“Madison Regatta”

This is a huge weekend for Madison Indiana, the annual Madison Regatta is today thru Sunday. If you enjoy big crowds fast boats and a fun atmosphere this is the place to be.I would share some images with you if I had any but I am not much of sports photographer and I spend most of the time eating and indulging in adult beverages so I will just link you to the official site to get all the details.

If you are within a hour or two it is definitely worth the trip to be here, the hydroplanes can travel up to 200 mph and can put on quite a show, there will also be an fireworks display on Saturday night. There will also be plenty of live music for everyone and some great food as well, and it is always a great place to sit back and watch the diverse group of people that will walk the river this weekend.

Since I don’t have any shots of the boat race I will post one of the bridge they travel under, anyway have a great Fourth of July weekend and hopefully you can make it down to the race !!

“Ladybug Art”

How about something a little different, I have never really tried shooting insects before because of the equipment used to get in really close to these little guys, but I happened along this little ladybug and was able to get this shot. I shot it hand held and at 2.8 it gave it a really cool effect.

The photographers who get really up close to butterflies and dragonflies and get those incredible portrait shots are so good at what they do and hopefully someday with some amount of patience and equipment I hope to be able to get a few wonderful shots like they do !!

But until then I will just have to settle with a few shots like this to hold me over, hope you enjoy and thanks for stoping by !!

“Midnight Blue”

After a two week vacation to South Florida and a week laying flat on my back from a pulled muscle maybe now I can get back to posting a few images I have been able to capture lately. First I wanted to thank my good friends and family Steve and Sharon Williams for putting up with us and showing us a wonderful time, South Florida is truly a beautiful place to live and vacation and I am very thankful of the hospitality we were shown.

I was able to get a few nice sunset shots and couple of night shots as well, I especially love this shot of the Naples pier I got late one evening as  my wife and I walked along the beach. the beaches on the Gulf coast are so beautiful and the Naples and Sanibel Island area were definitely my favorite places to walk and just chill out.  My son had an absolutely wonderful time filling his beach bucket with seashells and whatever else bits of debris he could find on our walks.

The area is truly a wonderful place  and I would highly recommend it to whoever was looking for a place too vacation, thanks for stopping by and taking a look !!

And BTW you really have to click on this one for it’s larger size to appreciate it !!

” Calla Lily Flame “

After posting all the shots of the fire at the Courthouse in Madison Indiana, I thought I might deviate  from the journalistic side of photography a bit and head back over to the artisitc side. But I still thought I might keep a fire flavor to it and post this shot of a  group of Calla Lilies that I think resemble a flame, don’t know if you all think they rsemble a flame as well but  at least thats what I will call them.

I blew this one up to about 30×40 and it really looked nice, it was a bear getting that feat acomplished but was definitely worth it.  Calla Lilies really are a beautiful subject too shoot and almost always look great printed and displayed, thay have become one of my favorite subjects and I always enjoy shooting them.

” Madison Indiana Courthouse Fire “

I thought I might post a few more shots of the fire that nearly destroyed the Jefferson County Courthouse in Madison Indiana. The fire did not completely destroy the structure the dome and roof were completely burnt up, but the other parts of the building wrer spared except for water and smoke damage.  The files that dated backed to the Civil War were largely intact and were being freeze dried for further restoration, the fire did a lot of damage but with great work from the Madison and surrounding area Fire Departments they were able to save most of the structure and important documents.

It was really nice to see the community pull together to protect such a valuable piece of History and the out pouring of support and donations to the fireman and County Government was tremendous. The Bicentennial Celebration is going on and clean up and reconstruction on the courthouse will begin on Tuesday.

The other thing about this whole episode was the incredible amount of people with cameras and camera phones that were at this event, even as of this morning many locals and out of town visitors have stopped and shot many images of the Courthouse, I couldn’t even guess on how many shots were taken. I shot close to 500 myself most of them will never even be opened up on my computer but like most records or files will be saved for the  future.  I did want to do something a little different with my images and try to give them a darker mood and covert some of them to B&W to give them a edgy or gritty feel.

These were all captured in the opening moments of the fire and I believe convey the stark mood the whole scene had taken as the fire burnt the Courthouse Dome. Just something a little different from all the cell phone and normal sots everyone else were taking, hopefully construction the Courthouse will be sift and they can keep intact the wonderful history and beauty of this magnificent structure, thanks for stopping by and taking a look !!

Click on the images for the larger files for a better look.