It can always get worse

So Jack called this afternnon to offer kudos on the most recent patent (7,979,303) and we got talking about the B&Ws from the Old Idaho Penn.  He liked the snaps but not the venue.  I told him I had worse, I almost never take photos of or in a cemetary.  I can only think of four times, Arlington National, the Mumma cemetary at Antietam, Oak Hill in Georgetown (from the nearby park) and Congressional Cemetary at Pennsylvania Avenue at the Anacostia in the District.  The Congressional shots were taken on my birthday almost 5 years ago and never processed.  I guess I didn't much like the results.  Mostly maybe becuase I went to get some snaps of the centopaths but I only took 29 snaps total and the centopath snaps were decidely not very compelling.  The colors were worse and I was using the 45 TS-E for one of the first times and that didn't work so well either.  But...

in the spirt of being a contrarian, they got processed today to show it can always get worse — or at least the venue can. Kinda like the piece in today's NY Times Dealbook about the sentencing proceedings in the Raj Rajaratnam insider trading case.  Anyway, four shots from the Congressional Cemetary ca fall 2006, I understand the centopaths have been restored since.  All with a fairly heavy dose of the Color Efex 3 Midnight filter.

Lastly, some centopaths — designed by Benjamin Latrobe

Lamont Cranston

Lamont Cranston?  Is he related to (Tommy) Lamont DuPont, maybe he is the founder of Cranston, RI or perhaps the patron of Harvard's Lamont Libray or maybe the leader of the band, or the father of the erstwhile CT senatorial candidate or his brother — once of the Hilltop and now of the Circle?  Nah, none of these, he is the classic pulp superhero, The Shadow.  The Shadow as in "Who know what evil lurks in the heart of men? The Shadow knows!". Five from the dark side of the dark side in the Old Idaho Pennitentiary, Boise, ID — August 2006.

First and last two from a multi-shot brackets on the original 5D, mounted on the Gitzo. Dramatic, like Lamont himself, B&W conversion on top of a mild HDR sandwich.

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay... The Shadow knows!"

A couple of more

The flagship snap

Cawker City

A "city" on US 24 in the middle of Kansas — 1999 population 595.  Home to the "World's Largest Ball of Twine". Missed that but found this, among others.  Lots more to post from todays traverse of Kansas from west to east — mostly on US 24.

 

 

So more from Cawker City, the home of Detritus Motors.

First one way...

then the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One more.

and then some more...

 

 

The trains they don't run no mo...

Union Station Denver — Sunday morning.

Sign over the door says Amtrak has moved to a cinder block building a fews blocks away.  5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 200, f/3.2, 1/3200, -1ev.

Everybody got baggage.  5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 1600, f/8.0, 1/60.

 5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 1600, f/8.0, 1/80.

Be needin' to send a Telegram.  5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 1600, f/8.0, 1/60.

and use a pay phone too.  5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 1600, f/8.0, 1/60.

Where have all the passengers gone, long time passing.  5D Mk II, TSE-45, tilted, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/800.

A sharp canopy.  5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/1000, -1.67ev.

Two flat tires seems apropos given the trains don't run no mo. 5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/1000.

Looking down Wynkoop Street, toward Coors Field.  Done with the station — off to the alleys. 5D Mk II, TSE-45, shifted, ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/200.

More practice

with the 45 TS-E.  The idea here was selective focus, specifically, to get the diagonal row of houses in focus and everything else out of focus.  This can't be done without a camera with movements or a lens that tilts. Worked quite well, the crazy sky with the light shafts is a plus.  

45 TS-E, on the 5D Mk II, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/5000 (-1 EC), MLU, tilted as needed, no shift.

Tilt-Shift Practice

After flying in from the Hub in the storm a few shots in its wake, in preparation for some neighborhood shooting in 80203 on Sunday.  

This one is close but not quite right as the foreground is out of focus still but looks pretty good.  45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/4.0 1/320, ISO 100, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

and a couple where tilt was used to force out-of-focus.  At the time tilt was set perpendicular to shift, since been changed to parallel.

45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/2.8 1/800, ISO 100, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/4.0 1/125, ISO 100, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

Last one as darkness fell, almost there needed some tilt to get the railing in focus.

45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/8.0 1/50, ISO 2000, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

July 4th 2006

After the storm, Leadville, CO.  Altitude, two miles high.  Attitude, well that is another story. Geographically, 40 miles from Vail, 60 miles from Aspen, nevertheless nowhere close to either.

Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/2.8L, f/8.0, 45mm, ISO 400, 1/160.

This one from before the storm. Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/2.8L, f/20.0, 54mm, ISO 100, 1/40.  Diffraction, what diffraction.  Who knows why it was f/20.0.  Obviously on the Gitzo.

More Nebraska

Just west of Mullen (known for two great golf courses) in the Nebraska Sand Hills.  BNSF coal train heading empty to the Powder Ridge Basin in Wyoming.  Not the same route but inspiration by John McPhee's Coal Train, in Uncommon Carriers. Canon 5D, 17-40mm f/4L, ISO 320, f/8.0, 1/400, 40mm. 

And just a little further west on NE Route 2. Still the 5D and the 17-40.  This time at 36mm, ISO 50, f/22, with a shutter speed of 1/3 of a second.  There may have been a polarizer mounted to help get the effect. These days it would have been the Singh-Ray Vari-ND, to reduce the light, slow the shutter speed and get the blades smoothed out.