Serendipity – make sure it’s in your corner

Late in the afternoon my wife exclaimed suddenly, “Look at the sun – it’s red!”  The weather had been moderately overcast all day so I was surprised the sun was even out but when I went to the window I saw the clouds breaking up in the west, and the sun hovering above the horizon like a bright orange-red helium balloon.  A great scene so I got my camera to see what I could capture.  Initially had too short a lens so I quickly changed to something longer and was able to isolate the sun and glowing clouds.

Yeah, I know, you’re not supposed to point your digital camera at the sun but the clouds were attenuating the light enough you can look with your bare eyes so I figured my sensor was OK, especially at the fast shutter speed I’d be using.

Then, as I was working on an exposure to get the sun and some cloud details, I saw this little streak of clouds growing across the face of the star.  It was a jet airliner, on its way westward, leaving a contrail behind.  There it was, the perfect juxtaposition of time and space, putting the airplane between me and the sun with the clouds at just the right density to show the brilliant globe while not so bright as to overwhelm the tiny stream of jet exhaust.  I quickly made several exposures as the plane made its transit, providing a tiny eclipse for a brief moment.

ISO 100, 400mm, 1/400 sec., f/8

Upon reflection, thinking how much planning would be required to actually set up such a shot (if it is possible), I remembered what a workshop instructor said about knowing it would be a great shot at just that moment and trembling as you hit the shutter.  And then realizing it was over, probably never to happen again.  But preserved to share.

Insert owl cliche here…

ISO200, 170mm, Aperture Mode, f/4.5 (-0.7 EV), 1/500 sec.

During one of the days of the photo summit I recently attended in Jackson, WY we weren’t getting any good elk photos so the leader got in touch with the Teton Raptor Center in Wilson, WY.  He arranged for the founder, Roger Smith, to graciously open up his facility to a dozen or so photographers and display a few of the residents they use for education.  Roger is very enthusiastic about the birds and the work being done by the Center, and spent well over an hour with us talking about their habits, pointing out cool things about each one, and generally being a great host.  If you’re ever in the area be sure and stop by.

The Great Horned Owl above was the first raptor he displayed for us and she was just great.  I’ve never been this close to any owl before (probably none of us had) and it was fascinating to see the details of her feathers and look into those big eyes.  She had quite a personality, and because she was with us the longest, I think we all found her the most interesting character of all the raptors we saw.

After holding her for a bit and describing owl physiology to us, Roger put her on a stand in the sun so we could continue photographing her.  This, of course, led to an immediate paparazzi crowd.

ISO200, 50mm, Aperture mode, f/5.6 (-0.7EV), 1/500 sec.

Where the food comes from

So, you go to the grocery store or open your pantry, grab an onion and start chopping and dicing for one of your favorite dishes.  Ever wonder where that onion came from?  Assuming you didn’t grow it in your own garden I’m wagering you don’t give it a second thought.  You need onions – onions are made available.  I mean, who worries about running out of onions.  All the time I spent wandering around the agricultural fields in California, Washington and Idaho I never really noticed onion plots, although these would be the places I’d look if I were buying in truckload quantities.

It was a happy surprise, then, when we drove past an onion harvest – in Utah.  North of the Great Salt Lake.

No, chasing down onion patches wasn’t on our schedule.  We were going to the Golden Spike National Monument, the site where the two halves of the transcontinental railroad were joined way back in the 1860′s.  Take my word for it, take away the modern visitor’s center and the place looks pretty much like it did back then.  There’s even a section of track that was laid down on the original grade.  More on that later after my film is processed.  By the way, if you ever get out to this little part of the National Park Service you’ll also see the Thiokol facility where they build and test the booster rockets for the space shuttle.  But that’s another story, too.

400mm, ISO100, 1/1250 sec., f/10

Onions, big onions, big yellow onions.  That’s what we saw in rows next to the road as we were driving out to the Monument.  Sometime in the days previous they had been unearthed and put into rows.  Straddling those rows and traveling down them was a harvesting machine that was picking them up and transferring them to trucks.  Pretty quickly, too.  In the time it took for me to take a dozen pictures they switched trucks.  I guess these bulk onions are taken to a processor for cleaning and bagging.  Now I know where those flatbed trailers stacked with bags of onions I see on I-80 are coming from.  Who knew.

Thanks for the memories

Olympus E-3, 14-54mm, 1.3 sec, f/9, ISO100

The home of baseball in Omaha and the college world saw its last game Thursday.  Rosenblatt Stadium will go the way of so many iconic ball fields as the desire for more modern facilities by the powers that run baseball as a business overrule the sentiments of the patrons who provide the money.

I only attended a few games here, mostly during the College World Series that is an annual pilgrimage for fans nationwide.  Being there is an intimate event because of the size and friendly nature of people who go.  The same people will see their way to the new ballpark downtown but it’ll be years before there’s a hint of the same atmosphere.

Better fans than me can describe what it’s meant:

WSJ Article

Local TV station news article

Seeing

Got out last weekend for the national photowalk organized by Scott Kelby.  It’s a way to get photographers together and out into their community to see what they consider worth an image.  We had a good turnout here in Omaha – probably 30 or so photographers meandering in small groups along a course recommended by the leader.  Driving through the city, alert for traffic and pedestrians, it’s easy to miss the interesting architecture and items placed around the city.  A stroll is definitely the way to think about a downtown area photographically.

Contrasts and Reflections

Sit a spell

Speaking of thinking, as a matter of personal discipline I carried only a film camera, forcing myself to actually look, think and then shoot.  Experience has taught me with digital I’ll not only ignore my on admonition for intentional photography, but will end up with several versions of the same composition, as if one more push of the shutter will improve the picture.

Not only film but black and white print film (Kodak Plus-X 125), a new one I’ve wanted to try for a few months.  I’m not as intimidated by exposure as I used to be, so I let the camera determine the shutter speed and kept the aperture around f/8 or f/11 to get some background blur and decent grain texture.

It is an interesting feeling, walking around and actually seeing, not feeling compelled to gaze at the world through a viewfinder.  Not only what caught my sans camera eye but also what the other photographers were grouping around and pointing their lenses at for capturing.  I like looking over others‘ shoulders, seeing what they are seeing and trying to imagine what they are composing.  Sometimes makes mundane scenes you’d walk right past suddenly stop you and make you look more closely.  After all, another person is seeing something there!

We started in a park dedicated to Plains pioneers, well designed and populated with bronze statues of covered wagons filling with families seeking a better life out west.  Those attracted a lot of attention from the group as people vied for composition and lighting.  The park is unusual in that the statues wander along streets, leading to a water feature with geese up on the light poles and splashing around in the water.  Bronze geese, not real ones.  Several people paused here to make images of the water from different angles.  The sun was flashing in and out from behind clouds so the lighting was always opportunistic.

Pointing Skyward

Sandlot Ball

I stayed with a small group of natives, people who’d seen the downtown go from economic center to blighted eyesore to ongoing recovery.  It was fun envisioning the landscape through their eyes, learning which buildings used to house old theatres or department stores, which structures are gone now and which have been reborn as condos or apartments.  Lots of stories, hard to make pictures that do them justice.

Shot through my 24 exposures – not bad for a couple of hours on the street.  Saw several other images but wanted to spend more time with them so perhaps later.  They’ll still be there, waiting for my intentions.

Homestead Post

There is a great volunteer group associated with Homestead National Monument.  They are involved with the activities at the Monument to support the staff there in their educational, restoration and management efforts.  One outreach tool they use is a blog specifically for their volunteer community.  While I was there in the spring I was asked to contribute to their blog, a brief discussion on what I was doing during this part of my residency.  Here’s the link to my entry:

http://homesteadcongress.blogspot.com/2010/06/homesteads-artist-in-residence-why-this.html

I’ll be back at Homestead in September for the second half of my residency and I’m looking forward to see how the prairie has developed over the summer, seeing some early fall colors and hopefully photograph the managed burn of part of the prairie.  More on that later.

Summer light shows

Summer certainly means fireworks, for any number of occasions.  Even where shooting them off is patently illegal you can always hear the booms and see the lights in the sky.  There’s something about the sight of colored lights in the sky controlled by man that just makes summer bigger and more open than any other season.  All you have to do is watch and listen while little kids turn their heads upward to enjoy a fireworks show – that will remind you what summer is all about.

And the technology continues to be inspiring.  More colors, more shapes, complex interactions, longer durations.  Each company trying to outperform their competition with secret power formulations and advanced control systems.  Building on ancient knowledge discovered by the Chinese these entertainment companies fulfill expectations for a bright and noisy summer evening.

Fireworks over water are especially grand, with the reflections doubling the scene and the shadows of boats anchored for vantage points.  A much more safe way to display, naturally, that adds to the experience as you sit on the shore and gaze across the water to the show being put on in the dark.

Here are a few images from a recent fireworks show we attended on the last night of the  National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan.  Enjoy!

Change happens

It’s amazing how fast spring erupts or how quickly life responds to optimal conditions.  Around here sometimes it feels like you can actually hear the grass grow or watch the corn get taller.  This rush to grow got me to thinking of how to give people a sense of change.

A local park where I find lots of images is mostly a tall grass prairie around a flood control lake.  Early this year the park management performed a controlled burn of different sections in the park, fire being an essential tool in the management of prairie.  It is used to eradicate non-native species and create space for the grasses and other plants to get their seeds to the ground and have sunlight reach them.  When I saw the burning late one afternoon I realized the opportunity to capture images of change.

What surprised me is how fast that change took place.  I was expecting several weeks of gradual transformation from blackened ground to green grasses so I scheduled a shoot each Monday afternoon when the sun was getting low.  Turns out I should have scheduled a shoot every day!  Returning the week after my “baseline” photos I found the areas that were previously charred ash converted into a bright green field.  By the third week it required getting down and separating the grass to see any sign of burnt ground.  Simply amazing.  I called off the project because after the fourth week the field was just a sea of grass, all getting taller at pretty much the same rate.

Obviously next spring, or after the next burn, I’ll need to set up a time-lapse system to catch these shoots of new life reclaiming their rightful place in the plains.

Omaha Beach

Our local camera club as been around for almost 85 years now, so members are pretty connected with the community.  A benefit of that is we get asked to come photograph different events in the area, especially the charitable ones.  It gives us a chance to work on technique, see different things, become more known as photographers in the area and generally have some fun.  This weekend was Omaha’s Sand in the City contest to benefit Nebraska’s Children’s Home, an adoption agency.  Several tons of sand were dumped in a parking lot near downtown and Friday 17 corporate teams (with a little professional help) sculpted their mounds into different scenes.

From a photographic standpoint it was a challenging environment.  Most of the tents were red/white striped so the sunlight coming through had a reddish cast that had to be removed in post-processing.  Not that you could really tell – most people who weren’t tanned were sunburned! 

Also, making images showing the sculptures and people working on them meant having a really bright background where the tent wasn’t shading the sun.  But I found where you composed close to your subject, making it obvious what the story of the picture was to be, the bright background didn’t distract that much.  My eye kept returning to the subject in the foreground.