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.....

Field Crew 2012

Above is Dave, Johnny, and I or "The Field Crew". Dave is the critter control guy, Johnny the corn picker, and I drive the tractors and communicate with the packing crew. We all also pack lots of corn. I try to get a photo of us in the field with the last load every year but it wasn't possible this year so I shot this photo in front of the John Deere 8335r. Below is Dave discing down the second planting in Harold's Field - unfortunately the frost ruined the field before we could pick it.

Cake and Costumes

Today was Andrew's(my nephew)first birthday and Trick-or-Treat night. We had dinner and cake at my sister's house and then the kids all went out to get their candy. I stayed behind and helped pass out candy to the other trick-or-treaters.

Last Load 2012

The last load is always a big deal at the farm - I didn't get the chance to shoot to many photos so I combined these with my photos of the second to last load. This year made for a long season - we started picking earlier than ever and went quite late. I'm tired, very tired. I love my job but would be lying if I didn't say that I was pretty excited to wrap things up at the farm. I have so many things I want to get into this Winter - I can't wait to share them....stay tuned...

Last Shot(s) of Summer

Yesterday I developed a roll of Iford HP5 Plus 400 film in Kodak HC-110(b) that I mostly shot over the late Summer. It took me a minute to figure out which fields and when some of the shots were from. This is my second roll of HP5(not counting my high school photography class) and I'm not sure yet whether I prefer it to Kodak Tri-X 400 or not yet. I feel that I get a bit more contrast with Tri-X but I need to shoot a few more rolls of this first and make some prints before I'm sure. I'm really pleased with the above shot that was taken directly into the sun which was just starting to burn of the thick fog from the Cuyahoga River. It came out as I hoped - I think my black and white film photography skills are starting to get where I would like them to be....

The corn picker in Muranyi's Field - shot with my ubiquitous red filter to bring out the clouds.

Pumpkin Carvers

Last night I went over my parents house to hang out and watch my niece and nephews carve their pumpkins. I came straight from work(where I shoot mostly natural light) so I didn't have a flash with me. That being the case I shot a few with my pop-up flash and a few at high-ISO settings. The high-ISO shots look decent in this size but start to show noise(or graininess) when viewed large - not really a big deal for these kind of photos but my nerdiness always prefers more image quality when I shoot digital.

Fall in the Field

Our last field, Mrs B's, at sunset.
Utility Pole - I like the highlights...

New Finds at the Bender Farm

A few days ago I left work early and decided to poke around the abandoned Bender Farm on my way home. I've hiked around and photographed the farm multiple times(old post) but I always seem to find something new. This time I found an old manure spreader in a little valley near where the cow pasture used to be. I also explored the remnants of the greenhouse and found the tombstone of Jim Brown's son.  

 Every old farm used to have one of these. Johnny Szalay told me they sold theirs(which was rotting into to the ground) to a nearby lady who uses it as a planter to this day.

Diet Velvia

I bought a roll of Fuji Velvia 100 last spring to shoot with my Nikon F3 but never got around to it - I figured the fall color on the farm would be a good time to test this film that is supposed to be great for its color saturation. The title of the post refers to the 100 ISO version of the film I choose to shoot - the original Velvia was ISO 50 - I was a little afraid to try such a slow film. Velvia is considered by many to be the best color film available - I still like Kodak Ektar 100 but Velvia is the best slide film I've shot so far.

Picking Corn Stalks

My favorite machine on the farm is our antique Internationale Harvester Corn Stalk Bundler. It runs off a drive wheel and was designed to be pulled by horses - we rig it to our John Deere 6320. Its an amzing machine to watch in action - we're still not sure how it ties the knot. We always like to imagine the farmer over 100 years ago who was sitting in his house one Winter night thinking, "I'm never picking and bundling corn stalks by hand again....I have to think of something....."