Look out the window, watching the branches sway, rock and roll actually – big limbs still even in the wind gusts, smaller ones doing the dance though. The sky that intense shade of blue that happens at the false dawn, more intense than can be named or if there’s a name I don’t know it..reminds me of being out on the water duck hunting years ago, hearing the birds but not quite seeing them, remembering just how cold cold could be.

WOW its so incredibly beautiful….quick, camera, tripod, memory card…not going out, set it up on kitchen table…shoot few frames…long exposures which I’ve been meaning to play with lately…not even concerned about shooting through the glass…just the need to make some frames, can I capture the mood, the cold, the intensity?

Coffee’s ready – good to be alive!

Me? I got to walk the terrain park, lie down and let boarders sail over my head, dodge tubes coming down the hill at nearly 40 miles per hour, and convince a couple of tubers to hold my feet so I could shoot as we hurtled down the slope.

The park, which is open Thursday through Sunday is an amazingly good time…flying down hills and you don’t have to hoof it back up! They are minutes off I-495 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and well worth the drive, though if you can slip away during the week there will be less waiting in line to go down again. You ask me, it’s a must-do this winter, no matter what your age.

And if you see me there ( I’ll be the tall guy in the red coat with a camera and no gloves), wave…I just might take your picture!

I was going to post a look back at the last decade, but its pretty overwhelming when I think about the fact that at the beginning of the new millennium – remember the big scare with Y2K – well on New Year’s Eve I was in El Paso, Texas, having just covered the Sun Bowl and people were afraid to fly because they thought all the onboard computers might crash. So I spent New Year’s Eve alone in a hotel room waiting for the next day to fly back to Oregon. Spending New Year’s alone was no big thing – its never been my favorite night, but the digital camera I was using was an issue. Quite simply, it was a piece of junk! Worse, I really had no idea how to massage it to do what I needed – I knew nothing about white balance, using image editing software or the like.

A year and a half later digital cameras had taken a quantum leap forward, I had a clue what I was doing…and I found myself driving through the Columbia Gorge enroute to a new job in Minnesota.

There was no lack of news the next few years: the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Paul Wellstone dying in a plane crash. Exciting times in the news business, wonderful times with amazing photographers in the Twin Cities, awesome friends and neighbors. But it was, when all was said and done, Minnesota.

In the middle of the decade digital cameras took more quantum leaps…and I returned to New England, this time following my wife. Her father was in poor health and it fell to her to be the caregiver. Not a bad decision – New England’s a great place to live, I had serious quality time with my father-in-law before he passed away, had a great run teaching college until the school closed ( hopefully not because of me!), became my own boss with the start of Jay Reiter Photography, found a summer home at Charles River Creative Arts Program.

Yea, the first decade of the new millennium was pretty amazing…makes me wonder what’s next. Digital cameras are taking yet another leap, the newspaper world as I knew it is virtually no longer, I’m still in New England being thoroughly modern with a facebook account and everything… Oh, and my daughter has blue hair…and I love it!

A couple of night’s ago I had the opportunity to photograph a performance of Clara’s Dream, a jazz and tap rendition of The Nutcracker produced by Maine dancer and artistic director Drika Overton. The costumes were stunning, the stage lighting and set design phenomenal, the band tremendous…but all paled in comparison to the dancers. They could have put this show on on your local street corner and it still would have been mind-blowing.
From a photographer’s perspective, it was like being a kid in a candy store – almost impossible to choose what to shoot – there were visual delights stage left, stage right, and center stage. If you took the time to look away fro the spotlit dance, all sorts of subtle dances were happening in the background. I’ve never seen anything like it.

My suggestion – send Drika an email (http://www.jazzandtap.com/ ) and beg her to bring the show back in 2010. The show was first performed in 2000, and its been on vacation since 2006.  Don’t let it go back into mothballs again – the 6 musicians and 20 dancersw are a must see-must hear. After insuring its return, Mark it on your calendar, and make sure not to miss this show – it could – and should – be the start of a new holiday tradition!

And support it. Without money, the arts are just a footnote in a textbook. Don’t let that happen to this one-of-a-kind show. It’s too great to slip away.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the highlights of Clara’s Dream.

My nephew was married recently in Pittsburgh, PA. I went – carrying only 1 camera and 1 lens. In a total test of my willpower, I also only brought 2 flash cards – a 4gig and a 2gig. Since I always shoot raw, that wasn’t a lot of images I could retain.

Pittsburgh was unseasonably cold and rainy, but the morning of the wedding I walked down a typical Pittsburgh hill ( they’re reminiscent of San Francisco if you’ve never been to Pittsburgh) to a church I’d passed a gazillion times but had never stopped to shoot. I found an open door but the interior of the church was as dark as a dungeon, so I played around with the incredible architecture. The church was built around 1901 – the ivy covering the walls seemed that old as well. I’ll admit to wishing I had a tripod and/or some strobes along. I was shooting at a 15th of a second at F 2.8. For those who aren’t photographers, that gobbledygook simply means there was no light and it was tough to hold the camera steady – especially since it was raw damp and freezing!

That afternoon when I went to the wedding ( at a historic downtown hotel), I noticed the rest of downtown in the gloom from a room where I was going to change into a full-blown tux…this was a black tie affair – including 1 poor soul still working at 6pm on a Saturday. Made a few photos using the window as a steadying agent for the camera.

Shot a few wedding photos also, haven’t had a chance to even look to see what I got, so here’s a few photos from a busman’s holiday.

The advantage to doing it so close to the actual wedding day – it was a great way to relieve the stress that builds as the date approaches.

I started talking about doing a new site in the fall with the goal of being online with it by the end of the year. I was still talking about it in January, February, March…you get the drift. This afternoon it finally was as done as it was going to get without public viewing and feedback, so take a stroll over and let me know what you think.

A few thanks need to be made public:

Designer Erica Plante was instrumental – she thought of ways to use photographs that made a purist like me quiver…until I saw how well it worked – the designs of the text pages and the new logo are all her. Thanks, Erica.

Photographer and colleague Roger Ramirez – unbeknown  to me – knows the inner workings of websites – code to me is a CIA mystery movie – to Roger its a map to achieve cool things. His patience with me especially when I was afraid to hit the button to take down the old and bring up the new was fabulous. Thanks, Roger.

The shell of the site was purchased from Flash Pallette (http://www.flashpalette.com/. They have a number of really killer sites, but better yet, the guy who runs the show, Shannon, is all about customer service. He answered questions from me night and day, put up with my simplistic view of how a site oughta work…and solved problems, soothed my fears, and generally made me feel like he’ll be on my Christmas card list this year! Thanks, Shannon.

So, having said all that, please go to the site, check it out and send feedback – its a work in progress ( I hate that cliche) and I want all the input I can get.

And the signifigance of the mushroom…none really, but since this is a photo blog I wanted to have something of a visual nature…and I like the photo!

For those who might not know, the empty space project is about those places that have become abandoned or otherwise left out of use. I’m alwqays looking for places to explore and welcome ideas or names of people to contact.

And if you can’t get out of bed for it, here – enjoy the sunrise!

As we walked by a frozen beaver pond she remarked that it had been a great winter – lots of snow, cold, no slush. It made me think about the complaining I’ve done this season because, you know, she is right – its been a great winter. Lots of snow, cold, no slush.

Made me appreciate perspective and what I’ve got.

The economy may be in the tank but we’ve got it pretty good – as we suffer through the recession, depression, whatever you want to call it, we still have it better than so many other places in the world – its just we’ve come to expect luxury.

Perspective, what a great thing.

Thanks Donna.