Anniversary Countdown

My parents will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary on August 15th. They are having a big party and the invitations went out while I was away in Maine. I've been a scanning fool over the last couple of months - scanning old family pictures. I'm working on a slide show for the anniversary party. The scanning came in handy for the invitation too. Everyone seems to like it.

More From Maine - a Lobstah Town

We spent several days in New Harbor, ME on the Pemiquid Peninsula. In addition to the nearby lighthouse (coming in the next post), this lobstah town offered many photo opportunities. Click on any image to see it larger.

I'm playing with some new software to manipulate my images into "art." Not that my photography is not art ... it is!!! But I like this look too. The building on the water to the right was Shaw's - a place where I ate lobstah several times!!! Mmmmmm melted butter!!!


We got permission to shoot on a private dock in Back Cove - across the harbor from New Harbor. I went there twice so watch for more images from this area.


Photography isn't always about the big scene. Sometimes is is all about the details - in the case of Maine, it is the ropes and buoys.



You just never know what you are gonna find around the corner - lobstah fishing is one dangerous profession - especially when the local lobstah mafia has you in its sites.

Maine Photo Tour - The Beginning

It will take me a while to process all the photos I shot. Here are just a few from my recent photo tour to Maine with John Barclay and Dan Sniffin. As always, click on any image to see a bigger version. Enjoy!!!


After the usual hellos and slide show and pep talk by John and Dan, we were off for our first shooting of the trip. To Pt. Neddick in the York Beach area and the "Nubble" Light. It took me a little while to get into the shooting frame of mind. Others shot this a little later for some killer long exposure shots. I wasn't in the mood for that and this is one of my best shots from that evening. I have played with a new Photoshop plug-in for this one - Topaz Simplify. I like the Topaz programs and will be playing with them a lot more.


The next morning it was up at some crazy hour - we left our lodgings, The Higgins Beach Inn, at 4 am for sunrise shooting at the Portland Head Light. Since it was rainy, the sunrise was not so spectacular but it was "cool" nonetheless. The roses were lovely - especially with the water droplets on them.


After Portland Head, it was off to the Zig Zag light at Spring Point.


I was hoping to see some Canadian Thistles on my trip. I missed shooting them at home - went to seed and now they are gone. One of my photo co-horts kept telling me that she saw thistles but they were clovers. I liked how they looked here against the old fence post.

After Spring Point we were going to head over to the Bug Light but it started to rain so it was back to the inn for breakfast and a nap until we left for the next site, New Harbor.

More coming in the upcoming days ...

In Memory of Casey Clines

Back in December I shot my friends Jed and Michelle's wedding up in Baltimore. The ceremony was performed by Casey Clines. Although he worked as contract staff at my office, I had never met him. And that was my loss because he was an interesting character. Sometimes when you call someone a character, you don't mean it in a good way. Well, I do. He was friendly, charming, irreverent - my kind of guy. I found out yesterday that he died over the weekend. I will miss the unexpected interactions that I had with him since we met back in December. I'm sorry that I did not know him better. I know that he will be missed.

These are a few of my shots of him from the wedding. From what I hear, they seem to capture his spirit.



This shot is my favorite. Casey specifically asked me for a copy of this shot of him with the bartender. It seems to fit.

Weekend HDR Workshop with John Barclay & friends

Eastern State Penitentiary - Abstract, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Last weekend I went on an HDR photography workshop with John Barclay and my photo gal pals to the Philadelphia area. We started out at Eastern State Penitentiary. We had the opportunity to go into areas of the prison that were not open to the public. One cell block was a drippy, watery mess - COOL. Another was drier but long past its prime. It is hard to imagine what life was like in the prison - to spend day after day - week after week - month after month - year after year - in these concrete cells.

This image - an abstract - was the wall in one of the old cells. What you can't see is that this wall had pretty much detached from the other walls and light was streaming in around it.

After the prison we went to a graffiti area near the Delaware River. I'm not sure that I could get there again. And the second day of our workshop was spent at a place called Fonthill. I will be processing images for a while.

Click on this image to see others in my Flickr Photostream.

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

My friend Cathy and I went to Arlington National Cemetery yesterday to do some photography.

This is a special place. It is impossible to capture the significance of the the orderly rows of headstones that mark the graves of our nation's heroes. Some died in battle. All served our country and deserve our respect and gratitude.

On Memorial Day weekend, a flag is placed at every grave. This is a monumental task and I can not begin to know how the men and women that undertake this task feel as they set every flag. I was moved.

Click on the photo to see some of the other shots that I took yesterday.

Spring and Mother's Day

Today my boys - Charles, Joe, Ivan and Harvey - and I took a trip to Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. There were lots of lovely flowers there. I will have to go back.

Green Spring Gardens, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Mother's Day seemed like a good day for a family portrait.


And a good day for this week's self-portrait.

Some days just don't work the way you hope ...

Battery Weed, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

This past weekend, I drove to NY with my parents. I was hoping that I would find some time to do some cool photography and even located what seemed like a promising location on the way - the Gateway National Recreation Area contains Fort Wadsworth, a fort located underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Staten Island. Unfortunately we missed the one daily tour inside the fort by about an hour. And the weather was a little on the gloomy side. The Battery Weed (pictured) here, nonetheless looked pretty cool. Not exactly what I had hoped to shoot but ... some days are just like that.

Not Exactly Open to the Public ...

This past Sunday several of my photography friends (the daring ones), my son Joe, and I went on an Urban Decay photo adventure to the Henryton Center (aka Henryton Sanatorium, Henryton State Hospital, Henryton Asylum, etc...), an abandoned sanatorium just southwest of Baltimore near Patapsco Valley State Park. The Center was built in the 1920's and closed in the mid-1980's. It is now a ghost hunters' and photographers' playground. Well, it is not exactly a safe playground. A visit to Henryton requires you to take some serious safety precautions, including an asbestos rated (P100) dust mask, strong boots, a flashlight, ... Plus when you get home, you do not pass Go, do not collect $200 until you put your boots outside and your clothes in the wash. Needless to say, this is a cool place and I will probably go back one of these days - soon. I know that I missed a lot.

Click on the photo below and you will be magically transported to my Flickr photostream where more pictures live. Click on the photostream link and then click on the slideshow link in the upper right corner of the page. These are my first real ventures into HDR Grunge style photography - I've tried a little before but I think that I may be getting the hang of it ... or so I hop. Henryton was the perfect place to use this technique.

MAR_0462_1_0_tonemapped, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Many thanks to Tony Sweet for alerting me to this place.

New Ways to Post my Images

My parents., originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

I've been spending a lot of time on Flickr lately. I've been working on several self-portrait projects. The main project is "fiftytwo" - one self-portrait a week for a year. I have completed 4 weeks now. Once a week is not such a big time commitment - although I was scrambling this week - mostly my own fault. I also have joined the Flickr Group Roulette group. This is also a self-portrait group and the theme changes daily. Luckily you only need to participate when you want to. I've done a few.

While playing on Flickr, I noticed that I can link to my blog and facebook pages directly from Flickr. I'm experimenting with this interface. If it works out well, I may start posting all my blog entries this way.

We'll see.

This is a shot of my folks at my sister's house. We went there for dinner last night to celebrate my niece's 16th birthday. I'm not sure when she got to be 16. I remember just the other day ... but that is a story for another time.

If you want to take a look at my Flickr photostream, click on the photo of my parents above.