That Sure As Hell Ain't Santa Claus

First I got an invitation from this new bank on Biscayne Blvd., followed up by an email from the Chamber of Commerce. Finally I got a call from the Chamber. They wanted to make sure that there was a decent turnout for the bank's grand opening party.

Christmas was fast aproaching and I was making a game out of seeing just how many parties I could attend that were serving free food. Why pay for food when gourmet delicacies are available free for the taking? That strange creature shaped like the bank's logo (or was the banks logo shaped like him?) was posing with everyone. We got to wear a Santa Claus hat and get our picture taken with a Polaroid camera. I figure that with Polaroid ceasing film manufacture this might be my last chance to appear in a Polaroid photo. Get it while the getting's good.

So here I am wearing a Santa hat holding my little Bessa L with the 15mm lens in one hand, some free food in the other, while somebody else was taking what just might be the last ever Polaroid picture of me! They also gave out these neat little duffle bags with the bank's name on it. If I could find the damned thing I could tell you the name of the bank.

I Ain't Got A Clue In Hell...

...where I took this photograph...LOL

I always carry a camera with me, and it's usually set up with a 15mm ultra wide angle Heliar lens. I've always been fascinated by extreme wide angle perspectives. It does some interesting things with diagonal lines in the composition. It also causes strange distortions of round type shapes in the corners, making them appear more egg shaped than they are in reality, but having a distorted head is worth it if I like the picture otherwise.

My good friend photographer Todd Frederick, digital maven, usually posts my pictures here on the blog. Every few weeks I mail him a bunch of CD's. When Walgreens develops the film they make the CD, all the pictures on the roll, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most times I've never really seen the pictures other than the tiny images on the "Index Print". Todd picks an image that intrigues him and posts it. Then he emails me a detailed message, such as "Posted". That's when I find out what in hell I'm supposed to be writing about. Probably a month later and a bunch of rolls since I shot it. I should take notes but I don't. This was taken "Somewhere", reasonably recently, and within maybe ten miles of my house. It appeared on my screen within the hour.

What was different this morning was me emailing Todd with a "Got it!" before he emailed "Posted" to me. I'd been killing time while drinking my morning coffee and enjoying my first cigarette of the day by googling my name to see what might turn up that's new. I discovered this: http://journals.aol.com/rap4143/MyDayMyInterests/ and clicked on Photographer/Writer Al Kaplan which, at least for today, brought up this shot, probably because it's my most recent blog entry.

I also discovered this link. http://www.10thstreetcamera.com/link.htm The site contains a short list of blog and website links, and there I am!

" Al Kaplan is a Miami area photographer who maintains a blog about his everyday life." Now the coffee cup is empty and Todd is threatening me with great bodily harm if I don't get my butt into the darkroom and make some black and white prints. Together with Mario at ROOTZ Gallery wanting to see more of my work I guess I ought to do just that!