Eric G. Rose – Where It's At

This is a shot of my grandson doing what I did and probably any youth has done at his age, “walk the line”.  Growing up I lived very close to railroad tracks.  The “gang” and I would spend endless hours walking what we thought was miles on railroad tracks.  Shades of “Stand by Me”, a great movie.  Unfortunately we never found a body.  Or rather fortunately we never found a body.

About the most exciting thing that ever happened was a flasher jumping out wiggling his wiggler.  The two gals I was with, Val and Donna noticed him before I did.  Their fits of laughter alerted me to this pathetic guy.  Naturally we had to whip this up into a near death experience by the time we got home.

The gang was a close knit bunch of guys who all grew up together on our block.  Neil, Ian, Tim, Keith, Andy, Gord and myself made up this highly trained cadre of cowboys, army grunts, super heroes, explorers and whatever else it was we were pretending to be at the time.  Once we hit Grade 7, Junior High in this neck of the woods, we discovered girls.  So much for the close knit buddies, it was ever man for himself.

The day I took this photograph (yes TOOK it, not MADE it) I had ready to go my Nikon D700, Leica M3 and M5 and  a Panasonic LX-5.  The Panasonic won out.  I am totally amazed at the image quality this camera outputs.  The Leica optics are razor sharp and contrasty.  Dynamic range is tremendous giving me the ability to convert some images to Black and White.  I’m not all that fussy about colour imagery beyond accurate colour reproduction.  I am use to Kodachrome and it’s limited applications however when it comes to Black and White it better be good or it hits the for sale sites.

It’s hard to show you the detail and excellent tonal range in this image.  It seems whatever algorithm WordPress uses really messes things up.  In the original image you can see every single eyelash and the background which was at least 7 stops darker than the foreground has plenty of rich luminous detail.

If you are looking for a very pocketable P&S I highly recommend the Panasonic LX-5.  I hear the LX-7 is even better.  I got my LX-5 new for $250 just before the LX-7 came out.  Frankly I was quite prepared to hate this camera.  I had already burned through Nikon, Canon, and Olympus P&S’s.  Image quality was dismal and most exhibited large amounts of chromatic nastiness.  My wife’s Canon G11 is a decent camera but way to heavy to carry in your pocket.  Check out what dpreview had to say about the LX-5 when it first was announced by clicking here.

So when I next decide to “walk the line” I will have my trusty Panasonic LX-5 in my pocket and adventure in my heart.

A couple of nights ago my sweetie and I met a Large Format Film photo buddy for a warm beverage.  The area of town we were in is generally referred to as Connaught.  Most people know it as the street the Galaxie Diner is on.  The Galaxie has been a city landmark for over a decade.  I have spent a lot of time photographing the Galaxie and its employees over the years.  Some day these images might even be worth something.

Galaxie Diner at Rest

As evening turned into night the street came alive with bright lights and reflections.  The passing automobiles with their H.I.D. headlights create retinal searing lightning-like flashes intensified by the puddles left behind by a recent storm.  The dancing shapes cast upon the walls and glass windows of darkened stores are meant for a Stephen King novel.  At the end of a generally dark street is the  Kalamata Grocery.  A true traditional Greek supermarket.  How traditional you ask?  Well all the gentlemen working inside are called George.  Yes that traditional.

Kalamata Grocery

 Our photo buddy had told us that the Kalamata Grocery had the best olives in town.  Having developed quite an appreciation for good, fresh olives while traveling in Turkey we just had to check this out.  Once inside the store we were instantly transported thousands of miles to some small town grocery in Greece.  The noise level was higher than normal for we staid conservative Canadians.  Shopping for us is a very serious endeavor indeed.  Any spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm is generally met with disapproving stares and whispered insults shared with a fellow shopper.  The joyful mood in the Kalamata Grocery was very welcome.

The owners were negotiating a transaction with a middle eastern lady who wanted to sell them some sort of non-tobacco tobacco.  This is the same lady who found it almost impossible to park her over sized Range Rover in a spot 1.5 times bigger than she needed.  Maybe she came from a country that doesn’t allow women to drive.  The photo above shows her fifth try at getting into her spot.  Cheap entertainment for me at least.  In all fairness she was a very nice lady.

My sweetie was on the hunt for the perfect olive with one of the resident George’s.  His animated descriptions of how great their olives are would make a Mexican beach walker selling Elvis felt paintings proud.  I went in the opposite direction looking for interesting compositions.  What did I find but yet another George.  This time a customer.  He was more than willing for me to take his photograph.  In fact he struck a pose for me.  This George told me he is the King of Calgary, but has to work as an underpaid and barely appreciated lawyer to pay the bills.  Calgary could do much worse when looking for an ambassador.  George was a gas and I greatly enjoyed our five minutes or so of conversation.

The King of Calgary - aka George

Yes I do love this stupid town.  Calgary is such a schizophrenic place.  For the most part it is inhabited by super over achievers who have to park a BMW SUV in the driveway to make sure everyone knows they are making the big bucks.  Type A doesn’t even come close to describing the typical oil patch worker in Calgary.  Eighty hour weeks are the norm.  Many just don’t care about our city because they are only here to make loads of money and then go back to wherever they came from.  The sooner the better is their attitude.

On the other hand you find pockets of humanity like the Kalamata Grocery all over the city, whether they are in older neighbourhoods or carved out of the new coffins of concrete we call malls.  I am currently writing this blog in one such oasis, The Good Earth Cafe – Creekside.  Even though it is located smack dab in the middle of a new area the “real” people have slowly found it.  During the day when I come here to work on my website development business I meet other “geeks” and we have fun sharing war stories.  New moms come in with their burping and pooping bundles of joy.  Just now a large and very noisy group of new Canadians finished up a weekly get together.  Even in the city hated by most of Canada (yes even more than Toronto!) we “Blue Eyed Arabs” as we have been branded by the east are real people just having fun.  Well at least the ones that come here and make it their “home”.

When I look at the news these days it reaffirms my belief that for me at least life is good.  Is this why so many people have become news junkies, they need to see someone suffering so they can feel better about themselves?

I think we all know the person who spends all their available time glued to CNN or some equally intelligence numbing news porn pusher. I firmly believe our local CTV news department here in Calgary has a quota of blood and mayhem they have to meet for every evening newscast.  If nothing is gory enough locally they dredge up something from some backwater hillbilly county in the US.  While it may be tragic for the people closely associated with the shooting, stabbing, car wreck or beating it has absolutely nothing to do with my life. There is nothing I can do beyond feel bad for them while at the same time thinking, geez my life is so much better than theirs.  Thank goodness I watched the news, I never would have known how good I have it.

What does this have to do with photography you ask?  Good question.  My life is good, and I don’t need anyone external to tell me so. Yes I could be making more money, I could be 40 pounds skinnier, maybe I should be able to run 10 miles.  Right now, today, I feel great with who I am and where I am.  Well maybe Brooks Jensen from Lenswork magazine could call me up and say he loves my photography and wants to publish some of my stuff in his excellent magazine.  That would make me a tab bit happier.

For 2012 my goal with this blog is to publish one image a week that makes me happy.  It could make me happy because it records a joyful occasion, creates some visual magic like Bruce Barnbaum‘s slot canyons and cathedrals or represents something spiritual.

Along with the image I will outline the all important W5’s.  Maybe even some photo geeky stuff too.

Below is the first image.  Anyone from my generation (baby boomer) can relate to this scene.  Instantly you have memories of going with your parents to the local hamburger drive-in;  the smell of the car’s interior, the AM radio playing anything but what you wanted to hear, pretty car-hops in short skirts, and REAL hamburgers with the condiments oozing out into the foil wrapper.  Maybe you went with your friends in a souped up Chevy or Ford.  A hot car of this era just had to have Thrush mufflers and a jacked up rear end.

Every payday my dad would take my mom and me to the local A&W.  I can remember the day when I was finally old enough to order a Teen Burger and my very own order of French fries!  During those days the family car was a very powerful Plymouth Fury with a new one in the driveway ever year until they got rid of the fins in the early 60’s.  Then it was on to a string of Oldsmobiles.  Why Olds?  Because they had a 455cu, 375hp engine and a nice factory AC installation; horsepower for the old man and AC for my mom.  From Olds the old man went on to Buick Wildcat’s.  That is until they detuned them in 72.  He stuck with his 455cu, 375hp Wildcat until the day he died.  They might have to pry a gun from Charlton Heston’s dead hands, but for my dad it was the keys to his monster Buick with it’s 10mpg.

This picture was taken at a street festival here in Calgary.  I was feeling lazy that day and decided to leave the D700 at home instead pocketing my beater Canon A640.  I figured it would be a generally lousy day for photography but was instead presented with a very target rich environment.  Live and learn.  I did the best I could given the lighting, proximity of Mosquitoes (people in my way) and the limited space between the vehicles.  While the car was an integral part of the photograph, for me it represented mainly a time stamp. The food, now that was what caught my attention.  Did I mention I am just a tad overweight?

Since my digital days are rather recent compared with over 40 years of shooting film I only took one photograph of this subject.  Mind you it took me some time with lots of ducking and weaving to get just the right angle before I pulled the trigger.  I hope you enjoy this image and it brings a knowing smile to your face.  If you were too young to have enjoyed the drive-in experience rent a copy of “American Graffiti” to get a flavor of what I am talking about.  Say hi to the Wolfman for me.

55 Merc Memories