro. But that’s not what this is about. It’s about a Chevy Work Truck.

Post Parris Island, he got an RA Job at UNC. So I didn’t have a Dorm bill. And I’d been abusing my wife’s Dodge Grand Caravan as household hauler. Which was an excuse to buy the 2005 Chevy Work Truck I’m still driving. With no intent of stopping. He got my 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis which lasted another 150K.

My 2005 had an M.S.R.P. of about 21k. Took it off the lot for 13.6K. With factory bed liner. A few months ago, back at the mother ship, Hendrick Chevrolet in Cary, service manager remarked “This is in really good shape!” Which it is.

Curiosity caused me to look up the price of a new one, 20 years on. Was astonished. Somehow, I found this “modern” version to be unnecessary:

 Audio system, Chevrolet Infotainment 3 system 7″ diagonal HD color touchscreen, AM/FM stereo, Bluetooth audio streaming for 2 active devices, voice command pass-through to phone, Wireless Apple CarPlay and Wireless Android Auto compatibility.

Nah. I got windows that go up and down with a hand crank. Simple and old.

Like me.

Thankful

June 2016 – Wakefield High School Auditorium

The luxury of age is time, without demands. Today, while still surfacing from a nasty head cold and long before my slow cooker of really good collards are ready, I played a DVD of the Cary Ballet Conservatory Recital of June 2016, “Anastasia”.

I have it because I made a courtesy head shot of the Videographer, Jeff Philips at InFocusStudios. Watching it today, reminded me of just how lucky I was to find the right place for me, as a photographer. And it dusted off my memory, remembering their stories and families. I was extraordinarily lucky.

These two will renew your faith in humanity. And danced, wonderfully!

Oldie But Goodie

Found on eBay in Vancouver, WA. and delivered today (seller’s photo) Purchased for parts. Had one in better condition but someone (for good reason) had swapped out the Autographic Back. Ironically, this one had it’s original back swapped for an Autographic Back. I’ve restored balance to the Cosmos!

Kodak made these from 1914 to 1924, producing about 800 thousand. This Model, with the f7.7 Anastigmat lens, was $15 (about $478 today). The good part is, 120 film is still readily available. And explains my 4 rolls of Ektar 100 in the fridge. Yep, very fine grain color film in a camera designed for orthochromatic Black & White. It could work!

An original manual, dated June 1917, confirmed the number of the optional Portrait Attachment (3), essentially a diopter lens. Add to the camera’s lens and minimum focus distance is reduced from 8 ft. to 3 1/2 ft. with the 110mm lens. So, a head and shoulders portrait, like a head shot. Found one on eBay today, in the original metal case with instructions. Bought it. In today’s dollars, I paid the same as the 1917 price of fifty cents.

Stay tuned for the test shoot results before year end!

Better Than Chicken Soup

On the recovery side of a nasty head cold (yes, I’m current on Covid, Flu, Pneumonia and Pertussis vaccines), this was delivered today. Last time there, the Gift Shop didn’t have my size. The Paris Opera is a cherished memory and my late sweetheart’s chosen topic of the last lucid conversation we had. It was the 50th Anniversary performance of the Balanchine Ballet “Jewels”, in good loge seats and a fine late supper on Blvd. Hausmann before the Metro, back to our apt. in Marais. The memory and sweatshirt offer comfort. Like the “Cary Ballet Company” sweatshirt I’m wearing. A gift I’m proud of, from CBC.

One Day +23 + 89 Years Later…

Today, the Post Office delivered this eBay purchased, hard cover, Library Version, Twentieth Edition. Published in 1935. Tres moderne!

The Dewey Decimal (pre ISBN number) “770” was still on the spine, from the East Craftsbury, Vermont “John Woodruff Simpson” Memorial Library.

The book’s content, excepting the Kodak product pitches, isn’t very far from what I taught in my Basic Photography and Lighting Courses for the Towns of Cary & Clayton Parks & Rec..

2024 “Smartphone” users could learn from it! And “Make Good Pictures” 😉

Today’s Treasure

Today, the Post Office delivered this eBay purchased, soft cover version. It is, undated. Driven by curiosity and enabled by the freedom of time, found it’s a 1912 first edition! Shown above in a 1913 Kodak Advertisement contract directive, found at Eastman.org.

Which partially explains the Kodak No.1 Portrait Attachment for my Brownie No. 2 Model F that I found and bought on eBay today from a shop in the Netherlands. Been searching for weeks!

I’m guessing it’ll arrive about the same time as the new Melody Gardot CD that I pre-ordered. Good timing on my part! Before new tariffs on European goods 🙂

A Walk In The Park III – Revised

Visited the Pond Loop Trail today at Yates Mill. Fall is late -Monarch Butterfly on my Viburnum yesterday, no frost yet and none forecast in the next ten days.

My Plant ID is strictly amateur. Click images for full size.

Red Maple
Oak
Sourwood Leaf
Sourwood
Oak-leaf Hydrangea
Red Maple
Hickory
Ironweed
Winter Berry
Winterberry
Winterberry
Eastern Bacharis
Bushy BlueStem
Purple Beauty Berry
White Beauty Berry

The Windows In Studio A #2

“Psyche and Eros”

Cary Ballet Conservatory “Prix Challenge” – 6 Aug 2022

FedEx is tomorrow, delivering four 20×16 Prints on my favored Fuji Deep Matte Paper. On 3/4″ mounts, ready for the float frames I ordered. This is one that I hope I got right.

Soft & Hard

Last week, I renewed my North Carolina Museum of Art Membership. Today, I visited. And walked around the West Building where I’ve photographed both personal portraits and a few boutique commercial sessions.

Hadn’t been in years. And discovered someone had relocated a rose blossom from the adjacent garden to this decorative, black concrete wall. Apropos.

Deja Vu III – We Are The World

3D Jazz Project Promo Session – Feb. 2019 – Cary Ballet Conservatory

Long, long ago, I was the resident Field Tech at NASA’s Glenn Research Center (nee Lewis Research Center) for the long gone, Digital Equipment Corporation.

Pretty sure the Scientists & Engineers & Techs I worked with, would approve.

The background image is NASA’s. The foreground is mine.

The photograph is all of us.

Deja Vu II

The latest version of these prints shipped from my lab today. So did the Nielsen Profile 13 Float Frames that will mount & place them on my apt. wall.

I saw a Herb Ritts Exhibit at Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, Oct. , 2016. Stuff you can’t make up – a 5 minute walk from our apt. in Marais.

Dry mounted prints on standouts in float frames. No glass or mattes. Nothing to get between the viewer and photograph. Meme chose.

3D Promo – Feb. 2020
CBC Recital Rehearsal – June 2011

The Windows In Studio A #1

Cary Ballet Professional Training Program – ADC Preview – 26 Jan 2022

I am well and comfortably retired and my work still resonates in my heart.

I know that I will show and write about photographs I made by the light of the “Windows In Studio A”. Like all things, it has, like me since changed. As has the young dancer shown here. Who I admired and found to be a perceptive and thoughtful assistant in studio sessions. Some images stay in memory.

The Muse Provides

Cary Ballet Company “Space & Tech Rehearsal” at Cary Arts Center – 12/12/12

I’ve read about Muses. It was serendipity that made this image. Later, looking at the days work, this stunned me. And had no idea why. And realized while I thought I knew what I was doing, didn’t. So I spent the summer learning. And ten years trying to get it right. I owe her. A lot. In about a year, I’ll have a web site & book that explains. The title of both is above.

A Walk In The Park

Okay, a Nature Preserve. Where I went 16 years ago to practice and learn how to make photographs with the gear I had. Same as I did today with some new to me gear.

And try out ideas that I had no idea of the result. Knowing that a Digital Negative was just the beginning. Plus a good sweaty workout on about a mile of forest trail, humping 25 lbs of gear. A very good day.

Broad Beech Fern, Hemlock Bluffs – Cary, NC
Perennial Sunflower, Hemlock Bluffs – Cary, NC

Sunday At The Park

Had some new to me gear to get used to. On a gorgeous Fall preview day at a favorite place, Bond Park in Cary. There were Moms & Dads & Kids with Ice Cream. And Sunfish Sailing Lessons. And Mallard Ducks.

The lens I wanted to use, DHL is inexplicably holding nearby after arriving from Nagoya, Japan last Friday, until next Tuesday. So I used the lens I got for portraits. Made with a Pentax 645Z & FA 645 150MM f2.8

How Hot & Tired Was It?

This “splooted” squirrel on my porch rail personifies my exhaustion & sore old body from getting house ready to sell.

So really good leftovers today, that just needed warming, were replaced by a refrigerator deli dinner. Eaten standing at the kitchen island.

Followed by wine & chocolate. And early to bed. Another Realtor Showing tomorrow. And so it goes.

State Of Grace

Digital cameras allowed me to make hundreds of thousands of photographs in low light with high shutter speeds to freeze motion. And yes, I paid for “fast glass”, f2.8 & f4 but it was wonderful.

What I think matters, is the idea. The Art. Among those half million plus shutter clicks, some stay in memory. This is one. I’d write something about an English Music Hall but sometimes, words are inadequate. This from 2016.

You Won’t Forget Me

In search of rental storage today, I met a delightful young woman in the facility office. She was extraordinarily kind and patient with me. Conversation ensued.

I told her that part of my reason was temporary home for my jazz cd’s, ‘tween Townhouse and Apartment. She knew about Etta Jones.

This was the last time Miles played as a sideman. If you can find a copy, buy it.

Double Whammy

Opera Bastille – Paris, 2017

The opening Clarinet glissando in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue”, I love – as did and does, United Airlines.

And had me guessing if it was possible with a Trumpet, during last night’s performance by the Cary Ballet Company of “Who Cares”. A Google search assures me, a Trumpet is capable of a glissando.

This Foolish Heart

Today, my eMail had an announcement of a new record. Yes, I’m ancient. La chanson des vieux amants.

Musee Rodin is – wonderful. There is a terra cotta bust on the second floor that had me remembering to breathe. Paris, Ballet and Music – just take me now Great Spirit

In The News Today

I made this photograph a dozen years ago. The performance was part of a music festival headlined by the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. My enthusiasm and Cary Citizen Press Pass allowed me to spend a lot of time in Cary Arts Center with them. A collaboration with NC Opera brought this Countertenor to a performance.

I’m a rough old cob but I had no idea a human voice could – you had to be there.

Cary Arts Center 8 August 2012

Levitation

Photo by JD Willson

Except for it atop my HoA directed six inch thick, leaf free, pine straw a la golf course sterile landscaping in front of my town home, this one looked just like the one that greeted me upon arrival home from Saturday shopping chores.

And it held the same pose during four trips past it with groceries. Okay, there was a stop at Total Wine and that trip wasn’t groceries.

Having stowed all away, I peeked later and saw it gone. So with some outdoor leisure time before evening meal prep, I have a story.

Somewhere in the very early 1960’s, there were some large open fields in easy walking distance of home. Before the developers scraped them clean for sub-divisions. In an after school afternoon, I found and picked up by hand, a beautiful Blue Racer Snake, probably 3+ ft long. I draped it around my neck and handled it gently as it explored it’s new and temporary environment.

My guess is, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon, before Dad got home from work. Mom had dinner simmering on the stove as I came through the kitchen. I walked through that now impossibly small bungalow to where she was trying to nap. Her days were long, something I only realized much later.

In the dim light of the bedroom, sunlight diffused and reduced by a window shade, I proudly and brightly said “Hey Mom, look what I’ve got!” and I lifted the snake for her to marvel at.

She opened one eye and I swear “Levitated”. My reptilian conquest was immediately returned to its site of capture.

Maybe September

This is not my photograph. Wish it was. Whoever made it, knew their stuff, as did she. It’s the cover photograph of the Shirley Horn Album/CD “May The Music Never End”.

I’ve written here before, about my admiration of her music. Which I’m listening to now, between dinner prep chores and refilling my wine glass. Grace and medicine for the wounded heart.

On the Album/CD, she tortures you with relentless, hard cadence on “Everything Must Change”. Until melodic relief. And gentle heart.

Aware of the news, I confess to have never heard a Taylor Swift song. I wonder if she ever listened to Ms Horn. And so it goes.

A Reason To Believe

I don’t know what year this was, image metadata was washed out when I made the Jpeg. And I’m not about to abandon the comfort of a gorgeous spring day to go back indoors to dig into an image archive. What I’m certain of, it’s a dress rehearsal at the Cary Arts Center.

The instructor moved away later, from a lobby full of hugs and tears. Years after, while I still had a LinkedIn account, she was very kind in response to my request for pre-ballet dance school recommendation in the greater Atlanta area.

As an artist, this was my Superbowl Fifty Yard Line. Why I made photographs.

Cathedral Al Fresco

There is safety and satisfaction bringing in groceries on a jewel like Saturday. There is comfort knowing you will eat. Arriving home, I saw an immature Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flash by. And after putting all where they should be, it was time to take the air.

On deck with Bourbon & Beer, I watched a mature, male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail navigate and inspect newly opened Beech leaves. Mid April in North Carolina, the deck is littered with Oak Catkins, bathed in cool blue shade and set off by brilliant, golden sunlight. Beech, White and Red Oak leaves are fresh and limp, vivid yellow green against a radiant Cerulean Blue sky.

Out front, Iris Blossoms are tightly furled but ready. The Butterfly Bush hosting the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail above, won’t bloom for awhile yet.

Somewhere around adolescence I went, by myself, on a Saturday afternoon to Catholic Church, to make my confession. To be in a state of grace to receive Communion at Sunday Mass. I guess I was early, as there was no Priest yet in the Confessional. And I was alone, for a good while. And it was a new to me way to be in a state of grace. Like today. I went home then, without confession, as I have ever since.

My last visit to a Catholic Church was as a tourist, to Notre Dame in Paris. Before the fire. Leaving, I emptied my pocket of Euros and gave them to the Little Sisters of The Poor. They stood silently, for humanity.

Sixty plus years after my teenage epiphany, I am at peace with the Great Spirit.

All That Jazz

Ulysses Owens Jr – Cary Arts Center 2012

This is a photograph that stays in memory. I made it during a sound check for a Nnenna Freelon performance with my Cary Citizen Media Pass. CAC was like a home to me, shot the very first performances there (Brussels Chamber Music Orchestra) with a “Wet Paint” sign on the stage and a Certificate of Occupancy that still had wet ink on it.

Been awhile, but the pianist, bassist and drummer were in from NYC, percussionist was local. There was a communion of spirit that transcended everything but making music. I did my best to be invisible. And they let me shoot, as they let each other play.

Sleepless, about 2 AM, kJazz88.1, played a track from his new album. Serendipity.

Bourbon, Catkins & Inchworm

Dogwood Blossom, Bond Park, Cary, NC -28 March 2011

I made this photograph returning to my truck in the parking lot. Don’t remember why I was there but I do remember, these blossoms were, in a natural irony, overhanging a trash can. Nature, I believe, has a way of providing balance.

The closest I ever get to a house of worship are Election Day Polling places. Most especially, the one my late sweetheart worked in. Which is how I know Elections are true. It also explains my taking the air on the deck today, of the treehouse I live in. Seeking quietude. For a little while more, before it’s sold.

Thankfully afar from today’s weather, I watched the tops of 80 ft. plus Longleaf Pines orbit in the wind while taking my afternoon libation. And making sure I wasn’t about to drink an Oak Catkin dropping, from the big White Oaks surrounding me.

About to go inside and think through dinner prep, I noticed what I had only seen in childhood cartoons – a bright, green inchworm! The cartoonist’s had it right, legs fore and aft. It made a journey around a good size patio table that was exponentially larger than it. And I wondered how it could expend that much energy and what fueled it, what did it eat? So the web-o-sphere revealed it – protein from Oak Catkins! And I thought how lucky I’ve been to witness it all.

And so it goes.

No Fooling – It’s A Wrap

If you landed here, surfing for any of my “Brooke Meyer” URLs, it’s not a mistake. Sunset my 14 year old event site today. It was time. The “About” page explains.

I can find any photograph that was published there, if you can tell me something about it.

Sunny Day

Bond Park, Cary, North Carolina

71 degrees and forecast of 80’s this weekend! Too soon for mosquitoes, so good afternoon on the deck. And I finally figured out all the” rat-a-tat- tatting” I’ve been hearing.

Near the top of an immature White Oak are four, clean holes from Woodpeckers feeding. The tree is in trouble and will be deadfall, condemned I think, from an overzealous HoA Contractor, limbing to prevent roof hazards.

This is the instrumental “Sunny Day” theme from Sesame Street. Killer good harmonica! All that’s missing is the Barred Owl I heard today, looking for love.

Afternoon Window

Wake County, North Carolina Nov 2017

The forest and ravine I wrote about yesterday are, literally, my window. Today and tomorrow’s presentation are illuminated by the the cool, diffuse light of overcast and rain.

The copper colored leaves of this mature American Beech are like gems, set against a field of rich, new, green, immature versions. And provide a proscenium for a pair of Grey Squirrels, in a frantic arboreal chase.

This is a photograph made long ago. I made it, thinking of dancers.

Trust me on the green.

Mockingbird

Wake County, North Carolina 6 April 2015

Our Realtor described it as a “Tree House”. Built into a hill, two sides are forest and ravine. Out front, a large Holly I’ve shielded from the HoA landscape crew and an undefended, smaller one, sculpted to suit a Golf Course Community. Sort of a Mockingbird Motel.

I made this photograph long ago, with a long, fast lens I bought for rear of theater use. The Mockingbird, in song and flight, demanded my attention.

Today, nine years later, I was greeted with their song and “Intra-Holly flights”, arriving home from an attorney appointment. The purpose of which will pave my exit to a practical, old widower habitat. Later, savoring my afternoon Bourbon and watching Beech branches sway, one flashed by a window.

I believe Atticus was right, it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird. I will miss them.

Old Dog Perspective

Mac

After my refusal to succumb to the popular culture extortion of an Online Ticket Purchase (Swifties will get it), I finally get off my indignation and went to the venue’s physical Box Office. They’re open M-F, 10 AM to 2 PM. Yeah, not real convenient. No weekend hours to avoid downtown parking demand and most folks work hours. But okay for Old Widower Curmudgeons, like Moi.

Stupidly, like a hamster on a wheel, I pulled in to the Public Parking Garage I knew from photographing events in the very same venue. $10 “Event Parking”. No idea what the Event was at Noon. And my fault for not cruising a block or two, for on street availability. Sheepishly, I handed over $10 in cash while the attendant put away the mobile device and found change for my $20.

Two ladies were ahead of me at the Box Office. I was surprised to hear one recite her name, phone and eMail address at the sales clerk’s request, while swiping her credit card. The purchased tickets were entirely digital! I knew I was about to have a new adventure.

When my turn came, I told the clerk the Event, Date and Time I wanted to buy one ticket for. She asked my name and telephone number. I recited those but explained it was a Home Phone – in my case a VoIP line on an Ooma Box with the same number I’ve had for 26 years.

“No”, I was told, “What’s your cellphone number? ” I explained I did have a mobile phone but it was: A. In my truck (remember the parking garage) and B. I didn’t know the number because C. I only use it if I need AAA to come rescue me on the highway or call Duke Power or Spectrum to report outages. Haven’t used it in probably six months. Turn it on once in awhile to make sure it works and keep it charged. About $70 for the year.

She was taken aback and settled for my landline. Realizing she couldn’t issue a Digital Ticket, she Printed one for me, with the advice “Don’t lose it!”. I thought it ironic she didn’t caution the previous customer to not lose their “Phone”.

The good news was, my Ticket was almost $20 less than my aborted Online experience. Plus I had something else to do in Raleigh. And I was very careful driving in a busy city because the folks walking around staring at their phones sure weren’t looking where they were going .

Postscript: “Cars drive way over the speed limit, looking at their phone,”

True Confessions

Palais Garnier, Paris

True Confession: I tuned to watch the 2014 SuperBowl for the sole reason of hearing Renee Fleming sing. Football – meh.

Today, eMail brought me the 2024/2025 Paris Opera Season Programme (once you buy Tickets online, you’re on the email list).

Ms Fleming will perform next March, in 2025. If the Boss Lady was still alive, I’d be scheming to sell her that we could afford the plane tickets plus we really should visit Paris. I’d sell her with this excursion: Chihuly At Biltmore . She was a ginormous fan!

Walking On Sunshine

Cary Ballet Professional Training Program – Valentina Facal

ADC Studio Preview 25 Jan. 2022 – And don’t it feel good!

Prompted by a delightful conversation today with a 50 year younger neighbor while bringing in groceries. Sunshine modeled her face and I almost went into Portrait Photographer mode. Didn’t. And spared her my latest Old Guy joke.

Seriously?

Cary Ballet Company Spring Gala – Space & Tech Rehearsal – 13 March 2013

News of the day can make sleep, elusive. My remedy is revisiting some favorites, like this one. The digital image is medicine for my analog soul.

And thinking about it, at 3 AM, is part of a currently low priority background task running between my ears, a gestation period for writing a book about the Craft & Art of Photography. I aim to make it my task beginning next fall, and occupy me through the winter.

My immediate and necessarily higher priority program, is transitioning to a sustainable, old widower habitat – sans every Thursday HoA Landscape Contractor Leaf Blowers!

Sunday Aggravation

Mac

Like “Mac”, I’m an old dog in winter. Recently read an article about how young folk mistook the lack of a period at the end of sentence for a manager’s anger. And I still can’t begin an e-mail without “Dear”. And so it goes.

Today, I started to purchase a ticket for a Ballet Performance. After acquiescing to online, required hoop jumping, with an account creation, I discovered at “Checkout”, an additional 45%+ cost in “Fees”! Nah.

Tomorrow, I’ll try the same purchase at the venue’s Box Office, which states “No Online Fees”. We’ll see. Old Dogs have time to sniff about.

Disclaimer: There’s other old guy stuff to attend to in Raleigh. Yes, I’m old.

Coda – Blue Sky Day

Goin’ to Carolina, it won’t be long and I’ll be there

Disclaimer: The previous post is a predicate to making any sense of this one.

It was December in 1998. Driving on I-77, from northern Ohio to my new job with IBM in Research Triangle Park. I was excited and hopeful.

Ohio was my cradle, where I achieved escape velocity with a Navy Enlistment. And returned to, seeking refuge from a typically poor, youthful marital decision. And left, following the death of both my and my wife’s parents.

North Carolina was my choice. Oxygen for the spirit. As  Mary Oates Spratt Van Landingham described it on 6 Mar. 1900: “A Vale of Humility between Two Mountains of Conceit”, referring to North Carolina’s location between South Carolina and Virginia. I was far too familiar with South Carolina.

Twenty five plus years later, I’m at peace. Like at the Coda of a Ballet. As a Widower, the Pas de Deux is necessarily spiritual but still, genuine. I wish that was so for all.

Blue Sky Day

Photographed for Cary Citizen

Another excuse to get outdoors on a sunny, early spring day. Like today!

It was a Town of Cary sponsored “Kite Festival” at Bond Park. And I was surprised to get a request from “Our State” Magazine to run this -which they did – in the March 2014 issue. My first published photograph! Yeah, yeah, they had pages to fill.

Which doesn’t diminish my delight in being outdoors now, watching the top of a Long Leaf Pine, sway in a gentle breeze in a Carolina Blue sky.

The Allman Brothers explain in this freebie at the Internet Archive: “Blue Sky”


Jewel Box

It was an excuse to get outdoors on a sunny, early spring day. Like today!

A car show. I think it was Don Bulluck Chevy in Rocky Mount. And I remember making this photograph. Had taught myself to be semi-competent with Manual Exposure! Probably, 2010.

And I remember this was in a Chevy Nova II. So ridiculously overpowered. The craft and care it took to build was clear for all to see.

First Position

Cary Ballet – “Celebration Of Children In The Arts” Oct 2013

I was 100% ignorant of Ballet when I discovered Cary Ballet in 2010.

Deanna Seay, seen above, invited me to just come and watch her classes. And I thought “This is hard – really hard! Baseball and Basketball and Football is easy compared to this.” Then I surfed the Web-O-Sphere about her and discovered how much I didn’t know. She was very kind.

Reading the news, I wish this for young people. Not Hate, Hunger or War.

A Very Lucky Day

Kids Together Playground Cary NC, 16 October 2010

I was floundering in the Spring of 2010 after an earlier than planned exit from a corporate career (as Yogi so eloquently expressed, we “agreed different”). I was trying to figure out my place in the Sun. Got a Wake County “Certified Pool Operator” Certificate and earned a modest paycheck, running our HoA Pool that summer. But it was sort of a “Lady of Our Perpetual Responsibility” guilt avoidance – “Yes, I have a job.” Another I/T job would’ve had me in counseling.

Money wasn’t the immediate issue, we’d put away enough acorns in mast years to get along. The real issue was, I was 60, burned out on corporate I/T (IBM/Lenovo) and had no clue about where I’d lived for a dozen years. Life had been commuting on I-40 to RTP and conference calls. A highly paid bubble.

I’d been learning the craft of photography since a Parisian pickpocket boosted an obsolete Point&Shoot in 2007. That was my “justification” to buy a robust DSLR and a good, non-kit lens. The Art part or “Why” was latent (wife #1 did not want to be married to a Painter & Teacher). I was learning the Craft of Photography or the “How” part. Read the manual until I understood the tool. But I had zero clue how to make any kind of business from that.

Looking for kindred spirits, I joined Cary Photographic Artists. Which led me to a new, hyper-local, online publication where they advertised their Open Competition – “Cary Citizen”. Which led me to a coffee at La Farm with the Editor, Hal Goodtree, where I pitched me being a “Contributing Photographer”.

So armed with a legitimate Press/Media Pass, I asked to cover small events, with heart. It was a raison d’être to explore my community. And I’d have to figure out how to tell stories with photographs – no excuses.

The above photo is from my very first assignment at Kids Together Park “Fall Foliage Walk”, not five minutes from my house and which I didn’t know existed. I began to learn about where I lived. That was Saturday morning.

That afternoon was my second assignment, “Children’s Celebration of The Arts” at Cary Ballet Conservatory. Which I also didn’t know existed.

And there, I found what I was looking for. My photograph, below, had nothing to do with the event. And everything to do with the next dozen years.

Until I wore out. But it’s a really good worn out.

Cary Ballet Conservatory – 16 October 2010

It Ain’t Rocket Surgery

With some hours before the irresistible hoopla of the Super Bowl and desirous of no more examples of inhumanity in the global news, I surfed over to a camera forum dedicated to the brand I used in all my work.

A poster asked for help with the abysmal results he got from a newly purchased, expensive camera featuring the latest auto focus automation – in this case for birds (it’s always birds). It hit a nerve about a relatively recent eBay sale and the fallacious belief that automation will trump understanding and skill. 

I made this 13 years ago, with #3 of 12 DSLRs I’ve used since. Hardly current technology.

Bond Park, Cary, North Carolina, 4 Dec. 2010 – For Cary Citizen

The technique is straightforward. Reassign Focus from the Shutter button to a button on the back of the camera aka “Back Button Focus” – it’s free! Yes, it does require (horrors) reading a page of the manual. Or watch a You Tube video. 

Set the focus function to “Continuous” (mfrs call it different names but it’s still a Rose). Leave it with a single center point . Then point at what you want in focus while holding the rear button with your thumb and track it. Mash the shutter button when you see what you want. Disclaimer: 60 to 80 K of Dancer images per year may result in a callous on your thumb.

Static subject, on a tripod? Just release the back button. Or change the focus mode to “Single”. 

Back to eBay. I honestly listed a “Bargain” condition camera body with the real shutter count, some 6OK shy of the mfr. rating. A guy bought it and two hours after he picked it up, e-mailed me it was no good, couldn’t focus on birds in flight. I had set it to mfr defaults. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t read any of the manual. 

I immediately refunded his purchase, realizing any explanation was pointless. He did return it. Kept it and another copy, as my retirement gear. Haven’t experienced any issues.

As for the birds, this from camera either #6 or #7 (always kept two of the same model), in 2014

Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina – 16 July 2014

Comfort Food

State Farmer’s Market – Raleigh 8 August 2013

My head cold is about done and the lack of discomfort allowed some restorative sleep. There is however, a different view of life after 3 days of misery. Which brings me back to a You Tube video I stumbled upon in the web-o-sphere, made by some fellow Wake County, NC residents: Summer In The South. It was the tomato sandwich that got me.

The only way to make a tomato sandwich, besides some big ripe slices of tomato, is with Duke’s Mayonnaise. Just accept that. I do use Arnold’s Whole Grain Bread but that’s optional. I don’t do White Bread – too White.

So feeling better and post ‘mater sandwich, I read all of the news of the day, accompanied by some room temperature Bourbon and beer. Amused by Wash., D.C and dismayed by pretty much everywhere else, I realized that my intended evening menu was not desirable. And then – aha!. 

So when you don’t feel like cooking but need to eat something good and good for you, Duke’s to the rescue! An ample tablespoon or two, doused in fresh squeezed lemon juice (use you hands, they’ll smell good) and a good dose of Old Bay (Disclaimer – I use Old Bay a lot)! Stir that up and break out the celery stalks. Dried ends go into the freezer scrap bag for stock, the rest you dip and eat. A workingman’s Bordeaux and some chocolate after and you’re good!

Graceful

Cary Ballet Conservatory – 2013

As I explained to some folks yesterday, some images stay in memory. This is one. This week, on my almost daily walk, I saw the shadow of a large wing span. Looking up, I expected to see a Vulture, properly attending a recently departed neighborhood Squirrel. It was, in glorious surprise, a Great Blue Heron, who with astonishing wingspan, navigated between two houses into the ravine behind that begins Clemmons Educational State Forest . And I wondered how it survived the fertilizer and pesticides of the Golf Course behind it. Like finding a Rose in Snow, despite the Plows and Salt.

In The Moment

I started writing about photography recently  mostly to help some friends and students understand some principles of the Craft.  That part is the “How”.  Gaining that knowledge gives you a chance at the other part, the “Why” or Art.  I was going to write about making this image. About why it’s important to learn and understand lighting, composition and posing.  All those things are important but still, mostly craft.  After staring at this blank narrative for a long time, I realized everything I had to say was in the photograph. The key is something no camera can provide. Universally, every dancer I’ve met, from high school students to principals in major companies, said the performance on stage, those few minutes of a lifetime, make it all worth it.  It is, the moment, the clarity, the poetry, the magic of the best expression of ourselves, creating something that transcends the mortal and the specific. Which is why, as an artist, the few minutes of my lifetime it took to make this portrait are worth the years it took to reach them. The proof print of this image is much richer than any electronic display. That image, that moment, I hope her children will share.

Senior Portrait Session, Cary Ballet Conservatory, April 2015