Vermont & The end of Photo 50

Last night was the last night of my Photo 50 class. Let me tell you, this crew is one of the craziest! There was never a dull moment in class or in the lab. This was one of the best classes, ever! Oh, and the instructor rocked too. Seriously, our instructor, Len Cook, was one of the funniest and coolest ever.

One of the best things I got out of this class? The friendships I made with my classmates and some of the other photo students that I met in the lab. Taking this class I was able to meet some of the coolest people and gained a few photography buddies. If it wasn't for this class, I wouldn't have made the new friendships that I have.

One of the other things I learned from this class? Photographers are the weirdest bunch of people I have ever met! Yes, will fit in just fine with the lot of them. Really the coolest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Deep down inside, they are all just a bunch of photo nerds, and I am proud to say that I too, am a photo nerd!

I have to say that the photo lab was the most kick ass part of taking this photography class. There is nothing like developing your own film and pictures. Walking into the lab, the smell of the chemicals the first thing to greet you...nothing else like it. You sure in the hell don't get that from digital. Nor can you capture that true black & white on digital. Then again I have yet to find editing software that can produce the same grain as black & white film. I have run across Alien Skin Software who has an extension pack for Photoshop called Exposure for $199 that is supposed to reproduce realistic film grain. I just haven't had the money yet to buy it and see if it does.

One of the things that we didn't end up covering in the class was how to mount our photos to matte boards. However, I wanted to learn how to do it on my own. All together I mounted about 4 pictures. These are the last pictures that I printed in the lab.

Got Pork?
Washington, Vermont

First let me just say that I know that the matte board border looks gray. I had to scan these mounted prints. The matte board itself is 11x14, while my scanner bed is only about 9x14. Therefore, the gray is the result of scanner shadowing from the the scanner bed being to small.

I ran across these pigs while I was taking pictures of the photo below. There were some chickens in the front yard of the next house on the road. I watched them cross the road to this little make shift barn yard, I guess you could call it that. I first saw a few turkey's just chillin', so much so that I was able to get in the face of one of them to take a picture and it just stayed there. I then noticed these pigs in two separate pens. The big guy on the bottom was in a pen with one other pig just a huge, and all the little piglets were in the pen next to them. Let me tell you, they were so happy to see me, as you can see by the one piglet climbing on all the other piglets. In their mind I'm sure what they were thinking were, "A human. Food! Feed us, feed us, feed us!" Erin was afraid that someone was going to come out of the junk yard house across the street and shoot us. We were there quite a while, enough time for me to re-load to get more shots of the pigs. I had to reassure her that if someone was going to come out and shoot us they would have already. I was laughing so hard taking these pictures of the pigs. I just thought it was great.

Fixer-Upper 1.5 Mil. Could Be you!
Washington, Vermont

Every time we're driving down the road where this house is, I always make Erin stop so I can take pictures of it. I'm surprised that out of the past 6 years, or so, that this house is still somewhat standing. If you can call it standing. The garage, which you see, is the only part of this whole house that hasn't started to fall apart. Then again, the garage is not attached to the house, which is probably why it still is standing. Part of the second story of the house itself has fallen into the first floor, as it has been the last few times I've seen it. One of these years I'll find this house completely sunken into or torn down.

The Old Mill
Barre, Vermont

I can't remember where exactly in Barre this was taken. It's located on the Corner of Main St and ??. I'm not even sure if it used to be a mill, but that it was it kind of looks like to me. Railroad tracks run in front of the building that faces Main St, with a little train trestle to the right as your are facing the building. I liked the way this abandoned building and how the river runs behind it. I took a lot of pictures of the front and back, but liked how this particular picture looked.

Across the way from the front of this mill, along the railroad tracks, is an alley. Erin and I noticed a bunch of vagrants down the alley. They had noticed me taking pictures and started yelling obscenities at me. One man in particular was getting very vulgar with me. As I was walking back to the car he was cussing at me, making hand gestures, then at one point proceeded to take his dick out of his pants and flap it around at me. I'm guessing he was telling me to suck his dick...LOL.

When I got back to the car I had a déjà vu of that entire scene that just unfolded. Yet, I know that this particular event has never happened to me before any other time I have been in Barre. I told Erin that in my déjà vu I ended up setting up my camera with my telephoto lens, going back to the alley opening and taking a picture of all the vagrants down that alley. I knew this is what I was going to do even before I did it. You're all probably thinking that I thought of doing that which is why I did it. But I really had no plans of taking the vagrants picture until I had that déjà vu and saw the scene play itself out. I don't know if that makes sense to any of you out there, but this was the first time that I knew what I was going to do next before it even happened. Usually it's not until after the entire scene plays out that I have the déjà vu and go, "Whoa! That just happened like I saw it before in another time." I've never had a déjà vu before where the scene played itself out before that particular moment passed, until then. It was a bit surreal really. I know I didn't explain it quite right. Let me just say that, for me, a déjà vu is how I know that everything that I have done is what I was supposed to do in my life. I can't explain it any better than that. You probably think I'm out of my mind, and you'd be right. I never said I wasn't weird!

So there are a few pictures from my trip to Vermont last month, along with the end of my Photo 50 class. Next month I'll start Photo 51 which is an Individual Project class. The next class after Photo 50 is Photo 60, but it will not be available until next Fall. In the mean time I want to still be able to go into the lab, so I thought I'd take Photo 51. Now I just need to figure out what one project I want to concentrate for the next class. I was thinking of concentrating on my cemeteries, trying new ways to photograph them, but I want to try something different than my ol' stand by. I dunno, maybe street photography, or night... I've got until the 15th to figure it out.

Ghost of Angel's

A year ago today a fire took the lives of four children and an adult. My friend, Erin, two cousin's, Christa (8) and Mikayla (6), were among the casualties of that tragic mid-December fire that seriously injured their father, Arthur Foster Jr., and claimed the lives of his second wife, Kimberly Stoltz-Foster, and her own young children, Brett and Tory Stoltz.

During the summer of this year, Barre Town, Vermont redeveloped and dedicated a park in the girl's name. While I was in Barre last month E took me to see the park. One of my assignments that I had was to capture the illusion of motion. An easy task, but one for me that was becoming difficult.

Everytime I'd go to develop the roll with this assignment on it, something would make me completely fuck up the process and I'd end up with nothing on the roll. This happened not only once, but twice!

By the time I went to Vermont, this assignment was already about 5-6 weeks past due. It was while Erin and I were at Christa & Mikayla's park that I was finally able to capture this assignment.

Erin was swinging on the swing while I was busy taken pictures of other parts of the park. It was when I finally turned around and saw her swinging that I finally saw my illusion of motion that I was supposed to capture...Erin swinging on the swing in the park that was dedicated in her cousin's name.

This picture is dedicated to Christa & Mikayla.

Same Time, Next year

This is the time when most people are beginning to think of warmer places to escape to.



Most people.

Not me.

Then again, I'm not most people.

This is the time when I long to be in New England. Where the trees are proudly displaying their ever changing leaves as they shed them again until Spring, and the crisp autumn weather enfolds you in its embrace like a lover you haven't seen in years.

This coming for someone who hates to be cold!

Yet every year in October, like clock work, New England calls to me.

Vermont to be exact.

Beckoning me...

Like a lover, whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

The whispering is making me restless…

Discontent…

Last year just wasn't the same. I went much earlier in the year and too many things were going on then, personally. Me going away didn't help one in particular any. Then again, I was trying to fix something that was beyond repair.It should've been left as it was…broken.

It's been a long year…

Even longer since I was last in New England. Its embrace is longer over due.

Time to get away, even if for just a little while.

The whispers of Autumn is beckoning me...

The first time I went to Vermont was during the Fall of 1997. Halloween was only a few days away, the changes of Autumn all around me. My senses were so alive. The crispness of the cold air was nothing like I had ever felt. It awoke a part of my soul, I felt so alive. I felt like I was home.

Driving down the many different rural roads, all the trees showing thier many shades of oranges, reds, yellows, and golds. Every now and then you can spot a sugar shack nestled inbetween the changing Maples. Crossing covered bridges, reflection of Autumn in the waters from the tress just along the edges.

Yes, Autumn is one of my favorite times of the year. Around this time every year I hear the whispering of the trees and the crispness of the air, calling me. My heart aches, longing to be there.

Vermont has been whispering to me loud and clear the past couple of weeks. It's been calling me, begging me to come home. Yet, my so called home is here in California. It doesn't feel like home to me though, it never has. I long to be in Vermont, in the crisp, clean country air. I want to drive down lanes with maple tress lining both sides of the road, under a canopy of thier ever changing leaves.

The longing is even more intense this year. I think it's because I had plans to be in Vermont in just a couple of weeks. which reminds me, I need to cancel my flights. It pains me to have to do it. But then again, nothing in my life has ever gone according to any plan. I guess I'll just have to wait until next year.

I can hear the whispering of the trees...