Wind Farm

Last December, I was driving north on I-65 in heavy fog and snow. Apparently, I don't get out of town very often, because shortly after passing through Lafayette, I was startled at the sight of a huge windmill lumbering around like a 747 cartwheeling out of the sky. It is like 300 feet tall and each of the three blades on it are 125 feet long. Due to the fog and snow, visibility was greatly reduced, but my awe was compounded by the distant sillouettes of many more trailing off in the distance. There must be hundreds of them or more!
I had stumbled on a huge wind farm in northern Indiana and I decided I would have to make a point, in nicer weather, to come back up here and get a better look. Now, if you live in a part of the country where these things are common, forgive me for being so fascinated. Since last December was the first time I had seen anything like this up close, it all seems like science fiction to me and something new that must be documented. I decided the ultimate would be to photograph them in the twilight as the sun is rising. Since I hate the cold, that meant waiting until May. Last week, my son Isaiah and I made the pilgrimage up north.

Headshots for the Unemployed - Redux

Last fall, I did two free photo events to benefit the swelling tide of unemployed folks. I called it Headshots for the Unemployed. I provided them with a professional business portrait they could use on their social networking sites or include with their resume package. As part of the promotion for those events, I was asked to be on the Fox 59 Morning News to talk about what I was doing. As their interview wrapped up, the anchor, in a polite, joking way asked me to come back to give them a progress report. Recently, I remembered that and thought I would poll all of the participants from last fall to see how they are doing.

I was very surprised to learn that after six months, only 35% of them were working anywhere. If you are like me, you are soothed by the media reports that unemployment figures are improving by a micropercent. We go about our day, assured in our optimism that everything is working itself out.

I have no delusions that a free business portrait is part of the solution to the unemployment problem, but I do know that it can be an encouragement to the person that is going through the ordeal. When you are daily trying to whip up the courage to jump out there and sell yourself, what you tend to feel inside is all of your faults and weaknesses screaming at you that you are wasting your time and it is no use. Everyone else is a more desirable candidate, etc. Everything you can do to improve your presentation, gives you that much more confidence and desire to put it out there. I can't give everyone a new suit to wear to an interview, but I can take a great picture of them that will speak for them when their next employer is deciding who their next superstar will be.

To that end, I am going to do it again, but this time it's going to be bigger. I am going to repeat my offer of free professional business portraits to anyone that is unemployed and looking for work. No strings attached. There will be four separate events, all in a different area on four days in May.

May 3 - Greenwood Public Library 1:00pm - 4:00pm
May 10 - New Palestine (Hancock County Library, Sugar Creek Branch) 1:00pm - 4:00pm
May 17 - Fishers Public Library 1:00pm - 4:00pm
May 24 - Brownsburg Public Library 1:00pm - 4:00pm

If you or anyone you know is interested, contact me by email (preferred) or by phone to schedule a time for a portrait.

bill@billandersonphoto.com
317-414-3237

Thanks!

Race For The Cure

I was able to witness something quite amazing Saturday. I participated in this year's Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure Run/Walk. I got volunteered by my wife, who, in turn, was persuaded by a mutual friend to take up the cause. I was thinking this could be fun and at the least, an opportunity to be there and take some photos, not as an observer, but as a participant.

Now I knew this was a popular cause, but I was not prepared for the number of people that were all involved, in some way. I kept saying over and over,"Would you look at all the people!"

Shortly after we started, I took a photo of the crowd ahead of us, then turned around to snap the crowd behind!





This was a really big, exciting party of sorts. While we were all glad for sunshine, I think everyone would have appreciated it being about 10 degrees warmer. Oh well, it adds to the camaraderie between total strangers. All around were cheering teams with crazy names and home made t-shirts. Some of the younger 'participants' were less enthused.


Every so often, you get close to someone that has been tragically affected by breast cancer and you feel a wave of the serious life and death struggle that is the reason for this gathering.



I can safely say we will be back next year.

Isn't Cereal Cool?

Hello! I have been extremely negligent with my blog of late. These are my excuses:

1). December doesn't count. I am reduced to something similar to the walking dead and I am not responsible for any of my actions or lack of action during that time.

2). Spent all of January gearing up marketing for my new (old) portrait business Pictures of You. While I have been frantically getting the word out about Bill Anderson Photography to everyone I meet and explaining it is a commercial photography business, it never fails that someone will ask about personal portraits. I don't want to send mixed messages to anyone, so I decided the best thing to do is market two separate photography businesses. Bill Anderson Photography for all of my commercial clients and Pictures of You for my retail clients.

3). I got an iPhone for Christmas. This thing peels your attention away from everything else! Suddenly all of your conversations revolve around the new apps you have and what new apps your friends have. Some of my friends have cut me off as they don't have an iPhone and cannot bear any more demonstrations of how cool this phone is. One good thing, everybody knows I am still around due to my almost daily iPhone picture posts to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Since I had the phone, I had to get Chase Jarvis' Best Camera app so I could become a complete iPhone monkey for all of my friends.

So I'm sitting here typing out all of my excuses and guilt about not keeping the lines of communication flowing and I realize I am not the only one at fault here. Where have YOU been? Are you following my blog? Have you subscribed via the RSS feed? Are you following me on any of the social networking platforms I mentioned before? Have you ever commented on anything I have posted? Few things are as difficult as a one-sided conversation. It would be nice to hear from someone now and then.

There. I have cleared the decks and I am ready to forge ahead. Stay tuned-in and check in with me every now and then. We can all get through this together.

-Bill

As If You Don't Feel Stupid Enough...

I was working in the yard yesterday, trying to wrestle a section of privacy fence into place. I lost control of it and one of the many old rusty nails in it punctured my right hand. Eesh! My eyes crossed looking at the hole right before it started bleeding. That was a big nail! Look at the hole it made! Better get inside and clean it up, maybe dump some hydrogen peroxide on it and see how I feel about it then.

So I am washing it and I give it a good splash of the ol' peroxide. I am thinking I would like it to bleed a little more, you know to get the dirty blood out. (Why do we think like that?) I decide to squeeze the pad below my thumb, where the wound is, to make it bleed some. When I squeezed it, some kind of white grissely stuff poked out! Kind of like I had popped some colossal zit on my hand. I get a paper towel to wipe it away and I dragged it out further! It was attached and part of my hand - only now it was outside instead of inside where it belonged.

That's it! I'm going to the ER. I probably need a shot for the rusty nail anyway.

After I checked myself in, the doctor comes in to take a look. "That's your fat!" he says, pointing at my hand and identifying the strange protrusion. "Thanks", I said. "Good to know I am carrying around so much that some of the guys tried to make a run for it."

He washed it and gently poked everything back where it belongs. Now it's time to close the wound. He reaches over to his little assortment of supplies and picks up a common band-aid. "No stitches?" Then he gives me this look that says "There, there, Mr. Anderson. Doctor make it all better" as he pressed the band-aid in place.

I think leaving with a band-aid is the highest form of insult from the ER. I did get the tetanus shot though. Lessons learned.

Who Will Save Us?

Our little Stevie came home with a costume and couldn't wait to assume his new character. I think it suits him well.

Whew! Big Week

There has been a lot of activity recently. Last week there was the appearance on Fox 59 Morning News (man, was I nervous! It was live, so there were no re-do's), then the awesome interview with Joe Konz and his blog Photo Potpourri, followed by the Headshots for the Unemployed event at the Fishers Library on Monday!

I got all of the photos posted to the website and word out to all the participants yesterday. I've got to say what a wonderful group of people they were. It was a pleasure meeting all of them and I hope to hear from them soon that they are back in action. You can check out their photos here.

Meanwhile, I have some ideas for micro-stock photography that I want to work on and start networking hard with area ad agencies.

Stay tuned,

Bill