Kissimmee Celebrates the 4th of July

I’m hoping that invoking the “better late than never” theory will excuse the tardiness of getting these photos posted. They were taken this past Friday at the Kissimmee 4th of July festivities downtown on the lakefront. I had to leave before the fireworks, but while there I enjoyed photographing the crowd and sampling the food trucks. My favorite food truck find was the super friendly service and vegan black bean and plantain empanadas from La Empanada Food Truck.

There were lots of activities for the kids — young and old. It was fun to see people displaying their patriotism and participating in all there was to see and do. I hope you enjoy the photos.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida

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Going Up

“Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.”
—Ruth E. Renkel

“Going Up”, Nikon D800, ISO 320, f/11 at 1/40 sec., 50mm
Click the image to view larger size.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida

Be sure to visit my booth at Space Cost Pride on May 25th!

Abused and Blue at 15

“Threaten the oppressed and be prepared to face their onslaught, abuse them and be prepared for an even greater threat.”
— Martin Dansky

As this is my second glass block photo within a week, I’ll admit that I’ve long been a fan of glass blocks. This configuration, lighting and the dark hue of the blocks produced by the shadows of the building’s interior caught my attention when I was downtown recently. During processing, I messed around quite a bit with the texture of the wall to make the image better convey the sense of time and neglect I perceived standing at the location. I hope you like it.

“Abused and Blue at 15”, Nikon D800, ISO 320, f/3.2 at 1/2500 sec., 50mm
Click the image for a larger view.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida.

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Sapphire Inn

“Where you have friends you should not go to inns.”
— George Eliot

I’ve walked past this place a dozen times on various photo walks, but never before had the chair been in place and the light seemed so interesting. I’m not sure how long The Sapphire Inn has operated in downtown Kissimmee, but from the looks of the place, it’s been around a while. They don’t have a web page, but I do know they have cable — at least in unit 8.

“Sapphire Inn”, Nikon D800, ISO 320, f/5.0 at 1/1000 sec., 50mm
Click on the image to view it at a larger size.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida.

Another Day is Awning

I decided to move the blog over to a new WordPress theme and layout, called Suits. I chose this theme because it’s clean, easier to read and more vibrant/bold than was the Enterprise theme I used previously. Let me know what you think of the new look.

As for the photo, I just liked the awnings, lines and angles in this building. I hope you like it, too.

“Another Day is Awning”, Nikon D800, ISO 640, f/13 at 1/200 sec., 19mm
Click the image for more detail.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida.

Please vote for this blog in the Cool Photo Blog Awards – just click here. Thank you for your support.

The Hayes Boys

It wasn’t until after I took this photo and was processing it that I noticed it, actually. It’s the brightest thing on the truck and I missed the chromed announcement: “Hayes Boys”. Now I am curious and left without answers.

Who are the Hayes boys? Why was St. Cloud’s downtown strip so empty of people that day? Was it linked to the arrival of the Hayes boys? Had I been in danger while I walked casually along taking photos, perhaps unknowingly capturing a crime scene? Or perhaps they were more like the Duke boys of bygone TV fame: hazardous, but only to themselves. Benevolently troublesome. Good ol’ boys. Or maybe they were none of that. They could just be normal guys with a cool old truck. But if that was so, then I’d need to rely solely on my imagination to come up with something to write about when I used the photo on my blog. What to do…

“The Hayes Boys” [Click the image to enlarge/reduce its size.] Nikon D800, ISO 320, f/7.1 at 1/50 sec., 50 mm

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Observable Social Behavior

Follow me on Instagram at @EarlHarrisPhoto, where I am posting photos captured and edited on my iPhone – and it includes a lot of cats. #herekittykitty #instagramcats

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Out of the Alley

Despite response to my prior post having been absurdly underwhelming, I am going to forge ahead — if but for my own amusement. Today’s image is not my typical style; it has been heavily processed, obscured and texturized. It’s another that’s been sitting in the queue, caught during one of my many walks downtown shooting the “Faces of Kissimmee” project. What do you think?

If you like the image, please share this post and let others know I’m here. ❤

“Out of the Alley” [Click on image to enlarge/reduce its size.] Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/6.7 at 1/20 sec., 85 mm

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Warning Among the Weeds

I came upon this while on a walk one hot, humid afternoon. Simple. Insignificant. Aged by neglect. A warning message is lost among the weeds.

“Warning Among the Weeds” [Click on image to enlarge/reduce its size.] Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/8 at 1/90 sec., 85 mm

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Adorama PHOTOBOOKS make great gifts!

Market Hydrant

There are several very large wall murals painted on the sides of some of downtown Kissimmee’s buildings. Completed in the year 2000, these are the work of local artist Tom Copella. I enjoy looking at these murals and breaking them down into small pieces. Particularly interesting to me is the way that Mr. Copella incorporated three-dimensional objects into his paintings, as seen here in the two vent pipes and the forward valves on the fire hydrant. I also like that the murals aren’t exactly static: in this example, nature and time have added water stains beneath the vent pipe that’s left of the hydrant plus debris and a healthy weed at the hydrant’s base. I’ve contributed some photographic post-processing and isolated just a relatively small piece of the total mural, this particular one being at least 25-feet in length.

“Market Hydrant” [Click on image to enlarge/reduce its size.] Nikon D800, ISO 200, f/11 at 1/200 sec., 85 mm

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Street Portraiture: Faces of Kissimmee, #7 (Squeek! Squeek!)

As I sat at Mrs. Mac’s restaurant on Wednesday, enjoying a magnificent piece of lemon meringue pie (seriously delicious!), I suddenly became aware of a squeeking sound. So absorbed had I been in overexciting my taste buds, I hadn’t noticed someone had come in and started cleaning the windows. As my back was to one of these, it wasn’t long before we courteously greeted each other; he with a “hello”, and me with a “[unintelligible sound] this pie!”. He smiled and nodded in agreement and left me to my preoccupation.

I left the restaurant a short time later, lamenting that I hadn’t indulged in a second piece of pie but intent on capturing a few photographs for this series. It wasn’t long before I noticed the window washer doing his thing at another downtown storefront. I had still found no victims, save a parking enforcement officer writing a ticket. Though I had asked, he didn’t think it a good idea to be photographed while performing the task he had at hand. (Huh. Imagine that.)

Thinking of so many other things I needed to be doing at home as I took in the view of the empty 3 PM sidewalks ahead, I decided to pack it in. I would turn east and then turn again, heading back toward my car a block off Broadway. It was when I turned east that things changed, for there he was again: the window washer. I realized it was just meant to be.

I introduced myself and as Lee introduced himself in return, he jokingly asked if I was following him. I replied that it was unintentional, but yeah, I was. He told me how he had made his living washing windows in downtown Kissimmee for over 40 years. We spoke of the changes that had transformed the area in the passing of those years. He said I wasn’t the first over those years that wanted to take his photograph, either. I thanked him for letting me be the next one.

“Lee” [Click to enlarge or shrink image.] Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/6.7 at 1/125 sec., 85mm

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