236 Flea Market Boutique

Went to church today near the flea market, so I stopped in for another session. In this case the colors overwhelmed the image.

Flea Market Boutique

235: Color Matters Here

I was talking to a fellow photographer about the virtues of B/W images. We agreed that many images we see might be better in B/W but we agreed sometimes Color Matters.

Color Matters Here

Taken at a local flea Market... And so it is documenting the human condition...

234: A Sea of Purple

In a Sea of Purple

233: Is Spring Comming

After a hard winter (at least for me) the days at the first of this week were a treat and then cool again. Maybe Spring will get here sometime soon.

A sign of Spring in the winter.

Tribute: this image is sort of a tribute to a friend of mine who has an obsession for photographing orange circles, especially parts of them in the lower left corner. Well this ain't yellow. It ain't perfect circle. It ain't just part of the bright color. But, it is the best I could do in a pinch.

232: YEP!! That is what it is Alright

It Sure is One,
Isn't It

231: Sunset Unobstructed

Sunset Unobstructed

I know it needs something in the foreground to set it off, but is was beautiful all by itself. If this image was only half a nice as the real thing.

230: The Watchers

The Watchers

As I set here meditating, it occurs to me that most of us spend far to much time watching others, rather than watching ourselves. Should we not spend more time adhering to the old expression:

" I am my own worst critic."

229: Closer Than They Appear

A couple of post a go I mentioned folk music and that folk music often addressed issues of the day. Today while waiting to give a friend a ride. While setting there I was thanking of the burdensome escalating expense of getting my truck inspected and registered. I glanced in the mirror and the reflected ATM sign gave me a folk music flash back.

M.T.A. Closer Than It Appears.

M.T.A. was a protest song about true incident; a proposed subway fair increase in Boston Mass. Here is the Kingston Trio's protest. It is one of the classics from the 60's folk era. Listen to the words!!

228: Freedom of Flight

The Freedom of Flight

227: Doll in a Basket

Where Have The Little Girls Gone?

226: By the Fence Post

By the Fence Post

Note: This is just the way it was, nothing set up or arranged.

225: An Old Home

Warning - An Old Home

224: The Subversive Diaries ---- The Osama-Ben-Elmo Story

Depot at Night

If you are wondering about the title of this post, It refers to the dark history of the pursuit of this image. The story starts back in 2007 when I first tried this shot. It was a dismal failure. In 2008 I gave it another try, this time it was better. It biggest failure, that time, was the roof was totally black and I felt it needed some texture. The only way to get texture was to shoot it during full moon.

Several weeks later I was downtown and heard a train coming. I thought it might be neat to have a train going by. I sat everything up and started doing some exposure experiments. What I did not know is someone must have mistaken the tripod for a rifle and called 911 and reported a sniper on the bridge. To make a long story short a few minutes later I suddenly found myself surrounded by the entire local Special Response Unit; Snipers and all, not to mentioned blocking off all traffic within several blocks.

After that several of my "Friends" started calling me Osama-Ben-Elmo.

I decided tonight was a time to try it again as it continues the story line in progress. I did notify the police first and thing went without incident.

And now you know the rest of the story

223: The Stairway of Learning

The Stairway of Learning

222: The Subversive Diaries – Distorted Perspective

Distorted Perspective

After completing my last post I sat back to listen to some music from my past. The music was folk music of the early sixties. Folk music of that era was a bit spoken based on the performer’s view of the distorted perspectives of the time. As I listened I was reminded of the first time I was accused by government officials of being an active anti American intelligence agent.

Let me set the stage, it is the early sixties. We are in the midst of the Cold War. The Russians are putting missiles in Cuba (Cuban Missile Chris). The John Birch Society was recently organized (1958) and extremism runs rampant. Me, I am in college and the Hippie era is in it birth pains, so college kids were under great scrutiny.

As a diversion, I was spending some time listening to foreign broadcast. If you made detailed notes on a specific broadcast and sent that information to the broadcaster they would generally return a card to confirm your hearing the station. Collecting these cards demonstrated your expertise and the reports helped the broadcaster see how well his signal was heard in various areas.

One day as I was leaving class I stopped by the campus post office to pick up my mail. When I opened by post office box, I was confronted by two FBI agents. It seems Radio Moscow had returned a nice listeners package in addition to a normal conformation card. The G-men wanted to know what was in the package I got from Moscow. When they learned it had to do with radio, they wanted to search my room for a “spy” transmitter. No transmitter was found. Times have changed, back then all the shows involved “spy” radios, now it is photography. But, the distorted perspective has not changed.

The song that brought this to mind was “The John Burch Society” by the Chad Mitchell Trio. As in insight: WCTU -> Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.



And so it is Documenting the Human Condition.

221: Terrorist Target

Let me clarify something, I take terrorism and terrorist very seriously. I do however think that in many cases we loose sight of reality. I think photography is one of those areas. On NCIS every time Special Agent Gibbs raids a terrorist hideout the walls are covered with pictures of the intended target. This suggests photographers are terrorist. Is it possible we need to regulate cameras (including Cell Phones) as we do guns? Then only the bad guys will have cameras and cell phones.

As a satirical look at the situation, Let me show you the last image I shot before I got my recent cease and desist order (see post 219) based on the possibly of terrorist reconnaissance.

Terrorist Target?

Homeless Update Again.

10 of ?

This evening Samantha said she was going to grill stakes for supper. I declined because I was going to meet with the homeless folks, at the church, where they generally eat dinner on Monday evenings. I cannot believe I turned down charcoal broilled stake for spaghetti, but it was worth it. One of the guys whom I had not seen since the eviction was there and we had a great talk, he has found a camp site and has gotten his dog (Maggie: post 23) back. I was wonderful to see them after nearly a month.

But saving the best for last John, the subject of post 196, has found a job and now has his own apartment. Way to go Big John (Big in spirit, little in statue)!!

Spaghetti, the fellowship and all the great news was better than a stake.

220:Cliche Building

Building in Cliche

Sometimes one is inclined to place his tripod legs in the exact spots used by millions of other photographers.

Note: it is not exactly level but making it level make it look more out of level. I am not sure why, but it may have something to do with the various element in the image. And the perspective of a Ultra Wide Angle Lens.

219 Pano -- OOPS!!

Went back to the hospital campus again today. I decided to shoot a different view of the Endless Hallway (Post 209). The following for instructional purposes for others.

OOPS Hallway

First one needs to understand the layout of the hall. From about the position of the black car the hallway travels to the right in a straight line. From the black car traveling left it is a quarter of a circle. The intended image was to reflect the hallway being The same height to the left of the car and trail off sharply to the right. Boy did I goof.

First I was on a correct line (perpendicular to the circle) But a car was in the way so I could not get to the center of the arc of the hall, putting me at different distances from the various sections of the curved hallway. Then to reduce the number of exposures I used a very wide angle lens. This lens made the hallway on the far left seem to fall away due to the perspective of the wide angle lens (this focal length did have the desires result on the straight section to the left.)

The sad part is, this image may never get done correctly done due to a cease and desist order by hospital security. It is possible that I might get approval to shoot some more but it is going to require a lot of paper work. The bright side is I have been confronted by the police only twice this month for taking pictures.

So what is a photographer to photograph without being confronted by the police.

And so it goes -- Documenting The Human Condition

signed
OSAMA-BEN-ELMO

218: Stones and Spire

Up to now I have dwelt on the gloomy side of my trip last weekend to visit the dad of a friend of mine who was in the hospital. This has done an injustice to the hospital complex. It has some very pleasing sights on the campus.

Stones and Spire

Besides my little buddy is heading down their this weekend camera in hand, so I best show some pleasant stuff before he snookers me.

217: Work - Old Fashioned

WORK

216: Big Door, Little Stair

Big Door, Little Stair

215: Leaf-N-Paint

Ever have one of those images that you want to be something and it ain't?

Leaf-N-Paint

214: Door and Columns

Regressing to last Sundays photo shoot. In case you have not noticed I tend to be drawn to old run down stuff. I wonder if that is some internal reflection of myself?

Door and Columns

213 : Figure Study -- A Gull

This supposed to be take and post a picture each day,and yes I have been very slack. This morning I made an attempt at stepping out of my comfort zone. I went to a location containing subject matter I was comfortable with but with a lens I seldom if ever use. Disaster, I had forgotten the lenses peculiarities. Later this afternoon I was back to my comfort zone and things got better.

A GULL
A full length Figure Study.

And what did the gull have say during this shot? "Man you are ugly. Let me look at you from a different angle to see if it is any better. NOPE, NO IMPROVEMENT."

212: The Balcony

The Balcony

DISCLAIMERS::My comments and images might be seen, by some, as a little derogatory. This is not my intent.

The Revenuers I encountered there have been extremely professional, friendly and helpful. The did their job by conferring with me as I would have expected. One needs to keep in mind I am a Texican and Texicans seem to have a tendency to state the facts in a manner which enhances the story line.

The images I am showing are from an area on the campus far removed from the hospital. My images are for artistic purposes and are to say nothing about the condition of the location. From my understanding these building are listed on the historic register, therefore they cannot be removed. Considering their apparent age I suspect they contain asbestos which would complicate their removal. The Asbestos, if present, would greatly increase the cost of remodeling, which is currently being undertaken as funds are available. The old pealing paint ( lead based, I suspect ) poses another expensive hazardous waste removal expense. It is a shame to see such architectural masterpieces become downtrodden but such is today's society.

And such it is "Documenting The Human Condition."

211: Old Dormer

Well guess what? The revenuers showed back up. I explained I was not taking pictures of the inside of the building, I was metering the window so I would have an accurate exposure of the dormer above me. It worked! My grandpa always told me; "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS."

Tho Old Dormer

210: Abandoned

Well a hallway is a hallway and besides the revenuers showed up. (A revenuer is defined as a law-person who interferes with your fun and/or profit.) I was told it was not permissible to take pictures while inside the building. So being one who obeys the letter of the law, I quit taking pictures while inside the building. I changed my position and started taking pictures of the inside of the building through the windows.

Abandoned

209: Hallways

Good Images? Come on man!

You carried me to a hospital what is their to shoot at a hospital. There is little there except endless cluttered hallways.

Endless Hallway

208: A Squirrel

It seems my little buddy is trying to, without cause, attack me. Let me ask one question considering the subject, who would spend any effort to get a "well done" image of that. Therefore, I feel compelled to show you a quick snapshot I did of the squirrel in his natural surroundings and light.

A squirrel

207: Attitudes

Well today was a wonderful day. I Got up early and went with a friend of mine to visit his father, who was in the hospital about a 100 miles away. The weather turned out beautiful, warm and sunlight was bright but not too harsh. After visiting for a little while, I decided to take a walk to let them have some time alone. Having my camera and in a new location I thought some images might be in order. I must admit I got some rather nice images I hope to share as time goes on but the guy who I rode with insisted DRAMATICALLY about showing the squirrels. In tribute to his attitude and to comply with his wishes here's the squirrel:

A Winning Attitude

206: Sneak-A-Peak

OK! Everybody is tired of looking at the duck. The weather is terrible so a summer flash seems ok.

Sneak-A-Peak

Homeless Update

9 of ?

I had the opportunity to join many of the local homeless for dinner last evening. It was nice to see some of the guys although some faces were missing. This was due partially to relocations some are now too far from the location to avail themselves fo the hot balanced meal. Some feel they had better stay out of sight.

I did reveive some bad news, one of the privated shelters is being required to turn some of its occupants into the street to comply with the fire code occupancy rules . I am sad to here this but at least the Fire Department was truthful in there reason, unlike the recent actions of the police department.

On the bright side an anonymous donor has paid for an additional week at the location where a couple of the evicted guys are staying. Thanks Mr. Anonymous.

And so is life in Dodge City.