What I didn’t see was over 200 chiggers and seed ticks (around 20) that latched on for a ride that morning. I still itch from the chiggers. Two weeks plus after the photos …

The Central Delaware Blues Society did their first annual Roadhouse Bluesfest August 31st and I was invited to do photography for the group as their official photographer. More than 200 folks showed up to see four great acts: Johnny and Zep playing old time Delta blues, Lower Case Blues did their rock/blues, Eric Steckel doing his Texas blues rock, and Chris Duarte finished up with some serious Texas blues rock too.

The acts were great! Lots of great folks volunteered to make this show happen, Great job Central Delaware Blues Society! A wonderful group of vendors showed faith and took a chance on the first show. I have to give a shout out to the folks at June Jam that supplied the stage that was so key to the show! One of the things that’s  cool about our small state is that it’s only separated by 2 or 3 degrees of separation. I understand the June Jam folks stepped up and offered the stage, gratis, when they found out there was a need. It’s a great music environment here in the first state!
Can’t wait ’til next years show!

I recently went to Germany to spend some time with good friends that have been visiting here in the US since the late 90s. They welcomed me, my family and friends into their home and showed all of us the things most tourists don’t see. We went to some cool places and great restaurants that focused on the local specialties. It was an amazing experience!

Photographically,  I brought my Fuji x100s camera, 2 regular film cameras and 2 Holga cameras. I thought I might shoot some film, and wanted to bring the film cameras in case I decided to get a different focal length than the fixed focal length (no zoom!) on the x100s. Turns out I could have skipped the other cameras, I only shot the Fuji! I viewed it as an exercise in working within the limits of a single camera, single lens project. It turns out that the single lens worked out fine. I zoomed with my feet or just skipped some shots that weren’t doable without a longer lens. Truthfully, I don’t think I missed anything that mattered, and, I also wasn’t carrying around 25 lbs of camera gear!

One of the challenges of being passionate about photography when traveling with a group that isn’t so obsessed,  is to not be a problem for the group! I tried to keep up, and not hold folks back. We went to many different cities and passed many cool things that if I was alone or with photographers I would have spent a lot more time shooting or hanging around to see what happened. With  those constraints, it’s important to get the shot and drive on. The Fuji kept up and wasn’t an issue. Using the electronic view finder and aperture mode, I was able to ride the exposure dial up and down, see the how the shot would look before I took it, click the shot and catch up to the group! lol

I did 1600 or so photos in ten days, went through them and did a first cut to about 650 photos that were decent enough for more attention. I’ll be showing a few from that group at a time, but surely not all 650!

Lately I’ve been interested in how people arrange their lives and their things. That’s the over riding theme in the photos I suppose. Here’s a start of photos from my trip.