Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Milestones

Humans love to celebrate milestones.  We love to celebrate anniversaries and we pull out all the stops with anniversaries that end in a zero. You never get a huge party with all your friends in attendance for your 34th birthday but as soon as 40 starts getting close, your family and significant other will plot tirelessly to throw you the biggest bash this side of the High Atlas mountains.

As a professional photographer I get to watch lots of people celebrating lots of milestones and anniversaries. From maternity, to birth.  Surprise birthday and anniversary parties to first, second, and even third marriages.  

Since I am a father of grown daughters it always gets me when I see that moistness in the eyes of a father as he waits to walk his little girl down the aisle.



Or the unbridled joy and surprise on the face of a tattooed biker when he pulled up and realized that his wife had thrown him a surprise 50th birthday party.





Sometimes get-togethers are not necessarily happy times.  All too often we only see distant relatives during the sad times that mark the final milestone in a family member's earthly life.




Recently, I have had the privilege to take photographs at 3 different birthday milestone events.  First was a girl's sweet 16th birthday party.  The exuberance of youth and the unmitigated joy for life exhibited by the birthday girl, her friends, and family gave me hope for the next generation, even though I wanted to pull them all aside and tell them that regardless of what they think, they are not indestructible, they won't live forever, and that sometimes things don't work out right.  Aside from the fact that they wouldn't believe an old grey muzzle like me, why would I want to burst their bubble, who knows, maybe things will always work out, and they will live forever.


Later in the week was a woman that was turning 30.  Still young but now with two young children of her own and a family to take care of.  The crazy recklessness of youth was gone and in its place resided the pragmatism of a nurturer.  She is still close enough to youth to embrace it and all that goes with it, like driving to the store just to get candy, gum, and chocolate milk.  But she also knows that she is the keystone upon which the stability of her family rests and that's a responsibility she is not taking lightly.


My third milestone of the week was the most special.  It was a gentleman's 100th birthday and his family was throwing a party befitting such a momentous occasion.  There are nearly 60,000 people in the United States 100 years old or older, but I've not had any experience with any of them so I didn't know what to expect.  I certainly didn't expect him to be so perky, funny, and full of joy.  

His eyes held so much life and the evidence of having experienced a century of living.  I watched him and listened to him telling stories and greeting old friends and family members with warm handshakes.  Smiles of recognition as each guest leaned in to say hello and the gleam in his eyes as they wished him happy birthday gave no doubt he was enjoying the attention.

  
This remarkable man was born before World War I started.  He is old enough to remember when Alexander Graham Bell died.  He has been witness to wars, inventions, great joy and horrible sadness.  Married for seven decades, he has raised daughters and held grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 



We pass through the stages of life whether we want to or not.  Each of us have been babies, lovingly held and nurtured by our mothers and fathers.  We remember the sweet freedom of youth.  16 years old and the entire world is laid out in front of us.  If you are a parent, it's probable that you can put your finger exactly on the point in your life when you "grew up" and became a responsible adult, for me it's when my oldest daughter was born. Then later comes the time in your life where you sometimes wonder if anybody really needs you anymore.

We may not all make it to 100 but there will be a time when you sit and replay the movie of your life.  You realize that mistakes were made, history was witnessed, relationships were formed, lives were shaped, personalities were molded, and unforgettable memories were photographed in the camera of our mind.

Weeks like this one make me glad I am a photographer.  Now, I have to go call my daughter and tell her to start planning my next birthday party.


E-mail with questions, comments, thoughts or rants:

        keith@keithlewisphoto.com
 

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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Guys just want to have fun

I've been busy lately shooting a lot.  Lots of stuff that pays the bills but is not really all that much fun.  So when I got a call from one of the organizers of The  Cancer Services of Gaston County 2013 classic car Cruise-in asking if I could cover the show on Saturday, I jumped at the chance.  What's more fun than hundreds of classic cars?  Great paint jobs, shiny chrome, big tires and fuzzy dice were everywhere.  From American muscle classics to Italian racing legends, all were represented.  The sound of ah-oo-ga horns and  glasspack mufflers on straight pipes filled the air and the smell of gas, oil, hamburgers and popcorn wafted from all corners of the giant field.  

If you want to see what the heart and soul of America looks like, head out to one of these rallys, or to the state fair, or a little league game and take a look at the fun loving, flag waving, America loving men and women that enjoy nothing better than fellowship with each other, revving the engine, eating burgers and fries, or cheering for their team.

Nothing shined brighter on Saturday than the smile of a car owner when you gave him the thumbs up or said "nice car" 

To learn more about Cancer Services of Gaston Co. check out their website:
http://gastoncancerservices.org/

Here are some of my favorites from the show:

Click on any picture for a larger image.















E-mail with questions, comments, thoughts or rants:

        keith@keithlewisphoto.com
 

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

A bread & butter camera for not a lot of bread

My niece Samantha is a pretty good photographer but today's blog is not about her.  It's about her camera.  She has used a Nikon D40x for quite a while now.  The D40x was introduced in April 2007 and was a major player in the DSLR world immediately upon its debut.  Samantha had used her D40x for many great photos until recently.  The other day, her camera stopped working.  Based on the number of photographs she takes, it is likely that she just wore it out.  She needed to replace it and like most of us these days, she needed her new camera to be as inexpensive as possible.  Since I live in a much bigger city than her, I offered to look around to see what I could find in the local used market. 

Now, on to the meat of the blog post.  What I found was a whole bunch of Nikon D40's sitting on used shelves, in camera shops, pawn shops and Craigslist ads just waiting to be purchased for between $100 and $200.

I did look first at the D40x but the man at the camera shop told me that every single D40x he had ever seen in the store was broken.  He even pulled one off the used shelf and showed me that the menu wouldn't work right and it wouldn't take a picture.  He doesn't know what the deal is, since it is almost the identical camera as the D40.  He also said he had never seen a D40 that didn't work fine and take good pictures.  So I put my larger sensor bias away and looked at the D40.  This is a great little camera at a price point that would be about the same as dinner for one at Morton's.

This little gem sports a 6.1 megapixel CCD sensor, and with it's 18-55mm kit lens feels a little light and toy like to me but at only about a pound it would be a lot easier to carry on a photowalk than my much heavier professional gear. 

So it offers most of the features of its much bigger, and more current siblings at a bargain basement used price, what kind of performance does it deliver.  I put this one though its paces before giving it to Samantha.  I went through all the modes, shutter speeds, ISO from 200 to 1600 and different f stops to check out depth of field.  It performed, flawlessly, smooth, quiet, easy to figure out, and like all Nikons, felt good in my hand. 

I'm sold on the value of this camera, and the performance is better than most point and shoot and all of the cell phone cameras I have used.  Here are a few shots I took around my house.

all photos from this point were taken with the Nikon D40, click on picture for  larger images.


The built-in flash is underpowered (they all are) but it supports TTL metering for the built-in and any Nikon speedlight and has impressive range of  in-camera adjustments for them all.







Colors really pop with the vivid in-camera saturation setting.


Focus is smooth and fast at all distances and depth of field is pleasing and a bit surprising at f3.5 in this shot of some sage in my herb garden.


The 6.1 MP CCD sensor makes sharp images that can be enlarged without loss of quality.  The photo below is a crop of the photo above showing pretty sharp detail in a very small crop section.



Is this the perfect camera for everybody?  All things in all situations?  No, but then again, that camera doesn't exist.  This would be a good camera for a kid wanting to learn photography.  If he breaks the lens, you can pick up a replacement for $50, and it gives him the chance to experiment and learn on a "real" DLSR without breaking the bank.  For a first camera, or a back-up to your third, this is a solid bread and butter piece of gear for not a lot of bread.


E-mail with questions, comments, thoughts or rants:

        keith@keithlewisphoto.com
 

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