Lawn Mower Races

I don't know if it's just an American phenomenon or if it happens everywhere on earth. If it has a motor on it they are going to race it.

July 20th Sparta Airport. Sparta MI.

Tiger Woods, Me and the Zone

This past weekend the village of Sparta had thier annual " Town and Country Days" event. It runs five days and there many things to see, do, eat and drink. But I couldn't get to any of the festivities until Friday night so there were a few image making opportunites missed to be sure.

Saturday night as I was roaming around the carnival trying to get some of that action, when I realized someone was trying to get my attention. My cousin Chuck who I don't see very often and his wife were leaving to go home, they saw me and called out. I didn't even notice them right away because I was in the "Zone".

I never noticed until this past weekend how oblivious I am to things around me while I am shooting, but still I am seeing the smallest details at the same moment. It's a bit freaky.

I'm sure this must be true for somebody like Tiger Woods, to tune out the rest of the world but be so into the shot or putt you are attempting.

The zone is a great place to be. At least for short amounts of time.

Shooting the Blues

A lot of the personal images I have been making during the past few of weeks have been of blues musicians.

I wouldn't call West Michigan a Mecca for the blues, but we have had some pretty good music around the last few years. Some of it local and a number of acts outside the area.








For quite a number of years now a local classic rock station has put on what they call "Blues on the Mall" in downtown Grand Rapids on Wednesdays.




I love the music but I really have a great time shooting people in the crowd. It is an eclectic group of folks to say the least.

The 4th of July

The 4th of July was a day of photography for me this year. I started in the morning shooting black and white film with my view camera and ended the day shooting fireworks at night.

I did spend a bit of time mowing the lawn in the afternoon. Then I went to Rockford MI, a small town a few miles east of my house. They had a blues band playing until just before the fire works started.

Here are a few shots of Cherri and the Violaters for you to look at.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Two weeks ago my wife, our youngest daughter and I traveled to the Upper Peninsula . It was mainly a family trip but I did manage to fit in some personal photography between the shopping expeditions and visits to the tourist traps.

CTS

My daughter Emily attends Chicago Theological Seminary. Like most grad students she works doing various things to make the rent each month.

One of the things she does is to work at school doing custodial kinds of things. She called me a while back and invited me down to photograph inside some of the interesting parts of the building.

" I have keys" was what she told me.

I asked my good friend Steve if he was interested in going along and he went with me. He brought a 4x5 and I brought a medium format camera plus we both brought DSLRs. I think we both got some interesting shots.

Thanks for the invite Em.

Flickr

Every now and again I look through the newest Flickr up loads. http://www.flickr.com/photos/

It always tells you how many images were uploaded in the last minute. This is what it said the last time I looked. (There were 4,974 uploads in the last minute)

I would call this a holy shit amount!

Most of the time I look it's anywere from 2000 to almost 6000 once and if I had to guess it is usually in the 3000 image range on average.

If you take 3000 x 60 minutes that gives you 180000 phots per hour. Damn.

Then if you take those 180000 image x 24 hours you'd get 4320000 image a day.

You can do the math if you want to for a week, a month or a year. It makes my head swim.

All I can say is who the hell is shooting all these pictures?

What do you shoot and what do you shoot it with?

I really like to listen to and read what Brooks Jensen has to say. Brooks Jensen is the publisher of Lens Work magazine and also has a pod cast that I find very interesting. I just finished reading the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Lens Work and it started me thinking.

What you shoot and what you shoot it with says a lot about you as a photographer. I should also say how you shoot what you shoot is also telling.

I shoot a diverse range of subjects.

I also shoot with a number of different cameras, formats, film, digital, etc. I love working in the studio for the control it gives me.

But when it comes right down to it I love to photograph old weathered wooden things with black and white film using large or medium format equipment.

I guess that says a few things about me.

You be the judge...