Tag: blogging

HDR Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #2
Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #2

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 After a couple meetings with Walsh Construction I have been granted access to the construction sites after I complete the required safety training.  This week I will be going through safety training with Walsh Construction to familiarize myself with the safety procedures that I will need to follow while shooting the Ohio River Bridges Project.

I am excited and honored that they are allowing me to shoot onsite and really looking forward to getting started. It is a huge project and has over 50 individual spans that I will be following for the next three years as the project proceeds. I will be able to document the progress and the men and women who are building the bridges from now until the completion of the project.

I hope you will stick around as I record the day to day work that goes into a project of this scale and the men and women who will be doing the work. I intend to show as many facets of the job as possible from the construction workers to the engineering support teams and the folks who run the office side too. I’ll be shooting most of the work in HDR and I’m sure that there will be many discoveries as I try new software and new camera techniques throughout the next three years.

SpeedDemon2 Is Going Self-Hosted Soon

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Morning Rower
Morning Rower

Hi folks I wanted to let you know why I haven’t been posting for a few days. I am in the process of moving from WordPress.com to a self hosted solution. I want to start selling prints and that means moving to my own server.

SpeedDemon2.com should be ready to go live soon. I’m just hammering out some details before flipping the switch. I’m sticking with the current theme, though there may be some minor tweaks to it. I like the simplicity of the theme but I also want to keep it fresh so there may be a few changes.

Just as practicing in photography is necessary and beneficial, so too is it the case with WordPress. The more I explore the WordPress platform the more I discover. That leads to new and more efficient tools to express my ideas and showcase my work. Just as photo processing has plug-ins that extend and/or facilitate my vision for an image; WordPress plug-ins do similar things for blogging.

As I said last week when I passed my one year WordPress anniversary I have an idea where SpeedDemon2 is headed but I really don’t know how the journey will unfold.

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http://www.topazlabs.com/705.html

I am an affiliate with Topaz Labs and earn a small commission on each sale that results from someone using my link to go to Topaz Labs site. The commission helps me defray the costs of publishing SpeedDemon2. 

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It’s Not the Destination, It’s the Journey…

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Navajo Highway

Well folks it’s been one whole year since I began this blog. When I started SpeedDemon2 I had a vague notion of where it would lead but just like riding my motorcycle the whole thing was not about the destination; the whole purpose was the journey. When I started the blog I wanted to share my images with a wider audience and connect to other like minded folks. I didn’t know how it would happen but I knew that if I gave it a shot it would all work out.

The past twelve months have been rewarding in so many ways. I discovered other artists and photographers who shared with me their thoughts and criticism,  challenged myself to become a better writer, have taken my photography to an entirely new level, gained access to photo opportunities, the list goes on.

When I start out on a motorcycle ride whether it is a month of travel across the country to a specific place, or a short ride into the city, there are so many possible routes to take that will lead to new discoveries yet still get you to the destination. Along the way I discover new vistas, see features and things that I’ve never seen before, make new friends and all the while I feel connected to the life force that surrounds me. Blogging has done that for me as well, exposing me to others who care about many of the same things I do and broadening my experience as an artist.

I have no idea where the next twelve months will take me but I am sure the journey will be filled with discovery. There will be new influences on my photography, new tools that spark new ideas, new destinations to explore, new projects to immerse myself in and most important of all there will be the journey. I hope you, my readers, will stick around and join me on this journey; I don’t know the destination yet but I am confident it will be worth the effort.

Why Blog?

Posted on by Nick Roberts
iRobot eyes
iRobot eyes

I was reading Renard Moreau’s blog this morning http://renardmoreau.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/just-pondering-part-352/ and his daily post got me thinking about what blogging has done for me.

Here’s what I wrote:

“For me blogging about my photography has opened many new doors and at the same time it has forced me to search for meaning in my work. I have only been blogging for about ten months and already I am in contact with a worldwide network of creative people who share my interests.
I could not have planned this but through writing about and sharing my art I have grown in so many ways. I’ll soon be 65 years old and only wish that something like blogging had been available to me 40 years ago as I set out on my journey into art school and my path of creativity.
To those who are just beginning their journey I say; write every day, create every day and stay engaged with the world around you. The planet is shrinking one post at a time and there are so many creative minds to connect with. What exciting times these are and what wonders await us all.”

Be back soon…

Posted on by Nick Roberts

I’m waiting for a new hard drive to arrive so I can get back to work. I have filled my 1TB to overflowing and due to the age of my iMac I needed one with firewire ports. I found one yesterday at B&H Photo and they shipped it this morning.

When you overfill a hard drive it becomes very slow and that drives me crazy. As soon as I get it I can transfer my library and get back to work. It’s frustrating but that’s what I get for procrastinating about getting the new one.