It can be fun to go out with your camera with one mission in mind.  Here, I was looking for squares and I found them in the form of a sculpture garden, and a truck with squares on the side as it passed a building with square windows.  Give it a try, and share results with us over on my wall. 

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For the past few days I've been fascinated with this old metal file cabinet that the building management has temporarily dumped left in the hallway.  The top is rusted heavily, and the resulting texture and color is just remarkable.  Those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter have likely already seen the iPhone shots.  This image below was captured on the Canon 40D with a 17-40mm lens.   

You just need to be open to it.  The below is a closeup of the inside of a trash can moments after the copy machine guy dumped the contents of a color ink cartridge.  There I was, tripod, DSLR, fast lens, all positioned over the garbage as I carefully worked the composition.  It reminded me that you simply never know when or where a picture will appear.  For this reason, I feel it's important to your development as a photographer to keep a camera with you at all times.  Cell phone camera, point and shoot, DSLR, or anything else that you can create pictures with.  By having something by your side, you will be more likely to recognize the opportunites which are all around us.  It may not be a grand landscape, or a scenic vista, but don't let that discourage you.  There are rarely "perfect opportunities" in photography.  It is up to us to make something out of nothing.  I encourage you to inspect the details around you right now.  Grab your camera, and make some pictures.  It may turn out to be trash, or it could be fine art.  You'll never know unless you try.

The "Christmas Machine" is a short video I made in response to the madness that ensues every year after Thanksgiving. While I love the holidays, I truly dislike the blatant ways in which retail outlets try to increase their bottom line. People get killed on Black Friday by shoppers who must get the best deal.  The internet slows to a crawl on Cyber Monday.  Employees are forced to come in to work at three or four in the morning, and work long hours while being underpaid by corporate giants. 

I created this with flip video footage from the Macy's window fronts on 34th Street, and music by Nine Inch Nails from the album "Ghosts".  The music was used legally as it falls under Creative Commons licensing. 

This series of abstract images were created using a bottle of water (half full), iPhone, and a desire to create something while waiting for my laundry to finish.

The technique was simple. I just pointed the bottle toward the neon lights, and placed the iPhone lens at the bottom.

This is how it looked at first, before I started to experiment with adjusting the angle of the bottle.

Shapes and patterns began to emerge.

 A few of them looked really interesting in black and white.  This was done in Photoshop CS4 where I also added a yellow filter.

 Overall, it was a very productive way to pass the time.

Who ever thought laundry could be so much fun?

More experiments to come.

The idea: Let's have fun, be creative, and use our imaginations to tell a story based upon this image.

How: In the comment section, simply add the next part of the story as you would like to see it. There is no wrong or right. It's all up to you. Add as many parts as you'd like.

I need your help: I've always wanted to try something like this, but it will only work with your participation. Please help me tell this story! Thanks!

I mentioned to my friend that I would love to try some underwater vid, and he just happened to have a waterproof Aquapac case which he was kind enough to lend me (thanks Tom!). When I went to Ocean City, NJ a few weeks ago, I had a chance to test it out.

By now, you likely saw today's google logo pictured above. It was to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the first ever bar code. Rather than typing a long response as to how this logo made me feel, I'm posting a simple piece of artwork I made a while back.

I was walking home from the train station, crossing through a parking lot when I saw this amazing scene. It was an oil leak on the blacktop. Yet, this wasn't any ordinary puddle. The oil mixed with the rain water to create this psychedelic design. First I shot it with my iPhone, then I used my Canon 40D with a 17-40mm lens. I figured I probably looked ridiculous photographing the parking lot, but I didn't care. I was amazed at how beautiful something like oil could create. I made six more exposures before continuing on. Here is my favorite.

Remember the old days of shooting film? I sure do. I would have a couple of good frames, and about 34 throw-aways. Yet, instead of junking the bad ones, I saved them in an old shoe box. When the weather was lousy and inspiration struck me right, I would dust off the box and re-purpose the prints in the form of a collage. This one was made from about 15 shots. It reminds me of sitting under the stars on a cool New England night, and listening to our campfire crackle.