This Old Blog

Coleus Canina There are times when you walk outside and look down and see something you've seen innumerable times before in a slightly different way, such that you stop ignoring them for a time. These coleus are an example of this. I think it's due in part to the fact that I just need to pay more attention to the simple things that grow naturally. Perhaps it's the variegated crimson and yellow-green leaves, or the not-so-simple fractal-like patterns the colors form on the leaves. But the coleus are growing in full now, outside in the beddings around Research Park, all differing colors. I think I will concentrate on them and the other flowering plants for a few days. As a form of escapism. Technical Taken with the Olympus E-P2 and Zuiko Digital 50mm with DMW-MA1 adapter. Post processed in Lightroom 3.4.1.

"Construction" Olympus E-P2 with Zuiko Digital 9-18mm 1/800s, f/7.1, ISO 200, 17mm A week after the crane was erected over this property, a basic tilt-wall four story structure now stands. This looks to be another multi-storied garage, similar to the ones erected just down the street for the Stirling housing. One finished it becomes the anchor for the rest of the apartments, which are built using more conventional techniques and materials, primarily wood. Unleaded regular gas is now $3.39/gallon, up two cents from yesterday, up ten cents from Saturday. If the unrest keeps up in the middle East, at this rate it'll hit $3.50/gallon by the coming weekend. The temperature changed drastically today. We haven't had any rain in central Florida for all of February, but early this morning a front came through with some locally heavy showers. It rained through most of the morning, stopping around 11am. This  evening, I had to put on a light jacket to take the Labs ou...

"Morning Speed Trap" Olympus E-3 with Zuiko Digital 50-200mm 1/800s, f/3.5, ISO 400, 200mm On a tree-lined boulevard heading into work this morning, as I crested a small hill on north-bound Apopka/Vineland, I passed an Orange County sheriff, dressed in his brightest yellow-green vest, carefully targeting oncoming traffic with his trusty radar gun. And I was prepared. I now carry my trusty E-3 with the Digital Zuiko 50-200mm constantly mounted on the body and sitting shotgun, so that I can quickly pull over to the side of the road if need be, grab the camera, step out, and take his picture while he's busy taking everybody elses. That's what I like about that combination. It's heavy enough to be stable, and the 2x crop factor gives me an effective focal length of 400mm. That allows me to take the photo without getting to close and risking harassment, or worse. The last thing I need is to be accused of interfering with police duties, but there's nothi...

"Row 6" Olympus E-P2 with M.Zuiko 17mm 1/400s, f/2.8, ISO 200. +0.3 EV ["Post Processing" done in-camera] Another day at work, another day stopping at the local Walmart to do some quick shopping on the way home. Chocolate soy. Check. Ground turkey and garlic bread for dinner tonight (spagetti). Check. Diet Sunkist soda. Check. Western Digital 500GB USB 2.0 portable hard drive. Check. Take a photo of the row where I park so I won't forget where I am when I come back out. Check. Get back to the car, put everything in the boot, head home, put everything away, start dinner, and open the package FedEx delivered while I was at work. And gaze upon my newest little baby, a used Olympus E-1. "Two Classics" Olympus E-P2 with Zuiko Digital 50mm Macro + MMF-1 1/40s, f/5.6, ISO 1600, -2 EV After dinner I checked out the E-1's shutter actuation count (4,548) and current firmware version (1.1). Not bad at all. I purchased the camera from KEH for ...

"Field of Crosses" Olympus E-P2 with Zuiko Digital 9-18mm + DMW-MA1 1/2500s, f/4, ISO 200, 9mm, -0.7EV Another busy start to the week. This was captured on the way home from work. Traffic on I-4 west bound convinced me to exit at the L.B. McLeod/John Young exit and drive on L.B. McLeod. Right there, in a vacant field/parking extension for First Baptist Orlando, stood a field of crosses. I have no idea why they were put there (although I can guess), but there they stood, the taller wooden one over the smaller PVC-pipe crosses marching off into the distance. I took this one with the ZD 9-18mm wide open at f/4, in an attempt to keep the front cross in sharp focus while 'feathering' the details of objects further away. I'm not so sure it worked, especially at this small a resolution. I need to print it, say 11 by 17, and then look at it on a wall. "Azteca Signage Going Up" Olympus E-P2 with M.Zuiko 17mm 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 200, -0.3 EV Work c...

"New Green" Olympus E-P2 with OM 50mm via adapters 1/125s, f/4, ISO 200, 0 EV A bit of a break from the current self-indulgent series of photographs. I took this one last Friday, while out to pick up lunch. There's an oak growing on the road leading out of the office complex that has particular type of  fern growing up the trunk. In spite of many nights at or below freezing, it's managed to green up rather nicely. The greenery of this fern is all the more startling when considering all the brown plant growth that surrounds it. And it's a reminder that life can carry on in the midst of death. I'm speaking of the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson Arizona. There's not much I can say or add to this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family, and to all the other victims of that utterly senseless act. Latest reports are that she is still alive, but in critical condition. My family was touched by such violence back wh...

Today started cold and turned colder as the day wore on. And it wasn't just the temperature. I started the day as usual by traveling up Apopka-Vineland road on my way to ride the 408E on into work near U.C.F. Just before I got to the end of Apopka-Vineland, one of Orange County's finest leaped out into the middle of the road in a stylish neon yellow vest, a radar gun in his left hand while he waved a stiffened right arm at the traffic that was slowing and trying to avoid hitting the idiot. He would swing stiff-armed down one side, then turn and swing stiff-armed to his left, until he found the cars he wanted to pull over and ticket. Fortunately for me I was in the passing lane and traveling at the posted speed limit. Which was kind of interesting, as I wasn't alone on the road, and if I was traveling at the posted speed limit, then so was everyone else around me. I remember such things. In any event I immediately crossed over to a turn-off lane and stopped, pulled out my tr...

Happy new year. Same as the last year. I open the new year with a post about a subject that's been obsessed over since 2006; the poor state of the economy. This time I'll be looking at International Drive. Top left: Old Harcourt Brace Jovanovich building with "For Lease" sign visible from the south end or International Drive. Top right: Out-of-business Steak & Ale, with an old mattress up in the entrance awning for someone to sleep on. It sits right next to a out-of-business Bennigan's. Second row, both pictures. What's left of the old Mercado shopping complex. There's but one entrance that still shows its name; the rest of complex was torn down and the wreckage removed, turning this section of I-Drive into a vacant field. According to several locals, Mercado died after they built Pointe Orlando a block further south. Third row left: A shot down one section of International Drive, between Sand Lake and Kirkman. On the day I was walking about, there wer...

Yes, today was another lovely birthday. I've long since passed the point where I anticipated my birthday. Now I dread them. This year, rather than sit around and feel sorry for yet another year passing, I decided to go out and shoot. And because I was in such a wonderfully grim and cheerless mood I decided to drive around International Drive here in Orlando and shoot a bit of its long, slow decay. I took Megs with me; I'd bequeathed my E-300 system to her for her to use this coming spring in college. She needed the practice. We started at the Sea World end of I-Drive, near the old Harcourt Brace Jovanovich building (or whatever it's called these days). It caught my daughter's eye because of the huge "For Lease" sign plastered across the top two floors of the building, visible from I-Drive. We drove around and into the empty parking lot; I assume it was empty because it was Sunday, but you never know. The lovely color shot is from the front and shows the neatl...

What started this entry was the second failure, this year, of the former KFC store on University Blvd. The store was re-opened as a Chicken Lickin's franchise store in January (top left photo). Then last week, as I was driving down University towards UCF, I happened to look to my right and see that the store was closed down completely again (top left photo). This posting's collection of photos is from stores and businesses on University and around UCF, such as the Research Park. Why is this important? Because there are major defense contractors in the area (SAIC, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon...) as well as the Army and Navy contract houses. Gathered around a state university with well over 50,000 students. In short, a dynamo for economic activity. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Identification of photos, from left to right, top to bottom: Current empty store that housed the former Chicken Lickin's on University (empty again); Former Chicken Licki...

I haven't written one of my Orlando Unravels entries for some time now because it's too depressing and I've been very busy doing other things, like holding on to my job. So busy is good. In fact busy is wonderful . I felt compelled to write another Unravels entry because today, while out picking up a few necessities with the wife, we happened to stop by a local Books-A-Million store. This particular store is at the corner of Lee Road and I-Drive (Kirkman/I-4 exit), in the same complex as Sweet Tomatoes. It used to be open four weeks ago. Today, when we drove up, the store was locked and completely empty. We had no idea they were going out of business, and there are absolutely no signs anywhere indicating where they might have moved if they moved. The only thing left is the store with the unbleached wall showing where the letters used to be. That entire store block is empty now. That Books-A-Million was the last store in a block of stores that once contained a Micheal's...

Schmap contacted me back in the middle of March to announce that a number "of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the seventh edition" of the Schamp Washington and Orlando Guide. They couldn't pay anything but they would include attribution and a link back to the original Flickr photos. I agreed and then waited for the guides to be published. Sure enough, just as they'd promised, the guides were published (online) and my photos were included. It's just how they were used that surprises me. All three photos are part of my Economy set on Flickr. That's the set where I document the closed businesses I've been coming across due to the "recession" we've been living through. Schmap used one from Tysons Corner Galleria in McLean, Virginia, and they used two others from here in Orlando; an out-of-business boarded-up Sonny's near the intersection of West Colonial and Kirkman, and a closed-and-empty Belk's department store at We...