Munroe Falls

On Saturday Kyle, a group of friend and I went to Munroe Falls Metro Park. We cooked some burgers, hot dogs and sausage, went for a couple swims, threw the football around and mixed up a few "special" drinks. We talked about how it felt like a mini-vacation and what a good use of a beautiful weekend day it was. In my opinion you have to do a few things like this over the summer to earn the right to complain when its 5 degrees out with ten inches of snow on the ground.
Its easy to forget that we have places like this around to go and enjoy.

Since we get asked a lot here if we "enhance" or "photoshop" our photos I figured I explain a few things I did to this one of Kyle.

First I cropped it in a little bit(to 5 by 7). I turned up the saturation and vibrance to make the greens and blues pop more and then balanced the color to make it look more natural. Since I used the flash I had to darken the grill to make it more black instead of the more blown out grey that it looked at first. I turned up the overall contrast a bit and then added some sharpening. Last I converted it from a tiff to a jpeg and uploaded it to flickr.

Fun with Flashes

Kyle and I went to a friend of his Dad's on Saturday to shoot some photos and practice our lighting skills. We brought two flashes, two light stands and two shoot-through umbrellas. We took turns passing the camera back and forth and adjusting our flash placement. We used the self-timer for the shots with both of us.

We had some fun, got a little experience and came away with some cool shots.
Side Note: If you're an Akron resident don't to forget to vote in tomorrow's recall election. Here at The Chief Source we come down on the Mayor's side - so vote against it!!!

Gabe at Fairlawn Lanes

My friend Gabe and I were hanging out shooting some photos....we both felt fairly devoid of ideas - Gabe then suggested heading over to the old Fairlawn Lanes building. We walked there with my umbrella and flash and snapped a few different things. I really liked this one - the dilapidated bowling alley made for a good background.

I remember a few years back I heard one of the owners of Annabell's bought this place. For a couple of months I saw some activity - some new drywall going in and a fresh coat of paint on the outside - but ever since then its been left to rot again....

Tiger Fighter

I took this photo of the new band Tiger Fighter in the basement of Square Records in Highland Square. They are a typical Akron band in the sense that every member is also already in another band. Dave plays in Houseguest, Andrew and Matt are in Big Sur, and Ian is in Twilight Hobs. They play their first show a week from Friday at Musica opening up for Drummer(Pat from the Black Keys other band). They don't have anything recorded yet but I heard them play a few songs and it will be a show worth checking out...
I lighted this photo using two flashes shot through umbrellas and I knocked the shutter speed down a bit to get the string of lights in the background to show up.

Lord of the Yum-Yum

This is musician Paul Velat - aka Lord of the Yum-Yum from Chicago. I caught his set at The Royal Oaks while visiting my friend Eric in Youngstown. It was amazing. He uses only his voice combined with a loop pedal to put on a hilarious show. You can get an idea of what he sounds like on his MySpace page, but you definitely need to check him out live.

Anyways - on Sunday he came over my place to chill before his Akron show. I had a shoot to do for a friend and he sat in for my test shots. I was so happy with this "test shot" that I had to post it. I think its my favorite portrait I've ever done...

Flight 93 National Memorial

On Friday I went to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA with my brother and his family. My brother has been involved with the grassroots initiative 93 Cents for Flight 93 whose goal is to raise money to help build the permanent memorial for the heroes of Flight 93.

On the day we were there students from Chardon Middle School(who've been raising funds) visited and filmed a video with Akron singer, Rachel Roberts, for a tribute song she wrote about the flight. Through my brother I was also privileged to meet family members of Flight 93 passengers - Kenny Nacke(brother of Louis Nacke) and Deborah Borza(mother of Deora Bodley) - who also spoke to the students. Just being there was a powerful experience but it was made all the more poignant by these meetings and conversations.

The temporary memorial and mementos people leave behind are touching but it would really be nice to see the permanent memorial come to fruition. Interior Dept. Secretary, Ken Salazar, was also there that day meeting with landowners to negotiate the purchase of the rest of the land for the memorial(full story).

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