Rough Harvest

A couple of weeks ago I was out in the west end of the county during gun deer season when I came upon this scene.

Portage County, Wisconsin  November, 2010.

From that same roll of  T-max film. Last image in black and white of ice crystals made at the time of last post.

Today out side of Rudolph, Wisconsin. A hoary frost covered the trees.

Winter 2010

Over the weekend we had our first real snow of the season. After the snow Melissa and I got the driveway cleared so we could get out. We got a solid ten inches with drifts close to two feet. Several surrounding counties had blizzard warnings posted. Now it is just bitterly cold with a high of 10 degrees today. I went out today and made some headway with the snow blower so I can get to the wood pile out back. It is a funny looking trail around the house.  What you see here should remain until spring.

The wind blew most of the snow off of the trees. A few remain that are flocked with the snow.

Water is in the title of this blog. I find it amazing what can happens to it in it various states. Yesterday I found crystals formed on a singled paned window in the garage. Yesterday it looked pretty cool but today was another animal all together.

Still Life

Every once and a while I see something that catches my eye. Today it was a broom.

This reminded me of an Image I made a couple of years ago that also included a broom. The broom in the next imge is in the lower left corner deep in shadow.

Anti-Freeze

Early last week after running some errands, I arrived home to find a small anti-freeze under Davenport (Toyota Pick-up). So I crawled underneath to take a look. Right away I noticed that most of the coolant was coming from just behind the water-pump. I have been around cars long enough to know that there is a small weep hole located on the water pump just behind the impeller where the belt pulley attaches to the pump. When coolant starts to come out it is only a matter of time before the pump fails and all the engines coolant will drain out in a matter of moments.
   I do not consider myself a gear head or mechanic but out of necessity I find myself taking on such endeavors.

   

The image above shows the front of the engine with the water pump removed. It was also a good time to replace the belts and hoses.

I took all of the images in this post with my cell phone. I took this self portrait weeks before.

These images are about to find a new home but first they had to be sprayed with a preservative to keep them from fading. Then they will be matted and framed. This was the first time I had applied this preservative to any of my images giving them a matte finish. After they had dried they had a rough texture almost like sandpaper.   Images that I have made with my printer that are under glass have not faded at all but some that I printed a couple of years ago  that have been exposed to air have faded to look like something out of my childhood.

Blustery Day

This morning, I caught the sun out while a front blew through. I often have taken images from this view without the highway sign in the frame. Today I felt it needed to be included.  

Hanging On

The leaf season here in Wisconsin is just past peak now. Several of the leaves have fallen to the ground except for many oaks, elms, and ash trees which are falling fast. For the last couple of days I have collected several pictures of different color leaves in various states of decay.

This maple is mostly bare now. I enjoy the single leaf in the upper right hand corner of the image being caught by the breeze as it made its way to the ground.

It is hard not to take a bad picture when the subject has done all the work for you.

Overcast days often allow for rich colors to be seen.

A day I wish I was wearing rubber boots. After several steps in the marsh, water filled my shoes.

Ah! Tamarack Pines.

Oak.

Black Water

A couple of weeks ago, I set out to Saxeville, Wi to take pictures of the Springwater Bridge. Today I am finally getting around to posting an image from that short trip.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the darkroom doing some printing of images I made last week.  These prints were scanned on a flatbed scanner after the print has dried. I have a negative scanner and it does a pretty good job but there is something about looking at a contact(print) sheet from of a roll of film. It has an aesthetic that appeals to me. A look that scanning then viewing on a monitor sometimes leaves me uninspired. For example, last week I scanned an image that looked promising. After looking at it on the monitor I decided that there was no further need to pursue printing this image. So I put the negative back in its sleeve holder until yesterday when I made a contact print of the negatives. The same picture I had scanned took on a different look altogether.

Tomorrow River

Holding and viewing prints in your hands means something altogether different as well, at least for me.

Short Window

Every year in the fall there is a short window of time that color can be found in a lot of places. I caught a hint of it last year and loved it. Today as I ventured out, I found myself at the same place as last year and with different intentions. My plan was to take black and white images and just have my digital along just in case. I was not disappointed.

The color of a maple across the small river gave me the light I wasn't looking for. I did not start with this image. This one and the next were actually taken as I was beginning to leave.

Photoshop not needed here just a steady hand.

The light under the tree was just as beautiful.

Expiration Date

I have chosen not to use the remaining film in the bulk film loader I bought a couple of years ago at an estate sale. After shooting and developing the film.  The films speed(ISO) is 400. I shot a couple of rolls of it at a lower speed 320 to get more density in the negative because of the films age. I found that the negatives just were not holding up.

 This image taken with the older film with a Kodak Signet 50/Portra No. 2 Lens. The exposure was 1/250 @ f5.6 and was not too hard to print. However, The exposures on the roll were just too thin to justify taking a chance on having a failure due to something that I had control over.  So this morning, I loaded a fresh 100ft. roll of Kodak 100Tmax into the bulk loader and will move forward.

gone.

Note: 100Tmax film has a purple tint it.

Some images are left to interpretation. What is included? What is left out? Simple or complex? This mural, painted on a barn in Polonia, was here long before I had seen it. Could I have given it a different meaning?

Everything Is Not Always Black and White

Lately I have been carrying around a couple of cameras. One is a film camera containing Black and White film and the other my digital camera. As I drove by a church this morning, I saw an amber glow coming from its windows stained glass. I thought to myself, how cool it would be to gain access inside and enjoy all of the colored light being thrown about by the  morning sun. A few moments later, I found natures stained glass in a decaying leaf of a weed. Today color fills the viewfinder.

Work In Progress

    Work In Progress. Who has not heard that statement before? This is my first attempt to use a product that has been around for quite sometime called Liquid Light.  It is a Liquid emulsion used in Black and White Photography. It is to be applied to just about any surface and developed in a darkroom just like any light sensitive paper. The other day I picked up a roll of some brushed aluminum at a yard sale. When I handed the man my money he said that he was going to use it to dress up a utility trailer but never got around to it. He just looked at me funny when I told him what was in store for it.

My lovely wife, Melissa.

Springwater River, Waushara  County, Wisconsin.

    Holding the image at different angles shows detail and contrast. I have found I am learning lessons as I go. I applied some to a sheet of glass. The emulsion set up so fast because the glass was cold. Looks like I will need to heat the glass next time before I apply the emulsion. I exposed it and got an image but I could not bring myself to post it. 

Sandhill Crane Outing

The plan was simple join some friends in the evening and scout out a place where Sandhill Cranes congregate. These birds are truly magnificent creatures. Last night was the first time for me to hear there call as they looked for a roost for the night.

I had taken this image a few days earlier in my travels.

More than seeing the cranes was spending time with friends and enjoying the evening light as twilight approached.

The Barn Door

This Log caught my eye earlier this week.

For the longest time I have driven by a barn with a Native American depicted on the door. I thought it looked like a classic Indian Motorcycle brand. I have not seen anything like it in their archives for brands. I am not sure who put it there but the simplistic of it is great. I have been sitting on the image so to speak for a couple weeks until I could get a black and white image of it. I took several digitals of it but could not wait to see the grain that only silver could produce.

Jordan Park, Portage County, WI

Self Portraits

Profile pictures are all over social networks. How many do I need? I don't know. I first started taking self portraits in 2003.

I took all of these one afternoon for class. The assignment was cross process of film. I had a roll of color film and had it processed as color slide film. I remember shooting these when Melissa and I lived in rural Franklin County, Illinois.