Only Good Days

Back to Frankie's Fun House

2015-05-11T09:08:00.000-04:00

Last week , we had another group outing at work and we went to Frankie's Fun House as we had done in the past. It is a great little park with miniature golf, bumper boats, an arcade and go karts, so there was plenty to do for everyone.

I spent more time this year socializing, but still managed to get enough picture to capture the spirit of a good day and a great event! They really put on a great time for everyone like always!

Another good day!

(Here's the pics:)

Independence Day cookout

2014-07-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

I decided for a change of pace I would shoot these in a Black and White Infrared style. This is why the grass and trees are white and the people's eyes and mouths are black. It's an interesting effect especially on the hot coals!

enjoy!

Around the house

2014-06-29T20:30:00.001-04:00

I decided to shoot a lens that I don't pull out very often today: a Voigtlander Color Heliar 75mm. I tend to use longer than normal lenses on SLR's, but this lens does a great job (as you can see here)

the main issue is that the frame lines in the viewfinder are only about 25% of the total window, so you subject is a bit small, but I like its compact size and image quality. On my M8 it is about 100mm equivalent (75mm X 1.33%)

DB Outing

2014-05-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

We had an outing at work (oddly enough on my birthday). It was certainly the most well attended party I have been to on my birthday. There was good food and games and lots of camaraderie. I even took a few pictures of the event (what are the chances?).

A good time was had by all!

It's all in the details

2014-05-14T23:05:00.000-04:00

I also used another camera and lens combination to get some details. To use a movie analogy, the wide angle images were the establishing shots and then these are the details. These are the many little odds and end that make it more than just walls and paint, but instead a home.

there was a picture of my Grandparents on a stereo in the attic that was very emotionally significant to me as I had not seen them for many years and the image in my head was more how they felt than their actual faces. It was a strong moment for me. a strong moment and a good moment.

This Old House

2014-05-14T22:43:00.000-04:00

While I was in Tyrell County, at the house my dad grew up in, I decided to take pictures of the house. I actually decided before I left home because I thought it should be documented and captured while it was still there and largely as I remember as a child. I shot these with a very wide angle and using no flash. I like the somewhat imperfect nature of these images as they capture more of the feel of the place than the reality of a sharp, contrasty DSLR image would (especially the interior shots).

Tyrell County

2014-05-05T00:39:00.001-04:00

My uncle Lawrence Alexander died recently and I accompanied my father to Tyrell County, where he grew up, in order to attend the funeral. I took these pictures mostly after the funeral was over as my dad and his brother and sister-in law went to visit the resting place of his parents and his uncle Milton. My cousin and his son were also there. His son was the coolest little guy and just as a boy should be.

It was a sad reason to get together, but it was really good to see family that I grew up seeing regularly, but have not seen in years. It reminded me what I was missing out on.

It was a good day.

Where I come from

2014-05-04T18:38:00.001-04:00

These are from Tyrell County, NC where my parents grew up. I went there yesterday with my father for a funeral, so I took the opportunity to make some images at the house where he was born.

When my grandparents were alive, they used to keep chickens and when we would visit as kids, she would always warn us to "close that screen door!" and also " you keep away from that rooster!" whenever we went out of the back door. It was a pesistant memory of growing up for me.

I took these with an Full Spectrum converted digital camera with a 720nm filter and some minor post processing in Photoshop Elements

Beijing: Last day in Beijing

2014-04-20T21:06:00.000-04:00

My last full day in Beijing was Valentine's Day, it also happened to be Zhang Yan's birthday, so we hung out in Beijing. We went to a mall and had lunch and she helped my find some gift's for my friends and family back home. We had to go to a hospital in Beijing because she had some respiratory infection, so I went with her. I was very interested to see the inside of a Chinese hospital. It seemed a little darker than I am used to, but I was given to understand that it was a small hospital and she went there because the waits are shorter.

After the hospital we went to a mall and had lunch. Hand cut noodles in beef noodle soup. It was amazing! Then we went to the various stores and I bought a small bag for me camera, a fountain pen, and some other small mementos and gifts. We passed a young lady trying to spell out "L-O-V-E" in rose petals in front of where she was selling roses, but the wind had other ideas! We also passed a blood mobile and I got a pizza from Pizza Hut to have for dinner and breakfast before I caught the plane for home in the morning. It was a fitting day to end my trip to Beijing!

Beijing: Forbidden City in Infrared

2014-04-13T17:29:00.000-04:00

I went back to the Forbidden City by myself to make some images using a digital camera that had been converted to infrared. I used a custom white balance for the first several images which is why these are redder in cast and then I went back to the auto white balance which shows up more blue.

On the way home a lady approached me in the subway and tried to convince me to have coffee with her. I declined for several reasons, not least of was that I had read of this scam, and you end up getting robbed. Still, it was cool to experience a scam you read about before you traveled somewhere!

Beijing: Olympic Park

2014-04-06T20:17:00.000-04:00

Our tour guide abandoned the bus tour by stepping off the bus when it stopped at what, to me anyway, was a random transit bus stop, so I was left with only Zhang Yan to help me figure out where to go once we were there and how to get back to the apartment again. Fortunately, she came here when the Olympics were in Beijing, so she was familiar with the venues. You could stand in one place and get a picture in front of the swimming venue, the gymnastics venue and the main stadium, which we did.

It was cold and I was ready to go home for the day, but I had one more task I wanted to achieve before I left Beijing. To have a McDonald's hamburger. One of my co-workers tasked me with that because she said I had to compare and report back. Oddly enough, the first two places I went (I tried once after the Beijing zoo and once on this day) did not have any. Inside the Olympic Park, there was a McDonald's, but they did not have a Big Mac at all, closest thing was meat patties and rice. Just outside, however, I found another one that had one (which is surprising because the Big Mac is front and center on the signs when you walk in, but not to be found in two out of three when you ask for it)

Beijing: Ming Palace

2014-04-06T18:58:00.000-04:00

I took these at the same time as I took the last 2 sets, but these were with my Leica M8 digital Rangefinder camera, so, in fact, I had three cameras in rotation over the course of the visit. In truth, I only had two going at any one time, but I varied which two I was using.

The Ming Palace is basically a wax museum that tells the story of the Ming Dynasty from founding to fall. I found it very interesting, but probably would have found it more so if I had lived in China and knew some of the stories depicted.

Beijing: Ming Palace on Film

2014-04-06T17:47:00.000-04:00

I also took some images with Cinestill, a tungsten balanced, 800 speed film while at the Ming Palace. It's a great film that performs excellently indoors with artificial lighting as long as I do my part as well!

Beijing: Ming Tombs and Ming Palace

2014-04-06T16:07:00.000-04:00

The next leg of the tour was to the Ming Tombs and Ming Palace. The guide told us it was an additional fee to actually get out of the bus at the tombs, so we saw it from the windows. At the Ming Palace it was a little bit of a disappointment because it was essentially a wax museum. On top of that, you have to pay a fee if you want to take pictures while inside! Yeah, I paid the fee:

Beijing: Great Wall in Infrared

2014-04-05T22:42:00.000-04:00

I also brought a digital camera that has been converted to shoot in infrared. I was apparently heavily laden on this trip!

Beijing: Great Wall on film

2014-04-05T22:26:00.000-04:00

I wanted to shoot some slides while I was there, so I brought some Fuji Provia 400 slide film. It is sadly discontinued, but it is a good film while it lasts!

Beijing: the Great Wall

2014-04-05T21:35:00.000-04:00

We took a bus trip to the Great Wall on a bus tour which also included the Ming Palace and the Olympic Park. There are several sections of the Great Wall, because it goes from the Mojave desert to the coast, but we went to the Shuiguan section. It is an older section which was nice because some of the newer section were built in the 1970's which hardly has a historic feel to it. The stairs were very steep. My knees were higher than my hip at each step.I was worm out by the top of the first section. After I got my breath back, I saw the next section had steps that were a mix of normal steps and the taller ones. It was a freezing cold day which was good to keep any sweating at bay! All in all it was a great experience and an amazing thing to see.

Right beside the Great Wall was a graveyard. it had a temple feel about it's organization.

Beijing: Peking Duck 2014 style

2014-04-05T20:34:00.000-04:00

This is a Peking duck that we bought from the grocery store. I suggest a restaurant instead.

Beijing: Wukesong Camera Market

2014-03-30T16:51:00.000-04:00

In fact, this is more about my trip to the market itself because I did not take any pictures withing the actual market. It was a really bright day when we went there. In fact, I did not know how to get there, so Zhang Yan was the navigator. We got off the bus one stop too far and had to circle back, so we crossed over the highway. I took several pictures crossing the bridge, so I am glad we missed it the first time. We went in for a short time and I selected a Nikon F80 film camera from among the used camera stores. I planned to use it the next day to shoot some film at the Ming Palace. After we left the Wukesong Camera Market, we had dinner at a Chinese fast food place. I had the beef entire and it was amazing! It was a very good day and amazing to see all those cameras in one place. I was tempted to buy a Leica M6 classic instead, but I did not wish to spend that kind of money on a camera so far from home. It would have been cool to be able to say I bought it in on a trip to Beijing, though!

Beijing: meet the new room

2014-03-26T22:55:00.000-04:00

The apartment company apparently rented out the old room to a company, so it required a move down the hall to a new room. I was a little nervous as to what it would be like, but in fact it was much nicer than the previous one. For one thing the internet router worked properly and the bed was fairly soft (the old one was like a board wrapped in concrete) and it had better furnishings. It had a leaky windows so it was initially cold, but I figured out that I could close a dish towel in it and it was instantly much better.

I was much happier in the new room than the old room even though the fridge smelled like a smoker exhaled in there, because I had better internet and I awoke each day without a sore back!

It was a pleasant change.

Beijing: 798 Art District

2014-03-24T02:04:00.000-04:00

On the first snow day of the year, ZhangYan and I went to the 798 Art District. I had never heard of it, but she said it was "world famous" so I decided that it must bee similar to the World's Series in baseball where only one or two countries participate.

It turns out that I was wrong in that I heard lots of people speaking in German and we ate lunch at a New Zealand themed restaurant.

The only regret I had on the day was that we went to the bookstore which had lots of books on photography, but I did not find a book that I liked that had contrasty black and white photography or punchy color photography from chinese artists in the 20th century. I think that either it is not a popular topic for their students, or they already know them all, or possibly that China's history made individually famous photographers more rare.

Beijing: Sometimes I get it right.

2014-03-22T23:26:00.000-04:00

It feels better when things go according to plan. In this case, I bought some Fujifilm Provia 400XX slide film from the Carrboro store of Southeastern Camera and Supply. Besides being beautiful film, it is also discontinued and therefore expensive. In addition , being slide film it does not tolerate a bad exposure well, which is a challenge because I intended to use it in a camera that does not have a built in light meter.

I admit to being a little nervous about whether I got the correct exposure or not, but when I got the slides back I was well pleased with my efforts. I think I sometimes choose to do things the more challenging way because it is often more satisfying when you are successful!

Life is that way as well!

The first images are from Yuanmingyuan's Temple Festival and the ones with the snow are from the 798 Art District. the link is in Chinese, but you are all fluent, right?

Enjoy!

Beijing: Sometimes, I make mistakes

2014-03-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

I hate when I do dumb things; it really brings my average down!

In this case I bought some color film from the Film Photography Project just to shoot in Beijing. It is Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film and it is known for it's great color. I was shooting it on a Leica M3, which is a rangefinder camera that is a few years older than I am and it does not have a built in light meter. No worries, I have a handheld meter (or two) and I know how to use the sunny 16 rule to estimate the exposure, so no problem, right? except that there is not a window on the back and for some reason I thought I had a film with a different speed in it (I loaded it the night before for another purpose and then changed my mind and took another camera instead) so I shoot the entire roll at the wrong speed. It was badly overexposed and there was not that much in the way of usable images on the roll (only 6 of the 24 were salvageable at all). Still, I could have no shared them at all or lied and said I had a cool new Instagram filter, but I figure best to just own up to it and confess my failing: sometimes, I make mistakes. When I do, I do my best to make something good come out of it. Art should follow life (or the other way 'round).

Anyway, here are the six:

Soccer: game 2

2014-03-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

Here are images from the second game. It was a lot warmer than the first one. I think I like the other field better though for pictures.

Beijing: Infrared Panda

2014-03-15T23:25:00.001-04:00

These are some infrared images I took of the panda (the interesting one). A video is here

This is not a panda.

This is a panda