Two Museum Shows

Taube Museum, Minot, North Dakota

Now thorugh February 24 eight of my images from the “Forgotten Places: North Dakota” series will on display as part of a group photography exhibit at the Taube Museum of Art in Minot, North Dakota. The exhibit includes photographs by 10 participants in Tillman Crane’s “Spirit of Structure” workshops in 2010 and 2011 in the Rugby, North Dakota area.

Just in case any of my friends happen to be in North Dakota in January, the reception will be on Thursday, January 12 at the museum in Minot.Let me know if you can make it. Dan Smith, North Dakota Photographer and curator for the exhibit, offered to arrange for a real North Dakota Blizzard if I attended the reception. Unfortunately, I will miss that opportunity!

Cumberland Valley Photographic Salon

The 79th Cumberland Valley Photographic Salon at the Washington County Museum of Fine Art opens January 28 and runs through April 29.

I have not done well in this juried exhibit the last couple of years, but this year I am excited that all four of the prints I submitted were selected by the juror for this year’s exhibit. The images were four out of my “Forgotten Places: North Dakota” series. To have one image selected in this prestigious event would have been fabulous but having all four selected was beyond my wildest dreams!

Grain Elevators, Rolette County

The icing on the cake is that my image “Grain Elevators, Rolette County” was awarded the Youngblood Studios Award for this year.

Juror was Bruce Katsiff, photographer and Director of the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

The reception will be Sunday, February 12 from 2:30-4pm. Please join me to celebrate the continued success of my North Dakota Project.

Moon and Jupiter

I haven’t been doing much shooting lately because I have been extremely busy during the holidays with the Berkeley Arts Council Holiday Art and Craft Market. But about a month ago I decided to follow up on my successful moon imaging (see previous post.)

Having just acquired a Panasonic GH2, which is a higher resolution version of the G2 used on the earlier images, I decided to try the new camera. The night was beautifully clear and the moon was high in the sky so I also decided it was time to drag out the “big” telescope – a 120mm Orion refractor with a heavy equatorial mount and a focal length of 1000mm.

The detail I was able to capture was quite amazing once I was able to achieve accurate focus.

Then I turned the ‘scope on Jupiter. Because I haven’t really paid a lot of attention to such things for a while, I did not realize that Jupiter was just past opposition, which is the point of closest approach to us on Earth and therefore looks the largest to us.

I had never viewed Jupiter in a telescope near opposition and I was amazed that I could see several of the cloud bands and I could just make out the “great red spot.” Naturally, with my success photographing the moon, I tried a shot of Jupiter.

This shot is not anywhere near comparable to large telescope images, let alone the deep space probes that have imaged Jupiter and its moons, but I was quite astonished to be able to capture the planet this well with my very modest gear, including being able to just make out the red spot. Also, three out of the four Galilean moons are just visible as tiny points of light.

Having been an “armchair” astronomer most of my life, these image were quite satisfying. I’m now looking forward to more lunar images and waiting for Saturn to come around!

Waxing Moon

6 October 2011, 00:44 UTC

Waxing moon photographed with a Panasonic G2 digital camera and a 80mm refracting telescope (400mm). Since the camera is Micro 4/3 the multiplier is X2 so the telescope is equivalent to 800mm on a 35mm camera.

Dunker Church

Yesterday was yet another dark, gray day, so I took a ride over to Antietam and photographed the Dunker Church. The small structure has been well restored without losing its 19th century flavor. The cloudy weather outside provided a lovely, soft natural light for the interior.

More Spirit of Structure

The third day of the workshop took us to the Maine State Capitol in Augusta. We were fortunate to be given access to most of the building, including the House and Senate chambers, since the legislature was not in session. Here I photographed the building with a formal approach, which felt appropriate for this environment.

North Dakota Exhibit Moving to the Redbrick Gallery in Martinsburg

I am very pleased to announce that my “Forgotten Places: North Dakota” exhibit is being moved to the Redbrick Gallery in Martinsburg after a very successful showing at the Delaplaine Center in Frederick, MD. I am especially happy that those of you who live in the Panhandle region who have followed my adventures with this project but were unable to get down to Frederick will have an opportunity to see the exhibit.

I am happy to be reprinting three of the exhibit prints that sold out of the Delaplaine Gallery so the exhibit will be complete. I also will have available copies of the book of images, Special Edition Print Folios, and some smaller individual prints.

The exhibit will open with a reception at the gallery, 404 West King Street on Saturday, October 22 from 4-7pm and will run through November 19.

Olson House Revisited

The second day of the Spirit of Structure workshop in August, we went to the Olson House in Cushing, Maine.

This was a return visit after photographing there during the 2009 Extraordinary Images in Ordinary Places workshop, also led by Tillman Crane. That the 2009 outing was successful I think indicated by the fact that I was able to put together a small book of the images:  The Olson House: Photographs July, 2009. Up to now, I have only printed proof copies but I hope to release it soon. The question is, should I update it with some new images from the 2011 workshop.

I was interested to see if I could find new images on the return visit. I think I succeeded in this, although I feel that it would be hard to identify these new images as having been done two years after the first visit. Is this consistency or lack of growth? Not sure.

Spirit of Structure Workshop

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two months already since I have been back from my New England travels. It’s been very hectic since I got back.

But I can finally post a few images from the Spirit of Structure workshop I took with Tillman Crane at the Maine Media Workshops.

On the first day of the workshop we went to a closed factory in Rockland, Maine. It was a mostly empty building, but there were a few artifacts left. Lighting was very nice, being 100% from the windows.

C&O Canal, Great Falls

Yesterday was such a beautiful day I couldn’t stand not getting out. So I drove down to Great Falls for a bit of a walk and possible photo opportunities.

I managed to catch a canal boat as it came through the lock at the Great Falls Tavern. They are offering rides on the canal, with the mules pulling the boat and maneuvering the boat through the lock.

North Dakota Exhibit is Up!

My solo exhibit at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Frederick is up! The exhibit is in the “Side Gallery” on the main level. It will be on view starting tomorrow through September 24.

The reception will be Saturday, September 3 from 3-5pm. Join me to celebrate the exhibit of my project from last year that involved traveling twice to North Dakota to photograph abandoned farms and town.