One year ago, the same lighthouse looked like this.

When I compare the two images, I think the lighthouse was actually damaged enough that they had to remove some of the lower boards.

According to this chart, the lake level should be around 99′ at this time of year. Instead, we’re at about 96.5′ – more like what I would expect in June. And that’s after a pretty rainy couple of days. We were at 96.0′ on April 21st. According to the USGS, the lake level changes by about 5′ annually. If we’re at the annual high point now, what does that mean for the rest of the summer? Will September or October 2012 bring us new record lows, only 18 months after record highs?

On a somewhat related note, there’s still a lot of effort going in to repairing our broken state after last year’s flooding. There are lots of people in VT that still need homes rebuilt and businesses that are still recovering.  One of the things that’s near and dear to my heart is the Burlington Bike Path. OK, it’s somewhat selfish, it’s part of my daily commute — but it’s also a big draw for tourism. Many events like those put on by Run Vermont and Race Vermont rely on the Bike Path for their routes. It’s in rough shape right now as a result of all the flooding last year. Parts have been patched, and repairs on other sections have begun, but there’s a long way to go.  Local Motion has put together a fund to help repair the Island Line Trail. If you use this path and have a few dollars to spare, I’m sure they would appreciate any contribution.

If the Bike Path isn’t your thing, maybe consider the VT Irene Flood Relief Fund or VT Farm Disaster Relief Fund.

You can find all photographs from the Stowe Derby right here. You can even search by bib number to order a print of yourself (or a friend!) Thanks for supporting your local photographers!

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Our Stowe Derby day starts by swinging by registration to check in, pick up a lift ticket, and coordinate any last minute details. The early bib pickup system has made this process a lot easier; it used to be that there was a long line of people waiting to pick up their race packets, but now it’s a calm trickle of people.

From there, Tawny and I head to find scout a location with a view of the mountains. With the re-routed course this year, we took a few extra minutes to find a new spot.  Once that’s settled upon, I rush back to the start of the short course to grab a few quick shots of the chaos that is a mass start.

While the racers are making their way back towards Tawny,

I head up to Stowe Mountain Resort to get set for the Freestyle start. The first skiers come through fast and gracefully.

It’s funny photographing on the Toll Road. I like to shoot around the first corner to get some interaction between racers (and, I’m not gonna lie, to get some great crashes.) The thing is, it’s a blind corner so I do a lot of listening to know when to shoot. Generally, the first sound you hear is skis snowplowing down the first pitch before the corner. Next, the less experienced racers will often let out a little (or sometimes big!) scream as they realize they have to turn more than 90 degrees and have no edges. From there many will fall, but nearly everyone gets up laughing.

Scrape, Scream, Fall, Laugh – the pattern continues for quite some time!

This year there were definitely some powder hounds who had to get fresh tracks where they could.

I’m not sure what it was this year, but skiers took this corner wide and a number of people came close to the wall.

A few even hit it!

Racers then continue through the bulk of the course before reaching Tawny’s spot with views of a freshly snow-covered Spruce mountain with blue skies. Hard to beat that!

So about two hours later it all begins again with the start of the Classical race. A little further down on the course this time, a crowd has gathered to watch the carnage.

This guy makes it look too easy.

When the last racers have come through, I pack up my gear and head to the finish. Tawny captures everyone in the field with the mountains or Smuggler’s Notch in the background and I get to watch racers smile as they realize they’re within a few hundred yards of the finish.

Nice work everyone! I look forward to doing it all again next year! (When, hopefully, I’ll remember the sunblock.)

You can find all photographs from the Stowe Derby right here. You can even search by bib number to order a print of yourself (or a friend.) Thanks for supporting your local photographers!

Clint Bierman – guitar
Peter Day – bass/trumpet
Sean Preece – drums
Leon Campos – keys
Brian McCarthy – bari and tenor sax
Dave Grippo – alto sax
Daiki Hirano – percussion
Jeff Vallone – DJ/bass

The show was an electrifying collection of tracks from the album and newer pieces that got the crowd moving from the first note. The energy built with each song and Nectar’s was hopping all night long.

What’s that, you want even more photos? OK – check out the full gallery.

If you missed the show, you owe it to yourself to pick up the album. Want a sample? Check out this video that Matt Kiedaisch put together for the track “Scratchzilla.”

Scratchzilla from Matt Kiedaisch on Vimeo.

I know it was warm out… but running in bare feet in January?  Brrrrrr!

When the final runners came through, the police trail car was playing music through the loudspeaker and people were dancing and skipping their way towards the finish line.

Nice job everyone! Thanks, Run Vermont, for hosting another great race. SkiPix.com will have all of the photos available in a few days.

As a way of celebrating, he invited a very talented cast of musicians to perform with him including Jeff Deveau, Clint Bierman, Sean Preece, Jeff Vallone, Peter Day, Brian Chartrand, and Greg Naughton. The night started out with a more acoustic singer/songwriter style set that mixed new and old music. After a quick break, the band returned to play an upbeat mix of songs ending the night with two powerful encores.

if you haven’t had a chance to listen to Rich’s music yet, you owe it to yourself to give him a listen.

Maybe I’m getting old, but I seem to be taking a lot of photos of kids at live music shows. This next one was taken this summer at Nectar’s – it was his first show!

If this subset of photos isn’t enough, there are some more photos from the show on my SmugMug site.

Thanks for a great show and an excellent album, Rich!

Xavier was very interested, as most kids his age are, in the gear we brought with us.  Since this was a light shoot, we only brought a monopod topped with a shoot-through umbrella. It was fun to watch him experiment with what the umbrella did to both light and sound.

If you’re looking for something a little different, consider printing onto a stretched canvas. By doing so, you end up with a photo that has some qualities of a painting and doesn’t require extra framing.

If you’re interested in any of these prints, just click on the image you’d like to purchase. Thank you!

Some photos are an awkward size to print. Instead of a custom order, my recommendation is to pick the width you’re interested in (in the example below, 18″) and order the closest size print. SmugMug will tell you that the image needs cropping in checkout, but I suggest selecting “None” as is highlighted in green.  The advantage to this is that you get a print of the full image in the dimensions that it was intended.  When you receive the print, you can then have your framer trim the white portions off. If you’re interested in ordering a canvas or preframed print, you should contact me directly as that will require a custom order. It’s no extra cost to you, I just can’t configure this shopping cart to support it.

Tomorrow Never Knows is the outgrowth of a show that I saw a few months ago down at Nectar’s.  Back then, they were called “Rubber Revolver” and apparently only intended to play that one show.  Well, I can say that it was a smashing success and I was ecstatic to hear that they were playing another Beatles show.  (Should you desire a soundtrack for this post, I’d recommend this recording of “Oh, Darling” from the show.)

Tomorrow Never Knows is made up of members from Elephantbear (Mike Pedersen), The Grift (Clint Bierman and Peter Day), The Woeful Lonelies (Joshua Glass), Honky Tonk Tuesday (Sean Preece), and Jer Coons. If you’re from around Vermont, you’ve likely seen at least a few of these names around and know they’re a talented group of musicians that regularly put on high energy shows.

Tonight, Tomorrow Never Knows performed Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road in their entireties. As someone commented after the show, they just did something The Beatles never did – play Abbey Road live from start to finish.

Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater played hosts to the band and the place was packed. One of the great parts about seeing a show in a theater instead of a nightclub is that you know the lighting is going to be good.

If you have the opportunity to see them, I highly recommend it. You can download the recording of the May 19th show from Nectar’s, but nothing is going to be as good as seeing them live.

Andrew played two sets of music starting off with a more standard singer/songwriter set and finishing by adding some looping and beatboxing. APR’s lyrics and melodies are catchy, but his use of technology really amplifies a one man show into something much larger.

The lights in Nectar’s can range between awesome and miserable from a photographic perspective.  On this particular evening, they (Sergey?) had the lights on a nice rotating pattern that kept things fresh and provided some texture. I did, however, spice it up with a little Strobist action on some of the shots. The only problem I continually run into is the fact that the front lights are gelled so red that skin tones are next to impossible to achieve.

I’ll let you in on a little secret — if you see me shooting black & white at a show it’s generally because the lighting was incredibly red and monochromatic.

(A side note, I love that even through the numerous renovations at Nectar’s, this light has remained a fixture. I’ve heard that the revolving sign outside is in need of some repair — I hope it hangs around for a while, too. )

Great to hear you play again, Andrew! I’m looking forward to hearing the new album.