pipe dreams

I took a trip to Keo, Arkansas to shot with the Holga. That area of the state is really great for the Holga. There's tons of old buildings full of detail that fit with the old style feel of the Holga. Also it's less than an hour from my house, which is always a great thing.

getting low

I took my first trip to Falling Water Creek a week or so ago. One of the waterfalls along is creek is the aptly named Falling Water Falls. I love this area of the state. There really is something magical about being around a waterfall. I really hope it's a feeling that never gets old for me. Waterfalls no matter how big or small are relaxing. I love finding them, seeing them, and hearing them.

letters from the first lady

This is just down the road from Cunningham Falls (see previous entry). I was very confused by Brian's directions to Cunningham Falls. It's difficult to give directions to somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Finally he said it's near the Hillary Clinton mailbox. I knew right away I would need to take the Holga along!

This is scanned straight from the negative and not edited at all. There really is a mailbox near Bun Hur, Arkansas full of bullet holes with hand-painted letters saying Hillary Clinton. Does it get any better than that!?

water with a kick

Above is Cunningham Falls. It's named after an FC Dallas player - Jeff Cunningham. He is the 2009 MVP for FC Dallas, and narrowly lost the MLS MVP award.

It's located in rural Searcy County between two pretty popular waterfalls - Falling Water Falls and Six Finger Falls. They are all on the same road, which provides some awesome views of Falling Water Creek.

You can see this waterfall from the road, but to take pictures of it you have to slowly make you way alongside a very steep hill that's covered in years of leaves. When I was first told about this waterfall I almost completely refused to visit it. Then I got there, and it didn't look so bad. I did manage to slide a few times though. Usually I was close enough to a fallen tree that I could grab on and stop my slide.

At one point I started sliding without having anything near me to grab onto. Now the hill isn't steep enough that I would have broken anything on the landing, but I probably would have been scraped up and completely soaking wet from the rocks and water below. I thought fast (for once in my life) and stabbed the legs of my tripod into the ground to stop my slide. It's probably the closest I'll ever been in my life to being an Indiana Jones type.

the wheels on the bus go round and round

I do a lot of random experiments with my cameras. I've grown to love film more than digital, because it's easy to stretch the boundaries. I know almost anything I do with film can be faked with photoshop. The thing is, I like the mystery and challenge. I like having to figure out how to fed film in a certain way or whatever else idea I've thought up. Will it work? Will it turn out how I planned?

Above is the latest experiment. This is redscaled film. I didn't buy redscale film. I did the homemade version. Basically you put the film in flipped over. (Instead of having flat side down. You have to have it facing up.) The part of the film that reacts to red light is usually the last layer. It's the most sensitive and needs less light. Flipping the film puts these layer first and it gets a lot more light. The effect is everything that has red in it has a stronger red color.

Most people make redscale film by feeding film into an empty canister upside down. I had no interest in doing this, mostly because I didn't want to sit in the dark and wind film in. Plus you have to tape it in the canister and stuff. It just seemed like a mess. I decided to just take an unmodify role of film and put it in a Holga 120N upside down. Since this camera is designed for 120 film there's a lot more room to allow the film to be in upside down. I used foam as spacers to keep the canister in place and help keep the film wound tight.

let's play connect the dots

I took pictures of my mom's new puppy a few months ago, just so I could practice using my new 50mm lens. Everyone loves puppies, because the two shots I posted from that day are my most two interesting pictures on flickr.

This little puppy is evil but awesome. The only person she seemed to like is me. She gets so excited when I visit my parents' house. She follows me around and makes an excited yelp the whole time. It's so loud and constant; it sounds like she's hurt. I don't understand why the dog has decided I'm it's best friend. I guess she's a mean girl just like me... Who knows.

iconic

This shot was taken facing into the sun. The bad thing about vacations is you don't always get to reshoot, and it's hard to pick the time of day you happen upon things. The view facing away from the sun just wasn't as cool as this view. The shot ended up being sort of overexposed. As I was fixing it I decided to add a texture. The sunflares just seemed to age the shot, so I thought I might as well age it even more.

the blues

I was driving home for a shooting adventure. I always mean to be closer to home by sunset, but once I'm shooting I don't like to stop. Anyway, I found myself driving home during an amazing sunset. I was on Highway 7 and most of the overlooks are better for sunrises. I finally came to the Rotarty Ann Overlook / Rest Stop and grabbed a few shots.

This is one of those shots I love, but wasn't really received all that well. I guess it proves how hard it is to separate yourself from your own work, eh?

mossy

The Lost Valley is a veritable wonderland full of potential shots. This is true of most of this region in Arkansas. Northwest Arkansas is worth a visit (many visits). I actually just love to hike. Whatever trail or area I've recently visited becomes my favorite place is state. I'm always in awe at natural beauty.

strike zone

An awesome thing about photography other than learning and slowly getting better is the stuff I see and do having it as a motivator. I wanted to go to the Air Force Base to get some shots of planes. I talked my dad into bowling mostly because it's fun, but also because I had some shots in mind. My dad used to be in a bowling league when I was a kid, and I have tons of happy memories tagging along with my parents on bowling night. I'd hang out in the arcade with the other kids. This is that same bowling alley, and that's my dad bowling. The place is nearly the exact same except for updated scoring systems and the fact that the arcade isn't there anymore.

Oh yeah, today is my dad's birthday!!

suspended water at night

Fog is an interesting thing. I really struggled shooting in fog. Mostly everything seemed a bit blown out and overexposed. I'm glad that I got out there shooting though. It was fun to stand around in the mist/fog and try to figure something new out. Thanks Brian for getting me out there!

american pride

Drunk photography at it's finest. This is a pretty old shot. I was hanging out in the River Market with my friends.

sunrise at chester

This is an older shot taken with my Canon G10. This was the first time I'd gotten up before sunrise to go shooting. It's peaceful. It's nice to be wide awake before most of the world.

eternal summer

I already miss Summer. I think I'm one of the few people in Arkansas that doesn't seem to mind Summer. I'd rather keep the heat and unbearable humidity than deal with Winter.

I have a giant Crape Myrtle tree in my front yard. It doesn't bloom nearly as long as much other ones because it's really old, and probably because I don't trim it back. I enjoy it all the same though. I love the size of it.

open wide

I love the Lost Valley. The drive there as well as the trail itself are amazing. I didn't take a wide angle lens with me the first trip to the Lost Valley. I don't have ND filters for it yet, and I reasoned it was probably too bright to shoot waterfalls without an ND. Luckily I decided to take it with me the second trip. I ended up making it down to the waterfall near sunset. The light was just low enough to shoot the above with only a polarizer.

ivy house

This is part of the Grosse Point Lighthouse Museum in Evanston, Illinois. The building was already beautiful, but the ivy really made it something special.

pacman

I suppose if other people are going to blog this photo I might as well. This shot got picked up by five blogs (that I know of). No complaints other than none of them asked first. This is just a shot Tillie and I worked on one night when we were hanging out. I think we love light painting so much because it always ends in giggles.