What A Difference

Remember this image from an earlier post? 

                    Kenton, Ohio.

Republican headquarters with a window filled with All-American "toys".  Just makes you believe that they are alive and active.

Now check out this image.

                                                       Kenton, Ohio.

Democratic Headquarters with a window filled with nothing.  Just makes you believe they are dead and inactive.  What a difference!

Monday Morning Coffee: Decision Time

                                                                I am a photographer; I can change; I guess; if I have to.
        
                                                                                                                  Thanks to Red-Green

Time to face up to the photo darkroom.  It has been finished and ready for use for about two years..  However, after a few uses - maybe five or six times - it remains unused.  In fact has been over a year since prints were made and the last film was developed some two months ago. 

In that time, Kodak and Agfa have pretty much left the photographic world.  Yes, Kodak still produces a few black and white films along with color film.  Yet the variety is not what it once was.  Options -large format film and photographic paper - have been reduced and in some cases eliminated.  Agfa is  completely shut down.

Ilford - in the U.K.- is very much alive.  They are manufacturing several different black and white films and paper in various sizes.  They have made a commitment to remain in the photographic supply business.

Fuji - in Japan - has also continued to offer a variety of black and white, as well as,  color materials.  They seem to be in the photography business for the foreseeable future.

Thus, there are materials available to continue darkroom work.   It is just a matter of whether this is a "good" use of time, money, and energy.  Digital photography has taken over the photo world and analog photography is fast becoming an alternative means of making images - like cyanotypes, gum prints, ..... etc.

Analog - black and white - prints are still highly valued.  In part because each is an individual unique product.  With computers, programs, and printers, identical digital prints can be produced in volume.

 Prints on photographic paper exhibit a bit different range of tones/values than digital prints - although the difference is becoming smaller. Not better than digital prints, just different.  Both have their place.

Decision time is fast approaching.   While promising to do more black and white photography, I now need to decide whether the darkroom or the lightroom will the used.  If the darkroom is selected then need to spend the necessary resources and produce images.  If the lightroom is selected then need to close down the darkroom and move on.

As always - an image to end with:

                         Richmond, Indiana.

Rosenthall's

                   Kenton, Ohio

Rosentrall's now seems to be Twirl.

U. S. Post Office

                                                      Kenton, Ohio.

Promised myself to attempt more black and white images - so here we go!  As always, click on the image to enlarge.

Making Waves

                                                              Kenton, Ohio.

Kenton Variety

                                              Kenton, Ohio

Kenton - population less than 8300 - is a city in and the county seat of Hardin County. 

Have returned and photographed Kenton several times.  There is something about the city that is attractive to me.  I am not exactly sure what is drawing me there.  Will just continue returning to see if I can discover what it is.

Kenton Hardware Co.

                       Kenton, Ohio.

First organized as the Kenton Lock Manufacturing Company in 1890, the Kenton Hardware Company became one of the world's largest cast iron toy factories. Under the management of L. S. Bixler, toy stoves, banks, fire company outfits, horse drawn vehicles, automobiles and cap pistols were produced. The immensely popular Gene Autry cap pistol was produced at this plant beginning in 1938. The Company ceased production in 1952 but Kenton toys continue to be popular collectors items worldwide.

Monday Morning Coffee:

On Friday the washing machine stopped working.  While not the end of the world and certainly less important than what happened in Colorado, it was a "spot of bother".  After mopping up the water on the floor- along with some paint that was loose - called the repair folks.   Good people, they appeared within the hour!  Now that's service.  After removing the front cover and checking the inside, the response was, cost more to repair than to replace.

So- replace was the next step.  Spoke - on the phone - with the head repair person and after some suggestions ordered a replacement to be delivered on Saturday.  A good reason to deal with local folks and not the big box stores.  In the short/long run it's service that counts.

Now this machine was new in 2003.  This means that it lasted about nine years.  This got me to thinking about the working life of other items - in particular camera bodies.

Now the oldest film camera body - Minolta CLE - dates from 1980.  That makes it over 30 years and still working as when new.  Works for me!

The oldest digital camera bodies would be a tie.  The Nikon D2X and the Epson DR-1 date from 2004.  Only 8 years, however electronic objects usually have a shorter lifespan.  They usually are outdated in something like 18 months.  While both continue to perform as they did when new, they are dated.  They work just fine for my subject matter and way of working and see no need to replace/update them.

The cameras that I have lately been using most often - Panasonic DMC G3 - were introduced in 2011 and have been replaced by a newer udated version - Panasonic DMC G5.  The G3's didn't last but a year before being retired by the manufacturer.  Again - the G3's work for me.  See no need to replace them.

Will stop there.  Don't want to think about TV's, computers, printers and scanners.  All electronic tools that are still performing well for my purposes.  The all have lasted longer than the usual 18 months, may they continue so.

Enough repair/replace/update conversation.  Will leave with a preview of comming attractions.

                        Kenton, Ohio.

Looking Up

                                                                  Richmond, Indiana.

Have photographed this parking garage ever so many times.  Find the strong lines and angles interesting.  Probably "works" only me, as most folks would look and not see much to photograph.  Just bare with me- it's Saturday! 

Not quite the Kitchen Sink

                                              Cambridge City, Indiana

Have photographed a wide variety of objects, but this is the closest one to the kitchen sink.  Will keep looking!

                       Ottawa, Ohio

Bertsche & Tomlinson

                               Alexandria, Indiana.

Once again interesting building details.  Today's new buildings often lack the attention to detail that can be found in earlier buildings.

The Company Store

                       Alger, Ohio

Alger is a Village of less than 900 in Hardin County, Ohio. 

Not at all sure about what company is involved with "The Company Store".  Would appear to be a pizza location.  As always click on image to enlarge.

                       New Hampshire, Ohio.

New Hampshire,Ohio is a census-designated place.   A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes.

The statistical CDPs are populated areas that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places. 

The U.S. Census bureau states that census-designated places are not considered incorporated places

Walk - About 3

A final two from the Monday walk-about in Richmond.

Have photographed this location several times in many different ways. Almost there but not quite right.!  Only remanding Store Front Church along Main Street.



Back door of a closed camera store.  Space is now a computer repair business.  Didn't realize that computers get repaired.  Always believed they just got replaced with the latest/greatest computer.

Walk-About 2

Few more results from Monday's downtown Richmond ramble.



                       

                        And finally enough of looking up - looking down.

                    

Cold Coffee

                                        Watching Andy Murray do his plucky loser impression (yet again!).
                                       More importantly to me Wiggo is still in the yellow jersey!!

                                                                                                             Soundimageplus

Pretty much describes my weekend.  Spent much of Saturday and Sunday home watching tennis and the Tour de France.  IMO the good guys won.  The folks in the UK will be pleased with Wiggo and less so with the Murray outcome.

Usual plan is to spend the Saturday and Sunday out and about photographing,  Didn't happen!

Now, Monday, the weather broke a bit - 80's instead of triple digit temps. Time to be out and photographing.

Grabbed a Panasonic G3 body, installed a Panasonic 45-200mm lens and went looking for subject matter.  Don't often use this lens, as most of my subjects require a wide angle lens.

  With no projects/subject matter in mind, just walked around the downtown Richmond.  Most of the time I spend looking straight ahead at the world. The telephoto lens seemed to yell out " look up".  So I did.

Normally this subject matter would be rendered in black and white.  Shape and form tend to get lost in color. Today was a day for different.  So color it is. 

Just in case you think Richmond is all straight lines and neat modern brick work, here is another point of view.

Back Home in Indiana: Writing on the Wall

                                                      Richmond, Indiana.

Back Home in Indiana: Unincorporated

                              Mechanicsburg, Indiana

Mechanicsburg is an unincorporated town.   It consists of a handful of houses, a cemetery and two churches, Mechanicsburg United Methodist Church and Mechanicsburg Church of God.

Back Home in Indiana: Post Office

                         Charlottesville, Indiana.

Monday Morning Coffee: NOW

Been a quiet time here in the "industrial park" that is home to the World HQ of Today's Image.  With temps in the triple digits, not a lot outdoor happenings.  Added to the heat there have been a couple of storms - no power for a few hours -  along with a number of downed trees in the area. Much chain saw action.

Time to be inside working.  Number of hours reviewing, updating and working on previous captures.

Also time to reflect of exactly what photography provides.  For the photographer there are a number of opportunities to spend time -traveling, photographing, processing, editing, and preparation for print and/or web.  All worthy actions.

For a viewer, time to review, study, examine and process the meaning of a given photograph or sequence of images.  What was the maker attempting?  Was it successful?  How does it fit in with earlier work and later photographs?

A photographer should be both a maker and a viewer.  Hard to do but necessary in order to grow within the medium.

After a few hours, came to the conclusion that the key word/feeling/ belief is NOW.  Photography is unable to record the past.  Can not photograph the future.  All photography can capture is the present - the NOW.

Much of my earlier photographs are of locations, objects and people that don't exist today.  They did exist at the time of photographing them, but they are no longer here today.

This NOW is a strength of photography. These earlier image are records of the past - valuable - evidence of what was once.   Memories made visible.

This NOW is a weakness of photography.  The maker - along with the necessary equipment - had to be there.  You  can't "call" it in.  You - photograper - are there.  If not there, then no photograph.

Couple of photographs:

                                                           Dunkirk, Indiana.

Once - number of years ago - an active home furnishings retail business.  Can't photograph the activity and displays, I wasn't there in 1903.  NOW  the store is closed and out of business.  All I can do is show an image of the empty building and neon sign. 

                                                                Dunkirk, Indiana.

No idea of the previous uses, but NOW  the home of the Dunkirk Police Department.