On the road again

Greetings blog fans. There probably will not be anymore updates until next Saturday. I'm in New Orleans today attenging the annual Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association and Farm Equipment Wholesalers Association conventions. I'm comfortable ensconced in the Ray "School Bus" Naquin suite at the Sheraton New Orleans. The weather is here, wish you were beautiful.

The Toy Tractor

DAY 57: Four or so days from press deadline and we're having a production meeting this morning and the question comes up: "What do we have for cover art?" Yep, nadda, nothing. The product spotlight is tires and tracks and the feature story is regarding the equipment warrantly database. Luckily I have my "studio lights in a bag" with me at all times and over lunchour I came up with a usable cover shot to illustrate tires and tracks using a portion of the above toy tractor. Though this isn't the final shot, the one we're going to use is pretty cool, considering the only things I had to work with were a toy tractor, a couple of lights and brollies and a white background.

Better car shot

Day 56: Playing catch up. Another angle of Granddad's car

DAY 55: If you've been following this blog for any amount of time you've probably figured out that my father doesn't throw away much. Today's picture is of my grandpa's 1953 Ford that he bought off the showroom floor that year. It has about 39,000 miles on it and purrs like a kitten.

DAY 54: Having pretty much retired from taking towboat pictures, step-dog and I took a drive to the river to see what was going on. Step dog was just glad to get away from the cat for a while anyway. I hadn't taken a picture of a river towboat for about three months so its quite lucky that I caught a newly sold, repainted and renamed boat, the mv. Steven Durbin.

Top of the muffin to you II

Here's another angle. Don't know which one I like best.

Top of the muffin to you

DAY 53: Like a lot of offices accross America, donuts, bagels, muffins and cakes show up here on a pretty regular basis. Since I failed to update last night, I was doing some test shots today in the office and captured a rasin bran muffin in its natural corporate habitat.

Another old tractor

DAY 52: My Dad's 1930something John Deere Model A.

A burnt out bathroom

DAY 51: Not much commentary on this one.

Throw the door out the window

DAY 50: From a burnt out house I know.

Back in Business

After a week hiatus we're back, picking up on DAY 49. The neat thing about this picture is that could've been taken with available light. I played around with the off camera strobe. ISO 100, f/6.5, flash off camera right, full power.

Check back on October 15

Okay, I haven't exactly been slacking, but I haven't exactly been shooting a lot of photos. I'm waiting for something good. In the meantime for your listening pleasure check out the newest from my favorite country swing band, the Quebe Sisters.

Nothing to show

I really shouldn't be posting a picture of the day just for the sake of posting the picture of the day. I'm going to the farm tomorrow a.m. to see what I can find.

On the campaign trail

There will be no updates today, but hopefully two tomorrow. The presidential candidates were stumping in St. Louis. This morning Rudy Guilanni was in Clayton for a fundraiser, but he skipped mass. This evening the Clinton campaign sent Carl Bernstein to shill his new book A Woman in Charge, about Mrs. Bill Clinton. Leanne and I took part in "An Evening With Carl Bernstein," held in the Blanche on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus. We were sitting in the orchestra section, row E and I almost drowned in all the BS cascading from Bernstein's mouth.

However, this is not a political blog, and yes, I will shut up and take pictures in the same manner the Dixie Chicks should shut up and sing.

No wonder my sinuses are stuffed

DAY 48: It started Monday afternoon with a scratchy throat and by Tuesday morning my head was really stuffed up. It didn't occurr to me until today that being out in the bean dust Sunday might have something to do with it.

Working with light

DAY 47: Not much to say about this shot.

Something a little different

DAY 46: A shot of bean harvest.