Record Store Day

Saturday was Record Store Day. What's that? "Record Store Day is an internationally celebrated day observed the third Saturday of April each year. Its purpose, …, is to celebrate the art of music. The day brings together fans, artists, and the over 700 independently owned record stores in the United States, along with hundreds of independent record stores across the world." (source: Wikipedia)

Here in Dubuque, Iowa we have MOONDOG MUSIC. I like to go there and dig in their boxes of vinyl LP's, not just on Record Store Day. The staff is very knowledgable and I always enjoy a chat with Jarod, Mike, or Kat.

Listen to music and collecting vinyl records is my other hobby beside photography. Any time I sit in front of my computer and work with my pictures the radio is playing or the turntable is rotating.

Did I find anything last Saturday? Of course I did! "Television: Live at the old Waldorf, San Francisco, 6/29/78", double LP, white vinyl, limited to 3000 copies, and exclusive for Record Store Day. One of my favorite bands and as a collector I can't ask for more… As you can tell by the quality of the quick snapshot above, photography had second place that night. ;-)

Dealing with reality

Nikon D200, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35 mm /f2 ZF

Today I want to talk about a dilemma I'm facing. And I'm sure I'm not alone and many photographers are with me on that. There are still plenty of old things out there. I mean buildings or structures with a rotten charm, items that show their history, and that tell a story just by their look. Many of them we call "classic" because they bear memories for us or they are still just beautiful many years after they have been in use. The dilemma I'm talking about is the fact that many of these items can't be photographed without including "modern structures" as part of the image. Of course, we can photoshop to death and cut out a lot of unwanted stuff. And I have to admit, I do that, if I believe it helps my image to tell the story. I don't hesitate a second to take away an electric cable across the blue sky or a receptacle on the wall right beside my main object.

Have a close look at the picture above. I saw this wonderful old gas pump today while driving around Dubuque, Iowa (and I really mean "around") and tried to spot locations for future "dawn or dusk shots". Whatever I do with the image (and I did a lot with it), it doesn't cry "NOSTALGICA!". The garage door and plastic siding of 'Al's Garage'   take the charm of the old gas pump, at least partly, away. Oh I hear you, '"Take a different perspective!". I did, but the window on the right hand side cried "made-in-a fully-automatic-window-factory"! ;-)

I guess sometimes we have to face reality and just tell the story as it is presented, and not what we have in mind. In this matter, an old family- owned business which kept up with today's demands but still cares about it's history. I don't know if that is true, but I like to believe it. ;-)

Stop at Millstream Brewery Co.

The text on the barrel bottom says: "Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalts" Which means about: "Hops and malt, may god maintain them!"

Last week on the way home from a business trip I stopped at the Amana Colonies. If you are not familiar with this location, feel free to check it out HERE.

I wanted to buy some beer in the Millstream Brewing Co., which is Iowa's oldest  microbrewery. It has nothing to do with photography, but I have to tell you, they brew some of the best beer you can find on the planet! I grew up in the Upper Lusatia, an area in Germany that has borders with Bohemia, which is a part of the Czech Republic. Believe me, people on both sides of the border know how to brew beer and how a good beer tastes. The beer from the Millstream Brewery can easily keep up with the beer in the old home country!

Oh, I get carried away, lets get back to photography… ;-) . I cannot resist making a few clicks if I see a building or structure that has a nice rotten charm. The old brewery building falls in that category. The processing was done in NIK Silver Efex Pro. I really love this software for my B&W work. I know, the perspective is not ideal. I guess I have to go back again… ;-)

Old little project and lessons learned from

Visitors of my photo galleries at phase.com may know that I have a little gallery with images of sign boards. I started it in 2007 when I became serious with digital photography and after I bought my first DSLR. I like sign boards. They add charm to a business or a street and many are artfully crafted.

Seen in East Sound on Orcas Island, Washington

Beside having always fun to look out for them, taking pictures of sign boards has taught me a lot for my photography. I learned about white balance, exposure compensation, depth of field, perspective, and many other technical aspects of taking pictures. I learned about the importance of background for an image. With sign boards it can be quite a challenge, because you can't always choose your background and perspective. They usually hang high up above the store front and I'm like most people, I don't carry a ladder with me  ;-) . If you visit a city during a period of very flat or very harsh light and with no opportunity to come back at a different time, this will add another challenge if you want to get the image anyway. And that leads directly to what comes after the picture was taken. Working on my sign board images in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop taught me a lot about dealing with the flaws, like over or under exposure, white balance issues, unwanted reflections, you name it. Sign boards are an ideal subject to experiment with different ways of sharpening and noise reductions. They helped me to create a processing work flow that works for me. When I looked at my older pictures (yep, four years are a long time in digital photography ;-)  ) I thought sometimes about redoing them again in post. Would be no problem since I always shoot in RAW. But it is what it is. I will only exchange them in my gallery if I come home with a new and better image.

Seen in my home town Bautzen, Germany

No, it doesn't have to be sign boards. I can think of many other little photography projects that would be fun to focus on over a longer period of time. The sign boards helped me to learn and to deal with the technical aspects of my photography. If you like to see the complete collection, please feel free to click HERE, and let me know what your little or big project is.

New portfolio

In my home country Germany we have a saying: 'Gut Ding will Weile haben', which means about 'Good things need time'. I started my blog a year ago and now, a year later, finally was able to remove the line 'under construction' from my photography portfolio page. All three slide shows are now up and running. If you like to have a look, here is a SHORTCUT.

Art outside

Nikon D200, SIGMA 10-20 mm, f/4.0-5.6 @ 10mm

The Dubuque Museum of Art here in Eastern Iowa has currently some very interesting artwork on view outside of the museum. Seward Johnson's 25 foot sculpture GOD BLESS AMERICA is inspired by the figures of Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic". A picture of this sculpture in a recent post of Dave Updegraff's blog, another photographer here in the Dubuque area, reminded me that I wanted to shoot this piece of art since I saw it the first time a little while ago. When I went there today, we had a nice thin layer of clouds covering up the sun. This made for really good, slightly diffused light and a gave a perfect background for this photo. I took only the SIGMA 10-20 mm out of my car and after a few minutes of shooting I had what I was looking for.

Rubber boot

Grey clouds made me looking for the little things during our stay on the San Juan Islands in Washington State. This beautiful boot was decorating a house boat in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island. Right next to it, on another boat, is a local photographer who shows and sells his images. One of the pictures in his gallery showed of course the same rubber boot, but the image was a few years older and the plant inside was still much smaller. I'm sure almost every tourist who visits this place takes a snapshot of this original decoration. Well, I couldn't resist either…

Early flight

We missed our connection flight in Detroit the night before and got booked on an early one next morning to Portland, Oregon. I was still tired on my way to the gate but all my bells ringed when I saw the fountain with the Boing 747 behind the glass. Flash was not really an option because of the glass and the tripod was of course checked with my luggage. There was not much time to fiddle in this low light situation. I used the Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35/f2 with manual focus. I took eight images and liked eventually the one with the plane of focus somewhere between the jets of water the best (1/5s, f5.6, ISO 250).

I felt that the color version didn't really reflect what I had in mind when the image was captured. I tried different things, including B&W conversion, and ended up with an ocean blue split tone that creates a cool "early morning" effect. I used a preset in Adobe Lightroom that I got some time ago from Matt Kloskowski's blog Lightroom Killertips.

Working with the lines

Nikon D200, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35/f2 ZF

I love modern architecture and I like to take pictures of it. Living in the country side does not always allow to play with this kind of photography. But that does not mean we can't try it at all if there is a chance for. The Milwaukee Art Museum is one of my favorite places and offers of course great potential for this kind of photography. The architecture created by Santiago Calatrava is just amazing.

It was a day with overcast and there were not really any colors. I chose B&W  and just tried to work with the lines.

Details only

Nikon D200, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35/f2 ZF

I like to look at old cars but to make it clear, I'm not the guy who wants to chat about the number of pistons, horsepower, or other technical details. I simply enjoy the beauty of  an old vehicle, especially if  it is still in its original state or had undergone a nice restoration. Some of the old design elements are just nice and make for a good photo opportunity.

The pictures were captured at the local airport in Cherokee, Iowa during a public event. Don't take me wrong, I like airplanes too, but these cars had my attention immediately.

Nikon D200, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35/f2 ZF