Gerhard

 

I met Gerhard shooting photos for a local auto event. It was a simple photo request to get a shot of one of his many antique cars that he owned. Not a photo of him, but just the car that was he was loaning to the event. He seemed to have lots of energy for such an old man, was friendly, and eager to show me his auto collection. The cars were parked in a large pole barn in a seeming puzzle of directions. It was going to require moving cars to get to the one needed.

 

I entered the barn with him as he moved the cars while rattling off facts about each car. I asked about how he got into collecting which had a long involved history. He pulled an old framed photo (above) off the work bench about a "California or Bust" trip he had done many years ago. I documented his motions with my camera. 

Gerhard's eyes lit up when he began telling me about ordering cars out of the classifieds found in the back of trade magazines. They were shipped in boxes with many pieces requiring assembly. I asked if he still owned any? "Yeah, and they all run too". He showed me the magazine ad. 

He scurried off and I soon heard a small engine running as he drove past me out the barn onto the lawn. Two more times he repeated this until all three were lined up on the lawn. I continued to shoot all of this knowing that this wasn't the reason I had come to meet Gerhard.

Gerhard's wife came out and seemed amused he had got the cars out and that he was so animated today. She mentioned that he had a recent bad news diagnosis from the doctor, and hadn't been feeling well. He walked towards me with this beautiful chuffed expression which I captured in this photo. 

I turned my assignment photo into my editor, and explained the additional story I had found. He wasn't interested in it, and I have been sitting on this one for over 15 years. This is another interesting soul that has crossed paths with me, and I just needed to tell this small story

I visited a graveyard yesterday

I visited a graveyard yesterday. The brown grass crackled under my feet in the 90 degree heat, and I didn't quite get what I was hoping to find. A Melville quote that I always hated..."Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope"...was not evident. Instead I was drawn to a large stone statue that appeared to look to be of a native American chief from behind, and turned out to be a local Polish Priest named Marianus Matkowski whose congregation obviously loved him. His marker is on a slight crown of a hill, surrounded by towering firs, and graves arranged circularly around his. The deer scat was thick in one shady spot, and a hawk called periodically at me from the tallest tree. I don't go to graveyards because I don't believe spirits would hang around their spent bodies of dust, but this time it did feel spiritual. Not dead, but alive. I can only find a mention of Marianus in a 1959 directory of Priest of Polish descent, but I know there must be a story concerning such an expensive grave marker. (Update below)

These were done with IR converted 5D, and the Nikkor-P.C 55mm f3.5 ai'd micro lens

 

Looking south from Marianus - at the time I shot this it looked like a tunnel of light

 

 

Looking East

 

UPDATE: FROM THE PLAGUE - MARIANUS WAS THE FOUNDER OF THE CEMETERY

 

VIEW FROM BEHIND

Near the entrance was this massive blood red stone crucifix

 

 

One of my First "Real" Cameras

 

Meet the Argus C3 (well over two million units of this model were sold)

 

 When I first got into photography in the mid 1960's, my father owned some really nice cameras, but didn't let me use them. He had a 6x9 Zeiss Super Ikonta, Kodak Retina IIIc, & a Voigtlander Vito. I purchased a used bakelite plastic camera called the "Brownie" that shot 620 film at a garage sale for about 25 cents, and 100 rolls of expired Agfa 120 film for one dollar from a camera store.

 

I would then transfer the 120 film to the 620 reels in the dark, shoot in the brownie and soup them in a stainless steel daylight tank in the bathroom. Initially all I could do was contact prints between a big piece of window glass and some tempered Masonite. (I think they were about 6 x 4.5cm prints).

 

I financed my photography and optical hobbies through multiple lawn jobs. After a few years, at about age ten, my father bought me my first "real" camera as a birthday or Christmas present.

It was made in Ann Arbor Michigan, and affectionately called "the brick" by it's literally millions of owners. It featured a die-cast metal body with heavily chromed accents and edges.

It seemed that it's primary purpose was to survive a fall, but the optics were actually pretty good. I was more determined than ever to get a more elegant, better quality camera after his gift.

All photos are shot with the Canon 5DS-R and Nikkor-P.C 55mm f3.5 ai'd lens

 

 

Whites Bridge

 This beautiful bridge no longer exists. After serving it's purpose crossing the Flat river since 1870 near Smyrna Michigan an arsonist burnt it down in July 2013. These Photos were taken a few years earlier.
It took until 2021 to raise the money, and rebuild the bridge - which I haven't seen.  A wiki page contains more of the story here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whites_Bridge

 From the west looking east during a light rain

 

From the north looking to the south during peak fall colors

Looking through the single lane bridge towards the hills south of the bridge

 

Looking north from the south side of the bridge in winter

Infrared

 Infrared Photography is something I had not explored until recently. There are companies that convert digital cameras to shoot in various pre-determined wavelengths of infrared. Usually they range from about 500 - 850 nanometers for digital photography. The lower numbers have altered colors to visible light, and the higher (800-850) tend to be black and white only. I purchased an old (classic 5D) camera that was converted to IR at 665nm, or "enhanced" color.

Infrared does interesting things to a blue sky, or green foliage.

and when converted to black and white makes the sky go black

With the "enhanced" conversion you can adjust the color quite dramatically

The Red Door

 The Red door is a cobbled together collection of pine boards, glass, trim, antique hardware, improvised locks, and ancient red paint. It opens onto a torturous deck that is renown for producing slivers that resemble chef's knives. A fact to which I and my big toe have been a victim.

 

Its red paint has witnessed countless hours of sun, wave lapping sounds, and cicada songs.

 

When it has been repainted; it always is the exact same shade of red, and it's former layers attest to the many coats it has layered upon the pine boards. This door occupies an inordinate amount of visual space within my mind, because traveling out the door and across the deck leads to a view of paradise.

 

Even the pets are drawn to the view from the red door

There literally is a point of land called "Paradisa" which the sun rises over to kiss this door every day. This little post is my nod to whomever built this magical door perhaps close to 70 or 80 years ago. It was never meant to last this long, but it has been treasured by many, and still serves its original purpose.

Here is the pre-dawn light rising over Paradisa point recently witnessed by me.

New gear - new inspiration

In February I accidentally (long story) purchased a bucket list lens - the Nikkor 200mm f2.0 AI.  In March I added a new to me camera - the Canon 5DSR. In May I found a new way to scan film negatives that results in perfect color. That prompted me to purchase an "Essential Film Holder" from an engineer working out of his kitchen with his wife in London, because they are swamped with orders. Next (there is always a next) I needed software to convert the scans to get that perfect color - enter "Negative Lab Pro". Which necessitated a used Nikon PG-2 focusing stage, a CRI 95 light panel,  plus wireless triggers for the cameras. Straight up it has triggered a renewed energy in my passion for photography resulting in me shooting more images in the last seven months than the previous two years. 

This is the new way to scan negatives. You use a DSLR to shoot the negative. Pictured here is the Canon 5DSR (50 megapixel), a 50mm f2.8_Schneider Componon-S enlarging lens (proved better than my other four macro lenses) plus a set of Nikon "K" tubes. The Essential Film Holder, with a light panel providing the illumination. (not pictured is the wireless trigger).

Since an enlarging lens does not have a focusing helicoil that is why a Nikon PG-2 focusing stage was required. Here are some of the results. (click photos for larger  versions)

Notice in this 100% crop that even the grains of the Fuji iso 400 film are in perfect focus. No sharpening has been applied, or noise reduction.