Saturday, August 19, 2000

Three new black and white shots added to Lorraine Park collection. More to come as I get them scanned and uploaded.

I was also able to track down a couple of rolls of Kodak black and white infrared film, so if time permits this weekend, I will be out experimenting. Ticklish stuff getting the exposure correct from what I have read. I'll start out in the middle of the recommended settings, bracket my shots and see what happens.
2:23 PM ::link::

Friday, August 18, 2000

Raven has just announced the launch of the first issue of Necronicles, a new e-zine focusing on appreciation of the delightful beauty of cemetery art. Along with the expected tombstone pictures, you'll find some stories, poetry, artwork, book review, and much more. So stop reading my blog and go visit Necronicles.
11:17 PM ::link::

Just got a call from the photo lab. Prints are back from continued experimentation with black and white at Lorraine Park. Look for some new shots to be added to that section over the weekend.
12:54 PM ::link::

TGIF

End your work week with a list of quotes. Quite a few here that were new to me and all are quite amusing.
8:17 AM ::link::

Thursday, August 17, 2000

I've been looking into infrared photos lately. They seem to give some incredible results with cemeteries, the grass going to a very light shade and the stones remaining fairly dark. As can be seen in this digital near infrared shot by Eric Cheng, it also does some wonderfully strange things to the sky, almost totally black while clouds are rendered almost normally. If I can find some available locally, I might just try a roll or two.
3:19 PM ::link::

Wednesday, August 16, 2000

::rambling alert::

A very dear friend of mine had eye surgery this morning. I won't bore you too much with the wonderful inspiration her spirit has been or what a delightful friend she has been. I will even try not to bore you too much with my ramblings about how much we often take the simplest things for granted. I will ask you to stop for just a moment and think about how fantastic the mechanisms are that are involved in the simple process of reading these silly words. Not the technological "miracles" either. Though the web is pretty cool in its own right, how can it compare to light waves being focused on the rods and cones in your retina, converting the light energy into electrical nerve pulses which are passed onto your brain to be transformed into images. Then you take these images and from the contrast between the letterforms and background form individual letters and combine them to form words. Even after you have formed the words, the miracle continues as you join these words into what I hope are semi-coherent thoughts... thoughts which originated in my brain...

pretty damn neat trick, don't you think?
10:04 PM ::link::

Looks like an ecologically friendly solution to what to do with Uncle Fred's ashes, from the folks at Eternal Reefs. If this catches on, I'll need to find a new hobby or learn how to scuba dive.
9:17 PM ::link::

Ideas are percolating for some new photos. I just hope that my schedule this weekend leaves some time to get out and play. There is so much other "real life" stuff that I should be dealing with besides this hobby. I'd really like to find another local cemetery photo fan and get together for a joint expedition to a new cemetery or stroll through some favorite haunts with some new eyes to help see old sights.
11:21 AM ::link::

Film dropped off from Lorraine Park shots over the weekend, should be back early next week at the latest.
10:24 AM ::link::

Tuesday, August 15, 2000

If you are a fan of surrealistic manipulations of fine black and white images, then you'll love these works of Jerry Uelsmann featuring the natural beauty of Yosemite. This is my favorite of the series.
5:31 PM ::link::

Still looking at a large pile of work that accumulated from my day of jury duty last week. So why am I writing here instead of dealing with the pile of scanning too be done? Because the silly PC that the scanner is hooked to keeps puking everytime it tries to process a file to PDF format. It's a recurring nightmare, especially during this busiest of times. The computer support crowd is trying to reinstall some of the software, for the umpteenth time. I am of the opinion that there is only one real solution, but doubt that it will happen.
10:17 AM ::link::

Monday, August 14, 2000

Well, the rain stopped, the clouds rolled away and I sped off to Lorraine Park to finish up the roll from the weekend. Wonder of wonders, the sun actually popped out so I had the chance to play in some bright light rather than the overcast that has followed me for the past several weeks. I tried reshooting a few of the statues that I photographed Sunday in the overcast and also managed to find some new stuff as well. I can't wait to see how these turn out.
7:13 PM ::link::

After reading the story of "Black Aggie", I know a trip to Druid Ridge is not too far in the future. I'd love to get down to D.C. sometime as well, see if I can track down the present location of the statue.
1:23 PM ::link::

If the rain lets up, I'll try to get back to Lorraine Park and finish that roll. Should have at least run it out yesterday while I was there. I hate having half a roll of film in the camera. I like to keep the same cemetery on one roll, so I am going to feel committed to getting back to Lorraine Park before moving on to a new location. Yes, it is just a quirk and the film could shoot pictures at another cemetery just as well as at Lorraine but that's the way I am. I guess my hopes for testing how black and white performs under sunny conditions will need to wait until all these summer storms pass by. The fall is a nice season to shoot anyhow, much cooler and better for walking through my favorite places.
1:04 PM ::link::

Sunday, August 13, 2000

Another Maryland cemetery photo person! Hooray! Erin has some nice shots of New Orleans and Metarie Louisiana cemeteries as well as some shots from Virginia. The rest of her site is also quite interesting and well worth a look around.
6:30 PM ::link::

Contemplating a trip to Druid Ridge cemetery, in the northern section of town. I've heard good things about it and from the map, it looks as large as Loudon Park. I may have to try getting out during the middle of the week as well, take advantage of these long summer days while I can. I think there'll be less traffic in the cemeteries then. You get some strange looks strolling along with a tripod and camera on your shoulder. ;-) Not that it bothers me much but a little time alone would be a good thing.
4:38 PM ::link::

Well, so much for hopes for sunny skies.
It's mostly overcast, though a bit brighter than last weekend. I was able to swing by Lorraine Park for a few shots. I was looking forward to working with the black and white in a more bright and high contrast setting though. Just couldn't seem to get in the swing with all the cloud cover so I did not even finish out the roll. I should be ashamed of myself for "wasting" a perfectly good cemetery trip. Maybe I can slide out there in the middle of the week.
1:42 PM ::link::

Rate Me on BlogHop.com!
  help?

Daily Reads

Cemetery Bloggers

GothicTomb Journal
lunatique raving
Mostly Cemeteries

Photo Bloggers
Living Art
-trianide-
Rannie
Wanderlust
le-champignon
photodude

Contact:

email -coldmarble@dgbn.com

AIM - ColdMarblePhoto

[Cemetery List]
[Cards]
[Links]
[Your Thoughts?]
[My Thoughts]
[ColdMarbleCam]