Posts Tagged ‘Kentucky’

This post is dedicated to Brandon Pickering. Brandon was a resident of Fort Thomas and a 2008 Highlands High School grad. He was wounded when his unit was attacked with small arms fire and a rocket propelled grenade in Wardak province on April 8 in Afghanistan. Brandon passed away on Sunday, April 10 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

I have been to a few military services and as sad as they are, they are also a way to celebrate the fallen. This service for Brandon was surprisingly upbeat, which is not what I had expected but I’m sure was good for his friends and family attending. If you’ve ever been to a service for a fallen soldier you will recognize the Patriot Guard Riders in these photos. The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse group of riders from across the nation. They have one thing in common besides motorcycles. They have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join them!

I was asked by Brandon’s family to not publish photos my of his service, so I’ve only included exterior photos. Though only the Patriot Guard Riders are seen in the photographs, please keep Brandon in mind as you view them. And remember, the next time you see a soldier, seaman, airman, or any member of “your” military, thank them for their service….. it’s the very least you can do!

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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I love old brick walls. Even better than an old brick wall showing it’s age with slight deterioration is an old brick wall with an old hand-painted sign on it. If you’ve browsed my galleries at all you’ve probably ran across some of my images capturing these old marks in advertising history. Every time I find a sign on an old brick wall I find myself wondering about it’s history. Who painted the sign, Is the company represented in the sign still in business, are there other signs hidden beneath the visible sign?

Today I ran into a sign (maybe best described as artwork) that may very well be the subject of a photographer wondering the same things in the future, I wonder today. Driving through downtown Cincinnati I ran into a sign being created right before my very eyes. Portuguese-born Alexandre Farto has been commissioned by BLDG, a Covington based studio, to create Cincinnati’s own original “Urban Structure” as Alexandre describes his art.

VHILS is the tag name of Portuguese graffiti/street artist Alexandre Farto (1987—) He gained prominence when his work of a face carved into a wall appeared alongside a picture by street artist Banksy at the Cans Festival in London in 2008. Not long ago, street artists were objects of scorn, stigmatized to the point of risking jail time in order to smear their messages in alleyways and on overpasses. Lately, however, with a growing public appreciation for all things graffiti, urban communication is no longer such a target of public disdain, but rather is increasingly being appreciated as high art.

Here’s the rest of the gallery. Enjoy.

BLDG will be hosting a release event Friday, April 15 from 7-11 PM. For additional information visit the BLDG website.

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Looking for something to do this Friday night? How about a walk along Fairfield Avenue in Bellevue, Kentucky? You’ll find a wide selection of shops at “First Friday” – a monthly event along the avenue. There’s a great selection of shops, galleries and cafes. Park your car and walk along the avenue and you’ll soon find yourself relaxing and forgetting the busy week you’ve just experienced. It’s a great way to start the weekend! And if it’s raining, don’t let that stop you because the friendly merchants even share their umbrellas!

Along the way you’ll find the Bellevue Bistro, a cozy little bistro located at 313 Fairfield. Although the “bb” is a great place to stop anytime, this Friday is special for me because I’ll be displaying some of my photography. The owners of the Bistro are kind enough to allow local artists to share their talents by decorating the walls with their work, and after a 6 month wait, it’s my turn.

I’d love to see you for this upcoming “First Friday”, but if you’re not able to make it you can stop by the Bistro anytime in the month of April to view a wide variety of photography I’ll have on display.

Hope to see you there!

313 Fairfield Ave. / Bellevue, KY / 859-581-5600

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I figured that once my boys left Saint Catherine of Siena school I’d stop shooting the Junior High play every year. But with my wife being the school secretary, and lots of friends having kids in the play I decided why not. The fact that they were doing Godspell intrigued me also, since it was the one and only play I’ve ever been in. My Church youth group did a very small version of Godspell way back in 1979 and I played Jesus. Yes, Jesus. For those of you that know me, please keep your comments to yourselves :-)

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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Every September for the past 12 years I have ventured off to the Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Morehead, Kentucky. I started off the first year as a “Poppy Virgin” only going for the closing weekend but over the years have become the “Poppy-razzi” on the mountain. As the “official” photographer I once again went nuts with the camera this year. Although still haven’t come close to my record 2400 shots taken a couple of years ago.

I’d like to thank Marty Stevens for bringing back our old Poppy Mountain! We have missed it over the past few years. I’d also like to thank all my friends on Poppy for putting up with me always having my camera in their face. Especially the jammers trying to play music with my flash going off!

Lastly, I’d like to dedicate this year’s gallery to our old friend Ralph Smith! He was missed this year and will always be in our hearts.

You’ll find all the photos here. Enjoy!

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On a recent trip to Louisville, Kentucky I spent a couple of hours walking along Main and Market streets looking for old signs. I’m not sure what draws me to old signs painted on brick walls but I sure do enjoy studying them. Like old abandoned buildings they make my mind wonder. Who painted them? Is the business still around? For that matter is the sign company still around? I do know enough about the sign industry to safely say, sign painters who created these old signs, like the signs themselves are a rarity.

This was one of my first trips with my new 22 megapixel Canon 5D Mark II so one of my goals was to shoot some panoramics to see how my trusty Macintosh tower was going to deal with stitching such large images. A few of these images are panoramics compiled from 12-16 vertical images. At full resolution one of them comes in at 820 megabyte! Those of you that are technically challenged… that’s huge! I could wallpaper a 70 foot hallway with 12 foot ceilings with this image. Not sure what I’m going to do with all those pixels, but man is it great to have them!

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy! (By the way, there’s some new signs as well)

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Camping season has begun! Betsy and I went to Big Bone State Park this past weekend and took a short trip to Rabbit Hash on Saturday. If you know anything about Rabbit Hash you know it really isn’t much more than an old general store on the Ohio River, yet it attracts thousands of visitors every year. On any given Saturday during the summer months you may see a couple hundred people in the sleepy little town.

Since I have already taken the “typical” Rabbit Hash shot (the exterior of the general store) I wanted to shoot some of the details of the town that are uniquely Rabbit Hash. Take a look at this gallery and hopefully it will inspire you to take your own trip to Rabbit Hash. But if you do, be prepared to “slow down”. Because in Rabbit Hash, you can’t help but slow down and relax!

Here’s the whole gallery. Enjoy!

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I picked up my new camera (Canon 5D Mark II) last Friday but was so busy I didn’t really shoot with it till Wednesday of this week. I had Wednesday night free so I planned on just going out and looking to find something to shoot and ended up down at the riverfront shooting the skyline once again. The Reds were playing the first night game of the year and a photographer I was talking to told me they were having fireworks after the game, win or loose. I didn’t really want to spend the next couple of hours there, since I really don’t care for watching baseball in the stadium so staring at the stadium from the outside without beer and hot dogs just didn’t sound thrilling. But as I said I was talking to another photographer and before I knew it the game was almost over so I decided to stick around. I was nice to be able to hang out and have some “photo talk” with someone that shares the passion. I found out from him (Jim from Highland Heights), that I’m not the only one goofy enough to get up at 5 AM on any given Saturday and just head out looking for something to shoot. And to top it off, he’s a Canon guy!

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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