Stuck Up

Just a quickie, a leaf stuck to the window of my truck, after a rainy night…

Hotel Abstract

Another abstract. This one from the Hampton Inn in Canton OH.

Go Cards!!

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals, for their triumph in the 2006 World Series! I gotta admit, I didn't think they had much chance, given how they played the second 1/2 of the season. But they pulled it all together for the playoffs, played as a team, pitching, defense, and just enough hitting!

Autumn Abstract

I was hanging out in a hotel room last week, and got playing around with special effects. This was shot looking through an empty soda bottle, looking at the fall colors….

Jetstar! Part 2

After yesterday’s Jetstar post, I just couldn’t resist digging through my old photo albums for a picture on my Jetstar. There's not many photos, but this one is from Fall 1979, when I was all of 19 years old!! Pardon the quick and crappy cropping, but this was just shot in my dorm room, and the background had to go!! This was scanned from a polaroid, no clue who took it! Can't see much of the guitar, but that's it!! I think the guitar has aged much better than I have!

Jetstar!

I’ve been a Monkees fan for a long, long time. Yep, it’s true. I even saw them in concert in 1968 in Charleston, WV (sadly, after Peter Tork had left the band). I also saw thge Peter Tork Project in DC during the early 80's... Anyway, the Monkees were great music, and great fun. Lately, I’ve been watching the old TV show on DVD (thanks Netflix!), and disc 1of season 2 has some great segments with Peter Tork’s Guild Jetstar bass. I have a Jetstar, bought at Pittsburgh Guitars back in 1979 or so, back when The Reallys were in full swing. Of course, mine doesn’t look nearly as nice as this one, beyond 40 years of wear. It had been partially refinished when I got it, and I repainted it several times through the years. But I still love it. I recently discovered a crack in the peghead, gotta figure out a way to get the fixed!

What Are You Listening To?

Haven't done this in a while... Here's the 10 most recent from my itunes:
* Strange Magic- Electric Light Orchestra (now playing)
* Down In The Tube Station At Midnight- The Jam
* Jailhouse Rock- Elvis Presley
* Wash, Mama, Wash- Dr. John
* Presence Of The Lord- Blind Faith
* Money For Nothing- Dire Straits
* Crazy Love- Allman Brothers Band
* Go For It- Joe Jackson
* Takin' It To The Streets- Doobie Brothers
* Someday Never Comes- Creedence Clearwater Revival
What're y'all listening to?

611

Just some mailboxes I noticed while riding in the car….

WPRC

One of the best things about the WPRC conference is Spokane, WA in October. The conference center is right next to a great park, and the host hotel is on the other side. So we get to spend a week walking back and forth through the crisp air, the changing leaves, the occasional drizzle... Good Stuff!

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ArtEast

I managed to find a little time today to check out some of the displays at ArtEast. This is an event where local artists set up displays around town, and you can kinda browse around. We made it to a few locations, and saw some very cool stuff. This is the 9th annual ArtEast, and the first I've attended, but won't be the last! Thanks to Errick Cameron for inspiring me to get out and see his display (and others!)....

Take Me Home, Country Roads

Theme Day over at my Yahoo Group, and today’s assignment was “John Denver Songs”. Well, I had no choice but to do “Take Me Home Country Roads”. I reached back in my archives to June, and our doad trip through the Mountaineer state. See HERE for my entry. But I thought about the following shot, taken late in 2004, before I got my “good” camera…

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Speaking of Spokane....

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. I’ve been in Spokane, Washington, attending an industry conference. Busy busy busy. This was my first major event since changing jobs in July, it was fun to see a lot of people from around my industry while sporting a new company name on my shirts!! Anyway, here’s a couple of photos from previous trips to Spokane, since I didn’t get any sightseeing done this time. Both shots are from Spokane River Park, just outside town

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Sidebar

Did you ever take a moment to peruse the right-side edge of this humble little blog?? Notice the Links section, which has been cleaned-up / updated recently. And don't forget the Ads-By_Google sidebar!! A great way to show your support, if there's anything there that's interesting for you (hint-hint)! The archives will take you back to 10/2004, though most of the pictures are gone past about 6-months, due to my ftp site limitations. Anyway, thanks for dropping by, feel free to make any (constructive) suggestions!

Oldies, Revisited

The following shots were posted to my photoblog in mid October 2004. It's often interesting to look back on the old stuff, 2 whole years ago....

A rainy luchtime in the woods at Silver Lake Park, Highland, IL. Silver Lake Park is one of the few things I miss about NOT working in Highland anymore....

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One more from Silver Lake Park, with the fall colors. That was taken 10/5/04, and we haven't had anything close to those colors this year.

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Even older, this was scanned from a print, I think the photo is 1996 or so. From a bike/hike/canoe trip I took to deep Southern Illinois a few years ago. The last time I've been camping. This is Belknap, IL

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Oldest yet!! Another scan, this one from a B&W from my college days. Southgate dorm, Duke University's East Campus, summer 1981. The effects were added in 2004, for some reason or other.

Red & Green

Sometimes you take a picture, and when you see the results…….. well, it’s just not what you wanted. It doesn’t capture whatever spark led you to press the shutter. Invariably, you feel compelled to try and find that essence, it must be in there somewhere. So you tweak and adjust, and eventually, break out the “effects”. Eventually, you have to acknowledge that it just didn’t work out.… Sadly, we often convince ourselves that our mangled result somehow has it’s own merit, if just to justify our efforts. Thus, today’s image. Sorry.
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White & Nerdy

Weird Al Yankovic is one of the true artists of our time. And now, thanks to Google's newest acquisition, here's his latest video:

Ready For Harvest

I was playing around with a newly discovered effect today, kinda liked how it turned out. Dubbed "Orton Imagery" its another example of a rather difficult effect from the days of film, which is quite simple in a digital darkroom. This shot, to me at least, has a sort of dark, foreboding feel, makes me thing of the Stephen King story "Children Of The Corn"...

Teen Titans GO!!

OK, we all have our silly diversions, and I have more than my fair share. One of which is the animated carrtoon Teen Titans.

This is a super cool show, with surprising depth for a kids' cartoon. Naturally, I discovered it through my son, back when he was probably 5 years old. The theme song caught my attention first, with the Japanese duo Puffy Ami Yumi and the Dick Dale style guitar. But it didn't take long to get hooked. I've recently watched the 1st 2 seasons on DVD, thanks to Netflix, and enjopyed every episode. I think I might be developing a "thing" for Raven though....

I can't wait for seasons 3 - 5 to hit DVD!

Maverick....

OK, in my "Sh-Boom" post, I talked about my friend from high school who had a Ford Maverick. At MikeW's prodding, I dug thourgh the old photo-albums and found the picture. IIRC this was before I had my license, so it's early '76 at the latest. A mere 30 years ago... Ah, but it was a sweet time, though. Meanwhile, GaryW, shown here, was the guy whi got me interested in 35mm, taught me the basics of B&W processing in the school's darkroom. THANKS Gary, wherever you are!

She Blinded Me With Science

OK, I’m thinking about songs related to science, or inventors. The tile refers to the Thomas Dolby song, but my first thoughts were:

Edison’s Medicine – Tesla
Stupid Einstein – The Three O’Clock
Sigmund Freud's Impersonation Of Albert Einstein In America – Randy Newman

Tesla gets extra credit, since they named themselves after Nikola Tesla, and the song refers to "The Great Radio Controversy”.

Meanwhile, I know there’s gotta be more. Any help out there???

Sh-Boom

Last weekend was “Family Day” at SIUE, where my older daughter is in school. Since it's just across town, we went over for a bit, with her little brother. Along with the car show and inflatable games for the kids, they had this 50's/60's band that was playing: Sh-Boom. They were pretty good, even the semi-silly Blues Brothers bit. The car show had 20-30 cars, from 30's classics to a PT Cruiser. The highpoint for me, though, was an orange 1971 Ford Maverick! That brings back memories, one of friends in high school had one back in 1976 or so. Not quite "just like it", because GaryW's was well worns 30 years ago, and probably never looked as good as the one at the car show!! Wonder what ever happened to GaryW?? Haven't seen or heard from him in at least 20 years, probably more.

Flexed Leaf

This is a shot from last year, playing around with some of the funky effects that you can do with a digital darkroom… Warped, huh?

Sports Overload

We had some friends over yesterday, and gorged ourselves on sports, food and chat. And some adult beverages (for the adults)…. We actually brought up the smaller TV from the basment, and set it next to the larger TV. Not quite screen-in-screen, but screen-beside-screen... Here’s the rundown:

* Noon: St. Louis Rams at Green Bay. The Rams move to an impressive 4-1 record, edging Green Bay 23-20. That's three straight close wins against non-playoff teams (Arizona, Detroit and Green Bay). But 4-1 feels a lot nicer than 1-4.....

* 1pm -ish: Nascar Nextel Cup at Talledega. Typical "plate" racing, plus a controversial finish. Plenty of soap opera here, as Brian Vickers got his first cup win by spinning teammate Jimmie Johnson into fan-favorite Dale Earnhart Jr on the last lap, crashing both. Vickers was on the outs with Hendrick Motorsports before yesterday, I won't be surprosed if he's with another team by the next race!

* 7 pm: St. Louis Cardinals hosting San Diego, in game 4 of the NLCS. The Cards rebound to win the game and the series, despite walking in a run (and giving up 2) in the first inning. The Redbirds seem to have shaken off thier late season swoon, but how long can they keep it up?? Next task, The Mets.

* 7:30pm: Pittsburgh Steelers at San Diego. As I said before, 4-1 feels a lot nicer than 1-4, and the Steelers are edging towards 1-4. Thank's to the bye-week, they're only 1-3, with 3 straight losses. Another lackluster game, sqaundering a 13-7 halftime lead, and losing the 2nd half 16-0. This does NOT look like the team that won last year's Super Bowl... I hope they can find a spark before the season is all the way wasted.

Steve?

Just noticed I haven’t been posting much on the musical side lately. So sorry for my deficiency. How about rock’s best “Steves”??

I gotta start with Stephen Stills, a personal favorite. From Buffalo Springfield through CSN (&Y) to solo, Stills is still rockin'. Next would short lived (literally) Steve Gaines (Lynyrd Skynyrd). Then on to Steve Miller, Steve Winwood (from Traffic, before solo), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith’s lead singer), Steve Howe (guitarist for Yes) and Steve Hacket (guitarist for Genesis). Don’t forget Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac). I’ll even include Steve Perry, even though I hate Journey. I’m sure there’s dozens more, how about some suggestions?

Picture(s) Of The Day(s)

I've been on a POTD roll lately, with 4 winners in the past 6 days! I had really slacked off entering some of the "secondary" contests, and decided last week to go thrugh my BP entries for the past month or so, and start spreading them around... I've scored 3 quick winners over at Digital Photo Nut, and 1 at 6 PhotoShowdown. Pretty cool, hope it keeps up! Here's the winners since Sunday:

Digital PhotoNut:

Lost World Caverns, Lewisberg, WV

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Sunset, from the High School Sports Complex, Edwardsville, IL
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abridged.... Bew River Gorge, WV
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PhotoShowdown

Covered Bridge Interior - Near Springfield IL

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Sunrise on the Water

An older shot, 2 years ago last month. Before I even got my DSLR, this one’s from my old (deceased) Kodak LS443. Sunrise at Lake Little Grassy, outside Carbondale, IL. … .

Frond?

Leaf #34

On a Sunday afternoon walk with my son, we found this cool leaf… .