I thought I should provide some evidence that I am still  alive and well. It has been almost a month since my last entry. That, of course, is too long. I can only offer in my defense that it has been a very busy month, with some personal matters distracting me, as well as—of course—simple laziness.

During the past month I did manage to place second in a regional photo competition here in the village where I live. It will now go to the state level in August. We will see what the judges in Columbus think of my work at that time. The photo is the one I posted here on April 17. You see it here on display at the exhibition following the judging. I spent a bit of time in Photoshop “jazzing” it up some, but it is essentially the same picture you saw here on that date. It is so hard to guess what judges will like in an image. In the past, I have only entered “pretty” pictures. They did reasonably well, but winning at the state level has eluded me. This time, I thought I would give them an image which is not attractive in the normal sense, but which I think is visually interesting—one which allows the viewer to make up a story about what they see in the photograph. I will report back on the results. Enjoy.

I will now get back to the bigger project of building and commenting on the photos in my gallery over there on the right. As always, your comments are appreciated—good or bad! It’s just nice to know that someone out there has been looking at my work.

Yeah, I know, it’s been a long time since I posted something. A good friend in Massachussets gave me a hard time about this, so I decided it was time to start posting again. Actually, the last post was sent from the Winefest in California. That seems like a long time ago.

The post before that was from Nashville, TN when I was attending a photo workshop there. (I’m glad I beat the big flood by a week or so) One of the pictures was entered in a small local photo contest here in Dayton, by the way. I’ll let you know how it did after June 17, the day of the judging.

The past few weeks have been very busy—and stressful. I sing in a semi-professional chorus and we had a difficult program to prepare, with very little time to do it. I spent a lot of my spare time on that. The concert went surprisingly well, thank goodness, and now the season for that group is over.

 THEN, it happened! My main desktop computer suddenly died. It was an old, but perfectly functioning system, but sooner or later it had to happen—and it did. I spent a bit of time researching the market and deciding what I needed to replace the old faithful computer. I now have a new custom-built system. Some technical data:  Intel i5-750 CPU, Window 7 Pro 64-bit, 8 Gb RAM (with space for 8 Gb more), two hard disks(500 Gb and 1TB), two CD drives, ATI 5750 video card feeding two monitors, etc. It is not a gamer’s system, but otherwise a very capable computer for my purposes. Needless to say, I have been very busy installing a ton of programs and data since the crash of the old sytem. I still have headaches getting the printers to work properly, but I will figure it out.

So, I promise to get a bit more active here on the website, although I do not guarantee an entry every day. I don’t want to become a slave to this.

The picture above, by the way, was taken during a semi-annual event here in Dayton, where all kinds of activities, both official and unofficial—as this one was—take place. The whole downtown was full of people on a beautiful summer evening and I did a lot of street photography. This was just one shot.

Please keep checking back—and tell your friends about the blog. It would be nice get the word out.

The weekend is over, and it was a very interesting and busy one. I spent the entire time with friends at the Dry Creek Wine Festival near Healdsburg, California. We sampled wines and foods at a total of 12 wineries, but had a long way to go to try all of them in the valley—45 or more! For wine lovers it was an especially exciting time. I am not a wine connoisseur, but enjoyed myself immensely. I got a few worthwhile images, which I will put up here as soon as I get back to Ohio. I have provided a sample here.

The rest of the week I will be spending here in Northern California, hoping that the weather cooperates. Today should be fine, but tomorrow and Tuesday do not look good. I’ll post images from time to time.

Greetings from Music City USA. I am in Nashville attending a two-day photography work shop, put on by The Mindful Eye. I will talk more about my experience here later. During a short break today I took this picture across the street in  Printers Alley, a historic district featuring some interesting bars and music joints. This is just one of them. I suspect it looks much better at night, when all those hundreds of little Christmas lights are lit.

I have finally settled on a software package to create and manage my photo presentation here on the blog. It is called “NextGen Gallery” and has the features I need. Other packages did not allow for comments on the photo when it is enlarged for viewing. NextGen does that and is relatively easy for a novice like me to set up and use. As of today I have finished the comments on the 2006 Calendar images. Now I have to finish the job before moving on to other categories of photos.

The picture you see was made this evening when I was enjoying a beer with a friend. We sat by the window of the bar and there was a neon sign right in front of us. So I made this rather abstract image from the back. It’s fun to photograph colors and patterns like this. This is one of those “what is it?” images.

A beautiful but cool day here in Dayton, OH. The ornamental pear trees are absolutely bursting with blossoms, as you can see from this picture I took during my afternoon walk today. This particular type of tree is obviously very popular in this area. The streets are lined with them. It looks almost like a white tunnel in some places. Amazing…

This message was quite different yesterday, but I have had to edit it considerably. I had given notice that I will be using some special software which prevents spambots from accessing this blog and leaving a bunch of nasty messages. Well, I found that it was not working the way it should, so had to uninstall it. I will keep looking for something to provide protection against these “cyber-marauders.”

I am also not satisfied with the gallery software I have been using. When you look a pictures in the gallery on the right, the description of the picture is actually the filename of the picture. I would like to describe each picture more fully, to say something about the location or other special information which might be interesting. However, there is no way that I can do this presently. I have just installed a new gallery software package called Nextgen. So we’ll see if Ican get it working. Keep coming back to see how I am making out. One of these days this blog will look really nice.

“Phase One” of setting up my web site is now finished. Please check out the calendar images in the gallery. There’s lots to look at.

Also, check out the About section to read something about me and my photo equipment. I will start the rest of the gallery after this weekend. Keep checking back and please, let your friends and acquaintances know about Fotobits.

Ah, the first day of April (no April fools jokes here today) and Spring has sprung. On my walk around the neighborhood today I found this pretty scene. Some kind of small blue flowers against the roots of a large tree. (Someone has told me that they are called Siberian Squill. Uh….okay.) I love these little splashes of color that nature provides as we head into Spring.

Incidentally, you will note that I have established some folders for a collection of my calendar images. I will see if I can figure out how to create the galleries tomorrow when I have some time. Going to a Seder meal tonight, although I’m not Jewish.

A good way to improve your photographic “chops” is to take pictures constantly. A good exercise is to try to make at least one decent image every day. It’s very easy to say “I see nothing worth photographing today.” The truth is, there is always something there worth your effort. You just have to see it. Of course, that’s the tricky part. Improved photographic vision is something all serious photographers strive for. Keeping a camera with you and being constantly on the alert as you go about your normal daily life is the best way to develop this skill. The high-quality “point-and-shoot” camera has made this a lot easier, since lugging a large DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) is very inconvenient, and most persons won’t do it for very long. No camera, no picture; it’s that simple.

This image was taken yesterday evening at a friend’s house. It’s just a pile of bamboo sticks in the back yard, but I thought the light and shadow pattern was interesting. Looking for such “abstract” images is something I constantly do when I have my camera with me.

I am not claiming that this image is Great Art, but occasionally you will capture one which is a real “keeper.” I will try to have an image here on the blog every day, but there will  be times when that is not possible. Enjoy. Comments welcome.