Tag: Berks County

No. 33. Just a Face in the Crowd

Faces from the Downtown Alive Concert in Reading, PA, that featured Toad the Wet Sprocket and Rusted Root. Part of Penn Street was shut down for the free concert.

No. 24. Flowering Procrastination

Everyone likes to photograph flowers, including me. Contrarian that I am, however, I’ve resisted posting them to my blog. Procrastinating until I couldn’t bear it any longer. So here’s a big package. This year it seemed as though Mother Nature took her time with the blossoms. Meanwhile, all the grasses sprouted tall with great abandon in the cool weather. Mother Nature has stopped her procrastination, and so have I.

No. 21. Gring’s Mill in a Different Light

No. 16. The Cider Mill Riders & Drivers Association

 

Last week after dropping off some work at Studio B in Boyertown, I decided to explore a back road in hopes of finding something interesting to photograph. I came across this derelict Cider Mill/Horse Stable whose textures attracted my attention.  Call it “ruin porn” if you will, but I found the textures of this structure in its last days worth some study.

While shooting the owner drove from around the back in his Ford F150. I learned that at one time, long, long ago, the property had been an orchard with its own substantial cider press. When that business failed the property was used for horsing around, sporting a large stable and practice arena. With that operation now long defunct permits to bring the building down have finally been obtained, according to the owner, who expects demolition to begin shortly. Next door to this structure, on the same original property, is a modern industrial facility.

Week No. 15. Guardians of the Planet

In honor of Earth Day and of the show opening tonight at Studio B in Boyertown, PA, Local by Local, this gallery focuses on trees and other vegetation — including crabgrass — the stuff on which animal life depends. Included in several images are bits of trash left in forested areas.

I’ve included information with each picture about the camera used to capture the picture and the software used to develop it including the company that converted my Pentax K10D into an infrared camera — Kolari Vision. Most of the other outfits that convert cameras that I found, or were recommended to me, only deal with Canikon cameras.

For those interested in understanding better understanding Infrared photography, false colors, and the surreal effects it produces read my 2009 article here. The article, which includes a basic summary of the physics of light, should be read by all landscape artists whatever their medium. I hope readers won’t get lost in the science, but it’s what makes me appreciate the magic of it all.

Much of the content is based on my early experiments using an old point and shoot that I converted myself in addition to using IR filters on other cameras. The article has been slightly updated with a cursory look at processing IR files shot in camera RAW and channel swapping to produce the blue sky effect. I recommend Laurie Klein’s Infrared Photography: Artistic Techniques for Brilliant Images for a more in-depth (and less technical) look at the art form.