I have been spending a considerable amount of time lately trying to figure out what’s next in my life. I’ve recently bought a couple of domain names and am trying to learn how to host, build and maintain web sites and upgraded my PhotoShelter site. It’s all quite overwhelming, especially my attempts to learn web design. Why can’t web design software be simple? Drag and drop functions would be nice, and tutorials that make sense to an old darkroom tech would be helpful.

On top of all the photography oriented stuff, I’ve been working hard at getting my 40 year old body back into shape and to develop new skill sets for my side career in personal security training. Add to all this three very active kids with soccer games, band shows and football games, and I haven’t had time to shoot photos for myself in months.

Two weeks ago, York Harley Davidson hosted their annual Open House and York City held a parade and bike night as part of the weekend festivities.  I was assigned by the newspaper to cover the first morning of the Open House. I’ve covered this event for several years, and decided to try something a bit different for the video I was to produce. I decided to go old-school (kinda) and shoot B&W images for use in the video. I had been using my old Nikon D1 with it’s 2.74 mp sensor for some time as a B&W camera for weddings, as crappy as the sensor is, it produces beautiful B&W’s that have the look of old Tri-X film.

The images and the video looked great so after deciding to attend Bike Night, I lugged the D1 with one lens to the parade. This might be the final year for Bike Night, as Harley is thinking of relocating the York plant out of state, so I decided to shoot some images for myself to remember the event.  While I didn’t get real in-depth with my coverage, it was a lot of fun just shooting pictures for myself again and overall I’m happy with the results.

The misses and I went to New York last weekend to photograph a co-worker’s wedding. Took advantage of being away from the kids and spent Sunday on our own. Our choices were to visit Watkin’s Glenn State Park or the Corning Glass Museum. The weather made the decision easy, it was raining, so off to the Glass Museum.

I think Kat had more fun there than I did, honestly, I was a little more then bored but I did make a few interesting photos.  This one is of the front of the museum, which of course is all glass.

Kathy and I returned last evening after spending a wonderful weekend in Corning, New York, photographing the wedding of my co-worker Carl Lindquist and his lovely bride Sara Easton. Mother Nature blessed Carl and Sara with beautiful weather for the rehearsal party, Friday, and for the entire wedding day Saturday.

Carl and Sara were married in a small chapel in front of about 80, and celebrated their marriage at the Corning Country Club. Congrats to Carl and Sara, Thank You so much for an awesome weekend!

Meet the Trick Master.

click on photo to see video.

Truck driver and basketball Trick Master, Victor Wells of Hillside, NJ with his tools of the trade, Friday, May 22, 2009. Broken down along Mount Rose Avenue in Springettsbury Township on his way on a run to Baltimore, Wells spent his time waiting on a mechanic practicing his basketball tricks, delighting passing motorists.
John Pavoncello photo

My daughter called from the high school this morning (getting me out of bed), needing me to run some things up that she forgot. On my way back to the house, I stopped for the traffic light at Mt. Rose Avenue and glanced to my right. There was a tractor trailer sitting in the parking lot of the old Tom’s with it’s hood up, and a guy doing his best Harlem Globetrotters impersonation beside it.

Even though I had a TON of stuff to do on my day off, I decided that a feature like this doesn’t happen very often and quickly pulled into the lot to find out who this basketball spinning truck driver was.

Victor Wells is a former All American basketball player who was drafted for the NBA but then became a truck driver. Wells practices when he’s waiting for loads to be put on his truck, or when his big rig leaves him waiting for a repair. Check out the video (click on the photo) to hear Wells describe his life on the road with his basketballs.

Got a call from a friend who has a hummingbird nest in the tree in his front yard. I’ve never seen a hummingbird nest before, it’s amazing how tiny these things are. The two young will probably be out of the nest before the end of the week.

Nearly 5200 flags were pushed into the ground at Prospect Hill Cemetery in York, one each to remember every soldier, sailor and Marine killed in the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The flags were transported from Hefner Funeral Home, escorted by almost 100 Patriot Guard riders and York County Sheriff’s Deputies that shut down traffic along Route 30 to allow the procession to pass.

The flags were installed on a hill near the entrance to Prospect Hill by Gold Star Mothers and family, the Patriot Guard, York County Sheriff’s and volunteers. It took about one hour for the hill to transform from a green lawn to a red, white and blue sea of flags.

It’s contest season, actually, contest results season, and I found out last week that three of my photos took awards in the Pennsylvania Keystone competition.

2nd Place News Photo

1st Place Feature Photo

2nd Place Sports Photo

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since I returned from Parris Island. Work has been hectic with State basketball games, the start of spring sports and company furloughs. I’ve been working on editing a video I shot the day before leaving for South Carolina so I haven’t even looked at the images and video I shot with the Marines (gotta take care of the paying work first).

During the course of a busy day yesterday I shot photos of a lemonade stand at North Hills Elementary School.  The students are taking part in the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation fundraiser to help children with cancer.

Students at North Hills Elementary School purchase cups of lemonade during lunch period, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. The school, one of  thirty eight schools across the US and Taiwan, are participating in raising funds for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a foundation started by Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004) to help battle childhood cancer. The students of North Hills Elementary took part in a “virtual kick-off” Monday with a video conference with other participating schools. The North Hills students won a Spirit Award for their jingle entry in the virtual kick-off and hope to raise at least $1000 during the fundraiser through Friday.  For more information about Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, see: www.alexslemonade.org

Now that I’m finished with the freelance video job I was working on, I hope to start editing and posting images from my Marine Corps experience.

I was offered the chance to travel to Parris Island, SC to cover the Marine Corps Educators Workshop.  It’s been a crazy few days and I’ve gained a ton of knowledge of what new recruits face as they arrive at the Recruit Training Depot.

I’ll post more after I get back to York.  I’ve shot over 1300 images, plus video, in two days so I have a lot to go through.

I was leaving the office yesterday afternoon when I got a call for a working fire in the city. It was only a couple of blocks from our office and I made it there just as the first firefighters started spraying water.  Within minutes, three homes were on fire and the roof vented on the end house, blowing fire 20-30 feet above the roof.