Happy Days!

Today I took a hike near the Happy Days Lodge in the National Park. I hiked the short Haskell Run Trail and then did some off trail exploring for a while. 

The Happy Days Lodge(above) was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp during Roosevelt's New Deal - they also built or improved much of Virginia Kendall Park. When people say the government can't create good jobs I always laugh - so many great things were built across the country by the CCC and all well giving jobs to thousands of people during America's worst economic crisis.

Little Bit-O-Head

Tonight I poured myself one of m homebrewed Christmas Ales and it had quite a bit of head - it even started coming out of the bottle. In the homebrew world this is called a gusher - it means something bad was in the beer. Since none of my other beers from this batch did this I can only assume the bottle wasn't cleaned well enough(I mostly res-use bottle). So I poured this one down the drain and grabbed a new one that was fine.

Anyways - this is the only post I've had for the last few days - all the photographs I took this weekend are on film. I have a roll at the lab and one that I need to develop tomorrow - if they turn out they should be pretty cool. I've also spent a good deal of my weekend updating my Fine Art America page - so check it out - and buy something, won'tcha?! 

Push It, Push It Real Good!

I attempted to push develop film for the first time - it was Ilford HP5 400 and I pushed it to 1600. My family has a tradition of going to the West Side Market in Cleveland on the day after Thanksgiving. I knew I wanted to shoot some film but I already had a roll of HP5 in my Minolta X-700 and I figured there wouldn't be enough light for ISO 400 - so I decided to attempt to push it. To push film you set your camera at a faster ISO and then develop for a longer amount of time than normal.  I was surprised by how well it turned out - I thought the grain would become much more noticeable - but it really didn't seem that much different than at 400. The negatives definitely become much more contrasty with less mid-tones but I like fairly contrasty photos for the most part anyways. I'd say it was a successful experiment that will be tried again...
 (I didn't post these earlier because my old computer had decided to stop cooperating with my scanner)

Dude, I Got A Dell

So I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new computer. I ordered a Dell XPS 8500 directly from Dell. I know people think the the desktop is a dead device but I think it will live on for a while because of graphic design, video, and photography - the computing umph combined with large monitors are still desirable for these applications. My new computer is toward the top of the consumer market in specs but not the crazy power of a true gaming machine. It has 16 gigs of RAM and a third generation Intel i7 processor. It should be plenty of power for me - to be honest my last computer wasn't that underpowered, it just no longer worked all the time(crashes and what not) - which is what made this purchase such a hard one to swallow. 

I also noticed that getting a new computer isn't exciting like it used to be - it doesn't even really feel any different. I was already running Windows 8 and I'm no longer trying to play the latest computer game(and I haven't been for over a decade). A computer is such a tool for me - I just want it to run Photoshop smoothly while I listen to some music and have a browser window open. I guess its like a carpenter buying a new saw - I'm sure its nice to have something that cuts smoother - but its hardly a new set of Legos on Christmas morning.....

More Valley Finds

Yesterday I went for a hike through the woods roughly mirroring Wheatley Road. I drive down Wheatley to work everyday and I wanted to check out a few places that I've seen from the truck.  I started my hike by heading up an old driveway into the hills(above). In an area where I know an old farm existed I came across the building pictured below. I had been following coyote tracks so I slowly creeped up on the structure to make sure "no one was home". (My mind was picturing walking up on some pups as the mother mauled me from behind.) Inside the "door" was a drop of about six feet to the floor. I have no idea what this would have been used for. I also came across an old farm implement perched on a hill - it had been there so long you couldn't pull it out if you wanted - the trees had grown up all around it.

Under the Bridge

Last week I went for a hike along the Towpath from Boston under the Turnpike Bridge. It was snowing pretty hard but I was appropriately bundled and used my lens hood to keep most of the flakes off the lens. I walked off trail for a little ways and came pretty close to a group of deer. I also set up my tripod to get some smaller aperture shots of the Turnpike Bridge(the light was fairly low).

2012 in Review

Above is one of my favorite photos from 2012 - it was taken with my Nikon F3 on Kodak Ektar 100. In 2012 I really returned to analog photography in full force - from color slide film, to developing my own black and white, to shooting Polaroid/Impossible film. On the digital side I had my best year of selling prints ever and felt my shooting improved in many ways. Follow this link for my '2012 Digital Year in Review'. I didn't have time to finish the template and layout correctly - guess I already have my first goal of the New Year.

Towpath in Snow

I shot this photo late today in the waning light. I used a tri-pod to achieve the desired aperture. This is the Towpath trail slightly passed Everett.

Christmas and Eve

All of my family Christmas events took place at my parent's house this year. It was kind of nice not to have to drive very far to get anywhere. On Christmas Eve I shot bouncing my 580exII off the ceiling and on Christmas Morning I shot natural light. I also shot some black and white film which I hope to have developed tomorrow.

New Photographer - Andrew.

Your Christmas Card

Happy Holidays from the staff and families of Zipper City Photography to you!

Abandoned Garage

Laura and I went for a hike in the Valley today. While walking along I spotted an abandoned building a few hundred yard off of the trail. It turned out to be a falling down garage fairly near to a house that seemed to be occupied. The snow cover gave the sight and enchanting quality - maybe its just because we have gone so long without any snow. We stayed away from the house while exploring the garage and the area around it. Laura found an old plow covered in the snow. I would like to come back and search the area again when there is no snow on the ground and see if there are any other artifacts around.

Christmas Bokeh

'Bokeh' is a Japanese word used by photographers to describe the 'out-of-focus' part of a photograph. Different lenses exhibit different kinds or qualities of bokeh. A really expensive prime lens is often said to have "really creamy bokeh". The above photo is of Christmas lights on my mantle shot with a really large aperture to create a very small depth-of-field. This effect is used on Christmas lights by thousands of photographers this time of year - many do portraits with the blurred lights in the background. So I know I'm not reinventing the wheel here - I'm just enjoying the ride.

Lots of Light

Last night I was reading through a photography magazine and motivation struck me - it didn't matter that it was getting late - I had to shoot something. I've had this idea for a lighting set-up for a while and I decided to try it out. I used three shoot-through umbrellas surrounding the camera with Canon flashes in each on full power. It kind of gives a ring light effect. I added the vignette in Photoshop. 

By the way, I've downloaded the a trial of Photoshop CS6(I was using CS4) and I'm learning my way around it. The changes to what I use in Photoshop itself haven't seemed to make that much of a difference(yet) but the changes to the RAW editing program Camera Raw have been huge. The program is so much better at converting RAW images and the adjustment sliders make way more sense. I can definitely make better images with the upgrade - which I will purchase when the 30 trial expires.

Outtakes!

I shot some portraits of Laura's niece and nephew for use on her sister's Christmas Cards last week. I think Mom and Dad will be happy with some of the nice family portraits I took - but I really like these two "outtakes". The above is probably my favorite Christmas photo ever.

Riding Run Hike

I took advantage of the warm weather and my day off to engage in my favorite hobby - exploring the Everett area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Besides enjoying nature I was also on the look out for the man made objects the park never removed - such as the front end of a car buried near the Covered Bridge(above photo). As any regular reader of my blog knows, there is just something that fascinates me about the juxtaposition of the recent populated past colliding with the natural present of the park. I've become quite good and noticing the tell tale signs of where human structures used to be - barns/houses/garages- today a tree lined driveway, minus the driveway....  

Thirsty Dog

Last night Laura and I went to the Thirsty Dog Brewing Company's tasting room to have a few beers. I really wanted to try the Mayan Last Dog beer being that it will only be available for a short while - it was a very good stout. I also had a smoked lager which was delicious. Laura had a couple of 12 Dogs of Christmas which turned out to taste much better than it does in bottles this year - I'm not sure why. It actually reminded us of what it tasted like last year. The tasting room is a cool spot - pretty much a regular bar but right in the brewery. It was fairly crowded and the bartender seemed a bit overwhelmed but we enjoyed our beers sitting at the bar. The hours are a little strange so if you decide to go make sure you check the website first.

Tree Decorating

Laura and I put up and decorated the Christmas Tree last week. We've collected some antique ornaments, bought some new ones, and received a few as gifts over the last few years. We drank a bottle  of Corsendonk, listened to some Christmas music, donned our gay apparel, and had a good time....

Browns Game

I've finally fixed my computer so I hopefully I'll be back in action for good. I'll be uploading the blogs and photos I couldn't post last week. I bought a new hard drive, installed Windows 8, and downloaded a trial of Photoshop CS6. I also tried to add a few gigs of RAM to my computer but it wouldn't start when I installed the new RAM - no idea why. Anyways - enjoy a couple of photos from yesterday's Browns game - it was fun to watch the Browns route a team. There actually seems to be a sense of optimism surrounding the team now - they are young and improving - I know we've heard it all before but it does seem different....