Rural
Four Bins
August 11, 2011 - 20:30
I’m not sure about this fascination that I have with grain bins. Perhaps it is the texture and rhythm in the corrugated walls and how the seams in the rings alternate from bottom to top. I like how the soft, warm highlights give a structured, yet relaxing texture against the warm blue hues in the summer sky.
Four Bins
I found this scene at Argyle, Minnesota just as the sun was leaving long shadows across the prairie. I especially enjoy how the direct sunlight contrasts with the shadow at the center of each structure. Together, with the vents in exactly the same position, they remind me of tin soldiers standing in a field to watch the setting sun.
Photographed on Fuji Velvia 100 chrome film loaded in a Mamiya M645 1000s camera fitted with a 70mm f/2.8 lens.
Art Deco Preserved
August 02, 2011 - 05:43
I love art deco. It reminds me of classic movies, biplanes, the Chrysler Building, the architecture in Miami beach hotels, and even the Wizard of Oz. While on vacation, we stopped to visit the Montana State Prison Museum in Deer Lodge, Montana.
Besides the prison, there is a remarkable automobile museum there. Just about anything with wheels, a motor, and a seat is on display from the spartan ‘horseless carriages’ of the late 19th century to the muscle cars of the the ‘60s and ‘70s. On this trip, the only 35mm film I brought was monochrome, removing the distraction of color. Just one less decision to make I suppose.
Many people look at the cars, but few see the details. Maker’s badges on the radiator. Visors over the windshield; a popular feature in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Headlights. I can’t remember the car, but I found the soft metallic glow accented by the repeating lines and angles in the glass of a lowly headlight. In the final print, I was reminded of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Dark Passage the golden age of radio.
Art deco in a small Montana town serving the noble purpose of preserving history.
Besides the prison, there is a remarkable automobile museum there. Just about anything with wheels, a motor, and a seat is on display from the spartan ‘horseless carriages’ of the late 19th century to the muscle cars of the the ‘60s and ‘70s. On this trip, the only 35mm film I brought was monochrome, removing the distraction of color. Just one less decision to make I suppose.
Many people look at the cars, but few see the details. Maker’s badges on the radiator. Visors over the windshield; a popular feature in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Headlights. I can’t remember the car, but I found the soft metallic glow accented by the repeating lines and angles in the glass of a lowly headlight. In the final print, I was reminded of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Dark Passage the golden age of radio.
Art deco in a small Montana town serving the noble purpose of preserving history.
Art Deco Luminance
Context, Context, Context
November 04, 2010 - 20:49
Puns, reputed to be the lowest form or humor, are still a lot of fun. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects! Terrible, but funny. After watching a few minutes of the Comedy Channel, it appears that our culture has lowered the bar even further, but that is a matter of opinion.
While on vacation last summer, we stopped at the Old Montana Prison Museum in Deer Lodge. After lunch, I saw an image that I just couldn’t resist.
Is it a visual pun, or simple irony?
While on vacation last summer, we stopped at the Old Montana Prison Museum in Deer Lodge. After lunch, I saw an image that I just couldn’t resist.
Is it a visual pun, or simple irony?
Context
Prairie Skies and Red #29
August 08, 2010 - 17:54
I grew up on the prairies of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and North Dakota. Each summer, my family would drive to Alberta or Ontario on vacations to see relatives or go camping. Outside of the city, the tallest buildings were grain elevators spaced about ten miles apart from each other along the railroad lines and appeared to be tied together with the telephone lines passing from pole to pole. These icons of the prairie stand in solitude winter and summer, storing the harvest until the commodity markets were just right. Tractors and equipment harvested the grain, the trucks hauled it in, and the elevator would weigh it, store it, and load it into railroad hopper cars.
Traditional grain elevators are becoming extinct since concrete grain terminals have emerged. It won’t be long until they are all torn down or collapse from neglect. They have been around for more than a century standing like signposts for ‘POOL’, ‘PIONEER’,’ UGG’, and a number of independent brokers. America named its towns after water towers and Canada named her towns after grain elevators, or so it seems.
I began to process the monochrome film that I shot in rural Minnesota last month. I experimented with a variety of film-developer combinations and filtration. Most of the film was shot with a red #29 filter, which is slightly darker than the #25. The beauty of using red filters with monochrome film is that they bring out very dark and dramatic skies but leave the tonality of clouds. That is, they filter out the blue wavelengths of light to darken the sky and enhance the billowing or feathery clouds. Red filtration also draws out the texture of the metal siding on buildings to appear more like engraved lithographs than photographs.
The results are in the Rural gallery. Bright clouds contrast the geometric elevators and ribbed grain bins against the sky. I used Fuji Acros monochrome film shot at ISO 100 and developed in Edwal FG-7 at 1:15 dilution for 9 minutes. Edwal recommends agitation every 30 seconds for 5 seconds, but after looking at the negatives I would rather process Acros for about 11 minutes and agitate the tank once every minute for 10 seconds. The negatives were so thin that they were nearly unprintable and I was surprised to see how well the images looked. They bring out the kind of texture that gives monochrome film its character. I also shot Plus-X at ISO 80 and processed it in FG-7 for 8 minutes which was about right. The negatives were denser and provided a bit less contrast. The Versatile 435 tractor images are good examples.
Traditional grain elevators are becoming extinct since concrete grain terminals have emerged. It won’t be long until they are all torn down or collapse from neglect. They have been around for more than a century standing like signposts for ‘POOL’, ‘PIONEER’,’ UGG’, and a number of independent brokers. America named its towns after water towers and Canada named her towns after grain elevators, or so it seems.
I began to process the monochrome film that I shot in rural Minnesota last month. I experimented with a variety of film-developer combinations and filtration. Most of the film was shot with a red #29 filter, which is slightly darker than the #25. The beauty of using red filters with monochrome film is that they bring out very dark and dramatic skies but leave the tonality of clouds. That is, they filter out the blue wavelengths of light to darken the sky and enhance the billowing or feathery clouds. Red filtration also draws out the texture of the metal siding on buildings to appear more like engraved lithographs than photographs.
The results are in the Rural gallery. Bright clouds contrast the geometric elevators and ribbed grain bins against the sky. I used Fuji Acros monochrome film shot at ISO 100 and developed in Edwal FG-7 at 1:15 dilution for 9 minutes. Edwal recommends agitation every 30 seconds for 5 seconds, but after looking at the negatives I would rather process Acros for about 11 minutes and agitate the tank once every minute for 10 seconds. The negatives were so thin that they were nearly unprintable and I was surprised to see how well the images looked. They bring out the kind of texture that gives monochrome film its character. I also shot Plus-X at ISO 80 and processed it in FG-7 for 8 minutes which was about right. The negatives were denser and provided a bit less contrast. The Versatile 435 tractor images are good examples.
Industrial Prairie
July 19, 2010 - 07:30
When one thinks of Minnesota or North Dakota, industry usually isn’t the first thought. All you can see over western North Dakota are canyons, rolling hills, and the occasional oil donkey rising and falling as it pumps ‘black gold’ from the Bakken oil fields. Farms and field spread over the flat prairie of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Quiet county roads carry only a few cars or farm machinery from town to town and field to field. Grain elevators are usually the only buildings higher than an equipment storage shed. City dwellers don’t think ‘industrial’ when they see the prairies. At first glance it looks flat, empty, and very rural.
Running a farm is an industrial operation. Modern tractors are capable of dragging heavy machinery through dense topsoil in swaths thirty feet wide and two feet deep. Combine harvesters cut through thousands of acres of ripened crop and separate the stalks and other foreign material from the grain. Full size semi-tractor trucks haul tons of grain from the fields to terminals where it is loaded into railroad hopper cars for transport to food processing centers or seaports for shipment overseas. The agriculture industry in this region produces soybeans, sugar beets, barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, and corn. All of this must happen during the short growing season before brutally cold winters and blizzards encapsulate the landscape.
The risk is high but the rewards are great. No one can control the weather, pest infestations, market fluctuations, or labor disputes. Different crops require different equipment, moisture and temperature levels, soil quality, and production timing. Agricultural businesses experience production delays from regional flooding, crop disease, drought, excess rainfall, wildfire, and equipment failure. Market price fluctuations make forecasting difficult. Farmers must be skilled businessmen to produce food on large economies of scale. They need to understand the commodity markets and their own production and storage capacities. They have the experience and skill of any industrial plant manager to assure that equipment is properly maintained, capital resources are efficiently utilized, suppliers understand their requirements, and the labor force is trained and ready in sufficient numbers to complete their work on time and on budget from planting to harvest. Farmers need to produce the right mix of crops to reduce their losses should the weather be too cold, too hot, too wet, or too dry, yet provide the greatest yield for the lowest cost to maximize their profit. If commodity prices are too low, they need to sell enough product to satisfy their creditors while storing the rest at the proper moisture and temperature levels until demand improves and commodity prices increase.
Being a film photographer, I need time to harvest my crop, but I brought a digital Fuji Finepix S2 Pro SLR along for those subjects of opportunity. ‘Harvest Ready’ is an image of a Versatile 435 articulated tractor highlighting its two critical features: power and traction. It stands as tall as a two story building and can pull anything from a large cultivator to a sugar beet harvester through knee-deep mud in all kinds of weather. It is a symbol of power and capability. A machine with attitude.
More from my Industrial Prairie assignment will come as I unlock the latent images from exposed film.
Running a farm is an industrial operation. Modern tractors are capable of dragging heavy machinery through dense topsoil in swaths thirty feet wide and two feet deep. Combine harvesters cut through thousands of acres of ripened crop and separate the stalks and other foreign material from the grain. Full size semi-tractor trucks haul tons of grain from the fields to terminals where it is loaded into railroad hopper cars for transport to food processing centers or seaports for shipment overseas. The agriculture industry in this region produces soybeans, sugar beets, barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, and corn. All of this must happen during the short growing season before brutally cold winters and blizzards encapsulate the landscape.
The risk is high but the rewards are great. No one can control the weather, pest infestations, market fluctuations, or labor disputes. Different crops require different equipment, moisture and temperature levels, soil quality, and production timing. Agricultural businesses experience production delays from regional flooding, crop disease, drought, excess rainfall, wildfire, and equipment failure. Market price fluctuations make forecasting difficult. Farmers must be skilled businessmen to produce food on large economies of scale. They need to understand the commodity markets and their own production and storage capacities. They have the experience and skill of any industrial plant manager to assure that equipment is properly maintained, capital resources are efficiently utilized, suppliers understand their requirements, and the labor force is trained and ready in sufficient numbers to complete their work on time and on budget from planting to harvest. Farmers need to produce the right mix of crops to reduce their losses should the weather be too cold, too hot, too wet, or too dry, yet provide the greatest yield for the lowest cost to maximize their profit. If commodity prices are too low, they need to sell enough product to satisfy their creditors while storing the rest at the proper moisture and temperature levels until demand improves and commodity prices increase.
Being a film photographer, I need time to harvest my crop, but I brought a digital Fuji Finepix S2 Pro SLR along for those subjects of opportunity. ‘Harvest Ready’ is an image of a Versatile 435 articulated tractor highlighting its two critical features: power and traction. It stands as tall as a two story building and can pull anything from a large cultivator to a sugar beet harvester through knee-deep mud in all kinds of weather. It is a symbol of power and capability. A machine with attitude.
More from my Industrial Prairie assignment will come as I unlock the latent images from exposed film.
