Archive for the 'General' Category

Past few weeks

Published by -MiKe- on July 10, 2007 in General. 1 Comment

Well it’s been a bit, again, and now summer is in full swing.

Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke. It’s hard to wrap my mind around just how fast this summer is going by.

Tara AllainThe Miss Maine pageant went off pretty well. You know, back in June. Karissa Staples passed on the title of Miss Maine to Tara Allain and the controversy began.

Tara is a good looking young lady, and smart, and talented. You know, just general Miss “Some State Here” material. However, usually “Some State” is the contestant’s home state, and when it’s not, people get pissy… In this case, Tara meets all the criteria to run for, and take home, the Miss Maine title, by residing in the state of Maine for such and such number of months out of the year. Unfortunately, as Tara hails from Worcester, Mass, the finicky folks in the crowd decided to put up a fuss…

And being the webmaster (and in turn, receiving all mail sent to missmaine.org, but not a real mail account) I get the mother-load of complaints. To top it off, administration refuses to make a public statement about it, so I am liable to keep receiving them as word gets out… I feel like saying “I don’t get paid enough for this,” but bitching like that requires that you get paid for it in the first place… Which I don’t…

[2008-01-07 Update: I noticed some links coming in regarding this post (particularly this topic in this post), and I thought I would elaborate. Things have been officially cleared up. It wasn’t long after this post that the head of the board started explaining things to those who were concerned, and there is no longer (hasn’t been for months) confusion about Tara’s legitimacy. She meets all the criteria to run for Miss Maine, and she has turned out to be a wonderful representative for our state. We’re all quite proud of her, and feel she’ll do quite well at the 2008 Miss America Pageant in Vegas in two weeks. See you there!]

Whats a good pageant without a little controversy. Donald knows what I’m talking about. Continue reading ‘Past few weeks’

Monte Zucker - Passing of a Legend

Published by -MiKe- on April 4, 2007 in General and Photography. 0 Comments

Those of you who are photographers may or may not know the name. I didn’t until just the other day… A day late and a dollar short.

I often frequent the site of Ken Rockwell, an esteemed photographer, and evidently a man who doesn’t merely adjust his depth of field, but changes space-time. He is very knowledgeable in the ways of photography, and tells things how they are, without all the measurbation everyone else gets caught up in.

I was on his site the other day when I noticed a fleeting obituary.

… Monte Zucker, the world’s most famous wedding and portrait photographer, passed away from pancreatic cancer on March 15th at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. He was 77.

I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Monte Zucker until I read this, and I didn’t, at first, realize how much of a loss this really was.

Monte Zucker is an AMAZING wedding and portrait photographer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not that his photos are fantastic (they are much more), but that he is such an amazing teacher. Within moments on his website I learned more about posing for portrait photography than I have all year at NESCOM. Yes, it is Bridal portraiture, but the concepts are pretty much universal, and to a growing photographer, invaluable.

His death is a huge loss to the photography industry, both for the loss of all the wonderful images he could have taken, and for the loss of his wealth of knowledge for all the aspiring photographers of the world. If you are interested in the what knowledge he left behind for the lost of us, his educational videos are still for sale here. However, I would expect there would be a delay in processing and shipping while his family mourns his passing.

A true lesson as to the frailty of life, and speed and ferocity with which it can be taken away still stands on his site with his listing of class schedules:

Seems as if some serious health issues may cause a slight change of my schedule. As of now, I’m planning to go through with most of my plans for this year and next year.

Doctors today confirmed that I have a form of pancreatic/lymphatic cancer. I will begin treatments December 11th. The prognosis is that I have 9-12 months to live. Plenty of time to get things in order.

My goal is to teach my Las Vegas/WPPI class, and to teach once more in my home town, the Washington, DC area. I am also going to do everything in my power to teach the class in France.

Anything after that I’ll just have to wait and see.

Monte Zucker passed away on March 15, 2007, at a young 77 years in his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

From his website:

The Passing of a Legend
Monte Zucker: 1929-2007

Celebration of the Life of Monte Zucker
Sunday, April 22, 2007, 1-4 pm

The long awaited…

Published by -MiKe- on April 2, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

So, it seems the powers-that-be find an update is in order. So an update they’ll get.

Hello dear reader, its been a long time since I’ve seen you last… The clock’s gone by, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock…

No, I didn’t die over the past few, long, weeks. I did, however, come very close one day. And since I really don’t know where to start, I’ll start with the most interesting.

I got into a car accident a few weeks back. Kind of sort of beat the hell out of Jen’s car too.

I was heading back to school one morning in Jen’s car (Jen in tow), when I, for some reason, decided it would be a wonderful idea to rear-end a Ridgeline… Well… Not so much.

Continue reading ‘The long awaited…’