No School, Like The Old School!

With recent events in my life making me miserable, there is no better way to get out of my funk by photographing & interviewing Long Islands own Misery for In The Spotlight Magazine. Now it has been quite awhile since my last band shoot and am running various problems through my head, but I've never been so amped up. I just this old body can keep up with the aggression & intensity of this band.
For those that do not know, band photo has been a money making success in the past for me and with the current state of the economy any extra payolla is quite welcome. So if anyone is interested stop by Dingbatz in Clifton NJ around 9 pm tonight. I'll be the Hunter S. wanna be with the camera and check out the band HERE.

Where Is My Cat!

My cat went missing sometime after 2pm on Saturday, but no one knows how he got out or what happened. So right now I have some paranoid thoughts about certain people.
So for the last few day I've been in Search & Recover mode, spending most of my time running around the neighborhood and surrounding areas. Posters are up, every rescue or shelter has been notified. If you've never search for a feline friend, it is quite a adventure. From police shining their lights on you doing the usual "What are you doing!", to people looking at you really strange, and lets no forget the normal sounds of psssst, pssst, psssst in the middle of the night. Of course now it's raining and my hope is that Mr. Cameron will return wet, muddy, hungry but safe. It looks like another wet and cold night for me, but it will be worth it if I can find him.
So if you live in the South River area here is what he looks like and if you find him drop me a line.

Rollin Again

Now that Spring has sprung, I'm rollin' on 26er's again. This weekend was my first long haul of the year, from South River to Basking Ridge. Was a real fun ride for the most part but it didn't go off as planned, 6 miles from the finish the mountain kicked my a$$. Unable to pedal or walk up the hill without burning Quads or Calf muscles I had to call the road crew for a pick up. My ride back was a lot easier, downhill is usually less pain filled unless you hit the ground. For more information look here.

My weekend outing with the GF was fun, got to experience the vernal pool thing and finally wear my cheap rubber boot that I got last Summer. I now know what Wood Frog & Jefferson Salamader eggs look like, not that it was a goal of mine. We also got to see an American Woodcock up close. Now hopefully one day a Bog Turtle will be in my photo collection.

I also decided to keep a roadride collection of photography or people, places, or things I see & meet while pedaling around NJ. Look for it on Flickr or here.

Me, Myself & No Macro

Today I broke my most sacred rule, never leave home without close up gear. Usually I don't, but I've been shooting a personal project that does not require a macro lens, and do not want to carry the extra weight. So of course something will be more interesting than what I am doing. And here it is, Chinese Mantis dining on a Monarch Butterfly. All I had at my disposal at the time was a 20mm, so I jam it as close as I can get hoping that something good will come of it.
On the bright side I wasn't using my Mamiya 645, because I don't thing I could have sat out the wait of developing time. That would have drove me crazy and crushed my spirits if the focus was total crap. Not that this is the perfect example of scientific photography, but kind of works as a abstract.
I did almost miss the bus again, due to this. Spent close to 45 minutes watching nature in action then had to hauled backside to get to the pick up spot.

The Power Of Independent Contracting

Today I was offered a position designing inventory labels, being low on funds I decided to take it. After all how bad can it be, famous last words! Now I just have to remember to pay my own taxes, but maybe the government will "bail me out" if I get in over my head.
UPDATE: Do to the up fronting of shipping costs which was expected of me, I respectfully told my employer to " Go Ef Himself". How does a design job end up being a, you ship our product after you're finished and we pay you back at the end of the Quarter job.

Please Hold My Baby It Has Ebola!

So today in class, I received my final project microbe. You guess it, Ebola! At first excitement, being a scientific photographer my mind started planning the presentation. Some text and a bunch of images to wow the crowd, till realization set. Where the hell was I going to get a sample to photograph, it is after all just a Class 4 Bio Hazard, let alone a Scanning Electron Microscope to image it with. If any of you out there have one with photo port feel free to drop me an email. Maybe the CDC has a loaner program, I would share my data with them if they would share just one! Google gave me this but it is just not going to cut the mustard. It is pretty cool looking, but that is about as close to the virus as I want to get.

My NJ Tran SIT!

Well it was more like standing. Spent most of day waiting for buses that either never came or were so late that it was useless. So after missing Math class, (Thanks NJ Transit, NB & Rutgers traffic and to the NB Fire Dept. for hanging a banner across George St. in the middle of the day!), I headed of to my local sports shop to pick up a Blackburn head & tail light kit for the night riding that now must be done. I might have some bum ribs, but they don't hurt as bad as my head from all of today's frustration. Maybe in a few weeks everything will be back to normal, well as normal NB can get! Right now feelings of Rochester enter my mind, that area might be Backwoods but at least they have more reliable Public Transportation & a trail from the RIT area to the South Wedge, that one can do in 30 minutes of steady pedaling.

Feelin' Froggy, Then Jump!

My Sunday morning excursions start off at The Great Swamp lately. On my visit last weekend it was small frog struggling for life against a small Water Snake, this weekend I got to once again see nature in action. This time my handy camera was ready. I'm expecting that the next visit there will be a bigger snake & frog involved in a life or death fight. My money will be on my favorite the Northern Water Snake.

Flickr It's Quickr

I finally bought a pro account which I've been meaning to do for sometime now. Got tired of posting my photos to 3 sets and have been wanting to post time-lapse videos. So world, here is some polarized ice for you to view.

Week One, Done

I finished my first week back in school, since 2006, I am so glad for night classes. My Agar plates had no responses, but one on my classmates did find Mersa (Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus) in the coffee machine. Yum!!! I showed my skills of scientific photography by being the only one who could focus a stereoscope. You can find Mersa, but you can't focus a scope, what the Eff?
Now I have to work very hard at doing my 3 question math homework, writing a 2 paragraph summary of an environmental health issue article, and typing up a bunch of lab work. Viva la Microbe! Also I look pretty old in my student id, I guess I'm not the Science Stud I use to be. But some people still think I'm dashing!