Quite Pleased With Myself, Actually

CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Pobereskin family is all here. There are, as far as we know (and there was a fair bit of discussion about this last night), only eleven of us worldwide and given the geographic distribution of the members of the clan it is quite a feat.

The last all encompassing gathering of the Pobereskins was, I think, in the summer of 1996, in Chatham, Massachusets on Cape Cod. For some reason, and I can't really think of why, there was no family picture made on that occasion. In fact, the previous family picture, above, was made in 1977, almost twenty years earlier, and it didn't include everyone (my older brother, Stu, and my cousin, Mo, were MIA). But we're all here this time, slightly different line-up, and we now boast two photographers... I'm counting my younger cousin Sarah's boyfriend, Theo Chalmers, even though he's not officially a family member. (I didn't see him with a camera... yet)

We're all here for my Aunt Sarah's (grandmother of the aforementioned cousin) 90th birthday, convening at my cousin Ann's house. I spoke with Ann on Thursday afternoon and she was wondering if I was going to bring my camera, the object of the discussion fairly obvious to you at this point. After we'd discussed the matter at hand I decided to look-up the last family portrait and was pleased that I was able to locate, pull and scan a thirty one year old print from my file in just under two minutes. Quite pleased with myself, actually.
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Above: Pobereskin Family 1977, Orangeburg, NY - Nikon F, 28/2.8 Nikkor Lens, Kodak Tri-X Pan film

Independence Day

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Above: Canon EOS-1N, 70~200/2.8 Canon Zoom Lens EF Ultrasonic, Fujicrome Velvia 50 Film

Breakfast In America

Those of you who've been following along already know that I've just moved to Chicagoland from the New York City area. Aside from the general feeling of being a fish out of water, the ponds here are quite different from those I've previously inhabited. Give you an example: the New York area is a hilly, sometimes mountainous, landscape. Here in Chicagoland, the landscape is flat! There's not even the slightest bit of a hill anywhere around here for miles and miles (that's why they have tornadoes tearing-up the trailer parks... no hills!). And, Chicago (proper) excepted, there's no tall buildings either.

I know what you're thinking. I know it because some of you have said it directly: What are you (meaning me) going to shoot there, Joe? In fact, my good pal Jimmy Winstead e-mailed the other day, lamenting (in solidarity with me) that there aren't any bridges in Chicago! He's wondering what the hell I'm gonna do for excitement??

Well friends, don't despair on my account. I've found a remarkable feature of the mid-western landscape, something we just don't have back home in abundance but they're everywhere out here... yeah, water towers!

Yep, you guessed it, just before sunrise this morning I went out in search of water towers. Found some, too. (actually, I've been eyeballing water towers ever since I arrived, just now acting on it)

And being out just before sunrise means I had to wake up early and forgo breakfast, which, if you know me well, you know it's not a big deal because I never eat breakfast normally. But being out and about early makes a boy powerfully hungry so I had a hankering for something breakfast-like. Now, what do you suppose a hungry guy's gonna go for at 6:00 AM, especially if the subject water tower is parked right behind a McDonald's?

Those of you who own a VitaMix blender might be thinking about a shake made of banana, fresh coconut and coconut milk, some dandelions.... you know, a green organic breakfast. Well, sorry, that's not me. Wanna know what I did? (See above!!)

PS: You may have noticed that a couple of these were made with my fish-eye lens. Yes, it's the very same fish-eye lens I wrote about back in April... the one that broke in half and I was thinking was a total loss. The wizards at Canon Professional Services fixed it!