Dan Brandenburg

I want your vote!

In keeping with the religious flow, I recently re-visted a place from my early, early childhood (something like age three).  I have one single memory of being with my parents in this old building for church and a cemetery visit.  It’s been so long.  Obviously the building is still standing, but barely.  It’s somewhat interesting to see how places are different now than from how you remember them.

A little over a decade ago, the story started of the apparition of the Virgin Mary appearing on a semi-regular basis just north of the small town of Springfield, KY.  Thousands and thousands of people flocked to the area hoping for a miracle, a cure, or simply a religious sign.  During this time, various people began building a shrine to Mary — consisting mostly of plastic or plaster religious figures.  A few people even began building a little church there, but after a few years, the walls are still only about two feet tall (though there is a nice floor).  I guess they gave up. 

 This sign, photographed just over a year ago, seems to provide visitors information on the Virgin Mary’s busy schedule.  Unfortunately, during my last visit a couple of weeks ago, I found the sign missing.  Perhaps it was stolen as an interesting souvenir or maybe the Virgin Mary simply changed her schedule.

The shrine has certainly seen better days.  Interest has dropped significantly over the years and now people straggle in only a few at a time.  It appears as if there have been a few high school beer parties there and some of the many figurines have been burned.  It’s too bad people can’t leave some of these cool places intact.

Some of the other sites found at this shrine.

 Some maps show it as Broke Leg Falls and others say Broken Leg Falls.  I’m not sure which is correct (though the sign nearby says Broke), but this is one of the most stunning scenes I’ve visited in a very long time.  As I walked around the falls, I almost expected to look up and see a unicorn or something drinking from the pool of sparkling water.  A friend found this place while out geocaching — which really makes me want to start my own geocache adventures to see how many other cool and seemingly unknown places there are to be found.

Spring is here and so are the crazy drivers who don’t watch out for bikes.  A good friend of mine went down over the weekend due to someone running a light, hitting a car, and then smacking into him and his girlfriend (and soon to be wife).  Fortunately, everyone made it out OK, but it’s a good reminder of what can happen so unexpectedly.

Well, I guess I’ve sat on this site long enough without actually going public with it.  Sometimes websites are difficult to design and launch because you never feel there’s enough material on it.  The only way, of course, to get enough content for a site, is just to launch it and begin added stuff as it comes through.  So here it is for the world to see.

Admittedly, I’ve trimmed the site down a bit because I’ve not yet launched my best-of photography gallery or written a decent “about me” page, but I’m sure I will soon enough.  These things take time.

 Spring is here and it seems like I’ve not been producing many new photos.  Rather, I’ve been enjoying the nice weather, riding my motorcycle quite a bit, and getting to know other bikers.  I recently went to Deals Gap  (aka Tail of the Dragon) with friends and really got to enjoy beautiful scenery, beautiful bikes, and….surprise….really nice cops.

Why Deals Gap?  Among biking and auto enthusiasts, it’s kinda curve heaven — 318 purported curves in about 11 miles.  Though the speed limit is only thirty miles per hour, advanced riders have no problem racing well beyond the speed limit.  Semi-intermediate riders, such as myself, found the road to be a challenging and technical experience…and I loved every minute of it.

 It’s funny sometimes how we (I??) get caught up so much in the day to day routine that we forget the very reasons we work so hard.  I seem like I’m moving here and there all the time and, though I’m a photographer, I’ve recently had no time to take photos and process them.  As an artist, I find myself always learning the next thing, picking up a new mission, going in some disjunctive direction, and remaining scatter-brained enough that I forget to work on things that I need to work on — namely, my photography

 Sometimes, it’s good to take a break from everything and forget money, forget logic, and just find something silly to photograph to get back into the rhythm of creating images.  Above are a few images of a dead, dried piranha.  Why did I take the images?  No reason….it just looked cool to me.

Although I don’t do weddings and the idea of being a wedding photographer has always been less than appealing to me, I agreed to shoot a bridal fashion show in Lexington, KY.  The show, brought to us by BridalFair.com, featured a number of local designers, boutiques, models, and wedding planners.  Admittedly, I thought I was going to be bored, but once the music started and the would-be brides hit the runway, everyone, including your’s truly, had a blast. 

Above is just a few quick portraits I took of my friend and his 2007 ZX6R — it’s a very hot bike.  Usually I try to separate bikes (my hobby) from my photography, but the lighting that day was too interesting to not use to my advantage.