132: Street Photography -- The Deacon

Coming home from church today I stopped to chat with one of the homeless guys. He asked how my photo project was going? I replied, not as well as I would like. He said I would get a good one before I got home. Moments later I noticed this stately figure with his Bible tucked under his arm.

The Deacon

If you were alone and had to walk would you go to church?
The deacon and the homeless guy both walked, I drove.
Did you go?

131: Decorations -- Halloween

Back on image 89 I said wait until you see Halloween. Well here it is: (Double click image to really get a view)

Halloween Decorations

130: The Color of Fall

The Color of Fall

129: Put on a Happy Face

Tonight was the last Music on Main for the year. The turn out was low, but street shooting was still good. Actually better than usual as it seem folks are looking at me as more of a fixture than an invader. Even though this was the last for the year we need to remember to Put on a Happy Face

Putting on a Happy Face

128:Birthday Girl

Was very busy today with a Bible study project, so no picture. Then I remembered it is my granddaughter Joy Anna's Birthday. As I posted possibly less than flattering images for her mother and aunt, it is her turn.

And She said "don't do that" but I did

Happy Birthday to my Granddaughter

127: Fall is Here

We had a rain shower yesterday and it must have washed the crud off because we suddenly have fall colors.

The House up the Street

126; Soccer Fashions

Soccer Fashions at the Concession Stand

Makes me ponder the question: How much do we emphasize style and fashion in things where they should have no place?

125: What it is, is Soccer

Soccer Spectators

124: What it was, was Football

The little girls said what is wrong with them Guys? We are standing here and them guys are stumbling all over themselves trying to get over here.

The Games we Play

How often do we stumble over things in out everyday life?

123: Pet Photography

This afternoon I decided to sit around and enjoy TV. With no image for the day I selected something from a few day ago to illustrate my activities of the evening.

Enjoying Popcorn

122: Lamp in the Entry

This is not another one of them thru the window shots at night shots. It of and thru a door.

Lamp In Entryway

121: Hot Rod

Two Yellow Buckets

120: The Work Is Never Done

The Work Is Never Done

119: Build it and they will come

Build It and They Will Come

Awfully late in the tear for local baseball, but the lights were on.

Extra: Street Photography -- The Street Musician

I have had this image for several days and have been hesitant about publishing it. I have finally given in to my conscience. Think for a moment that you were passing buy and saw this image.

The Street Musician

As for me I see a lonely young lady alone on a street in the rundown part of town. Is she homeless? What might her future contain? The real question is What Would YOU do?

If it was a young man would your response be different? How about if it were an older person? I propose another question for your consideration: What Would JESUS Want YOU to Do?

Elmo’s Note: This image is a not what I have made it out to be, but it does present an important challenge. The young lady is part of a group being photographed by a local photographer. The image made such a dramatic statement to me, I could not walk away. The other photographer posed the young lady but shot from a different angle, as for me it was what I saw. So it is for documenting the human condition

118: Street Photography -- Cowgirl

It is not often you find a cowgirl walking the streets of Monroe. Especially one that can throw a rope.

Wee Cowgirl

Confession: 1)This should have been yesterdays image. 2)Also I tend to not set up photographs, In this case I asked the young ladies mother to "steer" her toward the roping steer. 3) Not the greatest artistic/technical image but I am relying on cuteness.

117: Studio Photography -- Remakes

Last night when it was time to post, I suddenly remembered today's Images were on my computer that is currently out of commission. So I had to wait until after church today to do a recopy.

Here it is as promised, in honor of my eldest, Pam.



I must be fair as I used Carolyn's birthday post (image 21) as part of a story, I must use this on as part of a story. It seems that both this and Carolyn's image are illustrations of my studio work. They were an attempt to make a more sophisticated image of a previous snapshot.



As you can see remakes generally lack some of the character of the originals.

116: Happy Days are Here Again

It was well after dark and no image for the day. I headed downtown turned onto Main street and STOP (Slide Tires On Pavement). This is what I saw.

The Date

There sat a Model A in the driveway of a home (funeral home actually, but close enough for reference). It reminded me of times long ago when a friend of mine had a Model A and we had stopped to drop off one of our dates. Talk about flash backs. The lighting was perfect as the car is in a darkest area (where would park when you brought a date home?) and the porch lights were always too bright for that parting embrace. The setting was perfect, think about where you would park to avoid parental or sibling eyes peaking out of windows? Oh what happy memories.

As a side note when I made this image I was standing beside the lamp post in image 60, where I referenced the Old Lamplighter. My town is a photographers dream, now if I could only meet the task.

115: Signs -- Truth in Advertising

Truth in advertising

114: Old Courthouse Revisited

The old courthouse is a primary landmark and after a few years it becomes hard to find a different approach to photographing it. How about through the eyes of a lawyer?

The Old Courthouse Reflection

112: Revised

Door with Wreath, Broom and Porch Lamp

I am not really sure what went wrong with the last up load. I did not want a soft image for the example. Here it is again I hope this is better.

113: There Was A Dream

Do we dream in b/w or color? I am not sure, so I chose B/W.

Once Upon A Time
There Was A Dream.

112: Back To Basics

I read a lot about how cameras are missing focus and exposures, poor babies!!

I have not talked much about the equipment of my past. I guess it is time. My first published photograph was made with a grandma style box camera. The only "adjustment" was a shutter button, click and that is all. My first adjustable camera was a Kodak Pony 135. It had adjustable focus, it had adjustable exposure, but it missed a few things. First it missed a focusing tool, to focus you estimated the distance dialed it in and away you go. The next thing missing was an exposure meter. You could set the f-stops and shutter speed kind of like the focus, an educated guess. I will not even mention it had a single focal length lens that was not interchangeable.

Thing were not as bad as they might seem. One learned two magic rules. F8 and you are there. This suggested if one shot at f8 or smaller (f11 etc) your guess focus would be plenty close. Next was the Sunny 16 Rule. It said if you set exposure to f16 (smaller than f8) and set the shutter to 1 over the ISO, sunny exposure would be right on after that it was a guess unless one had a Kodak Master Photo Guide.

After being assured that things that applied to film would not work with digital, I set out to do a test. I mounted a very old single focal length manual lens on my digital body. Set the f-stop to f8. ISO set to 400. Shutter speed to 1/400 minus 2 stops ?(remember f8 is two stop bigger than f16) and off I went. Here is my first image converted to B/W because that is what I shot back then.

Door with wreath, broom and porch light

Seems to me light has not changed in the last 50 years, or so.

----
ED. Note: Boy I did not realize how bad the compression was on here until today. Check the full size image (double click on the image) it is a bunch sharper.

Ed Note 2: I uploaded this again. See 112 Revised.

111: Reverence

Reverence

110: Out For Dinner

Out For Dinner,
Write your own story.

109: Helping Hands

Helping Hands

108: Street Photography -- Public Servents

Medical Standby

After spending 30 years in public service (Fire and Law Enforcement) I learned that very seldom your "clients" are happy to see you, and then you can almost never do the job right, according to the "clients." Well I posted this just to say "I Thank All of You, for what you do."

And so it is documenting the human condition.

107: Railroad -- Repetition

Well it seems the story with my last image was a repeat. Well what do you expect from a railroad.

Repetition to No Where

At least all the repeats head in the same direction.

Note: I hate ultra wide angle lenses. I got everything framed just right and when I got home I found I had included one of my feet so I had to crop the image and lost some of the UWA effect.

106: Nude with Flowers and Wine

The last from the Art Walk.

Nude with Flowers and Wine

I have been preaching a little much lately, so I will let you draw your own conclusions.

105: Railroad

Yep, I did it, I fell off the wagon, but I had to to add to my story.

CSX in Monroe

When my grandson Jake was little, he loved trains. I got started photographing trains using a digital camera I had bought strictly for genealogy documentation. I thought then that digital would never make it as a true art method for photography. Seems I was wrong.

Anyway the railroad photography became a addiction, an as of now about 20% of my images are railroad related. This addiction got be back into regular photography after what had been a lengthy absence.

104: Artist -- Kat's Eyes

Kat's Eyes

103: Art

Last Friday evening I was talking with a young photographer during the local Art Walk. I mentioned that as I had become older I now make images to express myself not to satisfy the standards of others. Here is such an image taken during the Art Walk last Saturday evening.

Art is in the eye of the beholder.

I am not sure what I like about the image but I just like it. I was not going to go back and make up the days I missed, but I decided to, just so I could post this and one other image from the Art Walk.

102: A Fly in the Ointment

Fly in the Ointment

One trouble I have with this "Just as it is" presentation, I keep wanting to improve it. I/We need to learn how to keep from trying to improve on everything.

101: Monroe Art Walk -- The Need for Speed

A few days back, when talking about camera clubs, I mentioned their emphasis on social conformity. Camera clubs also fuel another compulsion of photographers, the need for the latest and greatest equipment. This emphasis makes most photographic clubs equipment related and the art of photography is secondary.

The Need for Speed

I myself have said a thousand times, “if I only had this or that I could do better.” Yet out of the other side of my mouth I would say, “It is not in the equipment, It is learning to use what you have.” Yet after the loss of my desktop computer and all my photographic software the first of the week, I was going to abandon this blog.

During my pity-party I got reminded of the promise, God will supply all my needs. But, what about my blog? Well he promised my needs not my wants! So I set about reviewing what I have and suddenly realized God provides the images, so why should I even try to improve them. So starting with the image above, images will be straight out of the camera.

Sorry

Sorry it seems I have experienced a severe computer hardware failure.
It is likely that it will be some time before I will have the hardware and software to continue.