October 18, 2008Rally in the Valley - Obama in Roanoke, VaRally in the Valley - Obama in Roanoke, Va
I had the opportunity to photograph Sen. Barack Obama's rally in Roanoke, Va. It's the first shoot I've done for the Democratic Party of Virginia since 2006. I did a great deal of political event photography for the DPVA in 2004, specifically the DNC in Boston and numerous other campaign events. I covered Governor's Kaine's campaign kickoff, his historic inauguration in Williamsburg, Va and the 2006 JJ Dinner with Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell. I've gotten involved in so many other projects since 2006 (not the least of which is acting as producer for the TWiP podcast and, you know... a more than full time job here at SBC) that I haven't been as involved in Democratic photography. My former blog, Documenting Democracy, has gone silent (no real loss... there are so many other superb progressive blogs in Va that have a vastly more effective voice than I'd ever have in this arena) and serves now more as a 2004/2006 photo repository. My "voice" in this scene is through my photography which I do voluntarily and offer freely to the Democratic party and our campaigns (assuming they find images that they deem useful, of course). So... anyway... I was eager to cover this event since Obama's campaign is so phenomenally inspiring and, frankly, historic. My photos here aren't going to win any awards or anything... but I did look for some opportunities to capture a little of the mood. One really needs to shoot from a press riser with some massive, tripod mounted Scott Bourne-class lenses to get the tight, dramatic shots. :) I was using a 24-70L on one body and 70-200L on the other and did a bit of roaming about when not in my slot.
I have more shots to edit, so I might be amending the gallery later. I also made sure to take some shots that represent how the press pool area works (mostly if any TWiP listeners are curious) and you'll see videographers and wire service photogs in there. Most of those are shot with an 8mm fisheye lens both for effect and to give a sense of scale to the arena and our place in it. I hope to fit in a few more events around the state before the big day when Virginia elects its first Democratic president since 1964. If I do, I'll post'em here.
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It's a lung-filling breath of fresh air after the last eight, horrid, spiraling years under Bush's sorry excuse for a presidency. Sorry to my Republican readers, but I'm briefly putting on my partisan hat here at halfpress and calling it like I see it. DPVA hooked me up with a press pass and a nice little reserved spot in the front of the risers and I quickly realized how much I've missed covering things like the DNC and rallies. 
Posted to News by amahler on October 18, 2008 at 2:45 AM
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October 8, 2008The Wedding of Shawn & Matt
I'm pretty pissed off with use of the word "event" these days. We have weather events. Television events. All kinds of "world premiere events". Crap. All of it. This wedding, however... this was an "event". A two-day event at least. Shawn and Matt essentially rented out all of Bluestone State Park in West Virginia. That's 26 cabins in the chilly, wooded hills of rugged West Virginia. I've been hating summer since it started back in May, so I was itching for some frosty mountain air and at least the start of fall colors. I was not disappointed. :) It's kind of hard to put into words the scene here... but imagine being surrounded by about 180-200 of the most fun-loving, creative, musical, and happy people you can imagine all pretty much taking over an entire state park for 48 hours. Shawn's scene for years has been one of Contra dance and top-notch traditional music. Matt is an incredible pianist already with a few albums to his name. Their circle of friends includes some of the most amazing guitarists, fiddlers, mandolin and banjo players... you name it. Individually, they are all a force to contend with. Put these folks together, though, and you can see the passion. They LOVE to play together and everyone within earshot is in for a treat.
I'll quote a few key phrases from one of the pre-wedding emails: Finally, in keeping with the spirit of fun and frivolity, should you be in possession of an unusual article of clothing or an unusual noisemaker that you're dying for an opportunity to wear/perform in public, this is your big chance! It's encouraged the whole weekend, but particularly during the Wedding Processional. Shawn will be terribly disappointed if there are no viking hats, kilts, liederhosen, Mardi Gras masks, duck calls, pirate hats and swords, or clown pants! Photos and words won't do it justice. Anyone who was there this weekend knows how special this event was. I, for one, came home relaxed and happy and wondering how we could talk them into doing this again next weekend. And the weekend after that... :) As you'll see in these photos, I was pretty captivated with the musicians and there are individual images in here I plan to collect (with others) in a specific themed gallery. A number of the photos show a trio that I first became aware of this weekend: Crowfoot. All of the photo editing I've been doing the last few evenings has been while listening to their two albums that I immediately purchased from iTunes. Much to my pleasure, they appear to be playing right up the road in Charlottesville at the end of October. Adam, Jaige and Nicholas: see you there! :)
P.S. Keep an eye out for the photo of the special brew. This is a handcrafted beer by the "mad beer genius", Jonathan Thielen (who ran The Alehouse in Cabin 26 this weekend), specially made as a gift for Shawn and Matt. It is designed to ferment in the bottle for the coming year and cannot be opened until October 4, 2009. The label is designed by the amazing, Ben Crenshaw, whom I was thrilled to finally meet this past weekend (Ben's the dude in the awesome pirate hat in the photos). Our bottle is sitting here on my desk for the next year. Hey - Jonathan said a "cool, dark place". :) The Wedding of Shawn & Matt |
Posted to News by amahler on October 8, 2008 at 9:30 PM
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August 15, 2008More about reCAPTCHA
Enjoy! P.S. Screw you, spammers. :) |
Posted to by amahler on August 15, 2008 at 1:13 PM
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August 5, 2008halfpress.com Update
There are new features I'll try to utilize once I have time to explore them, but my goal for now was to not destroy the current site while gaining the ability to implement captchas on the comment system. Comment spammers have been hammering me to death for years and I finally hit my frustration limit. I'd call spammers the sub-human scum of the earth, but that would be an insult to scum. Scum serves more of a purpose and, as little as I appreciate scum, I respect it infinitely more than I respect spammers. But I digress... Anyway, I've implemented reCaptcha on the comment forms, so if you take a moment to leave comments on here, you'll also be helping digitize books! As a Kindle owner, I appreciate your efforts. :) More to come... - Aaron |
Posted to News by amahler on August 5, 2008 at 2:44 PM
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June 18, 2008Dumb Luck 101: My First "Organic" 3D Modo Project on History Channel
I'm planning to write more about this when I have some time, but I figured I'd link to a local news item about my first "organic" Modo project ending up in a nationally broadcast documentary. Understand that this is not a suggestion that I have any great 3D modeling experience (I don't)... it was kind of "dumb luck" to be perfectly honest. :) Mahler's Venus on History Channel Frankly, the model isn't completely finished yet and, I've had my hands so full with work, TWiP, forthcoming TWiM producing and photo gigs that I've not had much time in Modo recently. I've got a pile of projects I want to do with it soon since the app is just insanely cool.
I'm working on a few things combining Modo models with textures I shoot digitally and equirectangular HDR panos (most recent one here) that I shoot and assemble to use for real-world lighting. This is the model I started after spending part of Christmas screwing around in Modo and modeling an AMF bowling pin I had sitting on my desk. |
Posted to News by amahler on June 18, 2008 at 2:45 PM
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June 17, 2008Of Local Interest: Waterstone Finally OpenI'm pleased to say that a restaurant we've been eagerly awaiting here in Lynchburg is finally open and, more importantly, it doesn't suck. In fact, it's really quite excellent! :) There wasn't an official Google Maps entry yet, so I just added one for the meantime. It was last year sometime that I first heard about the plans to open Waterstone, a wood-fired, brick oven pizza restaurant attached to a brewery. It's located on Jefferson Street and is part of the larger Bluffwalk Center / Cradock Terry Hotel complex which also includes Shoemaker's restaurant and The Jefferson Street Brewery. My remark that it "doesn't suck" is just my general semi-negative attitude about the Lynchburg restaurant scene. Yes, we have some very good restaurants here. We also have a lot of mediocre crap, the worst of which make a play at being creative (surprisingly few make even that effort) and fall miserably short. My wife calls me a pessimist (I'm truly not), but I've found it safer to assume mediocrity around here and to be pleasantly surprised (and very supportive as a customer) when they pull it off. :) Waterstone pulled it off VERY well. We visited with a couple of friends during the restaurant's first hour of being open to the public and found the whole operation to be very polished. The waiter was comfortable and engaging, the atmosphere was attractive and tastefully designed and, above all, the pizza was superb. As a group, we ordered four ten-inch pizzas including the Waterstone White, Greek, Wild Mushroom and a Sicilian (the most traditional of the four). All had a superb flavor, were not at all oily, heavy or greasy, and each was true to its theme with fresh ingredients and distinct flavors. The Sicilian, with its various sausages, was at the greatest risk of being overly heavy but managed to be just as "light" as the others. We focused on the pizza last night, but the menu was fairly extensive and there is a lot left we'd like to try. I'm all for anything that brings quality to downtown Lynchburg and can say with certainty that we'll be repeat customers. They have plans for a two-level outside seating area as well as other refinements and their location on that part of Jefferson Street provides a lot of promise for community engagement. Here's hoping Waterstone is the beginning of a positive trend in the local dining scene and a little less having to flee to Charlottesville for a really great meal! :) In closing, I will mention three other local restaurants of note. There are more, yes, but I want to mention these three right now: Machu Picchu, Grace and Main Street Eatery. Main Street has history and remains a Lynchburg institution, Machu Picchu is simply fantastic for those desiring Peruvian dishes (Elsa is passionate about her cooking) and Grace is probably the single most creative, elegant restaurant in the area and absolutely worth the visit. |
Posted to News by amahler on June 17, 2008 at 9:33 AM
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June 15, 2008Photos from Newport Trip
Newport, RI I've finally had a chance to put up a set of images from our trip to Newport, RI. We spent four days there starting June 7th and thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating island. For those not familiar, Newport was the turn of the century summering location of the American "aristocracy". I provide some additional background on Newport in my previous post with a QTVR of a massive weeping beech tree, so check there and the wikipedia link above. Average temperatures in Newport are in the 60's and 70's this time of year, so I was pretty thrilled to be leaving the 100 degree heat wave of Virginia for the trip. Understand that I despise hot, humid weather. Well, the heat wave followed us to New England and hit around 90 degrees and humid a good bit of the time. This sucked the total life out of my photographic endeavors since I spent the mornings feeling like I was wearing a greasy washcloth instead of a shirt. Yuck. I can't say the photos here are particularly stellar, but they should at least give you a taste of some of the Newport mansions and surroundings.
Newport, RI |
Posted to Photo Galleries by amahler on June 15, 2008 at 11:21 PM
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