Archives June 2011

It feels like it has been raining for 2 weeks straight now, but we finally got a break from the rain today.  It was an overcast day, but those types of days seem to make for some of the best shooting conditions since the sun isn’t blowing out your pictures.  This is another shot I’ve had in mind for a long time, and I’m glad I was finally able to get out and play around with it, even if every semi truck passing by on the road caused me to turn around and make sure there wasn’t a train bearing down on me.

“Railroad”

This is one of those shots I knew I wanted to get from the start of this photo project.  A cool lightning photo.  Friday night I was sitting at home, coincidentally watching Next Friday when I started hearing thunder rumbling off in the distance.  I checked the radar and there was a small storm cell headed our way, so I grabbed my camera and headed out.  I tried getting some lightning shots last week, but lightning is actually harder to shoot than I originally thought it would be, and I failed.  This week was much better shooting though, with a lot more visible bolts in the sky.  It took me a while but I ended up snagging a couple cool lightning shots.  I ended up going with this one because of the multiple bolts you can see flashing across the sky.  This is definitely one of my favorite shots so far this year!

“Lightning”

It was a beautiful spring day today, 75 degrees and sunny.  Friday night wasn’t so beautiful, we has some thunderstorms rolling through, so I tried to get out and get some pictures of lightning but it wasn’t meant to be.  As it turns out, lightning is incredibly frustrating to shoot.  Soon though, soon…  Today was a perfect day to head out and play with the camera in the sunny weather.  I drove out to a local sports area where there are a couple baseball fields, a volleyball field, and a football field.  I walked around and took some shots and came back to to see what I had.  I liked this shot because it had that nice “rule of thirds” appeal to it, and I feel like it draws my eyes in to the scoreboard.  I decided to try a post-processing technique known as cross-processing.  The short version is explained as using chemicals from one type of film to develop a different type of film.  But, this is 2011 and we can make such effects digitally with out have to play with nasty chemicals.  It basically gives the shot a saturated and retro feel to it.  I can think of some other things that I would like to shoot and use a similar effect on… maybe later this year 🙂

“Pastime”

I love summer.  Seriously, love summer.  There is so much more to do, and being outside is so much better than being stuck in doors all the time.  Taylorville had a little flea market Saturday morning on the town square, so the wife and I went down there with the wife’s family.  Taylorville is kind of a neat town in that it was first settled in the 1830’s.  Taylorville’s settling also happens to occur during Abraham Lincoln’s life, and Lincoln actually practiced law in Taylorville in its early days.

One of the stories is that Lincoln was once arguing a case in the Taylorville courthouse when some pigs under the floorboards started squealing.  Lincoln then asked the judge for a “writ of quietus” to shut the pigs up.

How much truth there is to that story, I have no idea, but there must be enough to it, because there is a statue of Abe Lincoln with a pig on the square right next to the courthouse.  I took a few photos around the courthouse today, but I liked this one of the statue with the courthouse in the background, plus it led me to learning a little more about the town I live in that I got to share with you.

“Abe”

Well, this is certainly disappointing.  Back in 2007 I remember the Springfield Air Rendezvous (a local Air Show) got cancelled.  I couldn’t recall the reasoning for this, but I thought it was just a one-time deal.  Much to my disbelief, it was permanent.  Springfield Air Rendezvous is dead.  I have many fond memories of the air show as a child, and I was hoping to head out once again as an adult and enjoy the show, as well as take some hopefully neat photos, but it was not meant to be.

From what I have gathered, apparently when the National Guard 183rd Fighter Wing was moved out of Springfield to Fort Wayne, Indiana, they took the base’s ability to service fighter jets along with them.  Being unable to host fighter jets at the base meant that Air Rendezvous would be with out a jet show.  The jets that performed, and specifically the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, were always a huge draw to the show, and the board that ran Springfield Air Rendezvous felt that with out a military jet show, Air Rendezvous would not be able to turn a profit.  Note that they didn’t even attempt it.  They could have at  least tried it, but there were supposedly other factors in making the decision as well.  It does seem though losing the jet show was the biggest and most harming factor.

It seems that Springfield lost a lot more than the 183rd’s fifteen F-16 jets when they moved out of town.

I’m a bit saddened to learn of all of this, even if I am four years late.  Maybe some day Springfield can grow up in to a real city and have real attractions, but until then, like the Valco Cruise for Charity, The Bloomington Gold, and other events, The Air Rendezvous show will be missed by countless citizens across Central Illinois.