Juggerpix's Photoblog

Tanks!

2009-02-17T19:17:00.002-06:00

Sorry everyone, I stink as a blogger.

I'm a horrible human, truly despicable.

Tank you for still reading this!

So much for high ideals

2008-08-26T00:15:00.002-05:00

Yea, as a blogger, I suck. I guess what I'll do is post on here occasionally, visit others occasionally.

Here is something disgusting! I was out at a local marsh trying to get pictures of cranes, and I found a rotting deer head on a fence. Yea.

After I got back and was looking at it, I thought it was a little morose, so I applied a filter in Photoshop and voilà, ART! I guess its kinda something like, but not really like at all a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. On acid. With a twist of lime.

I'm a weiner!

2008-05-21T23:05:00.007-05:00

...err... winner. Either apply really.

I really do apologize for just leaving out of the blue. To this day, I still have no good, full explanation for doing so. My life was changing in a big way (job), and blogging seemed to be a chore. Plus, I really wasn't getting out to take many pictures because.... well ... I was busy taking pictures (for clients).

My life is getting a little easier at work, and I hope I'm digging myself out of a bit of a funk. So, I'm going to start bloging again (I'm sure someone has made the joke, but cant "Photoblog" be shortened to "Phloging"? Or does that sound a little masochistic?).

My new lowered phloging hurdles (because I'm all about the bare minimum). I will be posting once a week to week and a half. Perhaps I'll speed up at times. I just want to keep with this, and not get burnt out again.

Anyhoo, as I was saying, I didn't have much time for taking pictures I wanted. The following picture I took on the way home from a job in Door County Wisconsin. The ships are lakers, and they are parked for the season. If you click on the picture to get the bigger view, you can see the small bumps in the lower left corner on the horizon are trucks. They drive out on the ice in the bay to ice fish.

This picture took first in my local camera club for Photojournalism.

Again, sorry about the whole leaving for a year and a half with no communication thing.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

2008-05-12T19:28:00.000-05:00

I might actually start blogging again soon. I'm having more time and energy lately.

Since I've been away I have gone from third shift photo lab rat to kinda running a studio/event photography place. Ironically enough I still dislike taking pictures of people.

Here is a random picture.

(PS, if you click on the picture for the far too large view, you can see a bald eagle (kinda) in the air.)

Fish in a barrel

2006-10-09T22:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, sorry for not posting and getting around to all of your sites. I'm just not getting on the internet as much as I use to. I still think I will settle more down into this again as I get use to my knew hours.So, yea. I was out this weekend at High Cliff State Park. It was a good day, hiking a round a lot, taking some ok pictures. It was getting dark, so I was thinking my shooting was over. I climbed up a steep path to get up to where I left the jeep, and sat down against a rock towards the top.
So I was relaxing, watching the sunset and thought, "you know, this is the kind of thing normal people take pictures of".I usually don't take a lot of sunsets, because all I think of when I shoot them is "Yawn... seen it". I would prefer to shoot something people haven’t seen. But, I was just sitting there with a camera beside me so…
I was very impressed with the response of the digital. I cranked the contrast and saturation again trying to imitate my beloved Velvia, and I don’t think it turned out half bad.Sorry for posting sunsets, there are a million of them out there, but I kinda enjoyed these in the end.

What the...

2006-10-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I was taking pictures of dogs this weekend as a fundraiser for our local theater (and animal shelter).

While I was going through some of the pictures tonight, this reject caught my eye. The little fart had shook himself while I was taking the picture, so I had ignored the shot. While I was going through pictures just now and saw him, I almost fell out of my chair laughing!

What happened was the flash froze his actions at one point, but a longer shutter speed blurred out the rest of him.

Well... I got a laugh out if it at least!

Trying to polish a turd

2006-09-27T20:34:00.000-05:00

Sometime, I just try too hard to make a picture work. Here is a a work line into a picture that just doesn’t quite do it for me, and where I just went stupid trying to chase it down. I have revisited this image several times.First image try. I like the Trees, and the building, but the building doesn’t snap, and the part of the building that rises on the right side up past the spire bugs the hell out of me.
Second try, a month or so later. I don’t like the other tries in cropping in. Finally I think this is kinda funky. I finally decide however that I need less leaves, or less church. I like both however, and don’t want to sacrifice. I add a little more contrast. Then I give up.Third try, another months later. I finally cut the tree, add more contrast. I don't min it as much, but now I realize that I have probably cropped in too close to really be a good image. Plus, I long ago lost the trees on the side that I guess I liked most about the picture.
After I try that, I take out the color, maybe it will look good as a B&W. Eh. Getting the feeling I jumped the shark.Now I try Graphic pen. Looks like something out of Sin City, only... bad.I don't know why I even did this. Using the Stained Glass filter only brings me pain and agony. Loosing a grip on reality... must... back away... from Photoshop....

Fly-in clearing house part 2

2006-09-24T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

So, why haven’t I been around? I've been lazy. My hours have changed dramatically, from nights, to days, and 4 days from 5. 4 days meaning I work longer on those 4 days.

I'm still rolling with the changes, but it has definitely had an impact on my life and patterns. I will be posting and going on to all your excellent sites again, I just need a groove back. (in other news, I have also joined a local camera club, finally, after threatening to do it for about 5 years now!).

Less babble, more pictures.

The top picture is the tail of a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. Pretty shinny metal.
Next is a Ford Tri-Motor. Not really a military plane (although some were), but still a cool old thing.Third picture is a Junkers JU-52, a German WW2 aircraft. This plane also has 3 prop engines like the Ford above, a setup not widely seen on airplanes.
This is another aerobatic flyer, and he is Soucy (his name is Gene Soucy)! I cannot remember the type of aircraft this was, but I remember hearing it was converted from a crop duster. They painted it well for slicing thru a blue sky.

This last plane I should know the name of, but I'm not positive. I'm 90% positive this is a C-17 Globemaster III. Its fitting to end on this plane, and this shot, as it was the last picture I took at the fly-in this year.

Next post... back to your regular programming....

Fly in clearing house part 1

2006-09-18T01:24:00.000-05:00

I'll finish up the fly in pictures in 2 posts, because I'm starting to get board with them myself!

I'll post some of the pictures in medium, and you can click on them for a closer look. Or don’t... I'm not going to force you or anything.The 2 top pictures are noses of P-51 D Mustangs (WW2 fighters). The nose art is usually very colorful on these planes.This is one of the oddest flight formations you will ever see. 2 modern F-18's, a Korean war vintage Saber jet, and a WW2 era Corsair! I'm sure they had a reason for doing this, but you cannot always hear the announcers explanations when the planes are NNNNAAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOing in your ears.This is a more standered formation, made up of AT-6 Texans. The Texan was a flight training plane of the WW2 era. Many were sold to the public, so many are out there still flying today. They do have a classification as a "warbird", but since they really didn’t see "war", I don’t think of them as such.This is a Texan at sunset. Again, I cant say that I am a fan of this plane, in fact I usually just hustle on by them when at the airshow, but the light on this guy was just right, and I had to take the shot. I guess they aren’t sooo bad…

Dooo dooooo dooo shooting out my backdoor

2006-09-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

Ok, this isn’t out my backdoor, nor any backdoors I have been at recently. This was out the backdoor of where I use to work in Marshfield WI.

I had noticed while taking out the garbage one day that the fire escape cast some fantastic lines at one part of the day.

The fire escape was of a weighted, tilting type, and was a lot of fun. I would go down it occasionally just for the heck of it, much to the distress of the owners of the company. I think they were afraid it would come off the wall (it was quite old). The dumpsters were underneath where it would come down, and when it hit them it made a LOUD clang. Anyone close to the back of the building would run outside wondering what happened, and I would chuckle at them.

Have I mentioned odd things amuse me?

3 noses

2006-09-10T03:49:00.000-05:00

Yep, still more from the EAA fly in.

As I said before, I like WW2 aircraft. The picture on the top has to be my favorite, the B-17G. Its not an original pick mind you, its one of the best known US bombers of the war (seen in many movies, Memphis Bell being one of the most notable). There is just something bout it, the way it looks, its outward ruggedness (and this was very much a rugged bomber).

The Next nose is a B-24 Liberator. This is the most highly produced bomber of WW2, about 18,100 were built, almost more than 10,000 more than the B-17. Know, unfortunately, for NOT being rugged, you can probably do a Google and find a few pictures of B-24's with their wings folded up like a butterfly and falling from the sky. However, it was a versatile aircraft, used also as a transport at times, and a close derivative of it, the PB4Y Privateer, was made just for reconnaissance.

The last nose is also a favorite of mine, and perhaps the finest bomber of WW2. The RAF's (and CAF's) Avro Lancaster. Also made famous in movies (The Dam Busters), the Lanc was an awesome machine. She carried a heavy payload, max being 22000 lbs. (the B-17 and 24’s was about 8000lbs.). The bellies of these planes were usually painted black, as the RAF did nighttime bombing over Germany (The USA did most of the daylight bombing). Another plane with rough good looks, sporting her jutting chin.

The Lancaster is actually the reason I went to the show this year. I have seen B-17's, B-29's and 24's a few times, I seen almost all of the major American Bombers of WW2, but the Lanc is something you don’t get to see much of. At the show they said there are a few B-17's left flying (17, or 27, forgot exactly). There are only 3 B-24's left flying, and there are only 2 Lanc's left flying, and they don’t do it too often (there are only so many safe hours to fly an airframe).

Sorry if I bored the piss out of all you. This was actually a longer post, but I cut it down.

(Note: The funky rainbow effect happens quite often when taking pictures of Plexiglas when you have a polarizer on your camera. It was not something that was added in Photoshop.)

eEEeeoooowww... I'm back! ... Hwaaaaoo... I'm back!

2006-09-06T16:08:00.000-05:00

You know, its hard to type like James Brown would sing.

So, the computer got rolling. The problem was the $(%& Broadband connection CD that I had received from my @%#$@^# service. After I stopped trying to install that piece of $%!), everything works fine... but I'm still leery.

So, anyhoo... here is another night shot, taken last fall at a park in Appleton (the park underneath the fortress). I had gotten home from a short night at work (I work 10 PM till 6 AM), and it was foggy. So I went home, grabbed the camera, and ran out! Unfortunately, by that time, the fog mostly lifted, but there was enough in the air to still make pictures interesting.

Or at least I think its interesting.

New $@*&$^# computer

2006-09-04T18:15:00.000-05:00

Yay! My new &%@&$%# computer is having more &#%^$@% problems than my old &$#%@*$ computer. I'll have a new picture up as soon as I decide this piece of $%!* is stable.

Meanwhile Appleton here has made the "odd news" RSS rounds. Here is why. I actually dont think this is odd, its a nice idea!

Sorry

You thought I forgot

2006-08-30T15:31:00.000-05:00

Yep, back to pictures from the Fly-in I went to in the end of July.

Now, I feel I need to preface the next few posts by saying this, I'm not a war monger. While I think wars are stupid and should go away, at the same time I have to admit an affinity to some of the weapons of war (ships and aircraft primarily). Partially in remembrance of people who served in wars (who saw/did/suffered horrible things for a cause they thought was right), but honestly, its mostly because I think they look cool. While I have some interest in equipment from other time periods (WW1 Dreadnoughts, Battlecruisers and such for example), my main interest is in WW2 aircraft.

One of the most recognizable fighters (although probably not from this angle) of WW2 is this plane, an F4U Corsair. This plane is known for its bent wing design, and was popularized here in the US in a late 70's TV show called "Black Sheep Squadron". Probably one of the reasons took a shine to WW2 aircraft was this TV show.

Something I like about many airplanes is that when they sit on the ground, their noses are pointing towards the sky, like they are yearning to take off right now, and get back to the glory of the "majestical roof fretted with golden fire".

Well, that's what I tried to capture. A cloud would have been handy in the upper left hand corner. Maybe a little golden fire.

(PS, is blogger being an asshole to anyone else? I couldn't get onto anyone's sites yesterday, my own included. I'm still having problems posting comments today)

Finally back

2006-08-25T15:41:00.000-05:00

Yea, so, after I get back from the race, my computer takes a crap. I had meant to post on Wednesday, but that's when this pile of silicone started biting it. It's patched together now, but it's really time for me to get a new one.

Anyhoo, the race was fun! I have a picture of two I may post, but I didn't go nuts taking pictures.

Well, on to the picture.

As you all know I am a stickler for the details on my pictures. In other words I cant remember when I shot this. I think it was in July sometime, perhaps June. It was early morning, I was just wrapping up some night photography which was less than spectacular when I walked in the park below this. The sun was coming up and really only hitting this building.

This is the Outagamie county courthouse. From other angles it looks blockish and uninviting, however from this angle, it looks like some type of fortress (which in a way it is). The small/slit windows helps the effect, I can imagine men with bows and arrows shooting out of them. I don't think Outagamie county has any archers on the payroll however.

Look, I shot people!!!

2006-08-16T05:14:00.000-05:00

No, really, they are there! You may have to click on the picture and look, off to the right. This is about as close as I get to taking pictures of people.

This was taken out on the breakwater in Grand Marais Minnesota, in the middle to late 90's. Taken on slide film, and I had a #85 filter on the lens to give it that warm kick.

I was lining up this shot when this couple started walking out to the little lighthouse. I started grumbling to myself about freaks of nature walking into a good picture, when I realized that they would be in that they would be silhouetted in the reflection of that little daub of water. So I waited, and click. They were even nice enough to hold hands at that point. I guess taking pictures of people is all that bad. Maybe.

This was a picture that, before I shot it I visualized it as a panoramic. I don't use the panoramic look often, but some things just scream for it. Sorry, this isn't the best scan, the slide looks much better. The scanner is having a problem with the range of yellow to oranges in the photo.

In other news, this is my last post for about a week. I'm off to the races this weekend (literally). I'm leaving... well, in about 5 minuets or so. I'll be back next Wednesday!

Everyone have fun until then. That's an order, dammit!

Playing with planes

2006-08-14T03:43:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I was a little bored this weekend, and started playing with some pictures.

I took a picture from one of my previous posts and used Photoshop to mess with them. I could have cut these pictures and pasted them all together, but I'm lazy. I used a Photoshop filter set called "Harrys Filters", a fun little set of filters you can download for free.

This was a setting called quadrant flip. It just kinda kaleidoscoped things. It works best (I think) on very simple subjects. I have some bridge ones somewhere I did, but I cant find them right now, so you just get planes.

Hi There

2006-08-09T06:42:00.000-05:00

This is the picture that my friend Brian has asked that I post (I hope this was the one you meant). This is a going on vacation present for him (He is going to bike across Scotland, I'm both insanely jealous, and completely in awe of him (he will be doing 60 miles a day!))

Sometime in the 90's, I sent this top picture out on my Christmas cards. The greeting on the card was aptly "From Our House to Yours". Probably not what the maker of the photocard imprint was thinking at the time. I'm not sure how many people put that picture over their mantle.

I had taken some others at the time, so I'll post them too. He turned out far more colorful than I thought he would (at the time I pushed the film a bit to get more color contrast , oh, taken on 35mm).

The reason I took the pictures is because my friend Mark H was living in Houston at the time, and he was bragging up the cockroaches. I didn't think they were as big as he made out, so he brought one to Wisconsin for me... packed in ice.. on the plane. How do you explain that one to security if they go thru your bag?

Since he brought it all that way, I couldn't help but take some pictures. I shot him on a galvanized bucket, using Smith Victor hotlights.

I only shot awhile however. He was still kinda thawing when I was shooting, and while I was watching thru the camera, one of his legs moved! Creeped the hell outta me. So I gathered him up and tossed him before he went Lazarus on me.

Come Josephine in my flying machine

2006-08-07T15:10:00.000-05:00

... but then I'll have to clean the seats.

I found out one thing, the auto-focus on my Digital Rebel sucks when trying to take pictures of an airshow. I finally had to give up on it and shoot on manual focus (heaven forbid! That's like going back to the photographic stone ages, next I'll be shooting with a pinhole camera (Actually I have a pinhole camera)). Some of these are a bit soft, but I still like them.

Something I do like about the camera is that with the sports setting, the camera adjusts the ASA/ISO to keep you at a fast shutter speed. The camera was working overtime on this because I was shooting thru a polarizer (which I was trying to adjust while manual focusing, that was fun).

Anyhoo, as you can see by the ad's prominently displayed on them, this is the Aeroshell acrobatic team. They fly old AT-6's which were WW2 trainer aircraft.

Essentially instead of doing fancy flips and out of control spins, they do large lazy loops and turns in unison, just feet away from each other. Not to take away from the difficulty of this, (or the outright dangerousness of this), but in MHO its the airshow equivalent of synchronized swimming.

Puddy Tat

2006-08-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

Yep, Puddy Tat is this cats real name. Blame Sadie. I have been threatening to buy mom a canary and call it Tweety. Then her house would consist of Granny, Puddy Tat and Tweedy, and when I visit I could watch the three chase each other around (actually, Puddy would chase Tweety, then Granny (Sadie) would hit the cat with a broom).

This wasn't taken on my last visit, but a few years ago on slide film.

Ummmm... I guess there is nothing else. Just a standard, stock cutsey Cat shot.

(Interesting note, a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon won Warner Bros. their first Academy Award for best animated short... well, I thought it was interesting)

Osa's Ark

2006-07-30T05:55:00.000-05:00

The EAA Fly-in was going on in Oshkosh last week, so I went over on Friday. This is a freaking huge gathering of airplanes of all types. Over 10,000 planes show up, roughly 2500 of which are show quality planes. Over the week run of the fly-in, it expected that 750,000 people will have attended. Thats a lot of people for me, but I braved it anyhow.

I'll be posting pictures from the show for awhile (not all in a row, don’t want people getting bored). I'll start with this cutie. Its a Sikorsky S-38, called Osa's Ark. This is a replica of an airplane that was operated in the 30's by Martin and Osa Johnson. They used this (and another) plane to explore and record Africa on film (How f-ing cool is that?).

I thought at first someone defiled a cool old plane by painting it wild, but I found out this was the paint scheme that they used! Fantastic!

Much more to come...
(PS, I'm away from home, posting at Sadie's. Mom really needs to get rid of dial-up. Thats a hint Sadie.)

The building needs a trim

2006-07-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

I like an ivy covered walls, but this place goes to an extreme. I still want to live here.

I had found this place when visiting my friend Brian last October. He was at a class, and I was just wandering around Minneapolis with my camera.

Funny, I was there thinking I'd get some good city shots, and these almost could be called nature shots!

Down to the waterline

2006-07-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this isn't quite to the waterline, but it is close enough for the Dire Straights reference.

I took these during my brief stint in Duluth. This Laker is the Roger Blough.

In case you didn't know, a "Laker" is a type of ship that, due to its size, is confined only to sailing on the Great Lakes. They are too large to pass thru the St. Lawrence seaway to the Atlantic. Roger is 858 feet long, and 105 feet wide.

It was being repaired at the time, so I was able to get quite close. Actually, I don't know for sure if I was suppose to be that close, but if it doesn't say "no trespassing", I consider it fair game.

Minge's Monster

2006-07-21T07:44:00.000-05:00

Based on idea by Minge.

It looks like some something freaky thing out of H.R Pufnstuf. If you don't know what H.R. Pufnstuff is, your lucky, it was weird and creepy.

The Kaiser in Argentina

2006-07-19T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is the nose and headlight of an Argentinean Kaiser automobile. Kaiser was an American industrialist, who among many things in his life had businesses in concrete, autos and shipbuilding (the shipbuilding boomed in the second World war, the Kaiser shipyards produced the famous Liberty ships). He was invited to Argentina to start a car company there, which he did. This car is one of the products of that move into Argentina. More on that here .

So, did I shoot this car because if its fascinating history? NOPE! I shot the bastard because it was one of the only cars at the auto show I went to (The car show during Appleton's Octoberfest, picture taking at last years event) that had any decent light falling on it. Taken with my digital Rebel.

Auto shows are ok, but with so many people, its hard to get shots without some gawking moron in the picture (or their reflections). I know I should shoot pictures of the gawking morons too, but haven't I mentioned I'm not a people shooter? Photographically or otherwise.

The shadow of a tree

2006-07-16T05:24:00.000-05:00

I've really always liked this shot. I think of it like a ghost of a tree that was removed to make room for the wall. Of course, I'm a nutjob for thinking this.

This is a night shot, which is why the colors are so odd. Good old sodium vapor.

I took this around... crap, I don't know, must have been in the early 90's. This was about a block behind a large clot of bars in Wisconsin Rapids. I remember seeing this about 1:00 in the morning... and waiting until about 3:00 to take the picture (see previous post about avoiding drunk people when taking pictures).

After I found this tree shadow, I thought it would be cool to shoot more tree shadows at night. I had thought it could be my personal photo niche. Unfortunately, after a lot of film shot, I found I wasn't getting anything as interesting as this shot (with one exception, I may post that one some other day).

Oh well, no niche for me, just a bunch of crappy slides.

Waiting for a train

2006-07-12T15:57:00.000-05:00

I really don't know which I like better. The one shot closer has dramatic lighting, but the one shot back further has a lonely feel that I like.

Both taken on a foggy night in Marshfield WI, in 96 if memory serves (and it doesn't very often). I had worked late this night, and when I came out of the building and saw the fog, I went running for my camera. Night shooting in fog is great fun. Street lights no longer are a point of luminescence, but this larger circle or shaft of gradual density.

Another plus is on foggy nights, not as many people are out driving, so you don't have to wait to take a picture until the cars have passed (or swear as you start a 30 second exposure and see a car starting your way). Plus, you don't as any get drunks walking up and wanting to have a conversation. You still get curious police, but that kinda makes you feel good that someone is around watching, in case something happens.

Taken on Agfa APX, with my trusty F3 (on a tripod). On a creepy night like this, it can double as a weapon. It's like a metal baseball bat with a brick on the end.

Just a flower

2006-07-09T05:27:00.000-05:00

Yea, its a simple shot. There was a time when I wouldn't have taken this shot. Not a challenge, not "edgy".

As I grow older, I'm finding that more often I'm taking the basic shot. Not trying to transform the subject into something new, just shooting what it is, because what it is is cool enough.

This is a Cosmos (props to Sadie for identifying it for me. Thanks Mom!), taken in Minneapolis when visiting my friend Brian. I found this in the sculpture garden by the Walker Art Center. I was literally laying on the ground taking this picture. In fact, I was across a path, and at one point I had to roll out of the way of a jogger.

Taken handheld because, again, I was too lazy to mount the camera upside down underneath the tripod. I have a nice Bogen 3221W (with a 3047 head), and while very versatile and highly stable (and has foam on all three leg tops, VERY important in cold Wisconsin winters!), some positions seem to take awhile to get into, and I loose patience. I keep thinking I should break down and trade my trusty Bogen for a Benbo , which I'm told once you get use to sets up in odd positions much faster (plus the top legs slide into the bottom legs, how cool is that when you have one leg in the water?).

But I do need to use my tripod more, I am NOT a steady hand.

Oh dear!

2006-07-06T16:29:00.000-05:00

My friend Brian just posted a story partially inspired be the photo below. It's a scream! Go here now, the "Wizard of OZ : Special edition" post... (warning, some sexual innuendo involved. If your a child, make sure your mom and dad are in another room.)

The Chute of Damocles

2006-07-05T03:05:00.000-05:00

I found this corn huddled under the chute of a old, disused combine (ok, so the corn is actually behind the chute, but it sounds better saying under).

Shot in the mid 90's, outside of Plover WI. on Velvia slide film. From the sky I'll assume I had a polarizer on too.

Again, this was a road side picture. Always pay attention when driving, you might miss a good picture. Another reason to pay attention when driving is so you don't hit the moron photographers who slam on the brakes then take pictures from the side of the road.

Back to bridges

2006-07-02T02:58:00.000-05:00

This was shot in Milwaukee. Its a girder or two underneath a bridge in the Menomonee valley.

Menomonee (do doooo do do do) ... Menomonee (do dooo dooo do)...

Whoa... sorry, went "Muppets" there. Anyhooo...

Not the first bridge I ever shot, and far from the last.

Variations on a brick wall

2006-06-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

This all started as an unimpressive brick wall picture (see first photo). As I started fooling around in Photoshop, I didn't think any successive image stood well on its own (except perhaps the one on the left). But as a group, they seemed to make sense.

The original was taken about a year ago with my Digital Rebel. I started farting around with it a little later, taking about a week to come up with all the variations (plus all the ones I tossed).

But, why did I do it? Beats the hell outta me. At one point when I thought of selling my pictures, I thought I could sell a frame for 3 matted 4x6’s, and you could "pick your own triptych". But that would involve me getting the ambition to get a small business license again.

Door

2006-06-26T10:40:00.000-05:00

I guess this is the next logical post.

And in reference to the prior Window post, I think of the door as the mouth (although some may think it has womb-esk feature). Was it the Muppet Show that had the talking houses? The Eyes (windows) light up?

This was in a Marshfield WI alley (I believe). Taken under one of the disappearing Mercury vapor lights.

Shooting at night, I prefer the cool, cyan/aqua color I get under the Merc vapor lights. Not to say I don't like the golden Sodium vapor lights, but the Merc vapor lights just seem to have a better tonal rendition in film (and seems like on digital too).

Mmmmmm... light.

Window

2006-06-21T15:04:00.000-05:00

This is a window. That's fairly much it, not much more to it. I played with it in Photoshop, increased saturation to make some of the colors pop more like if I would have shot it on slide film (this was shot last October on my digital camera).

I have noticed that a lot of photographers (at least on the net) like taking pictures of windows. I cannot say for sure why I shoot them, but I do have quite a few in my collection.

I have always considered windows to be the "eyes" of a building (probably from childhood books that placed eyes in the windows when anthropomorphizing a house). Perhaps that's why people are drawn to them.

If I could figure what the other body parts of a building was, I could be a architectural pornographer.

Solarization

2006-06-18T08:29:00.000-05:00

This is an example of solarizing (kind of) and a cautionary tale of naming photographs.

I am here this weekend at the Jupperpix National Archives (Sadie's basement... I swear, I'll clear all my stuff out someday mom!). I found an older example of solarization I did in high school.

This started off as a picture of our dog Tori, a Samoyed. I took the negative, and printed it onto a 4x5 piece of lith film (hardly any tonal range, just B&W).

Then I took that neg, made a print, then I solarized it (made a print on photo paper, put it in developer about 15 seconds, took it out and exposed it to white light for a second, then replaced it back in the developer).

Boring the shit outta ya so far?

So, the day I made this was the deadline for a big art competition. I busted my hump to get it printed, mounted and ready to go (2 pictures that day actually). As I handed it to my teacher, she asked "what is the name of the picture".

Now I have experimented with names, and at one point I tried to name prints after Jazz songs (I had another picture of poor Tori with car headlights superimposed over her eyes and called it "Who's Sorry Now"). But I had to leave, the bell had just rung, and for what ever reason I blurted out "Nuclear dog". Horrible.

Both pictures I sent to the competition were accepted, so, in the book that came out I had 2 pictures on one page, "Nuclear Dog" and "Armageddon". "Armageddon" was a picture where I sandwiched 2 negs of brick walls together with a picture of a cloudy sky.

The people who judged and saw the book had to think I was the most depressing neurotic fucker ever born.

Photoshop... the new solarizing

2006-06-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

You ever get a picture that, no matter how much you work with it, you just don't like it. There might be elements that you like, but it just doesn't add up to a "whole" for you.

In B&W darkroom days, I would solarize such a print. That's a darkroom process where you where you expose your negative on the paper, start developing it, take it out of developer quick and flash it with some plain light. Tough to explain the effect, I have some I'll scan someday and go into it further. But in the end, it was a "funky" effect to make a print look "artsey". (Mrs. Zei, my first photography teacher would ring my neck right now and tell me "Its called the "sabatier effect", solarizing is something different")

Essentially, its what I did to try to make something out of a piece of shit shot (and usually ended up with a solarized POS).

Today, I don't have to do all that work in the darkroom, I have Photoshop! I can Photoshop a screwed up picture until I have a artsey, Photoshoped screwed up picture.

This is an example. Actually, this is a shot of lights that light up the Duluth aerial lift bridge . Something didn't work for me, so I played with filters until I came out with this. I kinda like it, but it has to be filed under "why?". Why? Because its art!

I do this quite a bit. I even have variation photos. I'll post em' some day.

Daaammmmm

2006-06-11T18:45:00.000-05:00

This is a gate in Appleton's middle dam, taken from a bridge that runs right in front of it (or behind it... which is the front of a dam?).

I think I'm going to give up on giving the camera details. I never remember them, and I don't think anyone gives 2 shits anyhow. I know I never care when looking at someone else's pictures.

This was a cold freaking day.

The fun thing in taking this picture (other than freezing my nads off (there coming right off!)) was watching out for traffic. This is a smaller bridge, and any traffic that goes over it produces a little vibration, enough of a vibration to effect the picture in a long timed exposure. I imagine there was more than one person driving across the Olde Onita St. Bridge wondering why the guy with the camera was looking at them like he would love to tear them out of the car and chuck them off the bridge.

I'm a grumpy photographer at times. I've even been caught swearing at flowers.

By popular demand

2006-06-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

My good friend Brian had asked in a comment section if I had any pictures of the aerial lift bridge in Duluth. This shows how well Brian knows me, because he knows I was there for a few months, and was fairly sure I wouldn't have left town without shooting it.

Again, the details of the pictures escape me. Long exposure, my 80-200 lens, Agfa APX B&W film. Taken from the West Skyline Parkway (the views from there are awesome). The second shot was... well, standing right in front of the bridge (duh), most likely shot with my 28mm. Click on the pictures if you want bigger views.

The aerial lift bridge is a cool thing, even if you don't have a bridge fetish like me. One of the neatest points is that this is 2, 2, yes 2 bridges in one.

Originally, the bridge design accepted by Duluth was to be a lift bridge. However, the War Department nixed this idea (the Army Corps of Engineers still control and operate the bridge to this day). So, a Aerial Transfer bridge, or Transporter bridge was built.

This consisted of a high structure being built, and a gondola would run from side to side underneath it, kinda like a ski lift car (but bigger).

Later, it was decided that the gondola couldn't keep up with the traffic. So the bridge was converted into an aerial lift bridge (like originally envisioned). So essentially, the structure for one bridge was built inside and around the other. Cool, eh? Well, I think it's cool, so if you don't, piss off.

Meet Edgar

2006-06-04T03:56:00.000-05:00

I met Edgar Friday morning when coming home from work. He was just hangin' out, acting casual. I got close to take a good look, dude didn't even flinch.

I ran upstairs, and got my camera. I shot a couple, but the light was just a little too low to hand hold (and shooting that close, each heartbeat of mine made the camera move). So, I ran back upstairs, got my tripod and another lens, and came back down. He was still there chillin', now with a fantastic warm hairlight. I took about 4 min to set up, and my buddy didn't even move.

Now, with the camera inches away from him, I fired this shot off. When I say he wasn't moving, I mean it. This exposure was 3 seconds, at f/20 (still seems weird saying f/20. *old codger voice* I remember the good old days when we had 16 or 32, not this fancy 1/3 of a stop crap), 100 ASA. He is actually hanging vertically on the wall, but I kinda like him better horizontal. And hey, the viewer wont know unless the idiot photographer opens his mouth and... DOH!

The fella was still there on Saturday too... Awwww shit. I hope he isn't dead.

Purple haze

2006-05-31T16:44:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, bridges. Bridges became a fascination with me early on in my pursuit of photography (or has photography pursuing me, I'm never quite sure).

It started with discovering photographer (god) David Plowden when I was in high school. His pictures struck a cord with me. David Plowden's subjects are (mostly) not of trees, flowers or people, but they are of buildings, trains, steel mills and... bridges. But, not only did he record the existence of such things, he made them art, gorgeous things to behold. As a young photo student, who up to that point was barraged with a flow of Ansel Adams photos and landscape shots, this was a bolt from the blue.

His photos also taught me to isolate segments of a subject (see picking apart in previous posts) to become the subject itself. The whole subject often isn't the real picture to be made. He has deeply influenced my "style", if I really have one. Perhaps better to say that he has definitely affected what I shoot and how I shoot it (I do not really shoot in David Plowden's style).

This is by no stretch a David Plowden picture. This is of the aerial lift bridge in Stillwater MN. This was shot somewhere mid to late 90's, near sunset. The Film was Velvia 50, exposure ... you guessed it, unknown.

I still love David Plowden. At Christmas one of his new books "A Handful of Dust" was on my Christmas list. My mom ordered it for me, but it didn’t arrive in time. So, at Christmas, I opened a small package that held a note which said "you will be receiving a handful of dust". I was wondering what kind of cryptic, voodoo crap Sadie was pulling, before I remembered that was the name of the book.

Wanna come back to my crib?

2006-05-28T11:45:00.000-05:00

This is probably another case where I find something to be far more amusing than what it actually is. I cannot say that in any of my travels around rural WI, that I had ever seen an old house converted into a corn crib.

Found this one morning while taking an alternate way to work. I was living in the country at the time, and there were about 50 different ways I could take to work, no one route taking that much longer than the other.

This was taken outside Auburndale I would say about mid 90's (I remember driving my (bitchin) Camero at the time). Shot on outdated Agfa RSX 50 slide film, which I had had been given for free. That explains the horrible cyan cast I had in the image. I worked with it in Photoshop, but its still there a bit. That's the problem with cheap (or free) film, sometimes you take a picture you actually want to keep.

God only knows what the exposure was. I took the picture from the middle of the road. That's the other nice thing about the country, you can stop in the middle of the road, take a picture, get back in the car and drive two more miles before seeing another car. I was too lazy to pull out and use my tripod (although I had time to), and luckily this time that decision DIDN'T bite me in the ass.

About 2 months ago, I was able to drive by here again. This still stands, almost exactly as it did when I took the picture. Which is amazing, since Auburndale seems to get hit by a tornado every year or so (ok, not really, but it seems like god doesn't like that area).

S ... and something

2006-05-28T11:42:00.000-05:00

Hmmmm... texture. Don't you just want to run your hands over this? I did, so I did.

This, is the side of a boxcar at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay WI, shot either about 7 years ago if memory serves. I did some Googling just know, but I don't see this as a logo for a S&G train company (there was a SA&G (or S&G), but I don't think that this car is that old). It may be a company logo. The "g" part may be another logo was painted on later. In other words, buggered if I know.

The National Train Museum is a great haunt of mine. As a child, my Grandma and Grandpa brought me there a few times. Not only were a some of these trains a part of their travel lives, my grandfather (and great grandfather) worked on the railroad (Grandpa was a line worker, Great Grandfather was a station agent). So, in addition to seeing these cool engines and railroad cars, I got to hear stories about the railroad and the times from people dear to me.

The memory of these wonderful excursions are not the only thing that draws me there nowadays. Now I'm drawn by my eye. Not only do I get to pick apart the trains and equipment (by pick apart I mean shooting smaller pieces of them, not just shooting the whole thing), but there is a certain amount of fantastic degradation and decay (albeit arrested as much as possible by the staff there).

This Boxcar was in a huge building, I assume to save it from further destruction. How can you not love this wood? In the middle of the building, the only light was coming from above from skylights, the hard angle of the light bringing out the texture. My only regret is that I couldn't get even with the logo to remove the perspective, however in doing that, I would have lost the lighting effect. I could straighten it in Photoshop... but naw.

This was shot on Agfa APX 100. I shot APX a lot in those days because where I sent out the B&W to be processed, the APX came back looking great (BTW, I work for that company now). No, I don't develop my own film in tanks very often (even though I still have them). Developing in tanks is fun for a bit, but gets tedious. In tech school I disliked it so much, I bought a 5 roll tank to do as much as possible at one sitting. I know what results to expect were I get them developed now, so I'm happy.

Anyway... Damned if I know the exposure for this, but I know it was long. I do remember having a #25 red filter on, and with the sparse lighting, I'm sure it went into the 10's of seconds for exposure.

If anyone knows the originis of the logo on the boxcar, please let me know. Not that I'll remember...

Thistling in the dark

2006-05-28T11:33:00.000-05:00

This shot was taken early 90's, during one of my awakenings from a photo coma. pho·to co·ma: Any period longer than one year where Jim has not taken a picture for his own enjoyment. This particular coma was induced by my working in a photolab. I had been getting sick of printing photos... anyones photos.

At work I would labor over each picture, trying to see if just a button of density would make it pop... maybe take out some cyan... or perhaps if I masked off part of the image and burnt in more red in this area. Usually spending too much time on a photo, and tossing away a silly about of "bad" prints. After printing someone else’s pictures all day, I didn’t feel like printing my own negs (and I was a million times more picky than our most anal customer). So I didn't shoot, knowing that I would eventually have to print what I shot.

What was the L Dopa to awaken to the world of the shooting? Slide film. You shoot it, you process it, that’s it! Brilliant! If you don’t expose something correctly? Toss it, its crap now! Just don’t like the shot, but think some burning and dodging might save it? Screw it, its a slide, I can't print slide here! A scratch gets on the image? I can't spot a slide... yay, another square Frisbee! Never look back baby. Or so was the mindset was at the time.

Anyhoo...This was taken one of my first forays out with my new attitude in shooting. Taken in Mc Millan marsh outside of... where else? Marshfield WI. Since I'm such a fan of taking notes, god only knows what I shot this at. Technically, I'm not even sure what this was, but I'm 95% positive it's the blown out corpse of a thistle. I'm sure it I bracketed it a couple times (I purged bracketed slides from pictures I like a few years ago). Definitely exposed for the silhouette. I'm not gonna tear apart the mount to see what type of film it was, but I would guess it was a Elite 100 ish type of film (I didn’t start the love affair with Velvia 50 until later).

The picture looks great in B&W also, but I like something in the muted blues of the color print.Since this picture, I have actually taken images of live flowers . Up to that point in my life, I preferd taking pictures that were more about shape and texture in things such as machinery, industrial and older busness areas. Believe it or not, I had a hard time seeing form in the chaos of nature. I'll post more in the future about my fight with nature shots.

F-ing sky rat

2006-05-28T11:24:00.000-05:00

Hi. Welcome. This is my photoblog. Why am I starting a photoblog? Well, frankly, I'm stealing from my friend Brian who has a blog. As I was reading his, I thought a photoblog might actually make me get off my butt and shoot more. Or not, we will see. I suppose starting with the right tone is important. I guess it should represent my ... my ... (idiom sir?) ... Idiom, yes. But I'm not sure I have a grasp on that yet.

So, the hell with grand entrances, this picture was a mistake. It was taken last spring, after I had first received my new Canon Digital Rebel (and quietly retired my venerable F3... *sniff). The viewing screen is much smaller and darker than my dear old Nikon. That has been making things (such as manual focusing) a problem for me. The camera just doesn't want to focus on what I want when I shoot at night (although recently I have bought a high power flashlight to illuminate a focus spot on objects that are close-ish (farthest I have used it is about 100 feet of so). Another problem is like the one in the picture. As god is witness, I could have swore this was a duck.

Ducks were swimming around this area (I was watching them because I didn't want one to swim thru the timed exposure, even though it was unlikely to show up in the image). A duck was swimming by, so I looked away to check something on the camera. Looking back up, I saw the bird on the rock. I didn't notice it was a gull because it was a distance away (shot with my 300 mm), and it was well... dark. I just assumed that it was the duck seen before. For the anal out there, this was shot at f/11, 5 seconds (the damn thing stood still at least). That's the nice thing about digital, the info is imbedded in the picture. I never wrote down my exposures like I'm suppose to. I never saw the point. I guess the picture isn't a total failure (a bit soft), but when you call the image up on your big old computer screen, an you have a flying rodent instead of the duck you envisioned, you get a little annoyed.