The Photog Formula

After a nice talk with an outstanding photographer from NY I’ve decided to branch out a bit in my photography. If you’ve been following my work at all, you’ll realize that I do a lot of landscape and nature photography.

But that’s not necessarily all I want to do.

So, after gathering up the courage, I decided to ask random people on the street if I could take their photo.  I had a white sheet taped to the side of a wall in the shade in an ally.  I didn’t use any flash, strobe, or other lighting gear, just the available light.

My goal is to photograph as many people in Sheridan as I can.  As this project continues, I may end up just walking around getting people to pose for me.  I like the idea of a seamless background, but I may be able to get more people by just wandering around.  We’ll see what happens.

None of the prints are for sale and I hold the copyrights to them.  If you’d like to see the project so far, please visit www.NateLawson.com.

Thank you for stopping by!

The weather here in Wyoming has been dreadful!  I don’t mind a little rain now and then to green things up, but this is ridiculous!!  Today was no different, with showers scheduled the sky was dark most of the day.

I was supposed to be downtown at 5pm to get some footage for a new commercial advertising the Sheridan Street Fair, which will be the third Thursday every month until September.  Then I had to be at the softball fields at 7:40 for the first of two games tonight.  Well, as luck would have it, the games were canceled and I was able to stay at the fair a lot longer than planned.

This allowed me to get the footage I needed, plus some extra photos for myself.  If you live in the Sheridan area, you need to try and get down to the next one, which I believe is going to be July 16.  There is live music, food and beverages, and plenty of booths to browse through.  (Don’t forget to get your own custom temporary tattoo!)  I’m actually thinking of setting up my own booth to do a little advertising as well.

So anyway, here are some of the best shots from tonight.  Please enjoy!

Nice little face painting!

This guy was pretty funny. I had no idea Sheridan had 82 religious groups!

These guys were pretty good, considering they are only young teenagers! (Like 14 or 15 young!)

They closed Main Street for about 5 blocks for the fair.

Even the Drum & Bugle Corps made an appearance. And almost made my ears bleed!

I really liked this band, and this image!

Here they are again, huddled around the mic like they’re trying to keep warm!

The violin player was pretty sweet, too!

Finger-plucking good!

And this is a Burmese Mountain Dog, which happens to be my wife’s favorite. Beautiful dogs.

(On a side note…is it “Burmese or Burnese? I found both spellings while searching the net. I think it’s Burmese, with an “m”.)

Living in Wyoming has its benefits.  There are the Big Horn Mountains with miles of wilderness.  It’s one of the least populated states in the country.  It has a lot of western history.  And it has four distinct seasons.

However, with those seasons come very unpredictable weather.  It’s April right now, and we should be enjoying nicer weather with maybe a rain shower or two once in awhile.

But NO!!

It has to snow.  And not just a little flurry either, I mean SNOW!

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve accumulated a couple feet of fresh powder.  Now, if I still skied and snowboarded, I’d be in Heaven right now.  But as it happens, I don’t.

I want to go outside in shorts and walk around and take pictures.  Not shovel my driveway over and over again.

But today I did manage to get a few shots.  One of which you can view over on Phototerium.com, for today’s picture.  Here are a few others:

So if you live in a warmer climate, I envy you! I’m tired of this and wish Spring would just hurry up and get here!

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I don’t know about the history of my own home town.  I’ve lived here almost my whole life, minus the 5 years in Germany, 1 year in Kentucky, and 3 years in Pennsylvania.

But I learned a little more today, all thanks to a little plaque on a statue.

The following image is of Sheridan’s founder, John D. Loucks.  This statue sits outside our City Hall building.  I’ve been past it many time, but never took the time to stop and read what it had to say.  Well, here is what it says:

• John D. Loucks
  Founder of Sheridan
  Nov. 1, 1846 – April 23, 1927

  John D. Loucks sat down on Court House Hill and envisioned a town before him.

  John was a dreamer as well as a pioneer.  He had dreams of great works he might accomplish.  He dreamed of helping to settle the west of yesteryear.  He dreamed of a city which would nestle in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains in the country known as the Big Goose Country.  He lived and worked to see his dreams become realities.

  It was early Spring and the deer and buffalo were browsing in the valley.  It appealed to John as an ideal site for “our” city.

  On a piece of brown wrapping paper, John drew a rough sketch of streets and blocks and parks.  He named the streets after pioneers of the day.  Over the top of the map he wrote “Sheridan”.  The town was named for General Phil Sheridan, commander of the Civil War Regiment.  John served as a soldier in the Civil War.

  Thus, a town was born on May 10, 1882.

The next image is a small sculpture plaque that is attached to the front of John Loucks’ statue.  It depicts the way Sheridan looked in 1888.

John D. Loucks

For today’s image of City Hall, please visit http://phototerium.com

Thanks!