Author Archives: Paul Gillis

Paul Gillis d25 Submissions

by Paul Gillis

Sinks of Gandy, Randolph County, W.Va.

Paul Gillis submission #1 for d25

Upstream Entrance of the Sinks of Gandy (wide view & closeup).  Gandy Creek flows right under a ridge extending out from Yokum Knob, emerging back into daylight about half a mile to the east.  The cave has been well-known & heavily visited since at least the 1830’s, although it was never operated as a tourist attraction.  (You can read about it in Wikipedia.)  It’s one of my favorite places, although I slipped on the wet rocks & hurt myself rather badly while wading around to take these photos.  At least my camera survived!

TL-120, Provia 100F.  55mm lenses would have been great for this.

Mouth of Thorny Creek

Paul Gillis submission #3 for d25

Thorny Creek emptying into the Greenbrier River, Pocahontas Co., W.Va.  The old railroad bridge in the background carries the Greenbrier River Trail, popular for hiking & cycling.  This is about 4 miles upstream from Marlinton.

TL-120, Provia 100F.

Fallen Tree on the Bank of the Greenbrier River near Thorny Creek

I think I was on an exposed gravel shoal for this one, not actually wading.  Those rocks sure get slippery!

TL-120, Provia 100F.  Probably f/16.

Paul Gillis d24 submissions

by Paul Gillis

Willow in the West Virginia Hills

This crooked old tree is near the Smokehole Gorge in Pendleton County, W. Va. It’s right behind an old farmhouse that my caving club has used as a field house for many years, about a mile up a very rough gravel lane from the South Branch of the Potomac. All 4 of these slides were taken with my TL-120-1 on Provia 100.

Hillside Shack

Not really a shack, but a storage shed, very close to the willow tree above.  Late afternoon in the fall.

Neptune Fountain

In my opinion, Washington’s most impressive fountain.  Officially called “The Court of Neptune”, it is in front of the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building, facing the U.S. Capitol.  The bronzes were sculpted by Roland Hinton Perry, and carvings on the masonry of the grotto were done by Albert Weinert.  Perry was inspired by the Trevi Fountain in Rome.  It was finished in 1898, shortly after the Jefferson Building opened.

A Nereid Riding a Hippocamp

One of the two sea nymphs riding mythic sea horses in the Neptune Fountain.

 

Paul Gillis’ slides for d23

by Paul Gillis

Well, it’s been about 9 months since I last had the dragon box in my grubby little hands.  I wish I’d taken more MF3D images in that time, but I guess it’s good that I at least got a few.  All four of these were taken with my TL-120 on Provia 100F, using a tripod.

Conundrum Between Trees

This is the same sculpture that I included in my previous entry (here).  I took it on a later visit, and from much further back, so that it is framed by two sturdy trees.  I think I like this shot better.

Here, Have Some Snips

This sculpture is just a stone’s throw from the one above; but in an artistic sense they could hardly be farther apart.  I still don’t know the name of either work, nor of the sculptors.  I shot this very late in the day.  The low light level was no problem, shooting from a tripod (2 sec. at f/11, I think) but it did result in some lights in the background coming out distractingly bright.

Dark Star Park (Arlington, Virginia)

Finally, some sculpture that I know something about!  This little park (larger than what I show here) is actually very close to the US Marine Corps War Memorial (the Iwo Jima sculpture).  Another case of the abstract adjacent to the extremely realistic.

This park & all its sculptural elements were designed by Nancy Holt & built in 1984, commissioned by Arlington County.  The Wikipedia article about her goes into some depth about it.  I definitely want to go back & photograph the park from other angles.  The biggest challenge I had was that from most viewpoints the background was in full sun, while the sculptures were in shade.

Broken Outflow Pipe

Maybe another inadvertent kind of sculpture?  Obviously not a very colorful subject, but I was drawn to the 3-dimensional complexity.  Another long exposure as the day was waning.

 

Paul Gillis d22 submissions

by Paul Gillis

(You can right-click on my images to view at a larger size)

Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

I’ll start with an old image.  I took this with a Sputnik back in 1998, I believe, on Ektachrome E100S.  Back then I also shot some stuff with a twin Mamiya C-330 rig, but I don’t think I could have done that from the steps of the Lincoln memorial; and anyway, the light leaks in the right frame give away the camera.  I think back then I only had square-format mounts, so I never mounted most of the shots from my Spud, because of the leaks.  But thanks to the magic of Ian’s 645 mounts, I was able to salvage this one.  In the distance you can see scaffolding going partway up the Washington Monument.  That renovation took place between 1998 & 2001, but I’m not sure if the scaffolding was going up or coming down when I took this.

At Water’s Edge

A fairly closeup shot of tree trunks, one of which is still standing but obviously dead.  They’re on the edge of a pond not far from me.  Holmes Run, a small creek, runs out of this pond & eventually passes close to my house, and gives its name to my street.  I bought a TL-120 about a year ago, but I’d been very nervous about actually taking it out & using it.  This shot was from one of its first outings.  The film is Provia 100, but I didn’t record the exposure details.

Drill, Grind & Dry

A picture of one of my favorite places to hang out & putter.  My recently-acquired drill press sits on top of a clothes dryer.  I guess I mostly took this to try out my TL-120 with flash.  I bounced a DigiBee DB800 off the ceiling, and used a slow shutter speed to pick up some of the other light in the room, especially the little light built into the drill press.  I meant to leave a little room above the top of the drill press; I guess I’ll have to work on correcting for viewfinder parallax when I’m up close like this.

Stainless Steel Conundrum

This is also very close to my house, in an office park on the other side of the creek.  The building is occupied by some subsidiary of General Dynamics, but owned by some real estate trust in Chicago, I think.  I’ve never been able to find out who made the sculpture, or if it has a name.  I guess the picture would be better if it had a few people in it.  Also my TL-120 & Provia 100, around sunset on a cloudy day.

Lock Machinery, C & O Canal

by Paul Gillis

This device is mounted next to Lock 10 on the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, near Cabin John, Maryland.  I think it opened & closed a sluice gate that would flood the lock to raise the canal boats up, as they travelled up the Potomac from Washington.  Unfortunately, the canal fell into disrepair & stopped being used in the early 20th century.  But it was made into a national park, and some of the locks & aqueducts are maintained as historic tourist attractions.

I took this photo with my Sputnik on Provia 100F, around sunset under a cloudy sky.  I think my exposure was 2 seconds.  I carried a digital SLR with me to serve as my exposure meter (and to take a few 2D photos & cha-chas.)

–Paul Gillis

Ring in the Rock

by Paul Gillis

In August I was trying to take some pictures near the Chain Bridge, which crosses the Potomac from Arlington to D.C.  It’s a fairly standard steel girder bridge, but a much earlier bridge at the same spot was a chain suspension bridge, and the name apparently stuck.  I spotted this iron ring embedded in the rock near the western abutment; perhaps it was a part of the old suspension bridge.

Taken with my Sputnik on Provia 100.

–Paul Gillis

Fairview Lake at Dusk

by Paul Gillis

A small lake near my home in Falls Church.  I took this with one of several Sputniks I have, the only one that has had internal flocking & light seals added.  Unfortunately, its lenses don’t seemed to be closely matched, or maybe they just need their relative focus and their shutters adjusted.  This was taken after sunset with a ten second exposure (or maybe longer).  Luckily there wasn’t much wind.

–Paul Gillis

Fountain of Faith

by Paul Gillis

This is just a small part of an amazing sculptural group in the National Memorial Park, a cemetery near my home in Falls Church, Virginia.  It was made by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles in the early 1950’s.  Unfortunately the water works were out of commission when I took this picture.

I shot it in 1999 with two Mamiya C-330’s on a tripod.  That was a massive rig!  I can’t remember what lenses I used, but I think they were short telephotos, maybe 135’s.  After a couple of outings with that setup, I basically gave up on medium format stereo, until my interest was rekindled last year.

–Paul Gillis