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..........