It's All About Perspective

One of the best things about Pittsburgh is its rivers. I love watching water skiers and jet skiers cruise through the downtown area in summer. It's like having your vacation spot right at home.

This past summer, I wanted to take advantage of one of the coolest companies in the area for my birthday: Just Ducky Tours. They take you around the Point from two perspectives: land and water. The tour starts at Station Square then meanders through the streets of the Downtown and North Shore areas. But wait, there's more. Halfway through the tour, the guide detours and plunges the "Duck" into the river (usually the Ohio, but on my tour it was the Monongahela). That's right, the tour is in an amphibious vehicle from World War II. They just don't make cars like they used to. I think those Duck-mobiles will last forever.

Back to the story at hand: the tour continues to sweep up and down the rivers around the Point while giving a plethora of facts and trivia about the city of Pittsburgh. I must say, it's quite an experience and I definitely recommend it to anyone.

I took this shot as we had just cleared the Smithfield Bridge towards the end of the tour. I can't really begin to explain the value of being able to get a shot like this. The perspective is just amazing to me and I really hope you'll agree.

Combs

So, interesting story with this one. I had a family reunion this past summer - mom's side - and while I'm on the beach in North Carolina, I got a call from Sara, my friend who is renting my upstairs. Turns out, she was noticing a butt load of bees flying around the back of the house. It's summer, bees happen.

Fast forward about a week. I'm home. I am walking through my garage and I get bombarded with spider webs. Odd. Then, I notice this buzzing sound, so I look up and there are a couple of bees flying around the light. After I had panic-strickenly dashed into the basement to get away from the bees, I surveyed the situation a little bit deeper to notice that the spiders had created a large network of webs to feast on the hundreds of bees that were now caught in said webs. Oh crap. I hate bees, but I hate spiders even more. I immediately run to the office and jump online to look up bee exterminators. Finding the right exterminator is hard, but when I read this in the FAQs of The Bee Hunter, I knew I had found the right one:

I see bees or yellow-jackets flying in and out of a small hole, gap, crack, or crevice on the outside of my house. How about if I just spray them with some wasp killer from Home Depot and seal that entrance hole shut with caulking, foam, cement, or a stick? Isn't that what you would do anyway?
No. This is the worst response to such a situation - sadly, it's often the most common. You're not sealing them outside, you're trapping them inside - typically by the thousands! The bees
(or more likely, yellow-jackets) will find some other way out which is most often into your home through electric outlets, light fixtures, or vents. When I'm finally called in, the treatment is more time consuming, difficult, and expensive. (I've placed this FAQ first because it's by far the most common I get, and I want to strongly discourage people from putting themselves into such a dangerous situation.)

Yeah, but what if....
Please don't.

Yes, I called a guy calling himself "The Bee Hunter." Wouldn't you? Jim (Bee Hunter) is actually a really cool guy and I still keep in touch with him from time to time. Back to the story, Jim comes out to assess the situation. Low and behold, I have a very large nest of Western Honey Bees. By large, we are talking 30 to 40 thousand! Not only that, but these bees built a massive hive containing gallons upon gallons of honey, in my ceiling no less.

Wait, it gets better. Jim calls me up a couple nights before the removal of the bees. Turns out, one of the local stations was looking for an interesting story on bees and, given the unusual nature of my situation, they decided to come film the removal of the bees in my ceiling. Great. What followed was pretty amazing. It involved a pretty large hole in my ceiling, and wall, and a news story that, to this day, has people recognizing me as "the bee guy."

The Bee Hunter

The Story:

First Nightwatchers

Recently, I attended the First Night Festivities in Downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District. I had known about the festival for a few years now, but always managed to attend something else on New Year's Eve.

This year, Sarah and I decided that we were going to attend. The previous year was a bust for us and we didn't want to get stuck in that situation again. Anyway, I was amazed by the amount of activity and the mass of people that found their ways to Penn and Liberty Avenues that night. In the dwindling hours leading up to the raising of the ball (that's right, we don't "drop the ball" in Pittsburgh) is where this picture was taken.

I titled it "NightWatchers" for obvious reasons. All of the energy and waiting, the magic and anticipation, the cold and the thoughts of being in our warm beds at home seemed to come to life for me in this shot. After having spent nearly six hours on my feet walking the downtown streets and galleries, when the ache of my legs started nagging, when the cold began to seep into my hands and feet, is when it all became worth it.

Thank God that Sarah is not tall or else this moment would have never happened. After feeling the disappointment of being blown off by the illusive fortune teller, for what seemed like the tenth time, neither of us was in the mood to have person after person step in front of us and block our view of the stage in front of Fifth Avenue Place and the Clarks (who, by the way, are freaking awesome! I wonder what time they finally wrapped up?). After several attempts to find a clear line of sight - and offending more than our share of onlookers - we dashed across Stanwix Street, away from the crowd, and settled on some stairs in front of the State Office Building.

At this point, with more than an hour and a half left, and having drained our minds by valiantly attempting to decipher several artists' work, I decided to try my hand at my own art; Sarah followed suit. You can imagine how much patience I really had at this point and quickly lost my motivation to pursue my picture taking. Only, just as I was trying to zone out to expedite the end of the night, this father and son come to rest on the stairs and BOOM! It hits me.

I recommend that if you're in the Pittsburgh area for New Year's Eve that you check out the First Night festival. The enthusiasm of the event is definitely inspiring.

First Night