Blue Planet Photography

This year at the fair was interesting.

On Aug 21, I held my bi-monthly PhotoCrawl at the fair, in the evening. Around 9:15pm a powerful microburst struck the fairgrounds with 70 mph winds, knocking over ticket booths, breaking tree branches, tearing up canvas tent awnings and vendor canopies. The fair was shut down at around 10:15pm and everyone was evacuated because there were still high winds blowing stuff around. Reports of 70 - 80 minor injuries (scrapes and bruises) and 4 people taken to the hospital (one person apparently the victim of a fallen branch). Around the area there were grass fires sparked by exploded transformers, massive power outages (40,000 people without power), a car fire, car accident, even a domestic shooting, all in the same relative area at the same time. It was a busy night for fire, rescue and police.

I shot some iPhone video that ended up on the local news and a request to upload to CNN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRS2JwWYdQc

I went back again on the following Tuesday to shoot some things I wasn’t able to get on Saturday, and came up with an idea. So, I went back again last Saturday to finish up. I created a slideshow (http://www.vimeo.com/14560155) using 534 photos from those 3 days (many are time-lapse style). This show is probably a first draft; the photos (except for one) are processed very minimally.

I judged the Youth Photo Entries this year and there were a lot of really good photos. The judging was made even more difficult because the bakery good judging was going on right behind me and I was constantly smelling ginger snaps, oatmeal cookies, snickerdoodles, and chocolate chip cookies.

I also picked up 2 2nd place and 1 3d place ribbon from my photo entries. As usual, I have some issues with the judging, but that’s the way it usually goes.

Had a good PhotoCrawl yesterday, despite a couple rain showers.

It’s difficult for me to decide to cancel or postpone an event. Today I canceled the PhotoCrawl scheduled for today at Idaho City. Storms came in last night and this morning I woke to thunder and rain. The location for today’s PhotoCrawl is about 40 miles out of town, so travel time has to be taken into account as well as the comfort level of the participants. This isn’t a photography boot camp. Because of the travel involved, an early notice was necessary, which exacerbated the problem since the weather can change here rather quickly, despite the predictions of ongoing rain all day. As I write, the sun has come out and there is a large chunk of blue sky, at least in my part of town. 40 miles away, who knows?

We were supposed to gather at 2pm at Idaho City and I made the call around 10:30am. It’s 11:45 now. I would have been more inclined to keep to the schedule if we were going to a local spot where people could show up at the last minute or leave without having spent an hour or so getting there.

I think I made the right call, which was verified a few minutes ago when I called a restaurant we were going to eat at to let them know not to expect our large group. It was still raining there and the area was without power.

Funny how things work out. It’s now 3:20. As I was finishing this up (or thought I was) I received a phone call from a local construction company who needed someone pronto to photograph some storm damage for insurance purposes. Apparently, all their adjusters, etc. are out of town for the Boise State football game. Yay, Broncos! So, I rushed out to get that done.

Now I’m back and need to process these photos and get some product photos completed, both for delivery tomorrow before I leave for my Oregon Workshop on Monday.

In 2004 (or thereabouts), Enrico Casarosa, an artist in San Francisco, was inspired by a bachelor party Pub Crawl to create SketchCrawl, where the basic idea is “to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors.” Going out all day by himself, sketchbook and watercolors in hand, Enrico explored his surroundings, opening up his senses and awareness. He soon decided it would be more fun to include others and SketchCrawl was born, inspiring sketch artists the world over to get out and draw.

After reading about this, I, being a photographer, thought it would be great to expand the idea to another medium. So, I’m organizing PhotoCrawl, here in Boise, Idaho.

In conjunction with the SketchCrawl, I’d like to invite you all to attend a PhotoCrawl on the same day, March 29, 8am – noon. The PhotoCrawl is based on the idea behind SketchCrawl. It involves exploring a location, photographing anything and everything that attracts your eye. It’s a sort of free-association event to help you improve your “camera vision”, meet other photographers, and have a great time. There will be time to get feedback and help from me as well as other participants if you have questions about camera operation, composition, filters, lenses, tripods, Sudoku, particle physics…..

The format of the PhotoCrawl I’m putting together will be a loose route through downtown Boise and meeting at Old Chicago for lunch (if you wish) at noon. I’ve heard that the SketchCrawl group may meet us there as well.

We’ll meet for the start at the corner of 10th & Main (next to the Idanha Hotel), in Boise, at 8am. I’ll have a general route picked out, and maybe even a “scavenger hunt” type list to help with inspiration. We’ll end at noon at Old Chicago for lunch and discussion. The SketchCrawl group is also meeting at the same place and time and might also meet up with us for lunch. So, it will be an artist’s day all around.

I’m planning to hold a PhotoCrawl in the same time frame as SketchCrawl, every two months. They will occur in different locations to provide a wide variety of experiences to participants. The first is in the city of Boise, the next might be in a more natural setting, and so on.

If you’d like to participate, let me know or just show up. Photographers of all skill levels are welcome.