Picture of the Month – October 2011

This month’s POTM isn’t so much about the picture, as the camera that took it.

12 years ago I purchased my first digital camera, an Epson 850Z, that cost me just under $1000. What did I get for a grand? I got a 2 megapixel camera, that could take 20 pictures before the card filled up, or the batteries died. It did have a hot shoe though so I could use my studio lights with it.

My latest digital camera cost me $299, and it has four times the resolution as the Epson did. It also shoots 1080p HD video, let’s me check email, surf the web, play anything from my entire music collection, oh, and I can even make phone calls on it.

If I want to play James Kirk, I can even talk to my camera and command it do what I want.

What an amazing amount of progress in just 12 years. My new iPhone 4S is the best camera in the world, because it’s the one that’s with me.

It was with me when I ran out the door responding to the Ferndale Volunteer Fire Department for a traffic collision on Fernbridge. I had just purchased the camera a few days earlier so this is the first time I used the camera function.

Steve, you left us with an amazing piece of technology to play with.

Picture of the Month – August 2011

On August 7th, Ferndale celebrated the 100th anniversary of Fernbridge. Rick Phillis, who chaired the celebration committee, went above and beyond the call of duty when he decided to light the bridge for it’s birthday party.

Rick borrowed several generator powered construction lights from Wendt Construction and placed them so each arch was lit.

I owe Greg Rumney for the use of his tripod, since I foolishly walked out of the studio without mine.

I took this shot by wading into the Eel River until I was waist deep in the water. I did remember to bring my waders!

Picture of the Month – July 2009

Back in 2000 when I first moved to Ferndale, I was still shooting film predominately, and the place I took my film was Chromogenics, in Fortuna. Greg Rumney, the owner of Chromogenics is an avid collector of vintage photographs. Behind the counter was a photo taken in the Ozarks of 4 very gruff looking hillbillies. It is very hard to look at the photo and not smile, it’s such a brilliant depiction of the stereotypical group of backwoods hillbillies.

Greg told me it was his best seller and at first I didn’t believe him. But when I had my gallery on Main Street we sold a lot of those hillbilly photos for Greg. Since then Greg has gotten out of the film business and concentrates on selling prints from his collection. His business name changed too, he now goes by The Old Photo Guy.

I thought it would be fun to make my own version of the photo with a few of the local Ferndale characters. Andy Doehner, George Enos, and Richard Harpham joined me in recreating the photo, using Fernbridge as our location.

Since I did this photo just for fun, prints of my version aren’t for sale, but you can view and purchase the real version at Greg’s website at www.oldphotoguy.com. I did exhibit this photo at the fair and it received a second place ribbon in the Professional Digital Enhanced class.

Picture of the Month – July 2007

About three years ago while riding my quad down at Fernbridge, I noticed that during the summer, the sun sets directly over the west side of the Eel River, and the moon rises directly over the east side. I thought it would be cool to do a panoramic photo showing both the sunset and the moonrise in one picture. This of course meant that it needed to be a full moon, because that’s when the sunset and moonrise occur at about the same time. For positioning and to be able to stand out in the middle of the river, it also had to be summer, either July or August. Which basically meant that I had two chances each year to get this photograph. So on the special evenings (if I remembered and wasn’t busy doing something else) I would check the sky to see if it would look like we’d get a good sunset. Usually it ended up with the fog rolling in and ruining my chances.

But last month the stars aligned (well, one was a star anyways) and everything worked out. It was such a warm evening and the water was so warm that I didn’t even notice that I went in to deep before I realized I was getting my wallet and cell phone wet. But it was worth it, and I was able to get it printed and framed just hours before it was due to be entered in the Humboldt County Fair for the juried art show. It won a Special Award, and I heard lots of great comments about it at the fair. It was also apparent that the view had a few people scratching their heads because they couldn’t figure out where it was taken from. The 200° view was throwing them.

We are selling this print in two versions. A limited edition of 30 signed and numbered prints will be made available in the 8″x36″ size. It is also available in an unlimited edition in the 3″x16″ size.

Picture of the Month – February 2004

The entrance to Ferndale from Highway 101 passes over the historic and much loved Fernbridge. At the time when it was built in 1911, it was the longest concrete bridge ever built. It has survived earthquakes and floods, and during the major flood in 1964, it even survived getting hit by the bridges that collapsed upstream on the Eel. I woke up early this morning specifically to take pictures of the bridge in the early morning light. Sometimes you get a hunch about what the weather will do here. While the clouds didn’t end up lighting up as I expected them, the artwork they did create was very unique, and I was happy I got up early to witness it.