Cycle Logic...and the dog.

Ed has been selling bikes in his Hillsborough location since 1980 but started it out of a small house in 1974.  Attending NC State to study aerospace engineering, he got obsessed with bikes and as a consequence has been working with them ever since.  Besides selling, fixing, and building bikes...he also flies gliders and is a pilot instructor, playing with Tesla coils in his spare time.  Mike (in glasses) retired in 2007 and now not only builds frames but does repair work holding down the fort when Ed needs an extra day off now and then.
If you need a bike and personal service go check out Cycle Logic.

The guys at Five Points Service - Work Series(con.)

Richard, Tommy, Lee, and Casey have been working on my cars for years.  What used to be a Phillips 66 station as long as I can remember, the Five Points landmark in Raleigh doesn't offer gas anymore.  The more I shoot pictures like this, the more I want to do.  I get inspired by people that really work for a living...much like "Dirty Jobs".   I'm making an effort right now to document the people and environment right in front of me.  Too often we see photographs taken by photographers of incredible locations around the world.   I would love to travel more, but the restraints of life haven't allowed for it lately.  So I shoot the people and places I know best.  Right here.

The Aleta: The Ocracoke mail boat.

All day today I have been scanning ancient negatives from my vault...a collection that easily exceeds 1/2 million negatives and transparencies going back to my college days in the early 80's up until I made the switch to digital along with everyone else.   I found this picture today.   Taken in the summer of 1985...not a month before I met my wife Leta.  As you can see on the dock...the name stands out.  I had not noticed this image before.  Later that day I was out on the dock and photographed the bow of a boat, the name of which was the ALETA.   After I met Leta I thought it was a interesting coincidence...enough so that I made her a print.  I entered the photograph in the NC State Fair competition that October and it took first place in Photography.
Years later we were visiting Ocracoke to attend a wedding of some neighbors of ours.  Invited to a outdoor reception, Leta and I weren't sure if we were also invited to the rehearsal dinner.  Holding back until the last moment we were ushered inside and invited to find ourselves a seat.  There were only two seats left at a table of what we thought at that time was a "younger" crowd.   Obviously the question comes up with "how did you two meet?".  After relating the story of the photograph, meeting, and photo contest, one of our dinner companions dropped her jaw and pointed to the mantle behind us.
Directly behind our heads was a carved model of the ALETA along with an old postcard showing the boat in it's original use as the Ocracoke mail boat.
When trying to come up with a middle name for my daughter, ALETA seemed the obvious choice.
Back in 85 when I took the original photographs, the ALETA was just a fishing boat with a sleeping captain aboard.  He appeared to be sleeping off a hangover.   I don't know what ever became of the ALETA.   If anyone knows...how about dropping me a line.

Tree Workers

A Trees of Carolina crew was making a lot of noise this morning so I headed out to see what was going on.  I thought it a good opportunity to photograph more for my worker series.  A nice break from scanning 30 year old negatives.

Neighbors!

Sometimes one has to just grab the camera go next door to the neighbors house.  They know I'm a photographer so are patient with me.  Some enjoy just keeping up with the yard work and then there are those that create a magical playground for their children.  And then of course there are some neighbors that we don't talk to that much.  Isn't that the way it is.

A Chicken Portfolio - Followup

Our chickens are now approximately 9 weeks old and are now in a gated community in our backyard.  I can't say they are the perfect models because they don't always do what I want them to do, but they at least don't run away from the camera.  It's really just a matter of waiting for the right moment.

The first photos of the series were taken of our Red Star (Nemo) at a few days old.  The hand model was my daughter.  The fourth photograph shows a progression of Nemo over the 9 weeks.  It was an interesting project to photograph them flying, but unfortunately Gillian clipped their wings this week so no flying photos.

Hopefully at 25 weeks or so we will have fresh eggs.