Foliage (aftermath)

We have a number of trees on our property.  Last year we were very busy with our jobs, with Jet, late summer and fall, and so we kept having to postpone raking leaves… or we just didn’t feel like it.  foliage-aftermath_MFT-folio28AThe more they accumulated, the less we’d feel like it!  Sometime in December, we just had to do it.  It became a huge chore taking us the better part of two days.  I think we hauled two dozen TARPfulls to the curb, I bet close to a ton of leaves, no joke.  Only a 3D picture can properly convey the mass, the heaps and mountains of leaves collected.

Shot with Sputnik, f22 probably, 1 sec. on Provia I guess.

Xmas 2014

xmas2014_MFT-folio28A“Candid” tripod shot on Christmas eve, when (according to German tradition) the tree is lit for the first time.  Boris and Michele on the left, then Jet, and Sarah, his godmother.  Probably shot on Kodak E200, 1 second exposure, f8?  Focus variable throughout – not the best situation for the Spud’s optics.  Lighting is tungsten and a bit of window light. Jet’s godfather, Travis, released the shutter.

 

2 Close 4 Comfort

Just a few houses down from us is an intersection that I’ve always judged to be hazardous. Melbourne Avenue intersects with Kenwood Lane in a “T” in such a way as to invite sleepy or otherwise impaired motorists onto your property. Melbourne goes over a little rise right before meeting Kenwood on a little steep downhill. The rise prevents a motorist from seeing the stop sign until about the last hundred feet before the intersection. If you don’t know the roads, and you’re going too fast, chances are you’d not be able to stop – especially because coming over the rise your car would be “lifting,” and your traction would be reduced.

To make matters worse, DIRECTLY in the path of Melbourne, i.e. exactly opposite Melbourne, is a house, 1321. When I first saw this arrangement, I immediately thought: I would not want to live in that house; but if I was forced into it, I’d always park some kind of large, heavy, junk car in front of the house. Well, of course the current owners never do that (and amazingly, STILL don’t do it).

So, coming home at night last winter, we noticed a lot of flashing lights just down the road from us. Jet is totally into emergency vehicles, so we went to have a look. I had a peculiar suspicion. Sure enough, an automobile was lodged in the living room of the house opposite Melbourne Ave. Upon coming closer, though, I noticed that it was not 1321 – the house right opposite the intersection – but 1323, the house next to it. The car had come over the rise much too fast and could not stop. The driver had tried to make a left turn, but came nowhere near completing the turn. They jumped the curb, plowed through some bushes, and ended up as you see in the picture, entering the house at a diagonal angle.

2-close-4-comfort_MFT-folio28ATo their great fortune, the family was not at home. I ran back to our house and grabbed the Spud and a tripod. With a policeman’s permission I set up at the corner of the property. I shot a roll exposing between 15 and 30 seconds onto RXP (fuji 400ASA). Local TV and newspaper reporters were there too. In the aftermath the story circulated: this driver had been running from the police, all the way from interstate, outside the city. They had come into town at high speed, taking random turns, ending up at this very unsuitable intersection.

The house has just been repaired, some nine months later. I guess it took a while to get the insurance money straightened out. I’ve not yet talked to the homeowners about the event – I might give them a stereoview sometime as a conversation starter. But I have talked to the neighbors at 1321, where I always thought such a mishap would be the most likely: they were surprised by the event, but remain otherwise not much more concerned than before, still not parking their car in front of their house.

Construction

For the past year or so there’s been a hotel going up across the street from my studio.  Though I swore some years ago that I was “done” with “clear buildings,” the proximity and thus convenience of this building stimulated me to make one last one.  It’s the reason I bought a Sigma (DP-1 Merrill) camera: this last Clear Building will be shot with some decent resolution, so that I can make truly large prints.

construction_MFT-folio28A

That work has been digital and is ongoing.  But on a recent early morning, I found the building looking quite attractive, complex and mysterious.  I shot it with a Sputnik, shooting cha-cha to obtain a larger baseline – maybe 12 inches – to give it more depth and interest.  I did not record exposures but I think I shot thirty seconds at f-11 onto Kodak E-200.

 

UVA Hospital

scan001053Shot in natural evening light using twin Hasselblads with 75mm lenses.

I had set up the twin rig Hassys but one of them was acting funny, making a nasty noise advancing the film (they have electric/motor drive film advance). Just to be safe, between exposures I shifted the tripod over 9-12 inches each time. I figured if the film advance was screwed up (it was) I’d have some side-steps on at least the one roll. And that’s how I “succeeded” in my photography that night. The careful observer will be able to make out the Orion Nebula in this shot, as well as read the time of day in a distant wall clock!

12″ (?) interaxial original slide shot in 2004.   f/11? five to ten seconds exposure, if I remember correctly.