Deadicated

It will be 40 years this May that I attended my fourth Grateful Dead concert.

Was I a Deadhead? No. I did not "follow" them.  I didn't own a van or travel from show to show. I did not ask for "Miracles," (a free ticket). But I did love their music and manage to see them nine times over the next 20 years.

I'm glad that my son discovered their music. I remember the moment, while driving north through West Virginia on a family vacation, when it was announced over the car radio that Jerry had died (8/9/95). It was a sad moment for me. My son was seven, my daughter, four. I had last seen the Dead in April of that year in Birmingham, AL. My son still reminds me that I should have taken him to the concert.

I made the trip in 1973 while in my junior year at the University of Missouri, majoring in Photojournalism.  I was sitting around with some roommates and friends when one of them suggested we leave that afternoon and drive to DesMoines for the concert. It sounded like a reasonable idea.

We traveled in one of my roommates VW bug (I'm second from left). After midnight, too tired and directionally challenged, we pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere, Iowa, and crashed in a cornfield. The next morning we were up, refreshed and ready to go. It Mother's Day as it turned out. May 13, 1973.

The concert was, of course, amazing. It was held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The sky was threatening all day.  We were groovin' to "Sugaree" when the skies turned suddenly darker. The Dead eased into "Looks Like Rain" and a jam. I'll never forget when the skies parted and revealed a rainbow off to the east. Without missing a beat, the Dead segued into "Here Comes Sunshine." The crowd went nuts, responding with an ovation that lasted for a good ten minutes.

One year later, as a summer intern for the DesMoines Register, I volunteered to cover the Grateful Dead. No other staff photographer wanted to get involved. "Let the kid cover it," suggested a staffer. So this time I had a Press pass. The concert wasn't the same, although the photographs I made are probably better.

I'm still finding gems like these as I go through my archives. Luckily, I kept much of my early work. I know I photographed the band at least four times. I hope you enjoy these photos. Strange trip, indeed.

We can breathe now

From my iPhone on election day.My political nightmare is over.
No more robo-calls. No more pollsters.
Or postcards stuck in my door that blow away and become litter.
A break in the bickering and profusion of lies.
Hurricane Sandy became a much-needed distraction.
Back to harmless and amusing commercials that go unendorsed.
A return to what has become the new normal.
A chance to resolve the real issues at hand.

Vote!

Getting my geek on

Along Cornfield Ave., with my Nikon P7700.I don't usually start this way, but here's a little back story on this post.

I attended the Center for Civil War Photography's 2012 seminar at the Antietam National Military Park. I had missed attending for several years, as the fall is the busiest time of year for our studio. This year, just weeks after the 150th anniversary of the battle, they went back to Antietam. And so did I.

When people asked me how it was, I can only describe it as a GeekFest for Baby Boomers. Everyone was consumed with the Civil War and photography. For many it was more one than the other, but in most cases it was both. I met collectors, curators, archivists, teachers, photographers, researchers, students, museum directors and the garden variety geek-of-all-trades. One guy even took a bus from Cadillac, Michigan to attend. And he’s done that for ten seminars.

For the most part it was a study of the battle and the photographs made in the aftermath of the battle by A "leag bug" on a Napolean near the Visitor's Center.Alexander Gardner, an employee of the famous Matthew Brady. Most of the photos taken during the Civil War were made in stereo, a parlor craze at the time. Most of the photos you see in books today are reproductions of one side or the other of the stereo image. Countless hours (and books) have been dedicated to these photographs, finding the exact locations of where the photos were made. Some have studied in which order they were made, and others the precise time of day based on shadows. Tell me that’s not geeky.

Accordingly, the evening presentations at the hotel were made with 3D slide shows, where we all donned our paper glasses with red and blue lenses. On the battlefield tours, we walked with a new book, Antietam in 3D that presented all the known images taken immediately after the battle. And yes, we wore our glasses as the tour progressed, lining up the photos with the present day location.

It was such an eye-opening and rejuvenating experience for me. I brought all sort of camera equipment. I took my pinhole and 35mm digital equipment. But I ended up using was my new Nikon P7700 and my iPhone. I was toBloody Lane, in 3D.o busy paying attention to the visual/historical/community of it all, that I felt I could only made superficial photos. But I think I got lucky on a few, shown here.

Get your geek on. Don’t miss the opportunity to do what you love.

Special thanks to my personal blog editor, Vernest Lambert Watkins. I couldn't have done it without their contributions in fixing my stupid mistakes.

Burnside Bridge. With an iPhone.

Where did the summer go?

All decked out for the 4th of July baseball tournament.It went swiftly in a rush of introspection. It went advancing the goals of our studio, and yard work, and playing with photography, a little travel, teaching, learning and wasting time thinking. And a bit of golf.

 It also apparently went to neglecting this blog. But I don’t think that upset anyone. So let’s try this again.

 Here are some of my favorite iPhone photos from over the summer.