Category: Around Town

Examples of infrared landscapes using my dedicated/converted infrared Nikon D7000 camera. It was a nice early fall day and I went to Independence Oaks in Clarkston, MI to shoot. I walked the path just inside the park that leads to and past the camping area. The path from the lot has a wide elevated walkway over a wetland area. The path then turns to the west and has another elevated walkway over more wetlands and a small stream. The path farther on leas to a dry section of wood where I shot the panorama.

The reason I have a dedicated infrared camera is because the mirror fell off my D7000. I knew the camera had close to it’s limit of actuations, so I found a company that would remove the infrared filter and glue the mirror back on. If you have ever shoot infrared with a standard DSLR and an infrared filter you know you get very long shutter speeds with the filter that is almost black. Having the filter removed gives me ISO 200 performance at 100 ISO setting. That means I can shoot hand held and get good results. Infrared light focuses at a different spot from visible light, so I have to make adjustments to the focus. I need to run through a bunch of lenses and note the difference.

The unedited file from the camera is VERY red and has very little color information. I have had limited success in getting an image that has a full range of color. These images are primarily b&w with some split timing added in Lightroom. There are a couple panoramas in this post. They are handheld, vertically oriented images stitched together in Lightroom. I’m please with the strange unearthly quality of the images and keep the camera in my car most days and take it on most road trips.

Goodrich Barber MI Shop, this is my first take at photographing a series of Barbershops.  It is an extension and addition of my series photographing post offices around the country.  When ever I travel I like to get off the freeways and visit small town America.  The idea came from reading Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon years ago.  It is a travelogue on Americana.  I chose to add barber shops when I was driving around Clarkston and Waterford a few weeks ago an noticed there were at least three old fashioned, independent structured barber shops within a few miles.

When I shoot post offices I try not to have people in the shot and make the image more about the building and the surroundings.  For barber shops I plan to focus more on the interior of the building, the barber and the patrons.  We will see where this goes.

Scotts Barber Shop
10233 Hegel Rd
Goodrich, MI 48438
http://www.scottsbarbershopgoodrich.com

I was introduced to Scott a week ago by my pal Don Rush and got a haircut that day.  I went  back and spent an hour or so photographing the shop with Scott in it.  The shop was converted from a bank in 1919 and Scott is the 4th owner.  He has been there 10 years and his son Brandon cuts there also.  The interior is covered with trinkets, sports memorabilia, photos, calendars, a dead deer, historic barber stuff and tools of the trade.  Very eclectic and interesting.

After a bit  a customer came in and agreed to have shots taken.  Chuck Lippincott first came to this shop when he lived on a chicken farm outside of town a few miles, back in 1941 when he was a young boy.  Chuck told stories of delivering chickens to families in Flint and trading the chickens for various rationing stamps.  He also talked about how he would drive to Davisburg for feed and see very few cars on the trip.  Different times. It was a very nice conversation and I’m lucky to have talked with him.

Check out Scott’s shop.  You will get a great haircut and might hear some good stories.

I had my Photo Booth again for more street photography, Clarkston photographer again at the Taste of Clarkston 2018.  This is the 6th or 7th consecutive year I have been in the parking lot of the Clarkston News with my “tribute to Irving Penn” photo booth and background.  For each subject I ask that they make a donation to a local charity.  The local charity was DRAW Bucket this year.  We raised $63.  A bit lower than most years, but every little bit helps.

The background is a couple of sheets of 4 x 8 luan that I painted years ago.  With a couple of moves and in and out of storage, the backgrounds are getting a little beat up.  I don’t really see many of the markings in the final images and I really like the consistency of having the same background year to year.

The Taste of Clarkston is an annual event host by the Clarkston Chamber of Commerce and is held on Main Street right downtown.  There are dozens of local food tents with a wide variety of reasonably priced food and drink.  There is a beer and wine tent at each end of downtown.  The Lions even have a mobile TV with the Lions game showing, I share the parking lot with them.

I have a handful off people that return every year.  Some tell me they use the images for greeting cards.  Whenever I see someone I know I ask them to come in for a quick shot.  I write down their file number, they email me that number and I send them their images.  Towards the end of the day the crowd gets a little thinner, so this year I tried to get as many dogs and owners as I could.  I also try and cover as many volunteers and other helping out.

A friend asked for a Family portrait on the porch, with a complication.  Three of the nine subjects (one is a dog) were not available before Dad had to leave town.  I told her we could pull it off, get it done for her.  We scheduled the first shoot with 6 of the members and built a plan for where the three remaining members would stand when we shot for the second shoot.  Ac couple weeks later the final three members were available.  I put the camera in the exact same spot and luckily had similar lighting.  I sent Mom the shots from the two different days and she chose the two images to be put together.  It was a relatively simple Photoshop strip job

See other MPKphoto Family Portraits