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  • I have a weakness.

    The love affair began in Detroit, like any other. The girlfriend away, I was looking for cheap thrills in a moment of weakness. It was just going to be a drink but the dessert case had other ideas. With a tractor-beam lock, I felt powerless in its presence. No doubt, that delicious little morsel proved to be an amazing experience. Only to be matched by my return to the same airport only days later. In a breakdown of will power, my passing by became a relapse. Only to be relapsed at the next Caribou Coffee that I would run across. Folks, it's a great one. The Detroit airport one was the best, if you're ever there. Oh....and the poor girl in Mequon when I walked in with my camera to take a picture. It was a messy display case - which she was embarrassed about - but you can see with a polarizing filter and a huge aperture, that muffin looks ten times better in the picture than it did in real life.

    So! Speaking of a girlfriend away, that will soon be remedied with some splendid time together. Since she's not into the whole visiting-me-deal, I'm flying to Heathrow on the 21st and taking the Chunnel to Paris to spend Christmas with Esther. She thinks it'll be cooler than Milwaukee *yawns*. Wow, that'll be fun. Neither of us speak French, so it'll be a classic American-French fiasco. Oh, am I giving away the secret plan, Esther? Then we go to the French Alps, assuming it all works out, for skiing which will likely be a highlight of my life. From there, it's on to Amsterdam so that I can check off another European country (I visited France while in school) then back to the States for Brent's wedding. I have sooo much to do before then, it's unreal. But being an excellent procrastinator, I won't even entertain the thoughts of productivity until the last minute. In which case, I'll crank out weeks of work in literally minutes. Saves a lot of time that way. I'm saying all this to say that you have until the New Year for my Christmas presents. Which is code for I will be taking until the New Year for your presents. =)

    ::wave:: to visitors. Please comment on pictures you like - it helps me. =)
    ps: want visitors? boost a picture! wow!

  • I take pictures.

    I need to rush outta here-a, but I'm finally starting to get up to speed on my websites and pictures. Here are a couple that I really wanted to show - a couple that I really love.

    Milwaukee Art Museum at Dusk


    An Acetylene Cutting Torch


    A Loony Camera Dude with His Favorite Piece of Glass


    Bernie Being the Best


    Victoria, Chris, Christina, Nick, Joe, Beth
      

    Haha, Chris.


    Late Night Voyeur Photography of a Salon/Spa
     

    Please Fill in the Blank. Victoria is ______ in these pictures.




  • So I had a flat tire...

    Last night, David talked me into photographing a basketball game which went very well, and afterwards, I wanted to stop by a place to take a picture for sherylshearer since I was in the area. I'm driving over there when I see Chrissy, a friend of my Xanga parent, Pete. Weird, I thought. I was parking my truck with David when I thought I saw the bassist of The Buskers band. Weird, I thought.

    I walked into Linneman's, and there's the rest of the band! It was a mistake on Linneman's part to book them for last night, but they played anyways even though no one knew they'd be there. I took pictures, of course, and think they absolutely rock and can't wait to post them.

    On the way home, though, my tire started making noise, so I pulled off to the side of the freeway and saw it was flat. I changed it, chucked the old one in the back, and kept going. Freezing cold at midnight here in Milwaukee, by the way. But to some people, a flat tire is such a big deal! I've had a couple of flat tires this year, and last year, and the year before, and it happens on equipment from time to time, trailers, loaders, and sometimes big trucks, but it's never been a big deal. You change it or fix it and keep going. It's not hard to do, really, just a couple of minutes with the kit that's in the vehicle.

    Oh, one more anecdote. We - Chris, Beth, Joe and I - were driving to school when I sensed something wrong with a tire, and when it started getting loud, I pulled off to investigate. Just then, there was an accident at the intersection in front of us as a car and a Coca-Cola semi collided. Talk about providence, I would always jump off the line on a green light, and I would've been the one smacking into that truck running a late yellow/red light!

    Anyways, have you ever changed a tire on the road?

  • File Under: Posing Next to Hickish Things

     

    Ya gotta laugh. Leon told me that putting the room air conditioner in was cheaper than fixing the vehicle's a/c. Note the $1500 DC-AC power inverter behind the seat to run the thing, but it just blew all the hot air into the back of the van. Classic.

  • I need a new header.

    Talking to some of my friends, I can't even picture working for 25 hours a week or even less. I put in 43 hours on Friday and Saturday, but that's more than normal, even for me. Still, I have bills. I check my measly account balance every day hoping there's a bank error in my favor like a Monopoly Chance card. Plus, working is something that I enjoy - and the people that I'm talking about are working in their career fields too - nursing or flying airplanes, pretty sweet jobs if you ask me.

    Then there's our mechanic. He's making almost $30/hour with us, and he works a couple hours a week. If I made that, I'd be going for overtime every other week and flying somewhere for my time off. It's a no-brainer! Any insights? Why do people pass up on hours at great wages at jobs in their fields? Why are most of these examples women? What doesn't appeal about working hard for a while so that you can doing something really enjoyable the rest of the time?

  • True to Form

    True to form, I will bring sad news with the best twist that I can.

    I'm sadly realizing that my dad's dad is in his final days and hours. It was quick. He's 89 and the kind of person who was physically with it just as much as he was mentally with it. Then since his fall, his faculties have completely disintegrated. Tonight, he's breathing through an oxygen mask in the ICU instead of warming up his warm milk as part of his evening routine in his apartment. Hard to think that two months ago, he was just fine - going to Victoria's birthday party while I was gone and being perfectly capable of caring for himself.

    It sucks. Please pray for him...especially that he would be comfortable and hopefully that he can move into the assisted living apartment. But at least that he would be comfortable no matter what.

    To my knowledge, I've always tried to leave things positively on this site, so I want to share my newest, most favorite picture that I took with my new lens as I was walking on the sidewalk in Madison. This girl was zig-zagging down the street, and I picked up my camera with the 3+ lb. lens and snapped this picture as I panned it slowly. Really stunning.

  • Have You Ever...

    Written an entry, posted it, then wondered why no one was commenting?

    My name's Nicholas Crawford, and I have. I'm here to tell you that it's important that you don't post entries as "Private" if you'd like other people to be able to read and comment on them. Lesson #3585 for November 14th. =)

  • Strike Up the Band!

    This picture thing is certainly a success! Tonight, I passed up the $650 mark in high school football game sales in just over two weeks. Believe me, I'm the most surprised of anyone. Now, I'm getting requests for senior pictures and portraits and more band performances and for calendars and nature prints. If only my sister would trust me to take her pictures, that's one thing I don't understand. So my answer to that is yes, yes, and yes. I will be putting my nature and travel images online and making prints up to 11x14 (which look beautiful with 6 megapixels!), mousepads, buttons, magnets, keychains, greeting cards, trading cards, calendars, books, t-shirts, even mugs and wall clocks. The main emphasis will be on reasonably priced large prints that you could cover your wall with or use as gifts. Cheers to that!

    If you're looking at my calendar on the bottom of this page, I've got Youth Convention this weekend with Chi Alpha, which is always a highlight every year. This past weekend, Chris and I visited our brother Perry in Chicago and had a great time watching Man on Fire, Inside Man, and Good Fellas. Here we are with our great hair. Anyways, he's moved into a nicer apartment since the last time we visited him and while it may no longer be $250 a month in rent, it's much bigger, and his new roommate is his gf Katie. He's now saving $5,000 a year in cab fares too (!!!!) now that he's near the L and can take that to work.

    Taking these pictures takes me all over the state, which I do enjoy. Last week, I fell asleep in a marsh outside Madison's Dane County Airport waiting for this picture to expose. Actually, this six second exposure of the State Capitol framed by a runway probably isn't to blame for the 30 minute nap I took in 40 degree weather! Oh my, I was tired. And wet. And I had hiked a mile in and needed to rest before hiking back. So you wanna be a photographer? How much patience you got? I've seriously spent hours every single day reading about pictures and cameras, trying to learn every bit I can then I spend hours every single day taking pictures and filling up memory cards before spending hours every single day processing pictures in Photoshop, wishing I had used red-eye reduction or wishing I had bounced the flash off the ceiling...then applying it the next day.

    Here I am in Manitowoc, with a view of the Manitowoc Maritime Museum and its submarine on exhibit, which I vividly remember visiting as a kid.


    You no like-a spiders, eh?

    Joe and I rolled up to Green Bay for another photosode in my life. When he tells you that he's got an unbeaten record at Lambeau Field, remember this picture.

    Happy birthday to my mom, who turned 39 again on Tuesday. You can leave her a note on her guestbook.You probably guessed this, but I gave her some framed prints.

    One last shift in gears: my 89-year-old granddad (Dad's dad) fell on Saturday, hitting his head. He doesn't remember what all happened, but he was probably dehydrated. They brought him to the hospital and was supposed to come home Monday (he lives in an apartment complex for the elderly, essentially), but he was getting up on his own without help and fell a couple more times, so they're keeping him longer, maybe until next Monday. Last night after Chi Alpha, I stopped in to see him and had a really good time sharing laughs. Before I left, I gave him his water cup that he slurped on a bunch of times then told me that "drinking from a straw is a drag" and that drinking from a glass "furnishes the incentive to drink!"  He's still very much with it, but he's clearly struggling - which is the hardest part to watch.

    He's brilliant. I've had fun searching for him on the web, pulling up his involvement with the creation of the PC and the first airline reservation system which you use every time you search for a flight online. Maybe two months ago, he handed over the reigns of a project that he's worked on through retirement to my dad's cousin. He still thinks about it - it was the first thing he told me about when I came in. My grandpa died right after his fiftieth wedding anniversary, the day before 9/11. There's no doubt in my mind that people press on psychologically to meet their goals. My grandpa to see his 50th, and my granddad to see his project come to fruition. Now that he's passed it on, maybe he feels a release. I sure don't want to see him go.

    Earlier this month, the Father of Modern Arboriculture passed away from a fatal fall on a flight of stairs. Dr. Alex Shigo did an amazing number of things that reminds me of what I want to be remembered for and want to be pressing to complete in my final years. Like it or not, the rest of my life is just further down the track that I'm laying out now. Am I doing what's worthwhile? Am I giving up my small ambitions? Lots to think about, and a youth convention with perfect timing.

  • Hurray for Huge Apertures


    Large apertures let lots of light in, allowing you to use a faster shutter and freeze action. A side effect is a more shallow depth of focus, which yakked about before. This DOF is highly sought after in my areas such as portrait and sports photography where you want the focus - and with it the emphasis - on the subject, leaving the background a pleasant blur. I've selected pics where possible that used a very low (large) aperture to demonstrate. My fastest lens, a 1.8, does an excellent job of this. You'll always see it on when I'm in low light and with people. =) If you're thinking of getting into digital SLR cameras, I've made a list of goodies on my shopping list.


     

    From bowling last week with Chi Alpha, [with David]

    To shooting sporting events night after night, [with David and Joe]

       

    Even some more casual subjects,

    To some absolutely rocking concerts by eVibe and by my friends, The Buskers, [with Lindsay]


    To a very cool museum in Minneapolis with the Body Worlds exhibit, and finally,


     

    Visiting great friends and traveling with family. [with Katlin and Chris]

    So how are you? Let's go eat, I'm hungry!

  • I just started to cry.... this is so exciting. I just sold $70 $92 in pictures between two orders.

    Really, I appreciate every kind comment about pictures that I've taken, but I can't even begin to tell how it feels when someone is willing to pay over $20 for a single image. Many thanks to David for setting me up with WisconsinPreps.com where they featured my pictures at the top of this page beginning yesterday, to my parents for buying the camera for my b-day, and to Esther for getting the lens that took 95% of the pictures. =)

    The bestseller:

    I was reading before I went that "faces sell" so I made sure to focus on shots with faces and expressions. Sure enough, these sold too...

    I just hope to make enough to support the habit. Do drug dealers fool themselves with that logic? But really, almost all of the pictures that sold were pictures with flash. I say with flash because it works when it's charged up... I had it set to go for every shot, but when you're shooting across a football field, literally, it completely discharges itself as it puts out as much light as possible. Sometimes, it would take 10 or 15 seconds before it was ready to go again. So this Friday, I'm going to use rechargeable Ni-MH batteries that recharge more quickly than alkaline. :crosses thumbs: Suddenly I don't feel so bad for spending $194 on the flash. Ack, I'll be on cloud nine for the rest of the day. Thank you Lord.