Dreams

I like to dream.

When I go to bed I'm hoping to have some good dreams. Last night I had a pretty cool dream.

I was entering back stage where I expected to meet up with some friends who were about to perform. There, in the midst of my friends, getting into the zone and mentally preparing himself for the performance was Jerry Garcia. Of course I wasn't expecting to see Jerry for obvious reasons, but nevertheless, he was there. I was actally looking for his very close friend, his life long friend, David. Although David and I call each other friends, David and Jerry were FRIENDS for a long time.

David was kind enough to give me a picture of him and Jerry when they were still teenagers. David and I have known each other only for the past six years.

Anyway - Jerry was there, getting ready to play.

Billy Laymon, still recovering from Typhus and wasn't able to perform and Pete Sears wasn't able to make it. So guess who they wanted to play bass? Yep, yours truly. So, I had my '72 Guild and my B15 all set up and ready to go and was going over some of the cords with Barry Sless and Mookie Siegel. I was feeling extremely apprehensive when David finally showed up. We had been waiting for him to arrive before we started.

He asked me what I wanted to start out with, and I said I was feeling queasy so let's start with some 3 chord rock-n-roll to warm up. Jerry said, "Here's something to warm up with." And turned to me so I could see the chords he was playing.

I picked right up on it, and started playing. Sorry, I don't remember the song or if it really was a real song. But there I was folks, a fill in for David Nelson Band with Jerry Garcia, Barry Sless, Mookie Siegel, and a drummer I'd never seen before. Man, I just realized, where's Charlie?

The photo is one I took of David when we were in PA a few years back.

Eldean Road Bridge

Between Troy and Piqua, Ohio, visible from US 25 (County Road 25A) where it intersects Eldean Road, is the Eldean Road Bridge over the Miami River. Previous photos that I made were just before the renovation. It looked great - it looked old. Now it looks very nice but perhaps lost some of it's historic value.

It is a long bridge and to cross over the timbers in you car is safe, but it sure doesn't feel safe. I also tried out some of my panorama techiques while photographing from the side. Check it out at http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=2661970.

Rike's Parking Garage

The last remnants of Rike's is being demolished. The department store and the newer parking garage was demo'd a few years ago. This was their parking garage that was built at the corner of Main and Monument Avenues in Dayton, Ohio after the demolitian of Steele High School around 1960. It outlasted Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

Wet Tracks

It is important to be on the right track AND going the right direction. That is all.

Now - the photo.

This was taken just south of Tipp City, Ohio on obviously a dreary day. I went to Tipp City to work on my Smallvilletonberg project. It started raining so I went in a tavern. You can get a feel for the community as you listen to folks talk about the latest news (which for Tipp isn't too good today), sports, some political figures, and their ideas on human and racial relations.

Then I left and drove south along the old Miami Erie Canal. I turned right on Evanston Road and stopped at the tracks. It stopped raining momentarily so I got out and took a couple of dozen photos.

I tweeked this one with Photoshop. On the color version the grass became just a bit greener, the light-brown buds became a little brighter, and the dark woody bushes were brightened to give a little more detail. Of course, then I changed it to Black & White, brightened it just a tad and treated the contrast the same.

The Todds

I was given the opportunity and the priviledge of photagraphing this family. Of course, this being a very public blog, I will not get into the personal details. But, each one of us are faced with challenges from time to time and this families challenges has been a great encouragement to others.
What can we suffer that would be so great that would be greater than the lessons we can learn? If our intent is to learn - to grow - to be more than what we are, what is it that we would not be willing to indure?
Gold is refined in fire and diamonds are created under great pressure.

Summer

When we were children,
especially young children,
summers lasted.
The heat was rarely noticed.
Running in a field, throwing stones in the river,
or wading up a wooded creek flipping rocks and catching salamanders.
We did those things randomly,
spontaneously.
There were no calendars,
no schedules,
no itinerary,
but somehow ever day was filled with activity -
and everyday moved slowly
allowing us to fit in enumerable accomplishments.
Now I'm told,
if I want to play golf,
I cannot do it spontaneously,
I have to play it on purpose
scheduled at least a week in advance.
Recreation is best if it is on an itinerary
with multiple other commitments.
It must be rationed
and redeemed
with regularity -
part of a strict regimen.
That's what I'm told.
We looked forward to summers
when we were young,
didn't we?
I'm looking forward to summer again.
I want to watch the children play.
See if I can learn something.

Smallvilletonburg, Ohio

The concept of capturing typical small town, Ohio and then creating something interesting and hopefully funny is changing. Rather than that, I think it's best to capture the beauty that small towns have to offer, and show it in a real (digitally untouched) way.

So, I will not photograph and show what I intended at the Smallvilletonburg, Ohio blog. Like this historically beautiful but artistically ugly monument in Pleasant Hill will not be shown. It's not that the actual statue is ugly, it's more the way it is presented. The base has these ugly black and white traffic warning stripes because it sets in the middle of an intersection. The base is too small but if it were any bigger, trucks wouldn't be able to get around it. No matter how you look at the statue, it has big utility lines cutting across and distracting from it's view.

The statue has been victim to many pranks. So it's been painted to look like molded plastic rather than bronze or copper, whatever it really is.

Perhaps they should form a new foundation on one of the corners, put a little park around it and give it the respect it deserves.

It was this picture that changed my mind about what Smallvilletonburg, Ohio should be. And this is not it.

Englewood, Ohio

Englewood, Ohio has been in my viewfinder several times in the past year and likely will continue. During the several months, the focus will be on people in Englewood as I develop into capturing lifestyles. I've always found people to be most interesting to photograph.

My objective is to present my collection to the Englewood Arts Council when I have sufficient to show.

Cox Arboretum

I submitted several photos to Cox Arboretum for use as the cover on next winter's quartely. This is one of them.

Panorama!

When I say it, "PANORAMA", I think I should say as if making an announcement. Saying it a little louder, and little more distinct every time I say it; with a rhythm and each syllable getting equal time. One can put the accent on any syllable and will get the same result. We've got a big, WIDE picture.
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When a 3000 pixel wide picture just can’t do the trick, why not take several, starting from the left and moving to the right? When I first started doing that I found out that my metering changes just a bit with each shot, the light changes and the camera adjusts. That didn’t work out too well when I tried to stitch the pictures together. So, what I did was switch over to manual settings on the camera, found the right exposure, and then started to left, then moving to the right, each time overlapping from one picture to the next by about 1/3rd.
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Then I let Photoshop do the rest. It stitches and blends and does things I didn't think was possible. It takes several pictures and blends them into one, homogeneous blend of color, form, and light without a hint of where they were stitch. Coooool.
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I also had to learn that on wide angle, the blending isn’t too cool. What happens is the light at the edges gets a hint darker and then it still shows up in blending. So, it’s better to take five shots at 55mm then three shots at 28mm. Going from left to right – click, click, click, click, and then click. Rather than click, click, and click and cover the same area.
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Now my little Nikon has a PANORAMA mode. It shows exactly where to overlap from the previous picture to get the best stitching. That’s cool. But I haven’t fooled enough with it to tell if it holds the metering from the first shot. I’ll have to check that out.
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This picture is from the top of the mountain in the Smoky Mountain National Park above Gatlinburg on US Route 441 and it was taken with my Daddy Nikon. I could have posted a wider one, but then when you go wide you don’t get very high when I’m posting such a small image. These images are HUGE. They can print out at least to 60 inches wide and still maintain a fairly good quality – at least National Geographic grade.
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With that, let me just say, one more time. “PANORAMA!”

Frozen from Top to Bottom

Flashback - January 2003

Perhaps the temperatures and weather conditions were right this year - I don't know. But I think it got cold enough for a long enough period to create the conditions we had here at the beginning of 2003. No matter - when it got warm enough to make the trek, the forecast called for windy conditions and I didn't want to put up with the windchill. The right temperatures are between 25 and 30 degrees.

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A winter hike is best just below freezing so the gigantic icycles are not breaking and falling to their death, and perhaps anyone else's who is standing below.

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These pictures are taken in Hocking County in a location that is private and is not to be plublished.

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Although the falls in the public area can be very nice when frozen from top to bottom, I believe these are spectacular. Someday I hope to get

back there when the conditions are right.

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The photo here were taken back in 2003 with a more simple digital camera, of the Olympus variety - which did a good job for what it was and the technoligy availabe at that time.

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See the little people next to the huge frozen waterfall. I used those because they give it perspective.

Contentment & Happiness

I am just getting around to going through some photos that I took a couple of weekends ago in Camridge, Ohio. This is one of the photos that I made at a square dance on Saturday night. These are the faces of contentment and happiness. I saw a lot of that there, but these sisters reflected it most.


I made the photo black & white and darkened the background a bit. Black and white adds to what the photo is communicating - simplicity.


Above all things I like to capture , it is the simple Amerciana Lifestyle. It is this image that makes me realize it.

Won 3rd in Competition

On Thursday evening, March 1 - The photo of the Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave won 3rd Place in Black & White Theme (water) competition. Three other photos won honorable mentions, including Black & White Open, Color Print Theme, and Color Open.

I was told I was the first to have won four ribbons in their first competition.

One of the things that I believe makes the photo more interesting is how the long exposure shows how the ribbon of water is flipped over at a turn in its path.

The prints were 10 x 15 matted out to 16 x 20.