On the prairie

An old fence post seems to play tug of war with the remains of a barbed wire fence while stormy clouds swirl overhead. Seen at Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, Morris, Illinois.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

But when it's nice enough out to fix that leak, it ain't rainin'

An old barn sits within the confines of the Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area near Morris, Illinois. I like old barns. I had a camera with me. You know the rest.



It's a real fixer-upper, which, unless there's some historic significance to this structure, will never get done. For now, the gaps, wood rot, rust and decay make for good photo fodder.



Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Gone fishing

Good photo for a Friday. Norman General Store, Norman, Wisconsin.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

A light on the veranda

Some architectural detail from the Ellwood Mansion in Dekalb, Illinois.

Isaac Ellwood was a barbed wire baron in the late 1800s/early 1900s. He made his fortune the old fashioned way -- he took someone else's idea, bought a share of it and proceeded to buy out all his competitors.

Ellwood did improve the process of manufacturing barbed wire and his company successfully sold millions of pounds of the stuff to western ranchers who were initially skeptical that two pieces of wire with a little bitty barb wound in could hold back a Texas longhorn. It did very well, thank you and so did Ellwood and his partners.

I love the styling of the lamps hanging from the porch that wraps around the Ellwood mansion. You'd expect a barbed wire man to have pointy things around his house.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Let's get classic

Kind of makes you want to go on a road trip, doesn't it?

Have a great weekend.

Classic car show, Sturgeon bay, Wisconsin. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Black beauty

Batavia, Illinois holds a classic car cruise night on Friday evenings throughout the summer. As far as I know, most of them have been rained out this year. I headed down while threatening clouds hung overhead a couple of week ago to see if any hardy souls would show up with their cars. A few did.

One who did was the owner of this Hudson pickup truck. What was interesting about this vehicle, besides the ultra-cool white-and-red sidewall tires, was the black satin finish -- which, under the overcast sky, really brought out the lines and shapes of the body. The satin finish also helps the chrome accents to pop.

The barriers in the distance were intended to close off a street filled with classic automobiles. For this evening, they only would have needed to close six parking spaces.

This Friday's forecast? Showers.

Photo sightings: Last summer, I shot some sunset photos in Door County, Wisconsin. As a joke, I blacked out the solar disk in one of the pictures and posted it here as the first photograph of a solar eclipse that occurred later in the year. Yesterday the photo apeared on the blog of the Houston Museum of Natural Science to accompany a story on the recent eclipse in Southeast Asia. They picked the photo up from Flickr, where I identified Photoshop as the culprit.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Scenes from a flea market -- Tie dye guy

How many relics from the sixties can you spot in this photo? VW bus? Check. Love beads? Check. Tons of tie dyed fabrics? Check. Guy that looks like a cross between Jim Henson and Chewbacca? Checkaroo.

A couple of weeks before my daughter's wedding, mom, dad and daughter spent a Sunday afternoon at a flea market in St. Charles, Illinois. Mom and daughter went to search out antique curios, knickknacks and assorted junk for items to possibly adorn the future wedded couple's apartment. Dad went to look for interesting stuff to photograph.

Right out of the gate (or rather, right inside the gate) was Tie Dye Guy selling stuff that I never really cared for the first time around. My mom and dad must have done a masterful job of instilling middle American values in this baby boomer because I found nothing much of interest in the countercultural lifestyle of the sixties.

OK, I did wear cutoff jean shorts back then and I did disavow materialism until the 1980s. Does that count?

More flea markety goodness to come.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

In the parking lot of time

Then again,aren't we all there, too?

Taken near Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Trolley triptych

Three photos from the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin, Illinois.

Keep your wheels safely rolling this weekend. Have a good one.





Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.

A word about lighting hardware

I spent some time yesterday working on my studio lighting techniques. The only problem is that I don't currently own any studio lights. Up until the last few months, I've been a natural light kind of a guy. I've had a few still life photos rejected by iStock because they weren't up to par with photos taken with a bank of lights and soft boxes. Ok, fine.

I came across the blog of a pro photographer who uses some unorthodox (and cheap) lighting methods. He also shoots for some big time clients. And his photos are good. I'm sold.

One trick - he frequents that well-known photography supply store, Home Depot, where he picked up a couple of 4-foot fluorescent light fixtures and some daylight-balanced tubes. Instant studio lights. I did the same, and got a two-light fixture for about nine bucks plus tubes.

For this shot, I set up the fixture vertically to the camera right and took some test shots. The fixture lit the antique camera well (a Kodak Brownie Box Camera from about 1910), but the twin tubes created two streaks of light in the camera's lens, which I found distracting. I have a round five-way reflector (you can get one for as little as $50 at a camera shop that carries them) in which one of the ways is white translucent. I placed that in front of the light fixture to ty to soften the light. Perfect.

A piece of white foam board to the camera's left reflected some light into the shadow side and a flash unit bounced off the ceiling rounded out the lighting for this shot, which is very nearly SOOC (straight out of camera). Just a very small amount of levels adjustment and cleaning up some dust specks on the mirror was all that was needed.

I'll probably be heading to the Photo Home Depot soon for another fixture. Next step, portraits.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Model Solar bicycle lamp

To a country that traveled largely by horse and by foot, the arrival of the bicycle from Europe in the late 1800s touched off a craze in America. The demand for personal modes of transportation fueled a new industry in the United States and paved the way for innovations in manufacturing that eventually resulted in the automotive and aeronautic industries.

From 1897 until 1926, the Badger Brass Manufacturing Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin produced the most popular bicycle light – a model it called the Solar. As many as two million Solar lights were produced. The rear compartment held water which was carried by a cotton wick to the lower compartment filled with calcium carbonate. This produced acetylene gas, which emitted a brilliant white light when lit.

The Solar and its many copycat competitors were noisy, smelly and dirty, but that did little to dampen the spirits of intrepid nighttime travelers. The acetylene lamps were eventually replaced by mass produced battery powered electric lights.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.