Randomness

Snow, or lack thereof...

2012-02-02T08:34:00.000-05:00

It really has been a strange winter. Once we got over our pretty much snowless December, I really wanted some snow to come and stick. Instead we've gotten a little bit of snow that melts in a couple of days. While great for driving, it's not so good for photographers and the businesses that depend on snow.

These were taken earlier in January. We had just gotten a snowfall. There was no wind, and the big flakes were just staying on whatever they hit. I was in the middle of preparing to head west to the left coast the next morning, but I decided I had to get out and photograph. I spent a couple of hours out, and just used my Fuji X100 point and shoot camera. That is the reason for the 16x9 crop, it's what I have as default on that camera. A good time.

Of course, now that Groundhog day is here, I want winter to be over. While I wouldn't mind a day or two of snow, it can remain above freezing as far as I am concerned.

Hope your Groundhog day goes well and you get what snow you want.

Alt Process Work

2012-01-30T09:23:00.000-05:00

I've been getting back into what has been referred as "Alternative Processes". These are historic photographic processes that have been popular at one time and died out for one reason or another.

I took a refresher weekend at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts school this past fall. These are two of the prints I did. The one on the left is a Platinum print on vellum paper and the one on the right is a Van Dyke Brown print on watercolor paper. They are currently hanging along with some other work in the school itself.

I tend to like these processes for a couple of different reasons. First, each print is hand coated and exposed to a negative. While the negative is reusable, the process still creates a unique print due to variations in coating, exposing and developing. The second reason is that I like the look. It's different from the usual digital stuff being thrown about these days. You can attempt to recreate the look in Photoshop, but I have yet to see it successfully done.

I've started working on a couple of processes at home. Specifically Cyanotype and Platinum. So far, I'm in the middle of calibrating my printer and developing processes. While cyanotype is one of the cheaper processes around, printing using Platinum can be expensive. I want to get the process down pat, so I don't have a lot of waste. Hopefully, I can start the actual printing soon.

More when I have it.

Year End

2012-01-06T09:49:00.004-05:00

I ended up 2011 with a trip to the Muskegon Wastewater Treatment Plant with Kelly, Wayne and Mike. A huge open area that is surprisingly well know in birding circles. We had heard reports of Snowy Owls being in the area, and of course we had to go photograph them.

We ended up seeing 3 of them that day. One was skittish and wouldn't let us get close, another was on top of a stirring structure and remained there all day, and the one above. He(?) seemed to be somewhat unconcerned about all the attention. We could easily get within 75 feet of him and he would just turn his head and look at us every once in a while.

Talking with another photographer, we found out there had been reports of up to 8 Snowy Owls in the area. Considering the ease we found the 3 we saw, I can believe it. We're pretty sure we saw a glimpse of a Golden Eagle, and more different kinds of ducks than I could name.

It was a great way to end 2011 photographically. I hope your New Years eve went well, and 2012 turns out great.

Links

2011-12-02T08:50:00.003-05:00

Since I haven't done a lot of photography lately, you get links.

29 Ways to Stay Creative - A short YouTube video. Watch it.

Do you think it's easy being a photographer for National Geographic?

Craft and Vision has a free ebook of photographic articles.

PDN Magazine has a list of bestselling photo books. There are also links to what they consider notable books of the year.

A two hour introduction to studio lighting.

I have been busy, just not a whole lot of progress to report. It seems I'm always developing film. I've also getting back into printing Cyanotypes, and plan on doing some Platinum prints early next year. Hopefully I will get to participate in a show in March. If so, I'll be sure to publish details here.

If you're in the US, I hope your Thanksgiving went well.

South Dakota

2011-10-16T23:25:00.006-04:00

It's been over two months since I posted here. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, time has just been flying by.

I was able to get out on a photo vacation back in October for a week. I spent a lot of time driving around, my plans changed and I ended up in South Dakota at the Badlands. It was great! I was tempted to keep driving west, since there was always something just a little bit down the road I wanted to see, but I had a business trip the next week. It was tough stopping though.

My initial plan was to drive the Great River Road, which runs along the Mississippi north from Clinton, Iowa. I was hoping to end up in Duluth and maybe some places along the north shore of Lake Superior before heading home. This was not to be.

I started in Clinton, and ended up in DeBuque Iowa on Monday morning. Sitting at a stop light, I got rear ended by another out of state driver. Great start to a vacation.

The Dubuque Museum of Art had advertised an exhibit of Edward Curtis's photography of Plains Indians. When I got there the museum was closed. Turns out it wasn't open on Monday's. The only thing I got to see was the statue on the lawn. Not really seeing much that I wanted to photograph on the road between Clinton and Dubuque, and deciding Iowa didn't like me, I decided to head elsewhere.

I had been wanting to go to the Badlands and spend some time, so I pointed the car west. Early Tuesday morning I was at the National Park. Of course I had planned on fall weather in Michigan and the weather was warm in South Dakota. That afternoon it hit 95 and I'm running around in blue jeans and long sleeve shirts.

I first drove the scenic drive. After stopping at park headquarters, I ended up coming across a Praire Dog colony. I parked the car, got out with my camera and sat in the shade. I ended up with what I thought was a pretty good photo.

Of course I had missed the signs on the way in the park about not getting too close to these critters. They carry a form of the plague that is transferrable to humans and is carried by fleas. Kind of glad I didn't bring my dog on the trip....

The first night, I spent some time in a turn off doing long exposures of the park. After thinking about this, if I go back, there are some changes I would make to make the moon not quite as bright.

It was refreshing standing out in the dark, effectively alone, having the praire wind wash by me. Every once in a while, a car would stop, a person or two would get out, take a quick look and then hop back in and drive away. There was another photographer who essentially did the same thing, but he stayed a whole five minutes. I'm really not sure how you can even start to get a feel for a place with such brief looks.

I spent some time driving off road in the park, there are approved areas for it. I did get a map marking such areas, but it was hard trying to figure out what was private land and what wasn't. During one such off road trip, I came upon this tree and spent some time trying to get a good photograph of it.

Of course, seeing something I want to photograph sometimes puts the blinders on me. It turns out, that I was on a railroad grade while I was chasing the tree. The bridge ahead of me was out, and I ended up backing up for a quarter mile before I could turn around.

There are abandoned cars and buildings in the area, as well as quaint and not so quaint small towns. One town I photographed in proudly had a sign on the town line proclaiming a population of 67. There is a great change in the geology of the area, the Badlands just seem to pop up out of mile after mile of grassland. Notice how flat the area is around the car, but it is only 5 miles or so from the photo above.

I had a great time and I would like to spend more time there. I did see more wildlife, Pronghorn Antelope, Mule Deer and a single Bison. I was hoping for a huge heard of Bison, but it was not to be. I also never made it to the southern area of the Badlands which is jointly managed by a local Indian tribe and the Parks service.

Fall was a perfect time to go, while it was warm, it was dry and the wind just constantly blew, a lot of times hard enough to push the car around. Another spot to put on the list to go back to.

Fog

2011-09-12T09:57:00.003-04:00

Sunday I woke up to a landscape full of fog. For once I had nothing better to do, so the faithful photographers assistant and I grabbed the camera and hit the road.

The first spot we hit, the Indian Mounds area along the Grand River wasn't very promising. Some fog along the river, not much in the trees. We walked around a bit, but didn't see anything.

We then drove over to Jenison to photograph at a natural area there. Every time I'm over there I pass by the drive to the golf course above. Not this time, it was perfect. I am planning on going back for some fall color later in the month.

I'm afraid I'm a sucker for what another photographer calls "sticks in the water". Well a stick in the fog in the water is even better.

Dewey spider webs are great also, though I do need to go back with a macro lens....

We then drove over to the Lake Michigan coast line. Holland was bright and sunny, which in this instance was disappointing. Headed up to Grand Haven, since there was a couple of places I wanted to go, and went to the north pier. Bright and sunny also, until we walked down by the water. Once you got off the beach, it was like walking into a wall of fog. From sun to gloom in a hundred feet. You could barely see the south pier, I had to work the above photo a bit to bring it out. I wasn't even able to get a photo of the lighthouse at the end of the pier, it was that foggy.

The faithful photographers assistant, Annie. Sitting on the north pier near the parking lot. She's turned a year old this past week, but she's still just a puppy. Plus she still can wear me out. But she's fun, and very good natured. It's amazing how much a dog can get other people to talk to you.

Blues on the Mall

2011-09-02T10:41:00.004-04:00

While it seems I wasn't around town for most of the summer, I managed to make it to a few of WLAV's Blues on the Mall concerts. I was hoping for more but it just wasn't meant to be. Hopefully they will continue next year. Since this year was the 20th anniversary of the event, there is a pretty good chance.

Now that things seem to be slowing down a bit, I plan on getting out a bit more. I've been really itching to shoot more film than what I have been doing and also get back into some of the alternative processes, like cyanotype and platinum printing again.

First thing I need to do is clean out a spot in the basement. Which is my plan for this long weekend. Wish me luck, I'll probably need it....

I hope you've had a good summer, and as we get into the fall season you have a great one.

Still Here

2011-08-07T12:23:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note to say I'm still here.

My real job has picked up again over the summer. I'm in the middle of my second trip to San Jose in as many months. Because of that my photography has dropped off immensely.

As usual, I had big plans for the summer and I've had to put them aside. Hopefully, I'll post a little more this month than last month.

I hope your summer is going great, and if you're in the middle of the heat wave, you're staying cool.

Acadia National Park, Maine

2011-07-01T09:03:00.003-04:00

I realize it's been quite a while since I posted, but I hadn't realized how long it's been until I signed on. The usual excuse. Busy.

We took a trip to Maine this past month. We rented a cottage on Mount Desert Isle, about 3 miles from Bar Harbor, Maine. A little bit off a main road, the cottage was part of a cluster of 4 buildings surrounded by trees. There were 3 rental cottages, plus a house for the owner. They were advertised as dog friendly, so of course we took the dog. Bar Harbor is a very dog friendly town, and she made a lot of new friends while we were walking around.

But I digress. Since it was a little bit over 1100 mile drive, we took two days to do it. Pretty much all through either rain or drizzle. Dark clouds as far as the eye could see.

It didn't let up once we got there. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all rotten days. I took a few photos, and we wandered through town a lot. Mainly we just rested.

On Wednesday it started to get nicer. We ended up spending all afternoon out on the ocean, on a whale watching cruise. We saw two small finbacks, but they don't really put on a show. All they do is break the water when diving, so all you get to see is there backs. We did get to see a large number of White Sided Dolphins. The naturalist on board estimated there were 50 or so swimming around the boat. I was lucky enough to be in front and was able to look down into the water and watch them surf the bow wave. It was pretty cool. The other thing we saw was birds. Primarily seagulls, but we did stop at an island where the Puffins were nesting. All in all, a good afternoon.

The rest of the week, the weather cooperated. We drove around the park, hiked a bit, saw a waterfall and generally had a good time. It ended all too soon.

We had to be out of the cottage early Saturday, so we were on the road early. We ended up driving pretty much straight back, stopping at two am for a short nap. It's hard to nap, when the dog is pacing back and forth in the back seat. 26 hours after we left, we pulled into the driveway.

I didn't photograph near as much as I would have liked. I did take some photos and burned some film in the 4x5. It was a great time though and a much needed vacation.

I will have to go back though.

Festival 2011

2011-05-30T09:07:00.002-04:00

If it's spring, it must be time for the annual Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids. The 42nd year, with is pretty darn good for an all volunteer event. I believe it could be the biggest all volunteer event in the country.

I entered 3 pieces this year in the juried art competition and was lucky enough to get two in.

The first one, pictured above (in the middle) is a photo I took in January when my fearless photo assistant, our puppy Annie and I wandered around Holland Michigan for a bit and managed to get this landscape photo about an hour after sunset.

The second photo was one of the nudes I shot earlier this year. I would have had a photo of it, but I got sidetracked by some friends first, and then ended up talking to the juror and getting my photo taken next to my pieces. Hopefully I can post it later.

The opening reception was this past Thursday at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, where the show is being held. We got there late, so we missed out on the food, but it was fun seeing all the work that got accepted this year, and talking to people I knew.

I was also extremely geeked about having my work hang in the museum. I'm not sure why, but it feels more like my works been accepted than when they hang the show in an empty building. Mentally I know it's the same show, for the same reasons, but emotionally it feels different.

Since we missed the food, Dorothy and I ended up at Hopcat downtown. A local bar that serves great food, and specializes in all sorts of beer, it was a great place to end the evening. She liked it, and we are adding it to our places to go list.

The show is up for 3 weeks, and there is free admission to the museum the first week of June, during Festival itself.

Gary 2011

2011-05-05T08:43:00.003-04:00

In what's becoming an annual thing for me, I visited Gary Indiana this past Sunday. 6 photographers, 3 models and 1 husband/sherpa spent the whole day either driving or photographing.

We left town around 9 am after waiting a bit for a some folks. After a quick stop in Holland to pick up another photog, we spent a little over two hours on the road. Arriving at our first destination, the old Lutheran Cathedral, who do I spot, but another GR photographer. He had driven down that morning to show a couple of other photographers around. While we were in the church it seemed like a constant stream of photographers and locals came through. During the 2-3 hours we spent there, it seemed like at least 6-8 other groups of photographers showed up. Unfortunately, people have been taking metal out of the church to sell, and it's getting even more decrepit than it was. While we still had plenty of opportunities to continue photographing in the church, we had other places to go, so somewhat reluctantly we left.

Next stop was the old Screw and Bolt factory. One of the photogs thought he saw someone in the building when we first got there, but we never saw them again. Of course we were making enough noise to scare anyone off. We spent some time here before heading to the last stop of the day, the old post office.

I wasn't really impressed at the post office as I had thought. Very little of the fixtures are left, though I did find the old cabinetry behind a sales window. Other than that it was pretty uninspiring. We really did not spend more than an hour here total before we decided it was time to head home.

On the ride home, we stopped for dinner at a pizza place in Chesterton whose name I didn't get. Great service and great pizza. I'm going back the next time I'm in the area.

We got home around 12 hours after we had left. I was tired and sore. A quick shower to wash the dust off, and I was ready for bed. I started copying the cards on the computer and then hit the sack.

I was somewhat surprised at myself for spending so much of my time photographing the models. I had planned to focus on architectural details, especially at the factory. But that didn't happen. I do want to spend some more time there in the future.

All in all, it was a great day. A good group of folks to hang out with, and the models were great to work with. The locals we ran into were friendly, we even got asked if we were making a movie. I want to go back and hang out in the area some more.

The Flash Bus - Grand Rapids

2011-04-16T09:52:00.005-04:00

The Flash Bus hit Grand Rapids this week. Two people known for using small flashes for portraits and other work, have been touring the country. I was kind of surprised that they came to GR and not Detroit, but I planned to go. I was glad I did.

David Hobby, editor of the Strobist blog.

A slide from Davids presentation. He didn't do any photography on stage, but went through the steps on how he sets up his shoots. I probably learned more from this part of the session then the second half. Though both were good.

Joe McNally, National Geographic photographer and writer of several books on using and setting up small flashes.

Joe used one of his helpers for the first several setups, and then started using people from the audience. He commented that there were some other things he could do to make this photo better. I would have been happy with it, but I guess that's why I was attending.

The last setup Joe did, he used flashes from the audience for an effect. There were several tries before he got what he wanted. I was lucky enough to be able to capture the flashes going off on the last shot.

They both answered questions from the audience while the crew packed up. I'm pretty sure they stayed until most if not all of the audience questions were answered. And they weren't just questions about the seminar, they also answered questions about their careers and past work.

An excellent seminar. The presenters kept the audience engaged and entertained while teaching the basics and fundamentals of using small flashes. There was a comment about maybe coming back next year. I hope they do.

Gary 2010 Trip

2011-04-03T09:55:00.004-04:00

As usual, I'm behind on getting the film I shoot, developed. I started trying to catch up yesterday, it was a dreary day with promise of rain or snow. While it ended up only sprinkling a little bit, it was still good to stay in and get started on this.

I have about 10 rolls of medium format film and a bunch of 4x5 film to do. My first roll of medium format film was from a trip a bunch of us took to Gary almost a year ago. I hadn't realized I was so far behind. All were taken with a handheld Mamiya 645 using Kodak Tri-X 320. A lot of blurry images on the roll, but some good stuff as well.

I did a batch of 4x5 as well. At least these are from this year. A set of images from the Midwest Large Format group trip to Milwaukee. I'm waiting to see what else comes out before I start posting some of those.

I'm still amazed by the images I get out of black and white film. They just have a quality I've been unable to get out of digital stuff. Not better, but different enough I want to keep using more film.

Holland Lighthouse

2011-03-10T08:44:00.003-05:00

Out to Holland with Mike this past Sunday. The day was on the warm side for early March, but the temperature fell once night arrived. Kind of wish I had dressed warmer. I did get this photo which I like, so I guess it was worth it.

Dawoud Bey - Class Portraits

2011-03-06T08:59:00.003-05:00

The local art museum is running an exhibit of portraits of High School kids by the artist Dawoud Bey. While I had heard of the artist and this particular set of work before, I had not paid much attention to him. While I was at the museum earlier this month, I grabbed the chance to take in the exhibit.

I really didn't expect much from the exhibit. I tend not to like portraits of younger people, there is usually not a lot of personality there yet, at least in western society. Usually, the worse things they worry about is the latest celebrity craze, or who is dating who, not really paying much attention to the world as a whole. At least that's my perception of teenagers.

I was pleasantly surprised. The photographs were not the typical upbeat mass produced portraits you usually see, but serious work. Doing a little reading about the work, I found out he spent 45 minutes with each student, enough time to get to know the person and engage them. I'm not sure how many portraits he took in total, but the ones shown are masterfully done. In addition, each work has a short missive written by the student before the portraits were taken. It turns out that, at least some of the teenagers, were not as shallow as I thought. There is an accompanying book as well, which I may pick up.

I plan to go back again before the exhibit closes to see it one more time. I tend to like seeing an exhibit twice, the second time after I've thought about it. I was also a mite rushed the first time and I would like to spend some more time with it.

Currently showing at the Grand Rapids Art Museum and ending March 20th.

Links for February 28th.

2011-02-28T08:31:00.002-05:00

Chase Jarvis always has interesting things to say. He recently did a 3 part video blog about scouting locations. It's interesting to me since we're starting the planning on our summer vacation.

How to Scout Locations For Photo & Video: Part 1 - Virtual Scouting.

How to Scout Locations For Photo & Video: Part 2 - Predicting the Weather.

How to Scout Locations For Photo & Video: Part 3 - Gear & Planning

The Luminous Landscape also ran an article on planning your trip.

A good explanation of Shutter/Flash Synchronization.

Lifehacker ran a series of articles on Learning Photoshop Basics.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is April 24th. Build a camera and take part.

For your Monday amusement, the LOL Cats edition of Charlie Sheens rants.

Architecture at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

2011-02-27T09:49:00.003-05:00

The Grand Rapids Art Museum historically has not allowed cameras inside. That's always annoyed me, since it is such a nice building with plenty of opportunities for great photographs of the architecture. It seems they've finally changed their minds.

The museum has sponsored talks on Friday nights for quite a while. Usually they have something to do with an exhibit of work that's currently being shown. February has been photography, in conjunction with an exhibit of portraits by Dawoud Bey. Hopefully more on the exhibit in a later post.

This past Friday the sponsored talk was about the architecture of the museum and how to photograph it. I jumped at the chance and attended. My friend Sam also attended, though he was smart enough to bring a tripod. The turnout surprised the speaker, there were easily 75 people there. People were trying to photograph using anything from a point and shoot camera to a DSLR. The speaker, whose name I can't remember at the moment, gave a short talk about camera settings and handed out a sheet with some info and a scavenger hunt. We then walked through the parts of the museum we had access. The third floor was off limits since they were tearing down the just closed Princess Diana exhibit and we could not photograph certain pieces of art.

The speaker really didn't do much with the scavenger hunt, she suggested a couple of photographic types to satisfy the first couple of entries, but that was it. Other than that it was fun to photograph the architecture without getting hassled by the security guards.

The evening went fast. Between the talk and looking at the exhibits, the museum closing time came fast. That was the bad part. I'll just have to go back. The good part was I learned the museum has relented on it's photography policy and now lets cameras into the museum. I'll have to go back with the camera and make sure that's true.

WYCE Jammies

2011-02-16T08:13:00.003-05:00

A take off on the Grammy's, a local radio station host an annual award show called the Jammie's. WYCE, a local station that plays mostly local music, hosted its twelfth annual awards show at the Intersection Tuesday night.

Admission was free, and twenty bands played on 2 stages. All different types of music, blues, jazz, rock and folk. I decided to go for the first time and took a camera. Not knowing what to expect, I went light, just a camera with a 85 mm lens on it. I figured out later that I could have brought a lot more equipment in if I wanted, but actually what I took was enough. I didn't stay for the whole show, only a little over two hours. I got to hear a lot of good music though, and ran into a bunch of people I know.

I'm already planning on going next year, it's a good break from the winter blahs.

Finding Vivian Maier

2011-02-08T09:12:00.004-05:00

After hearing about the discovery of Vivian Maier, a 1950's street photographer, Mike, Sam and I decided to head to Chicago to see her work. The Chicago Cultural Center has an exhibition of her work that ends on March 24th.

We met early on Sunday, Superbowl Sunday. None of us are that interested in football, so we had the whole day. It tooks us a bit to get to Chicago, we kept running into lake effect snow on the way down. But a lot of good discussion, photography, art, friends, and even politics.

We decided to go the the Art Institute to see a couple of photography exhibitions. We spent more time than planned, since I had to look at how the Japanese Prints exhibit had changed since the last time I was there, and we wandered through the Impressionist wing for a while. There were other side trips in the museum as well. It's great that such a resource is so close to Grand Rapids. While I like the local art museum, it doesn't compare.

After the museum, it was lunch time. Sam managed to persuade us to grab a cab and hit a Mediterranean place called Reza's. A lunch buffet with selections that changed, and more good conversation.

After another short cab ride, we finally ended up at the Cultural Center. I had heard about the exhibit, some thoughts good, a couple bad. Most of the bad comments were about the printing. The artist used film, and some people think that the prints should be made using traditional materials, rather than modern digital methods. I don't really care much for that argument. I wanted to see the images rather than quibble about the material the image is put on.

I wasn't disappointed. The artist, in my opinion, had a great eye. The images were excellent, nicely composed and capturing slices of daily life where Maier lived. I was especially enamoured with some of the portraits displayed. Overall, an excellent set of images, and my only complaint was that there was not enough of them.

We spent some time photographing in Millenium Park, before heading back home. A fun day overall, and I'm going to keep an eye out for more of Maier's images.

Links

2011-02-04T09:22:00.002-05:00

Some links to other posts I like.

A how to on creating spiro-graph type photos. Overall I like diy-photography.net. I've gotten some good ideas on the site.

Photographybay.com is the latest with copies of the Federal notice reminding the police that it is legal to photograph public buildings.

The Discerning Photographer has a list of inspirational landscape photographers.

Terry White has an article on the 5 things he does to portraits.

Carl Sagan takes on Homeopathy and other myths.

Figure it out....

2011-02-03T09:35:00.004-05:00

I had a chance to do some work with a professional nude model a week ago. A 26 year old student who has been modeling for 6 years. A wife, whose husband also models and is a part time photographer.

I've been wanting to do some figure photography for a while. My wife is ok with it, we've talked about it over the years, but I've never had the opportunity before. I have a hard time asking acquaintances to model for me, much less get up the nerve to ask them to take their clothes off. I know it's supposed to be the best way to find models, but I haven't been able to do it.

When a local studio announced they had hired a model to come in to be photographed, I signed up.

I started to get a little nervous the day before. How would I pose her? Would I embarrass myself some way? I also had another talk with my wife just to make sure she was still ok with it.

Once the day came, it was ok. It was a little disconcerting to walk into the studio and shake hands with a woman who was already nude, but after that it went good. I was introduced by the studio owner as the "find art" guy, since I had told him that is what I wanted. She asked me what sort of poses I wanted, and even had some suggestions.

We started out with some poses in front of the windows for the natural light coming in. Since the studio is in an old brick building, it is an interesting contrast between the human form and the bricks and wood of the building. I know it's been done to death, but I haven't done it. We then did some photographs against a white background with a softbox to the models right. That was the lighting used in the photograph above.

Once we'd been introduced, I quickly got past the fact that she was nude, and she was just another model in font of the camera. I was worrying about getting the exposure right in the camera, and making a few suggestion for poses, while she was asking what kind of photography I did. I got some good photos, and I'm thinking of entering one in the local Festival art contest in May.

Nudity is funny in American society. I live in a conservative part of the country, while I think I'm on the liberal side. I've showed the photos to people and they tend to be of two minds at first. The first thing they usually ask is whether my wife would let me do that. They seem to be thinking I'm doing this without her knowing. They don't know my wife very well. She's as liberal as I am, and better yet, we trust each other.

The second thing they say, is "I couldn't do that, I would be too embarrassed." That is probably a more valid reason, for a lot of people nudity equates with sex. Especially in this neck of the woods. While I probably would have agreed with them in my younger years, especially before I started photographing a lot, my feelings have mellowed. There are only two sexes in the world, it seems to me to be no reason to be prudish about either one.

Reading some threads on a forum for models and photographers, a constant comes up about the GWC or PWC. Those stand for Guy with Camera or Pervert with Camera. I have to admit to showing someone these photos who asked how to sign up, and it was apparent he was more interested in the much more erotic type of photography, if not to hit up the model. I didn't tell him anything about the studio....

I'm interested in doing fine art nudes, and conservative fine art nudes as well. I'm more interested in form, shadows and highlights than I am in objectifying anyone. Whether male or female. I now have contact info for this model and I will probably doing another session or two with her in the future.

I'm looking forward to it.

Midwest Large Format Asylum 2011 Portfolio Review

2011-01-28T09:29:00.003-05:00

If it's January, it must be time for the Midwest Large Format Aslyum's print review.

Held January 22nd at the Best Western in Chesterton Indiana, I attended again this year. I didn't really have any recent work I wanted to show, so I just went to look at everyone elses work and schmooze with the group.

I left Friday afternoon, hoping to get in a little photography once I got to Indiana. Once again, that was not to be. I got out of town late, and made it to Indiana in time for dinner. There were already 8 other people there, so we hit a great steakhouse in Valparaiso. Even though we got there at 5:30, it was already packed. We waited 40 minutes for a table and spent the next couple of hours eating and talking.

After dinner, we retired back to the hotel and set the room up for the next day. The room we are using is on the second story of the hotel and has a great set of windows. During the winter, there is really nice diffused light, and it's a lot nicer than some conference rooms stuck in the basement floors. After getting the room ready, a couple of folk brought out their rejects to show. Still great work, but not stuff they wanted to show to the whole group.

Saturday dawned and the group met at "Peggy Sue's Dinner" for breakfast. A little hole in the wall place in downtown Chesterton, the food was good, and the place was kitted up with a bunch of car related items. Busy at 8 am on a Saturday, the only downside was there are only 4 non-smoking tables. You could definitely tell there were smokers in the room. I'm not used to that anymore, since Michigan has made all restaurants non-smoking. Still good food, and more good discussion. One new attendee from Milwaukee showed up, and mentioned the roads were good. There was an expectation of a big group for the showing, so that was good news.

As we got close to the "official" start time of the event at 9, we were getting concerned since no one else was showing up. We decided to wait, and a half hour later people started appearing. It turned out the roads had gotten bad, and people were being slowed down by accidents and ice on the road. We waited until 10 to start because of this later bad news.

The actual print showing went until 5 in the evening. A lot of good work, which was a pleasure to look at. It makes me want to try some different techniques than what I've been doing, and I've learned some new stuff during the discussion throughout the day.

The people who had come in earlier started leaving late in the afternoon. Others left after the showing ended and the room was cleaned up. Once again we had 9 for dinner though a slightly different set of folks. More good discussion for dinner and the group split up.

I spent Saturday evening as well and there was supposed to be 4 for breakfast at Peggy Sue's the next morning. Saturday morning broke with a great blue sky and clouds. Two of us ended up at breakfast and spent an hour and half talking about the show and art in general. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and were able to get in the pool area to photograph. They were working on the pool and it was drained with lots of neat abstracts. We were able to work around the two guys working on the pool, though I did have them step in a couple of photographs.

There was a total count of attendees, but I didn't get it. I believe 19 people showed photographs. They came from Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. I need more weekends immersed in photography and this helped a lot. A good group and hopefully next year, I can show some of my work.

Old Cars and Outhouses...

2011-01-16T11:31:00.005-05:00

I was invited out to Pine Bend Park in Ottawa County a week ago Saturday. While that day was turning out to be a busy one, I wanted to see this park. Ron had shown me photos of an old car with a tree across it, and we were going out to photograph it.

We met at 8 am, just before sunrise. I could only stay an hour before I had to leave. My Wednesday morning breakfast buddies, Ron and Mearl showed up soon after. We walked down by the car and started photographing. Not only was the car there,as promised, but an old boarded up house, along with an outhouse was alongside. A foundation of another house was a hundred feet or so away.

We ended up photographing for an hour before I had to leave. Since it was somewhat under 10 degrees, I was somewhat glad to get back in the car and get the heater going. It turns out the other guys didn't stay much longer.

Once I got out of the park, the morning sun appeared, the first sun we had seen in a week. On the way home, I noticed fields full of snow fog. I really wanted to stop and get some more photos, but it was not to be.

I want to go back to get some more photos of the car. I also need to explore the surrounding area also, it looked like there would be a lot of other photos to be captured.

Resolutions

2011-01-02T20:52:00.003-05:00

I see folks are starting to post resolutions already for the New Year. That made me start to ponder the New Year resolution. Resolutions can be funny things. If you make it too easy, they really don't mean much. If you make them non-specific, they get too hard and don't get completed.

Plus, it seems most people tend to forget them in a month or two. You'll see a bunch of people vowing to lose weight this year, again. Gyms and health clubs will probably see a uptick in memberships, and bookstores will sell more diet books this month, but for most people, it will be forgotten by the first of February or March.

Resolutions need to be specific enough to have an ending point, a way to know when you are done. They also can't be so out of reach so to be undoable during the year.

So with that being said, here are my photography resolutions for this year.

1. Spend more time with the camera. I'm going to get out with the camera for more than one hour a week, preferably two. Easy during the summer, not so easy when the cold weather sets in.

2. Complete a project this year. Most likely for SoFoBoMo. I have some ideas, even some that could run longer than a year. But I want to have a finished project sometime this year.

3. Do a 365 project. A photo a day will help me with number 1 above, it also gets me into thinking more about what I can photograph. Hopefully I can also get in the habit of carrying a camera around with me all the time. You'll see the results posted here, hopefully once a week.

4. Learn some new techniques in Photoshop. I currently do not do all that much processing to my photos. I would like to be able to present the vision I see when I photograph to the final image.

I could put more resolutions in, but this will do for a start. I'm going to print these out and post them somewhere near my computer. That way I will see them every day. Hopefully I will still be working on them next winter. We'll see.

Goodbye to 2010

2010-12-31T08:27:00.002-05:00

As another year winds down, I hope your holidays, whichever holiday you celebrate was most excellent, and you have a safe and happy New Years Eve.

I'm personally glad 2010 is done. It was a challenging year for me personally. Because of that, I did far less photography than I planned. I'm looking forward to 2011 and hopefully a better year, and more time spent out with the camera.

St. Joseph Lighthouse

2010-12-28T09:15:00.003-05:00

I ran down to the St. Joseph lighthouse Sunday evening since I had heard the walkway around the outer light had fallen. It had, and there was a nice coating of ice on it as well.

I tried to walk out to the outer light, but since there hasn't been much snow this year on the west side of Michigan, the pier was just glare ice. That and the water being kicked up over the pier made me decide that I didn't want the photograph that much.

I grabbed a long lens, and just shot from the beach. The sun was playing hide and seek behind the clouds, but the light was still good. I wanted to stay later, even thought there wasn't going to be a nice sunset, but I had left my tripod at home. I was going back later this week, but the weather report is rain and forty degree temperatures. That will pretty much ruin the coating of ice for a while. Since there is plenty of winter left, I'm sure I'll make it back down there again.

Swans, Beaver, and a new Puppy. What more do you want?

2010-12-07T08:51:00.004-05:00

Kelly was gracious enough this past Sunday to show me some of her photo spots in the Jenison area. I had mentioned an overheard talk about a pair of Bald Eagles flying around the area, and she knew where they spent a lot of time. We met mid-afternoon and drove to the site. An old gravel pit surrounded by trees and rusting machinery. A couple of signs prohibiting hunting and off-road vehicles, but that was it. We wandered around the area a bit, and did get a far off glimpse of an immature eagle, but it wasn't really close enough to get a photo.

We hopped back in the car and drove down the road. It dead ended and while I was turning around, we noticed a sign proclaiming it a county park/recreation area. Kelly had never been there, so we got out and walked around.

The first think we noticed was what looked like evidence of beaver in the area. We found a lot of trees like the above, one or two with the bark just girdled and one gnawed halfway through. We talked to a fisherman who mentioned they had heard what sounded like a tail slap of the animal, so we walked around a bit to get acquainted with the area. We never did find the animal, but we did find a lot more photographic possibilities.

We did see a set of swans, some of them still had brown on the wings which means they are immature birds.

Generally a beautiful area to photograph and not too far from home. I've been looking for a place to do a project on, with some water and woodlands close to me, and I think this will work.

I did promise a photo of our new puppy. Here it is. Meet Annie. A 12 week old Golden Retriever pup, you will probably see some more of her here and there. Not a lot, but she will turn up now and again. She came with us for the walk, and seemed to really enjoy it. Kelly was walking her, while I was photographing, and the dog slipped the leash once. Rather than run away, she headed straight for me. A good thing to know, I can worry a bit less when I take her out with me in the future.

Ionia Fairgrounds

2010-12-02T09:47:00.002-05:00

Another film scan I just got finished. An arch for the "Entertainment Park" at the Ionia Fair Grounds. Taken in the spring of 2010, I just got around to scanning it.

More coming.

Holland Lighthouse

2010-11-28T16:34:00.002-05:00

I've spent part of the weekend developing and scanning film. Once again, I'm behind.

A photo of the lighthouse at Holland Michigan.

Portrait Project?

2010-11-16T08:35:00.003-05:00

The annual zombie walk was held the Saturday before Halloween. I dragged the lights downtown a little bit before it was scheduled to start and started taking photographs. I was primarily after portraits for my project, and I ended up with about 55 or so photos I could use.

Looking at them though, I'm conflicted. I did get some really good photos, but the are all "zombiefied". I really want to use them, and I probably will end up doing so. But I'm not sure where photos such as these fit into a "formal" project.

I'm probably just overthinking this again. I do like the way they turned out.

Winter is coming....

2010-11-07T09:15:00.005-05:00

At least in the Northern Hemisphere it will soon be here. Just a random photo to remind you what summer was like....

Darn it, they (the ubiquitous they) are still messing with the time again. I wish they would stop it. The twice yearly time change really frosts me, if you know what I mean. No scientific reason has been found that we really need it. We can get rid of it, especially this time of year. I like getting out of work while it's still light.

We became the proud owners of a new Golden Retriever puppy this past week. Eight and a half weeks old, and she's already wearing me out. I promise the gratuitous puppy picture soon. While I'm not a big fan of pet photos on the web, since I plan on taking this dog out on photo excursions, I'm sure she will pop up now and then.

After my rant about George Lepp, let me introduce you to a couple of photographers I regularly follow.

David duChemin - Pixelated Images - With a blog slogan that reads "Gear is good, vision is better", how could I not like him. Best selling author of 3 photography books, one about vision, one about running a photography business, and the latest about using Lightroom to make sure your photographs match your vision, he is one of my favorite authors. He doesn't post on his blog very often, but what he does post is usually a good read. He also releases wallpaper once a month for you computer. I have one of his images as the background on my iPad.

John Paul Caponigro - Son of famous large format photographer Paul Caponigro, he has established himself as an artist and a teacher in his own right. He has a monthy newsletter, free and paid content on his web site and regular blog posts. He is also a good speaker, I had the pleasure of sitting through a one day seminar of his a year ago.

Brooks Jenson - The publisher and editor of Lenswork magazine. I'm a big fan of his magazine and his no nonsense approach to art and vision. He has several blogs, my favorite at the moment is his Dakota Creek Project blog. He is writing about a photo project and his thoughts behind it. Very low posting rate, my only complaint is I would like more content. However it shows me that projects can be very long term, and commitment and dedication count.

Paul Lester - A photographer who I became aware of during the first SoFoBoMo project. I regularly read his blog. While I don't believe he is published, I like his work. I also think, or would like to think, that our photography styles are somewhat similar. He also writes a lot about his vision and how he creates photographs. A good writer as well, and one of the first blog posts I read when they become available.

There are a lot of others I follow, some total gearheads, but mostly the artsy type. While I believe gear matters, I think the eye and the brain behind the gear matters more.

Photographer George Lepp

2010-11-05T08:46:00.004-04:00

Well known photographer, author and Canon Explorer of Light George Lepp was in town yesterday. One of the local camera stores was having its annual Canon Days, and he came to speak. I've attended a couple of speakers they've brought in for this, and in the past they have been really good.

While Mr. Lepp is a good speaker and has good work, I really didn't care for his talk. The entire two hours was about the various kinds of way to create panoramic photos from digital photos. He touched a bit about High Dynamic Range photography and video toward the end, but it seemed to me to be all about gear and process. Nothing about what has been called vision, how to become more creative or even what he was thinking about behind the photographs he did show.

He heavily pushed gear. He mentioned specific different vendors, with models and prices at least 6 times during the presentation. This was the most disappointing part of the seminar. It seemed he was just selling equipment. I'm not sure if they all sponsor him or not, but I would at least liked to have had some disclosure.

He did have some good points, but I wish he would have geared them toward his audience rather than the way he works. I really doubt many people have to create 5 ft. by 20 ft. photos.

I did manage to get his new book signed. I had brought my own copy with me, and I was glad I did. Other photographer have boxes of books shipped in and do a book signing after a talk. He only had a small stack of books the local camera store secured and they managed to run out early. He is a very engaging speaker and quite willing to answer questions.

I just wish he would have talked less about gear.

Not So Happy.

2010-10-27T12:12:00.002-04:00

I've been going through the photographs I've taken so far this year, and I haven't been very happy.

I pigeonhole my photography, rightly or wrongly, into two types, people/event photography and quiet/contemplative photography. While I like the people photography a lot, and I'm planning on doing more, I don't really consider printing it and hanging it on the wall. That role falls on the quiet photography.

I've found myself this year not having the time to go out and study a scene or area, and coming up with photographs that I would consider more artsy. I know that this is my definition, and I saw plenty of other definitions at ArtPrize this year. However it's the definition I've pretty much stuck with for a while.

I look at my people photography from fairs and festivals around town and aside from a very few exceptions, would not print them and hang them individually. I don't feel they are strong enough to stand on their own. If I did a show, I might consider doing them as a theme for the hanging or whole show.

Hopefully the things that have kept me preoccupied over the past half year have quieted down, and I can find some time to get out with the camera and find some more quiet photographs.

Sleeping Bear

2010-10-24T08:35:00.003-04:00

I spent a Saturday at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore earlier in the month. This is a national park, that for some reason seems to be off a lot of people radar.

I was hoping for some fall color. Unfortunately the park has a lot of oaks, which seem to just turn brown rather than the brillant crimson and yellows of the maple family. There was a lot of patches of color, but not the vistas I was hoping for.

Of course, since I was only able to spend a single Saturday in the park, it's entirely possible I missed it. A beautiful area anyway, and one I keep telling myself I need to spend more time at.

Chicago

2010-10-13T09:15:00.004-04:00

We took our yearly trip to Chicago for Dorothy's birthday earlier this month. While I tend to go to the city several times a year, this trip is pretty much a celebration of the past year. There is usually a space of several hours during the weekend when she is clothes shopping and I'm on my own. I take the time to wander around and visit camera shops and doing some street shots. I usually also try to get out during a evening. The rest of the time is museums, shops and restaurants.

While I always have a good time, and also get some great photos, the weekend is essentially for her. It helps to have a very understanding wife.

ArtPrize 2010

2010-10-07T08:23:00.004-04:00

I haven't written anything about ArtPrize yet this year, so I figured it was about time. They are supposed to announce the winner later today. That also means it will be wrapping up this week.

If you don't know what ArtPrize is, a quick synopsis. An art competition judged by the public with a top prize of $249,000. While the public judges, there are rules and procedures in place to prevent someone from rigging the vote. In response to complaints from last year, there is also a set of juried awards, where the work is judged by professional artists. This year, over 1,700 artists displayed work in a 3 square mile area downtown.

I attended a talk given by the director of ArtPrize just before it opened. He had some interesting things to say about it.

1. Simple = Complex. Sometimes the simplest things say the most complex things, and have the greatest meaning.

2. Art = Community. In an effort to differentiate cities and communities, city leaders all over the country are supporting the arts. Areas of the city are being turned into art specific neighborhoods. Surprisingly these areas are well attended and money makers as a whole. They also are a key part of "Cool Cities" initiative.

3. Idea = Action. A lot of people have ideas. They don't become reality until people take action on those ideas. A simple thought that a lot of people don't pay attention to.

4. Fun = Growth. One way for an organism to grow, whether it is a person or a region is to have fun. Whimsy, while it may be frowned on by some, is a way to get and keep a persons attention. Most people are more willing to participate in a fun activity than the opposite.

5. You = Creator. Anyone is a creator. Art is not for the professionals, nor should judging what is good art be left to them. Art is part of growing up, most kids start drawing early on in life. It's only later that society tells them that they need to be serious.

The ArtPrize organization only does high level planning. They register artists and venues, but it is up to the two to get together to display the work. They depend on volunteers to help run the event. They also try to find enough donors and funds to pay the prizes.

Most of all the event was about conversation. The founder and the director had travelled to a lot of art events around the country, and they got the most out of it when they just talked to the people around them. That was what they were trying to bring to the community.

While there are some problems with the event, I think they have accomplished the goal. The downtown area has been packed over the last 3 weeks, the merchants are open late and making money, and most of all, everyone is getting a better look at the city. A lot of people I know don't like downtown, because they still think of it as the abandoned, lonely hulk of two decades ago. It's not. Events like this help change that perception and is probably the biggest win of the event.

I may have not remembered the exact meaning of the bullet points above, but hopefully I didn't mangle them up too much. Kudos to the ArtPrize folks, and I can hardly wait until next year.

Outdoor Discovery Center

2010-09-21T08:00:00.003-04:00

I had a chance to go the the Outdoor Discovery Center in Holland last week and photograph a couple of owls. A small group of photographers was meeting there Thursday evening, and I was invited to come along.

The Center has several rescued raptors, including a Kestral and Eagles, along with the owls. We were able to photograph two of the owls, a Great Horned Owl, pictured above, and I believe a Short Eared Owl. Both birds had been hit by cars and brought to the center. The Great Horned Owl, while able to fly, had nerve damage to a wing and was not able to fly long enough, or far enough to hunt. The Short Eared Owl had a damaged wing and was unable to fly at all.

In the lower photo above, the owl has its beak open because it was panting. It hadn't been around people lately, and it was stressed. Like a dog, they will pant to get rid of excess heat.

This was the first time I had been this close to these birds without bars or glass between us. The small group of us spent about a half hour with each bird, along with the handler.

Both gorgeous birds, it's sad they are unable to live in the wild, but at least they survived the encounter with the cars.

Portrait Project

2010-09-18T16:30:00.004-04:00

Erin

Jalonie

Mike

I know I haven't been paying much attention to this lately, but hopefully that will change. The "real job" is finally slowing down a bit after an overly busy summer.

I've also been preparing for what I hope will turn out to be a long term project that will end up as an entry in next years Art Prize. A street portrait project. A project that lets me go out on the street and try to photograph people just walking by.

I had my first session last night and I got a few good photographs. I also had a lot of great conversations with people that let me take their photos and shook a lot of hands. A few people wouldn't even listen to me, I think they were expecting me to ask for money.

I also learned a lot. I need to have some backup equipment with me. My light stand tipped and while I didn't break the flash bulb, I bent the umbrella I was using. I also need a way to haul the equipment around. I also need to find a way to capture info while I'm talking to someone, probably a recorder or something. I've always had a problem with names, and I had one instance last night where I could remember the city she lived in, but not her name. Somewhat embarrassing. I'm also hoping I spelled the peoples name right.

Since I started somewhat late, I also had a problem getting a good focus on the peoples face. While a somewhat soft photo probably will not make much of a difference on the final project, I tend to be somewhat of a stickler for that.

I ended up with 19 portraits that I felt I could use. Converting them to square, black and white, and tagging them with the proper name and hometown, took a lot more time than I thought. Since I will need a lot more than that, I think I need to come up with a better way of doing it.

I'll continue to publish updates here as I go along, and hopefully I'll end up with a completed project by the middle of next year. At least completed enough to see a final product.

Later.

Wake Wars 2010

2010-09-06T13:37:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, one of the downtown merchants held the 2nd Grand Rapids Wake Wars. A huge pool was set up in a parking lot, surrounded by seats, vendors and games.

Held both Saturday and Sunday, I wasn't really able to get down until Sunday evening. It had been a hot day, and the sun going down didn't help much. They didn't have a great crowd, but considering it was the last few hours of the event, it wasn't bad.

I wish I would have made it down earlier in the day, when some of the jumping events were held, but just too busy the first weekend back from San Jose.

Wandering Again

2010-08-22T12:15:00.003-04:00

I'm in San Jose for my real job. I got a chance late Saturday to go to Half Moon Bay on the coast for a bit. My main purpose was to look at a lighthouse I found a link to. An interesting light house, but I wasn't able to get a good photo of it. Wandering around the area, I came across a lot of parks, and beach access. I'm going to try to get back there one evening before I come home.

At The Beach

2010-08-12T08:37:00.004-04:00

The local camera clubs had a combined workshop Sunday. A modeling session at Hoffmaster State Park, just south of Muskegon. We started out about 4 pm with a picnic and then headed down to the beach. I didn't get an exact count, but there were more than 20 photographers and 6 or more models. Some of the models were friends and family of the photographers, a couple of the others were semi-professionals that came along. While all the models that came where female, we ran into a group of guy wave boarders who were more than willing to let us photograph them. They started doing some runs down the beach, but they were quickly co-opted into posing along with the others.

It was a hot, muggy day, but once we got down to the beach, it was great. The beach was crowded, but we were able to find room. The crowd also started to thin out later in the evening, but I was surprised how many people stayed until dark. The water was warm for Lake Michigan, up into the 70's. Which was good for the models, because they ended up in the water a lot. It was good for me also, since I was in the water a lot, especially when I was working with the guys.

I dragged my new light and battery down to the beach once it started getting later in the evening. This was the first time I had used it outside the house. Overall I was happy with it, but I still have more to learn on lighting people, especially with just one light.

One of the models brought her wedding dress. I got a couple good photos of her with it on standing on the beach. She then went in the water with it. Unfortunately it was dark by then, and I really didn't get any photos I liked after that. She's going to trash the dress later in the year, and I'm going to try to photograph that also.

A good way to spend an afternoon, with a lot of great people and pretty scenery.

Vacation

2010-08-08T09:37:00.004-04:00

Wandering around Wilderness State Park, I came across this family.
I wasn't really sure what kind of bird it is, though it has been suggested,
that they are Sawbills or Red-breasted Merganser. I tried to get a photo
without disturbing them, but it was not to be. They ended up in the water, even
though I started backing up when they stood up. The last I saw of them,
they were swimming around a small point.
I would have liked to get some more photos.

Since we were in Mackinac City, I had to get a photo of the bridge.
A 3 minute exposure from Wednesday evening at 10 pm.

The old Mackinac City Lighthouse. It's too bad
they don't light it up anymore, but the ground
lights make some nice shadows.

We spent a few days up north in Mackinac City. Even though it is a prime tourist trap, we still enjoy it. My back was giving me problems, so it was a quiet trip. I got out a little bit with the camera, but not near enough as I normally would.

I spent a couple hours driving around Wilderness State Park, scouting out locations for the next time I came up. I did find a few spots I want to go back to, when I can spend the time. On the way to the park, I stopped at the new lighthouse open to the public, the McGulpin Point Lighthouse. Recently bought by Emmet County from a private party, it's been opened to the public while it's being restored. A pretty building, but surrounded by trees. It will be difficult to photograph, and I didn't get a chance to go back and try.

Since I could sit on the beach, I did get out a couple evenings to photograph the bridge. While it is over photographed, even by me, I still like to try to get a different take on it. Plus sitting by the water, listening to the waves, while the stars come out, always relaxes me. One evening, I watched a thunderstorm across the water for a while after I was done with the bridge. The storm stayed north, across in the Upper Peninsula, but I could see the glow of the clouds and hear the thunder. For some reason, thunderstorms and the rain are soothing.

We made it over to Mackinac Island for a few hours. I took it slow and was able to enjoy the trip. I had my camera with me, but nothing really struck me, and I didn't take many photographs.

An enjoyable few days overall, even with me having to take it easy. Now it's back to the real job again tomorrow. Sigh...

Maker Faire - Detroit

2010-08-01T08:05:00.003-04:00

The kit at the "Learn to Solder" station. For a buck, you got a small

set of parts, which when put together was a blinky led badge.

It was popular, especially with the kids, but a lot of grown ups

had them also.

Seen at the giant mousetrap art show, I assumed he was

taking stereo video. There were a lot of cameras around.

A swing set with a water bar at the top.

Very popular, even though it wasn't really hot.

Another performance art piece. Volunteers were pulled

out of the crowd to pedal or just ride. It played music that

sounded like an old record on a turntable. The music varied

in speed corresponding to the speed they were pedaling.

They then had to pedal backwards...

There were flames also.

Vehicles were popular. Pedal, electric, solar or gas.

They were all there.

Saturday I let my inner geek out. I attended the Maker Faire in Dearborn at the Henry Ford Museum. When I mentioned I was going, I was asked what the Faire was. It's hard to explain. Think technology meets art, meets learning, meets community. A celebration of the hackers ethic along with a big helping of do it yourself. Not I mean hacking in a good way, like taking apart something you own or repurposing it for a use the original manufacturer never intended.

There were not a lot of vendors selling things, probably ninety percent of the booths were just people and schools showing off projects they were working on. There were projects for kids, like pvc marshmallow guns, or the learn to solder station. There were demonstration for adults, like a laser etching station or cnc woodworking tools, some homebuilt. I saw my first 3d printer, a homemade device that prints small parts out of plastic.

Music was popular, there were a lot of homemade music devices, some acoustic, some computer controlled. There was a stage where bands played the whole day.

There was also a lot of geeky style performance art. From the ride pictured above, to a full sized Mousetrap game that dropped a two ton safe on a car to the Coke Zero - Mentos performance.

A lot of robots, from small table tops to a Nerf machine gun area protection robot.

The only photography display I saw was Bill Schwab from North Lights Photography. He was doing a brisk business selling wet plate collodion portraits. I didn't get a chance to say hi, he was pretty busy. It was interesting to see an old process be so popular.

As part of the admission, we had access to the Henry Ford Museum. I didn't see much of it, except to go in the building to see the displays inside. A full, tiring, but very fun day. I hope they do it again next year, I would be back.

Carnival Time!

2010-07-26T17:28:00.005-04:00

I know this has been a bit quite lately, I have the usual excuses, not enough time and too much going on.

Mike had me up in Sparta a week ago for the local celebration. While I couldn't go to the events earlier in the day, I did make it up for the carnival on Saturday evening. A smaller carnival that I expected, it kind of snaked around town, between buildings and through parking lots. Not a whole lot of places to set up a tripod to get photos.

After thinking about it a bit, and trying a couple of things, I decided to just hand hold the camera with a wide angle lens instead. This changed the way I would normally photograph a carnival. Since the lens is so wide, you have to be really close to your subject, and the lens distortion will still give a sense of space that really isn't there. For example, the photo of the game where they are trying to win candy, I was almost leaning over the game board. It's kind of nice, since you can point the lens almost forty five degrees away from someone and still get a photo of them.

I like the way these turned out and I'm going to use this more often in the future.

Science!

2010-07-25T08:54:00.003-04:00

As a science geek who grew up with chemistry sets and microscopes, I've been watching the dumbing down of kids science toys with dismay. It follows the trend, especially since 9/11 of "protecting" us from ourselves. Anything with the perceived remote chance of hurting ourselves or others is way too dangerous for us to have.

This cartoon starts to sum it up.

Taken without permission (sorry), from todays Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a geeky cartoon that it in my rss feed so I don't miss it. Go follow it also.

GR Cycle Classic

2010-07-16T20:38:00.005-04:00

This past Saturday was the GR Cycle Classic. A day long bike race in downtown Grand Rapids, the race course winds around the arena, with a mixture of brick and asphalt roads. I got down there early, meaning to wander around, but quickly ran into a friend of mine. We wandered, but not as fast as I had originally planned.

Once the race started, the two of us and a third photographer spent a couple of hours just walking the course and stopping to photograph whenever the whim struck. We spent a short while under a awning while a quick summer shower passed by. It made the race a little more exciting, the pavement got slicker until it dried and there were a few crashes.

Early afternoon, while the race was still going on, we decided it was time for lunch. We spent an hour or so at Hop Cats, with the starting section right outside the window. We were able to watch the race in the AC and have a bite of lunch.

We went our seperate ways afterwards. While the race was going on until 4:30 or so, we all had other things to take care of.

The race really did not have a lot of spectators, not nearly as many as have lined the course in past years. I feel part of the reason is the lack of advertising. I knew about it, because I was expecting the event and had double checked the date. The only real notice I saw about the race was a small blurb in the local paper the day of the race. It's too bad, the crowds have always been a lot bigger in years past.

SoFoBoMo 2010 Update

2010-07-09T08:28:00.003-04:00

Well, its been over a month now since I announced my book project for this year, so I guess it's time for an update. The plan was to photograph the local fair grounds in a 5 county area, try to emphasize the unique differences of them, use film in a medium format camera and complete a book on the 31 day time frame. Didn't happen.

I started out great. You may remember, I jumped the gun by a couple days to take advantage of the Memorial Day weekend. The first fairground went great. I went to Allegan for the the monthly antique show, photographed that, wandered around a bit and found a horse show also going. I was somewhat pleased. 4 rolls of film down, about 50 photos. If I could continue to do that, it was going to be easy.

It went downhill from there.

I tried Kalamazoo the same weekend. It was packed. Some event was going on, I couldn't even get near the fairgrounds without paying an entrance fee. From what I could see from the road, and what I remembered, the grounds themselves were not very unique. I decided to come back if I got the chance, but I wasn't going to sweat it.

One thing I hadn't counted on when starting the project was how busy fair grounds are during the summer. Access to the local fair grounds was available, if I wanted to pay an entrance fee and if I wanted to fight crowds. While crowds are certainly part of a fair experience, I wanted to photograph the empty grounds, or almost empty. While some people photos were expected, I wanted a view of these venues the way most people don't see them, empty or almost empty.

Plus frankly, early June was really busy for me personally as well. So what next?

I going to start a new project to be done by the end of the month. I need to get permission first for access to the land, so no big announcement at the moment. If that doesn't work, I'll have to think of a plan C.

More later.

Fireworks

2010-07-05T20:19:00.003-04:00

It's the Fourth of July, of course there has to be fireworks....

We had excellent weather for the show. It had cooled down a bit, with a breeze popping up now and then.

I went downtown as usual for the fireworks along the Grand River. I had wanted to get a different spot then usual, but that didn't work out.

I got downtown at 9 pm, an hour and a half before the fireworks started, and it was already packed. I quickly abandoned my plans to find a high spot to get the crowds along the river as well as the fireworks, and just vowed to find a spot on a bridge. I quickly found a spot in the middle of the Bridge St. bridge. There were a couple on each side of an empty spot, and no one had claimed it yet, so I set up there. It was a good spot pretty much on the center of the bridge. As it got closer to the start time, the bridge filled up. During the display, I had a couple of kids kick my tripod a few times, but all in all, I got way too many photos. It took a bit to clear out the bad ones, and I still have a few I'm mulling over.

As usual the after event traffic rush was on. Once I got back to my car, it only took me about 10 minutes to get on the freeway, but that was packed all the way home.

I'm going to have to prepare earlier for the next event in the fall and try to find a building overlooking the river I have access too.

A Great Summer Day

2010-07-04T18:18:00.005-04:00

The Midwest Professional Volleyball Association had a beach volleyball tournament Saturday morning. I sent some emails out to see if anyone wanted to go and Mike showed up.

It was fun watching, but I spent too much time talking to really pay much attention to the volleyball. I did get a couple ok photos though. He had to leave mid-morning, so I decided to drive over to the other side of the pier. We had seen some kite surfers earlier in the morning and I hoped they were still there.

The dog really is not going after the fisherman, but a bunch of seagulls sunning themselves on the pier. Unfortunately for him, his desire to go run around and chase them was thwarted.

Of course once I get over there, the kite surfers disappeared. I sat on the pier for a while and just watched the people. A steady stream of boats were coming out the channel, and there were quite a few walking the pier.

Just as I was leaving a couple of kite surfers came back. I watched them set up, but there were so many boats set up on the north side of the pier that they either had to go way out on the lake or way north. The boats just kept on coming and anchoring.

I'm sure these dogs wanted to jump in the water and play with some kids swimming in closer to shore.

A great day all around.

Busy Week

2010-07-02T21:56:00.003-04:00

For some reason, my "real" job gets busy the end of June, first of July. It's happened that way the last couple of years, and it happened again this year. I've gotten out a couple of times to photograph, but I've missed some opportunities also. So all you get today is a Coneflower, taken today at Millenium Park. I always seem to realize these are in bloom too late in the year. Maybe next year.

Hope your Fourth of July weekend is going well.

Just Get Out and Do It!

2010-06-27T20:29:00.002-04:00

I was listening to the Chase Jarvis and Zack Arias talk once again. If you haven't heard it, it's available here. Originally done as a live interview, it has been posted so people who missed it have a chance to catch up. Both very successful photographers, both very open and willing to help teach what they do. Chase Jarvis has started a internet live class concept, where if you watch the program while it's being made, it's free. If you miss it for some reason, you can go back and purchase the show later. Zack was in town to do a two and a half day class for this service on lighting and business.

Around the 1:05:00 mark, they were answering questions that people had sent in. A question came in about projects and how to go from concept to execution. Both of them basically said, you need to just go out and do it. A few comments I wrote down that struck me.

Actions Speak - Chase
If you have an idea do it. Put it on the books and go do it - Zack
All the ideas inside your head is just that - Chase
No ones impressed with the ideas inside your head, The only thing anyone's impressed with is what you put out in the world. - Zack

These particularly struck me. I know a lot of very talented people who when I mention that I had entered a local show, or tried this or that, come back with, "I should have done that" or "I was going to do it and I forgot".

I've learned long ago, that the only person holding me back is me. I forget things once in a while, but I tend to make a lot of notes now. I know I'm somewhat disorganized, but I've learned how to do organization when I need to. I still don't really have the get up and go to take my photography to the next level this year, but I believe I'm getting better. I wish the good photographers I know would learn the same lesson.

After all, the only one that can hold you back is you.

Grand Rapids Regatta

2010-06-26T14:15:00.003-04:00

As part of the Meijer State Games, there was a rowing regatta on the Grand River. I didn't get going early enough this morning to spend much time at the race, but I did get about an hour to photograph before they shut down for lunch.

It looks like an interesting sport, but done on way too narrow of boats. Since I have trouble standing upright at times, much less balancing myself in a boat like that, I don't think it's for me. I did have fun photographing it though and I'll have to keep an eye out for more races like this.

Skateboarding

2010-06-22T08:25:00.004-04:00

A group is trying to create a skateboarding park for the Grand Rapids area. They held a contest downtown at Rosa Parks Circle this past Sunday to raise money for creating the park. There was an entry fee for the skaters, a raffle and various other forms of fund raising.

It's entertaining to watch the abuse some of these people do to themselves. They will do the same stunt over and over again, usually with the same result. Falling on hard concrete. Once in a while, someone will make it and there will be some applause. Usually just a big smile on the face of the person who made it.

The competitors where all male also. Usually there is one or two female skateboarders, especially in a slightly younger crowd, but not this time. A few girlfriends and mothers on the fringes, but not many.

A Turkey you can't catch.

2010-06-15T07:15:00.003-04:00

The wild turkey has been somewhat plentiful in the area for over 10 years now. Yet I still don't have a photo of one that I really care for.

I had another chance yesterday. Driving down a back road in the mid morning, I came across a small flock in a field just off the road. The male was in full display with his tail feathers in a wonderful arc. There was a small berm that I hoped would allow me to get somewhat close without them becoming aware of me. Hopes were soon dashed. I pulled the car over, and opened the trunk. I had my 100-400 zoom and my camera with me. I left the trunk open, so I wouldn't slam it shut and started walking down the road, quietly or so I thought. All of a sudden I saw a head pop up on top of the hill and look at me. Soon two of the turkeys were in flight, flying across the road to the woods that were close to the other side. The rest took off running soon after.

For such a maligned bird, the wild turkey has excellent hearing, runs very fast and of course flies. I've never seen them fly very far, never more than a few hundred feet, but as fast as they are on the ground, they really don't need to fly very far.

Hopefully one of these days I will get the photo I want.

The above photos were crops out of the center of the photos I did happen to take. Both are at 400 mm.

Blues on the Mall

2010-06-14T07:47:00.005-04:00

WLAV's "Blues on the Mall" started again this past Wednesday. Little Ed and the Blue Imperials were the opening act and they were great. I should add, "as usual", but I've come to expect the best from this band.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for any length of time, know I like to do street photography, or my version of street photography anyway. This event is one of the best ways to get a cross section of Grand Rapids in one place. There are other events in town and even bigger events, but none that have such a cross section of the people that make up the area. That makes it one of my favorite events to photograph.

It runs every week through August. I expect I will be there most weeks, so you can expect regular posts about this event.

Festival of the Arts Weekend

2010-06-08T08:16:00.004-04:00

The 41st Festival of the Arts is over and it was a great time as usual. I spent a good part of the weekend downtown taking it all in. Such a smorgasbord of art, music, fun, and food. I tried to see it all, but that was impossible. I did my best anyway. A few photos from the weekend.

The Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra with Edye Evans Hyde. She is probably the finest jazz singer in town. I need to admit I went to college with her, so I may be a little influenced by that.

Of course, there had to be a little rain, but it happened late Saturday. The shut the show down at 8:30 pm, but it got going full swing the next day.

It's too bad it is over, but it is a huge event, all run by volunteers. It is the biggest all volunteer event in the country and they were saying that over 20,000 people volunteer to make it happen. Considering the scope of it, I can believe it. I can hardly wait for next year already.

Festival 2010 Opening

2010-06-06T09:26:00.004-04:00

The 41st Festival of the Arts opened Friday. I took a long lunch hour and went down for the opening ceremonies. That and to sample some of the food the non-profits sell in the booths.

It started out with a short parade from Rosa Parks Circle to the main stage at Calder Plaza. Leading the group was these signs produced by the folks at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art.

There was a local group of hoopers, called Audacious Hoops, which were far more talented thanI would have thought at first. There was also a group of artists from the Avenue of the Arts, which is a block of artists on North Division. They were having an art sale event coinciding with the Festival. They showed up for the parade in paper mache masks.

Lastly there was a band called WaZoBia, which does African and Afro-Cuban drumming. I followed the parade to the main stage and watched the ceremonies for a while before I grabbed some lunch and headed back to work. A very good start to the weekend and a good way to spend a lunchtime.

Festival 2010 Artists Reception

2010-06-02T07:53:00.004-04:00

I was lucky enough to get two entries accepted into this years Festival of the Arts Regional Arts Exhibit. There was an artists opening reception this past Friday, where the artists could come see the work hung on the wall, schmooze with the arts community in town and invite family/friends to get an early look.

I attended of course. I still get a big thrill out of being accepted and I need to keep pinching myself to make sure I'm awake.

I was there for almost two hours. There were a lot of folks I knew who also were there. Taking classes at GRCC and attending photo outings held by various groups, I've gotten to know a surprising amount of the local photographers. I didn't know many of the other artists, but I wandered through the painting and sculptures also.

I had invited a bunch of folks, a few who actually showed up. The couple in the lower photo is my brother Rick, and his wife Jackie. Since they don't like having their photo taken, I thought I would point them out.

The exhibit is open during Festival this first weekend of June and is also open the following weekend. The exhibit this year is once again in the old GR Arts Museum on Pearl and Ionia. I've volunteered to work the exhibit on Saturday the 12th, from noon to 3. Stop by and say hi. There is a lot of good work being shown, and I'm sure the artists would appreciate you attending if possible.

SoFoBoMo 2010

2010-05-28T07:45:00.003-04:00

The Solo Photo Book Month participation period is pretty much here. A project once a year to photograph and produce a book in a 30 day period. This year the months to participate are June and July.

I've decided this year to produce a book about the local fairgrounds in a 5 or 6 county area of West Michigan. I'll be photographing them with my Mamiya 645 film camera, developing and scanning the film. All black and white. I like fairgrounds, mainly because I have a lot of good memories from them, but also because you can find some good architecture in some of them. Of course you can also find some weird stuff also, which only increases my desire to go photograph them.

I've decided to jump the gun by a couple days. I will actually be starting Sunday. I will be at the Allegan Fairground anyway, and I want to take advantage also of the day off Monday. I'm going to try to get Allegan and maybe Kalamazoo Sunday. Monday, I'm not sure if I will go west to Muskegon or go east to Lowell. We'll see when it gets here.

Once I get that one done, I may do a second book also. I know, I say that every year. I have a couple of ideas though, so maybe this year it will happen.

The photo above has actually nothing to do with the project. Mike introduced me to photographing smoke from incense backlit from behind. I've been playing with that a bit.

Stump

2010-05-27T21:39:00.002-04:00

Wandering around a nature area in Holland in January, I came across the remains of this tree. Since it looked like one of those abstract things I like to photograph so much, I took several photos of it. Yet another roll of film I've developed lately.

Grand Haven Kite Festival

2010-05-24T08:07:00.003-04:00

The yearly kite festival was held this past weekend in Grand Haven. I wasn't able to go Saturday during the day, which turned out ok. The coastline was fogged out all day and it didn't dissipate until early evening.

I headed out Sunday morning and arrived in town about 11 am. Stuck in traffic about three quarters of a mile from the park, I knew I had to do something when a guy pushing an older man in a wheelchair passed me. I ended up parking at the YMCA and walking in.

There was a good turnout and a lot of kites flying. I walked the beach, wondering about all the people in the 50 degree water, but since it was in the mid 80's, part of me wanted to join them. I watched the kite dancing for a while. I keep wondering how 6 kite flyers can fly formation and manage to keep their lines untangled.

I ran into a few people I knew and generally had a good time. One the way out of town, the line of cars into the park was backed up through town and out to US-31. I'm glad I went early.

Holland South Pier

2010-05-22T08:38:00.003-04:00

I've always taken photos of the lighthouse in Holland from the state park on the north pier. I knew how to get to the state park, and I had heard that access to the lighthouse had been denied by the condos that were built around it.

I read that changed and I wanted to figure out how to get to the south pier. I hadn't seen many photos of the lighthouse from that angle, and I definitely wanted one.

It turns out it's easy. For those that don't know, take South Shore Drive in Holland until you run into the end of it. There will be a guard shack with a gate into the condominiums. If you're lucky, the guard will be on duty and let you in. There are 4 parking spots available for lighthouse visitors. If you're unlucky like me, you find an open parking spot with someone's name on it and hope they don't show up. Once you're parked, follow the signs, through the condos until you get to the lighthouse. It is about a 15 minute or so walk, depending on how much gear you're carrying.

I had dragged both my 4x5 and my digital cameras with me, but I had misjudged the light. I only got a couple of photos with my 4x5 before it started to get dark enough that I stopped. It didn't help that the battery in my exposure meter went out, and I didn't have my spare with me. I set up my digital camera and grabbed a couple photos and waited for the light to get right. The sunset was unspectacular, though any sunset on the lake is good. I talked to a couple of people who walked by, and as the sunset went on, I got the usual question. What are you waiting for? As usual, I tell them I'm waiting for the sky to darken up a bit. The lighthouse came on and the sky darkened up enough for me to start getting photos I liked.

I eventually called it quits and as I was walking out, I looked back. There was enough light in the sky that the lighthouse was silhouetted with the lights on in the windows. I set my camera up and grabbed a few more photos, which turned out to be my favorites of the evening.

Always turn around and look behind you. You never know what photos you would be missing otherwise.

Pullman Radiator

2010-05-20T18:05:00.002-04:00

Boy, I have a lot of backed up film to develop. This is a photo from the trip I took to the Pullman Hotel in January (I think). I just got it developed.

Fashion on Monroe

2010-05-17T09:11:00.004-04:00

I had made plans to go out of town this past weekend, but circumstances made that impossible. So I was glad when I found an acquaintance posting on Facebook that he was going out photographing Saturday evening and he wanted to know if anyone wanted to tag along. And, oh be the way, what do we photograph?

We settled on a fashion event in downtown Grand Rapids, called "Fashion on Monroe". Not something I would probably make plans to photograph normally, but I'm willing to try anything once.

We met at a local coffee shop near the event, and once the small crew was all there, headed down the street. The first irritant was that the event didn't open until a half hour after we thought it did. Ok, we can wander around and talk, photograph things and generally see what trouble we can get into. Once it did open, we got in and selected good spots. After another half hour had gone by, the announced the show wouldn't start for 45 more minutes. We abandoned our locations and hit a local bar for a quick beer and conversation.

We got back to the show, and generally got back to our spots. Then a couple interesting things happened. A security guard mentioned that the media area was down at the end of what would be the runway. We all had dSLR's with external flashes attached, so I guess he thought we were all professionals. We told him we liked the spot we were in and he moved on. A few minutes later, a guy in a suit came by and asked us if we needed anything. He thought we were media also. We collectively gave in and wandered down to the media area to photograph.

I saw another person I knew in the media area, who was actually working with the media pass and everything. He gave us a funny look but ignored us after that. We ended up with clear shots of the models and designers, much better than if we had to fight with the crowd. Yet another example of assumptions people make if you wander around with a big camera.

After the show was over, one of the guys dragged his strobe light set out and we spent a little bit over an hour photographing strangers on the street. We were lucky enough to have one willing model who put up with us for over an hour. She had gone to the fashion show, and it got our earlier than she expected. She was just waiting around for her boyfriend to get out of work and was glad for the diversion. She also got some great photos out of it. While a few people just totally ignored us when we asked if we could photograph, a lot agreed to have their photos taken.

All in all, an enjoyable night, and more interesting than I thought.

Room 33

2010-05-16T17:21:00.000-04:00

Franklin

2010-05-13T22:21:00.002-04:00

Another shot from the Gilmore Auto Museum. I was attracted to the fronts of a lot of the older cars due to the shapes of the lights versus the grill. These big round lights are amazing. The upper ones have to be at least a foot across. This is the front of a Franklin Automobile. I don't remember offhand what the year was, but it was pre WWII. The lower lights have propeller emblems on them to market these to aviators. There were photos in the exhibit of Lindberg and other aviators in front of these cars.

A little better photo than the last one I published. I tried to get the museum to remove the license plate for a few minutes, but they wouldn't do it. I figured it didn't hurt to ask.

More Gilmore Car Museum

2010-05-12T21:57:00.003-04:00

I've got some film developed from this past weekend and I'm not too happy. I lot of it looks thin and underexposed. I seem to have this problem with indoor shots, I need more practice I guess. We'll see what the rest looks like and if I can get any good scans out of the negs.

Gilmore Car Museum

2010-05-10T07:57:00.003-04:00

Saturday dawned bleak, windy and cold. I was headed down early in the morning to meet some folks from the Midwest Large Format Asylum to photograph the Gilmore Car Museum. As I was driving through intermittent rain showers on the way south, I was consoled by the fact that we would be photographing inside.

After a leisurely breakfast in a small restaurant in Richland, we head the short way north to the museum. The last time I had been there had to be at least 10 years earlier. For some reason, I remembered a dingy, industrial looking place, rather than the clean set of barn red buildings that blended into the neighboring farmland.

Entering the grounds through a gate in a clean white picket fence, I drove past a recreation of a Shell gas station before parking on the lawn. They had moved the ticket area from a smaller building into the bookstore. Unfortunately for the lady manning the area, it was also unheated. She was bundled up and seemed pleased to see us, if only to get her mind off the cold for a few minutes. We chatted for a bit, and after making sure their photography policy hadn't changed, grabbed our gear and headed to the display buildings.

The first display we photographed was a new addition to a set of four interlocked buildings. These at least were heated. Walking past cars from manufacturers I hadn't heard of, races cars of all stripes, as well as old familiar names, we came to the new addition. A building dedicated to Franklin automobiles. We spent the next hour and half photographing these and everywhere I turned, it seemed there was another view I wanted. The museum wasn't very busy, but we got a few comments about our cameras. Before we left, I walked back to look at one of the original Shelby Cobra's, but they had it backed up against a older Corvette and I couldn't find an angle I liked.

I stopped in the building devoted to Pierce Arrows, just to get out of the rain, and ended up taking a few photos, before heading into the building devoted to cars from the Classic Car Club of America. Wandering around, I ended up spending the rest of the time photographing a 1938 Mercedes, that had spent 60 years buried underground in East Germany to escape being confiscate by the Russians after World War 2. Only one of 2 that remain in the world, it was simply a wonderful car and I could have spent a lot more time photographing it.

By that time, it was early afternoon. After quick lunch in the old style 50's diner on the grounds and some more good conversation, we took our leave. I had a excellent time, and left a lot of automobiles that I wanted to photograph. The light wasn't the greatest, so the next time I go, I may have to drag a set of lights along as well. There is also the gas stations and the buildings on the grounds I wanted to photograph, but I skipped because of the wind and rain.

But I have to add the museum to my list of places I need to go back to.

Art Chicago

2010-05-05T08:52:00.003-04:00

Art Chicago happened this past weekend. Never having been to this particular show before, I decided to attend. I also had a couple of other stops I wanted to make near downtown, so this worked out well.

Art Chicago is a show attended by art galleries from around the world. Held on a whole floor of the Merchandise Mart downtown, there were almost 150 galleries represented along with several non profits. I mainly was looking for photography, but I stopped for anything that caught my eye. It still took almost 2 hours to see the whole floor.

Most of the photography I saw was by photographers I knew. Those considered the masters, and probably a safe bet that they would sell. They included Edward Weston, Paul Caponigro, Sebastio Selgado, and Henry Cartier-Besson. There were a few modern photographers also, but they were a small percentage of the show. Prices, when they were shown, ranged from $5,000 to $22,000. I would have like to bought a print by Caponigro and another by Julius Shulman, but they were out of my price range.

There was plenty of other art work also. Paintings, sculptures, and prints of all kinds. Since I'm not really a big fan of contemporary art, very little of it caught my eye. There were a few pieces I would have liked, but once again they were out of my price range. They were also big. It was common to see paintings with dimensions of 5 to ten feet on a side. I guess if you could afford the art, you could afford someplace to hang it.

It was instructional to walk around and see what is considered sellable art by the art world. I got a few ideas for different display techniques, and I saw a few I would never have considered. One of those was a display of the Sony OLed TV's with a short video loop running. Nothing too obvious, you had to pay attention to see the work. As far as I know, those tv's ran in the 6 digit prices range for an 11 inch model, and it looked like the gallery was trying to sell 6 of them as a single installation. No prices and I didn't ask.

There was also an antique show running in the building, which I stopped at for a few moments, and a show of upcoming artists. I spent more time at the upcoming artists show. A lot of the local schools in Chicago showcased their arts program, plus there had to be another 50 galleries showing artists. A lot of good work, but some of it was too far out for me. I figure if I have to read the placard to understand what the artists intent is, I'm not interested.

A further hour of so of walking in downtown, making the other stops I had gone for, and I headed home. A interesting day, and I plan on going back again next year.

Grill

2010-05-03T18:31:00.001-04:00

The grill of an abandoned Mercedes sitting in a field near Ionia. A film scan.

Sunday May 2nd - A Moment in Time

2010-04-30T08:54:00.004-04:00

The NY Times is sponsoring "A Moment in Time". They are asking people to take a photo at 15:00 UTC on Sunday and upload it to their web site. For those of us in Western Michigan, that will be 11 am.

I'm planning on participating. I'm just not sure how. Do I just stop at 11 am and take a photo of wherever/whatever I see? Or do I plan on photographing something specific. I guess I'll see what happens.

The original article announcing the project is here. Some questions answered about the effort is here.

The above photo really doesn't have anything to do with the effort, it just seemed appropriate. It is a booth at a carnival where they are making elephant ears.

Get Closer. Really Close

2010-04-29T08:58:00.004-04:00

Apple Tree Blossoms

Fire Ants tending Aphids

Dogwood Blossom

There is an old saying in photography, if your photo is boring, you're not close enough.

I had the opportunity to test that saying this week. I was invited along with a group to do some photography among the Apple and Dogwood blossoms, at a friends of a friends house. Most of the group was photographing a couple of models that had come along, but a few of us just wandered the property. I used a 100mm macro lens for the whole time. I picked it mostly to limit my options and to try to get a different view than I normally get, but I also knew I would have times when I wanted to get close.

I got a few photos I liked before I tried the close part. I also learned a few things. Like if I put the lens on manual focus I can get a lot closer than I thought. For the photo of the ants, I had the front of the lens about two inches away from the subjects. I also used a flashlight to try to brighten the photo up, since it was getting near sunset. I was surprised how much the light affected the ants. Once it started illuminating them, they started moving.

The two blossom photos were taken in the shade, also somewhat near sunset. I hadn't brought anything to anchor them and the wind was pushing them around. It was an interesting task to get a sharp photo.

So get closer when you can.

Wyoming Carnival

2010-04-24T08:01:00.003-04:00

Carnivals in early spring are such a great place to photograph. Still chilly enough that you don't get really big crowds, but enough people to make it interesting.

There was the annual April carnival in the city of Wyoming last Saturday. Mike and I met there and wandered around for a couple hours just photographing. The attendees tend to be friendly, the workers want to talk your ear off and there is plenty of room to set up a tripod.

This is the third year in a row I've photographed this event. They had some new rides this year, ones I hadn't seen before and it was fun trying to figure out how to photograph them. I even managed to stay away from the elephant ears, which are a weakness of mine.

I tend to like to do night photography in general and having all these subjects in such a small area is a big bonus. I can't wait until next year.

April Links

2010-04-22T22:08:00.004-04:00

Worldwide Pinhole Day is Sunday, April 25th. Nick Dvoracek has some good info if you're interested in trying your hand.

Another pinhole article, How to drill your own precision pinhole apertures.

If you think you need to spend more time in front of your computer, here is the Definitive List of Online Photography Magazines.

While I like to do night photography, I haven't done a lot of light painting. A nice tutorial on how to set one up is at Joe Reifer's blog.

If you're not doing anything on Sunday, May 2nd at 11 am Eastern, you may want to participate in the New York Times Global Mosaic.

A handy reverse search engine to find out if any of your images are being used in places they shouldn't be. http://www.tineye.com

The above image was taken this past Saturday at the old Grand Rapids Public Museum. It represents some of the animals that used to be used in the old style dioramas. There is something strange about using stuffed animals to teach about the natural world, especially when I think about it the day after Earth Day. It's probably just a changing sensibility. I certainly thought it was cool when I was young.

Michigan - Land of Riches

2010-04-19T09:03:00.002-04:00

When I was growing up on the outskirts of town, I spent an inordinate amount of time at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Being a young geek, what better place was there than a building full of stuffed animals, dioramas, a visible human model and a planetarium? I spent at least one summer at a camp downtown, with my parents driving me in every morning and picking me up in the late afternoon. When I grew up, I moved out of town for a bit, the old museum was closed, while a new building was built along the Grand River.

Museums also changed, becoming less a place to view stuffed animals and learn about the environment to a resource about the community. Part of me mourns this change, because the old style exhibits helped instill in me a love for nature. Part of me likes this change since those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Even local history. It's a lesson learned to see the ebb and flow of the furniture industry in Grand Rapids that is now being repeated in the auto industry. I'm sure that if the city becomes dependent on another single industry, it will be repeated.

I was delighted to learn that the old museum building was going to be open on selected dates, and artists were being invited in to customize the old rooms. The museum is trying to figure out what to do with the space and since it hadn't been opened for over 15 years, they needed some sort of display to show off the space and solicitate comments. I wanted to see if the old building was as big and wonderful as I remembered. I also knew someone displaying at the building and I wanted to see what he came up with.

It turns out that what I consider the back half of the museum, where the old gaslight village and the planetarium had been converted into archival storage for the museum and were not open. The front half was open, and full of a lot of the old displays. As usual, a lot of the art I didn't understand and there were not a lot of placards explaining the thought process. It was still fun to walk through and see everything. Someone even hung a paper whale where the old whale skeleton used to be.

And yes, it was as big and wonderful as when I was younger.

Steve McCurry

2010-04-17T10:39:00.003-04:00

Steve McCurry, best known for his 1985 National Geographic cover was in town Friday to talk at a local college. While I was unable to go to the talks, I was able to go to a gallery opening and book signing he attended at the college. His latest book, "The Unguarded Moment", looked like a book I would like to have, and I always like to have the photographer sign them when possible.

I got there about a half hour after it started and to my surprise, they where out of what stock of books they had received. I decided to head down to the local bookstores to see if I could pick up a copy of one of his books. Well, someone else also had the same idea, and had already picked up the only copy. I did find a copy of the 2001 National Geographic that had the article and photos of his search and finding the Afghan Girl at the local Bargain Books. I picked that up for a dollar and got the photographer to sign it.

I looked at the works on the wall, and after the signing was over, I talked for a few moments with Mr. McCurry. A very engaging individual, he was very pleasant and willing to answer questions. He's photographed all over the world, but has primarily stuck to Asia. No, before anyone asks, I did not ask what equipment he uses, though at one point I overheard someone else ask the question. I didn't hear the answer and I really didn't care.

The photographs, as usual, are much better in person, than printed in a magazine or a book. I recognized several photos that I had seen, but I hadn't realized who the photographer was. Once I've thought about them for a bit, I plan on going back and seeing the exhibit again before it closes. I believe it is open until April 24th.

The photo above was taken with my iPhone, because I had been silly enough to leave my camera in the car.

Two More Images from the Weekend.

2010-04-15T10:11:00.000-04:00

From the balcony of the church.

I See Dead Buildings

2010-04-13T10:06:00.003-04:00

I went to Gary Indiana this past Sunday with some folks from the Grand Rapids Flickr community. While Flickr is an online forum, the people frequently meet in person and someone proposed a trip to Gary for urban exploring.

He wanted to go to the old Methodist Church, Post Office and Train Station. I had already been to two of those, but I had been wanting to go back, so this was the perfect opportunity. Turns out there were thirteen people, eleven photographers and two models going with some more joining later in the day. We also knew of a group from a Chicago Urbex online forum going.

We got together in Holland to car pool. After a short stop for lunch near the Michigan border, we were driving through Gary. This city always depresses me. Block after block of boarded up houses, with a well maintained house with a well manicured yard stuck like a flower in a sewer pit in the middle of the block.

As we pulled up to out first stop, the Methodist Church, we saw a group of photographers walking out. Walking into the church, we saw a photographer with a women in a wedding dress, who I assume was a model, taking photos in the sanctuary. I figured then the church would be a busy place.

We spent pretty much all day at the church, with the five of us that drove together making a quick side trip to an old factory about a mile down the road. We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but I know I want to go back as well as get to the other two places we didn't get to.

If I can get by thinking about the city itself.

We did have some people not want to go because they were afraid of getting hassled. The only question we got was from a resident near the factory. He just wanted to know why everyone was going by his house with cameras. We were the second or third group that day that had gone into the old factory.

The photo above was taken at the church, against the east wall of the sanctuary. Taken with natural light streaming in from a window above. Jessica was great to work with also.

Winter Landscape

2010-04-10T22:35:00.002-04:00

Another film scan. I've sort of settled for the moment on Kodaks HC-110 film developer. I used that for this roll of Ilford Delta 100 film, and I have to say I really didn't care for the result. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'll be using this particular film again.

Another Grand Haven Lighthouse Photo

2010-04-09T20:35:00.004-04:00

A photo taken in December of 2009 with the Mamiya 645. I just got around to scanning it and cleaning up the dust spots.

Dust spots on negatives are the only thing I really don't like about film. With two cats around, it always seems like hair or something is floating and getting on my scanner glass. Of course I have to spot my digital files also once in a while, so I guess there is no getting away from it.

Another Grand Haven Lighthouse shot.

A Nice Spring Evening?

2010-04-05T08:31:00.003-04:00

It was really nice for early April here late last week. Saturday started out nice, but a rain storm rolled through and cooled things down a bit. After dinner, I noticed the clouds to the east had broken up and it was sunny. I figured I would head out to the coast and get some photos. Of course as soon as I headed west, I noticed the sky was completely clear. Just my luck.

I headed over to Grand Haven anyway. For some reason, I really like the photographic opportunities I get there. It should be old hat for me now, but for some reason it's not. Arriving in the parking lot for the lighthouse, I ran into an acquaintance from some of the local Flickr photowalks. We ended up photographing together.

The first thing I noticed was the incredible light. The light after a storm moves through is just great. The dust has been cleaned from the air and the clouds and what water vapor is left, just give a great warm glow to everything. The second thing I noticed that it was windy and darn right cold. I had brought a jacket as well as a sweat shirt. While it was in the upper 40's, the wind chill made it much colder.

The wind however had kicked up the waves and there were some nice high water being kicked up the south side of the pier and the end of the lighthouse. We walked out to the end for a bit and tried to photograph the spray backlit by the sun. After a few minutes of that, we walked back to the beach and set up for the sunset.

The sunset was nice and a cloud bank started moving up from the south. The sky wasn't going to be a total washout after all. We stayed and photographed until about 30 minutes after sunset. I would have liked to stay later, but the wind kicked up and was cutting through my jacket and hood. Since I hadn't brought gloves, my hands were feeling like they were ready to fall off also. We met a local photographer at a local brew house and after a beer and an hour or so of gabbing, it was time to go home. A great evening anyway.

The above photo was the last photo I took of the evening. A 30 second shot, with a aperture of around f11. I had the tripod set low to the beach and I wanted to get the really milky, cloudy water. While there is a hint of it here, I just didn't wait long enough for the sky to darken enough. Next time.

Test post

2010-04-02T08:39:00.002-04:00

Posted via web from Steve's posterous

I've been playing around with autoposting from www.posterous.com. My coffee mug photo from my iPhone, messed about with Best Camera and sent to Posterous to autopost. You may see more iPhone shots in the future, though I'm not as convinced as everyone else is yet that it is a great platform for photos.

The Social Side of Photography

2010-03-31T09:13:00.003-04:00

One reason I took up photography was to get out of the house. Not the main reason, but a reason. For the last 3 years, I've worked remotely for a company in California, attending to the care and feeding of some of their computer systems. This tends to be a somewhat solitary activity, broken by the occasional phone call or instant message.

For that reason, I attend a lot of photography related events in the area, or just getting together with someone to go out and photograph. Not only do I get some good photos, but I get out to see people.

While I attend the meetings of the local photography clubs, I've found that the internet is a big help in finding these opportunities. From meetup groups on meetup.com to flickr to facebook, I've been able to find people to go out with, events to photograph and friends to make.

I started with Flickr, first by just uploading photos. But then I decided to attend a local photowalk. Now I go on several a year, and they are always enjoyable. When I went to San Jose last month, I looked for opportunities available when I was there, and that led me to meetup.com. Nothing unfortunately was scheduled the weeks I was there, but I did get ideas. When I got home, I noticed a Facebook friend of mine was attending a local group I hadn't heard of that gets together every now and then on Sunday afternoon to photograph. Since it was an open group invite, I tagged along. I met some new people and got back in touch with some other folks I haven't seen in a while.

The local camera clubs have photowalks and workshops I attend and sometimes run. Also I belong to a couple of internet only photogroups, that while international have people get together.

Being out with others is not only a great way to make friends, but it is a great opportunity to learn something as well as get good photographs. If your not actively looking for these sort of invitations, you are missing out on a lot of good times.

The Creativity Book

2010-03-28T08:57:00.005-04:00

As I've stated before, I'm a big fan of books. Mostly fiction, but also photography, and science. I also go through periods where I get into themes. Since I'm a procrastinator, every once in a while, I'll go crazy for organization books, like David Allens, "Getting Things Done".

Lately I've been on a creativity kick, partly inspired by Paul Lester's blog, partly because I always think I'm not creative enough. Browsing through the local bookstore, I came across Eric Maisel's, "The Creativity Book: a year's worth of inspiration and guidance". Leafing through it, I liked what I saw. Ten months of reading and exercises, with a two month creative project after.

I bought it, and then went to San Jose for two weeks. While I took the book, I didn't devote much time to it, the procrastinator remember? Now that I'm back, I need to pick it up again. The first part of the book is getting to know yourself better. You start off by writing a 2500 word autobiography. It's difficult and I'm still not done. There are always things in everyones life that are hard to put down in writing and I am no exception. Considering myself somewhat of an introvert, I have a hard time writing about myself, even in a private setting.

You go from there to listing creative blocks and trying to get yourself in a habit of making some time for your creative self. I don't think I'll make it in the year timeframe, but I am committed to finishing the whole book. I'll try to remember to leave notes once in a while how I'm doing.

To help in the organizing side of my life, I recently started using "Evernote". This is what is considered a "cloud" application. I can make notes from any of the computers I use, or even my phone and they are automatically synced up and stored on Evernote's servers. The service is free so far for the amount of data I'm using, but I may move to the pay version for some of the features available and to get rid of the ads. The ads though are not obnoxious, so they really don't bother my.

One of the reasons I bring up Evernote is that I have created a notebook within the application just for this yearly project. That way I can work on it whenever I want, no matter what computer I have with me. As a back up for those few times I don't seem to be around a computer, I'll use a notebook, one I carry with me regularly anyway.

At the moment, I'm not sure if this book can really help me be more creative or if it is some kind of placebo for insecurity. Hopefully I'll find out.

Calla Lilly

2010-03-24T21:13:00.004-04:00

It kind of surprised me to see Calla Lilies growing on the hillsides. I knew they had to grow wild someplace, but I didn't think it would be in the U.S. Turns out, even though it is considered a native plant here in California, they originated in Africa. I would imagine they were transported here and like a lot of invasive species, they made the warm climate their home.

They are pretty though, and these were found near the Golden Gate in an area that's been replanted with native plants. I've seen several large patches of these as well as lots of smaller patches and individual plants in the area.

Coasting

2010-03-21T13:36:00.002-04:00

I been on the far left coast of the country for my real job. I have had a little bit of time to get out with the camera. The area around San Francisco is an amazing place for photos, from architecture to landscapes to people to historic buildings. I spent most of Saturday around the Golden Gate bridge and just north of it. Not even touching the surface of the possibilities. I need to spend a week or more in the area, with just a camera and a map.

The above photo was taken in Fort Point which used to guard the entrance to the bay of San Francisco. Now it stands underneath the Golden Gate bridge and is a state park.

A Quiet Time

2010-03-13T08:47:00.004-05:00

Things have quieted down a bit photographically for me the last couple of weeks. My real job has picked up a bit and will continue to do so for the next two weeks. It's spring here or at least feels like it, so spring cleaning is starting to rear its ugly head also. Photographically, I sort of feel like the lifeguard stand in the photo above, just waiting for something to happen.

I am making plans though. Worldwide Pinhole Day is April 25th this year and I really want to get out and photograph a lot. I'm planning on building either a 4x5 film pinhole or a 8x10 photo paper pinhole out of foamcore and get out that day. I've also been looking at Stephen Schaub's handheld pinhole photos and I'm wondering how he did it. I may have to try it. I do like the soft dreamy, almost impressionistic look to his stuff. I'm also fascinated by the handmade Japanese paper he's printing on. I need to look at whether he's making it or buying it.

The annual local Festival of the Arts is coming up the first of June. I want to enter the arts competition again this year and I need to get in gear and pick out what I want to enter. Usually I wait too long and I'm scurrying around trying to get ready. I want to be a little more organized this year.

Of course there are other things in the works. Projects and plans I want to do. Hopefully a good portion of them will work, but I would rather have ideas I can't do, than no ideas at all.

The photo above was taken the first weekend in March at the beach in Michigan City, Indiana. I kind of wish I would have gone landscape mode with a wide angle to emphasize the feeling I was getting. Maybe next time.

Links

2010-03-09T08:09:00.004-05:00

I haven't done a links post in a while, and they are piling up.

The Oscar for best short film went to "Logorama". If you haven't seen it yet, it's a hoot as well as a commentary on advertising. See it soon before it disappears to appear someplace else. Warning it's got profanity, violence and even worse logos....

Some amazing photos of wildlife drinking out of a watering hole in Africa. While they are amazing, I would think the photographer could have done something so he didn't come down with all these weird diseases while immersing himself in the water.

Worldwide Pinhole Day is April 25th. Pinhole cameras are easy to build and use. Try one out, you'll like it.

SoFoBoMo 2010 has been announced. SoFoBoMo being the Solo Photo Book Month. Shoot a project and produce a pdf book in a 30 day period. Being held in June and July of this year, the rules have not changed.

Cheap ultralight light stands made out of tent poles and rope. There is an earlier video that shows them being used.

A free monitor calibration tool. It's cheap, but a hardware device will do a much better job.

The dangers of trying to do Wedding photography with cheap equipment and a snide attitude. As a side note, why do people go on these shows?

A type of pinhole photography, long exposure solargraphy.

A DIY Bounce Card out of cardboard.

Stages of a Photographer

2010-03-07T09:19:00.003-05:00

Now for something a little lighter. Posted on Facebook by a photographer friend of mine, Brian Gudas, I thought this was cute. I never got stuck in the "HDR Hole", but I seem to be stuck in the "Damnit, I Suck" plateau.

Seen at "Enticing the Light", the original artist seems to be unknown.

I hope you are having a good day.

Photography is still not a crime.

2010-03-05T08:03:00.004-05:00

It's time once again for my semi-annual rant about photographers being hassled and jailed for doing an activity that is legal and safe. While I haven't had any run ins with the police, I have had some run ins with security guards this past six months or so. Luckily none of them have escalated into anything more than a polite discussion.

I have seen news stories lately that the father of a young boy was arrested as a pedophile for taking photos of his son in a busy mall. Other stories about photographers being detained for photographing in big cities because of terrorism fears. Usually the photographer is let go after a short stay in a jail cell, and if they decide to persue the case in court, they tend to get compensation from the municipality. Not always, but it happens. The trouble is, it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Paul Butzi believes he has an answer. In this post, entitled "No more running", he said he's sick of it and he's not going to take it anymore. He thinks that the next time someone gets arrested or run off of a sidewalk for doing legal photography, the photography society should make an example of them. Follow the accuser, photograph them every chance they get, and basically ruin their lives. He thinks that if you do this one or two times, the image that it's legal and easy to chase photographers around will change.

I'm really surprised that there are only two comments on the original post and that there hasn't been any discussion about it on any of the other blogs that normally follow him. My take on it is: while I'm not a fan of ruining someones life, if I or a friend of mine was arrested for doing legal photography, I would help make the complainer very uncomfortable. I would hope I wouldn't be alone.

The above photo came across my rss feed from BoingBoing, I believe. Originally published on the Coyote Blog, who made the poster. The original photo is not really credited. If anyone knows who the original photographer is, I would be glad to credit them.

The Photography is not a crime web site.

Catching Up. Well at least trying to...

2010-02-25T08:09:00.004-05:00

I'm still trying to catch up on my film developing and scanning. I'm beginning to think I'll always be behind. This is an image from a local orchard taken during the fall. I was with the local Flickr group, the first time out with the Mamiya. I'm still debating on whether I like this photo or not. I may have to print it and hang it on the wall for a while. Someplace where I see it every day.

Opinions, as usual, are more than welcome.

The Florence Hotel

2010-02-22T07:54:00.003-05:00

Saturday, I tagged along with the rest of the Midwest Large Format Asylum to the Florence Hotel in what once was Pullman Illinois. Pullman was built between 1880 and 1884 as a factory town by the "Pullman's Palace Car Company." A company town conceived by George Pullman, the factory and 1000 homes were built during those 4 years. Built 13 miles south of what was then Chicago, he planned a model community to attract skilled workers and avoid strikes.

The hotel opened in November of 1881 to hold visitors to his showcase town and was named for his daughter. Nearly torn down, it was saved in 1975 and is still undergoing renovation by the Historic Pullman Foundation and the state.

We had access to the whole building. The first floor is somewhat of a museum, while the second floor holds some offices. What was George Pullmans suite for when he came to town, is now an office also. I kind of hoped it would have been restored to period styling, but no chance. I spent most of my time on the third and fourth floors. These floors haven't been restored fully yet. The windows have been replaced and most of the trash cleaned up, but the hallways and rooms are still mostly in a state of disrepair. These floors were for the less luminous lights of society, since they were farther away from the lobby. The rooms tended to be smaller, and the light tricky and very contrasty. I also found a set of smaller rooms that appeared to be for the help. Low ceilings, only one window facing a brick wall along with a very narrow stairs to get to the rooms.

I went through a lot of film, and only pulled out the digital camera towards the end of the time we spent there. The photograph above was an afterthought as I was just getting into my car to leave. There is much more that I missed in the hotel, and the company administrative building is still standing as well as portions of a burned out factory. Hopefully I can make it back with the camera.

Splash

2010-02-19T08:32:00.004-05:00

The annual Sweetheart Splash, put on by the Rotary Club of Rockford was held this past Saturday. While it was a relatively nice day for February in Michigan, it was still a mite chilly.

Luckily it wasn't cold enough to deter some brave souls from jumping into the river downtown at the dam, while plenty of others watched.

The Rotary Club uses this event every year to raise money for a local charity. They were also collecting donations of new and "gently used" blankets from the crowd.

The crowd looked a little bigger this year to me than last. As usual, there was a marriage proposal, and a fund raising event to get the celebrity MC to dive in. It was a fun event and the participants seemed to enjoy it, even though there were a couple of shocked looks on faces once they actually got in the water.

Gordon Wiltsie

2010-02-14T20:14:00.002-05:00

Gordon Wiltsie, a mountaineer and photographer, whose work has been featured in National Geographic and Outside was in town Saturday. He gave a talk about his career at Aquinas College to raise funds for OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute).

Having been to hear other photographers speak, and not getting big crowds, I was surprised when I got there and was told it was sold out. I was put on a waiting list, and did manage to get in. The auditorium was full, probably over 500 people attending, if not more. While he stumbled a few times, his speech was mesmerizing, and his images even more so. He ran over the time allotted for him, and that cut into the question period. He did have signed books available, which he would personalize. I picked one up and mentioned to him that I appreciated his talk.

His web site is at http://alpenimage.com.

Wondering

2010-02-13T08:21:00.003-05:00

After my post about wondering how someone could walk away from a house, my friend and fellow abandoned house photographer Mike, sent me this post from NPR's "This American Life". It's a story about someone else wondering the same thing and the years long quest he went on to find out. He had a lot more clues than I've seen in the places I've been in, and as I suspected, it's usually a pretty mundane reason. An interesting piece to listen too nonetheless.

Spam, Spam, Spam and more Spam

2010-02-10T08:33:00.002-05:00

I've had to turn comment moderation back on. I got spammed last night on over 20 posts, in what looks like Chinese. The only English word in it was "sex". I'll be a while cleaning things up. Sorry for the trouble.

Out

2010-02-07T10:50:00.003-05:00

Mike and I made it out with the cameras Saturday. The plan was to hit the Allegan area to photograph. I knew of an old power turbine by the river, right near the downtown dam and old steel framed bridge. We wandered near that area for a bit and then hit the fairgrounds. There were some old city buildings that had been moved onto the fairgrounds as well as all the animal pens and buildings for the annual fair. We got a few photos apiece, but I was mainly interested in what the grounds looked like. I'm planning my annual Solo Photo Book Month Project (sofobomo) around the fair grounds of West Michigan. Since the project doesn't actually start until June this year, I have plenty of time to plan.

We wandered through a few of the smaller towns on our way home, and came across this abandoned house. Broken windows, the doors open to the winds and snow. We stopped of course. While I was inside photographing, I started thinking of the people who used to live there. Whether they ever expected their house to look like this when they first moved in. The upstairs had an interesting wallpaper, and one of the bedrooms was painted a bright blue. I admit I like photographing urban decay, but I wonder what it takes for someone to walk away from a place like this.

The Mamiya 645 and Winter

2010-02-04T08:04:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm still using the Mamiya 645 film camera, and I'm still behind on film processing. Some things never change. One issue I'm facing with using the camera in the cold is a problem with the film advancing. Once the film cools down below freezing, the camera doesn't want to advance the film. Luckily the frame counter doesn't advance as well, so if I pay attention, I can catch it. I thought at first it might have been a weak battery in the power winder, but alas, that was not the case. I've seen the problem using just the hand winder as well. I have missed some photos before I figured out what was going on. I'm going to have to figure out how to keep the film back warmer when I take it out in the cold.

I'm still in love with the camera, and the photos I get from it. The above photo was taken at a local park of some upside down picnic tables. I'm still developing my film at a local darkroom I rent time at, but that is coming to an end. I received an email last week with the museums weekly event listing. Stuck on one of the announcements at the end was a small notice that the darkroom would be closed in July. It gives me more of an incentive to start developing my film at home and to set up the enlarger I have in the basement and make actual silver prints. While my negative scanning has improved, and I'm relatively happy with my inkjet prints, I miss the darkroom and the look of an actual print.

Baby, It's cold outside!

2010-01-31T09:29:00.003-05:00

Ron called early Friday evening and wondered if I wanted to go to the South Haven Lighthouse to catch the Moonset/Sunrise. Of course I said yes. Meeting early for coffee before the almost hour drive, we pulled into the lighthouse just as the moon was disappearing behind some clouds. So much for that idea. Because we had a warm snap earlier in the month, I wasn't sure about how much ice would be on the lighthouse. There was enough, as well as no trace of the warm snap. It was in the low single digits, and while I was pretty comfortable in what I was dressed in, I really needed a scarf or face mask. We took photos for a hour and a half or so, and retreated to a local bakery to warm up.

The cold must have affected our brains, because we decided we weren't done. After warming up a bit, we headed back to the north side of the channel to see what things looked like. I was entranced by the shadows of the snow fences, as well as the patterns frozen in the sand. Ron decided to head out on the pier.

It was slippery and he fell and jammed his camera into the ice. While he was ok, his camera wasn't. That's him scoping out the scene with a broken camera. Once I joined him, he explained what had happened, since I didn't see it. The camera would turn on, but complained that the lens needed to be reset. The lens mount was jammed and we weren't able to get it off, much less replace it. I took a few photos, and we decided it was time to call it a day.

Model Shoot

2010-01-29T08:18:00.002-05:00

The Grand Rapids Camera Club in conjunction with the River City Camera Club had a portrait workshop this week. A total of 6 setups and 7 models, with a couple members filling in also, it was well attended. The downside with the attendance was that the photographers only got a few minutes to work with a model before they had to let someone else in.

I primarily helped set up and tear down, and work one of the modeling setups in case anyone needed help. I did get a few minutes to photograph, and spent some time with the lone male model. I wanted some pretty dramatic lighting to emphasize the muscles in his back, and I think I succeeded.

I also thought it was somewhat sexist to expect the male model to take off his shirt, though the female photographers seemed to like it.....