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While I was in Nashville on the weekend of April 17-18 for our Inspirational Photography weekend, I got the chance to hear one of the most amazing guitarists I’ve ever heard. He is a young man by the name of J.D. Simo. He plays, among others, with the Don Kelly Band at Robert’s Western World on Broadway in downtown Nashville. It’s well worth a trip to Robert’s just to hear J.D. play. He’s 25 years old, cut his first CD at age 16 and is blowing everyone away with the way he plays, from blues to country. Just google him and see.

This is a shot that I got when JD was doing his solo for Ghost Riders last Saturday night.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

JD Simo and Don Kelly

Nashville, TN
Robert’s Western World
April 17,2010

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 16-35mm L lens at 35mm, f/2.8, 1/350 sec, ISO 5000, handheld

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Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh (Blessings of St. Patrick’s Day upon ye!)

This year is rapidly getting away from me. My travels this year, so far, for The Mindful Eye have taken me to Seattle, Miami, Washington D.C., Jekyll Island, Austin, Phoenix (with at stop in Tucson for a few days) and on to Savannah next week. As you might guess, I’ve had little time for shooting and processing images.

On this St. Patty’s Day, I dug into my archives and found a image I made of my favorite Irish troubadour, Gabriel Donohue, taken last October as he was performing at Kevin Barry’s in Savannah. Going along with the theme of of musicians started in January, I felt it a most appropriate image to wish you all the Blessings of St. Patrick’s Day.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all and, especially, to all my friends celebrating in Savannah!!

Gabriel will be performing at Kevin Barry’s again May 3 – 9. If you are in the Savannah area during this time, stop by and treat yourself to an evening of great music.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

Gabriel Donohue
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh

Savannah, GA
October, 2009

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 135mm 2.0, ISO 3200, f/2.0, 1/125 second, handheld

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Hello and welome to My View for January 10, 2010.

Welcome to the first My View Post of the New Year

As the new year and decade are now underway, I searched my files for an image that might be appropriate for a fresh start. And, I found one.

Back in September of last year, I had the pleasure of visiting friends in Wisconsin and hearing a band that was new to me — although not new to my friends. Their son is in this band. The band is Fresh Cut Collective and I heard them play in Milwaukee one night in early September. Although I did not consider myself a huge fan of hip-hop music, they managed to win me over after just a few songs. The energy this group brings to the stage is highly contagious.

I chose an image of my friends’ son that I hope shows the kind of energy this young band exudes.

Wishing you all fresh new ways to look at your everyday environments as we go forth in this new year!!

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome. They make me a better photographer, aid my growth as a person and offer me new experiences.

Fresh Cut Collective #1

Milwaukee, WI
September, 2009

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.4, ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/90 second, handheld

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Just a reminder to check out our Inspirational Photography Weekends coming to a city near you. Discounts are available for groups.

Hello and welome to My View for Friday, June 12, 2009.

Hello Everyone,

Happy Friday!!

I feel as though I’m getting caught up on My View and will go back to posting once a week starting on Sunday evening. Thank you for your patience with me during the hectic spring workshop season.

One of the great things that came out of the March, April, May series of workshops is that my teaching partner and friend, Craig Tanner, took a “next step” with his music. A long-time guitarist, he finally worked up the courage to play in front of other people and began playing at some of the open mic nights in Savannah. Today’s image is one that I took late one night as Craig and two new musician friends were just jamming in Franklin Square.

Here are Adam, Craig and Jeff making beautiful music in Franklin Square just after midnight on a lovely Friday night during the Street Portraiture workshop.

As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome.

Franklin Square Musicians

Savannah, GA
Canon 5D, Lensbaby Composer lens, f/2.0, ISO 3200, 1/30 sec, handheld.
Composite of three images

A Larger view.

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Hello and welome to My View for Sunday, January 11, 2009.

I hope your first full week of 2009 went well.

Today’s image is another from New Year’s Eve in Savannah of one of my favorite bands, The Trainwrecks. The band was playing at Club 51 degrees where there are a series of different colored stage lights that change while the band is playing. This image caught the green stage lights illuminating the band almost completely. The colorful lights at the bottom of the image are the happy accidental result of flare into the lens from the stage lights.

I appreciate all of your comments and suggestions as to how to improve my images they serve to make me a better photographer and person.

Thank you for visiting My View and I hope your 2009 is off to a great start.

In the Limelight

Club 51 Degrees, Savannah GA
Canon 5D, 50mm 1.4 lens, ISO 3200, 1/250 sec, f/1.4 handheld.

Based on your feedback about the “blue orb” in the image (a stage light that was coming up), I reworked the image so that the blue has a color more in line with the overall green/yellow in this particular image. I’d love to have your feedback on this version.

In the Limelight 02

Markus’ Solution to the hard metal reflector of the stage light.

After we all discovered that it was the hard, sharp look of the metal reflector on the stage light that was bothering us — actually think Markus discovered that first — he very kindly sent me a copy of his version to fix it. I’m posting that here and I think you will like it much better. Thank you Markus for playing with this and discovering the “real problem” and for sharing the solution. It definitely helped me look at things in a bit different way when trying to figure out a problem with an image.

Markus’ Limelight

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Hello and welome to My View for Sunday, January 5, 2009.

Happy New Year Everyone!! Welcome to 2009!!!

I had the pleasure of spending New Year’s Eve in Savannah with friends, enjoying the sounds of four of those friends, one of my favorite unsigned bands, The Trainwrecks. The band was playing at Club 51 Degrees on West Congress Street. The club had a series of colorful lights and lasers that displayed throughout the show. As the lights changed, they created a different color setting for the band, making it a fun venue to photograph.

This shot of Jason Bible, lead singer, guitarist, harmonica player and song writer for The Trainwrecks, was made with the Lensbaby Composer. At just the right angle, the stage lights created a flare ring of light in the lens. I stood in the same spot and shot a series of images, one for each of the different colors of lights as they came up. This image is a composition of shots created when each of the red, purple, aqua blue and green lights were on.

I appreciate all of your comments and suggestions as they serve to make me a better photographer and person.

Thank you for visiting My View. I wish for you all the things you desire in 2009.

Rocking In 2009 with The Trainwrecks

Club 51 Degrees, Savannah GA
Canon 5D, Lensbaby Composer with 2.8 ring, ISO 3200, 1/45 sec, handheld.
Composite of four images

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Hello and welome to My View for Wednesday, May 28, 2008.

Jason Bible, Marcus Kuhlmann and Eric Dunn were the original members of The Trainwrecks when I first met them back in 2005. I decided to go ahead and post the individual images of them in one post. I finished the images along the lines of their album, Whiskey and War. Please see the previous post to My View for the individual images of fourth member of the band, Stu Harmening, master dobroist.

Thank you for your comments and suggestion with this series of photographs of the Trainwrecks.

“Jason Bible at Murphy’s Law in Savannah, September, 2007″

Canon 5D, 50mm 1.4 lens, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 3200, handheld

“Marcus Kuhlmann, Murphy’s Law, Savannah, April 2008″

Canon 1Ds Mark II, 50mm 1.4 lens, f/1.4, 1/45 sec, ISO 3200, handheld

“Eric Dunn, The Jinx, Savannah, May 2008″

Canon 5D, 50mm 1.4 lens, f/1.8, 1/20 sec, ISO 3200, handheld

Next Sunday, I will return to my weekly posts.

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If you are in the Atlanta area, The Trainwrecks are opening for Jerry Jeff Walker on July 18 at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Hello and welome to My View for Sunday, May 25, 2008.

Since Stu Harmening, master dobro player, guitarist, and banjo player, is probably the least photographed of the four members of the The Trainwrecks. I decided to start the series of individual portraits of the band with two images that I took of him in Savannah — one with him on the dobro and one on the guitar. The one with Stu playing the dobro was taken at Murphy’s Law in April, 2008, and the one with him playing the guitar was taken at the Mercury Lounge in November, 2007.

Thank you for your comments and suggestion with this series of photographs of the Trainwrecks.

“Stu on Dobro at Murphy’s Law, April, 2008″

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Lensbaby 2.0 with 2.8 aperture ring, 1/60 sec, ISO 3200, handheld

“Stu on Guitar at Mercury Lounge, November, 2007″

Canon 5D, 50mm 1.4 lens, f/1.4, 1/13 sec, ISO 1600, handheld

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Hello and welome to My View for Thursday, May 22, 2008.

As promised, I am posting more images this week of one of my favorite unsigned bands, The Trainwrecks of Savannah GA. This image was from a visit to Savannah earlier this month. The guys were playing at The Jinx, a club in the historic district of Savannah..

This image includes Eric Dunn, playing stand-up bass in the foreground. In the background are Jason Bible, playing guitar and singing, and Stu Harmening, playing guitar. Sitting behind the guys, and not included in this image, is drummer, Marcus Kuhlmann.

I will post more individual images of the members of The Trainwrecks as I process them this week.

Thank you for your suggestions on improving my photography as they only serve to make me a better photographer and person.

Thank you for visiting My View.

“The Trainwrecks, May, 2008 at The Jinx, Savannah”

Canon 5D, 50mm 1.4 lens at f/1.8, 1/20 sec, ISO 3200, handheld

Hello and welome to My View for Tuesday, May 20, 2008.

For the last three years, I’ve visited Savannah GA on a regular basis, first as a workshop participant, then as an assistant teacher to Craig Tanner and as a teacher of my own workshop.

On a visit to this beautiful city during the very first Next Step workshop where I was a participant, I met an awesome band — The Trainwrecks. I’ve followed the careers of these young men since then and photographed them many many times in various venues where they played over the past three years. For the next couple of weeks, I’m working on putting together a lot of those images for them. It is very interesting to go back and look at the images of them three years ago and the images I took two weeks ago in Savannah.

This whole process caused me to reflect on my life three years ago and where I am now. And, I often wonder if my appearence on the outside reflects the changes that have taken place on the inside.

Does my face reflect the difference the last three years have made in my life? Do I appear more intune with myself? Do I look as though I’m happier with my life? Do the pains and sorrows also show through? The masks we wear often betray what lies beneath. I hope that I’ve become more open to what’s going on in my life and more trusting of showing that to others I meet.

May we all be more open and trusting with ourselves.

I will post more Trainwreck images as I process them this week.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions on my photography as they only serve to make me a better photographer and person.

Thank you for visiting My View.

“The Trainwrecks, June, 2007 at Murphy’s Law, Savannah”

Canon 5D, 50 mm lens at f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 3200, handheld

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are in the Atlanta area, The Trainwrecks are opening for Jerry Jeff Walker on July 18 at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.