Wing or Sprinter?

​Shadows on the lawn.  A rare sunny day.

The transition from Winter to Spring is taking a long time.  Maybe it should have a name.  Joining Winter and Spring doesn't seem to work.  Wing is too uplifting.  Sprinter implies something moving fast.  

The lawn is green and the weeds have invaded the rock beds.  It snowed day after the lawn was mowed.  The temperature hit a record low the night after I sprayed the weeds.  The lawn has been mowed again and the prediction is for snow and sub-freezing temperatures tonight.

The weather guy says Spring should be here in a few days.   I hope he's right.​

gs

Dad, the Philco and a Swivel Chair - 1959

​Dad and the Philco TV on Kodachrome - 1959

That's my dad.  I shot this picture with his Argus C-3 when I was about 8 years old.  No, I didn't have great photography skills.  I applied a little Lightroom magic to improve it a bit.  The original is in the inset below.  A little straightening, cropping, color correction and way less dust removal than is needed, but the resulting photo is a little bit nicer than the original snapshot. 

​A copy of the original slide.

​That Philco TV in the background  was only 6 years old when the photo was taken.  I say "only" because it would provide 16 more years of service before it was finally retired.  Things lasted a lot longer back then.  Whenever that TV developed a problem we would call Leonard Herdzina, the TV repair man.  He would roll up in his station wagon and either fix the TV on site or, if things were really bad, take it back to shop.  I remember his name because he was as important to the family as our doctor.  In those days, they both still made house calls.  Leonard's TV repair shop was how I got interested in electronics, but that's another story.

​Check out that haircut on Dad.  They called that a flat-top.  It looks a little long.  He was probably due for a trim.  We went to the barber (Ray Watson) every other week, regular as clockwork.   I'm not sure of the real color of the shirt.  It's pretty washed out from the flashbulb.  

That rocking chair is a classic.  It rocked AND swiveled.  My cousins and I used to sit in it an spin around until we were dizzy.  It must have made Dad a little annoyed because he eventually removed the swivel mechanism.  After that it was just a rocking chair and was not anywhere near as much fun.​

​The cogwheel table.  The top rotates.

​The swivel mechanism showed up much later in a table that he made.  The top looks like a big gear and rotates.  He attached the table top to the pedestal base with the swivel mechanism.    

The top and feet are laminated from reclaimed pallet wood.  The pedestal is part of an old support pillar left over after he remodeled our front porch.  Dad didn't throw a lot of stuff away.  He was pretty good at finding new uses for stuff.​

Times have changed a lot.  TV's don't last as long, we replace instead of repair, doctors don't make house calls and the list goes on.​

By the way.  I just replaced the rocking chair in my family room.  It rocks ​AND swivels.

​-gs-

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Highland Park - 1969

​A sunny afternoon at Highland Park in the Fall of 1969.

I lived across the street from a small park when I was in high school.  It was a convenient place to practice my photography technique.  This is from a roll of slides that must have been shot when I was working on silhouettes. 

This slide sat in a box for about 40 years before I finally ran it though the scanner.  In that time a lot of dust embedded itself in the emulsion.  The high quality scan shows all of that dust and film grain the size of boulders.  It also needed a bit of work to restore the faded colors.

All in all, it's not a great shot.  I probably like it because I remember how much I enjoyed walking through the park on those cool Fall days.  I enjoyed taking the photo and enjoyed restoring it 44 years later.

-gs-​

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Faux Fall Infrared

​Hallek Park - Faux Infrared

The latest issue of Popular Photography magazine had a short procedure for simulating infrared photography with a few adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw.

This is the result of playing with the same adjustments in the develop module of Lightroom 4.  I saved the settings as a preset.  They will make a good starting point for experimenting with other photos.  

You can see a color version of this photo here. 

gs​

Spring Training - 2013

​Omaha Stormchasers - August, 2013

​As I write this there is still snow on the ground, but I can see the light at the end of this winter tunnel.  The light is coming from those big towers you see in the photo.

​Baseball has made it's annual migration to the south for spring training.  There are several  games every day.  A few are televised on the MLB cable TV channel. Several more can be seen (with a subscription) on the MLB website or via an App on your tablet or phone.

That photo, by the way, is from last year.  The Omaha Stormchasers are the local triple-A team.  It was an unusually cold night in August.  You can see more photos from that game here.

-gs-​

Moved to Squarespace

My previous service provider was purchased by another company and discontinued support for blogs. Everything earlier than this post has been imported from the other site.  There are a few things (such as the names of those that have left comments) that did not correctly import.  That's life.  It's not worth the trouble to fix some of those details.​ ​In general most of the photos and text have been imported and nothing was lost.

​So this post is the beginning of the blog as powered by Squarespace.   There will, I'm sure, be more changes.  That's the way of the internet.  Here today, somewhere else (and maybe gone) tomorrow.

Stay tuned, I'll be back to posting photos in a few days.​

-gs-​

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Advent Window - St. Bridget's Church


This is another of the twelve stained glass windows, each representing an event from the liturgical calendar.  I thought I would post this photo since it's appropriate for the current season.

This description from church documents: "The ruins indicate darkness and desolation on earth before the birth of Christ; humanity longs for salvation. The Greek letters in a radiating sun, surrounded by brilliant rays, indicate the words, "Life and Light" symbolizing the Messianic Promise, and indicate that new life through the heralded birth of Christ is to be brought to mankind."

-gs-

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My Generation


I was in the doctor's office a while back and noticed these two magazines  on an end table.  The two titles, stacked the way they were, seemed to represent my generation.

The photo has been sitting on my hard drive for a while.  I intended to post it back when I took it, but it slipped my mind.

-gs-

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Stained Glass Window - St. Bridget's Church


This is the "Corpus Christi" window from St. Bridget's Church.  It is one of twelve windows, each representing an event from the liturgical calendar.

I've returned to the church several times to photograph the windows, altars, and many, many details. A couple of additional trips may be necessary, but most of the photography is complete.  Now, the effort of turning the photos into finished work begins.

This description from church documents: "This symbol seeks to illustrate the vineyard of the Church. The center illustrates the wine press, also indicating the altar on which the transition of the wine into the Blood of Christ takes place. The mystical wine streams for us from the altar in the Mass and provides a continuous stream of heavenly grace to the faithful."

gs

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New Bike - Old Market - Black and White


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This is a big departure from my usual photos.  I very seldom do anything in black and white.  I posted the color version on October 22. 

This photo just seemed to have the right tonality for a black and white treatment.  Since I usually shoot color, I don't have any special software for black and white conversion.  Everything was done in Lightroom 4.  Most of the work was done in the Basic panel but there was a little tweaking done in the HSL/Color/BW panel.

I like the way it turned out, but I'm not sure if I prefer the color or the black and white version.

gs

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Lunch - Rained Out

This is the time of year when, in many parts of the country, the wisdom of devoting space to outdoor seating at restaurants becomes questionable.

That aside, I like the addition of the puddles and reflections to the otherwise strong lines and patterns in this photo.

-gs-

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Stone Decorations

Most of the old downtown buildings have simple openings in the brickwork for the wooden window frames.  A few have decorative stonework or castings.

This old building is now filled with restaurants, offices and apartments, but the stonework and castings make it stand out as something special.

gs

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Bridge Parking

It's unusual to find a bridge with curbside parking.  Not only does this bridge have parking, but it's very congested.

Every time I drive over this bridge I think about a driver throwing their door open into my path.  I must not be alone with that thought, most of the approaching cars are edging over the line.

-gs-

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Union Outfitting Co.- The Old Market

At one time the buildings in the Old Market area of Omaha, Nebraska were filled with factories, warehouses and manufacturer's of many different products.

Shopping and Restaurants now occupy the street level.  The upper levels of many buildings have been turned into apartments and condos. 

The color of the sunlight on this building contrasting against the blue sky caught my attention.  It is surprising how well the old painted signs have survived decades of weather.     

gs 

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New Bike in the Old Market

Shape, color and shadow are what interest me in this photo.  

The round wheels and bike rack contrast with the square windows and rectangular doors.  The shadow of the bike gives a hint about the time of day and the splash of bright color on the right contrasts with the muted colors in the remainder of the photo.

This is another photo from the 2012 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk in the Old Market district of Omaha, NE.

-gs-

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Back Seat Driver

Dog, alone in the back seat, looking regal.  Lone driver in front.  Possibly the dog chauffuer?

Photo taken during the 2012 Kelby Worldwide Photowalk.  

-gs-

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City Apartment Garden

Saturday was the last day of the season for the Downtown Farmer's Market. It looks like this woman was using her last chance to stock up.

Taken in the Old Market district of Omaha, Ne.

gs

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Almost Fall Park Pano


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Saturday morning I noticed that the leaves on the trees in my back yard were starting to turn.  I though I'd take a trip to a nearby park to see if I could catch a little Fall color.

That's what I found. very little Fall color.  Only a few trees had started to turn.  On the plus side, the weather was nice and it was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so.  

You can see a few more photos from the day are here.

-gs-

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