Back up and start again.

" Oh house of Jacob, come and let us walk
in the light of the Lord. " Isaiah 2:5

Ok so it seems my little experiment hasn't worked out so well despite my family and friends attempts at keeping me accountable. In an effort to satisfy my legions of followers, (all 5 of them) I am going to pick this blog back up with a little different structure.

I am still going to use Bristol as my primary subject, and I will still use this as a learning tool for myself, but because I have some missions work and traveling to do I will include some of those experiences as well.

Let's start with this.....

This cracked me up! At a rest area on I-40 in Oklahoma. Seems segregation is alive and well in some parts of the country. I was on my way to Gallup, New Mexico on a mission trip ( more on that later ) when we ran across some interesting things. Including The Country and Western Museum in Oklahoma City.

The challenge here is trying to shoot in very low light where no flash is allowed, and no tripods are allowed. I had to use what was available to steady the camera. A wall, person, etc. Some were succesful, not so much the others. If you find yourself in the Oklahoma City area you owe it to yourself to stop and visit this museum. The grounds around the museum were as interesting as the inside.

I was practicing with apertures in the gardens around the museum. Notice in the first picture it is in focus from front to back. In the second I used a larger aperture and focused a third of the way into the frame putting the foreground and the background out of focus for a different effect. The third photo I opened the aperture all the way to throw the entire background out of focus, creating an effect called 'bokeh'.

That's it for this time fans. More on the Mission Trip later.........

Week 8

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,and lean not on
your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct your paths.  Proverbs 3:5-6

Busy, busy, busy.

Trying to build a business from the ground up is turning out to be one of the most demanding and time consuming things I have ever done. At the same time, with each little step forward, comes a feeling of great satisfaction. I have spent a great deal of time the last couple of weeks putting together and presenting proposals to little leagues, schools, etc. This is what I do the worst.

Along the way we have photographed a couple of youth leagues.

I really enjoy shooting these small leagues because we can spend a little more time with each player. I'm still working on the lighting setup for these shoots. I need to fine tune it a little. I got the basic setup from a guy named Dave Stock who was a photographer for Sports Illustrated for a number of years and also team photographer for the San Francisco 49ers. He currently does Team and Individual photography in Texas.

The lighting technique that he taught me is designed to give the photo some depth and not look so two dimensional. When we print these on metalic paper they really pop.

 

We try to bring something new to the table when we do these shoots. A pose or a product that people here are not used to seeing. Like the overhead shot above, or this....

This is really a lot of fun to do. The kids are great and usually happy to try something different.

Back to what I was saying about all the hard work ending with satisfaction. While I don't care for the sales and marketing aspects of the photography business, I absolutely love when all that work ends in this....

Ain't she cute! This is the satisfying part and why I love what I do.

Week 7

"You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."
                          Rev. 4:11

Ahh, spring! Oh wait! That's week 11.

 Maybe it's because I am getting older but it seems to me that winter gets longer each year. I never have really been a winter type person. Always have preferred warm weather to cold. That's probably the biggest reason I moved out of upstate New York as quickly as I could some 30 years ago.

I was excited about the snow we got in December. Couldn't wait to get out and take some pictures. That, and Tammy had been waiting for a white Christmas for several years and she finally got one. I'm now over it.

This weather has made it increasingly difficult to keep up with this project. I can't seem to make myself go out week after week when it is cold and miserable. Once again I am two weeks behind. We have been roughly 15 to 20 degrees below normal. I did trek out this week but I stayed in the car. Seems I'm not the only one ready for spring. Take a look at these guys.

I think they are a bit confused by the weather too. Looks like they got snowed in here on their way back to Canada. Either that or they are waiting for all the Olympians to go home.

I heard the other day that some of the weather prognosticators are projecting a large snowfall for this part of the country in March. Record accumulation they say.

Hey it's not my idea I'm just repeating what I heard!

Guess I made him mad. Anyway, not a thing we can do about the current weather conditions except keep looking forward. People in Tennessee are fond of saying "If you don't like the weather here just wait a few minutes it'll change."

I'll try to be patient.

Week 6

"To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under Heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
     Ecc. 3:1,2

The call came around 6:30 a.m. on Super Bowl Sunday. Howard L Caulkins had passed away quietly after a short but intense battle with cancer. It was dad's third such battle with that disease in as many years.

I think at the end dad was torn between his longing to go home and be with Jesus, and leaving us behind. Of course that decision was God's and I'm pretty sure dad was ok with that. Today he is in that mansion on the street of gold that he so loved to sing about. I am happy for him.

My dad was many things to me in the course of my life. He was my baseball coach, mentor, teacher, crew chief, and my friend. When I was a teenager he would say "son, I have been everywhere you are going." At the time I thought he was full of hot air but as I got older those words would ring true. So many of the things he said to me in my youth, a time when I thought I knew it all, came back to me. Like most people I heard myself repeating those words to my children and said "Oh my gosh I am turning into my father!" As it turns out, for the most part anyway, that's not so bad.

He was the father of five, step-father to five more, and "grandpa" to thirty five. He loved the Chicago Cubs, college basketball, and the Tennessee Vols. Whenever he was asked about his vocation he would say "I'm a jack of all trades and master of none!" Dad spent time as a truck driver, auctioneer, facility manager, factory worker, courier, entreprenuer, and small business owner. He liked to cook, sing gospel music, work in his wood shop, and he loved his puppies.

There are of course many more things I could say about him having known him for 47 years. Right now nothing seems adequate enough or personal enough. So, I will finish with something I heard him say at least a hundred times. " We need two lifetimes to live. One lifetime to learn how, and one lifetime to do it right."

If only............

Howard L Caulkins

September 28, 1935 -

February 7, 2010

Week 5

But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them;
for of such is the kingdom of Heaven."     Matt. 19:14

It seems that another tradition has fallen off the face of the american landscape. Snowmen. You know, ".......with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal." The whole Frosty the Snowman thing.
Given the recent 4 - 6 inches of  heavy, wet snowfall I figured there would be literally hundreds of snowmen to be found in the area so I thought it would be interesting to photograph them and see how many different sizes and types I could find.
As I was driving around I was remembering that as a kid when we would have a snow like this, the first thing we did was build a three layer snowman and then a snow fort. The snowman stood watch like a sentinel. We would make dozens of snowballs and store them in the fort and wait for some unsuspecting soul to come by and SPLAT! Failing that, my three brothers and sister would turn the ammunition on each other. Sometime later we would head for the sledding hill with whatever we could find to ride. Cardboard boxes, trash bags, etc. I remember on one occasion using an old car hood turned upside down. I think that one ended with a broken collar bone for my youngest brother!

So after 90 minutes of looking for snowmen, through Haynesfield, the State streets then west through Collingwood and Akard, I found exactly 3!

This first fine example I found on Kentucky Avenue. He seems to have been be-headed for some reason. I  found another near Steele Creek Park.

This guy was only about 12 inches tall but did have the basic shape. He was missing one arm, had no face, but for the most part a proper snowman. Example number three was near Akard Elementary School.

This guy looked more like a snow dinasaur but I was happy to see it anyway. Seemed like the idea of photographing a bunch of different snowmen was a bust. Later that evening I was speaking with some parents of middle school kids and remarked about the lack of subjects I had found. One parent said  "children don't know how to make snowmen." Sigh........

Oh, I did find one other.........

Not exactly what I had in mind when I started out. Sorry Frosty........

Week 4

Blessed are the pure in heart
For they shall see God.
                       Matthew 5:8

I am less than a month into this project and already I find myself a week behind. There are so many things that compete for our time and attention that inevitably something gets left undone. I have taken hundreds of photographs in the last week unfortunately nothing of much use here. Middle school and high school basketball games mostly. Those photos can be seen at http://www.tricitiescaptured.com/.

I read an article recently by Bryan Peterson, one of my favorite photographers and Director of the Picture
Perfect School of Photography,  on how to make a photograph look like a ghost. Given the recent weather I thought maybe I could try this out myself since it can be done inside the studio. So I got my daughter Charli into the studio and gave it a try. Here are some of the results.

Nothing really of any commercial value but it was fun and the process could come in handy at some point. The idea is to take an extremely long exposure using nothing but available light, and have the subject change positions some time during the exposure.  We tried having Charli hold a candle but that didn't work so well.

Another project I have been working on is making my own backgrounds. The cost of a commercially produced background can run from $200 to nearly $1000. The process itself is fairly simple. Get some cotton muslin and some dye and have at it. The difficulty is in visualizing the final product and how to manipulate the ingredients to get the result you want. Here is my first crack at it.

I ended up with a very usable background and the cost was around $20. It only took about an hour's time. Now I need to spend some time working on studio lighting and posing techniques. I want to give Charli a big Thank You! for giving of her time to help me out with this. 

Stay tuned for the week 5 post which I hope to have up in the next day or so and get myself back on point and on schedule. Until then..........

Week 3

Your hands have made me and fashioned me;
Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
                                                    Psalm 119:73

You guessed it. Last weeks location is The Burger Bar. This is one of those places that I always said I was going to patronize, then never did. When the announcement came that it was closing down, I felt bad. Perhaps if I, and others like me, had visited this place it would not have closed. The owner cited financial reasons for it's closure. The Burger Bar is somewhat famous in that Hank Williams stopped here on his way from Knoxville to a concert in Canton, OH. He never made that show as he was discovered dead in the back seat of his Cadillac in Oak Hill, WV. Strangely his stop occured on December 31st, 1952, and the Burger Bar closed on December 31st, 2009.
The good news is that on the day I went to take these photos there was a news crew out front and I had to wait for them to finish to take the shots. I decided to ask what was going on and found that Mr. Ben Zandi, owner of the Troutdale Dining Room and several other area eateries, had purchased The Burger Bar and is planning a re-opening in March 2010. Mr. Zandi is planning renovations including restoration of the original neon sign, and some additional seating. He plans to keep the menu the same. This time I will make a visit!

I'm going to step outside the purpose of this blog this week to pay a tribute to a young man, his family, and his friends. Quentin Lowe, and his family at Sullivan East High School. Quentin lost his life in a tractor accident shortly after Christmas, while removing snow from his grandmother's driveway.

There has been a tremendous amount of support shown by the students and staff at East high school, as well as the entire Bluff City community. Quentin was well liked aand as one student expressed to me " He always had a smile and a kind word for everyone at school. It didn't matter who you were. "  During the basketball game between East and Sullivan Central, the students paid a fine tribute to Quentin with a stirring and heartfelt display of what they termed " all things Q " . From the opening prayer by fellow student Chase DePew, to the ringing of a cowbell by his closest friend, and all the students giving Q's trademark thumbs up. The basketball team all wore white headbands this night with each writing a personal message to Quentin. His mother was in attendance surrounded by all of her sons friends and a memorial of his personal belongings. To me it was an amazing display of love and support not seen every day.

R.I.P "Q"

To see all of the photos from this event please go to http://www.tricitiescaptured.com/ and look for the folder marked " Q out "