Monthly Archives: December 2012

Still Fireworks

Posted by dkrashb on

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I am 6.5 in dog years.  Is that old enough to use “old dog, new tricks” as an excuse for how long it’s taken me to experiment with some of the features of Aperture?

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I still resist learning Photoshop beyond the occasional attempt to use layers in Photoshop Elements.  I think there is some sort of message about life in this avoidance of adopting a technology that would give me more control over my photos and allow me to do things like put multiple fireworks bursts into a single image.  (My photos of multiple bursts are because there really were multiple bursts.)

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I think I’ve come up with the main reasons I resist this next step:

  • I’m at the point of “good enough” on how much time I want to spend on post-processing.  The more I can adjust, the more lost I get in trying to decide which way it looks better.  This is much like a story some of you may recall about taking my aunt (who had dementia) bra shopping.  She would try one on, then the next, and I’d ask, “Does this one feel better than that one?” and she would look at me, puzzled, and reply, “Did I try that one on?”  I finally bought her some sports bras figuring they would be “good enough” and get us out of an endless loop in the dressing room.  Similarly, without seeing two different adjustments side-by-side, I have a hard time deciding.

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  • I spend way too much time with devices already.  I’m beginning to think of my computers as people.  I caught myself talking to my work laptop the other day.  It’s a Windows machine, so I wasn’t saying very nice things.  I accidentally left my iPhone in the car last night when I ran into a restaurant to place a take out order.  I had to wait 10 minutes for the food.  It felt impossible to sit for 10 minutes with no friend in my pocket.  I felt exposed and lonely.  I decided against running out to get my iPhone, though.  I thought it might be good for me to wait without the distraction for once.  I was soon hypnotized watching muted sports castors talk about football.  I have no idea what they were saying since there were no captions, but it gave a surrogate for my iPhone.  See what I’m saying?

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  • I’m not confident Photoshop would make a significant difference in how much better my photos look for the price.  It’s expensive software both in dollars and time to learn.  Would I really be able to do so much more with my photos and would I have time to actually do those things that I would think, “Wow!  I’m so glad I spent that $700!”

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  • I suspect Photoshop is really a black hole.  Once you’re in, you can never get out.  The truth of the world is altered and you can never get back to your original reality.

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Let Your Colors Burst

Posted by dkrashb on

As it turns out, the next shoot I did after the Mainx24 Parade was yet another parade.  Since I’m not ready to blog about another parade yet, I thought I would jump to the end of the evening and go with the fireworks display that closed the holiday celebration.

I always see these fantastic fireworks shots that have zero smoke in them and just streaks of color shooting across the sky.  I don’t know how they get those shots.  I’ve spent a little time searching for tips on how to prevent smoke, but none of them seem to help much other than the possibility of doing something in post processing to darken the smoke so it blends in better.  I guess I will have to experiment.

As it is, the video was made from the 550+ shots with no post-processing.  I will pick a few for post-processing later.  Today, I was only up for making a movie.

The irony of me making a movie out of my stills is that my camera will shoot video.  I have used it to shoot a video once so far.  I didn’t think I could see well enough to focus manually and I found the autofocus function quite disruptive.  I also discovered iMovie, the only video editing software I have, removed the feature to easily capture stills from video, so you have to go through a couple extra hoops and use another application to get a still from video.  I find this annoying.  Since I generally want stills, it seems easier to shoot stills and make a movie later if I want a video.

I didn’t plan to shoot the fireworks.  I just happen to have a great view of them from my balcony and it seemed a waste not to shoot them.  I did several things wrong during the shoot.

First, forgive me for repeating myself, I didn’t plan to shoot the fireworks. As a last minute decision, I was rushing to get setup on the balcony and failed to notice in the dark that I had part of the top of the balcony in the frame.  This is going to result in more cropping than I planned for.

Second, about half way through the show, I couldn’t remember if I had focused at any point or not.  This is not the time to have memory failure.  Although, I suppose it is better than at the end of the show.  I couldn’t really notice when the focus changed in the video, but the background buildings look blurry.

Third, I forgot to change the ISO setting from shooting very dark scenes and trying to get a faster shutter speed.  This led to much shorter shutter speeds than I would have liked.

Finally, I also forgot to set it on aperture priority and I was shooting so fast, I didn’t check the images.  Alas, I blew out the images with really bright bursts.

Other than that, my shots are great.  🙂

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The End of the Parade

Posted by dkrashb on

Note:  To see larger images, click on a photo and a gallery will pop-up.

Well dear readers, you will undoubtedly be happy to hear that I have, at last, reached the end of the Mainx24 Parade!

The end of the parade included car art.  This is something I saw a lot of back home over the past few years.  People adhere a wide variety of three dimensional things to their car.  Usually, they do this to older, not very expensive cars and the first trends I saw involved adhering things like troll dolls.

An example of the more three dimensional variety of car art

An example of the more three dimensional variety of car art

I admit I felt some judgment when I saw these cars.  I couldn’t quite understand why someone would do that to their car or what value they got out of it.  Then, one of my friends told me she’d met a guy who drove one of these cars down our street on a regular basis.  She asked him why he decorated his car.  He said, “I just love making people smile.”

This driver definitely looks like she's all about making people smile

This driver definitely looks like she’s all about making people smile

I still have a hard time appreciating car art, but I now smile when I see one of these cars none-the-less.  It’s not the car that makes me smile.  It’s the thought that maybe the person driving it went to a lot of effort to bring a little joy into the world.  That’s definitely smile-worthy.

One of the art cars definitely created a lot of smiles–they had a supply of candy that caused children to line up outside the windows to receive a handful.  This car seems less three dimensional in style and more about happy thoughts in general.  I like happy thoughts.

Whether the kids appreciated the happy-thoughts car or not, they certainly enjoyed the candy

Whether the kids appreciated the happy-thoughts car or not, they certainly enjoyed the candy

If an artistic car doesn’t conjure happy thoughts, perhaps a horse-drawn carriage will?

Look closely for the Dalmatian on the driver's seat

Look closely for the Dalmatian on the driver’s seat

This is one of at least two carriages that are available for a spin around downtown on weekends year-round and all week during the summer.  Notice the Dalmatian riding along on the driver’s seat.  Both carriages always have a Dalmatian who accompanies the driver.  One of these days, I’m going to ask how that tradition got started.

With the end of the parade came the big man himself (or his quintuplet, given that we saw him many times before)–Santa Claus.

A more practical santa uses sled dogs instead of reindeer

A more practical santa uses sled dogs instead of reindeer

Instead of driving a sleigh with reindeer, he used sled dogs.  That seems more practical to me–reindeer have all those horns and hoofs to worry about.  Plus, what do they eat?  According to wiki answers, in the winter they eat lichens.  I haven’t seen any bags of lichens even at the most premium of pet stores.

As I walked back to my car, I stopped to shoot two more images.  First, a man playing the piano out on the street.  Perhaps the fact that it was December was what made this remarkable to me.

I'm guessing this guy doesn't go busking around town

I’m guessing this guy doesn’t go busking around town

The second was a tree who had bonded with a building in a way that probably isn’t healthy for either.  Not sure which will win the battle for space in the end–right now, it looks like the tree is winning.  I silently cheered it on.

This tree and building have become so intertwined, it's not clear they can be separated

This tree and building have become so intertwined, it’s not clear they can be separated

VWs and Bicycle Art

Posted by dkrashb on

The pop-up top VW Bus

One of the fun things about Chattanooga is that it happens to be home to the only US-based Volkswagen manufacturing facility.  This is a pretty big coup for Chattanooga.  It’s interesting how much a single event like attracting a company to open a new manufacturing plant in a town impacts that town.

While there were probably other things that contributed, there was quite a growth spurt in housing development concurrent with the kickoff of building the plant.  That peak in activity precedes when I arrived in Chattanooga, and the housing market crash.  Development kind of stopped for a while of the various condominiums and housing developments around town, but things seem to be starting to pick up again.  Although, I think more multi-tenant rental units are being built than condos or single-family homes.  But, I’m just guessing.

In any case, the presence of Volkswagen doesn’t just provide several hundred jobs at their facility and construction jobs for people in housing and infrastructure, it also brings funding into the area for community projects and education.  VW happens to be pretty environmentally conscious as well, preserving a wetland on their property and occasionally allowing the Chattanooga Audubon Society to host bird walks there.

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Most importantly, the presence of VW has created huge demand for the local VW club (unrelated to the company) for events around town.  And, of course, the Mainx24 parade included a long line of vintage VWs.  The VW bus with the pop-up top is my favorite, but the “Thing” is a close second.  For many years of my childhood, I had it confused with a comic book superhero–they look pretty similar.

The Car Version of the Thing

The Mainx24 parade once again demonstrated the breadth of character of Chattanooga when the VWs were followed by bicycle art.

mobile art

I am a cyclist.  Maybe not a Lance Armstrong kind of cyclist, but I like to ride and I do it as often as possible.  I have seen downhill mountain bikes that look like off-road motorcycles without the motor, tandems, unicycles, electric bikes, bikes pulling dogs in carriers, you name it.  I really thought I had seen every possible type of bike there was to see.

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But, the clever artists of Chattanooga managed to surprise me (and the rest of the crowd) with amazing sculptures on wheels they rode in the parade.  I particularly like the swing on the bike.  I imagine it had to be pretty terrifying the swing above the pavement on a bike as it moved forward.

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I can’t say I saw a model I wanted to trade my bike in for, but if I did, there would certainly be plenty of places to hang shopping bags when I ride to the market.  I’m thinking maybe I should see if I can commission them to come up with a photographer’s bike, incorporating portable lighting solutions, lens storage, and a tripod holder into the design.  Then form and function would really come together.

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Not Just Any Parade

Posted by dkrashb on

Perhaps it is indicative of a slightly twisted sense of humor, but I really love this photo of a small boy staring at a classic truck loaded with whiskey barrels.

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When I first started shooting the truck, I tried to frame the scene so the boy wasn’t in it.  As I shifted around trying to find an angle, I suddenly saw this shot and smiled.  I’m not even sure why I think it’s funny.

If a small boy staring at a truck amuses me, the next shot should be adorable enough to make anyone giggle:

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Yet, the expression on the woman’s face makes me a little sad.  She just doesn’t look at all happy to be playing Mrs. Claus.  It’s hard to laugh when someone looks miserable.  I like to think that I just missed a big grin and caught her in a pause between smiles.  After all, who could be anything but happy riding behind two such adorable miniature horses?

If there is anything amusing about the image, it’s possibly the ingenious construction of the wheels under the sled that make it possible for a sled to travel down Main St on a 70+ degree day in Chattanooga.  I predict a new style of sleds appearing on the sledding hill in the park this winter.

The next shot is of a middle school band.  They didn’t actually play while they were in earshot, but I loved the fact that they managed to make themselves look like a unit with simple black pants, white shirts, white gloves, and bright blue caps.

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I particularly like the blue caps.  After all, a marching band is supposed to have some kind of hat, right?  While I imagine they were pretty hot by the end of the parade, they sure looked cool.

I cannot explain the next image.  I’m guessing I could have asked any of the dozens of people near me what it was all about, but I was too busy shooting.

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After all, I didn’t want to miss the next part of the parade:  the lawn mower racing team.

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I can honestly say I have never seen a lawn mower racing team before.  While my twisted sense of humor is tempted to make fun, I think they have a great sense of humor to get out there and with their fully decked-out, decorated lawn mowers.  Before you judge the implications of a town having a lawn mower racing team, just know that there is apparently only one lawn mower race a year here and it’s to raise money for the local Autism Center.

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It was about the point in the parade  where the SpiderMan themed lawn mower rolled into view that I decided this was the best parade ever.  I hear it’s been growing every year.  I can’t wait to see it next year!

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Posted by dkrashb on

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

The epitome of enthusiasm

The epitome of enthusiasm

 

 

A middle school group of girls tosses their batons

A middle school group of girls tosses their batons

Enthusiasm.  E-N-T-H-U-S-I-A-S-M!  What does it spell?  ENTHUSIASM!

I guess it doesn’t make a very catchy cheer.

But, the cheerleader float in the Mainx24 parade certainly had a lot of it.  Even so, if you added up all the enthusiasm of the little girls riding on the float, I’m not sure it would equal the enthusiasm of their fearless leader walking along side.  She led both the girls and the spectators in cheers like:

“You say Merry!”  Yell the cheerleaders as their leader points at crowd with every muscle fiber clearing communicating, “And you will.”

“MERRY!”  Screams the crowd, inspired by the energy.

“I say Christmas!” The cheerleaders shout back and then erupt into a fury of squeals, claps, and other sounds of general merriment.  When they settle down again:

“You say Happy!”

“HAPPY!” return the spectators.

“I say HOLIDAYS!” the cheerleader reply with even more enthusiasm.

I am envious as I watch the woman who leads the group through my lens.  She seems to have endless energy, and its contagious.  I suppose that’s what makes a person a cheerleader.

I was never a cheerleader.  In fact, I never actually considered the possibility.  Perhaps this was because I was already 5’ 7” at a time when some of my friends and most of the boys my age were bragging about being 4’ 6”.

This was at about the age many girls start going to summer cheerleading camps (or whatever they’re called).  I thought more about playing basketball than about cheering on someone else (and I was the 5th grade basketball champ).

Add to that my inability to walk across the room without running into something.  I blamed this on my constantly changing size–as soon as I would figure out where my various appendages ended, they would get longer.

That, of course, doesn’t explain why I am still clumsy, 30-some-odd years since I last grew (well, vertically at least).  Perhaps I gave up on understanding how to predict the space I would need to occupy too early.  As it is, I’m so oblivious to running into things that I can never explain where all my bruises come from.  I occasionally suspect Pat is kicking me when we’re sleeping, but I’ve turned up with dozens of inexplicable bruises when I was traveling without Pat, too.

Perhaps I need my own cheerleader?  They could shout cheers at me like, “Step Back!  Step Back!  The wall’s about to attack!” when I’m about to run into a wall.  Or maybe, “Where’s your brain at?  Are you a maniac?  Bring it back!” just before I run into a small child or trip over Tisen.

Personal Cheerleader.  Why not?

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Getting the Goat

Posted by dkrashb on
The Grand Marshall Float

The Grand Marshall Goat

The Grand Marshall Float

The Grand Marshall Float

 

There was a very special grand marshall at the Mainx24 Parade:  Oreo, the goat.  Oreo, a pygmy goat, is a pet.  He belongs to a family who lives in a suburb on the boundary of Chattanooga called East Ridge.

As the story goes, Oreo is more like a dog than a goat.  Unfortunately for Oreo and his family, East Ridge doesn’t allow goats.  The East Ridge City Council took issue with Oreo and, after months of hearings, ruled that Oreo is not an exception.

The struggle for the family to stay together made the local news and really got the goat of many, creating a bit of a local media stir.  The organizers of the Mainx24 event on the South Side invited Oreo to be the grand marshall for the parade.

Ironically, when I googled “chattanooga south side goat,” about half way down the results, Niko’s South Side Grill came up as having goat on the menu.  Fortunately for Oreo, it turned out to be goat cheese.  🙂

By the way, Oreo’s family has said that they will move before they give up the goat.

I think it made the media because writers secretly love opportunities for bad puns.

A Woody

A Woody

Lookouts

Lookouts

Following Oreo, a series of vintage cars went by, including one advertising the local minor league baseball team, the Lookouts.  While there didn’t appear to actually be any Lookout team members in the car (it’s off season), it still reminded me to add getting to one of their games to my list of things to do.

Santa 2x

Santa 2x

Santa came along several times during the parade.  I’m beginning to develop a theory about how he manages to get to all the houses in a single night.  In this series of photos, he was riding a Harley.  I don’t actually see the Harley as contributing to his success at criss-crossing the planet so quickly.

Little Sisters Stalking Santa

Little Sisters Stalking Santa

Santa was wisely followed by a float full of young girls from the Big Sisters program–they were smart to stay close to Santa.

The Duck

The Duck

Next, two of my favorite Chattanoogan vehicles came by.  The first, a genuine WWII Duck.  I’ve had the great pleasure of riding in one of these when the Chattanooga Audubon Society made arrangements with them to transport a group to McClellan Island for a bird walk.  We got the full tour in the process and it was quite fun.

Big City Tour Bus

Big City Tour Bus

The second is the double-decker bus that frequently goes by our place with a tour guide chattering away with the loud speaker echoing in our building.  I like the double-decker bus, none-the-less.  It’s become symbolic of Chattanooga’s character:  big city in a small package with a lot more smiling.

Stroller Brigade

Stroller Brigade

Immediately behind the double-decker bus, there was a brigade of women and the occasional man pushing baby strollers, mostly with babies in them.  I wasn’t sure if they were representing something, but it sure was cute.

It also makes my point:  big city followed by small town, smiles all around.

 

 

 

Dog Craze

Posted by dkrashb on

I learned an important lesson about life at the Mainx24 parade this weekend:  people love diversity.  I’ve often thought the opposite–that people tend to be most attracted to those that are most like themselves.  But the most exciting part of the parade and the greatest crowd pleaser was the mass of dogs ranging from the tiniest tea cup to miniature horse.

Diversity is especially crowd pleasing when the extremes are side-by-side.  Witness the image of the Great Danes walking by a Chihuahua riding in a baby stroller.  Who couldn’t love that?

Dogs are fascinating in part because of the wide variety of shapes and sizes they come in.  Of course, having been domesticated and bred by humans for thousands of years, I guess we’ve sort of forced the process.  But compare this to cats, who have also been domesticated for thousands of years.   The range of healthy cats’ weights seems to be about 4-28 pounds (Note:  this is information from the internet, which only allows people to publish accurate information ;-)).

Compare that to dogs who supposedly range from 1.5 pounds to well over 200 pounds.  The 2007 Guinness Book of World Records holder came close to 300 pounds, but that dog was so overweight, it was criminal.  We owned a 225 pound Mastiff, although we trimmed him down to just over 200 pounds to protect his joints as he got older.  He looked slightly on the too slim side at 205.  However, he lived to be 11 (that’s pretty old for a Mastiff) and was still happy to go for walks up until a week before he died.

But, back to my point.  According to Nova, even scientists do not understand exactly why the dog is so variable.  When you think about the differences in size, ears, muzzles, tails, fur, color, feet, athleticism, and personality, there really isn’t any other species that comes in so many varieties.

All I know is that even non-dog people are fascinated by the variability of dogs.  And there’s no better way to tap into that fascination than to get about 100 dogs to walk down the street together wearing silly costumes in a parade.

Photographically speaking, it was sheer chaos.  There were so many people and dogs moving around, it was hard to see a shot, let alone get one.

About 5 dog rescues were there walking adoptable dogs side-by-side with the pampered pets of owners recruited by the Dogood organization of Chattanooga.  It wasn’t clear if any of the dogs actually knew how to walk on a leash–they were all so busy checking out each other, the crowd, the remnants of tossed candy (which was an improvement over the occasional “treat” left behind by the horses) that they seemed to forget they were on a leash.

I was impressed that even with the chaos of tangled leashes, the walkers all managed to stay on their feet and keep the dogs moving down the street.

Parade Shooting

Posted by dkrashb on

If there’s one thing I’m learning about photography, each shoot is different and presents unique challenges from the one before.  In some ways, it reminds me of when I went through what I’ll call “my triathlon phase.”

I thought I would be able to do a triathlon and look at my times and compare them to the previous triathlon to see if I’d improved.  In reality, there were so many variables from one event to the next that there was never a good comparison.

Unlike triathlons, I don’t spend hours every day training only to be left exhausted, run down, and incredibly sore.  Perhaps this is why I don’t feel so discouraged when I come away from a shoot and feel like I’ve backtracked instead of making progress?

Shooting the Mainx24 Parade presented several challenges.  First, the parade started at 11AM on a wonderfully sunny day just when the light was getting really hard and bright.  Adding to the challenge, the parade participants marched with the light mostly behind them.

In addition, a parade is somewhere between a portrait shoot and an action shoot–the people are moving at such an incredibly slow speed that you think you have plenty of time.  Yet, with each step forward, the light changes, the people rearrange and get closer–just when you think you’ve figured it out, they have their backs to you.

To further complicate things, I’d decided to try shooting with two cameras for the first time.  I had my 70-200mm on my trusty old 40D and my 24-70mm on my 5D Mark III.  I haven’t shot with my 40D in so long that I had to get out my glasses to find the on button!

I took a tripod to simplify dealing with two cameras.  I set up my 5D on the tripod–I would likely have knocked myself unconscious in front of an oncoming horse if I were juggling two cameras.

I found the tripod had an additional advantage.  It allowed me to create a space to shoot in that most people respected–they tried to stay out of my shots for the most part.  Of course, when candy was being thrown to the children, all bets were off.

However, it was also restrictive and unnecessary give the shutter speeds I was shooting at.  On the flip side, I did pop the camera off the tripod from time to time, so it wasn’t like I had to use it.  I’m on the fence as to whether its advantages outweighed the difficulties.

The images in today’s gallery were all shot with the 40D.  I probably should have put it on the tripod and panned with people.  MIght have made for some better images.

In the end, this was not a banner day.  But, it was fun and I met a couple of other photographers in the process.

No Rain on This Parade

Posted by dkrashb on

Who doesn’t love a parade?  With the possible exception of the screaming fire engine sirens (which we hear more than enough of at our place and don’t need to go out to hear), it’s pretty tough to have a bad parade.  All you need are some animals, a band or two, and smiling kids and you’re set.

Today, the first festival of the Christmas season in Chattanooga took place.  It’s called Mainx24 because it’s focused on trying to make Chattanooga a 24-hour city.

I don’t really see that happening this decade, but it’s nice that it happens once a year.  Plus, it’s a celebration of the city’s South side, which is a neighborhood in transition.

Having witnessed the transition of some of the neighborhoods in Columbus that were perceived as the “worst” into hot spots of historical preservation, celebration of the arts, and community gathering, I have a special fondness for transition.

A few decades ago, my mother ran a preschool in one such neighborhood before its transition began.  On days when I didn’t have school but she did, I would go with her and “help.”

The neighborhood seemed slightly terrifying to me at that time.  It was full of old, victorian homes with boarded up windows that threatened to throw pieces of themselves at me if I ventured too close.  Not that I wandered far–there were always people wandering the streets that, in my innocence, seemed threatening.  In retrospect, I would guess they were harmless homeless people, but I had never actually seen homeless people before then.  Sometimes they stumbled around, obviously drunk.  I had also never seen drunk people, so I had no idea why they behaved oddly.

Decrepit historical houses were purchased by the city and sold for $1 to buyers who could demonstrate their ability to restore them.  It was an amazingly successful project.  That same neighborhood is now known as Victorian Village and is one of the more expensive parts of Columbus to live in.

The restoration of this area became contagious.  Soon, the near-by neighborhood now known as the Short North started changing.  The buildings facing High St were gradually restored and turned into trendy art galleries, restaurants, music venues, and shops.  New buildings in historical styles started to appear with high-end apartments and condos.

The two areas met in the middle, although there is still a mix of the unrestored (and affordable) with the beautifully appointed, fully restored historical mansions.

Chattanooga’s South Side doesn’t seem to have too many mansions.  It was mostly an industrial area before its transition began.  But from the size of the crowd drawn to today’s festival, it’s definitely a place people want to be.

I think adopting New Orleans-parade tradition in tossing candy (and even the occasional beads) to children was a brilliant way to guarantee all the kids will be clamoring to come back again next year.