Up

There are a few advantages with having to be up with the birds. This was the view off my deck about 10 minutes ago--I will be late to work because I took the time to do this, and since it is only 6:30, you might be able to tell what kind of day today will be. Maybe being up this early is "for the birds."

Type Setting

I guess I am making the usual mistakes. The last time I set type was 1973, so I might be forgiven. This is the second time I shot this or had this idea. I kind of like this, but I am curious as to whether or not others do...not just this photo but others like this. Thanks to the miricle of Photoshop, you can even read this. Imagine your name in a sea of font Would you buy it?

A typical weekend

This was a weekend of mixed activities, but a very enjoyable one. I spent some time in the city on Saturday and that was great. The Walker Arts Center provided a great break on Saturday afternoon, and while I don't think that I would buy or steal any of the art on display, it is sometimes good to see what you don't like! Maybe I am too concrete in my artistic vision but I just don't get it.

Today was a work day, but I took time to check out a Craigslist posting for some type. I ended up with several fonts and had my first type accident when I dropped a whole font. I guess I will get some practice sorting type sooner than I thought. I also ended up with leads, furniture, reglets, and assorted other things that apparently you need to make this work.

Oh, I also bought another press. I know that you are thinking that I am crazy, but the guy I bought this stuff from was even more touched in the head with all this printing stuff. Only my resolve (and those 22 steps up to my apartment) kept me from buying even more type. I was ready to leave while still under budget, when he said, if you want, for an insanely small amount, you can take this Sigwalt 6X9 press home with you, too. This is at least a $1500 press and it is about eight times the press I need. I keep buying presses that are in better condition, and this is complete and ready to use. Now, all I need is ink! The list of what I need does keep getting smaller, just like my checking account.

Of course, the truly crazy can justify pretty just about anything, and I proved that today. I sold a camera yesterday that helped pay for most of this, and I will sell my Kelsey 5X8 to help come back up to even. Plus, I would have needed $400 or more for rollers and a chase for that press, so I am actually saving money. Really. If nothing else, I spent about 1/4 of what all of this is worth, so at least this hobby might pay for itself, even if it is only when or if I would sell this.

I will take pictures of the press once I figure out how to get this beast into my apartment and set up my press room. Until then, just a few other "types" of pictures.

Good vs. Great

Perhaps I shouldn't be blogging tonight--after a mostly good weekend that was only spoiled by work stuff, or rather, having to do some work, I find myself in a mood of sorts. Mostly it is self reflective and it is about photography.

Several of us have been asked this weekend if our pictures look the way they do because of the camera, and heard comments that "you must be able to take really good pictures with that camera." Admittedly this is a long standing "peeve" of mine. I recall telling a reporter once who said this to me that "he must be able to write really "good" stories because he had a good typewriter." That tells you how long this has bothered me--a typewriter? Really.

The thing is, I have been feeling that these people might be right. I have a zillion dollar (at least in my economic world) camera that I put on automatic and autofocus and take snapshots of flowers. Yes, I move around and zoom in and all that, but mostly, it's a point and shoot. And it makes me think that it's the camera that is making the pictures.

I over state this, of course. Thirty five years of experience has given me some edge on the general public--repetition is a form of learning, you know. But I think this is weighing on me right now because I realize that what I am posting and what I have been posting has been pretty and perhaps accomplished in some ways, but really it doesn't mean anything. This was brought home to me when I saw a friend's postings of pictures. I perhaps could have been bold enough to offer technical advice in a few instances--remember, when taking photos of water or people in the water, set your camera to "plus 1" for exposure compensation! But I quibble and they would only be inconsequentially better with that advice. The pictures were absolutely stunning. And they were so because they meant something to so many people.

I am not going to chuck my cameras in the Mississippi River or anything. If nothing else, I enjoy taking meaningless photos! They are pretty. But I am more aware than ever that there is a difference between great photos and good photos, and the difference is not because of the camera, but because the results, the pictures, mean something.

I will have to work on that. In the meantime, enjoy a few pretty pictures. Click on the sunflowers to see how they attract bees as well as photographers with really good cameras...

Munsinger Gardens

It wasn't Saturday, in the park, or Chicago, but it was a great Sunday afternoon to meander through Munsinger Gardens, a true gem of a park within walking distance of my house. Great flowers, nice shade, and there was a cooling breeze off the adjacent Mississippi River. And on Sunday, there was live jazz and root beer floats were only a dollar. Can life get better?

So there were flowers, mostly yellow ones--yeah, I think the Latin names were big yellow-ish orange-ish flower, and smaller yellow-ish orange-ish flower. One highlight was a sighting of the rare Minnesota Fish Hound. One man had it right--wear a cap, bring a lawn chair, and doze through the concert on a peaceful afternoon.

Twice as impressive

OK, that might be a bad joke...this may be as good as it gets for this post and if you are not the type to be interested or im "pressed" by old letterpresses, em, just take other's lead and skip this. What is scary is that some of you might actually get all that.

I spent a considerable amount of time this weekend cleaning up my "old" press, the one that I bought a few weeks ago. It is fundamentally sound, but it did have rust, dirt, and years of ink on it. The cleaner of choice is lime juice and vinegar and lots of elbow grease. It does work, as the photos show, though the press (and I) smelled like a pickle in the process. Now the challenge is to keep the parts which aren't battleship gray-green paint from rusting as it sits, as cast iron is wont to do. I can't have it covered with oily rags for obvious reasons. It is ready for the last steps to make it ready to use, which wil require only a screwdriver and a full checkbook.

The other photos are of my new press, which is also a Kelsey press but which is smaller and a generation newer. And more complete and almost in "as new" shape. I can tell it was used, but it was very well cared for--Im not going to have to make this one smell like a pickle to get it cleaned up. All it needs are rollers for the ink, some furniture to hold the type, and, of course, type. This is my best chance to be able to print business cards by summer's end. It is, as I said to a friend, cute, if such a term can be applied to a press. It is almost the same design as the 5X8 press but it looks like it shrunk in the wash.

It's interesting that everything that you need to get a technology that is really 600 years old working can be ordered off the internet. There is a bit of irony there, but it is true. I can buy type from San Francisco, a new chase from Rhode Island, rollers from England and furniture and quoins from Canada and I could have both presses up and running by the end of next week if my pockets were deep enough and I had space for all that. It won't happen that quickly, but it will happen soon.

Storm Sky

I really don't use photoshop except to do minor stuff like minor color or density issues. I pretty much trust my camera on auto white balance for almost every thing. I figure if I buy a camera for this much, it probably is smarter than I am. No doubt it is. I'm just the monkey behind the viewfinder...

So tonight's threatening skies provided two shots of my neighborhood. Honestly, one was from right outside my back door, and the other from just steps away from my front door.

Someone got rain, but at this posting, all my neighborhood got was a bit of a show.

Morning sky

With all the humidity, storms seem to roll through St. Cloud. This dramatic front was coming/going through this morning and brought with it this sky. From my "deck" and there was no Photoshop involved...

The second part of the fourth...

I know this is backwards, as I posted fireworks pictures, but that was me being a journalist, and "scooping" most publications. Here is a more reflective view of the day, though in no real order. I was literally in the small towns that casting directors demand for their movies that show what small town America is all about. A gazebo with a flag that jumped out of the picture. A parade that was watched by a patriotic Ms. Firecracker and which featured the popular float of port-a-potties. They were tossing out Tootsie Rolls, too--think about it. A sunset with a boat, and one with an endless sky. Yellow flowers against a background of corn flowers. A "Fiesta" of color at a small out of the way antique store. And a picture of the sky at dusk

It was a happy birthday for a country which in many ways showed a slice of itself.

Happy Birthday, part one...

It may be hard to believe, but in my 30-plus years of pretty serious picture taking, I have never taken photos of fireworks. I have been too busy oo0h-ing and ahh-ing to do it, I guess. But as hard as I wanted to ignore these fireworks, I couldn't--they were literally visible outside my front window. And there were thousands in the neighborhood. so it wasn't like I could just go to sleep. So I walked a block and took just a few photos.

I had a conversation today with a friend about the relative unimportance of the Declaration of Independence, and I stand buy that. It was far more inspirational than a document that is really a foundational like the Constitution, even if the Preamble is cool. Still, it does make a great birthday card...