Shutter Priority

Archive for the ‘Images’ Category

We visited the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, Kentucky and rode the train. It was wonderful.

This train burns a ton of coal on its run from New Haven to Boston. It smells great if you like the smell of coal and hot steam. The tracks are maintained well but there is still a bit of unevenness in the rails so the train does a gentle rocking motion as it moves down the track at a blistering 25 miles per hour. It took volunteers thirty four years to restore this engine to its current condition. It was worth it.

Kentucky Railway Museum Website

There’s a park on the waterfront in Louisville, creatively named “Waterfront Park.” Through the park runs a long fountain and wading pool that was put together with an artistic eye. Part of the fountain runs underneath a section of Interstate 64 so that you get not only the cooling water, but also shade. We went down there today and there seemed to be a picture everywhere the camera was aimed. (Click on images for a larger view.)

“Bath Time in Horse Country”
Click here to purchase a print

The job was to shoot a field test of a new soil treatment that was supposed to make pastures grow better. The location was a horse farm near Georgetown, Kentucky. After the required shots of the sprayer, the fields, cattle and horses were done, I began to just wander around the elegant old farm looking for pictures. The colt barn was open at both ends and when walked in out of the bright sun I saw this scene. I didn’t have a long lens with me, but I zoomed out as far as I could and tripped the shutter. The trainer was just beginning to give the colt a bath. It was a hot day, and the hand bath with big soapy sponges seemed to suit the little horse just fine. I was delighted that I had captured the quiet moment.

My friend, Jim, sent me a box of Fujichrome Astia 100 to run through my Yashica TLR. The film expired in 2004 and I had my doubts about it, but we had it from a reliable source that the film had been refrigerated for its entire long life. I loaded a roll and went down to Willow Lake which is on the edge of Cherokee Park in Louisville. It was late in the day and the sky was overcast with heavy clouds. I shot it in the Yashica 635 TLR and and used the trusty Gossen Pilot 2 meter to get my exposure readings. I had the film developed at a local lab. To my dismay, I found out that the lab is closing down in three weeks and from here on in, I will have to ship my color out of town for processing. I totally understand digital, but I wish it didn’t have to mean wiping out all of the traditional analog photography industry. Anyway, here are the results of the experiment. All of these, except the dragon fountain have had some color correction in Photoshop: (click on images for larger view)

Yashica 635 with Fujichrome Astia 100

Yashica 635 with Fujichrome Astia 100

Yashica 635 with Fujichrome Astia 100

Yashica 635 with Fujichrome Astia 100
This one has no color correction whatsoever, and it shows some “red shift”
It should be more gray. Part of this may be underexposure, and some may be the age of the film.

Yashica 635 with Fujichrome Astia 100

To be honest, I expected the film to look much worse, given its age. I was pleasantly surprised at what I could get from these transparencies. I did some color correction on all of these shots except them dragon fountain, but actually, it was not much more than one would do on fresh color transparency film. I will definitely shoot all of this film that I can get my hands on.

Yashica 635, Tmax 100 (expired) in Tmax

I had a few frames left on a roll so we went over to Willow Lake which is really just a large pond on the edge of Cherokee Park. It was late in the afternoon with a heavy overcast, but I wanted soft light, rather than a hard directional light that clear skies would have provided.

The film was from a batch of expired Tmax 100 that I bought a while back. The film expired in 2004 and I have been shooting it for practice fodder and to test it to see if it still works. It works fine in terms of development. The contrast and tones are right but I got a lot of light streaks which are too small to see at this size, but they would show up on a 10” x 10” print. I’m not sure if this is deterioration of the film or not. I washed some of the negatives in film cleaner to make sure it wasn’t residue from the development, and it didn’t wash out. The worst streaks can been seen with the naked eye. They look like dark, fine hair on the negative. If I was scratching the emulsion, one would think that the streaks would be reversed, looking light in the negative and dark in print.

We walked around the lake looking for interesting angles. Marian started looking for fish in the water and I realized there was repetition of form between her pose and the shape of the lake which was interesting, so I shot the picture. The soft light gave a dreamy mood to the scene. With a little touch-up in Photoshop to get rid of the streaks, I had a picture, but I’m wondering is this expired Tmax is more trouble than it’s worth.

Of Louisville’s great parks, Central Park is probably not the most impressive. It’s about the size of two city blocks, square and flat. It has a building in it that once was an athletic club but is now a substation for the Louisville Metro Police. It has a wonderful arbor which supports an ancient wisteria vine that gives shade to the whole thing. Most significant probably is the stage for “Shakespeare in the Park” which runs every summer and gives people the chance to come down and see Shakespeare’s plays performed for free.

I happened to catch a show on KET done by metro councilman Tom Owens, who is also a history professor at the University of Louisville. Tom Owens knows the history of Louisville like no one else. His knowledge of each inch of this earth at the Falls of the Ohio can only be called supernatural. In this show, he was doing Central Park and St. James Court in Old Louisville. His narrative of the creation of the park and St. James Court from a hunting camp owned by the DuPont family fascinated me. On a hot Sunday afternoon we went down to Central Park to soak up the history and shoot some pictures.

Central Park is one of the Olmstead parks which give Louisville its distinctive character. Frederick Law Olmsted designed 18 parks in the city of Louisville. He was characterized as “the father of landscape architecture” and I wouldn’t trade our Cherokee Park for New York City’s Central Park, which Olmstead also designed. Louisville’s Central Park must have been a challenge to the master landscape architect. To be fair to Olmstead, he didn’t have much to work with on this patch of ground. There are no hills, no naturally occurring waters or interesting outcroppings of rock – just a flat rectangle of ground. He built the athletic club, laid out the sidewalks and fountain, and planted some trees. I can’t think of anything he could have done that he didn’t do that wouldn’t be totally artificial, and artificial wasn’t Olmstead’s style.

And yet, Louisville’s Central Park has something that no other park in the world has: it has St. James Court across Magnolia Street at its southern edge. From the St. James Art Fair information site:

“In 1890 after the Southern Exposition site was cleared, William Slaughter led the development of St. James Court, one of Old Louisville’s most renowned neighborhoods. Centered on the picturesque fountain, the court was envisioned as a haven for turn-of-the-century upper class and was completely occupied by 1905. Slaughter set up deed restrictions to ensure that all houses on the court were constructed of either brick or stone. From its start, court residents established a homeowner’s association, one of the oldest in the country. Described as the epitome of Victorian eclecticism, the neighborhood included homes in such styles as Venetian, Colonial, Gothic and others. The Conrad Caldwell House on the northwest corner of St. James Court prominently features the turrets, towers and bay windows associated with the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. Through the years the court has been home to several city officials, judges, doctors, writers, poets, and business leaders. St. James Court residents are proud of the unique history and friendliness the neighborhood offers. When strolling through the tree-fringed court, you too will experience a vibrancy and vitality that no suburban neighborhood can match.”

So, when you visit Central Park, not only do you see an historic old park, but also, you can stroll down a shady boulevard where Louisville did its best to create a little piece of Victorian England in the 1890’s.

Some additional reading on the history of this area:

A History of Old Louisville’s Central Park.

St James Court and Belgravia, Louisville, Kentucky

Satellite Picture

I found a fascinating place, a place where corn and wheat are ground, and wool carded only with the energy of water flowing from a cave in the side of an Indiana hill. It’s called Beck’s Mill. I wouldn’t have known of it were it not for an article in the Courier-Journal which appeared recently describing the place. I read the piece over morning’s coffee and knew then that I had to go there myself and let my camera capture the shapes and colors of the place. It isn’t far from Louisville – less than an hour. There must be a half dozen routes one could take to get there, but they all traverse lush farmland, wooded hills and small communities that have been there nearly as long as the United States has been a country.

As we drove the winding road through the Clark National Forest, I expected to find a cool, old mill restored to its 1861 glory. What I didn’t expect was the squad of friendly and enthusiastic volunteers who staff the mill. The people of Beck’s Mill really care about the mill, and they are really glad to see people who take the time to show some interest in it. We felt welcomed there, as if we had run into a batch of old friends we hadn’t seen for a while. I was really conflicted with wanting to hear everything they had to say about the mill’s history and wanting to get my cameras out and start shooting. The mill is only open to visitors on the weekends, but during that time, the volunteers give tours and talks about how the mill once operated, the colorful history of the place and the restoration in 2008.

The first mill on the site was begun in 1808 by George Beck Sr. and his sons. The current mill is actually the third mill structure on the site and it was built in 1864. The second structure was burned to the ground by Morgan’s Raiders during the Civil War. The mill operated full-time, often 24 hours a day until 1914. After that, it operated part-time as a mill and tourist attraction until the death of Essie Beck Allen in 1954. That’s 146 years of milling corn and wheat, and carding wool. It fell into disrepair in the 1950’s

The Restoration of Beck’s Mill from Wikipedia:

“Friends of Beck’s Mill, a nonprofit organization, was given the 14 acres (57,000 m2) and building by Donald & Joyce Andersen (Joyce being a direct descendant of the George Beck family). This gift was the results of the efforts and negotiation of Jack Mahuron of Salem, with the hope that the mill could be saved, and maybe even become operational as the centerpiece of a local park. Mahuron had worked on getting the restoration started for several years. In June 2006, the president of the Friends, Larry Nelson, won a $1,000 door prize from the Washington County Community Foundation, an annual giveaway for use of community projects, and chose to use the $1,000 to start an Acorn Fund for the mill. The fund created a permanent endowment to market and operate the mill.

John Hawkins, an architect from Jeffersonville, Indiana, calculated that $600,000 would be required to restore the mill, with additional funds needed to reopen it. Donald and Joyce Andersen has since offered the use of approximately over 70 acres (280,000 m2) for use as trails and recreation. 3 acres (12,000 m2) across the road from the mill are used for parking at no cost to the Friends of Beck’s Mill. William and Gayle Cook, billionaire philanthropists, made a large donation in 2007 to begin the restoration process. Jack Mahuron had served on the Board of Advisers of IU Southeast with Bill Cook and knew that he and Gayle were interested in Beck’s Mill. They had visited it several times over the years. Jack contacted him at Bloomington asking him to assist with the restoration. He graciously declined because he was busy with the restoration of French Lick and West Baden Hotels. A few months later, however, on March 1, 2007, he sent his Architect George Ridgway and his contractor Joe Pritchett of Pritchett Brothers, to a meeting of the Friends, it was announced that billionaire Bill and Gayle Cook would fund the restoration if the Friends would accept the offer.

Restoration of the mill began in earnest in May 2007 with Tracy Wells as foreman of the project for Pritchett Brothers. The first task was to remove the old equipment, tools, and the remaining features of the general store and fabric-making, including two carding machines. The old turbines were cleaned, and the stone foundation was repaired by lifting the mill from its moorings. In September 2007 the outside work was stopped for the year. The mill workings, currently held in storage at Salem, were re-installed in the spring 2008.”

The restoration that has been done on the mill can only be described as love. It has been expertly reconditioned to the extent that it is grinding corn every weekend and generating its own electricity. The machinery, some of it quite rare, has been fully restored to working order. When you walk into the door, you could be stepping back into 1864, except for a few electric lights and the gift shop. They also do a reenactment of John Hunt Morgan’s raid, which this year will be held on August 14^th. I intend to be there for the show.

When a group of people band together to focus so much love and attention on a place, it imparts an energy, maybe even a psychic glow to the place, and this has surely happened at Beck’s Mill. The enthusiasm the volunteers have is contagious, and I soon found myself wanting to learn everything I could about the mill and its rich history. If you’re a history buff, and are anywhere near Washington County, Indiana, Beck’s Mill is worth your time to visit.

Photography:

I took my full arsenal of cameras: DSLR, 35mm, 6×6, and even a P&S. Not a surprise, but the DSLR proved to be the most useful in the difficult lighting conditions. I hoped, selfishly, that there wouldn’t be many people at the mill and I could set up my medium format camera on a tripod and do some existing light black and white, but there were a lot of visitors and too much traffic to set up a tripod, so I went to the digital and cranked up the ISO so that I could hand hold in the dim interior of the building.

Links on the Web for Beck’s Mill:

Beck’s Mill on Wikipedia

The Millers of Washington County

Friends of Beck’s Mill

Beck’s Mill Photo Gallery – Mostly before the renovation.

Like millions of other American teenagers, I couldn’t wait to get a driver’s license so I could go racing off in one of my dad’s cars. I scarcely noticed that sometime between my childhood and early teens, the great passenger trains had vanished.

The Old 208 Close-up, Yashica 635 with Ilford Delta 100

After all, cars are much more fun. You can go where you want to go, when you want to go there. Cars are freedom and individuality; railroads are institutions. And, it didn’t help that when the railroads had a virtual monopoly on overland transportation, they took advantage of working people by charging exorbitant rates to ship farmers’ crops to market. When I was a kid, I never heard a single lament for the passing of the trains.

The Old 208 , Yashica 635 with Ilford Delta 100

The last time I rode on one of the great trains was when my mother took my sister and I on the Texas Chief up to Oklahoma City to visit my grandfather in Norman. It was like a luxury hotel on wheels. I couldn’t have been more than about nine years old, but I remember it as if it were yesterday.

Train Station, French Lick, Indiana, Yashica 635 with Ilford Delta 100

When I was a kid, my dad could drive down the middle of the highway steering only with his knee while he lit a cigarette with his Zippo lighter. This drove my mother crazy, but you could do that then because there were so few vehicles on the road. In Texas, you could often drive for quite some time without seeing another car. Things have changed, and changed a lot since those idyllic days. Today we face streets and expressway choked with millions of vehicles almost 24 hours a day. Half of the time I set out to drive from Louisville to Lexington, I am delayed by a multi-vehicle accident. Today, the air is turning toxic, the planet is said to be heating up, and the Gulf of Mexico is filling with crude oil where a living ocean once thrived. In the days of my youth, gas was 25¢ a gallon. Today, people are going into debt to fill their tanks. Times have changed.

Passenger Cars, French Lick, Indiana, Yashica 635 with Ilford Delta 100

I can’t help but think that our friends across the pond have been smarter than we have on the issue of trains. Only we gave up our trains – England, Europe, Russia, India, Africa, China and Japan all kept and developed their railways. Only we relegated our great trains to the pack mule role. Ours still run, but they carry only new cars, coal, chemicals and other bulk freight.

The Old 208 , Yashica 635 with Ilford Delta 100, antique effect from Photoshop

It would be great if we would re-think our ideas about the trains. I know I would use them. I think a vacation on a train would be terrific. Just being able to hop on a train and ride to Cincinnati to see a Reds game would be a hoot. I wonder how many cars we could get off the road if we had a railway system that took people where they wanted to go. How many amphetamine-crazed truckers would have to find another line of work if our railways were truly operational? How many tons of hydrocarbons could we keep out of the atmosphere? How many Deepwater Horizons would we need if we were running the trains?

You can buy prints of these photos and others on Red Bubble by clicking on this link