Horses!

The mobile home park that I'm working at this Winter is next to an Amish Farm. This morning the farmer's horses and goats were right by where I park. I snapped a few photos before getting to work. The area surrounding where I work is beautiful country of rolling hills, large grain farms, and Amish Farms. Its not uncommon to see horse drawn carriages and tractors passing by....

Morning Lights & Empty Lots

A couple of the morning light photos that I couldn't get to post yesterday because of my computer troubles. After the Jump are a couple of photos from work...
Tractor wheel.

Spaghetti and Computers

This morning I took some pretty photographs of a frosty sunrise in the Cuyahoga Valley - so you're probably thinking "why am I looking at Tim's diner?" If you think its because I've started to make my own spaghetti sauce, which make me feel good and save money, then you are only partially right. Its mainly because I really like the original idea of this blog (posting at least a photo every day) and because my computer won't turn on(so I can't edit of upload this morning's photos).  The computer troubles have been going on for a while but for the last week or so the thing had been working great - loading Photoshop actions like it was just out of the box! After deciding that I was going to buy a new computer my old one lulled me into a false sense of security just long enough to make me miss the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Anywho, I'm typing this from my Microsoft Surface RT .....and dang - I make good spaghetti.

Kodak Black and White + 400

Last weekend I shot a roll of Kodak Black and White + 400 in my Nikon L35 Af(after I finished my roll of Fuji NPH 400). This is a film that comes out black and white but is developed using the color process of C-41(the processing photo labs use) instead of black and white chemicals(that I use at home). My friend, Dave, gave me a few rolls of this which was leftover from when he was in College Photography - so it is a few years expired. The reviews say its a fine grained film and comparing it to my Tri-X negatives I would say that the age added a bit of grain, but I didn't seem to notice any loss in speed. I don't believe Kodak still makes this specific film but they do make a different C-41 black and white film(BW400CN). Overall I was happy with the results I achieved with this film, however I prefer to develop my own black and white film so if this wasn't a free gift I probably wouldn't have ever shot it.  I can see why this would be a great for someone who wanted to shoot black an white film without doing home developing.   

Fuji 400 NPH

I shot my first roll of Fuji 400 NPH over the last few weeks but I can't really judge the quality of this reportedly beautiful film because it was well expired - and as you can see above it developed a very cyan-ish tone and became quite grainy. Color shifts and extra grain are to be expected when shooting expired film but what I can't figure out is why it didn't happen in a few of the frames(like the one below). The only explanation that would make any sense to me would be that my scanner was compensating on certain frames but I doubled checked my settings and there was nothing. The same thing happened to me with an expired role of Kodad Gold 400 once and I kind of shrugged it off - now I'm really curious. I need to ask the lab and do some more research into what is going on. Both roles were shot with my Nikon L35 AF - my go to camera when I want something small, cheap(now), and with a flash.

Akron History Museum

As usual we headed Downtown Akron for the lighting ceremony at Lock 3 on Friday night. The fireworks and lighting were great as usual. We then checked out the Akron History Museum - we do this every year also - but I always enjoy it. I cranked up the ISO on my Canon 7D and took some shots.

Modern Tradition

On the Friday after Thanksgiving it has become tradition for my family to do some shopping at the West Side Market followed by some drinks in the area. This year Great Lakes Brewery was a little to crowded for our large group so we grabbed our food and drink at the Market Garden Brewery. 

Thanksgiving

Family, food, laughs, and hikes. Lots of 'thanks'.

Old Friend Meet New Friend

I believe my Dad was given this Panasonic Stereo as a gift from the bank he worked for sometime in the early 70's. My memories of it start when I was quite young - it was always in the family room. I remember hearing it play Christmas songs on many Christmas mornings, my Parent's record collection, and un-televised sports games(remember those days?). I acquired it around twelve years ago(though I had used its now-dead record player since college). I've had it hooked up to a new record player, a DVD player, MP3 player and now I use it with my Microsoft Surface RT. When my former band, The Strange Division, would record we would never be content with a mix of our recordings until we could play a copy of the sessions on this stereo - it just sounds so classic. 

Just Walking

Just a self-portrait of me walking down the tracks in my neighborhood.
I like it.

Frosty Morning

Frosty leaves on a chilly fall morning at the farm...
Frosty broken corn stalks....

Evicted

An interesting and unfortunate place in the country. A vanishing community. The farmers and the poor. Where dreams come to die.

Surface Camera

I forgot to mention in my Surface review how awful the cameras are(there is one on each side). I had mostly shot them inside so I thought maybe they just performed lousy in low light. On Friday I needed to work on my car and I had my Surface outside with me in case I needed to look anything up. I shot the above photo of my old gas filler neck next to the new one in fairly bright light - this smaller version looks just OK but when you see it full size you can see the pixelation and some noise. Microsoft labels the cameras and 720p but they only shoot photos at 1 megapixel. I don't plan on using the tablet's camera as anything more than a webcam(and probably rarely for that) but I think the lack of quality here may turn some other people off(especially with the way I see people carrying around and shooting with iPads these days).

By the way, I successfully replaced my filler neck only to find out my gas tank is rusty and leaky too - that's gonna be a fun job..... 

The Hardest of Ciders

Last year my girlfriend and I started to get into homebrewing(post)a little and we made a batch of IPA. I've wanted to brew beer again but didn't have the time. After some YouTube searches I realized how much less time consuming making ciders and wines are so I brewed a cider first. The cider came out really well so I decided to try another round. My first batch was made from unpasteurized cider, brown sugar, and champagne yeast - the batch I just put up is the same except with pasteurized cider - I wanted to see if the flavor is different without the wild yeasts. I bottled a batch of 'inmate brew' or 'country wine' also - that consisted of 2 gallons of grape juice, one gallon of apple cider, dry wine yeast, and a bunch of sugar. The taste wasn't bad and the brew had a definite kick - I got tore-up on it election night. This weekend(now that I have more time) I'm going to try and brew a Christmas Beer. I'm sure I'll be posting more brewing related articles as we get into Winter...

Scratching the Surface

*Editor's Note* I'm not a tech reviewer, heck, I'm not even a good writer - I actually shortened this thing 3 times....here it goes.....

Background 

When iPads first came out I couldn't really understand the point of tablet computers - you could have a far more powerful laptop for almost the same price and your iPhone(or smartphone) could do all the same things. I started to appreciate tablets while playing with various family members iPads at family functions - I really realized I wanted a tablet when I decided to get a new non-smart phone this Summer and buy a new desktop PC this Winter. I wanted to have some kind of mobile computing so when news broke that Microsoft was releasing a tablet I started to pay attention. I've always had a love/hate relationship with Microsoft - but faults and all I still prefer Windows to Mac OS. It probably comes down to what you're used to and I've had PC's since Windows 3.1 - no different(or less intense) than the debate between Canon and Nikon. 

Randoms

I actually shot a fair bit of photos yesterday and today of all kinds of different things. This is a small selection - I have a lot things to post and write about - a real case of post-farm-season-creative-overload! Its a good thing(right Martha!).

The Election - Live

Live Stream of Facebook Statuses
Update 11/7 - So I went out for a hike and when I got back I was working on some homebrews(post soon) and then started WORKING on a homebrew - I lost touch with this 'live blogging idea'.....

2:46PM I mean he wrote 'Blonde on Blonde' man, 'Blonde on Blonde'.
"Here's pretty close to what I said last night in Madison. I said from the stage that we had to play better than good tonight, that the president was here today and he’s a hard act to follow. Also, that we’re not fooled by the media and we think it’s going to be a landslide. That’s pretty much all of it." - Bob Dylan

2:40PM If anyone feels like stopping by tonight to watch the election - I'm gonna get into my homemade grape/apple wine or Grapple Wine(which is purple so its non-partisan) and have a fire....

2:12PM I think instead of complaining about the age and slowness off the poll workers I need to figure out how to get this job and what it requires...I never have to work on election day.

Back to Life?

This morning I woke up and decided to hit Marc's for some needed groceries and things. In the store I experienced anxiety like I never had before - I toughed it out - but only after nearly freaking out. Not many people can relate to the culture-shock of ending a 7 day a week job that takes up almost all your time for 6 months out of the year. Traffic can feel overwhelming, you think people are looking at you, you get easily confused - this is all no joke, and I require a slow assimilation into 'normal life'. After the experience at Marc's I decided to take a drive into the country. I stopped at Lehman's to pick up a few things then randomly drove around the farms of Wayne County. The weather was supposed to clear as the day went on but never did - so I barely made use of the three cameras in my car. I converted the above photo to black and white to better deal with the drab lighting. Some people like the soft light that a cloudy day can provide but I hate it for landscapes(which is what I wanted to shoot). Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my country drive amongst the tractors, Amish buggies and barns. In a few weeks I should be fully decompressed - until then go easy on me if I seem a little awkward in person.....

Closed for the Season

Last evening we finished getting the farm all closed up for the season. The above photo shows what the Sales Barn looks like when its turns from a market to a garage. 

I'm typing this on my first day off since sometime in early June or late May. It feels weird. A relief and lonely at the same time. Now its time to get to work - but in a different way.....