I know I've got some baggage..

When looking to fit a topcase on my newly acquired FJR1300, the FJRforum was invaluable in discerning whether to go with the Givi 357 full rack, or just use the universal plate adapter. Based on feedback regarding stress to the rear subframe, I decided to go with the perceived strength of the 357 (for more details on this history, search the FJRforum), but was worried a little about looks in replacing the color matched tail rack with a rather industrial looking rack. I've always been a "function over form" person so I wasn't too worried, but couldn't find a lot of photos that revealed to me exactly what I might be in for. So, here's some "before and after" photos so others might benefit:

Au Natural...pt1

Its all about the light, and in this first installment of Nature Photography tips, we look at some basic tools to enhance your nature photography, and some simple ways to modify light...

The good old days...weren't

Like a lot of folks, I tend to wax nostalgically about the good old days, when I was younger, girls were prettier and my photography was more fun. But was it really that way?

I have a small collection of old film cameras, many of which I've used extensively, in a glass case in my home. Of these, there are a select few that I really, really enjoyed using, and I still miss the feel of holding those cameras, winding the cranks, thumbing the focus, and how each was a unique experience to use. Using my old Nikon F3, for instance, was vastly different than either the Yashicamat or Speed Graphic, and here you get a sense of why that was...

Nikon F3 (Google Images)





Yashicamat (Google Images)






Speed Graphic (google Images)


Obviously, very, very different machines from one another, and none of them remotely like the auto-everything, slick as a baby's butt modern cameras we have today.
But as much as I loved these machines, I just can't see ever going back to using film. Its not the waiting for development, or the inability to "chimp" the photo on the LCD screen that makes me feel this way. In addition to the fact that digital is just plain sharper, and gives me more detail than film ever did (and yeah, I'm including Kodachrome 25, Fuji Velvia etc etc), my biggest reason for ditching film is the freedom from the dangers and mess of the chemical darkroom.

As much as I'm a "materials and processes" guy, and trained at R•I•T in the imaging sciences back when chemical photography was all there was, I don't miss trading the chemical fog of the darkroom for the "lightroom" that is my computer. I just wish I could place a digital sensor into any of my old machines and still use them, but negate their chemical dependancy. (I theoretically could do that with the Speed Graphic, ironically about the oldest camera I own, by placing a large format digital-back in its Graflex Holder. Albeit for about $20,000, that's not a practical option for me)

Tangentially related, as a very young person, I melted a mixture of lead, tin, and old typeface to make the pigs for the Linotype and Mergenthaler machines at a hot type printer in Buffalo, NY in the early 1980's. They were still running Meihle's, Hiedelberg Windmills, and a couple of Kelly "C" presses well into the 1990's, and may still be for all I know.
It was dangerous stuff. One guy had lost a finger in a Kluge hand-feed press right before I arrived, I myself was crushed by a truck in the loading dock, requiring 5 surgeries in all, and the Linotype guy lost a thumb to a type-trim saw while I was in the hospital from my own accident. Yeah...those were the days.

Here's a video I found on YouTube that shows some of the actual presses I worked with, and around, in those days. Watch out especially for the guy using the hand-feed press, you can see how easy it would be to leave your hand in there:

Now, this stuff was more mechanical, industrial and dangerous than my photography ever was. And it was my being injured in printing that led me to attend R•I•T for photography, even though I continued to work in printing for another 20 years. My point being, that while I miss certain physical and mechanical aspects of the old days of photography (and printing), I'm also really happy that we have safer ways of creating an image.


And creating images is what its all about.
Be Safe.

Today's Levitation

There's a teenager in Japan, Natsumi Hayashi, a self-trained photographer who took a simple idea and ran with it. I love her photos for their simplicity and testament to hard-work and perseverance. She takes hundreds of photos jumping, trying to get just the right pose to make it appear as if she's actually levitating. Her work reminds me of the levitation in such films as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero".

Allen Murabayashi, of Photoshelter, had this to say about her and her work, and I totally agree: "lots of people take homage shots, but they’re just jumping in the air. They don’t levitate. They don’t jump 100 times for the perfect image. They don’t do it over the course of a few years to make it their own. She’s just a girl with a camera, and then all of a sudden she got a gallery show and a 5D, and I was really psyched for her. Her photos inspired me to levitate, and what could be a greater gift?"


Maybe her hard work will inspire to you go that extra step in pursuing your idea of a great photograph.Her work is here, enjoy.

Of Motorcycles, Moose, and Missiles

My Father, brother and I are all long-time motorcycle pilots, and while we've had an opportunity to ride pretty long distances one with the other, we've never all-three ridden together at all for any distance, as far as I can remember.
Soooo, one of my resolutions this year was to spur interest in a Long-Distance (LD) father/son motorcycle ride with just the three of us.
Initial ideas ran from the Grand Canyon, to California, to Prudhoe Bay Alaska (okay, that one was solely my idea and no one bit), riding the Gulf Coast, and Ozark Mtns.
But after only a few email exchanges, it became obvious where we must go:
Caribou, Maine.
Why here, at the most northeastern city in the US, deep thru the North Woods where the moose, black fly and jumbo mosquitoes lie?
Its a bit of a long story...
Without telling too much on my Dad, he met my Mom while stationed at a Nike Missile Base in New York in the early sixties. Soon after they were married, I was born and the next 50 years or so are history.
But, my Dad also had the option of being stationed in Caribou, Maine at a Missile base there. He chose New York because it was populated by more than the occasional Moose, but there's always been that "what if"?  Choice of location was a bit of a "Scylla and Charybdis" affair for my Dad, as he was born and raised in the Southeast, and I think having to choose between either Upstate NY or Maine was like having to choose between either getting an enema or having your teeth pulled without novocaine.
As the ride is partially in honor of my Dad's 70th birthday, and because he's probably mentioned Caribou, Maine after every marital spat, new kid, blizzard, or some other reason, every year since I can remember, we figured it was about time we went and checked this place out.
At this point, I've mapped out the final route, and it looks like we'll be doing about 3,000 miles (never touching I-95!) in about 10 days round trip, starting in mid-June. And we've thrown in a "side trip" to Quebec City to boot.
We hope to have the chance to visit one of the better preserved Nike Missile Base remnants while there, as well as take in the Maine Coastline. I plan to post the bulk of our trip day-by-day in June so you can follow along with us. More in June...

That close, fuzzy feeling I get...

This is a wee bit of a followup to the "Fun in the Dark" and "Dare to be Square" posts, both of which employed "large" apertures. Here's a few tips on something else to do with all that "fast glass" in your hands:

Liebster Award