Wandering - 20190329

So...  I had last Friday off work, as I've started doing a 9x80 schedule at work.  I decided to take an explore, even though it was a grey, grey day.  I got up just after my wife, and when she left for her work, I headed up the Great River Road.  First stop, Alton.
Here's some photos, click them for larger versions:

Looking across the Mississippi from the Alton shore.  There was a pretty cool mist / fog hanging on the river, towards the Missouri River.   According to the web the river stage at Alton was 29.25ft, just over Moderate flood stage.  Heading north, the Great River Road was closed in Alton, where the river stage was about 1/2 way betweem Moderate and Major flooding.  So I turned north on Rt. 3, and worked into Pere Marquette from the back side:

This one is ETSOOI, not to far off the road in the shots above

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This shelter is only 150-200 yards off of Scenic Drive.  I 've been here once before, porbably 15 years ago.  And that time we hiked in from the Visitor's center...  probably less than a mile, but maybe 1500 ft up.  

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More High water on the Illinois River, in front of Pere Marquette Lodge

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I decided to take a longer way home, I picked a small town on the Nav and set out for Otterville, IL.  Not a lot in Otterville, but some interesting sites along the drive:

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Anyway, it was a good day.

The Birds

Columbia Bottom Conservation Area

After wandering around CBCA last weekend, I was headed towards the exist, doing the counterclockwise loop...   As I turned onto this particular gravel stretch, I saw a car stopped in the road, maybe 300-400 yards away.  Naturally, I also stopped, to try and figure out what they would be looking at.  [pardon my grammar there]   There was a rather large flock of black birds (presumably starlings) in the filed to their left (my right), which was lifting and settling.  

After 30 seconds or so, the other car continued on its way (and past me).  I thought I could "sneak up" (in my car), and maybe catch them in murmation.  Had I been really thinking, I'd've pulled to the side, and walked the distance.  That would've given me the best flexibility in terms of camera angles and all.  Yeah, but...  thinking?   Instead I rolled all the windows down, and crunched s-l-o-w-l-y down the gravel road.  

Naturally, the birds spooked before I could get alongside, and decided to make a dash for the trees across the road.  I stopped the car, grabbed my camera off the passenger seat and managed 2 photos before they were mostly passed.  Two shots through the windshield, with a rather excessive "dutch tilt" and whatever settings were on the camera from my previous shot (I was in manual mode).

Fortunately, the light hadn't changed much, so the exposure was close.  And I'm not one of those (misguided) purists who shun post processing (I agree with Ansel Adams), so I was able to clean it up.   I decided to go with a panorama presentation, but ity's a "free" crop, not any standard aspect ratio.

Overall, I don't hate this  one, and it does capture a fun moment.  I wich I had thought to prop my pnone in the windshield, and shot video while rolling up...

Triptych?

A Triptych is a series of 3 images, usually presented in a row.  But is there any reason they can't be presented in a vertical stack?

Presented for your consideration:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I don't know...  does it work??

This is an old abandoned delivery truck, found at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area.  I've shot this truck several times (like here and here), but it continues to fascinate me.  These three images are from a visit last weekend.  I was thinking it might work to do a triptych with them.  So I mocked this up to see if it grows on me.  Any opinions out there in internet land?

One problem:  With the middle photo square cropped, I would have to cut my own custom mat.  Which I can do, but is a bit more like work.

Even In The Quietest Moments

"Don't you let the sun fade away..."  -  From the Supertramp song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTtqrINg8WY

The photo is from two weeks ago, here's what I wrote at the time:

It was a grey and dreary day today. No rain, no fog, just mid 40's and grey, grey, grey. I decided to take a chance that we might get something interesting at sunset, and was glad I did. This spot is about 30 minutes from home, and as we get closer, the cloud cover started breaking up.

I'm glad we took the chance!

Screened

We finally got shades installed at our new office.  They do a great job keeping the morning glare at a reasonable level...

Album Review - J.J. Cale - Really

Another entry in the ongoing series of album reviews.  See here for index.

Artist:  J.J. Cale
Album:  Really
Relaesed: 1972

I discovered J.J. Cale sometime around mid-1976, when his original version of "Cocaine" got some radio play in Pittsburgh.  I knew the name, because Lynyrd Skynyrd had previously covered his songs "Call Me The Breeze" and "Same Old Blues" [aside:  Skynyrd only did 2 covers on their first 4 albums, and both were J.J. Cale songs].  I bough the album, but remember being a little disappointed that most of it did NOT sound like the hard rocking "Cocaine".   Then, in early 1977, he appeared on the cover of "Guitar Player" magazine, with a fawning article, I dug into Troubadour some more and was soon hooked.  It wasn't long before I had his previous 3 albums.

I continued to be a J.J. Cale fan, and still am.  I have almost all of his albums.  He's my favorite "obscure" artist, although he's really not that obscure to music geeks...

Anyway, I decided it was time to do a J.J. Cale review, which lead to to the question of which one?  My first thought was Troubadour, since that was the one I discovered first.  But I decided on Really.  Maybe because I made a silk-screened t-shirt of this album cover back in late high school.  Heck, that's as good a reason as any.

Really has a wonderful, laid back feeling, which really shouldn't be a surprise to anybody who knows J.J. Cale.  A steady shuffle over solid grooves, deceptively good playing, and vocals back in the mix....   But Really also has a distinct Mose Allison vibe.  The album features a dozen songs, 10 by Cale and 2 by others.  All are typically concise, running between 1:45 and 3:16.  An interesting observation, The album was recorded in 7 sessions.  The first 5 were between in the first week of April 1972, followed by one in late June and one in early July.  But it was also recorded in 5 different studios, and 2 different states!  With a different engineer and musicians for each studio.  You would think this would result in a fragmented album, but it really doesn't.

Studios:

• Bradley's Barn, Mt. Julliet, TN (4 songs, 2 dates)
• Quadrophonic Studio, Nashville, TN (3 songs, 2 dates)
• Quinvy Studio, Muscle Shoals, AL (3 songs, 2 dates)
• Moss Rose Studio, Nashville, TN (2 songs, 1 date)
• Muscle Shoals Studio, Muscle Shoals, AL (1 song, 1 date)

Wow, Tuesday and Thursday in Nashville area, Friday and Saturday in Muscle Shoals, back in Nashville on Monday.  Yikes.  I'm sure there was some logical reason.

My favorite songs?  5 Star rated:  Lies,  Soulin'.  4 Star Rated:  Everything Will Be Alright,  Changes, Right Down Here, Louisiana Women.  Everything else is 3 Star.

Back cover:

Check out my other reviews HERE.

The Trees Knees

We finally made the office move this month, from Arnold, MO to Collinsville, IL.  After 5 months, I've traded the 40+ minute commute for under 10 minutes.  Very nice to cut my work day down by an hour.

On the other hand, I need to start over on looking for good places to walk at lunch.  First try was Woodland Park.  Very close to work, but pretty small.  The weather we right for an explore the other day, so I checked it out.  There's a small lake with lots of cypress trees.  And Lots of cypress knees....

End Of An Era?

the first I photo posted to TWIBW, 3/26/2012

Way back in September 2012, I was invited to join The World In Black And White (TWIBW), a blog focusing on Black And White photography (duh!).  I thought it was a pretty cool idea, just photos, no text (beyond title and/or comments).  I was recommended by a friend, and I think I submitted examples of my work to be accepted...  The concept was the site would be limited to 25 photographers, and if someone didn't post at least one photo per month, your spot would be given to somebody else.

Overall, it's been a good site, and my posts tended to get orders of magnitude higher for views/image compared to my personal black and white site (Happenstance Photography).  However, it has kind of lost it's way, and I'm pretty sure that it hasn't even had a moderator in a couple of years.  No new photographers have been added in ages, and only 6 people have posted in 2019.  The person who recommended me hasn't posted to the site since early 2016.

Looking at the last 3 months (Dec/Jan/Feb), this year compared to 3 years ago:  Overall views per post is down 71%, views per day is down 58%.  And number of posts is down 32%. 

Or looking at just my photos, and activity per year:

Any way you slice it, it is still ugly.

So, after 6.5 years, I think it is time to let it go. Even though I still get 4-5x the views there, it it trending the wrong way.  I won't rage-quit or delete all my photos or anything, rather just fade away...  like the site seems to be doing.

You can see all the images I posted to TWIBW here.



Aside:  Happenstance Photography blog has been around since  September 2006, but I evolved it into a spot to focus on my Black and White images in August, 2012 ( month before I joined The World In Black and White - probably NOT a coincidence).  Before that it was mostly a venue to talk about microstock photography, which I did for a while.  I continue operate Happenstance on a similar basis as TWIBW, but usually include camera info and location data.

The Monkees - 03/16/2019

So, last Saturday night, my son, my wife and I saw The Monkees at the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO.  Technically, it was "The Monkees Present:  The Mike and Micky Show".  Which makes sense, since Davy and Peter have both passed away.  Notably (to me), this was only 4 weeks shy of the 50th anniversary of the first time I saw the band!  I actually was a little uncertain about going to this one, as they're getting pretty old (Micky is 74, Mike is 76).  And Peter would not be touring with them.  But at some later point, my son announced that one of his great regrets in his (still short) life was that I didn't take him to the 50th anniversary tour (in 2016)...  Well, I couldn't just let that hang out there.  When I realized the St. Louis date for the show matched up with his spring break from college, we had to go for it.

How was it?
Well, as I noted before, these guys are getting up there in age.  And it is kind of noticeable.  But, they had a great band with them (including Mike's son on guitar), and they put on a solid, and fun, show.  This was the last show of their US Tour, and everybody seemed relaxed and having fun. I will note that Mike seemed to act his age a bit, and maybe lost his place once or twice.  But it's cool, we're all friends here. 

They played a great setlist, with a lot of deep cuts (especially Nesmith songs).  And quite few pleasant surprises.  The accoustic versions of Pap Gene's Blues and Randy Scouse Git were quite cool...   They also played 2 songs from the recent "Good Times" release, which worked very well.  I'll be making an iTunes playlist of the show (of course).

This won't go down in history as one of the greatest shows I've seen, but it was good clean fun, and I'm really glad we went.

I don't like to take photos during a show, but I did do a quick snap to prove I was there...  Sorry about the poor quality:

And a nice review in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Aside:  The Monkees are one of the few artists from my youth that have been overlooked for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  They released four #1 albums in 13 months, released a truly mind binding movie and inspired countless kids who were just a shade too young to have seen the Beatles on Sullivan (like me).  (also on my list, The Doobie Brothers and Weird Al Yankovick).

Parallel Lines

A little abstraction for a Saturday:

I was trying for an abstract feel, contrasting the texture of wooden boards with crisp shadows.  

Not quite SOOC (straight out of camera) but not too far off. A very slight straightening of the lines, a little boost in contrast...  Then I made a B and W layer, but dropped the opacity pretty significantly.

I rather like how it turned out.  Posted to 365project.

If you care, below is a wide shot showing where this was taken.  On the bridge between the Glen Carbon Library and Miner Park.

Even in the Quietest Moments

"Don't you let the sun fade away..."

From the Supertramp song

It was a grey and dreary day today. No rain, no fog, just mid 40's and grey, grey, grey. I decided to take a chance that we might get something interesting at sunset, and was glad I did. This spot is about 30 minutes from home, and as we get closer, the cloud cover started breaking up.

I'm glad we took the chance!

Album Review - The Inmates - First Offence

Another entry in the ongoing series of album reviews.  See here for index.

In late 1979, there was a song on the radio:  “Dirty Water”.  a fun remake of the Standells hit from 1966.  It entered the charts (at #89) 12/08/1979, and peaked at #51 (on 01/19/1980).  This was Christmas break of my freshman year in College, and I remember hearing the song with Pittsburgh-centric lyrics at the time (“down by the banks of the rivers three” and “Pittsburgh you’re my home”.  I picked up the record, and the lyrics are “the banks of the river Thames”, and “London you’re my home”.  Well, I was chaffed, but it’s still a good song.  I can’t find much evidence on the internet, but I did find one forum that mentions they did “a bunch of different versions for markets around the US”. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the album is pretty solid.  Very retro (retro from 1979, that is!), I guess it would sort of reminds me of early 60's Stones, or possibly Kinks...  .  Wikipedia called them both a pub rock band” and garage rock revivalists.  Nothing too dramatic, but good.  The album has a solid horn presence, which works quite well.  Allmusic has a nice summary:  “First Offense is about as derivative as it gets. But it's also rockin' and highly infectious” ( First Offense is about as derivative as it gets. But it's also rockin' and highly infectious).

The back cover lists 4 band members:

• Peter Gunn - Lead Guitar / Vocals
• Bill Hurley - Vocals
• Bem Donnelly - Bass Guitar
• Tony Oliver - Rhtyhm Guitar

Yep, no drummer.  The additional credits say John Bull played drums on Dirty Water, and "Eddie" on all other tracks.

Also, the horns are by The Rumour brass section.


Best song (IMHO) is Dirty Water, along with Love Got Me.  But the slow blues number If Time Could Turn Backwards is especially excellent.  Everything else is solid, there are real bad songs.

Back cover: