Washed up

Washed up, originally uploaded by p2wy.

I was chatting with Diana Pappas today and we were talking about the amount of old pictures we have, how shots get lost and forgotten and speculating what was hanging out in the "wayback" of the archives. We somewhat challenged each other to go back and find some of these forgotten shots and post them this week.

I've waded through my 2005 and most of my 2006 shots tonight and have discovered a few things. My taste in composition hasn't changed all that much but I was MUCH more fond of wide-open shooting. This one was one of the few from this day that were stopped down at all. I'd love to shoot this scene now with the Leica or my old Agfa Isola. Instead, this was with a crappy kit lens and a D50. It still turned out ok.

I've been missing the California coast quite a bit this week.

Taken somewhere between Bodega Bay and Jenner, CA. September, 2006.

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May be a while before the next tour

Nearly flooded, originally uploaded by p2wy.

After flooding last fall (and many times prior) it looks like the Farnsworth House is threatened again. I'm going to make a point to take another tour as soon as it's offered again as honestly I don't know how long they can deal with a house that floods multiple times a year.

It's supposed to rain more tonight and the creeks feeding the Fox were already out of their banks yesterday so I suspect there will be a news story in the Tribune by Wednesday about how Mies' glass house has to be restored again.

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Find happiness

30, originally uploaded by p2wy.

I've decided I want to spend as much of my time as possible in places that bring happiness to me.

That means:
- More time holding my son
- More quality time with my wife
- Less television
- Less internet
- Less commuting (will work from home whenever I can)
- More Michigan

This shot is from last Sunday's dash over to St. Joseph and South Haven, MI. I actually used my D3 some on this trip (my D-LUX 4 has been glued to my hands since Christmas). I felt the repeating shapes of this marina (and later the snow fences on the beach) would be best suited to the tilt-shift lens. It was VERY sunny and the reflections on the ice were harsh so I used a neutral-density filter and lower exposure. Stopping down diminishes the tilt effect so I didn't really use that approach.

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Out into the nothing

Gradients, originally uploaded by p2wy.

Ever since I moved out of the city I've try to take advantage of some of the positive aspects living 45 miles West of Chicago brings.

One of these is the ability to get away from everything... every trouble, every stressor and every bit of humanity within 15 minutes. April and I have wandered along nearly every back road between Aurora, Peru, Iowa and Wisconsin during the last year. Most of it looks like this, apart from the "driftless area" in Illinois' far Northwestern tip.

My favorite places so far are the Illinois River between Morris and Lasalle, the giant Sauk statue near Oregon, and of course the windmills that top the barely-discernible rise of the Mendota Hills. But the route to these sites often better than the destination itself. Abandoned roadhouses, the Lincoln Highway, dilapidated barns and the odd roadside surprises like the "crashed" airplane near Norway definitely make the drives interesting...but mostly I enjoy the sight of nothing. Absolutely nothing.

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Winter trips

Bridge to Nowhere, originally uploaded by p2wy.

An underrated winter destination is Ireland. Tickets are dirt cheap that time of year (I've never paid more than $300 from Chicago or Charlotte) and the weather is a good 30 degrees warmer than Chicago. Lodging is cheap as well as the island is blissfully free of tourists.

April and I went last February for a long weekend. It was a bit much to drive up to County Donegal from Dublin and back....but the bit of time we had up there was heavenly. We'll definitely be back (and bring the baby).

Wide-angle shot on a windswept forest near Clonbara in County Donegal. I didn't really return from this trip with many shots...just wasn't in the photography mood. That's ok... it left more time to actually enjoy the scenery (and to stress out about driving a stick-shift SUV on the wrong side of narrow road.

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Le Tex Mex

Was SOOOO tempted to try it..., originally uploaded by p2wy.

I could eat every meal for a month. Seriously.

This was in Versailles, France where I had the good luck to spend a week on a work trip. I've been to worse places. The combination of jet lag and the fact that this was a work trip in mid-winter meant I got the opportunity to really work on my low-light photography for the first time (I didn't really see daylight on that trip apart from the day of arrival). Sadly I hadn't brought a tripod so I had to stretch the D50's limits on ISO and aperture. This shot in particular was on a VERY dark street....Versailles is quite sleepy at night, even though they have a (surprising authentic-looking) Tex-Mex restaurant.

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Milwaukee

The mistress, originally uploaded by p2wy.

Milwaukee's always been a strange place for me... in "stream of consciousness" form here are my thoughts. In a way it's a slightly bigger, slightly-more-foreign-to-me dopplegänger for Grand Rapids...but in other ways it's more like a Chicago-in-miniature. I haven't really gotten a feel for the city as itself...in my mind it's more of a reflection of other places I know. Regardless, I've enjoyed every trip I've had there and probably have a more positive feeling towards it than I should as I haven't spent more than a few minutes in the suburbs.There are fascinating neighborhoods and a wonderfully interesting downtown. Like most Chicagoans I'm most familiar with the art museum (which is more than worth a visit) and need to familiarize myself more with the restaurants and shops and people.

The last (extended) time I was there, April and I ate at a family-run restaurant on Brady Street. We arrived around 3:30 and the restaurant was mostly empty apart from this one very odd couple. The man was in his late fifties, very nerdy and obviously wealthy. The woman was in her late-twenties and quite demonstrably affectionate. The body language wasn't that of husband and wife, or even that of a couple on a date. It was most definitely that of man and mistress...a fleeting time together in (somewhat) public.

I took this shot while April was in the restroom...setting the camera on the table in manual focus and purposely putting the shot out of focus; just as they would prefer to have been seen.

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Side Porch, originally uploaded by p2wy.

Poetry, Texas is where I grew up. There isn't really much there... 3 churches, a feedstore and about 300 people. The only historic structures left (most of the town burned a hundred years ago) are 2 of the churches, a couple of old (and fascinating) cemeteries and this house. It belonged to the matriarch of a childhood friend's family and it's in even worse shape now than this picture shows.

I don't know how someone can just let something so dear to them go like this. That being said, my great-grandmother's house was moved across town and now looks nothing like it once did (a stately farm house on top of a hill). My grandparents' home was also moved...and I don't even know where to. Perhaps I have no room to talk, but I can't imagine driving by a place that hold so many memories every day and just letting it rot.

I took this shot on a beautiful day... the sun burning through the leaves and leaving this wonderful light on the porch. I only had a point-and-shoot at the time but left with a great set of shots of this fading beauty.

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Sinking into the wall

Sinking into the wall, originally uploaded by p2wy.

This shot was near the end of a long day in Tongli, China. April and I had the notion to take a local bus out to one of the lake towns near Shanghai and it could have easily been disastrous.

Getting to the bus depot was not a problem at all. It was actually adjacent to the giant Shanghai sports stadium and taxi fares are absurdly cheap. But when we got there, it was chaotic. The depot was packed (as most places in Shanghai are) with people and there was only one person there apart from us that spoke a lick of English, and she couldn't really explain to me which bus to get on even after we bought our tickets (she said "get on the fourth" and we walked out to a parking lot full of buses). I took a wild guess and chose the fourth bus from the left, flashed the ticket to the driver and he nodded so we got on.

During the 90 minute ride it was evident that we might be on the wrong bus. There were three Russians on the bus (everyone else was Chinese) and they seemed to be headed to someplace other than Tongli, but Tongli was allegedly the first stop in a two stop ride. So when we got to the first stop almost all the bus got off as there was a public bathroom there (a miracle in China... even had a handicap stall with a proper toilet rather than a hole in the floor). However almost everyone else got back on the bus but I had a hunch we were at the right place. About 8 people including us didn't reboard the bus. We walked to the "tourist office" there and all we could tell from them was that we were at the location our ticket was for.

We took the little mini-tram into town (about a 2 mile trip) and there we saw that we were indeed in Tongli. It's an ancient town full of canals... very much a Venice but with pagodas instead of St Marks. I suppose it's normally overrun with Chinese tourists (it's on the shortlist for a spot on UNESCO's World Heritage Sites) but the day we were there it's was eerily devoid of tourists.

We spent the day walking all over town...and for the first time really had a feel for the life of the average Chinese person. The people were so much friendlier than in Shanghai... I had the feeling that Westerners normally don't visit. The town was full of texture and color and beautiful shapes. I shot color most of the day but by the time I took this it was near the end of a long day and I had put the red filter on my 100mm Tokina lens and was taking macros over unusual clovers and shrubs in a pagoda's garden.

We were able to make it back to the little bus stop in time for the bus back (actually a little bit early as there was no lodging in this little town and we didn't want to get stranded) to Shanghai. This was undoubtedly my favorite day of the trip.

More photos from Tongli...including the canals...

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Woodley Park Metro - Adams Morgan, originally uploaded by p2wy.

The first time as an adult that I went to Washington DC was in 1999 for a professional conference (Association for Behavior Analysis). It was probably the first big "solo" trip I'd ever taken at that point. The conference was at the Wardman Park Marriott which is in a (at the time) fairly funky portion of Connecticut Ave in Adams Morgan.

I fell in love with DC on that trip.

I had the good sense to buy a Metro pass and spent every evening riding to different parts of town. I went to a DC United game. I took some crappy photos (since lost) on the mall at night, I strolled through the embassy district...and I fell in love with the Adams Morgan Metro escalator. I'll never forget how my breath was taken the first time I looked down it; I had no idea the station would be so far down!

About the time I started taking photos more regularly (in 2005) I was working for a DC-based company and I knew I'd return to this station and try to capture the feeling. I was still a bit of a photography rookie and this isn't really a spot to set up a tripod so my shots didn't exactly turn out the way I'd hoped. Maybe I'm due for another try.

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Goofing off with the baby and Photobooth...

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Pacifist

Pacifist, originally uploaded by p2wy.

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We Will Never Be Like Them.

Emptiest sidewalk in Puxi, originally uploaded by p2wy.

Watching "In the Mood for Love" last night made me pine for Shanghai. I have a feeling we'll be having a return visit before too long.

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Confusion, originally uploaded by p2wy.

At least the week is ending. This weekend promises calm, deep breaths.


Versailles, France. 2007.

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Day out in the rain

Day out in the rain, originally uploaded by p2wy.

I would've much rather been in this picture day, and I don't even fish.

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Jonesing for a road trip

Big Rock, originally uploaded by p2wy.

This weekend I think it's gonna happen. Maybe Peoria or somewhere else downstate.

Rock on the banks of the Illinois River. Morris, IL

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Can Detroit come back?

I took it round the block, originally uploaded by p2wy.

Why can't automakers be imaginative anymore? Why can't they make something unique and beautiful?

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Peace and quiet

Another view, originally uploaded by p2wy.

I could spend the rest of my life up here in Munising, MI. At least the rest of my Mays through Septembers...

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Crossed out

Crossed out, originally uploaded by p2wy.

From a wonderful roadtrip this weekend. For folks in the Chicago area, I highly recommend a trip Westward. Here are a few of my favorite small towns between Chicago and Iowa, most of them have foreign names, but where you'll find wonderful folks, grand old houses and few, if any tourists:

Ottawa
Oregon
Compton
West Brooklyn
Big Rock
Marseilles
Fulton
Freeport
Mt Carroll

I'd rather spend a day in any of these towns than in the tourist traps of Lake Geneva or Galena.

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To breathe, to live

Faire un photo pour moi c'est vivre, originally uploaded by p2wy.

It had been so long since I'd just let myself be. Yesterday was wonderful. Expect to see many pictures from this happy day up on my Flickr site in the next few days.

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