41: Architectural Detail -- Old Style

Saturday, up before dawn, thinking sun rise photography. Packed my gear, headed to the truck, clouds, complete cloud cover, no sunrise today. A short while later I noticed the lighting was bright but no shadows, what we used to call cloudy-bright. Remembering my youth, downtown was always hopping on Saturday morning. The cloud cover was keeping the temperature down. This was going to be a great day shooting street. I got downtown and nothing, not a soul in sight. What happened to everyone going to town on Saturday? I decided to go ahead and take my walk while it was cool and I was there, then I noticed it.

The Blacksmith made Hitching Ring in the Alley

It brought back memories of my childhood, we had a hitching post on our property line right by the street. Well all I can say is, if the good old days ever come back, we are ready with a place down town to tie your horse. As a side note I wanted to show it and the door it served but someway used good engineering practice. The hitching ring was located far enough down the wall so the horse’s pa-toot did not block the door.

40: Architectural Detail -- Artist Window

The Artist Window

Our town is full of old style architectural detail. However much has been lost to modernization. I feel it is important to document these things for the future

39: Photojournalism -- Planning Ahead

Discussing Family Matters

Not much to say this evening. I was out to photograph an event that did not event. As late as it was this was a quick grab before things went dark. It is an old photojournalism rule Get something you can use first thing. Then look for the good stuff. Well I broke a good rule and nearly suffered from it.

38: Landscape -- Structures

Late today a friend called to remind me to watch “Postcards from Nebraska” on TV. When it was over I headed out to shoot an image I had envisioned for today. On the way I got to thinking about one segment of the TV show. The segment dealt with structures that symbolize the area. In Nebraska it was grain silos. The question came to mind what structure represents this area?

Chicken /Turkey Houses In A Corn Field

37: Environmental Portrait

Sometimes the line between photographic types is vague, at best. When I shot this it was Street Photography but as I learned more it became an Environmental Portrait. An Environmental Portrait is generally defined as a portrait of someone in his common environment. As I talked to this gentleman I began to realize this was truly an expression of his work. Meet Howard.

Mr. Howard

Howard works at an old fashion hardware/farm supply store. I am not sure how long he has been working for this establishment, but I suspect for many years. Howard seems to know where all the old skeletons are hidden around town and loves to tell about them. How long has it been since you have been in a store where people really talk, it happens here and not just Howard.

But what makes this an Environmental Portrait? (I wish I was good enough photographer to make the image tell the whole story.) Well first this image was made several hours after the store closed. It appears Howard walks home after work (My guess is he lives about a mile from work). Eats supper (dinner to fancy folk) then walked back to water the plants after things have cooled off. This is to avoid scorching the plants. A few minutes after I made the image I saw Howard walking toward home. This image depicts a man that is devoted to the job he is doing and therefore a true Environmental Portrait and a truly great individual.

36: Street Photography -- No People

Most street photography contains people in it's effort to Document the Human Condition. I have on rare occasions found the inclusion of people is not required for such documentation.

Table on Main Street in Late Evening

Living in a small rural type community, I find things more like when I was young and not everything has to be locked up. I wonder how long this setting would remain in a big city. I suspect it would either be stolen or at least defaced.

35: Candid Photography

Have you ever heard the expression: “open mouth, insert foot?” Well that is today’s image. I snapped this and gave a veil threat to use it here on the blog. As it turns out something came up and “That’s all I got.” It, however, does serve a place in my tale. As I have said I have little luck photographing people head on. I find I get stuff I like a whole lot better when the subject is unaware. My normal procedure is when I am noticed I move on to something else, today I did not. Even though the subject was uncooperative I kept trying.



I now wonder if the use of the Charmin add was her attempt at telling me something more specific.

34: The Very Beginning -- Silhouette

In the beginning I did not have a photograph to show what really turned me on to photography, years ago. It all started on day when I walked into general science class. All the shades were drawn down to about a foot from the bottom of the windows. Shortly after class started Dr. Killiam gave everyone in the class a piece of paper. The instructions were to take the paper to the window, place it on the window sill shinny side up in the sun light. Then place on hand on the paper for 1 minute. After which we took the paper and put it in a tray of some type of fluid. When the silhouette of my hand appeared I was hooked for life.

The Anchor for Every Storm

33: Laying Down On The Job

Not really he is adapting. Note the brace on his leg. These recumbent style bikes are really nice for people with leg and ankle problems. As I have leg and ankle troubles I want one. No I don't I want a recumbent tricycle to minimize the chance of my wide posterior from contacting the road.

I have a birthday coming and the one I have picked out is ONLY $5000.

32: Street Photography - The Spectator

The Spectator

31: Nature -- Wildlife(tame)

And the duck said’ “There is a turkey on the bank, go get your camera.”



The Garbage seen in the water is not noise it is aquatic plants right under the surface.

30: Perspective

Yesterday I did a close up or at least I said it was a close up. It could have been a giant bug, without something to judge size it is a toss-up. Enter perspective. In photography we can easily fool our audience with perspective. I doubt this fools anyone but look at the mountains.



The mountains are actually a CUT-SUE patch down the street from my house. But someone might try to pass it off as an abstract of a mountain view.

29: Closeups -- Prayer Time

After missing yesterday due to a slight immobility issue, I was also wondering about my mobility today. But, as I opened the door to let the puppies in early this morning, I noticed a good image. By the time I doodled around and got the camera ready the light was gone. I was not all that worried as most on my images have popped up in the late afternoon. Then I noticed this little one.

Prayer Time
Thanks for our daily bread, a suitable place to live, and all other blessings of the day.
No matter what position you are in.

In the early days close ups were difficult to say the least. Now days they are still trouble but much easier than in the past. I suspect you will see more close-ups as it is my second favorite type of photography and suitable subjects are easier to find than “street”.

Note: Macro photography is technically an image where the image on the sensor is the same size as the subject. This is not therefore it is technically a closeup, although the displayed image is about life size

28: Street photography -- Being invisible

First, this was not taken today. It is part of the street series I did July 4, at the parade. In previous street photography comments I made reference to the photographer being the invisible man. This image shows what happens when the photographer is too visible. In this situation the young lady noticed the photographer taking her picture and she goes into her “modeling routine”. As for me I am the invisible man and get the image which depicts the human condition. A lovely lady struts her stuff for the photographer.

The Camera Strut

27: Photographic Vision -- Status report

“All men and equipment are in the clear. You may proceed, through my work authority, at the maximum speed permitted for your train. This is what you would have heard on the railroad radio a short time before the train passed the signalman. This is sort of how I feel about this project. When I first started the project I struggled to find an image each day. After nearly a month I am starting to see images all around me. As today, I went out to shoot an image and the lighting was really bad. As I was leaving I noticed the signalman and approaching train.



My trouble is the implementation of the capture. In this case I have two very bad mistakes. First, is I should have used a much slower shutter speed to show the train speeding by. The second is I think I needed to shoot wider and included more of the signalman’s truck. After I get a better hold of implementation, I will venture back into photoshop. All images so far were shot RAW converted using Canon’s DPP then cropped, resized and sharpened.

26: Living Alone -- For men only

After living alone for several years, I have come to realize how many things we do just to please our partners. But the secret is we do not live alone. We have a constant companion who makes far more reaching demands on us in the way we live and act. The question is, do we put forth nearly as much effort to meet these demands as we do/did for our earthly partner.

Convince

Credits: Thanks to Becky Justice (a preacher’s wife) for the photo inspiration.

25: Photojournalism -- Sports

I was struggling for image today, nothing seemed to pop out. Sambo said if I wanted supper I best go get myself something. On the way I noticed the local kids playing soccer. And I thought photojournalism - Sports. I got to thinking when I took sports pictures in high school as the unofficial annual staff photographer, and the thought struck me I could have been in France this month on a lavish expense account photographing The Tour de France, had I only pursued Sports photography. This does not even take into consideration all the high priced equipment I would have. I went and found a bicycle racer to photograph and it made me so mad at myself, I went back and photographed the kids and their soccer game.

24: Pictoral Photography

Continuing the tale, my portrait endeavors were not very successful. My biggest issue was giving posing directions. If I had a candid type of portrait I did fairly well, but to be blunt I did not like taking portraits. I found myself leaning toward landscape type photography, but when you live in flat lands covered by towering pine trees there is not much landscape to photograph. So I went toward mini-landscapes or as it was called back then, pictorial photography.

The Path

This image tells a story to those who know. This years old, well worn path leads to the railroad tracks (the bright area in background). Following the path to the other side of the tracks leads one to one of the homeless camps in our area. In this case the camp where Maggie lives.

23: Portrait or Snapshot

A couple of days back, when I was talking about the homeless guys, I mentioned Maggie had returned after a short absence. This prompted some questions as to “Who is Maggie?” Well meet Maggie May.



It seems that one day last week Maggie decided to take her provider (one of the Homeless Guys) out for a walk. She thought her provider was well trained and would behave so she did not put a lease on her provider. Well she was spotted by the police and was promptly carted off to jail, for violating the leash law. She was incarcerated for a couple of days. As a precaution she was given a physical, tortured with shots, and other indignities. As a condition of her release she is required to take regular monthly treatments. These treatments were supplied in advance by the puppy jail.

As you can see Maggie is a happy camper now he is back home in the “jungle”. She was so glad when she saw me today she let out a yelp and treated me to two big muddy paw prints on my shirt.

22: Reflections on Summer Storm

About mid afternoon today a summer storm blew in. It was sort of bad at first but settled in to a slow drizzle with an occasional shower. It cooled off from the rain and was real pleasant sitting in the swing on the front porch. I got to remembering days long ago when a day like today was my dream, puddles to play in and streams in the ditches beside the road for boat races. As the song said: “those were the day my friend, I thought they would never end.”

Not having a picture for the day, I thought – Kids playing in puddles. After an hour of looking, no kids playing in puddles were to be found. Thin I noticed a scene similar to this and realized why no kids were playing in puddles.



All a little one hears now days when he tries to wade through a small puddle at the grocery store is “STOP.” We as parents train our kids from the earliest age that anything that is fun is bad. Then when they get out of our sight they tend to try the fun things, but by that age and peer pressure, they do things that are really bad, not just things that are inconveniences for parents, like wading in a puddle

21: Studio Photography

Well before I chased that last rabbit, I said I cut way back on my photography when I got married. I must state it was my idea, not others, actually my new bride encouraged me to continue. Well it was not long before the family size doubled with the addition of two lovely daughters. When I saw what others were charging for kid’s pictures, I decided to get back into photography, specifically portraits.

Happy Birthday to my number two daughter, Carolyn.
What better image to use on her birthday.

Disclaimer: This is not a new image but it is a copy, made today, of an old image.

20: Street Photography -- The Less Fortunate

Back on Image 3 I introduced one of my pet peeves about modern so call street photography, today I hit the other, the less fortunate. Most people who shoot street have images of the homeless, shown in some less than desirable situation. These types of photographs have become some of the most recognizable images from true street photography, such as Dorothea Lange’s
Migrant Mother. The difference is Ms Lange took the time to learn about the subject and the surroundings. Most modern photographers snap off an exposure and think how lucky I am and how unlucky the subject is, and go on. If we take the picture we need to know the story. And the desired results from the image.



Meet Buggy. I met Buggy several months ago as I was making inroads into the homeless community, as was my Christian duty. It would be unfair of me to diagnose any issues concerning Buggy, but in my opinion it would be impossible for him to hold a job, yet his personality precludes him being institutionalized. Buggy is one of many unfortunate individuals who have fallen through the cracks in our system.

The middle of May he was picked on an FTA (Failure to Appear) warrant, the original charge was an “open container”. He stayed in jail over thirty days awaiting trial. At the trial he was given 15 days as a sentence. He then served another 15 days, no credit for time served, and got out yesterday. Also yesterday Maggie another member of the homeless community had been missing several days, returned to the camp. It was time for celebration and Buggy celebrated a little too much. The image above is Buggy early this morning. I checked late this afternoon and with a little of the hair of the dog that bit him, he is feeling much better.

19: College and the Facts of Life

Before I got interrupted by the train wreck, I sort of left the impression I was sort of a dummy, t’ain’t so. My trouble in high school nothing interested me or challenged me academically. Somehow I managed to get accepted to a collage where I met Dr. Kelly, a real math guy, he showed me how math worked and fell in love with math. Other things started falling in place like physics and parts of chemistry as they relate to math. But I still had troubles with the arts (language, history and fine arts). Years later I learned why I needed them to support my math fetish. Anyway I finally graduated and was Sigma Cum Laude (thank goodness transfers seem to lose bad grades). During my early college years I started paying attention to the opposite sex.



Considering going to college, working full time to support me and my lovely wife, photography time got real scarce. As I felt my photo skills and equipment was too sophisticated to take snapshots, I missed most of the most important photographic opportunities of my life time, family snapshots.

18: Photojournalism - Where you find it

Thursdays are always a hectic day for me. A group of us get together around my dining table for Bible study every Thursday at 12 noon. This means all the house cleaning I have put off all week needs to be done before they arrive, and it never all gets done.

Today after Bible study was over I took a little nap, as I did not sleep well last night. I got up from my nap and was headed out the door to go for my walk at WalMart and to pick up an Item I needed for today’s photo, I got a call saying there had been a big train derailment west of town. As railroading is one of my favorite subjects it was westward-ho-the-wagon.



The authorities were keeping folks a ways away as if there was a lethal load on the train and all it was was corn, plain old whole kernel corn headed toward a feed mill. This was shot at 300mm then cropped half the image. Then to add confusion it was a hot hazy day. So you get this instead of what I had planned.

17: The Annual Staff Fiascio

Continuing the tale, I finally made it to High School. It is amazing how time creeps by when you are young and how it flies when you are old, sort of getting nowhere fast, but back to the tale. By this time I was an internationally known photojournalist (my opinion) it seemed that becoming an official annual staff photographer was a given. Someone once told me “that Man proposes and GOD disposes” seem there was a problem. The issue was to be on the annual staff one must maintain a certain GPA (Grade Point Average), OOPS. I seem to recall I graduated 295th academically out of a class of 296 or something around there. Well to make a long story short I became an unofficial photographer for the annual staff. This was not all that bad, as I had more interest in photography than in the opposite sex, so I got plenty of opportunities to shoot, especially after normal school hours. This began my first experience with a real PRESS CAMERA a 4x5 graphic and it was huge and heavy.

16: Photojournalism and Bicycles

Back on image 11 I mentioned the police delivered a message to me. One reason I was so easy to find was; first it was a small town, but more important I, like most kids of the day, was out and about on my bicycle. In those days we got out right after breakfast and came home in time for supper. Living in a small town, before the era of scanners and such, the only way you knew something was going on was to listen for the emergency vehicles, and the bicycle allowed you to hear and get there. I carried my camera in a Knapsack, purchased from the Army-Navy Surplus store, attached to the rear luggage rack of the bicycle. I played the part of photojournalist for several years mounted on my trusty Columbia bicycle.



Most of my photos except street shots are envisioned before the Image is captured. This one is no exception. I envisioned an old style bicycle with handlebars that looked like handle bars. Do you know how hard it is to find an old style bicycle; almost impossible. Seems like modern bicycles are like modern cameras, it is difficult to find a quality camera or bicycle without a bunch of seldom used bells and whistles.

15: Street Photography - More signs

Signs do interest me. Most have a purpose, but combined with their surroundings or other signs the often suggest a different meaning.



The thing that makes this pair of signs unique is that in many cases they are telling the truth. Far too many churches have forgotten their purpose of spreading the gospel. Many are merely closed groups that say they want new members but in reality they had just as soon stay as they are. It is time for repentance and following the Great Commission.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matt 28:19-20 NLT

14: Freedom and Fences

What did you expect Fireworks? But the question is what do fences have to do with freedom? They bring to mind the 17th century proverb made common by Robert Frost in his free verse “Mending Wall.” The proverb is; “Good Fences make good neighbors.” We need to realize there is no such thing as total freedom. Like a fence there are boundaries. One's freedom stops where someone else's freedom begins. Like fences if we ignore boundaries, it will lead to disagreements.

Mom, The FLag and Apple Pie

People say you cannot shoot street in a small town, wrong. This morning I really did not feel like it but I struck out for Waxhaw, NC, my purpose was to shoot street and street only at their Independence Day parade. Waxhaw is a small town consisting basically of two rows of stores about two blocks long. Between the stores is a railroad track with a street on each side of the tracks.
In years past I have had obligations when attending parades, this year I was there to photograph the people not the parade. One of the first things I noticed was the use of long glass or zooms set to telephoto by most folks. Me, I only carried a wide. The first thing I did was set the lens wide open to isolate subjects from backgrounds the best I could. After two hours of walking and snapping not one soul had given me any grief.

MOM, The Flag and Apple Pie

You cannot visually see the apple pie, but your mind’s eye fills in the blank. This is not the best image of the day, but best represents the occasion. Happy July 4th to all.

12: Street Photography-- A NoNo

Yesterday while doing my regular walk at the local Wall-Mart I noticed a very interesting photographic posibility. Naturally I had no camera. So today it was off to Wally-World camera in hand. The problem is a DSLR is not very easy to not notice. When I got in I squeezed off a shot to check exposure and continued my walk. Each time I passed by the area I slowed down to see what developed. After about a mile, I got a chance to get an “almost what I wanted”. As I continued walking and came to the area again, I noticed a couple of folks giving me the evil eye, so I gracefully scooted out the door. This is all I got, but it is in the Spirit of Independence Day.

Turning her back on the Flag

11: Intro to Photojournalism

Getting back to the original tale, I seldom went anywhere without my camera. Back in those days kids had the run of town, and were safe in doing so. It was not too long until I stumbled upon an accident involving a car and a bicycle. Playing like a real photographer, I took a couple of shots and went on my way.

A little while later that day a police car pulled up and asked if I was the “Fellow” that had taken the pictures at the accident. When I answered that I was, he told me that the folks at the local newspaper was looking for me. I went by the paper and learned that the scene had been cleaned up before their photographer arrived. As the accident involved a small girl on the bicycle, and the someone involved was a member of a prominent family, the paper needed a picture for the front page. Well I got published, top half of the front page (the part seen when the paper is folded). This began over a half a century of off and on photojournalism.



And I still get the urge to chase a ambulance once and a while. Guess I needed to be a lawyer, it sure pays better than photography.