Gallery Milestone

Hard to believe that in a few years this would happen...

A few weeks ago my gallery on Fred Miranda's web site passed the 2 million views mark. I just want to thank the people that look, and those that took the time to comment. I have other galleries on my own web site and on Photo.net, but here is the link to the James Markus FM gallery

Dishwater Dreams

 

Vision of the future, and reality are two very contrasting themes in my life. Dreaming is no problem, but

the reality is usually far less colorful. When I think about the 1960's I remember an explosion of colors.
Colors we had never seen before outside of nature - like fluorescent shades of various primary colors showed up in publishing, and the culture. While experimenting with common tap water and dish soap I found little areas of this explosive color. I set out to capture one of these fleeting intersections of color. Here is one of the intersections, and a 100% crop of a piece of the image. Lets hope our futures become as colorful.

 

Both of these were shot with a Nikkor 105mm f1.8 ais manual focus lens, and extension tubes.
Click to view a larger versions

Time Travel

A convergence of old...

A couple months ago my mother gave me this pocket watch. Its value is that it belonged to my grandfather; whom I never meet. However, I was born on his birthday and share his first name as my middle name (Paul). Yesterday, I gave the stem a twirl, and the watch leapt to life. The rhythm was amazingly precise, and I thought about how to capture that accuracy. This is a 150 second slice of time as recorded by the watch. Notice the perfect spacing of the minute hand. So, what is the "convergence of old"? Well, first there is the old man that took this image, me. Next, I employed a 35+ year old manual focus Nikkor lens (105mm f4.0 ais micro), and of course the watch itself.

Whimsical Photo Contest Grand Prize Winner

 Title: "Chili Fire"

 The expression by David is exactly what I was going for in this humorous image. It is a straight forward shot requiring no Photoshop special effects. Just timing, some preparatory work, and simple lighting.

Photo.net's "Whimsical Photo Contest" guest judge awarded my entry the grand prize a couple weeks ago. The prize is this really cool wireless 2TB portable hard drive. It has a battery that can last up to 20 hours, and a SD slot. The judges' comments can be found HERE as well as the other winning entries.

The Road Less Traveled

  Jerry Seinfeld is quoted to have said "Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason". Today, I literally went down a road less traveled by me - 36th street SW. Evidence of the recent economic crash was shockingly apparent. A sky-walk to nowhere.

This sky-walk once led to one of the largest factories in Wyoming Michigan. It filled a city block - probably close to half a square mile of space. For some reason GM (General Motors) left this sky-walk structure in place after completely wiping the ground clean where the factory once stood.

 It seems a gesture kind of like giving the middle finger to the community where thousands toiled to make GM millions of dollars. I can't imagine the number of  lives destroyed by this decision, but it is a very good reminder of the actual stewardship and care that a large corporation has for the local community. There is a reason that some roads are less traveled, and 36th street is now one of them.

Monthly Project Win on Photo.net

 In January there was a monthly project on Photo.net that was about DOF (Depth of Field).

I had just acquired a beautiful used Nikkor 105mm f1.8 ais lens off the popular auction site which proved perfect for the project. So, I shot the nearest model available...Charlie.  Here is the lens...

There was a prize for the project, and I used it to purchase a canvas print of my tribute to Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" - though my version is an antithesis of his sunny bright yellow - live flowers - round vase etc. The unfortunate thing about the tribute is I shot it with another ancient Nikkor - the 35mm f2.0 ai, but I sold it a while back. I wish I had not sold it. I think of lenses as brushes...at least I got to use it a few times. Here is my "Vincent".

 If anyone wants a discount on a canvas print - Canvas Pop does an excellent job. I have a 2' x 5' print in the receptionist area of my studio that I look at everyday. Discount is HERE

Warm Rosemary Herb Bread

provided the inspiration for another food photo award from I Shot It this month. Barb had purchased a delicious Rosemary herb bread, but she improved upon it. Here is the result. This loaf only lasted about 10 hours. BTW Barb also made the bread board. Link to judges comments is below.

Click here to read the judges comments at I Shot It