Me(?) - I belong to four camera groups on Yahoo. Of these four camera groups – I would say only two seem interested in what one actually does with a camera. The other two are more into the equipment.
Sunrise - East Glacier, Montana - 21 January 2009. There was a time I used to refer to Ansel Adams as having shot El Capitan so many times that he was bound to get a couple good frames. It is only since I have been confronted with the same mountains morning after morning that I have really come to appreciate that the light makes all the difference. . . So many different iterations of light one has - the same subject will be changed. I am always looking - maybe at the same places, but seemingly never the same subject. Panasonic LUMIX DMC LX2
Divemaster - Playa del Carmen, Mexico - 20 March 2008. This was our divemaster for my last trip to Mexico with my older brother and sister-in-law. I got to dive Dos Ojos - an underwater cave complex on the Yucatan Penninsula. I didn’t enjoy the first dive that much – but the second one I found myself a lot more relaxed in an enclosed underwater environment. Imagine taking a cave with all its’ stalagtites and stalagmites – flooding it with distilled water – then scuba diving through it. It was a great experience that I am otherwise unable to adequately describe. It’s just something you have to do. Nikon Action Touch.
Grain Elevator - Conrad, Montana - 24 April 2009. Stopped at Conrad to shoot a newer grain facility along I-15. I shot with the Pentax SP and an Olympus 35RC. I used 20, 28, 50, and 105 lenses on the Pentax – about froze the digits off my hands it was so cold! There were some rail cars present that gave a sense of scale to the images. The light and shadows on this facility were really neat.
B-Concourse - Denver Airport - 16 April 2009. In my childhood, Denver Airport meant Stapleton. I can recall watching with my fingers through a chain link fence as a piston-engined DC-6 taxied up to the gate. Stapleton is long gone. . .
Green - 18 August 2008. I tried shooting an oil pumping rig just southwest of Circleville, Ohio and got nowhere. It just wasn't that intriguing a set-up. Then I glanced over towards the collecting tank and Whoa! Color - Shadow - Texture . . . Asahi Pentax Spotmatic w/35mm F:3.5 Super Takumar.
House of God - Chillicothe, Ohio - 18 August 2008. I spent an afternoon wandering down a road west of the Scioto River from Circleville to Chillicothe, Ohio looking for stuff to shoot. In Chillicothe I stopped to photograph this church front. A passerby paused to figure out what I was shooting - and the missing human element was added. Asahi Pentax Spotmatic w/105mm F:2.8 Super Takumar.
Equity CO OP - Brady, Montana - Take the exit west of I-15 in Montana and you'll drive down Central Avenue. When you reach the main line of the BN&SF there'll be two big tanks painted silver on your left. They made the light meter in my Pentax a little crazy. As elevators go - it is pretty modest - but with a lot of interesting shadows. All photos with a 28mm F:3.5 Super Takumar or 20mm F:3.8 Auto Vivitar on an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic. Pictures were done in October 2008 and April 2009.
Great Western Malting Company – Brady, MT : There were so many pictures I wanted to get in Brady, MT that I broke them up into two sections: The Geat Western Malting Company, and the Equity CO OP. The web-site of this suppler of barley malt for brewing is below.
Olympus 35SP – I desperately wanted one of these as a teenager. I’ve had this one since January 2002. Why would anyone who has a Leica M-2 and M-4 want an Olympus 35SP? Well – it goes to sheer convenience, a superb optic, and auto exposure capability. For a complete rundown on this camera, I recommend two sites:
No Loitring – Lost my Hue - Both images were shot on a late fall afternoon spent driving around southern Ohio. The “No Loitring” sign was on the outside of an abandoned school in McArthur, Ohio. Perhaps that is where the author learned how to spell. . . Hue is a tiny place on Ohio 56 down in the Hocking Hills region. “Lost my Hue” is only amusing if you lived during the Vietnam War, and heard about the great battle for the city of Hue (pronounce “way”) during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Olympus 35 SP rangefinder camera.
Oldsmobile and Chief Pontiac – Sidney Montana – 20 July 2008. These two old birds are in a junkyard behind a chain-link fence so I didn’t have much choice of shooting angle. I found the 1950 Oldsmobile the most compelling – its’ dangling “o” a commentary on the fortunes of that GM division. Chief Pontiac was looking a bit weathered too. . . Panasonic Lumix DMC LX2
Sphinx Moth – Globe, Arizona – August 2007. These things were swarming the flowers at a bed & breakfast where I stay in Arizona when working at San Carlos. Neat thing about Sphinx moths – they’re the only moths that can hover like a hummingbird. In fact, I thought that’s what I was seeing at first – until I realized I could actually see their wings moving. I shot this using a Asahi Pentax Spotmatic w/105mm F:2.8 Super Takumar + a short extension tube.
Three Kings - Sidney, MT: 21 July 2008. I took many photos this day which will appear over time. I am depopulating a gallery I had on Photonet for about two years and shoving a lot of that material over here along with whatever I have to say about the image. This was about 10:00HRS - and it was already noticeably cooler in the shadows of these structures. Panasonic LUMIX DMC LX2
Grain Elevator - Kingston, Ohio - 06 November 2008. On my way into Kingston I saw the tops of a grain elevator complex – so off came the 500mm Tamron and on went the 17mm Tamron. This is a very new complex - all metal, no concrete silos. I finished off a 36-exposure roll of Fuji 400 color negative film just poking around the place. I tried arranging elements in the fame so when I do some perspective control in Photoshop – stuff won’t get shoved out of the frame. Nikon F3HP w/17mm F:3.5 Tamron SP
Under Montana Sky - October 2008: BN&SF Freight east of Browning, MT. Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SP) w/105mm F:2.8 Super Takumar w/400 ASA Fuji Color Negative film. Double click on the image.
BN&SF Near East Dunsmore, MT - April 2007. I like how the lens compresses the distance and accentuated the grade of the rails. Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SP) w/135mm F:2.5 Super Takumar on Fuji ASA 400 color negative film. Double-click on the image
Westbound BN&SF East of Browning, MT - October 2008. Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SP) w/105mm F:2.8 Super Takumar on Fuji ASA 400 color negative film. Double -click on the image.
Time Travel - April 2003. Climb from the floor of a kiva - emerge into the bright sunlight of a New Mexico afternoon - watch a jet cruise past high in the sky. You've just traveled about a thousand years in 12 steps. Pecos National Monument - Pecos, New Mexico. Sony Cybershot DSC-P30.
Bonnie - 11 April 2009. I live in a very old house with deep window sills - and the cats spend endless hours perched on the sills watching the world go by. This wound up being a bit more abstract than I wanted. The autofocus feature on the Panasonic LUMIX DMC LX2 frequently gets tripped up.
