Darryl Wattenberg's PhotoBlog

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

More Prairie Dogs

Love on the Prairie
Another shot from a June trip to the Detroit Zoo. The baby Prairie Dogs were growing up and the lighting was terrible, but they're always fun to watch.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Mixed Use

Lima Crane Growth
While wandering though HCEA National Convention & Old Equipment Exposition we spotted a 1929 Lima built crane. In the wood on the boom, nature seems to be attempting to reclaim the big metal beast.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Summer Fading Away

Red Wing Blackbird
Another shot from back in June, this is just a reminder that summer has slipped away and the fall is approaching. I'm looking forward to the cooler weather and colors, but another year is nearly past.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Getting Through the Backlog

Bald Eagle
I'm still wading through some of the older photos that I haven't processed. As I can't get out to shoot I go through some of the backlog. This was from a set I shot back in June.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Waiting to Be Saved

Lima Locomotive Works Crane
Dennis and I spotted this 1929 crane at the HCEA National Convention & Old Equipment Exposition. This was up for auction at the convention, waiting to be saved. With any luck, it has been and we'll see it cleaned up and running in a few years.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Lever

HCEA Lever
Another image that got my attention from the HCEA National Convention & Old Equipment Exposition.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

History in the Making

New Bostom Rail Services 2262
There's many different modes I shoot in. Sometimes my photography is a matter of expression, others art. But one of the favorites is to documenting history in the making. In this case we happened across this locomotive in a paint scheme we hadn't seen. Years from now we'll not likely find these in the wild. So today we must record bits of our world for future generations (and ourselves as our memories fade).

Monday, September 18, 2006

Icon

White Trucks Maverick
On of the trucks at the HCEA National Convention & Old Equipment Exposition was a White Maverick. On the hood sat this noble figure. Unfortunately the sky didn't want to clear up.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

NCEA Convention

Daylight
What a great four hours! We had a blast shooting all the old hardware.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Old Machines

Oil Well
We're headed for Bowling Green, Ohio today to shoot the HCEA National Convention & Old Equipment Exposition. This will be my first trip to check it out, but I'm hoping for some good access to the machines to get some great close-ups of the workings.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Details

Details of the Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse
This image seemed appropriate for a day of Photoshop and photographers. Taken over a month ago in Bay City, this was an image that I felt looked better in black and white.

I'm off work today for the "Photoshop CS2 Creativity Tour" with the legendary Bert Monroy. This man creates the most incredible images in Photoshop without a camera. Its not photography, but you have to see it to believe it.

Tonight though, I'm finally going to get out to an Exposure.Detroit show. This month's show is "Girl Power" (mostly in response to the first show which ended up being all male). The shows are held at a non-smoking bar in Detroit called Karras Bros. The prints stay up for a few weeks though, so if you're interested in checking them out (and can't make it tonight), stop by later to see what some of the local Detroit Photographers have produced. I'm anxious to meet some of the Flickr Contacts I've been watching for months and never met.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

It's in the Eyes

Pepper's Eyes
So much of an animal's (or person's) personality and emotion seems to be captured through the eyes. Pepper, our oldest of two cats, has lost weight due to his boughts of an unidentified illness but become much more energetic and loving. Here however, he was a little bothered by all the flashes.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Documenting Roadside History

Documenting Roadside History
I didn't have a chance to shoot anything this past weekend, so this was the last time I was out -- two weeks ago. I'm looking forward to this weekend though when I'll be able to get out shooting again.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Cheddar

Cheddar
Someone in the Flickr Groups was questioning performance on their 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lens. I promised to snap a photo to test the depth-of-field. Cheddar just happened to be a handy, though unwilling, subject.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Food?

Restaurant; Beer • Wine
I'm sitting here at the office, waiting on others for just about everything. FedEx hasn't delivered the hardware I need to configure and ship this afternoon, the new ISP has to review their routing tables, I'm waiting on a call from the phone system manufacturer, I don't have network ports or power run for the new servers, and my co-worker has run out for lunch for a few of us. I'm getting hungry.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Disappointment.

Shooting the Tall Ships Celebration
The expression on my friend's face was reserved for the Tall Ship Celebration in Bay City. But I had one of those days today with little but frustration and disappointment. Besides all the troubles at the office today, I discovered that the D2X (which just came back from service a little more than a month ago) seems to have little orange and blue "hairs" on the low-pass filter. The blower didn't seem to move them, so back to Nikon it is. It's rather depression to send your favorite body off...twice in as many months.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Old Signs

Lamps
I have a weakness for old sings. This one in Emmett Michigan isn't likely to be there much longer, so we had to stop when we spotted it.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Westbound in Emmett

Westbound in Emmett
I haven't had the chance to shoot like I had hoped to this weekend, but at least we got out yesterday afternoon for some shooting. The day closed with a familiar activity -- railfan photography. Its been too long since I've done railfan shooting and it was nice to get back.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Extended Weekend!

Photographing the Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse
Here in the U.S. most of us are enjoying a three-day weekend. This is a great opportunity to get out and shoot. As the weather starts cooling, and the day grow shorter, I hope to get out from some more night shooting. As usual though, I'll be taking advantage of the last bits of summer for whatever photo outings might present themselves.

This is the Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse in Bay City taken back in July.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Not Just in the U.S.A.

Night on the River
The U.S.A. is not the only country faced with plant closings, downsizing, and massive layoff (duh!). We caught a news blurb on the Port Huron Times Herald website last night that Dow will be closing their plant in Sarnia.
Neither on of the plants in the photos from last weekend are the Dow plant -- they're the Esso and Bayer plants. I just hate to see these plants going offline line with people loosing their jobs and real estate sitting idle.