New Art Activities & Expressions

There has been a little bit of activity in the past several months since my last post.

First, I entered the following images for the 14th National Juried Art Exhibition at Baker Arts Center, in Liberal, Kansas.

 

Neither of them were chosen for display in the show. Being rejected was actually a good experience for me. Show me a successful artist, and I will show you a stack of rejection letters. Once you are able to truly comprehend the concept that art is a truly subjective effort, then you realize that rejection letters are just a part of the process. I personally think these two images would have printed and displayed quite nicely. The juror may have even agreed. However, she most likely thought the ones she chose will display even better.

It's ok with me, because I create my images for me first. If others like them, all the better. But the bottom line is, they have to be pleasing to me first.

2. I was honored to meet the great crop artist Stan Herd, when he installed, with the help of our great maintenance crew, one of his murals in Seward County's Administration Building. It was great to meet Stan. A very down to earth (no pun intended) man. A man who does not place himself above the others in the room. He is truly an inspirational artist, and fellow human being. Seward County will have the ribbon cutting ceremony for the mural install very soon.

3. I was recently given the opportunity to apply, and interview for the position of Member, on the Board of Directors, at Baker Arts Center. It was an honor to be presented with the opportunity. I enjoyed meeting the other board members, and the new Executive Director, Mike Brack, during the interview. They apparently liked me too, as they offered me the position, and I accepted. I am looking forward to learning the art world from the perspective of the art center, as opposed to artist or patron. It will be a great experience for me, and I am excited to begin the work.

Mike's appointment was published in the local newspaper, and I was very happy to read about all of the exciting new ideas he has in an effort to re-energize interest in the art center within the community. I too agree, that perceptions need to be updated to get the community more involved in the local art scene. I will be very supportive of his efforts as we move forward.

http://www.bakerartscenter.org/

4. Mary and I recently made a trip to Denver. We wanted to visit our daughter Amanda and her fiance Jen. It was a wonderful visit. We also had a nice lunch with my Dad, and Step-Mom. During our weekend visit, we took a trip downtown to take in the Clyfford Still museum. Clyfford Still is one of the pioneers of the Abstract Expressionist movement in painting. His work was one of the biggest influences in that movement.

http://clyffordstillmuseum.org

The museum is very nice, spacious, well organized, and the work and life of the artist is covered very comprehensively, with interactive digital displays on the history of the artist. The paintings were absolutely breathtaking. They were displayed very nicely, with no, or very little framing. In fact, it was really nice to be able to walk up close to the painting, and be able to see the raw canvas behind the paint. Wow. I did notice the security folks were keeping a close watch on me, as I was very close to the paintings, but was careful not to touch.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/legally_weird/2012/01/woman-rubs-butt-tries-to-urinate-on-30m-museum-painting.html

As you can see, the security is definitely watching out for weirdos like this one.

5. Also during our visit to Denver, I took some time to capture the downtown Denver skyline. Here are a few examples.

One of the great things I love about digital art, is that no one image is ever static. I can do and re-do these images any way I see fit. I absolutely love that. When you shoot in camera raw, your original image is always there, for you to start over with another creation in mind. These examples show one twisted image, one straight color, and one straight black and white. Well, actually, the color was manipulated a little. I changed the color of the sky. I absolutely love how the colors just pop though.

6. One last thing to share. I have recently taken up painting with oil on canvas. I enrolled in the Oil Painting I class at the community college in Liberal, and am very glad I did. Susan Copas is the art professor, and I am very happy with her instruction. She is very good, not only with her art, but also in how she approaches the art student. Teaching an art class is difficult, because as I mentioned before, art is a very subjective thing, and one must be very mindful of that when teaching. I have learned so much from Susan just in one half of a semester. Form, line, color, composition, color, color, and more color. I am looking forward to learning more. When I think about painting, I kick myself for not discovering this very therapeutic activity sooner. But I am also reminded, that I have plenty of time left to enjoy the process of learning that craft. Here is an image of the still life project in our class. Ha ha ... not bad for a first effort. Also, not bad, considering my interests in painting lean more toward the abstract. Surprised?

Kansas

Recently I took the camera for a stroll, and came back with some nice imagery of the Kansas landscape. I have been doing a lot of reading of late, and viewing photographs from the masters of still photography. Specifically Edward Weston, and Bill Brandt. I have been a big fan of Edward's work for many years, dating back to when I first learned of Ansel Adams. Ansel and Edward were probably the most influential photographers of their time. Ansel's work was much more in the main stream, however Edward's work excited me even more. Adams and Weston were the two A list names of the f/64 group. Bill Brandt is a name I have only recently become aware of. I purchased John Zarkowski's book entitled, "The Photographer's Eye," and noticed some of Bill's work there.

I started looking on the Internet for more about Bill, and came across the following quote, which I very much relate to in my work -

"I am not interested in rules and conventions ... photography is not a sport. If I think a picture will look better brilliantly lit, I use lights, or even flash. It is the result that counts, no matter how it was achieved. I find the darkroom work most important, as I can finish the composition of a picture only under the enlarger. I do not understand why this is supposed to interfere with the truth. Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others."

One thing I have noticed about these masters, is the fact that they are able to cover multiple genres. Edward Weston went from landscapes, to still life, to nudes, without skipping a beat. Bill Brandt also mentions this in his interviews. I do like the idea of dabbling in a wider array of subjects. These Kansas images are a pretty stark contrast to the twisted turbines of the past few years.

Wendy

I am doing a little mental gymnastics this morning. Yesterday afternoon, I attended the opening reception of the 13th National Juried Art Exhibition at Baker Arts Center, here in Liberal, Kansas. I had submitted two of my Digital Art images for consideration, and one of them was accepted. Windmill Monster.

After attending the reception, I wanted to take stock in a few of the things I have learned from this experience. As I was preparing some thoughts for this blog post, I was thinking that being accepted into a national juried show is a sort of milestone for me. But I was forgetting that I had previously had a couple photographs accepted into the 5 State Juried show a few years ago. The 5 State show is hosted by the Hays Arts Council in Hays, Kansas. I have always been a little innocent and naive about the whole process of entering art works into shows like this. So many things to learn. For me, at the end of the day, it has always been, it is now, and I think it will always be about my passion for creating interesting works, and presenting them in a way that allows other people to view them, and critique them. It has never been, it isn't now, and I don't think it will ever be about competing and/or making money, though at times the framework of these shows appear to cater to those visions. I think most of the artists who participate in these shows understand that selling your work in this venue is not the goal. At first, I thought I had under-priced my print. When I filled out the form, and listed the price, I wanted to price it low enough so that it was not presumptuous, but high enough to at least make back the money I spent on the print, frame, and commission to the art center. The price that I settled on was $200. It wasn't until a week or so after, that I did the math again, and concluded that if I sell this piece, I will actually lose a little money on the deal. But as I viewed the other pieces in the show, I noticed that many of the other artists had their works priced very similarly, and some were even a little lower, considering the size of their work, and my guess at how much they had invested in it. I'm actually hoping the piece does not sell, because I want to keep it for my own wall.

I was doing some thinking about how this image came to be. Mental gymnastics. Any artist needs to be able to communicate their vision when asked. Thus the reason for my mental gymnastics. I have shared this image with my friends on Facebook, and received a few comments comparing it to the work of Salvador Dali. It's not the level of art they were pointing out, but rather, I think, the style or genre, that this piece would fit into.

Salvador is the top of the mountain in the Surrealism genre, and so I started reading a little about this movement.

The first thing I took note of as I was reading about Surrealism, is that it was spawned from the Dada movement. Dada was a sort of protest of the societal norms of the day. Anti-art is another way of describing Dada. I'm not sure I agree with that. The point I think is important is the fact that it was born of rebelliousness. I feel a bit of that rebelliousness in my art expressions.

One of the most important aspects of the art I create is the response I get from the viewer. Additionally in the response I DON'T get. The response I want is, "Wow, that is cool. What I see is...." The response I don't want is, "Wow, that looks so real." Or , "Wow, that looks EXACTLY like the scene you were attempting to depict."

I learned a few things about Surrealism in my reading this morning. I found a dictionary definition of the word. It reads, "Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation."

Automatism is the idea that you put your pencil to the paper, and just start drawing. Sort of a visual form of stream of conscious. I can see how this image would fit with this definition. When I think about the day that I created Wendy, the process went something like this.

I started with a digital photograph of a windmill. I opened the image up in Photoshop. Not having any formal training in Photoshop, I set out to teach myself. So I just started turning and twisting the knobs with this image. In the process of twisting the knobs, I serendipitously stumbled upon Wendy. I twisted it with the "Twirl" filter, and then I flipped the image, creating a second layer. When the two layers were stitched together, Wendy was created. Actually I'm not sure if Wendy was created or discovered. Probably a little of both. But I guess the point is, I think this is similar to what they talk about in the use of the word "Automatism." 

Update - About 5 hours after this was first posted. I got to thinking about this definition of Surrealism, and I'm beginning to have a problem with it. This definition attempts to describe the process of an artistic expression. This process could be employed in the creation of expressions in many different genres. Also, after thinking about it a bit longer, I don't really think that Wendy was really a result of "Automatism" or "Stream of Conscious." As I described the process, there is an element of that, but there was also an element of purpose as well. Mental gymnastics, schmental schmempackschticks. I think at the end of the day, an artist creates what he or she creates. I think I need to leave the defining to someone else. The way I define surrealism is something that is outside of what you would find in conscious reality. This is what I try to do.

Dreamer

For those that don't really know me, I'm a dreamer. I have always been a dreamer, for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid, I can remember times when I would just love to lay in the sun, staring at the clouds. I would look for odd shapes in the clouds, and try to figure out what the shapes most resembled. I'm sure most of us have had those warm summer days.

I think my propensity to dream, however, gets me into trouble. I know I drive my wife Mary nuts. She is constantly reminding me to watch the road when we're driving together. My mind is constantly moving. I'm forever dreaming up new ideas. Mary loves to tell the story about how I have endeavored to take on new projects that never actually get started. Once I was going to take up the piano again. We even hauled a piano up from Ashland once for that very purpose. But it just never happened. She also brings up the time I had decided to take up painting. She bought me a starter kit, complete with a small canvas, a few tubes of paint, and a few different sized brushes. It collected dust. Then there was the time I was going to take up model building. I bought a model (one of those aircraft carriers), and I did actually work on it. But it was never finished, and to this day, I do not know where that model is. It's likely taking up landfill space somewhere now.

One dream I always return to, however, is my dream of making cool images with a camera. Photography was the one dream that actually fit into my creative flow. I never could draw with a pencil. But for some reason, I took to drawing with light.

Making cool images. Those three words seem to be where I have always landed. When I enlisted in the Navy, photography was the goal. The Navy's photography schools were the best, according to the recruiters. I took them at their word, and enlisted in the Navy. They were right. I gained a great deal of knowledge and experience as a Photographer's Mate in the United States Navy. The only problem was, I was still a dreamer. Now this is not to say that dreaming is a bad thing. You just want to balance it with the other important things in life. This is partly why I didn't fit into the lifestyle of the military. Dreamers are not in high demand. Uncle Sam wants doers.

Here is an image of August Sigur and I, where the purpose of the image is, again, best described with those three words. Making cool images.

The idea was to make it appear as though the rolls of film were flying out of the cameras. We used a thin string thread through the film spool, and strung up to the false ceiling above. Then we photographed the scene a bit darker than normal, in an effort to help hide the string from the final image. If only we had the clone stamp tool back then. But the dark background, and the low light on the scene in the final print, seemed to do a pretty good job of hiding the string. If you look closely though, you can see the string on the film cannister on the right.

That photograph was captured in 1990. Here we are now, in the year 2010. Twenty years later, and I'm still stringing up objects in my effort to make cool images. Ever the dreamer.

Recently, I was driving over to one of the county buildings I provide computer network services for. I was troubleshooting a DSL circuit. Anyway, the parking lot for this building is not paved, and in the middle of this field of dirt, lay this old wrench. I can't imagine how it got there. The tool is likely an antique. But it must have dropped out of someone's old pickup and there it lay for who knows how long, until it caught my eye. The shape of the tool reminded me of some of the images I had been working on that year. Twisted is the word that best describes the images. Like this one ...

So, I picked up the wrench, dropped it in the floor of the back seat of my car, and carried on with my day. That wrench sat in the back seat of my car for about a year before I actually took it out, and photographed it. Again, I just had one thing in mind, which is described with those three words. Making cool images.

Remembering what Sigur and I did with the film cannisters, I took some thin thread, and attempted to string this wrench up. Originally my intent was to string it in such a way so that I had a fully frontal lit wrench in the foreground, and nothing but blue sky in the background. This didn't work well, though for a couple reasons. The first reason was time. I shot this during my lunch hour, and so I didn't really have a lot of time to be fooling around with it. Also I noticed that stringing this wrench up was going to be harder than it looked. 

However, I did manage to string it up in the front yard of my rental house in Liberal. Here is how it turned out with no digital manipulation (other than the removal of the string with the clone stamp tool in Photoshop).

Then I endeavored to make a cool image even cooler, by doing some additional manipulation. This second image was achieved by isolating the wrench from the sidewalk and lawn in the background, and applying a black and white filter. I then used the clone stamp tool to remove the small chunk of concrete inside the turn below the wrench. I then used the liquefy filter to further twist the wrench handle. Have a look...

I thought this looked pretty cool, but I wanted to do something a little different with it. In my original intent, I had the wrench against a blue sky. Well, that didn't work out, but I thought I could put the wrench against a black background as an alternative. So I did that. Also, I have been noticing that when I use the liquefy filter, and twist the imagery, I notice the degradation and/or distortion of the pixels in the area that is twisted. So, to counter this, I decided to use the clone stamp tool in an effort to restore some of that distortion. Here is the result.

All three images have a completely different look and feel, but they all come from the same original image. And, they come from the original intent of Making Cool Images. My favorite dream.

Straight Photography?

I wanted to share a couple of new images, and sort of continue the discussion from my last post. The first image is from Cuchara Colorado. My parents own a cabin out there, and we were there for a short visit. I was taking the dog for a walk, the evening before the drive back home. When I started walking, I noticed the multiple shades of red and blue in the clouds. This sparked a scramble for the camera. The final image, however, is technically not a straight photograph. I enhanced the color saturation just a bit, in order to make the colors richer. But the straw that breaks it away from a straight shot, is the use of the clone stamp tool. There were a few hot spots in the clouds that were just washed out in the final image. I used the clone stamp tool to remove those hot spots.

The second image I would like to share is from two nights ago. I went to the Seward County Fair with one purpose in mind. To capture the light trails from the carnival hardware. I was only able to get a couple workable images. This one I believe is the best. Is it a straight shot? In other words, did I take the image straight out of the camera? No. Again, using my new favorite Photoshop tool, the clone stamp tool, I removed the evergreen tree that was cluttering up the negative space on the left side. It looks much better now.

Camera as tool, not religion

There seems to be a lot of controversy in the manipulation of still photographs here lately. Digital photography has passed the critical mass point, and is now pervasive in the industry. The hand wringing comes in with all of the old school photographers from the film days. My photography roots began there as well. I remember my first camera, back in the mid 70s. I had a lot of fun just trying to create interesting photographs by using odd angles, or unique cropping, etc. In high school, I took a photography class. We went through the basics of exposure, and processing, printing, etc., but I wasn't satisfied with the basics.

I remember one photograph in particular. I took a picture of a coin. Then I took a second picture of a black piece of construction paper, with a hole cut in the middle, and someone's eye in the hole. I then sandwiched the two negatives into the enlarger, and made a print with the two images to form one print. The black paper turned clear in the negative, thus making it transparent in the final image. So the final print showed the coin, and the eye. The idea was that the eye was part of the coin. It sounds a little silly, but I was young, and eager to learn. Experimentation has always been a big part of my learning process. The reason I mention this, is to make the point that even then, I was altering my photographs. If Ansel Adams were with us today, I think he would readily admit the manipulations he made to his images. I don't understand the argument that digital is taking the "pure" out of photography. Even if you take a straight shot, do absolutely no manipulation outside of the camera, and print your photograph. You still have a two dimensional representation of the three dimensional scene you photographed. You can't NOT interpret and re-create under those circumstances.

In my opinion, there is no such thing as pure photography. By the way, for those of you who are upset at the use of the designation "photograph," you can rest easy with me. I no longer refer to them as photographs. I refer to them as images. I am an artist who creates images. I have a background in photography, and I use the camera as a paint brush to create my images. To cry fowl, and whine because a photograph is not pure is dogmatic. As the saying goes, my karma ran over your dogma.

The image I have included in this post is a great example. It started with a straight shot of a windmill. I have included the original image as well. Recently I opened the image in Photoshop, and just started experimenting. By the time I had finished, I was amazed at the final image I had discovered. If there is anything pure in this image, it's serendipity. There are so many aspects to this image, I don't even know where to begin. This image, to me, is a perfect example of why I love the art of still visual imagery.

From this, I have begun thinking of taking it to the next level of still digital imagery, and I have begun experimenting in open source vector graphics manipulation. Right now I am seeking to discover if there is a marriage of the two that would work in one image. As you may or may not know, Photoshop is an image editor in the bitmap technology. Illustrator would be it's vector cousin. Open source is a free way to learn the vector side. Right now I am working with the application "Inkscape."

Scientific Experiment Proves Theory

I became an accomplished scientist this morning. Several days ago, I had a theory. Even though, at the time, I did not know I had a theory. The theory was stated thusly -

A thumb drive will survive a trip through the washer and dryer, and still function properly.

So I put the theory to the test. But again, at the time, I did not know that I had a theory, or that I was putting the theory to the test.

This morning, I opened my dryer, and began putting my clothes away. I heard a rattle of something as I was pulling out an article of clothing. Upon further investigation, I discovered the thumb drive. I immediately dismissed the mishap, and tossed the drive in the trash.

It was then that I remembered the theory. So I pulled the thumb drive out of the trash, and popped it into a USB port in my laptop. Plink ... light ... data. My theory was proven. So here is the fact, proven by the scientific experiment of the Accidental Geek.

You can indeed send your thumb drive through the washer and dryer, and still have a functioning thumb drive.

Oh, by the way, here is a new image I created. What does this image have to do with my proven theory? Absolutely nothing. But it made it past the editor (that's me) :-)

Pancake Day 2010

 

  

  

  

 

I wanted to share some images from the 2010 Pancake Race in Liberal, Kansas. This is the second event I have been able to attend, and I am so glad to have been a part of the festivities. This is an event that has been a tradition for more than 60 years. It's a friendly competition of women running a race with a pancake on a pan. I think they have to flip the pancake one time, and they have to have a piece of the pancake with them when they cross the finish line. The friendly competition is between the women runners in Liberal, Kansas, and Olney, England. I was able to capture this year's winner, Cheri Bevis, as she crossed the finish line here in Liberal. As you can see, the event is very popular, and brings out all of the local and regional leaders. Sam Brownback is pictured here mingling with the crowd. It truly is a great opportunity to have the spotlight on a small community in Southwest Kansas.

Accidental Collaboration

 

 

I participate in a photography forum. It keeps my mind sharp with regard to viewing other photographers' work - seeing what is going on through the eyes of many others out there. Occasionally I post a few of my images, and get critiques from the others. Mostly I just browse the posts. I'll offer my suggestions for those who ask for a critique. I also enjoy voting in the photo contests. This particular forum has a great group of photographers, and the images that win the contests are top shelf. Actually, I have found very little there that I would consider below par. I have a lot of fun participating. It's also a great learning experience. There are tutorials, which are nice. But even more educational is just viewing the work of others, and getting their feedback on what works for them, what doesn't etc. I've read some  great comments by studio photographers. Great tips on flash placement, Photoshop tricks, etc. Here is a link to the forum.

http://www.photographycorner.com/

Anyway, I recently ran across this image, which was posted by a photographer who goes by the name Auslay. This image just caught my eye for some reason. The shapes of the light and shadows just make a nice abstract. I think he caught a neat little image here.

I asked him if I could have my way with it in Photoshop, and he agreed. This treatment fits in the the other images I created in my Digital Art album of 2009.

I will be shifting gears in 2010. I hope you will stay tuned to see what I come up with in the coming months.

Photographic Expressionism

It has been a while since my last post. I wanted to share a few images I have recently created, and a few thoughts on them. There are a few specific processes I have used in these images as well as the others I have in the following Picasa album, entitled Digital Art 2009.

http://picasaweb.google.com/markrohlf/DigitalArt2009#

I wanted to include the Railroad Crossing image in my comments, as it was the creation of this image that began a trend which led to the creation of the other images in this album.

I guess I should just begin by telling you how this image came to be. The story is really not that exciting. I was browsing around with my images, and happened upon this one. The original was nothing more than just a straight black and white shot. I was living in Abilene at the time, and was staying the weekend in my small studio. I was bored, so I took the camera for a stroll. Snapped it, and carried on with life. I tucked the image away on my hard drive and forgot about it. Two years later I happened upon the image again, and began to wonder if there was something I could do to make this image more exciting. So I began applying different effects in Photoshop. Most of the trials did not do much for me. I started applying different colors to the image, and the image began to take shape. Finally, I found an effect that twisted the image, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was absolutely amazed at what I had discovered.

I am now beginning to wind down this particular style of expression with my photographs, but wanted to share just one more with you. In this photograph - Solarized Power 102 - I utilized a few of the same techniques to arrive at the final image, and again, I was very pleased with the final result. But I just want to mention, that these final results came after trying many other techniques that failed to achieve the desired result. Neither of these images were pre-visualized. They were results of experiments in digital art.

I believe these images fit into the category of Photographic Expressionism.

Expressionism in art is the notion that the artist takes a scene found in nature, interprets and re-creates the scene to express an emotion. I have found this to be true with the images I have created here.

Self Portrait

I have just been having a blast with my images in Photoshop. This is a self portrait I shot back in my Bronica days, before I sold that monstrosity of a camera. I loved that camera, the Bronica GS-1. Of the medium formats; 6X4.5, 6X6, and 6X7, the GS-1 was the largest at 6X7. The optics were top shelf, and the images were crystal clear. By the time I was finished invsting in cool gadgets and add-ons to the camera, I had about $5,000 into that kit. I thought I would be buried with that camera. Heh heh. But time caught up with me. Technology too. Before the digital camera stole the show, I had sold the kit for about half of what I had invested. Not bad actually, as digital was very close to critical mass in the industry, and I was afraid no one would be willing to invest in legacy technology.

This particular image has a bit of significance for me. I was out and about in downtown San Diego with Tom Normandeau. Tom was my mentor in photography. He is pictured (to my right) here. We were just taking the cameras for a stroll. Tom is holding his Mamyia 6X6. He liked the square format for some reason. I personally don't, as it just doesn't seem right; a square image. Plus, I don't like to crop on the final print. I would much rather crop directly in the camera.

Shanghai 1989

Here are a few images from my last deployment while stationed on the USS Blue Ridge. Shanghai was the last scheduled stop for the ship. This was an historic event, as it was the first mooring of a US Navy ship in mainland China since the end of World War II.

We were there for just 3 or 4 days, if memory serves. It was very exciting to be part of that history in the making. The day before we tied our ship to the pier, we were all briefed on the cultural subtleties of Shanghai, as we did with all ports of call. Also, we were to remain in uniform during our off duty hours, due to the significance of the trip.

One of my fellow photographer's (PH2 Hanson) and I went on a walk about one day, and he captured these images of me. The first one shows a sort of unwritten tradition. Or maybe it is written somewhere. Anyway, we happened upon our Chinese Sailor counterparts during our walk, and decided to have a photo opportunity. We traded military covers (or hats, for you civilians), and smiled for the camera. The second image was taken for the purpose of our ship's publication, however I am not sure if the image ended up being used. It shows me interacting with the locals. The booklet I am referring to is a cheat sheet of common phrases in English and Chinese.

I couldn't help but notice the warm welcome we received by the vast majority of the people in Shanghai at that time. Everyone seemed very excited to approach and attempt to converse with the American Sailor in the white uniform.

The story has an unfortunate, and historically significant ending.

When we left, we were to sail for 2 days back to Yokosuka, Japan, where the Blue Ridge is forward deployed. Between the time that we left Shanghai, and the time we moored in our home port of Yokosuka, the Tiananmen Square crack down had begun. It is my humble opinion the Chinese authorities were waiting for us to leave.

Lighthouse at Tybee Island - Savannah Georgia

Thought I would share an image with you all. I shot this while attending my nephew's wedding in Savannah Georgia. I missed out on the drama, the day before the wedding. If I have the story correct, the rehearsal was to happen on the island the day before the wedding. When the wedding party arrived, they were blocked from entry onto the island. Evidently Miley Cyrus was filming a movie on the island, and the city had blocked entrance to that area without their knowledge or consent. This whole thing got the attention of the local media outlets, and the bride and groom were suddenly on the news that night. Wow!!

Operation Daniel

I have wanted to share this image with you all for a long time. I shot this picture a few years back, when I was still working in the area. When I began working in Salina, still taking up residence in the Sunflower building in Abilene, I would pass this spot on the Interstate every day, on my way to and from work. In fact, the Lion's Den was seated on the north side of the very exit off the interstate I would take to head back to the apartment building.

I had visited with a few of the locals in Abilene about the store and the sign. They told a very interesting story, and it prompted me to look up the news stories.

Evidently, in 2004, a local man by the name of Phil Cosby, was the first to protest the opening of this store, which sits a mere two miles from Abilene city limits, along the interstate I-70.

He then spoke with his church friends, who spoke with their church friends, who spoke with other church friends in other churches, and on and on, until a protest was born. It was dubbed Operation Daniel. apparently the name was derived from the pioneer protester, Cosby, who explained to a reporter that, "The Daniel is someone who would stand and make a difference in society, where he's at."

Operation Daniel had a specific battle plan, which was to rally the troops to set up a 100 day stake out of the store, and report to their employers, the patrons who would frequent the establishment. They would turn in DOT numbers to their respective corporate headquarters.

Operation Daniel did have a fair amount of success in turning customers away, but their success was short lived. This was back in 2004. The Lion's Den is still open as I type this in 2009. In fact, I believe there is another action being taken against the store. I believe it has to do with the proximity of their sign to the Interstate. Hmm ... looking at this image makes you wonder if the Lion's Den should file a counter suit.

Woman at Market

This is another image taken from Pusan South Korea circa 1987.

Hiroshima & The Peace Park

These last two are photographs from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Photographing the Buddhist monk made me a nervous wreck, as I remember it. I felt I was in a place very different from my own, and in a sense, I was witnessing a man on a spiritual journey; though at the time, I was not consciously aware of it. My experience and knowledge of the Buddhist culture was very limited. My anxiety was enhanced as I took in the exhibits. It was a sobering experience. The building you see behind the monk is referred to as The A-Bomb Dome. It is so named because it withstood the blast and is still standing today. That fact alone does not seem so extraordinary until you consider how close it was to the center of the blast. It stood 160 meters northwest of the hypocenter.

Pusan South Korea

Just wanted to share with you all four photographs that I think are very special to me.

For as long as I live, I will never forget these two children. As I was positioning for just the right shot, they just followed the gaze of my camera through several different positions, until I had settled on just the right angle. Their expressions seemed so poignant.

Both photographs were from the same day. For the local citizens of Pusan, South Korea, it was just another day in the market place. For me, however, it was a brand new experience, as it was one of my first trips to this country. I was a young American sailor of the United States Navy, experiencing cultures which were far removed from the one I grew up in. I had made it my mission to document what I was experiencing at that time.

More Photoshop Fun

Just a little more fun in Photoshop with a few images. These two buildings have a bit of significance in my recent past. The Sunflower building is an old hotel, built in the early part of the 20th century, in Abilene, Kansas. It was a favorite stop for President Eisenhower, when he would make protocol visits to his home town. They converted the building into an apartment complex, keeping all of the original decor. It has been placed on the historical registry. The owner's run a very nice operation there. The rent is cheap, and the building is kept clean, and in excellent working order. I enjoyed very low rent there for the nearly 3 years I spent working in that area. The distortion in the image was just for fun. There is a ghost in the machine, er something like that. The other image is of the United Building in Salina, Kansas. I worked on the 6th floor for about a year and a half. The United Building was built around the same time frame as the Sunflower Building.

Photoshop Fun

Here is a throw away image that I had a little fun with in Photoshop.

Inspirational Photographer

Ok, last post for the day.

I just wanted to share with you all a photograph that, in my opinion, is one of the most inspirational still images I have ever seen. The photographer is Sebastiao Salgado. I was first introduced to this inspirational photographer when I served as a volunteer docent for the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. To me, this man is an icon of still photography. The reason I believe him to be the best of the best, is because his images go beyond artistic expression. They tell a story, and at the same time, the images are truly beautiful. This image, in my opinion, epitimizes that quality.