Great Advertising

I know this is intended to be a photo-blog in the sense that it shows off my more artistic photography and thoughts pertaining thereunto. However, I found something of particular interest that I wanted to blog about—and I took a picture of it, so it still counts as a photoblog!

Stashed around the pump at Sunoco the other day I noticed stickers with the oil mogul's signature red, yellow, and blue colors on them. So I picked one up and read the back. Turns out that anyone who puts this sticker on their car is automatically entered to win one of 12,000 prizes, those being $10.00 Sunoco gas cards. At $4.25+ per gallon, $10.00 will buy you about a shot-glass worth of gasoline (perhaps a little more than that!). But I digress. If you win one of those 12,000 prizes, you are automatically entered in the grand prize drawing: 5,000 gallons of Sunoco gasoline. Now that's impressive.

Oh, and how does just putting a sticker on your car automatically get you entered? Spotters at or near Sunoco stations have to spot your car and flag you down. Then you win a $10.00 gas card and are entered toward the grand prize.

But you know who I think the real winner is here? It's Sunoco. They're giving you the opportunity to win some free gas—but think about all the free advertising they're getting. Not to mention posting spotters at or near their stations—thus encouraging sticker holders to purchase Sunoco gasoline.

This is genius marketing and advertising. It gets the consumer directly involved, and has the potential to pay dividends in advertising and customer loyalty for Sunoco. Bottom line: the expenses of giving away free gasoline are more-than-likely offset by the returns Sunoco is able to gain.

Marketing and advertising like this is the kind of stuff that wins awards. It's fresh and outside-the-box thinking. I only wish I could put my name on a campaign, strategy, or concept like this.

That said, Sunoco has reeled me in...with gas costing what it does today, whether $10.00 or 5,000 gallons, I'm willing to give Sunoco a small space on my car in order for a shot at some free vitamin-G. By the way, the promotion ends August 31st, and you can bet, my sticker will be scraped off that same day—unless Sunoco makes me another offer that I can't refuse...

Check out more at www.gosunoco.com

Picking Up Where I Left Off...

First of all, I realize it has been a long time since I blogged here. I had even forgotten my login creds for this site and needed to have a little reminder sent (thank goodness for the "forgot your password?" link!!). In any case, even though I've missed all of 2008 thus far, I figure I'll share some recent pictures from the Fourth of July. This year I sat atop the sledding hill at Chestnut Ridge Park. The view from up there is incredible as it looks out over Lake Erie; Buffalo; and Niagara Falls, Canada. I saw many fireworks, all off in the distance, of course. Personally, I'd rather see one good fireworks show up close than watch many from afar. Something's missing without the signature in-your-face explosions (and ash raining down on you!!).

Anyway, while the masses of distant fireworks were somewhat entertaining, the best light show was the vibrant sunset over Lake Erie. Enjoy:

Buffalo; Ralph Wilson Stadium; and Niagara Falls, Canada (to the left)

And the fireworks begin...

Christmas Morning

Those of us here in the Northeast take our white Christmases very seriously. It's just not right if there's not snow on the ground...and by snow I mean the white, fluffy stuff that covers the ground and sits on the pine trees, creating a stark contrast between deep green and white. While the weather is supposed to warm up in these regions starting later today, I think that nobody here can complain that it wasn't a white Christmas. And with it came the opportunity for some of the traditional Christmasey photos, complete with snow.

Otherwise, Christmas for myself and family just isn't the same anymore. Since the death of my grandmother in late December three years ago, the holiday has just never been what it once was. Even before Grandma's passing, the joy and excitement that Christmas always conjured up in my spirit when I was younger just seemed to be waning from year to year. This year working as a seasonal temp in a toy store helped me to gain some insight into what made Christmas so magical as a child. I think it was all the toys and all the surprises. In these past few weeks as I watched insane parents spend hundreds of dollars on toys for their kids, I realized that's what instilled such a sense of magic in me at Christmas when I was younger. As a child, I was so much easier to surprise—just give me a boat-load of toys all wrapped up under the Christmas tree. Sure, they may cost a fortune, and end up in the landfill or garage sale before next Christmas, but for those few moments on Christmas morning, those toys brought joy immeasurable.

That's certainly not to say that I am ungrateful for this Christmas. I was blessed with plenty of "grown-up" toys (get your mind out of the gutter!), such as clothes and other nice, useful, practical gifts. I guess it just seems that as I get older, that childlike joy of Christmas fades, even as I try each season to relive the nostalgia of Christmases gone by.

The answer, I suppose, is to not use past Christmases as a benchmark in judging the current season. The answer is to enjoy each Christmas holiday and all it's memories to the fullest, while not losing sight of departed family members and traditions, but making new ones instead.

With that said, enjoy the photos, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmastime

Christmastime...this word still drives me crazy. Only this year did I discover that within the labyrinth of rules & exceptions that compose our English language is the combination of "Christmas" plus "time" into one word acceptable.

In any case, I digress. This year has been a very busy Holiday season to say the least with work and all. I've managed to work more overtime than I ever dreamed of, hence my lack of time for updating my blog and pursuing life's finer interests, like photography. This past Monday, however, I was able to enjoy some much-needed time away from the worksite, and as such I used that time to work on building up my portfolio of winter/Christmas photos around my hometown. The temperatures were less than balmy, but the fluffy, fresh snow coupled with gray skies made for a nostalgic holiday ambiance. As a quick aside, most people, myself included, prefer sunny skies to gray ones. However, come winter time, I love gray days. Yes, the light is softer and more diffused for photography purposes, but there's something more to overcast skies. It just adds a feeling of winter that sun reflecting off of snow can't seem to add.

So as not to end on a gloomy note, I leave you some of my new photos from around the homefront. While certainly not nearly as elaborate as my experiences spending Christmas in mid-town Manhattan last year, my hometown did not disappoint either. Enjoy the latest from the Studio, and Merry Christmas.

Changing of Seasons...

I went out last week to a local bird sanctuary and wildlife preserve to see if I could capture some of the waning moments of autumn's foliage. It's interesting to me—being a nature photographer, but not a naturalist—how the brilliant golden hues of maple trees hang on the longest, seemingly every fall. The beautiful crimson, pink, and orange maples have long since dropped their leaves. Yet as the first light snows befall us, and winter is whispering in the shadows, the deep shades of yellow seem to shine their best at this late time in the fall.

To be fair, however, the world is not completely bathed in yellow. Burning bushes are also resiliently holding fast to their leaves, which are a beautiful deep shade of red this time of year.

Beyond the last remnants of a colorful fall, I was able to also spot a white goose within the bird sanctuary. At least this is what a bird photographer told me it was. The little fella cooperated enough so as to let me zoom in on him and get a nice close up. I have no idea if this bird is a goose of some sort or not. My research on a few bird websites didn't shed much insight on the situation either. Perhaps if someone knows, they'll be so kind as to leave a response in the comments section.

So now I'm gazing out my window as the rising sun glistens against a fresh dusting of snow, and I can't help but think that maybe, despite it traditionally being a gray season of cold and death, that perhaps this winter will have its own nostalgic beauty. I can hardly wait to see what winter-time photo opps await me. The gallery at Studio 85 will be growing this season.

To order any prints featured in this entry, or to see more from Studio 85's gallery, visit the Studio 85 homepage.

The Initial Blog

For years now, I've been an avid blogger. However, the time has come for me to "grow up" in my blogging. This means no more Xanga or MySpace blogs, and since E-Blogger seems to be the "grown-up" standard in blogging, I've decided to give it a try.

The purpose behind this blog is really simple. I am working on establishing my own fine-art photography firm called Studio 85. Wondering about the name? It comes from New York City's famed Studio 54 nightclub, but with my birth year inserted. On this blog I'm going to showcase some of my photography work, which is all available for purchase (more details to come), and share some of my ramblings as they relate to the photo(s) for each post.

So....it amazes me how big something as fun and simple as blogging has become. All through my college years we were taught in mass communication courses that blogging is ever-so important in today's business world.

It's not just blogs, though, that drive today's microchip-laden world, but computers in general. I saw a living example of this yesterday at the Fisher Price Toystore, where I currently work. The network router that powers all our cash registers went down, leaving them with no network connection, and forbidding us to use CAM32, our merchandising software. Forty minutes after the first toy-crazed soccer moms had entered the store, we still had no cash registers. A line, winding through the aisles, was beginning to form as people waited to be cashed out. Despite the wait, nobody was abandoning their Smart Cycles, Pat Pat Rockets, and other hard-to-find toys that little Billy just has to have for Christmas this year. I feared we would be mobbed.

Finally, our flustered assistant manager emerged from her office to let us know that we were to begin taking cash-only orders—and writing them up entirely by hand! Receipts were hand written, New York State's portion (sales tax) was applied with a good old fashioned calculator, and well, doing coupons and discounts became another nightmare in and of itself. Customers ransacked the ATM in the lobby as we made repeated announcements that cash and only cash was all we could accept.

Four hours of this mayhem went on until the technicians discovered the bad router on our network. This one little box failed, creating a world of pandemonium within the Toystore.

As I begin this new blog, I like to take a moment just to reflect at how dependent we as a society have become upon the microprocessor. I honestly have no idea where I'd be without my HP Media Center and my high-speed internet connection. Many people, especially those of the "boomer" generation, state how scary it is that computers run our world today. Maybe it's just because I've grown up with a mouse in my right hand, but honestly, I don't find it scary at all. I find it exciting and challenging. A computer allows you the power to create and to communicate with the world—all right at your finger tips. But let the hell of yesterday forever be a reminder to me of what happens when one tiny little micro-circuit fails, and sends we humans, the creators of micro-circuits, into flustered pandemonium.