The Tao of Walking Ridge

It adds an exciting dimension to read a book and absolutely recognize the location being described.  Sort of a “been there, if not done that” feeling.  I was reading one of my favorite authors John D. MacDonald’s Darker Than Amber and on the very first page had a “been there” moment.  The fifth paragraph reads:

I was sitting there under the bridge in a skiff with my friend Meyer.  We were under the end of the bridge nearest the town of marathon, and it is the first highway bridge beyond Marathon on your way to Key West - if you are idiot enough to want to go to Key West.

I’m on the first page of the novel, and I realize that it is talking about the exact spot I made a KAP (kite aerial photography) flight from.  Further, due to the technical difficulties, the one and only semi-decent shot of the day was a photograph of the exact spot.  That was very cool.

John D. MacDonald lived in Florida for a time, and weaves real life Florida locations and commentary (such as overdevelopment) into his novels.  Mention slip F-18, and any fan of the Travis McGee series will answer “Busted Flush, Ft Lauderdale”.  The Busted Flush is the name of the houseboat that the main character Travis McGee lived aboard.  He also had a faster runabout and would rent skiffs to be able to access more remote locations such as the one on the opening page of Darker Than Amber.

The small panel color study on 5″ x 7″ canvas board worked great.  The customer liked the form of the initial design:

But the customer really liked the color palette of the alternate design:

However, the orange would not go with the rest of the room.  So the original composition was chosen, with the red and yellow of the alternate palette.  Instead of the orange, a desaturated light blue violet was substituted.

Executing the painting in 16 x 20 inches was a little more challenging than I expected.  It was a bit difficult to keep my focus on the two panels and ensure that the colors and forms matched.  I set up two easels and added color mixes to my mixing palette rather than ever let it go dry and try to recreate the mix.  The end result looked even better when the paint dried.

Reclined - 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inch panels

When I saw the Blue Marlin Motel, I was struck by the color as well as the rounded architecture and surrounding foliage.  It all came together in a way that reminded me I was in a sub tropical climate (not that I could forget with evenings of 75 degree weather and days of 85 degree weather and a wonderful smell of ocean saltiness).

Photographers affectionately refer to slide film as chrome, as in Ektachrome, Kodachrome, etc. Chromes produce very high contrast and full color saturation, a look that many like. This photo had flaring of the lens from the sun. Digitally I was able to edit it out, and save what I have always thought was just a nice picture, that gives some sense of being on the boat. It was taken during a single handed voyage back in 1992. Now I have an Epson Perfection 2450 scanner that can scan transparencies, so I decided to edit it. While trying different editing options in Gimp (Linux photo editor) I found “threshold”. This created a black white high contrast image with an adjustable threshold. I liked this happy accident too.

What does diet have to do with creativity? Well, we are what we eat. If you feel better, you can be more productive. For the last 3 years I have struggled with asthma. Slowly I’ve learned my triggers. Cigarette smoke and salt are two of them. I never smoked, so that trigger just means I miss out on the enjoyment of live music here in Michigan until they catch up with Ontario Canada, California, and other areas where no smoking laws allow me the freedom that others have. But salt, arg, I love salt. But I like breathing better.

So I started reading labels.  I was unable to find food without salt added.  Bread, canned beans, crackers, vegetarian hot dogs, the list goes on and on.  So finally I got an idea.  Quite simple really.

Just eat real food.  No prepared stuff, just food.  No preservatives.  No MSG.

Not canned beans, beans.  Actually put real beans in a bag and buy them by the pound.  No added salt.

Instead of bread - rice.  Just rice.  No added salt, no added preservatives.
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The Florida Keys, somewhat ironically, has very little in the way of beaches.  Bahia Honda state park is an exception.  Bahia Honda has one of the nicest beaches in Florida.  Not only is there great swimming, but you can climb out on a bridge that is no longer used and take in a great view from above.

There is a very nice park on the intra-coastal waterway that Cocoa Village is adjacent to.  On a weekday when I visited, the park was empty and I had a rare opportunity to do some kite aerial photography of the dowtown Cocoa Village and the intra-coastal.

There are many great vintage film cameras out there that can be found at very affordable prices.  One with a particularly good lens for its price is a Konica Auto S2.  The Konica Auto S2 is a rangefinder camera with built in meter and shutterspeed priority auto exposure.  Unfortunately, the sensors in these cameras are reaching an age where they stop working.  Mine failed while in storage.  I now have a camera in mint condition, with maybe 200 rolls of film, and no meter.  This camera might bring at most $30 or $40 on eBay.  I thought of selling it, but it was my second camera and my first new one.  I’ve owned it now for over 30 years.

The Konica S2 lens is highly rated and the shutter works just fine without a battery in manual mode.  So the thought occurred to me to see if I could use it with the Sunny F16 rule.  When shooting outdoors, set the shutter speed to the films ISO rating and the aperture at F16 for bright sunlight.  This would make the Konica a poor man’s Leica, (most Leicas never had meters).

That is easy.  But what about some clouds?  Open 1 stop for some, 2 stops for overcast, 3 stops for twilight/heavy overcast, 4 stops for dusk/deep shadows.  Thinking of it this way is much easier for me to remember than the F stops for each.  It also makes it easier to set the camera up for a different shutterspeed.

Let’s say we are using 100 ISO film.  If we set the shutter speed to 1/200 (or 1/250, we are approximating stuff here) then we start one stop more open than F16 to F11.  The faster shutter speed has to be compensated with one stop more aperture.  Let’s say the sun is starting to set, there are a few clouds, our guess is F4 (F11 - F8 - F5.6 - F4, 3 stops more open).  Especially with print film, this is pretty close.  Bracketing, one more open, one more closed (F5.6, F2.8) should ensure one very well exposed shot.

That is the theory.  Now, if we have a light meter or a camera with a meter, we can practice.  Indoor lighting is very hard to judge, but judging outdoor lighting by eye can be done with practice.  See a picture, guess your exposure, check it with a meter.  When you become proficient at this, you will be able to set the camera very quickly within one stop.  Slide film would be less forgiving of any errors, but print film should produce very good results with this method, and allow you to use cameras with outstanding lenses (the main factor in image quality), cameras that are very affordable, and typically much more durable than new point and shoot cameras that are four times the price.

Rangefinders are particularly sought after for street photography, and the 45 mm lens on the Konica is also very nice for this purpose.

While travelling in the Florida Keys last year, I looked hard for a place to fly my kite camera rig.  Open spaces in the Keys are hard to come by.  I finally found one space on the southern tip of Marathon Key and was able to get this photo of the shore and Highway 1.

Most of the pictures from this shoot I converted to black and white.  This allowed me more lattitude to salvage some detail in deep shadows without worrying about funny colors appearing.  But this picture of Kat with Orchid Pool only worked in color.  It used to be that you had to choose BW or color and even the ISO (or ASA) before you shot with film.  But the digital darkroom provides greater flexibility after the image is taken.