1.1.22Rene and CodyRene is in town from Germany. He, Cody, Chelsea, and Vince stopped by for a porch hang. It’s nice to see Rene and to see Cody so happy. A good start to 2022.

1.2.22A Quick RefreshThough I’ve already talked about my DIY flight boards on here, I took a new photograph of them for a project I put the finishing touches on today. Photo-stacked six images together. Hopefully the project brings about a new start for 2022.

1.3.22An Evening WalkIt was the first sunny, nice day we’ve had in ages, so Myrtle and I took a little walk through the neighborhood. At one point, we entered an area I hadn’t walked before and followed the road to the end where Tom Rechtin stands. The parking lot has a decent view of the city, and with this old car (don’t ask, I don’t know what it is) parked in the foreground, I thought it made for a fine photo.

1.4.22The GarageShot a rentable space in Dayton, KY today almost a year to the date of the last time I shot it. This time, I focused on getting images for the owners. The space offers technology solutions to both virtual and in-person meetings (among other things), and to illustrate that fact, I took this shot trio to showcase some of the equipment available.

1.5.22XingDid a shoot today in Reading and it took me over the I&O train tracks.

1.6.22ThursdaySpent the day mostly indoors because the weather was so cold. When snow started falling later in the afternoon, my interest in leaving the house froze completely.

1.7.22Return to RoeblingI don’t remember the last time I walked in the middle of the bridge, but today I had a quick, frigid job that took me out onto its grated decking. After taking a few photos for the client I was working with, I snapped one for myself.

1.8.22A Cold BeckonGave a little knock to the fishes beneath this frozen lake to make sure they were still swishing around and successfully resisted the urge to walk out onto the ice, not because it was dangerous (it was), but because the view ten feet forward wouldn’t be dramatically different from that along the shore.

1.9.22A Man’s MemoriesAshley’s grandfather is understandably sentimental about his family. From the early 1960s until the 1990s, he documented the same events many did during their lives: birthdays, Christmas, vacations, military service, etc. He shot a lot of it on 35mm color slides and has shoeboxes of memories stacked in a closet. This year for Christmas, he was gifted an illuminator. We set it up and used the tiniest magnifying glass to inspect these tiny celluloid fragments of his past. I am going to help him digitize each of these slides so he can view them on his iPad, so I took a stack home with me.

1.10.22Over-Engineering At Its DumbestLong-story short, I made a little wooden glare shield that balances on the top of my iMac because the desk light interferes with it. The picture is hazy and contrast looks like it is turned way down due to the glare from the light. Sure, a post-it would’ve done the trick, but where’s the fun in that? I used some scrap in the workshop and made a little rounded shield with an arm that juts off the back and connects to a counter balance weight. I stained it and added a coat of polyurethane to it just to make this ridiculously over-engineered solution “pretty.” Knowing me, I will probably come up with another design in a month and redo the whole thing.

1.11.22Something New of Something OldAshley’s grandfather gave me a bunch of his old 35mm color slides he shot in the early 60s not because I asked for them, but rather because giving them to me was the alternative to throwing them in the trash. The stack of about 50 slides aren’t his treasured memories—they were the rejects in the shoebox that holds 60 years of images. I took them because the thought of them rotting in a landfill made me crazy, and also because I wanted to see if I could come up with a decent way to digitally “scan” them. Today, using my ever-useful scrap pile, I built a crude apparatus to hold a single slide over a light source, clamped it to my workbench, and added three magnification diopters to the end of a 35mm lens to achieve a good macro focus. With a remote shutter snaking off the tripoded camera so I didn’t disrupt the static setup with every snap, I began “scanning” his slides. Once into a rhythm, I got through the pile in minutes. Afterward, I started looking for compositions that would make for fun double exposures and made this new image from two separate events in two different years. The top image looked to be a faux Wild West town. The bottom appears to be from Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH.

1.12.22Covington Cross SectionSeeing different decades of interesting, beautiful architecture in one frame is why this view appealed to me so much.

1.13.22Voted Best CocktailPhotographed Cobblestone OTR this morning for the owner. They wanted new photos of the space as well as some promotional images of a margarita that was voted the best in city by CityBeat last year. It was nice to get to try my hand at arranging and lighting drinks again. I think this one was the result of 9 stacked images to achieve the perfect level of focus from front to back of glass.

1.14.22Re-RackingFeeling the emotional toll of this pandemic tonight. I feel like I may be the only person on Earth who doesn’t have a pre-existing condition that’s making a concerted effort to stay home to avoid getting and spreading COVID at this point. The amount of FOMO I have at the moment has risen past levels I didn’t previously think could be surpassed, but here we are. Tonight I spent my Friday night listening to podcasts and building a new organizing rack tailored to the hand tools I use most often. Would I rather be out with friends? Yeah. But unfortunately I have jobs to do and I cannot get them done, and subsequently get paid, if I contract this thing.

1.15.22Mammoth In the BackyardIt’s rare you get a juxtaposition this extreme. Newport, E 2nd Street.

1.16.22Two Hour UpdateAshley wanted to spruce up the landing that leads to the basement, by the alley door. She saw an image on Pinterest of a green lower wall and a wallpapered upper wall separated by a raw board with coat hooks. We already had the green paint from the bathroom renovation we did in December 2020, and the coat hooks were previously attached to the white piece of trim that was already there. All we had to do was buy a single board and the wallpaper. I’ve never wallpapered before, and I grossly underestimated how difficult it is to do, especially when the pattern goes down to the edges and lining the seams up perfectly is essential to making it look good. As a result, I don’t know if I want to wallpaper anything ever again; that little bit of wall was so unpleasant to work with, it turned me off of doing it in the future. You don’t realize how not-flat your wall is until you try to add a pattern to it. The whole thing took two hours from the left image to the right image.

1.17.22New Year, New DirectionToday I started a new part-time job with Single Batch Designs in Covington. They primarily make custom high quality wood furniture inside a shop on Scott Street. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying building as an amateur for the last year or so, and instead of pursuing another job doing what I’ve already done in the past, I wanted to take my career in a new direction. I’m still going to be doing freelance photography every week, but I’m going to make learning from and assisting professional woodworkers a bigger past of my routine. Working with my hands has been something I’ve really valued since getting into DIY projects around the house, and it makes sense to fill my time doing more of it while getting a paycheck for it. I really like the owner, John, and his co-worker, Joe, already. Both of them seem like affable, easy-going dudes who have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to their craft. To say I’m excited about what we’ll make together is an understatement.

1.18.22This Old HouseA photo of an old house that appealed to me while on a real estate photo job in Covington. I liked the flakiness of the white paint and the brilliant blue accent colors. It wasn’t clear if the house was occupied.

1.19.22Sanding Down Familiar TablesSpent the morning and early afternoon sanding down some tables from Elusive Cow—a restaurant down the street from my house. We’ve probably sat at each of these tables before while drinking $2 beers on Thursdays and scarfing down loaded nachos and fries. I learned a lot about sandpaper grit levels and proper sanding techniques, which I then applied to another personal project when I got home this evening. I’ve only been there two days so far, and already I’ve learned a lot. Really cannot wait to get back to the shop next Monday.

1.20.22Garden ApartmentsReal estate photography for basic suburban garden apartment complexes isn’t as glamorous as some of the other shoots I get to do, but it’s a good way to make a little money while keeping the editing skills sharp.

1.21.22Self-ReplicatingBeen wanting to try out a composite on the stairs. I couldn’t get it all tack sharp and in focus even at ƒ/22, but you can only do so much when photographing yourself alone. I am 36 today and will probably spend another year at home instead of with friends because of this pandemic.

1.22.22New RelevanceThank you, phonebook-makers, for sending me a phonebook. It is very handy for catching errant drips of paint when I’m putting the finishing touches on a project.

1.23.22Key RackJustin gave me the idea to make a MCM-inspired key rack for his home. So as a trial run, I made one for our own home.

1.24.22‘69 ChevySingle Batch Designs has a neat old truck they use for moving big slabs of wood around. Today, we moved a big piece from the basement to the main floor for processing.

1.25.22Cincy From NewportFound a new view of the city from Newport today while on a job.

1.26.22Finished ProductA finished Indonesian Monkey Pod table. We’re driving it to Jacksonville, FL over the weekend in a couple of weeks.

1.27.2212th and Race at NightFrom a job I did tonight at Cobblestone OTR. I love whenever the streetcar rolls into frame.

1.28.22Cutest Care PackageMy sister’s step-daughter sent me a care package for my birthday last week. Included was fake poop (to fool me), a dollar (to buy myself something nice), chocolate coal (because I’m naughty), her school photo, a picture she drew, and a teddy bear to help me in my workshop. This is maybe the cutest thing in the world.

1.29.22The StacksHad a shoot at the Mercantile Library today. The spiral staircase makes me dizzy, but I managed to situate the tripod on the steps and do a panorama of the stacks using my trust old manual PC lens. The aspect ratio is weird because of that.

1.30.22One of Those DaysHaving one of those days where I feel very disconnected from society. I wouldn’t voice this opinion anywhere online but here, but I’m not interested in football and considering what’s happening with the home team at the moment, I feel even more lost for not having any enthusiasm for it. I do not muster fake emotions well, so I cannot pretend I’m excited by it. It’s great for Cincinnati, it’s great for my dad who’s been a fan for over 30 years, and it’s nice to see so many are pleased and having a good time, but I don’t feel anything for it otherwise. I honestly think this pandemic and the social barriers its presented over the last two years has broken me in deeper ways than I realize, and this current situation is bringing that to a head in a very clear and troubling way.

1.31.22Flaming Away the BubblesHad a really great day in the shop. Spent a lot of time doing resin touch-ups on a piece of (what I think is) walnut. The cracks in this piece are so faint and small, I had to lay a perimeter of hot glue around the cracked areas before filling it with resin. The hot glue cures and creates a ‘dam’ of sorts, allowing the resin to pool up over the surface of the crack without spreading far from the affected area before eventually finding its way down into the hairline crevasse. As the resin sinks into the wood, the air trapped within bubbles to the surface. A blowtorch is used to pop them and smooth out the surface of the resin while it hardens. This part of the woodworking process feels less like work and more like art. Everything about it really scratches an itch I didn’t realize I had until I started doing it.