One New Adventure: Theoretical Agriculture

In response to questions about what direction my new adventures have taken I wanted to share a link to one of them – Theoretical Agriculture. It’s similar to Scooter in the Sticks in that I post pictures and text related the things I see and experience. The content grows from the landscape I work in as a photographer. I’m interested in developing my photographic skills and ability to bring a variety of approaches and styles to the assignments I shoot. The ritual of posting on a blog helpful in keeping me engaged in creating new work – a blog is a hungry animal.  I've talked with my boss about it and developed some guidelines and I'm ready to roll.

 Just as I did with Scooter in the Sticks and riding I plan to continue to create new content on a regular basis.  It's pretty simple to do since I am working so much with a camera anyways.  If you would like to follow along you might find some things of interest. And you know I’ll find some way to work the scooter into a picture.

I still have some riding dreams. If they should take shape or I find myself in a unique riding situation I will post it on Scooter in the Sticks. It’s not dead. I prefer to think of it as in hibernation or semi-retirement.

And there is a personal writing project I am finally going to sit down and work on. I have lots of notes and ideas. Now is the time to sit down at the computer and write. The riding experience plays a central role in the story but that’s all I’ll say.

Again, thanks to all of you who have read and posted here. It’s been great and there will still be something new from time to time.

Off on a New Adventure

No ride lasts forever and all stories come to an end. So it goes with creative projects and I think this one has come to an end, or at least a place where it's time to let it rest. I may post here now and again but for now my mind is traveling different roads.

A passage by T.S. Eliot comes to mind:

“In my end is my beginning.”

Best wishes to everyone for smooth roads and safe journeys!

Forging Ahead, Falling Behind

I decided to upgrade to the new Blogger layout templates. When they say you might lose some things they mean it. So bear with me as I slowly wade through my notes and see if I can restore links to sites, RSS feeds, and such.

The above picture started with me sitting in my office. Photographer Billie Mercer made the Mexican landscape image. During a discussion about the empty space I stuck myself in the picture. Another photographer, Frank Armstrong created the triptych. You never know what might happen to your pictures on the internet.

Hopefully that distracted everyone long enough for me to get Scooter in the Sticks back in order...

3 Prints Project: April 6, 2008

This week I gave the digital camera a rest and was back to shooting film. I use 35mm Ilford Hp5 processed in Kodak D-76 developer diluted 1:1 with water. I've been using D-76 for over 30 years now and it still gives reliable results. In case you are wondering how I fit this into my schedule I carry the Leica M6 around with me from Sunday until I have two rolls exposed. Generally I have that done by Wednesday or Thursday, process the film on Thursday or Friday evening, and print sometime during the day on Saturday.

It takes more patience than time. Shooting is incidental and done while doing other things. Processing the film takes about 45 minutes. Making three prints takes another hour or so. Depending on my mood and how the week goes this can seem easy or impossible. Luckily it doesn't matter how I feel. I just need to do it.

Still not sure where I am going with this project but I believe something good will happen. Photography remains a mystery to me a lot of the time.

So here are this week's pictures:

Kim at Barnes and Noble.

Twisted vines in bird paradise.

Trees in the wind at local park.

Secret Places in the Ordinary

I have driven or ridden by this place for over 25 years and never saw it.  It's a small ravine surrounded by trees in the middle of a farm field.  An ephemeral stream that runs into a grotto and disappears.  This place lives in the spring and vanishes as the world dries and the weeds grow up to hide it's secrets.  I've literally spent weeks of my life in this specific area but never managed to stop and walk into the trees to see what was hidden within.  The extent of my blinders never fails to amaze me.

This morning I had time for a short brisk ride under gray skies.  I chose a wet mud and stone road running along powerlines to explore.  I try and bring fresh eyes to places but what I see depends on where my head goes.  Thoughts of what I wanted to do today keep me from the empty mind that often works best when riding and making photographs.

A few miles down the road I decided that I really should get home and process film for my 3 Prints Project.  One last picture in the woods and I turned around to take a lazy ride home.

Riding through town I stopped to take one picture to demonstrate that there is some civilization in the sticks.  I've read a few references to Scooter in the Sticks lately that wonder aloud if there are any people or towns around.  Indeed there are and the pictures here are merely a representation of the places I'm drawn to.  Without much effort I bet I could produce Scooter in Hell with all the necessary traffic, bad roads, ugly places needed to convince someone how nasty it is to ride here.

I just try and make sure that I don't let the nastiness overwhelm the beauty that is all around and right in front of me.

3 Prints Project: March 30, 2008

This past week I have worked exclusively with the Canon G9 digital camera. I find myself exploring freely with it and pleased with the RAW files it produces. Since I am a couple days late posting these I have already run through a roll of film in the Leica and as I look at these I am aware of how different the experience is using the different cameras. I can't judge one approach better than the other. Just different for now.

Here are my three choices from last week's project shooting:

My wife Kim searching for stick people in the grapevines.

Agfa paper box and view from the coffee shop window.

Corner in downtown parking structure.