I Believe That is Rain

JWise Photo of the Day

Storm clouds and heavy rain contrasted agains a blue sky that is quickly disappearing as I approach Prescott, Arizona

It was approaching the time to pick up Caroline from her weekend of sewing with Sandy, but as I got closer to Prescott, the weather started turning ugly. I drove right into a heavy thunderstorm with buckets of rain coming down so hard I could barely see more than 100 feet in front of me. My car windows were still sealed shut and the air conditioning blasting from the escape from desert heat down south, while the thunder roared and lightning strikes were obviously happening not more than a mile from the very road I was struggling to stay on. The monsoon storms during the summer in Arizona are beautiful when they have these clear delineations of blue skies contrasted against dark threatening clouds.

Gale Tattersall

JWise Photo of the Day

Photo of my computer monitors while I was watching the Gale Tattersall webinar about HDSLR filmmaking at www.creativelive.com

Caroline took off for the weekend to Prescott, Arizona to spend time with our friend Sandy, who was going to be teaching Caroline a thing or two about sewing. I stayed home to learn a thing or two about making films using my Canon T2i HDSLR. The webinar I signed up for was held in Seattle, Washington at CreativeLive and broadcast to participants from around the world, including me here in Phoenix, Arizona. The 3-day workshop was hosted by noted Director of Photography Gale Tattersall. Gale is most recently known for his work on a hit TV show called House. His last episode was shot on Canon 5D’s – a first.

The webinar was terrific with the first day looking at the capabilities of the HDSLR as a platform for shooting professional-grade films. My favorite quote of the day from Gale, “If you have a great script, you could shoot on gaffer tape and no one would care.” The other two days dealt with lighting and shooting a scene. Turns out that CreativeLive offers a bunch of great courses they have created with the help of renowned professionals. In addition to Gale’s 3-day workshop, be sure to check out Vincent Laforet’s March 2011 session if you are interested in turning your inexpensive HDSLR into a movie camera.

Solitude by Joe Fenton

JWise Photo of the Day

Solitude by Joe Fenton, signed copy #2 of 100 now rests on our wall

The print on the wall behind Caroline is titled, Solitude, it is from artist Joe Fenton. A couple of weeks prior on a Saturday afternoon, an email from Joe popped into my mailbox. He was notifying everyone who joined his mailing list that his webshop was now open and that Solitude was one of the first prints that were available. I ordered within 10 minutes of his email arriving and for my speed, we had signed print number 2 of 100 sent to us.

This has been the year that Caroline and I have purchased more art than in the previous 10 combined. My apologies for the reflection, the folks who framed Solitude tried talking us into using museum-grade glass, but if you have ever priced a large 60″ x 31″ custom frame with non-reflective museum glass, you’d know that the costs can be heavy. If you ever want to see a tiny corner inside the heads of Caroline and me, look at Solitude and you will see part of what makes us fall into delight.

Broken Pole

JWise Photo of the Day

Broken electricity pole in Phoenix, Arizona. A storm the night before brought in a wind shear that decapitated more than a dozen power transmission poles.

What kind of surgical storm is able to drop from the sky to decapitate more than a dozen power transmission poles and not touch the houses right next to the carnage? The one we had in our neighborhood last night, that’s what kind. The people on this street around the corner (luckily not affecting us) were out of electricity for four days while the old wooden poles were replaced with no-snap giant steel monster poles. It’s not so much the missing electricity that would be bad, it is the 90 degree (32c) nights without air-conditioning that would be horrible.