My first Podcast 'appearance'

I'm not exactly sure if you are 'on' or 'in' a podcast, but in the height of the blizzard, I spent some time talking to Dave Warner of LensFlare35.com.  He emailed last night that the webcast is online.  The weather was reaking a little havoc on the connection but it is fun to listen to.  


Here is a link to both the podcast and the on-line discussion http://www.lensflare35.com, thanks to Dave for having me on the show!

Former House Speaker and the Gipper

I covered a job last night for a friend (who had a more glamorous assignment in Mexico) and photographed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at the centennial celebration for President Ronald Reagan.  Enjoyed shooting and listening equally.

The blizzard of 2011

I had every intention of heading out into the thick of things to shoot the worst of part of the 22 inch snowfall but I couldn't even get out of Union Station Tuesday night when the snowfall started.  I had my Widelux with me...ok...it's actually the more affordable Russian knockoff called the Horizon Perfekt.  Not the coveted Widelux F8 that Jeff Bridges had made famous again, but for a third of the price the Perfekt is a great option if you are interested in a 35mm swing lens pano camera.  I also shoot with an XPan, which is fantastically sharp but lacks the unique character a moving or pivoting lens can create.   

After taking an incident meter reading in the melee at the bottom of the steps I was ready to quickly spin around and take a shot of all the madness.  The lens takes about two and half seconds to makes it rotation, a little more then halfway thought the exposure I started getting yelled at for slowing everything down.  I'm not positive but I think the blurry woman on the bottom left of the frame (in front of the smiling guy) was the 'yeller' but I'm not positive.  I hope she got home OK.  I finally did!

  

Since moving to Chicago I've wanted to get the quintessential parking lot glacier shot that is synonymous with the wintertime in the Windy City.  I haven’t quite got the shot yet but I’m getting closer.  These smaller snow mounds were shot two days after the big snow.

fresh pics...

My new site is (finally) up, check it out with the link below

click here to check out my new website, www.dirkfletcher.com