Brian D. Mains

So it goes . . .

Recent Posts

  • Photo(s): Food and Sunsets

    Photo(s): Food and Sunsets

    I am still figuring out the parameters and flow for posting photographs taken with my new Canon EOS R6 camera.

    My goal, as stated in my last blog post, is to post a photograph a week. Right now, I’m leaning towards that in the literal sense by selecting one shot here versus vomiting every pic into a gallery each week that I slap online.

    I want this project to be intentional, which means I am also considering a theme and setting to play with each week. I hope to have that clearly stated in a post soon.

    I also hope to select a consistent time and day to make these photo posts.

    I figure some of what I want to do will evolve organically. Constructive suggestions are welcome in the comments.

    Now on with the show.

    This week, I’m breaking a future rule by sharing three photos. Two are essentially the same images of food. The second is a sunset.

    I played with color and contrast for all three in Lightroom.

    Lunch

    I wish I had thought more about the presentation when I took these photographs of the eggplant and green bean salad I made for lunch Tuesday, but I was hungry when I shot it.

    My house’s back mudroom is actually a gorgeous place to stage a midday shoot due to the white walls and natural light that floods the space.

    I’m sharing both shots here because I couldn’t decide whether I liked the closer-up or wider-angled photo more.

    Sunset

    This photograph was after sunset, about 6:20 p.m. Tuesday at Ault Park in Cincinnati, Ohio.

    It will be a while before I come back here to take photographs of a starry sky.

  • The Canon EOS R6

    The Canon EOS R6

    I bought a Canon Rebel DSLR many years ago with the intent of becoming a photographer. I spent six months posting a photo a day to this blog.

    I won’t say every photo was great. Some were over-edited. Others had soft focal points. But over time, I did improve to the point a few photos caught the eye of advertising agencies and individual collectors.

    I contracted the rights for one of them, a self-portrait, to an international charitable organization for its website. A doctor purchased a series of four photographs of a barge cutting through the fog rising off the Ohio River at sunrise.

    You could say that I was as pleased as punch with myself. Around the same time, I changed jobs, found a new passion in running and generally got distracted by other developments in my life.

    I still take many photographs, all on my iPhone, but nothing with the same zeal I did when I first purchased that Rebel.

    And here we are today, a year into the COVID-19 pandemic.

    I’ve documented the lives of my wife, dog and cat almost daily since working from home beginning March 16, 2020.

    And while my iPhone 12 takes excellent pictures, I recently started looking for more challenging creative outlets.

    So, with my wife’s blessing, I purchased a new Canon EOS R6 mirrorless camera and lens. The camera isn’t cheap and I’m such a novice using it right now.

    But I swear I’m going to use it, hopefully daily and with the mindset that perhaps I can turn photography into a real side hustle.

    I just need to figure out what creative goals and projects I plan to pursue. When I do, I’ll be sharing that journey here.

    And for the record, the image below is the first picture I took with the new Canon. It is on an icy road in Eden Park, Cincinnati, Ohio.

  • Gimme Shelter

    Gimme Shelter

    Oh, a storm is threat’ning

    My very life today

    If I don’t get some shelter

    Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away

    – The Rolling Stones

    I took these pictures on February 9, 2012, in Clermont County, Ohio.

    I was heading home, about an hour drive west, after spending the afternoon with a child I mentored through a volunteer program I was involved with at the time.

    I remember being nervous as I parked my car along the narrow shoulder of the two-lane state road. Cars would regularly blow past me, crossing the double yellow line going 80 to 100 miles per hour while driving, much less sitting still on this low traffic stretch of rural state highway.

    Hours earlier, I had noted the decaying farmhouse and barn that sat on what appeared to be abandoned property on my way to my mentoring commitment.

    What really caught my eye though was the moss covered rock perched on the weathered fence post nearby. Someone intentionally put it there.

    My Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera was tucked behind the driver seat of my gold 2004 Pontiac Grand Am, so, I knew I needed to stop and explore the property on my return trip.

    It is hard to believe seven years have gone by since I took these pictures. My mentorship ended a few months later in 2012.

    I have not returned to that part of Clermont County since.

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  • Time Keeps Marching On

    Time Keeps Marching On

    “The future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.”
    ― Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

    Taken Jan. 12, 2012 with Canon Rebel XR