Rocky at Hopewell

 

Patient Rocky

Rocky was not all about this photographing in the heat. He wanted to stay at the Suwannee and wade about in the cool,dark tannic flow.

Hopewell Shining

It was fun trying to get a good shot with Melanie so she was not recognizable, attempting to capture via long exposure, the look of mystery, as the Shining Congregants came toward the altar with the old KJV bible. I told her next time I would have to drape her in a shroud to obscure her image.
Again, next time!

Last Shot

We were packed up and the PT was running, and I set up next to the car for one last parting shot. With the twenty-five second exposure, I ran up to the church and set off the flash multiple times, lighting up the church and trees somewhat. We then made the long thirty-five mile trip home.

Hopewell

This is the Hopewell Church, lit up by my flash by walking about inside. The next shot I used an orange diffuser, which made a warmer look. This one was good in that my image was not recorded.

Hopewell

Melanie and I along with Rocky the aging Golden Retriever loaded up in the PT about dark and journeyed the 35 miles up to Hopewell Baptist Church Saturday evening. Seeing that we still had daylight to burn, as Roger would have said, we stopped at the Cone Bridge Landing on the Suwannee River. We let Rocky wade and swim in the water, I am sure bringing back happy memories for him of his youthful days. Once at Hopewell off Road 6, the sun was setting and it made for a lovely spot to be in. Quiet, except for the persistent Chuck-wills-widow and other creatures making their last calls of daylight. Melanie helped me set the three lanterns in the church and patiently waited with Rocky in the church on the wooden pews as I photographed the church. My goal was to try and capture the glow of the lanterns, but I could not achieve enough glow without making the exterior become over-exposed.
I tried a ND filter, then a ND and polarizer, slowing the exposure to several seconds, but it still did not work. I then asked Melanie to trip the shutter while I went inside with the Gary Fong Flash attachment Ron Pinner had recently given me, tripping them off inside while the twenty-five second exposure recorded it. We were at the end of our patience and hot, so I only took two shots. Had I more time, I would have flashed the Fong away from the windows, as you can see my image seven times in the windows. It did capture the look I was after. As I told Melanie, that gives us another excuse to return.
I am sure her and Rocky would think twice!

Sunday Showers

Toward evening yesterday there came a heavy rain with lightening. I took off in the PT in search of these storms rolling in. While I was right in the middle of the lightening and thunder, I failed to capture any.
I made a loop from the house on Price Creek down to Gabe Road and back. The morning Bible reading was Psalm 65 and illustrated the previous day's journey.
This barn is a the intersection of Old Country Club and SR252 belonging to Cuz Yarborough, the old fellow who came out one day and talked with me at length.

Goldenmane Tickseed by Live Oak

 

Coreopsis basalis...

 

Cycle Day Seven

In the year I worked at FPL meter reading, each day in the month had a cycle number along with a route number. The fellows who had been with FPL meter reading for years knew them by heart and could off the top of their head tell you where every meter on each route was. Amazing. Today would have been cycle day 7, route 111 beginning off Turner Road West of town on Battle Hill. It was one of the more scenic routes I read, reading through Lake Lona, up Brown Road, down to Smitty's Western Area, finishing at the end of Noegel Road. Many photographs came from this route.
This morning, I did not head West but South on my new route. It was a foggy morning of which I so look forward to. The first stop would have been the Octagonal Church at Price Creek CR 245 and
252 but the fog was too thick. I headed West on 252, my first stop the intersection of 252 and SE Country Club where the large oak in Mr Yarborough's field was. From there down Country Club past the Lil Bit Country Flower Shop to the open fields with wild flowers thick on the West side of the road.  Down to Hillcrest with a nice stand of black-eyed susans under the pines at 441. Back North toward town to Bethel Methodist taking a right on CR 133B, back to Country Club, to Price Creek and South to Cline Feagle Road. From there to Lutheran Cross Road to check out Bethlehem Lutheran, then retracing Lutheran Cross Road back to Price Creek, South to Providence and through the intersection straight onto 241A, stopping at the old house where the petunias once grew. Only one or two were blooming. From there wound around back to Providence, retracing bicycle routes Roger and I used to often take. From Providence took 241 back to Price Creek and home.
Saw several turkey, stopping many times as scenes unfolded and the fog lifted. By the time I returned to the Octagonal church, the fog was gone so I came on home.
Used two cameras, the D40 that needed a new sensor but seems to take photographs OK with the 18-200 attached and the new D3100 with the 18-55 attached. I used the SB400 with diffuser for flash on a cord. Perhaps the photo I liked best today was the old house with the single petunia. After failed attempts with auto focus, I set the lens on manual and focused on the petunia with the house out of focus, but enough in focus with the f8 setting. The fill flash was laid on the ground. I too was lying on the ground, which could account for why I feel things crawling up my pants now.

Family Reunion

I can recall back to the age of around four
We had a family reunion to look toward
A yearly journey out to Mississippi
To little Homewood in Scott County.
There wasn't much in the tiny town
Just the Methodist church and farms scattered around
With the old home place across up on the hill
The Stokes grocery and bus station on Highway thirty-five
Granny Bernice would sit in the kitchen with me
Proud of the picture I painted that she hung prominently
Pappa Earnest in his blue overalls was so patient
Caring not a bit his zinnia's we ran through and bent
And often with suitcases full of sorrow and hurt
The load was lightened by Uncle Curt
Who gave us his jovial wise advice with Aunt Grace
whistling an old hymn of a heavenly place
As even Lute would smile with that bulldog jowl
And one of Marzell's dogs under the porch would growl
Probably from one of the many cousins giving it a  fit
Or perhaps Bill Wolf attempting to stuff it.
We knew when William Clark arrived in burgandy
That State was surely this year going to go undefeated
We just went along with the eternal hope
As Jimmy would roll that one lazy eye up
It was never a dull moment with Aunt Hazel around
Her and Aunt Irene match making any singles in town.
And how they loved to straighten up all us gone wrong
Telling it like it was in such a southern,lovely tone
At dusk without television or the electronic distractions
We would just sit on the long porch in full satisfaction
Left-overs plenty in the back kitchen for later on
Sad that come tomorrow we would journey toward home
That here at the end of that long lane life was good
That we would miss this crazy family come together
at a tiny place called
Homewood.

It's a start

The seven photographs are on display at the new Gateway Gallery of the Suwannee Valley Art League on First Street in Lake City. I was one of the last people to display in the last remaining spot. It's not the best spot by any means, that going to Herb, Wally, Jeanne and the movers and shakers who got the gallery started, rightfully so.
It is a difficult choice to decide which photographs to display. The best way to frame. The best size.
The price to decide upon. I do think a larger size would have more impact. That needs to be my next move, to enlarge up to 11x14 in 16x20 frames.
If you are an artist and sell your prints, I would be interested in hearing from you what works, where you order your frames and mats, where you send off for your prints, or if you print them yourself.
Currently I am very low tech. I use a Kodak all-in-one non-fancy printer. I use Kodak glossy paper in 8.5x11. My current frame and matt combination came from Dick Blick and Amazon.
My ideal situation I suppose, little that I know, would be an Epson printer that prints 11x14 or larger, on a thicker paper, in black and white.
I would like to get a scanner where I can download my negatives into the computer and print from them. That way I could return to film, specifically the Yashica Mat 124 120 square format.
I could develop the negatives without a darkroom, then use the computer as the printer.
With film, you do not have the worry of losing your images with a computer crash.