Roth 365

Five Ways Out

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:58:00 +0000

Another stop on the Mebane Photowalk was a laundromat. In a bit of a crazy random happenstance, inside was a slightly awkward new couple enjoying what looked to be frozen yogurt.

Crossing Back

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:34:00 +0000

On the eve of the Pig Pickin', the Mrs. and I decided to do a bit of a photowalk in downtown Mebane. For a little NC town that you've probably never heard of, it is actually quite nice. We ventured to the other side of the tracks (or were we venturing from the other side of the tracks?) and on the way I took this shot.

Jason

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:44:00 +0000

Portraits are the type of photography at which I feel most weak. I don't like taking them, and when I do, I am usually not happy with the results. If you look through this blog or my photostream, you'll notice there are more pictures of Lego people than there are of actual people.

Because of this, I need to take more portraits. Also because of this, when I do get one that I think is decent, I'm happy to share. And so I bring you Jason. He is one of the regular cast of characters that I see yearly at my brother's pig pickin'

Blink!

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:51:00 +0000

It has been a while since "the boy" has shown up here, so I figured it was about time. This shot was taken at his sister's U6 soccer game. The nice thing about U6 soccer is that there are plenty of opportunities to photograph other things without much risk of missing anything good on the pitch.

When You Thought It Was Safe

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:43:00 +0000

Ah, chrome. Before it was a web browser, it was a fun shiny part of many a car. Now you need to go to a museum to see it. At least I did. The Smithsonian American History Museum. This picture was taken before Ben Stiller showed up and everything came to life, btw.

To the Sun

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:32:00 +0000

The Washington Monument is one of the most recognized landmarks in Washington DC. It is also one of the most photographed. (You can see some of my shots of it here). Because of this, it can be hard to take an interesting and unique shot, especially in the middle of the afternoon when the bright sunlight is not your friend.

Motionless One

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:49:00 +0000

Inside the Smithsonian Museum of American History is an odd statue of George Washington done up like an ancient Greek dude, or perhaps a less ancient frat boy going to a toga party. This statue was done by some Italian artist, and when it arrived in DC, lets just say it was not what was expected. The leaders of the day must have looked on this mostly naked man art not unlike the mom from A Christmas Story looked at the ladies leg lamp. Anyway, this is his hand, and I think he is posed like this because he was in fact, #1. Either that, or he is indicated on what denomination of money he is featured.

Listen!

Flamingo

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:37:00 +0000

On the day my lovely wife turned [redacted], this flamingo, along with [redacted] of his friends were waiting on the front yard. A sign of the times is that she did not discover this flamboyant flamingo flock by looking out the window. No, she discovered these via Facebook, where the erstwhile flamingo planters had recorded the deed. (I should mention it was dark outside when she arose, because the way my wife celebrates her birthday is to get up before dawn and run a half-marathon).

Final Exit

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:30:00 +0000

On the other side of this door is New York City - East Broadway at the Manhattan Bridge - right in the chaotic heart of a Chinatown morning. People are hurrying in all directions as vendors unload truckfuls of mysterious produce and other unknown wonders while cars and trains pass by noisily on the bridge. This side of the door holds quiet and calm, but that all changes as you pass through, and there is no going back.

Listen!

Jazz Club

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:27:00 +0000

I must have walked pass the door to this jazz club in Greenwich Village three times before I finally decided to take a chance and go in. As much as I like jazz and new experiences, it felt a bit weird to go into a place like this by myself. I am so glad that I did. B.D. Lenz Group played the exact kind of funky cool tunes that I needed to get out of my own head for a while and lose myself to the night.

Listen!

Greenwich Fountain

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Another shot from my last NY trip - this time from Greenwich Village, which I wandered through in search of some dinner. Unlike most of the time I'm New York, I was able to leave the office before dark which of course gives the city an entirely different look.

Listen!

Dark Alley

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:24:00 +0000

At my peak, I was a fairly average bowler. My peak however, was somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago. Since then, I had been bowling exactly twice. That is, until this fateful night in New York City during which I learned two things:
1) The rules of bowling etiquette are either not the same in New York or they are just ignored
2) Bowling is not the kind of activity that once you learn how to do it, you always remember, even after not doing it for a long time (can't think of a good analogy).

Listen!

Thanks to Phill Price for letting me know about AudioBoo.

Relax

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:54:00 +0000

Sooner or later everyone goes to the zoo. It is easy to feel bad for the animals, given how they are confined and gawked at all day, but at least this guy did not seem to mind.

Fill the World - Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:53:00 +0000

I don't usually do this, but this is a reinterpretation of a shot that I originally posted to Flickr over a year ago. I liked the original shot so much that I put as March for my 2009 calendar. Looking at it over the last ten days however, has made we to do it a bit differently. First of the, the chair on the bottom was distracting, so I cropped it out. Second, I fixed the sky so it was not so blown out. And finally and most drastically, I flipped the picture around so that the painter would be working from left to right. Somehow that just seemed better to me.

Turtlely Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:57:00 +0000

A long, long time ago when Shelley and I were dating, we spent a very pleasant afternoon canoeing around some lake in Chapel Hill, NC. In and around the lake, we saw many, many turtles. Since we were all romantic and schmoopey and stuff, turtles sort of became our thing. Shorty thereafter, I had to go to France for work, so of course when I saw these pewter turtles for sale, I had to buy them for soon to be fiance.

Here's Lookin' at Me

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:27:00 +0000

Guest artist today - my five year old daughter. The shot this with available light using a 90mm macro lens in Aperture Priority mode.

Go to the Light

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:05:00 +0000

I was in DC last night for a tech meetup (read: a rare place at which I am among the least geeky), and I got to ride this wicked long down escalator at Woodley Park Metro on the way home. The bad part is that I did not get to ride it up on the way there because I was nearly late so I manually climbed at least 80 steps while riding.

Troubadour

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:57:00 +0000

Another from the previously untouched archives, this time from my trip to Austin, TX last year for SXSW. This is a great conference in that it attracts all different sorts of interesting characters. This guy's guitar case alone is more interesting than most people you'd meet in real life.

Broome Street

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:17:00 +0000

This is a nice little place at the corner of Broome Street and West Broadway in New York. I stopped here on my way back to the hotel to grab a burger and a beer, and because my face was frozen.

You Don't Know JAX

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:47:00 +0000

While flying home from a fun family vacation at Disney World, we were not far from Orlando when we smelled it. It wasn't a burning smell so much as it was a sulfurous, match-just-struck kind of smell. It was the exact kind of smell that you don't want to smell on an airplane. The staff tried to isolate the source of this mysterious smell, but when their efforts proved to be in vain, the pilot decided to put the plane down in Jacksonville.

We had a few hours at JAX to wait for a new plane. While the kids entertained themselves walking upstream on the moving sidewalk, playing with their new friends (there are always plenty of kids on a flight from Orlando), and watching Dr. Horrible, I decided to take a mini-photowalk in the airport. This cart did it's best to make me feel welcome.

Twofer

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Another one from the archive because I'm still taking a bit of a shooting siesta. This picture comes from a trip we took to New Orleans last February. That city has long been one of my favorites because of the music and the food, but now it is also one of my favorites because of the photographic opportunities.

You can see the whole set from that trip here: Photos of New Orleans.

One Year Later

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:54:00 +0000

I told you I wasn't going away just yet. This shot was taken on this day exactly one year ago. For whatever reason, I passed it over in favor of this shot of three very handsome men. When looking through the archives, I decided to see what I could do with it, and only later realized the date it was shot.

Meanwhile, after shooting each and every day last year, I've now not taken any photos in nearly a week.

Roth365 - The Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Celebrate!

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Day 365

So here we are at the last day of this photo-a-day odyssey. Frankly I surprised myself by sticking to it and taking a picture every day of the year. Some were better than others, but 365 of them were good enough for me to call keepers and feature them here on this blog.

Was it all worth it? For me, it definitely was. Not only do I think that I improved my photography skills, but I generally had a whole lot of fun doing it. If you had half as much fun looking at these pictures as I did taking them, then I had twice as much fun taking them as you did looking at them.

My sincere thanks to those of you that have followed along and especially to those that have left some comments along the way, either here or on Flickr. It would still be worth it to me even if no one ever saw any of these pictures, but the fact that some people have taken a look now and then makes it so much better.

Now that we've reached the end, what comes next? To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. I'm not going to try to shoot a picture everyday in 2009, I can tell you that now. Even so Roth365.com will continue. I plan to keep shooting regularly however, and will continue to share my work here as well as on Flickr. I may also go through my ever growing archive of unprocessed pictures and see what gems might be hidden there. So, keep checking back, and we'll see what happens.

At this moment though, I'm putting a big red DONE stamp on this photo-a-day odyssey.

Outside the Inn

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Roth) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:07:00 +0000

Day 364

This building, the Inn at St. Peters, is the location of my very first job. Many, many years ago, my friend Craig and I were hired to pull weeds in the beds surrounding the patio. We were paid in burgers and french fries. It did not take us long to figure out that if we did not remove the weeds, we would have more steady employment.