Heartland Views

After three days of a marathon printing effort, I have reached the end. I have managed to assemble a nice collection of my favorite images, all printed in my new 11 x 14 format. I am planning on bringing these to our upcoming Second Fridays art event in Council Bluffs Iowa on February 12. I will be posting more information on this as soon as I receive it. I thought that this photograph is as close as I can get to how I feel after three days in the basement, working on my new collection. I shot this a couple of years ago, shortly before the bridge was replaced by a concrete slab. I really miss that old bridge, even if it was a road hazard. Here’s hoping that your journey will find you thinking of the trip I took on “Road Red.”

After a day long printing session, I am roasted. My printer is loud, slow and quirky. But, most importantly, it makes beautiful prints. As I mentioned earlier, I am in the midst of redoing my photos to give them more image area and smaller margins around the image. So far, I am really happy with the way these are turning out. Now if I can only put up with the noise and slow printing times, I will have a new set of prints that I can really be proud of. Here is a sample of how the new prints look. This image, by the way, was shot at a lighthouse in Duluth Minnesota. I had lie on a cold hard floor to make this shot. It was worth it! I call this one “Vertigo” in honor of my well established fear of heights.

Once again we were hit with a nasty blizzard. With the usual blinding snow, slick country roads and no desire to venture forth into the mess, I am staying at home and working on another version of my display sign. This one weighs in at 18 x 24 inches. It should work well on my display panel. I thought I would post this just to help take my mind off of this incredible weather.

One of my fond childhood memories was stopping in to the local soda fountain and ordering a Coke. I will always remember that while I sipped my soda, I admired the sign above the fountain that encouraged one to buy a soda that I never tasted. After several decades of thinking about this drink, I finally found a way to pay my respects to that elusive soda that was known as “Green River.”

Now here is one for the ultra picky amongst us, myself included. After redoing some 60 images to make them a bit stronger and more interesting, I got to thinking that my work is not done. Now I am toying with the idea of eliminating the digital mat that I have been using on my photos for well over a year. I am thinking that with the mat out of the picture (pun intended), the final photo might pop a bit more off the paper because there is no longer a medium gray digital mat surrounding the image. I am posting an example of an image without the digital map. This photo, btw, was shot about a year or more ago in northwest Iowa. I was traveling west when I noticed in my rear view mirror that the heavy clouds were peeling off of the horizon, giving way to a wonderful mid-day sun. This photo, much like my dilemma about deleting the digital map, finds me in a quandry. You might note that as this image notes, I am at a real “Crossroads.”

I am in the middle of thinking about ways to make more of an impact with my images. Right now, I have a few ideas. As time goes on, I hope to come up with more. In the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to keep this blog rolling. In order to do that, I am reaching into my stash for some photographs that you might enjoy. For example, I shot this one last summer right after a major storm blew through our area. Looking at this image makes it a lot easier for me to tolerate the absolute visual boredom we are now dealing with in the heartland…i.e. days and even weeks of heavy clouds, dirty gravel roads and a melting mix of snow and ice on everything. Truth be told, whoever came up with the idea of cabin fever must have had our weather in mind. So, for all of those that feel trapped like I do, here is a bit of hope that things will improve. And if they don’t, just keep in mind that what I offer could be filed in a box marked, “Promises.”

I have long thought about making a sign for my art show display. This is what I had in mind. The  sign is a rather large (13 x 31 inch) print made using my usual paper and printer. The photograph is one of my all time favorites, “Amber Waves.” Now my only challenge is making sure that I can run this through my printer. I have done this in the past. There is, however, no guarantee that I can do this again. If it works, I will be putting this in use for our upcoming Second Fridays art show in Council Bluffs Iowa on February 12. As always, if you have the time and are in the area, be sure to drop by my display just to see if indeed I manged to make this thing work.

Well, it is with some sense of “why did I do that?” I have discovered that my square format project was a bust. I discovered that the mat just overwhelmed the image. So now I am off in another direction. This time I am working on my 11 x 14 size collection, modifying a few subtle elements. I am trying to expand the actual image, shrink the margin between the image and the digital mat, and reducing the size of the image title and photo credit. Here is an example of what I believe will be my new all time favorite format. This image, you may recall, was originally named “in-laws.” I was never wildly excited about that title. I have renamed this “With Love” because flowers are often given to those we really care about. Hopefully you will like this new name and format.

This is my second “test” image offered in a square  format. I shot this in Macedonia Iowa last summer. This image is set-up for a 16 x 16 inch format. The texture once again comes courtesy of a Photoshop plug-in. As always, I hope you like this. And most important of all, I hope you take a moment to send me your comments and suggestions on this square format. In the meantime, here is wishing you well as you try to figure out what ever inspired me to name this image, “Patches.”

I have been thinking about offering my photos in a new (for me) format, a square format. I am posting two images that are printed  on 16 x 16 inch paper. I really like this look. But even more important, I would really like to know what you think about this format. Any comments and/or suggestions are very welcome. I shot the first photo last fall when the skies were blue and the crops golden. It was a wonderful time, especially when compared to the horrific weather we have had here this winter. If you look very close, you might notice that this is not a typical landscape. The details are rendered in a truly unique manner, courtesy of a wonderful Photoshop plug-in that is one of my all time favorite pieces of software. Whenever I look at this image and the one that follows, I am fascinated by the look that I can pull from this plug-in. This photo, in particular, has an other world look to it. That is why I call this one “Heartland Dreams.”