Could it be Madness-this?

Old Guitars

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 04:54:00 +0000

Old guitars lean on chairs.
Sound boxes curve
like bodies of women.
Blank music paper scatters
to catch notes which fall
from long fingers
with blue knuckles.

Tantric mandalas
of guitar chord spin
for a moment in the air.
Cigarette smoke settles in waves
around un-barbered heads--
islands in a phantom sea.

Music played urgently
pushes back the void.
The world shaped by it
can be photographed
but not the sound itself.

Fisherman’s Wharf Sundown, San Francisco 1982

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 07:22:00 +0000

The camera was a Nikon FM with a Kiron 28-85 varifocal lens. The film was Plus-X, and I’m not sure of the developer, but it was probably Microdol. Click on photos for larger view.

The Guns of Fort Pulaski

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 06:18:00 +0000

Fort Pulaski National Monument is located between Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia. It preserves Fort Pulaski, where in 1862 during the American Civil War the Union Army successfully tested a rifled cannon, the success of which rendered brick fortifications obsolete. The fort was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp. The National Monument includes most of Cockspur Island (containing the fort) and all of adjacent McQueens Island.

These are not happy places. This place saw destruction, suffering and defeat. Blood was spilled on these floorboards. It is all very distant to us now, 151 years ago. This was not a place you wanted to be with a war going on.

Click on photos for larger view.

Charleston in Black and White

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 05:35:00 +0000

It seemed only fitting. Click on photos for larger view:

Folly Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:21:00 +0000

Folly Beach is a really fun place south of Charleston, SC. It lacks the stuffy pretentiousness of Charleston, a town fatally infected with it’s own poison. We went to Folly two nights in a row and has supper at the wonderful Beach City Grill. It’s a restaurant on the pier at Folly Beach. We ate outside to sound of waves coming in and solo guitar player. Here are some pictures. Click on photos for a larger view.

Real World Abstraction

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Just taking some things out of context…

Click on pictures for larger view

Syd’s Journal, Volume 11

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Syd's Journal Volume 11

“I have come to understand that the act of recording, be it the written word, image, sound or video is an important and valuable thing in itself. I have gigabytes of still pictures and I don’t regret shooting a single one. I only regret the pictures I didn’t take and the journal entries I was too busy to write. The funny thing about my mind is that I’m really pretty smart when it comes to understanding things, but my memory isn’t worth a damn. If I don’t shoot a picture, jot down a journal entry or something, I lose it…”

This is a collection of my recent creative work in writing, photography and graphic art. I hope you enjoy it.

Topics: Singular Vision, Remembering and Recording, Dying, Mt. Carmel, Doug's Spurs, Inner Fires, I want to go moose hunting with Sarah Palin, Heaven Bends Close, Thinking about the Beats, Art, Graphics, Photography, Poetry

Click here to read: Syd's Journal Volume 11 (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Flying Kentucky, June 7, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:39:00 +0000

It was a great weather day in Kentucky so we got the Luscombe L8E out of the hangar and took to the skies. Flying a small plane like this “low and slow” is a completely different experience than riding in a jet airliner. You feel every little gust of air and the whole sky is just right there at your fingertips.

We took off from KLOU Bowman Field in Louisville. "Clear"

Our shadow

Downtown Louisville

Chasing a barge boat down the Ohio. I think it's getting away...

The green hills of Kentucky

This is the beginning of our approach into Dwayne's farm. Can you pick out the runway?

Clearer now? This could be a bit of madness…

Dwayne restores airplanes. Behind this Cessna 175 are two Aeronica Champs and the carcass of a Cessna 120. Dwayne is a UPS aircraft mechanic and it took him three years to get the Cessna 175 from a bare metal bucket of bolts to the beauty you see now.

Time to go.

We decided to try to find Taylorsville Lake just by dead reckoning. Although we had a Garmin, we thought it would be more fun to hunt for it. We found it and went in low just to bug the fishermen.

The sun was going down and the Luscombe doesn't have instrument lights, so it was time to head for home.

Landing at KLOU. Great, fun day.

Hideaway Saloon, 5-24-12

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:52:00 +0000

This is the Hideaway Saloon in Louisville, Kentucky. I went down to hear Tom Browning, Lewis Mathis, and Harry Francis Ennis, jr. Click on picture for larger view.

Product Photography – Alpaca Yarn

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:54:00 +0000

My friend, Annette Browning, raises alpacas and harvests and dyes their wool at her Kentucky Blue Fiber Company I shot these photos of her product. Alpaca works just like wool but people who are allergic to wool can wear clothing made with alpaca. Click on the photos for a larger view.

Testing the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G Lens

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 05:02:00 +0000

I bought this lens for a specific purpose: I wanted a prime that would give me the low light performance, bokeh, and sharpness on the Nikon D7000 that I always enjoyed with the Nikkor AI 50mm f/1.8 on the old Nikon F3. The D7000 uses an APS-C “cropped sensor” so a 35mm on the D7000 (or other Nikon cameras with this sensor size like the D70, D90, D3100 and D5100, etc.) acts like a 52mm on a “full frame” or 35mm film camera like the F3. This lens is also fairly economical a $230 USD. Overall, I am quite pleased with the lens, especially at this price. However, it is not perfect. To my eye, it is a bit contrasty; the autofocus is not the fastest in the world, and the lens suffers from some chromatic aberration in some circumstances. All photos shot on the Nikon D7000. Here are some pictures with commentary: (click on the photos for a larger view)

ISO 200 1/320 sec at f/9.0

1:1 of the shot above

Shooting in Aperture Priority mode ISO 200 1/8000 at f/1.8 Notice the extremely short depth of field

Shooting in Program Mode 1/320 sec at f/9.0

This was probably the toughest of the shots in terms of lighting. The evening sun was coming in almost horizontally from the left through the flower petals. I had to do the most post-processing on this shot to recover color and texture in the delicate flower petals. I also got the most chromatic aberration of any of the shots along the uppermost petal top edge. I applied lens profile correction in LightRoom and that did away with most of the aberration. Even at f/5.0 the bokeh is quite decent. ISO 400 1/100 sec at f/5.0

Wall art in shadow, no direct sunlight. The texture in this one is wonderful. ISO 400 1/200 sec at f/7.1

More wall art, ISO 400 1/160 at f/6.3 (Program Mode)

This one is notable because it has no real correction. I cropped it just a bit, but aside from that it is straight out of the camera, ISO 400 1/640 sec at f/13

Mimosa Cafe ISO 400 1/100 sec at f/5.0 Nice depth of field, great color

Bokeh testing: Aperture Priority ISO 400 1/200 sec at f/1.8 Focal point was the forward lip of the mug.

Bokeh testing: Program Mode, same focal point ISO 400 1/50 sec at f/3.5

Focus testing ISO 400 1/160 sec at f/6.3

Detail of the photo above

Orange ‘68 VW Bug, just because I like it. I added some “recovery” in Lightroom to counteract the glare. ISO 400 1/40 sec at f/3.2 (Program Mode – I should have shot this one in Manual due to the fading light)

Louisville Bats Pre-Season Warm Up at Slugger Field, April 2, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:35:00 +0000

This wasn’t a game, just an opportunity for the “VIP’s” to see the new Bats roster practicing prior to the season open. There weren’t many people down at Slugger Field, in part because the NCAA basketball championship game is also tonight, the University of Kentucky will face Kansas University, UK vs. KU, hmmm. Anyway, I don’t care that much about basketball, and this was the first opportunity of the year to be down at Slugger Field to be serenaded by the crack of ash wood on horsehide.

The Louisville Bats are the AAA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. There is an undertone of tragedy with AAA ball, in that only a few want to be there. Most are either being groomed for the major leagues or they are in the twilight of their careers and are on their way out. Some have had a shot in the major leagues, and perhaps have not done as well as was expected, and have been “sent down” to AAA to re-tool and heal for another shot at the big show. AAA players always seem to be “just passing through.” This was virtually a new team to me. There were a few guys there who played last season, but most of them were strangers. A bunch came up from the AA Carolina Mudcats, because the Reds moved the Mudcats’ manger, Rick Bell, to be the new Bats managers and he appears to have brought a bunch of his favorites with him.

Anyway, here are the pix. Click on the photos for a larger view:

Gardencourt, March 31, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 03:37:00 +0000

This is an experimental set shot at Gardencourt in Louisville. Gardencourt was the mansion of a couple of spinster sisters of the Norton family. It now belongs to Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, my alma mater. This set is experimental in that, with the exception of the pix of me and the apple blossoms which were shot on the D70, the rest were shot on the Nikon D7000, but with an antique Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 lens, one of my all-time favorites. The D7000 lets you set up “profiles” for old lenses so it meters them and even gives you focus assist in the viewfinder. Love this camera. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Yours truly

The Garden of Reflection

Close-up of the pool

The wedding party that was wandering around

The wedding photographer – am I ninja or what…

The portico

The portico again, different effect

Marian in the colonnade

I don’t know what you call these things

Gardencourt

Marian’s wonderful apple blossom shot

Streets and Storefronts

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:20:00 +0000

Bardstown Road, Louisville, Kentucky March 24, 2012. Click on pictures for larger view.

Angles and Shadows

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:13:00 +0000

The Veteran’s Peace Memorial, River Road, Louisville, Kentucky. Click on picture for larger view.

Hi-Fi

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:46:00 +0000

My Kenwood KR-4600 amp and the Pioneer PL-516 turntable. This is exquisite sound. Click on photos for larger view.

This is how to do it if you want to listen to music. There has never been a iPod built that can produce sound like this rig can. There’s not a molecule of digital in the whole pipeline. It’s pure analog. Run it out to a pair of Bose speakers and it’s ecstasy.

Hi-Fi

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:58:00 +0000

My Kenwood KR-4600 amp and the Pioneer PL-516 turntable. This is exquisite sound

A Warm Winter Day

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:31:00 +0000

I went walking down my favorite street in the world, Bardstown Road in Louisville. Click on pictures for larger view.

Some iPhonography

noreply@blogger.com (Syd) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:14:00 +0000

These are iPhone shots using several effects apps like Hipstamatic, 100 Cameras and Photoshop Express. Click on the photos for larger view.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 13:36:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:41:00 +0000

Gertrude Käsebier In Europe, 1905 by Frances Benjamin Johnston [LOC]

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 09:02:00 +0000

Gertrude Käsebier (LOC)

Johnston, Frances Benjamin,, 1864-1952,, photographer.

Gertrude Käsebier

[1905]

1 photographic print.

Notes:
Title from item.
Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection.
Photograph shows photographer Gertrude Käsebier, standing next to a tripod-mounted camera, an unidentified man is standing behind the camera.

Subjects:
Käsebier, Gertrude,--1852-1934--Journeys--Europe.
Cameras--1890-1930.
Photography--1890-1930.
Photographers--1890-1930.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.31769

Call Number: LOT 11733-5b [item]

Optimist

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:28:00 +0000

by Nad

Amy Winehouse 1983-2011 Photograph By Andrew Kendall

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:22:00 +0000

1983-2011

RIP Amy Jade Winehouse 1983-2011 Photograph: Andrew Kendall

Nearly all of what you will hear about this immense talent is "drink and drugs" the "27 Club" "what a waste" etc. All this does is perpetuate myth and stigma.

While sudden fame can certainly accelerate matters, in thousands of ordinary cases each year,
untreated mental illness = death. It's been a very sad weekend indeed.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:35:00 +0000