Photo of the Baseball Now: 1 May 2012

Chelsea baseball faced Saline.

Photo of the Wayward Roots Now: 28 April 2012 (with video!)

On Friday I went to Trinity House Theatre to see Wayward Roots.

If you’ve never been to Trinity House, you’re missing out: it’s an outstanding little venue hidden in the midst of the hotels and restaurants along I-275 in Livonia. If you didn’t know it was there you might never notice it, but trust me, it’s well worth a visit.

The opener was Adam Plomaritas, a songwriter from Ypsilanti.

Trinity House sets a great mood with stained glass and candles.

Plomaritas brought a bassist with him, and a member of the Wayward Roots joined them on stage for a song or two.

See what I mean about a great mood? It’s such a fantastic little room.

When Plomaritas was done, Wayward Roots took the stage.

There was a candle on my table. This happened:

This is Jason Dennie on the mandolin:

Todd Lang is on the guitar:

Todd’s shirt was a topic of on-stage banter all evening.

Alan Barnosky plays the bass:

Tip: if you want me to like your band, include an upright bass. The world doesn’t have enough upright bass.

And finally, Tony Pace plays the dobro. If you know what that is, I salute you. I’d probably seen one before, but I didn’t know it by name until Friday night.

Hey, look! It’s Todd’s shirt again!

Are you wondering how they sound? Yes? Good, because I shot video of three songs. Here, check out Wayward Roots:

Photo of the Softball Now: 21 April 2012

On a cold, windy, cloudysunnycloudysunnycloudysunny Saturday, Chelsea hosted a full day of softball. The day concluded with a game against Manchester, Chelsea’s neighbor to the south.

It’s always nice to see former CHS athletes coming back to cheer on the Bulldogs. One such athlete showed up to cheer on her former teammates on Saturday.

Remember how I said it was a cloudysunnycloudysunnycloudysunny day? Those days are a nuisance for photography because the light is changing significantly and frequently. Take a look at the next two photos from one inning. One is cloudy, the other sunny. The light shifted back and forth like this all day.

The game was close for a while, but Chelsea eventually pulled away for a 15-5 win.

Let there be fluorescent light

More adventures in old photos.

A few years back I had a group of friends who enjoyed meeting at the Barnes & Noble on the east side of Ann Arbor. Once I was sitting upstairs at the front of the store when I looked out the window and saw this combination of the sky and the reflection of the store’s interior:

That’s a hasty film negative scan on a home scanner, but you get the idea. It’s one of my favorite old photos of mine.

This, that, and the other

You may have noticed a paucity of photography on this blog as of late. There’s one very good reason for that: I haven’t been taking many photos. Believe me, it’s a vacation I didn’t plan.

I could write countless paragraphs about this situation, but that wouldn’t necessarily be productive, and you’d get bored. So, stong shory lort, when it comes to the newspaper right now I have the choice of either working for free or working almost not at all. (I may get bits and pieces of work.) Since I can’t buy/fix/replace camera gear and pay bills with photo credits and hearty compliments, I’ve elected for the latter in the hopes that the ideal third choice — getting paid for work — will return at some point. (PLUG: you can hire me to take pictures of stuff.) In the meantime…

…well, you might get an odd hodgepodge of content here, or you might not get much of anything. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen with the blog while I’m not getting much work. Keep an eye out. This could be fun.

The other day I dug up some rolls of film from the days I was shooting film. Here, go ahead and enjoy some never-before-blogged photos from my film era.

Okay, so I didn’t take that one. Whatever. It was my camera. That’s me in Switzerland back in 2003.

I suspect I took that photo shortly after the Switzerland photo, mostly because I bought that chess set on that trip. No, I don’t play chess. Why did I buy the set? Who knows. Probably the same reason I took the photo: because it looks cool. Don’t judge me.

I took a trip to St. Louis with a couple friends. We decided to go up in the arch in the evening. The arch in the evening: a very good idea.

Photo of the Faculty & Friends Show Now: 10 March 2012

Each year the Chelsea School District holds its Faculty and Friends Show to raise money for the Chelsea Music Boosters. The show is always entertaining. Always.

This year’s show started with the Swager boys.

Next was Rob Knopper. Mr Knopper is a CHS graduate who went on to study at Juilliard and is now a member of the MET Orchestra. Here’s an understatement: the man knows what he’s doing.

Next was a performance of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by three…not-girls. This performance brought the house down.

The one in the middle is a county commissioner. You may remember him from last year, when he showed up dressed as a lion. Do we have some very likable public officials here in Washtenaw County? You bet we do.

Next was a clarinet performance.

The ever-popular North Creek Fiddlers then took the stage.

A performance from the musical Wicked followed.

Next, two of Chelsea’s excellent music teachers played a duet.

Until someone proves otherwise, I will continue to believe that the gentleman on the left, known locally as Jim Otto, is actually noted actor Hector Elizondo.

Next up was John Zainea.

If you’re curious about the music of Mr. Zainea, you can hear him here.

The Chelsea Chamber Players followed.

The Brian Brill Trio next confused the audience by being a trio of four people, bringing to mind Douglas Adams’ famed trilogy of five books.

That’s Mr. Brill on the piano. He’s an accomplished composer.

Concluding the show was The Quill, a group featuring CHS students.

Photo of the Hockey Semifinals Now: 9 March 2012

For the second time in three years, Chelsea hockey arrived at Compuware Arena to play in the state semifinals. This year’s opponent was fancy-pants private school Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, an institution whose yearly tuition for full-day kindergarten is more than I paid for my car. FOR ONE YEAR OF KINDERGARTEN. No, I’m not kidding.

The game was at noon on a Friday, but Chelsea students turned out to support the hockey team.

When the game started, it was easy to see the contrast between Chelsea’s first-ever trip to the semis two years ago and this year. Two years ago the big stage seemed initially intimidating, but this year the team seemed comfortable in the semis. So comfortable, in fact, that the Bulldogs took an early 1-0 lead. And the students rejoiced.

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs eventually started taking penalties, and those penalties started turning into Liggett goals. That 1-0 lead turned into a deficit before too long.

Since hockey is such a Canadian game, it seems appropriate that a Tim Horton’s ad would be prominent.

Another photographer on duty that day noted that it was difficult to get a good shot of the coach without having it look like a Tim Hortons’ ad.

As time wound down in the third period, Chelsea’s frustration began to boil over. This resulted in an avalanche of penalties.

This also resulted in several ejections.

When the game ended, the coach gathered the team together for a word before the handshake line.

The team saluted the fans before heading off the ice following the 5-1 loss to Liggett.

Take note of the player all alone at the top of that photo. That’s the starting goalie. As a senior, he was preparing to leave the ice for the last time in his high school career. Those can be hard moments to watch and even harder moments to photograph, but the resulting images can be deeply meaningful.

This is how it looked when Chris left the ice for the last time.

Photo of the Hockey Quarterfinal Now: 7 March 2012

Chelsea hockey traveled to Allen Park to face Allen Park in the state quarterfinal. The winner would get a trip to Compuware Arena. The loser — or, for you non-competitive types, the second winner — would have more time to catch up on all its favorite tv shows on Hulu.

Chelsea jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead, and before long things got even worse for Allen Park: the referees awarded Chelsea a penalty shot after a non-goalie Jaguar closed his hand on the puck in the crease. This was a dangerous moment for Allen Park.

“See here, he’s going to skate towards you with the puck, see, and he’s going to shoot the puck, see, and if you want — that is to say, if you’re so inclined to do so — you can maybe try to stop the puck from going into your net, see.”

Sadly for the Bulldogs but happily for the Jaguars, the goalie made the stop. However, later in the first period the Bulldogs did manage to score a second goal.

The first period ended with Chelsea enjoying a 2-0 lead, and the second period featured even less scoring than Michigan State basketball managed against Louisville. I know that’s hard to imagine, but it’s true. (Neither team scored in the second period.)

Though there wasn’t any scoring, there was good action and a few indelicate interactions…like this:

There were some good hits, too.

Much to the chagrin of the many Bulldog fans in attendance, Allen Park managed to score a goal in the third period.

This made the score 2-1, leaving Chelsea a lead of one lonely little goal. One scrawny goal in the third period of a hockey game in a single-elimination tournament. That’s it.

If you’re not a hockey fan, let me explain to you what a one-goal lead in the third period of a hockey game in a single-elimination tournament is for anyone with a rooting interest in the game: it’s miserably thrilling. You’re watching the game begging the clock to move faster, begging the puck to clear the blue line even if only by an inch so you can get a chance to breathe, begging that shot to be wide or high or directly into the goalie’s chest or in Lenawee County or really ANYWHERE BUT IN THE NET. In playoff hockey it takes only one shot to ruin everything, and you spend the waning seconds living both in fear of that one awful shot and in hope of the appearance of those glorious zeros on the clock before that one loathsome shot can be created.

Playoff hockey can lift your heart to absurd heights of joy, but it can also tear your heart out of your chest.

Much to the delight of the Chelsea faithful, the Bulldogs kept the puck out of the net to preserve the 2-1 victory. When time expired, they poured onto the ice to rejoice over their second trip in three years to the state semifinals.

As Chelsea celebrated, Allen Park mourned the end of its season.

This Allen Park team bore some resemblance to the Chelsea team of two years ago: both produced somewhat below-average regular seasons, but both surprised plenty of people by finding a way to win in the playoffs. The main difference: Chelsea’s team of two years ago reached the semifinals, while Allen Park’s 2011-12 team fell one goal short of that accomplishment. Just one scrawny little goal. It’s the thinnest of margins, but it looms large when you no longer have time to erase it.

Playoff hockey can lift your heart to absurd heights of joy, but it can also tear your heart out of your chest.

Back on the other side of the scoresheet, the Bulldogs received a rousing ovation from their fans as they walked through the lobby on their way to the bus.

When next you see photos of these Bulldogs on this blog, they’ll be in Compuware Arena facing University Liggett.

Photo of the Festoons and Flourishes Now: 20 February 2012

If you pay attention to the post titles, you might be wondering why we’ve jumped back to February. I’d like to say it’s because it’s been 80+ degrees in March and I wanted to remember a time when temperatures made sense, but that would be false. Well, okay, it might be a little bit true, but it’s not the primary reason. The real reason is that I was waiting for a website to go live before I posted these photos so I could link to the site so you could buy stuff. BUSINESS, y’all.

Anyway. My friend Ashley is one of those crazy artistic people who makes stuff that looks cool. She was preparing to offer her cool-looking stuff for sale and she needed pictures to help entice browsers to become buyers. I have cameras and I have been known to take pictures of various things and such, so she dropped by to avail herself of my cameraocity.

So, with further adon’t: here are the product offerings of the fabulous Festoons and Flourishes.

Those are paper rose globes. In that photo they’re hanging from a tree. You could do that with them, but it’s not a requirement. Here they are in a more conventional setting:

You can also get them with convenient handles:

The paper roses come in a wide variety of colors, and yes, they are sold separately!

They also come in two sizes: wee and not-so-wee. The above are not-so-wee; here’s a photo of the two sizes together:

But wait — there’s more! The roses also are available with Swarovski Crystals.

Guess what? There’s still more! The roses are available with glitter, too.

(If you’ve already made a Twilight joke, we can be friends.)

We’re not quite done with the paper roses. They can be multi-colored, too!

There are bunches and bunches of color scheme possibilities with these roses. Here, this should give you an idea:

And just for fun, here’s what that arrangement looked like from the back:

That took a while to put together. It almost seemed a shame to take it apart.

Ah, but Festoons and Flourishes is far more than flowers! Here’s a fine idea for the soon-to-be-brides:

That’s a bouquet made from the bows from bridal shower gifts. You can send your bows to Ashley, and she’ll send them back looking less like bows and more like a bouquet.

If you’d like a bow bouquet but don’t have a collection of bows, she can still make one for you.

Festoons and Flourishes also offers thank-you notes.

For you kids out there, thank-you notes are pieces of paper upon which you write words of gratitude. You then put the paper in a mailbox for the United States Postal Service to deliver. Think of it like slow email you can touch. It might sound strange, but trust me: it’s wonderful.

If you need eye-catching table numbers or seating charts, Festoons and Flourishes can do the job.

That’s all the photos for this post. What are you waiting for? Go check out Festoons and Flourishes!

Photo of the Royal Garden Trio & Friends Now: 3 March 2012

The Chelsea Center for the Arts held a fundraiser. I couldn’t make it to the Friday night event — which is a real pity because it involved chocolate! — but I did make it to the Saturday night event: a concert featuring the Beach Fiddle Club, the Chelsea House Orchestra, Charlotte Prenevost, and the Royal Garden Trio.

First up was the Beach Fiddle Club.

If you’re not familiar with Chelsea, you might be wondering about the name of that group. Do they fiddle on the beach? No. Well, I mean, they might do that every now and again, but not on a regular basis. The group is composed of local middle school kids, and the name of that school is Beach Middle School. (The school was named after Dwight Beach, a Chelsea native who rose to the rank of general in the U.S. Army.)

Next up was the Chelsea House Orchestra.