somerset pt. 4

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One final view from our most recent trip to the abandoned brick works in Somerset, Virginia. Come winter time I've got to return to see if there are indeed clay pits out back of these buildings. Because surely the raw material for the bricks didn't come from any farther away than a half mile. One thing we've got an abundance of around here is red clay. I've learned that one doesn't go idlely walking in tall grasses, because the chiggers can be brutal. Later in the year, when the vegetation is mostly dormant, it will be "safe" to go poke around and see if there are some water filled pits from which the bricks from this plant would have come. As Edward Burtynsky has shown us, any man made edifice is bound to have a concomitant hole in the ground, somewhere.

somerset pt. 3

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The business part of the "works."

to Somerset we went pt. 2

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My version of the brick yard.

time to move on?

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After five attempts to compose something from this landscape during the full moon rise (minus one night for this particular exposure), it's getting to be similar enough that I need to search for something different. On the other hand, now that the weather has turned warm again, it's incredibly pleasant being out in a nearby location at the intersection of moonrise and sunset, whether one or the other is obscured by clouds or not.

The bugs make their presence well known at that time of day, particularly in tall grass. But it's nothing to compare with the midges of Scotland that we encountered almost exactly four years ago, or the black flies last summer when we were in Grand Isle, MI. Photographers' preferred times of dawn and dusk also happen to be when midges and black flies swarm the most. Travelers to the beauties of the Highlands need to know about this nasty fact of Scottish life. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula the black flies swarmed badly enough to make large format photography (aka slow photography) exceedingly unpleasant along the shore of Lake Superior. In both locations, keep moving and the swarms are not usually unbearable. Set up a camera on a tripod for several minutes, and the hoards descend, bringing temporary insanity. Fortunately here in Central Virginia, the instances are far smaller, hardly approaching swarm status. But without some protection one is bound to return with mosquito bites.

Despite the blood sucking element to the environment, I'm likely to return repeatedly to this location.

over the hill and through the woods

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At least in this photo, I'm on the privileged side of life. But as predicted, I'm now fenced out of this location. The gaps have been plugged, and access is now denied. There might still be a gate that's not been finished, but it's only a matter of time before that gets closed up too.

missing

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Hidden in the corner, I found this a couple of weeks ago when in town for an appointment. I didn't have a camera with me at the time, but it didn't look as if it was going anywhere, so there was no rush. Indeed, it was still there last week when I returned. This feels like the first color negative film that really works for me. Such that I'm excited about working with it some more. The light was quite diffuse (it rained within the next hour), and I've not pushed the limits of color verisimilitude with this composition. The ISO 400 grain adds quite nicely to the feel.

a dusty road

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This is about to get fenced in, meaning I'll be fenced out. So hopefully there will still be a chance to poke around a bit more, aftrer spending some time there again this past weekend. It has occurred to me that I might ask permission for access. But that's more preproduction planning than I'm usually willing to devote to a picture, and surely kills the momentary glee of finding an interesting location. The film's in the lab and John's having troubles with parts for the E6 machine, so no telling when we may see the exposures. This snap from an old pea shooter will have to suffice for the time being.

Yikes!

click 'er for bigger - one MORE snow?

Not really. This one has been sitting around the in/out box for several months, and I know there was a reason I liked the composition in the first place. Usually I can set up the Linhof in a matter of a couple of minutes, but for some reason it seemed to take upwards of almost ten minutes for this set up. Maybe that's why I'm posting it: after such an expenditure of time, I might as well do something with it.

But that's hardly the reason the image caught my eye. I've tried to figure this out before, mostly to no avail, and this time doesn't appear to be much different. It was something about the combination of colors and planes, and the imagined history of this well used back door to an abandoned Chinese restaraunt. Many workers coming and going, stepping outside for a smoke, illicit dealings after hours, all long gone and forgotten. Most or all of which can't be contained in a photograph. They function merely as evidence for storytellers and historians.

still stalkin'

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Once again, no luck this month with the rising moon. Tuesday evening was my chance, and while it was a gorgeous sunset and dusk, the clouds obscured the rising. I made a couple of exposures, but not quite what I have imagined I'd like to see. Upon further consideration that perhaps this same location would be an interesting one for a night time photo, I was prepared (in concept) to make an expedition during the middle of the night. But after driving past earlier in the evening, I could see the intended location is directly adjacent to a sodium vapor street light. The light pollution would be considerable, and anyway, it dipped into the low 30's last night. Not sure I am prepared to sit around for an hour during one exposure freezing my bipee off. Maybe this morning?

For some other great construction crane pictures, check these from Mauro in Italy.

walkin'

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too many gun totin' liberals

These good buddies need to get together.

everywhere at once

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Not far from here.

wandering in the past

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what I saw (pt 2)

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It seems we've seen the inside of quite a few box rooms in the past six weeks, affording the opportunity to see sights various and far afield from the home standard.

some places I've been

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The only association between these two is that they're both b&w. No connection is implied or to be inferred. Make your own conclusions.

early spring 2010

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One month ago today: an abandoned brick works. I'm headed back... soon.

a measure of success

last month's attempt - click 'er for bigger

After only three monthly attempts to catch a particular planetary occurance, it appears as if last night's foray into the clouds and rain was successful. This was a good example of being doubtful about what the weather is going to do half an hour before the time you want to take a photograph, but going out anyway. It was starting to rain when I left the house, although the sun was shining over the mountains to the west. It rained a bit more aggressively as I set up a new composition pointed in the general direction of where I thought the moon would rise, and the rain continued hard enough that I needed to break out the umbrella, for which I dearly needed a third hand, while also trying to change lenses and take a light reading.

Ah yes, the digital device would have been soooo much simpler. But who said easy was better? In most other forms of work that I've performed, rarely has the easy solution to a problem been the best one. Why should photography be any different?

The first exposure was captured, in the rain, with the landing lights flashing.

The horizon to the west clouded over as the sun went down, but to the east it seemed to clear somewhat. The rained ceased and I waited. After half an hour or so, sure enough the moon rose more or less in the location I had expected. I gave it another fifteen minutes and decided to move the camera across the field for a different composition.

Indeed, the lesson reinforced last night was not to let the weather discourage you from heading out for photographic purposes. Sometimes at the last minute things change for the "better," whatever the desired conditions might be.

The photo is coming...soon.

Update on Friday, April 23, 2010 at 03:31PM by KMW

Yes, the photo was posted last week, and trashed a few days later. Not a very good image, with a vast discrepancy between how it looks on different screens. The desktop PC where most photo work is performed is fairly "accurate" for gamma and output. (Although I notice that several recent images seem awfully dark.) When viewed on the MacBook Pro, with it's adjustable screen brightness, the moon was barely visible against a rather bright sky. Oh well, perhaps I'll keep trying, but I guess you really need a telescope to get a good image of the moon.

it only goes so far

"Camping World" - click 'er for bigger
Some time back, it seemed as if Mike Chisholm was chiding me for "stalking" my photographs. Maybe I'm taking it personally, or maybe I'm not so very unusual in seeing compositions and planning in some detail how to capture a view imagined for some time in the minds eye. This view is a good case in point: I noticed this spot  probably a year ago, but it wasn't until my recent return from mid continent that I had the time and inclination to stop and set up the camera. The location is at least two hours driving time from home and not really on the way to many places we head towards very frequently. This may not be the ideal time of day to have been here, but that's when I was passing by. Looks like we may be headed that direction again next week, so perhaps I can impose upon the fam to let me take some time to try again.

which way to go?

for my father-in-law; brother-in-law; nephew

Video or no video? In many respects, it's a bunch of horse shit. Why bother record hours of material that is either a lot of blathering, or in many instances can be shown with a series of single images?

After many hours of looking at video camera specs - perfectly good time wasted, never to be recovered - it's obvious that this capability does not come cheaply. Again and again I have to remind myself that mostly I prefer to work alone, or at least have gotten used to such methodology as a still photographer. What can I do alone as a videographer?

And yet... My recent travels - 2300 miles to the center of the country and back in the new, completely safe Prius - with JVC HD video cam in tow - have revealed some of the unattainable qualities of still photography. Movement within the image is the obvious additional factor. Even within a mostly static image, the merest whisper of a breeze animates the world in a manner unlike anything still photography can achieve. It's an incredibly seductive capability which inevitably is harnessed for the creation or depiction of the real world.* Nearly nothing mainstream in the cinema or television aspires to be anything but profoundly realistic. "It isn't realistic" being our primary gauge for the value of programming.

Sound, the second part of motion capture, is the much maligned second cousin to images. During production it's a nuisance and a profound complication. But it's reality enhancing abilities - something still photography isn't necessarily in search of - are generally considered to be worth the trouble. With enough manipulation sound too becomes as abstract - and perhaps even more provocative - as images.

The confusion is palpable. Even though I went all those miles across country and back, carrying the standard 4 x 5 kit as well as the rented video cam, it wasn't until I was once again within two hours of home that I was willing to stop and get out this seemly outmoded device: a still camera. Perhaps it was the newness of the video device which seemed to make still photography superfluous. Amongst the thousands of images that provided themselves to my sliding eyes, it was only one, that has been mentally manipulated previously, that motivated me to stop. This is the problem with travel: it's always easier to keep going, stay in the rolling cocoon, than to stop and set up a recording device.

The dilemmas of audience, funding, storytelling, technology, convention and more still swirl. All I know is that I've got several hours of HD video to edit, a prospect that appears challenging and even fun.

*The cynic in me can't help but recognize that the ultimate goal to which motion picture capture aspires is Reality TeeVee, which has become ubiquitous and is ever expanding. It manages, somehow, to combine the dual impulses of photography: to document the real world, and create a spectacle of it. David Foster Wallace has written tellingly, especially in Infinite Jest, of the dominance of entertainment programming in our lives. 

limited success

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Another attempt was made last week to catch the moon rising over this landscape. All set up and ready to go at least half an hour early.  As the sun set lower, and it approached the time when the moon should have been coming up - about 5:15 local time - the clouds seemed to get denser, even though they were not really moving. Six o'clock came and went, the sun set, the surrounding landscape got darker and darker. The moon never came up. Damn. I knew it was out there, somewhere, but where? By 6:30 I decided to bag it and abandon any hope of seeing a rising moon. Once I got home and looked out again about 7:30 or 8, I could see the mostly full moon shining through the clouds.

Perhaps later this month I'll have better luck with the weather: March 29 @ 6:30 pm local time I'll be out there again with my Linhof attached to the tripod. Anybody wants to stop by and say hello, by all means do so.