Well, ya knew it wouldn't last.

Took the Bonnie to Meineke today. $1300.00 worth of work to be done.
I figures. Just when we were getting ahead.......BOOM! Once again I go to get some new camera gear and something comes up to blow that all to crap. I do have a bid for a Mamiya 645. My max price is $178.00. I cant withdraw the bid, so I am hoping to have it beat. Maybe.

Oh well......


Kodak UC 400 Slightly cropped, nothing else done.

The Gazer hits the jackpot......again!

So there I was up in Maine have myself a merry Christmas. The day before I had the pleasure of spending a great Christmas Eve with my side of the family. Got everything I could possibly hope for and then some.

After the merriment, me and my Shannon shot up to Maine arriving about 11:30 PM. From the hotel we advanced our cause to Shannons cousins house where her side of the family had gathered. Once again the merriment began and we made merry. I received a little "party pack" from Aunt Sherri consisting of three different Sam Adams, several Slim Jims, and a can of smoked almonds. What more could a man want?

Yet more was to come.......

After we made merry we left the party to finally head up to our final destination, The Had A View homestead in Belgrade.

After a quick meal we retired to the sitting room to exchange gifts. I received Monty Python videos, my little book collection I had amassed for myself (long story)and what I thought was the highlight of my Christmas, a photographer back pack.
I was in my glory. All was well in Gazerville.

Then it got better.

Waaaaay better.

I was walked into the smoking room where before me lay a complete dark room set up. Enlargers (yes with an "S"), copiers, trays, tongs, safe lights, timers, lenses, developing tanks, print dryer, paper safe box, and various other items.

All now went from well in Gazerville to "Holy Shit!" in Gazerville.

Gazer is one happy camper!

My latest thang.......

I have nothing new to put up and probably wont until after Christmas. So I was thinking.............

I want to start posting up photos of photographers I like. Wax on about why I like them and maybe get some others to do the same.

So without further delay.......



Steve McCurry:
Probably one of the most famous photos to ever adorn the cover of National Geographic. If I am not mistaken he took this image in the mid-80's. The girl I know was an Afghan. A refugee.

Like everyone else its the girls eyes that make the shot. They hold your stare. Almost as if she is searching the soul of the viewer as they search hers. The lighting is perfect as is everything else about it. I know Mr. McCurry went back and re-shot this young girl as the woman she had become. I remember watching it. I think it was National Geographic Explorer.

I wonder if Mr. McCurry knew he had a career defining shot when he saw it developed and printed?

Meet the Holiday Bunny

The new official politically correct holiday mascot.

A non gender specific soft and squishy stuffed bunny who wishes all "Happy Holidays" so as to not offend the perpetually offended. No prior history. No religious reference. No name as to define its gender. No facial features to define its ethnicity or its mood.

Just a gray dreary bunny that says "Happy Holidays" in monotone.

What she said!

I have tried to keep my politics off this blog. Those who know me well know my politics. But today I had to make an exception.

I have had enough of my two senators, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, and their party trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for a while now.

Then I came across Betty!

I say we dip Betty's middle finger in the ink so she can really tell the white flag waving shits what she really thinks of them.

All I have to say is.....

Amen sister!

Big Ol' tip of the Gazer's derby to Political Teen.

A ton of bricks crashing onto ones head never felt so good.

As many have known, the Ol' Gazer and his Shannon had been trying to get pregnant for a while now. After four tries, what seemed to be a zillion shots, and much praying to the Big Guy above we got our wish.

For a while now I have been hesitant to let myself fully be happy about Shannon being pregnant. I felt as though I may jinx us. Or maybe it was the thought of things eventually falling apart. Whatever it was, I just never felt "it". The joy of being a father.

Well today at around 3:15 that ended.

A ton of bricks fell onto my head, each one engraved with the words "Lilly Grace."






As the ultrasound was being performed I found myself transfixed on the monitor. The gray blurs not making any sense but yet you know its a shape, a human shape. Arms and legs. A spine. A head. None of it really making the connection to one another, yet inside you, deep down inside, the reality is building up and bubbling up in your soul. A picture is shown, frozen. The bits and pieces become one image.

They become a human. A baby.

YOUR BABY!

You can see the little heart beat. And yours is racing. They play you a audio of the heartbeat, but you can barely hear it because your heart is thundering inside your head. You see the baby move, your soul is dancing inside you.

The tears well up in your eyes as you look at your wife and tell her "I love you!"

This was the day I saw for my own eyes what I had prayed to see. The smile on my wife's face as she was told...."Looks like a girl."

Thats when it hits you. This is when you hear that word echo in your head for the first time, and its transformed from just a word into an emotion.

Daddy.

I don't know what the future will bring. I am not going to worry about that just yet.
I just wanna soak in this a bit. Enjoy the feeling. Share it with my wife.

Hello Lilly Grace!

Hey look .....a vase!

I don't even remember when I took this shot.

Nothing going on. Me and my Shannon have the Boston Pop's today. We go every Christmas. This year we are bring my sister and her brandy new hubby, Dean. Should be a good time. I am going to quit bowling tonight. Its just to hard to get there every Sunday, especially since I will be commuting back and forth from Maine every weekend. I loved candle pin bowling. Hopefully in Maine I can get on a league in Augusta.

Anywhoooo.........

Gazer is going to get set up to shoot the pretty misses in her beautiful black velvet dress. Hopefully I can do it justice.

Gazer hits the motherload!

Today I took my Shannon out to dinner for her birthday a day early because of the impending snow storm heading our way. That is if in fact a storm is heading our way. The predictions for Monday were as dire as tomorrows and we saw nada in the snow department.
Anyway..............

After dinner we did a little Christmas shopping. After a few stores we wound up in Building #19 to browse and look for cheap odds and ends as we often do.

Folks the Ol' Gazer is becoming cheap. I know, I know, how could the famous Worcester Omphalos Gazer be considered cheap when he lives such an opulent lifestyle you are asking yourself. Let me say this, the older you get the cheaper you get, no way around it. And Building #19 gets even a cheap
man in the mood to shop.

I usually browse the book section, looking for basically anything that tickles my fancy. But today! Oh glorious day! I hit the mother load!

I walked into a photography book bonanza! I found my self pawing over various books of famous photographers. The wife for once felt what I often felt when she goes shopping....The vibrating credit card. She knew she was in trouble, I had my mojo workin' and there was no stopping me, only hopes to contain the damage.

To make a long story short I managed to buy a hundred dollars worth of excellent photography books for a mere thirty five bucks! Better yet, there are still some I left for another day. The books are as I write this being wrapped by my wife to be given to me in various ways for Christmas. I kept two to take the edge off waiting to see the rest. That was a five minute battle but eventually my wife gave in. Survivor had come on and I was pouting and bitching like a little kid. Eventually she decided to watch Survivor.................

We both won.

So I am going to give all a heads up.

If your into photography, and are cheap..............

Building #19 is where you can satisfy your addiction.

Sometimes it works.

Pretty much how I envisioned the shot. I bumped and tweaked a smidge in PhotoShop but not to much. I have a duotone of the same image with a closer crop that at first I liked but it seemed to suck the life out of it the more I looked at it.

One of them perfected into disaster deals.

Oh well.....

Thats the way it goes in Photoville.

Leonardo Da Vinci......

Leonardo Da Vinci........

Sunday the History Channel did hour and a half long show describing Leonardo Da Vinci's life. I learned far more about the man I had assumed I knew. It also left me with a few questions:

1)Was he born with a higher intelligence, or was it his almost boundless curiosity that formed his intellect into a fine tuned machine?

2)Did he understand that developing a higher intelligence needs a physical input as well as a mental input?

3)Is there another Leonardo Da Vinci walking among us?

I really do think there is something to be said about a physical application driving a higher intellect. He drew out his ideas. He built models. He held what he studied, almost seeming to let the lessons of the experience seep into his skin and let the knowledge be carried into his brain via his bloodstream.

I do wonder if there is someone walking this earth who's thinking is so radical and forward that he would measure up to Leonardo. Would we pay attention to the person today. Hell, would the person even know he measured up to Leonardo.

Last,imagine what he would think of today's world.

Would he be surprised? Disappointed?

I cant say.