Eclipse

Put another eclipse in the books for me. The first eclipse I got to experience with my wife and that one was a total eclipse. This one was a partial eclipse at 90% with my Dad. He is 97 and it is the last he will ever see. The next eclipse in the United States won’t happen until 2044. That one will happen over the Northwestern States. I might try to see that one but I don’t know. I have 20 years to decide.

Out of both eclipses, this one is just a little more special. It wasn’t a total and I didn’t make it home for the peak, but we did get to set up the telescope and see the sun partially blocked by the moon. This is something we have never shared together and I’m glad we didn’t miss that.

My interest in astronomy and photography comes from my Dad. He would get Sky and Telescope the magazine and I would occasionally read it as a kid. Most of it was above my head but it still was interesting. Especially the photos. We would also go out on a clear night and look up at the stars and he would point out the constellations. That was back in the dark age when you didn’t have as much light pollution as you do now. Space was one of the few things we had as a mutual interest. Well that and Monty Python’s Flying Circus but that is a story for another time.

This is the image of the sun and moon projected on to a plate from the telescope.

I’m not sure when my Dad got this telescope but it looks cool. I know he’s had it at least 60 years. That is, of coarse, my Dad zeroing on to the eclipse.

Building Lines

I find this simple building kinda fun to look at as the sun moves across the sky. It’s the contrast of color that makes it interesting to me. I find the morning light is the best light so far.

Selfie

Tight on time so took an easy shot using a leading line. Also tried out the trigger for the iPhone on my Apple Watch. I didn’t know you can see the live feed on the watch. Cool. Damn I need a hair cut.

Got nothing

I got nothing today. Try again tomorrow

Lines

This week is lines. It’s simple and essential for good compositions. Yesterday was a crazy day but I managed to create this image.

The exercise I’m doing with a photo a day is the equivalent of a sketch pad. So don’t expect great works of photography. I’m just practicing.

Equipment

Sometimes the equipment we use can be treacherous. This is a microtome used to cut tissue embedded in paraffin into very very thin pieces. Oh thin? Well the average slice I cut is 5 microns thin. A human hair is 50 to 70 microns thick.

Two things make this treacherous. One is the fact it uses a blade so sharp that if you’re not paying attention, it could slice open your finger before you felt the pain. The blade we use slices bone for the pathologist samples.

The second thing I personally find treacherous about this machine is the fact that you can screw up a sample and there is no way to fix it. Unlike collecting blood, there no way to get a sample once it’s exhausted.

Once the tissues are cut, then they are placed on a slide where their are baked and placed in a stainer where they eventually go to a pathologist for review.

Puppy treachery

Puppies are lovable fluffy four legged monsters that test your patience all the while tugging on your heart strings. Get one and your whole life changes. The worst part is that they grow up.

Stairs

When I was much younger, I never thought that stairs the ladder or ice were treacherous, but now they are. The other day I was pulled by the dog causing me to misstep and roll my ankle so bad, for a moment when I felt pop, I thought I broke my ankle. I didn’t but even after a week, I’m still suffering some pain and stiffness.

Treacherous doesn’t meant an immediate threat. Sometime it’s a future task that will eventually bit us in the ass.

The Morning Downpour

Spring and fall is a mix of weather that sometimes doesn’t agree with what we want. This morning started out at 50 degrees which was great but heavy rains accompanied the temperatures. No problem, I’ve got rain gear for just this situation.

With all that said, the small lakes that stands in the depressions on the streets and intersections made for a treacherous ride to work. The wash from my tires and passing motorists only added to the misery of my commute. However, I did arrive to work with dry clothing under my rain gear.

Mulligan

I have had one of those days where I haven’t been able to create an image. So I’m calling for a mulligan and using an image from the past.

The theme is treacherous and on that day, riding a bike was treacherous. But to tell the truth, I’d do it again

Shovel

As I place the shovel in front of the purple door , I heard my wife ask, “what are you doing?” I’m doing the work and making an image for today. I went for the two objects that don’t relate image. I think that could be a fun topic but for another week.

Next week, “treacherous.” This will be fun

Doorways

Into the building and on my way to another day of embedding and slicing. Through are the doors is another day waiting to put behind me.

Gnomes

Today was one of those days where time was limited. None the less, I’m still putting in the work. When I started this I didn’t expect to produce “portfolio work” every time. I’m not sure I have yet to create an image that is passable, but that isn’t the point. It’s to put in the work so later down the line, the muse may deem me worthy. Until then, enjoy my gnomes.

Under The Bridge

It has been a while since I have go down this road. This road was part of my route to get to work. When I started to commute to work on a bike, I used the trail above. I thought this bridge would make a great image for the frame theme. In the frame is an old power plan that uses coal to create the electricity. Not sure if it will be operational for too much longer but it looks nice in the natural frame.

Spring!

Well it is the spring equinox and I am ready to take on a new project. For the next 90 days I am, to the best of my abilities, create a photo a day. I have done this before and I think I need to do this again to get back into shooting shape.

My method to this madness is this. I will post one photo a day for the next 90 days and writer a quick explanation of it. Each week I will pick a theme and for that week I will create an image in that theme. At the end of the following week I will create a podcast on the photos of that week in which I will critique the photos and pick my favorite one. For example, this week I am creating photos in which a frame must be part of the photo. At the end of next week, I will post a podcast on the photos of the frame theme.

So here is the first image I’m posting today. It was created looking out my porch. As you can see the America flag and my STD flag (Stop The Donald). Supporting my country while exercising my freedom of speech. How best to frame the idea of what America is about

Quick Start

Sometime it is just a lot of fun to do a sprint and stay head of the car behind you. I think it puzzles them when they see this.

Another Year

Another year has passed and unlike 2021, 2022 seems to be the least productive year I had. I can lay on a cornucopia of excuses in which some are valid and some can be just chalked up to plain laziness. But instead of spilling my guts out, cry and hope that the few, very few, people who read this post will forgive me. I am just going to suck it up and move on. At my age I don’t think there is a lot I can do to attract attention beyond my friends. So this year I am going to do whatever the fuck I wish on this page and not worry if it gets eyes or not.

I was listing to a podcast and I wish I could remember who and what show it was, but one of the host stated to the effect. Photography is not an art because you are only recreating what is in front of you. There is nothing unique about the scene nor are you putting your interpretation of what you are seeing. You are taking a photo at a specific time of a specific place and if anyone were to go to that same place at the same time, they would get the same or very close to the same photo. So why is it art? So me something new about that place, show me your interpretation as well as convey your feelings, then it maybe art.

My first instinct when I hear that was to say; “Well of course this is the sort of blinkered philistine pig-ignorance I’ve come to expect from you non-creative garbage! You sit here on your loathsome spotty behinds squeezing blackheads, not caring a tinker’s cuss for the struggling artist.” But after a few days of John Cleese screaming in my head and trying to calm down I finally managed to truly think about what they were trying to say. Its not enough to take a photo but there must be more for the viewer to get from your work other than, ‘That’s Pretty.”

Think about all the photographers that came before. Each one was an innovator, did something that no one had done before. They created a result that showed the viewer a point of view they didn’t see before. I know that it is a hard concept to put into words so bear with me. Lets take Ansel Adams. Landscape photography wasn’t new but what he did to it was. By placing a red filter in front of the lens during the exposure and working the print in the darkroom to get the most out of the greyscale, he got a print that no one had seen before. It gave a realistic representation of the subject that gave a viewer a new way of looking at what would have been a common scene. It conveyed emotion. His work still does to this day. Some of the better landscape photographs I have see has more drama in the way they use the light and darks. What is in the shadows that you just see and what isn’t there.

Now that photography is everywhere and with more images uploaded in to the web for us to see, it is getting hard to come up with a new methods or tricks to get eyes on the image. This only means I have to work harder at my craft and maybe I may come up with something that catches people’s attention. Now I don’t mean try some new preset or cheep trick to get you to look at my work. I mean I need to just work on what I believe moves me. Things that I’s passionate about. Create an image and work the print so that I provoke and emotion in the viewer they never had about the subject before. Isn’t that what art is about?

2023 is going to be hard in that regard but maybe on this journey, even if I am not successful in the end, I will have learned something and isn’t that what it’s about?

Invisible Sun

Some of you may recognize where this image was created. It came from one of my favorite parks, Palisades State Park where I love to camp. This particular image is capturing the light in the inferred spectrum which gives it a ghostly look. Its a medium that I have just started to get into and have a lot to learn about. So far I feel that this is one image, out of dozens, that I feel was successful.

So what attracted me to this way of capturing light? Well its light that sits right off the red end of the visible light spectrum so we can’t see it without the aid of filters or machines. Visible light is between 400 nanometer to 700 nanometers, Inferred is 700 nanometers to 1 millimeter. I know that is a lot of technical jargon but it helps in understanding why we don’t see it. By capturing images in this light what is everyday becomes something new. I feel if we look at thing in a different light, literally , it may change our way of thinking. I also like the way it makes the green look ghostly white while very thing else is a grey or black.

This particular image was shot as a long exposure due to the filter being so dark. In some images the ghostly look along with the movement of the trees give it a spooky, fantasy look to it. The other benefit of have a long exposure it that all the people that were in my image, are gone. It is because they move too fast and where ever they were is now painted over with the background. It is said that the best time to capture images in inferred is to do it around the time the sun is at its highest, but I found that a thin cloud day can be just as good.

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An Invisible Sun

Week One

Second Weekend