The risks I take for you

Standing on a slippery ledge, inches away from an icy death, just to get the perfect shot.

I'm kidding of course, I'm safely ensconced behind a wood railing. I'd nevre do something dangerous for a shot, well not and post about it anyway ;-)

This shot has a little post-processing done (I increased the contrast a bit) but not much.

Another view of the riverline

I was most pleased being able to wander about without other people or cars in the way. It was quiet and the snow muffled any sounds. The sun was at the right angle to bring out the shadows and the snow added just the right contrast.

I should have also brought my dSLR, but you can't remember to pack everything. Last time I was here I had the wrong lens (50mm, not wide enough) but this time around the 17-35mm was perfect.

Not a Church

But it sure looks like one. I think the sign nearby mentioned it was designed by a guy who normally did churches, so it all makes sense.

Would love to get inside and shoot some, but it's all locked up.

Movie set

This would make a good location for a horror film. Something involving Alice Cooper, clowns and Bruce Campbell.

Okay maybe not but I still like the pic.

Remains

It's hard for me to imagine where the river might once have been, especially one large enough to allow riverboats and ferrys through as you can see the river here is barely five feet wide.

Not sure what the white building in the background is, but it is well chained off.

Exploring

This is the back, or possibly front of the building, depending on how you look at it. The river was once large enough to allow ferry boats to pass through on both sides and deliver people for dances. You can just see the second story arched windows where the dance floor is/used to be.

The square building in the far back is the modern pump house addition, and is still in use.

Photography is like a box of chocolates-

-when dealing with a 1-hour developing store.
My state got a bit of snow over the weekend and I got a chance to get out and capture some of it after the skies had cleared.

This is an old pump house, dating back to the Civil War times, and although no longer in use, it's still in pretty good shape. Perfect for b/w film work, which of course is done with my weapon of choice the Nikon f4s, loaded with Kodak BW400CN film. As I've mentioned before, the film is C41, so it can be processed by a colour lab, even though it's technically Black and White film. However, it picks up colour artifacts during the developing so typically you get a nice sepia tone to the results and it's very flattering for portrait work.

This time around, however the images were too heavily tilted towards the red spectrum, giving them a weird near-infrared/HDR look. I've toned it down a bit, but not completely removed it (the sky looks cooler with a little red in it) and of course presenting them here for your approval.

ICU

Working again with Medium Format (120) Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras for a little change. The camera I am using here is a Mamiya C220 with a 105mm lens. Film was Fuji Neopan400 film. Faster than I wanted for outside work, but all the camera shop had. The setting was a local university.

All the same, I think it turned out well. I have two more developed rolls waiting to be picked up (sadly, I've seen both and the developing place messed up the one I was most hoping would turn out)

I wouldn't mind a digital back for the Mamiya, anyone got a spare $50,000 they're not using?

Smile!

This is an eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) that I took for a project for my son. This image was taken with what is widely regarded as the worst modern autofocus lens ever made, the Tamron 70-300mm 'macro'.

This is my only autofocus macro lens, it's not true macro per se, but given the venomous nature of my subject, I didn't want to break out my manual focus macro lens and get real close. In fact I shot this image from about 4 feet away, whereas the manual macro I'd be about 4 inches away, well within striking range.

The Tamron lens was given to me free (I almost junked it) and is apparently the only one they ever made which didn't suffer from chromatic abberation or horrendous softness. Hey, a pretty sharp image for a free lens.

Anyway, this eyelash viper is a baby, only about 6" (at most) in length and was kind enough to suffer through flash photography without moving so much as a muscle. Special thanks go to the owners for graciously allowing me to photograph him (or her, I didn't ask)