Raleigh Sandwich Shop

Just a little something I saw while walking in downtown Raleigh.  I originally processed it in color, then did a B&W version for over at Happenstance.  Shot on my iPhone, and processed using snapseed.  So not quite perfect...

Which do you like better??  I'm usually a sucker for B&W, but I think I like the color a little more.  Maybe with a bit of a decrease in overall saturation.... just a little bit.

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Great Egret

Beautiful day today.  I managed an excursion to Watershed Nature Center, very nice after a long day of driving yesterday (Pittsburgh to St. Louis).  While there, I saw this lone Great Egret.  These photo are chronological, about 6 minutes between first and last, as I walked the trail around the pond.

I rather liked the pile of turtles off to the right.   I first saw the Egret when I arrived, but I went the other way around the trail (counter-clockwise), so it was 40 minutes or so until I got close enough to manage a shot (even with my "long" lens).  I was a little surprised that it hadn't moved during that time.  I suppose it could've left and returned, though....

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Not to long after the top photo, a goose drifted by, and the Egret flew over closer to the Watershed's main building.  I was able to get a good bit closer, as you can tell above.

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As I worked on around the path, and up to the side of the building I finally got too glose, and he/she decided to flow off.  If I had been more prepared, I might've gotten a better shot!

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New River Gorge Bridge

Long drive yesterday, from Raleigh, NC, to Pittsburgh, PA.  And didn’t get on the road until almost 2 (for good reason, at least).  And didn’t make great time (for not so good reason).  

Anyway, we ended up with a little happenstance, as we crossed the New River Gorge Bridge (West Virginia) right as the sun was setting.  A quick stop at the overlook, a couple quick photos w/ the iPhone, and back on the road,

Perfect Day - SOOC

So, as life evolved, I ended up flying from STL to ATL recently.  Then driving to Raleigh, NC.  Taking the long route to Pittsburgh.   Long story, don’t ask.

Anyway, after getting into NC, we decided to take a long-cut off the interstate.  We added about 20 minutes, but a much more pleasant drive.  This spot is along the Uwharrie Scenic Rd, where it crosses over the Yadkin River.  There was a nice little scenic overlook pull out, so we simply had to stop.

This is straight out of camera, usually I do at least a little tweaking.

Along the Backroads

Some scenes from recent drive around central Illinois.  A little windshield time, just for fun:

Old Billboard, outside Mason Illinois

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Sitting Room...  St. James, Illinois...  

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Elmo Theater, St. Elmo, Illinois

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Old Grain Tower, Donnellson, Illinois

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Break On Through

The sun has been trying to break though the clouds all morning, so far, unsuccessfully. Between the clouds and the window shade, you can make out the sphere of the sun, which I though was pretty cool.

By the end of the day, there wasn't a cloud in the sky...

Stumpped / Logged

Taken during a short hike at Coffeen Lake.  This was Oak Ridge Trail, on the south side of the lake.  I noticed an old stump, liked the tones and textures...

Above was from my Fujifilm X-T3 mirrorless, below was from my iPhone:

Oak Ridge Trail is a short trail, about 0.75 miles, around a small peninsula on the lake.  Just west of the spillway.

Album Review - John Fogerty - Centerfield

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Artist:  John Fogerty
Album:  Centerfield
Released: 1985
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Well, we're a couple weeks into baseball season, so the song Centerfield pops into minds around the USA.  I presume it still gets played in staduims around the country, too (but I haven't been to a Major League game in 2-3 years).  So with "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play" circling around my brain, I figured I should review John Fogerty's album of the same name.

John Fogerty was, of course, the leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival.  He was lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band that dominated rock music from 1968 through 1972.  They released 7 albums in 3.75 years, hitting the Top 40 Thirteen times.  Nine of those songs made the Top 10, and 5 peaked at number 2.  They are one of the more iconic bands of that time period.

But all of that is a different story.  We're here to talk about John Fogerty.

In 1985, it had been 10 years since the music world had heard from John Fogerty, after his 1975 eponymous release.  That album peaked at #78, and had one moderately successful song, Rocking All Over The World, which peaked at #27.

Fast forward 10 years to early 1985 and the release of Centerfield.  The album got a lot of press, peaked at #1 on the US charts, and spawned 2 Top 40 hits.  Plus Centerfield, which didn't quite break the Top 40, stalling at #44. I believe I bought this sometime in late spring 1985, when it was current.  It is probably one of the last few albums I purchased new on vinyl, probably a year before I made the switch to CD.

As to the music:

The most notable thing about the album is that it sounds remarkably like a CCR album.  But since John Fogerty was the key person in the band, it isn't to surprising.  The album opens with the outstanding "The Old Man Down The Road", which peaked at #10 (Fogerty's best charting single).  It also inspired a lawsuit from CCR's old label that it sounded too much like Creedence.  In essence, Fogerty was sued for plagiarizing himself.  

The solid start of "Old Man Down..." is followed up by the "Rock And Roll Girls".  These two songs (along with Centerfield) are all great, and make the album worthwhile.

Sadly (IMHO, at least), the rest of the album is generally forgettable.  "Big Train (From Memphis)" and "I Can't Help Myself" are good, but not great.  And each album side ends with a song slamming  Saul Zaentz, owner of Fantasy Records. (Mr. Greed" and "Vanz Kant Danz".   I get it, there was a lot of bad blood between Fogerty and Fantasy, and he had good reason to be unhappy.  But these songs just seem bitter to me, and combine for 9:35 of music that I simply don't dig.

So, what's it all add up to?  I'll give it 3.5/5 stars.  While Centerfield has several super songs, and mostly solid, it really hasn't gotten played much over the past 39 years.  

See here for INDEX of album reviews

Back Cover:

Record Sleeve (front):

The back of the record sleeve is lyrics...

Wildcat Hollow

Some folk think that any post-processing of a photo is heresy, anything except "straight-out-of-camera" (SOOC) is invalid.  I'm not one of those people.  Now, I'm not opposed to SOOC, and I agree that we (photographers) should strive to get the best possible image on the front end.  But...  things like crop, rotate, exposure tweaks, burn/dodge, adjust contrast?  I was doing all those things in a wet darkroom 40+ years ago.  I've always liked Ansel Adams' quote:  "The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance."

Now, all that is fine and dandy, but generally, the processing we're talking about is usually limited to the kinds of things I noted above (crop, rotate, exposure tweaks, burn/dodge).  That's not what we have here.  If Ansel Adams was talking about a symphony, this is free-form improvisation Jazz.

The original photo (see below) is quite dull.  I was trying to get a sense of layers, and the pt-quite-yet aspect of spring on this cool morning. The light was a bit harsh, the colors were a bit flat, my expectations were a bit low.  But I had a bit of a struggle finding this spot, and felt the need to try for a photo.  And I hoped that I could make something interesting with it.

Perhaps surprisingly, there's no crop or rotate or even exposure adjustment here.  I skipped the "normal" tweaks and went straight to the hard-stuff.  Now, I said it was Jazz, which means it's all improvised.  And not documented.  But my workflow was something like:  New Layer: Topaz Simplify to soften some of the harshness, and boost the colors a bit (significant tweaks from defaults).  Blend that layer with base.  Merge, then copy new layer.  Topaz Impressions on that layer, don't remember exact preset.  Resize for display size, then addtexture in Photoshop Elements.  Fram effect was manually added in Elements, there's 6 or 7 steps in that..


Here's the original:

Watershed Nature Center #190406

Late afternoon last Sunday, I took an outing to WNC with my new zoom lens (Fujinon 55-200mm).  Just getting a feel for it, as well as spending some time at the watershed.

I rather liked the lighting here, with the cattails backlit, and the woods in the back in shadow.  This was shot with the zoom at 86mm (gotta love exif data!).  My Fujifilm X-T3 has a 1.5 crop factor, so that converts to 129mm (on a 35mm basis)...  If you care.

Parked #43566

Drost Park, Maryville, IL. A little wind on thew water, making ripples.

As noted yesterday, I changed work locations 5-6 weeks ago.  Dropped my commute by about 75%, a very good thing.  But between weather and workload, I'm still looking for good spots for lunchtime walks.  I think Drost Park will be a good one.  Only 5-6 minutes from the office, the trail around the lake is just at 1 mile.

"R" with Handprints

Just a bit of randomness from a recent lunchtime walk.

I've been in transition lately on my lunchtime walks.  Last fall I changed jobs (after 11 years), and my work location switched from Fairview Heights, IL to Arnold, MO.  That's 30+ miles away.  So all  the places I had frequented were out, and I had to find new ones.  Which I did.  Just over a month ago, my new company opened a new office in Collinsville, IL, which was great for me, but all those spots near Arnold are now out.

So I've been looking for new places.  Yesterday, I was looking at google maps, and noticed a Pleasant Ridge Park (Maryville) that I'd never seen before.  I had to check it out, because Pleasant Ridge Park (Fairview Heights) was one of my spots to frequent before.

The two Pleasant Ridge Parks are less that 10 miles apart, which I found slightly amusing.  I have to say that I prefer the Fairview Heights park for my needs, but this one will be added to my list.

ACC103 - Frog and Toad - more often than not, unconsidered

Over at 365project, one of the ongoing challenges is to create mock album covers.  You select random band names and album covers, and then make an album cover.  (more details here).  It probably shouldn't surprise anyone that I especially dig this one, and play frequently.  On the other hand, I've only participated in about 40% of the 64 ACC challenges 4+ years, so I guess I shouldn't brag.

Anyway, here's my current entry, for the 103th edition of the game:

My (randomly selected) band name was "Frog and Toad", and my album title was "more often than not, unconsidered".

I took the photo last Sunday, it seemed to fit well for an album cover.

One of the commenters over at 365project suggested this could be a 70's Folk album, and I kind of like that idea.  Maybe something along the lines of Seals and Crofts, or Loggins and Messina.  Not a duo, but Jim Croce would fit too....

In fact, I decided to create a Spotify Playlist for the mock album.  Check it out here.  Some pretty recognizable artists, but I tried to stick with deeper cuts.

Check out all of my album cover challenge entries here.

A Good Crop 2019 (Quarter Turn)

Over the past 7 years, I have posted year end lists of my favorite images from the year,  The concept is loosely based on Ansel Adams' quote that "12 significant photos in a year is a good crop".  As we've completed 1/4 of 2019, I decided to do a quick review, and pick my favorite 6.  Again, I don't begin to claim any are "significant", but these are my favorites.  Listed chronilogically:

Untitled 1089 - January 5

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Nothing Left But Memories - January 15

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Piasa Point -January 26

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Adore - January 24

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Old Barn #1314 - February 2

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High Water - March 23

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Interesting that it worked our an even mix of color and B&W.  Heavily weighted to January...


Here's the links to prior yearly reviews:

2018 - A Good Crop

2017 - A Good Crop

2016 - A Good Crop
2015 - A Good Grop

2014 - A Good Crop

2013 - A Good Crop
2012 - A Good Crop

Album Review - Missing Persons - Spring Session M

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Artist:  Missing Persons
Album:  Spring Session M
Released: 1982
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A couple of days ago, I was listening to an iPod playlist "Walking" and the Missing Persons' "Walking In LA" came up.  Well, that's an album I hadn't played in a while...  So, I fixed that. 

I was a little surprised to see that Spring Session M came out in 1982, just a few months after I had graduated college.  Because I didn't have MTV back then, and I distinctly remember the video for Words.   But I'm pretty confident I had heard Destination Unknown on the radio.   Both of those songs peaked at #42 on the Billboard Charts, but I would've heard them on WHFS, which wasn't top 40 anyway.

Trivia I didn't know until today:  The album title "Spring Session M" is an anagram of the band's name.  I was actually wondering...

Anyway, I've had this on vinyl since it was new, but it had kind of faded from my mind.  I think it's just a reflection of the sound of the time, that early-mid-80's blend of new-wave and pop rock.   Heavy on synthesizers...  really heavy on the synthesizers.   But listening to the album now, it really is quite good.  Especially in context to the time.

Kind of funny, Allmusic gavve this album 4 stars (out of 5) but the actual review is rather scathing.  You can read the whole thing here, but he sums it as "Spring Session M is somewhat overwhelmed by the Cyndi Lauper screechiness of lead singer Dale Bozzio's vocals, Warren Cuccurullo's wailing guitars, and the relentless chirpiness of the keyboards and synthesizers".   I noted the syth-heaviness, but that's a product of the time.  I will acknowledge that Dale Bozzio's vocal inflections can get a little  well, I just say noticeable.  But not a fatal flaw by any stretch.

Best songs:  Words, Destination Unknown, Noticeable Ones, Walking In LA
Weakest:  No Way Out, Rock and Roll Suspension.

Overall, a good album, worth digging out every once in a while, if a little dated.  3.5/5 stars.

If they had dropped those last 2 songs and released it as a concise 38 minute package, it probably would've been better.  IMHO.

Back cover:

Nothing too special here, except the album title in morse code after the track listing.

Inner sleeve:

Just a "standard" lyric sheet here, except for the Band Name (above) and Album Title (below) in mores code....

And some art on the flip of the liner:

And, now that you've made it to the end, here's a link to other album reviews here:
LINK
Other Album Reviews Here

Last Rays

Just a little something from a late afternoon walk at Schon Park.  Intentionally underexposed to emphasize the colors of the setting sun.  Ah, the joys of Manual Mode.

This is Straight from the Camera....