Haunted by What?

Saturday morning's forecast was for the potential for the northern lights to be visible in our area. I have seen many pictures of the aurora borealis. I knew what I was looking for or at least I thought. I tried one night last summer to get a look at the spectacle without success. This time I found out I needed to be able to get a view of the northern horizon. I drove a couple of miles from here and parked next to a sod farm. I set up my camera on my tripod and waited. Staring at the horizon I could hear Canadian Geese and a dog barking off in the distance. I saw the occasional car headlights driving along a nearby road. The moon was very bright that night, bright enough that I did not use a flashlight I had brought along. I made a couple of exposures finally ending up along a bank of a ditch that got me up off of the road.

This exposure is at f 8.0 at 30 seconds. The bottom left horizon is light pollution from a town several miles away.The moon's brightness reflecting on the melting ice intrigued me so I turned around and snapped a picture with my Iphone and stuck my phone in my pocket. I waited around for about an hour before deciding to make my way back to my vehicle. Before leaving I made this image which includes our new used vehicle backlit against the night.

 I hopped in and drove home and went back to bed. I did not see the northern lights that night and made a few images just for the fun of it.

The story does not end here. As I was taking a look at my images so I could post them. I thought what about that picture I took with my Iphone? I took out my phone and brought up the picture I had taken. I am posting this image below as a composite and levels adjusted in Photoshop.

I have been around photography for about ten years and have come to the conclusion that this is a picture and there is a face in it. I've never seen a ghost. I've been creeped out before but usually have been able to rationalize each situation.  I have also given some thought about that night. The top of the image is the horizon and the field had melting patches of ice. What are the chances of ice patches in a field melting into the image of a face? Possible I guess. I can't go back and recreate this image..  The warm days and rain we have had has melted much of the ice. Was I not alone that night? I do know that there was not a physical body around me for at least a mile in every direction at 3:48 a.m. when I turned around from the direction I was looking and snapped it. I made a couple of images in a pretty dark room using the same program and settings with different results. I also contacted Hipstamatic where I was informed that they do not use a layer containing a face within the program. So, what happens now. I don't know.

 

Natural Light

Today, I noticed a Mason Jar that we use for canning that had some color to it. We take for granted the beauty in ordinary things.

Macaroni and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 Medium Onion
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil/ or Bacon Fat
1 28oz. Can of Whole Stewed Tomatoes
1 15oz. Can of Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of Light Brown Sugar firmly packed
2-3 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Molasses
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Ground Black Pepper
Pinch of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
3/4 Pound Elbow Macaroni
2 Tbsp salt for Pasta water

Take a medium Green Bell Pepper and a Medium onion and chop.

Add chopped onion and pepper to a pot with oil or bacon fat over medium to low heat cook about five minutes strirring occasionally until onions become translucent.

Add ingredients. Starting with the tomato sauce first. Then add the whole tomatoes crushing the tomatoes by hand as you add them to the pot. Add sugar,salt, pepper,crushed red pepper, molasses, and cider vinegar. Bring to a  low simmer while you prepare the macaroni. (Pictured here is a an optional small can of tomato sauce. I did not use it.)

This is a good time to taste. It should be sweet and have a slight vinegar finish.

 
 Bring approximately 4 Quarts of water to a boil.   

Pictured here is about a pound of elbow macaroni. I recommend using a little less than this about 3/4 pound. Add Salt to boiling water, Then add Macaroni. Boil for about 6 minutes over high to medium high heat until macaroni is al' dente. ( The macaroni needs to have a little chew to it)

Drain water from macaroni and stir into your pot.

Turn down heat to a low simmer. Serve and enjoy!

Seeing Beyond Ordinary

I love the light this time of the year. Looking out to see a thin blanket of snow on the ground that reveals the subtle details of the ground below is like magic. The snow that lay on the ground had fallen a couple of days earlier and was fine like powder.

2012 Landscape

Back in November, while driving around on stretch of road I rarely travel, I noticed an image of a rural landscape I needed to capture.  For the last couple of months have been stopping by there to try to recapture what I had missed. I have returned there several times checking it out. Yesterday, I went there with some success.  Today, I returned and while it is not exactly what I wanted it's close. The snow in the cut cornfield is an important element in this image for me. As is the power line. I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to exclude power lines from my images for aesthetic purposes but here it works.  The field was disc ed up at the end of the season making it a rough surface and it shows.  I will return again in the spring when the melting snow just exposes the ground and glistens in the sun.

The Hunt for Red December

November slipped by and now we are down into December. The season of low light angles from the sun catch my attention when it shines. I really enjoy this time of the year even though we have not had much snow to speak of yet.

The above image caught my eye yesterday afternoon.

Red is the color of choice for a lot of barns here in Wisconsin.

Dust

We live in a world with dust. Somewhere,quite some time ago, someone decided that dust was the enemy and we have been fighting it ever since. It tarnished our image of purity. So, devices like brooms, feather dusters, and air purifiers just to name a few were created to dispose of the particles.  When I was in college taking photography classes, dust on a print was unacceptable. I understand that the faculty was trying to teach us rigor  and dedication to the craft. I questioned a professor one day that Ansel Adams prints had spots on a lot his prints from dust on the negatives. No reply came. So Unless, I wanted to spend a lot of time fixing spots on a print with dye and a camel hair brush, I had to learn to keep the negative clean as possible. Today with digital photography and Photoshop dust is less of a concern but there is still a lot of money being made on removing dust from image sensors. Once, I scan an image on a flatbed scanner or negative scanner and it is turned into a digital file. Spots made from dust can be easily removed from digital images with Photoshop.
    The image below I made with my 4x5 camera, Printed on Ilford variable contrast paper, then scanned as is, opened in Photoshop only to resize the image for internet purposes.

 

Quinn. 4X5 Print 150mm lens f7.7 1/2 second exposure ISO 100 Film.

The question I pose here is, where does one draw the line on dust? What amount of dust on a print is acceptable in this day and age? I have looked and do not see many answers. Here is my opinion. Ha! You knew it was coming.
 The image above has dust on it. I have some control on the amount of dust on the negative. With the negative size of 4 inches by 5 inches, I can try to eliminate it but a certain amount is just going to be there. I can move dust particles from one place to another. By the time I get the negative into the the enlarger, dust  creeps in. I am certain dust is in the enlarger. There is no way around it. I have come to the conclusion that as long as it does not detract from the content of the image let it be.

Quinn. Enlargement from above image. This image was taken and printed with the same lens. A Kodak lens made sometime in the 1920's.

This lens also a Kodak made in the 20's.

This image is pure magic.