Tribal Waters

It was a regular day when I received a gift from a stranger. A stranger who happened to be part Cherokee. I was at the store, or rather leaving the store and in my car when a man knocked on my car window. He said he needed to give me something. At first I thought he wanted money, but I could see that wasn't the case. He went into his truck and brought over a CD which he gave me and said "I just need to give this to you... no strings attached... I can't explain..."

I was very perplexed at this and said thankyou. It was a solemn moment, rather spiritual. I never saw him again, never got his name. I drove away and put the CD in my player. It was called "Tribal Waters". As soon as I heard the chanting I began to cry. I cried hard. Something just came over me. I felt a calling to the water. So I went home & grabbed my camera and went out to Lake Erie State Park in Brocton, NY, all the while listening to this haunting music. It was a 45 minute drive so I listened to this hauntingly beautiful music the whole way. I felt like I was in a trance. It was a cold and cloudy day, too windy to photograph anything with my 4x5, but it was a perfect day anyway.

Working in a call center, I take a lot of calls from people all over the country ordering things over the phone. For the next two days most of the people who called in either lived on a street named after a Native American tribe or had some other such connection. There were people from Mojave Florida, Blackfoot ID, and one from Rattlesnake NY and more. This was the strangest thing that ever happened to me. Either their street name or their city had a Native American name and many of the people were Native American and alot from Minnesota. Then a woman who called in who also happened to be Native American, asked if I had anyone from my past that was Native American. I didn't think so, but I didn't really know because my mother was adopted. I felt like some spirit or someone was trying to contact me.

A few days before this happened, I'd been contacted by someone who, as it turns out, is the great grandaughter of my grandfather, from a previous marriage. My mother was adopted, so I never knew my real grandfather. This person also told me that the group my grandmother sang with in college, back in the 20's or 30's was named Redpath Chautauqua, another link perhaps. I don't know if there's a connection, but it certainly was a very powerful three days.

It's over now, and I still don't know why I was contacted or why this stranger gave me the CD or why all the people who called in to the call center had some connection with the Native American names. I do know that it's all good. I have an incredibly strong calling to the sea, or as it were, the lake and have always been interested in Native American music and culture. I wish I could thank the person who gave me the CD. I wish I knew why this all happened. I guess I'll never know.

Nuts and Boltz Exhibit

If you like art then this is a 'must see' exhibit. With two floors of anything from sculpture, painting and photography, there is something there for everyone. There are 55 NPAA artists and 150 pieces. This show is comparable to any I've seen in Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and the like, so come on down.

The show will continue through September 8, 2009 and after that will get dispersed to the location of the manufacture sponsors throughout Erie County and continue through October 31, 2009.

Sponsors include Boldt Machinery, Dovetail Gallery, Fralo, Sprague Farm & Brew Works, Printing Concepts, Engineered Plastics, Roger & Nedra Richards and The Thermoclad Company.

Lake Erie State Park

Bordering the eastern shores of Lake Erie State Park (Brockton, New York), this park is what I’d been searching for and finally, thanks to a friend, I found. I wanted rocks. Big rocks. And big water. The kind you see in photographs of the sea, whatever that means. At least big for our area, and within an hour’s driving distance. They’re not that big, but they’re the biggest I could find.
I remember thinking what a great day it would be for shooting. My kind of day. The sky was amazing and not a soul around. I had the whole place to myself. Most of the photographers I know would remark that it was either too cloudy or the sky was too white. But then I wasn’t looking for butterflies and rainbows either! There were ripples of clouds forming patterns in the sky. I now know these were ‘stratus undulatus’ my new word for the day! I was on an endorphin high!
I had taken my favorite film and favorite lens knowing what I wanted to capture. The film of choice was Kodak Techpan rated at EI25 and the lens, my Nikkor 14mm lens on a Nikon F100. With the 14mm I could capture the endless sky, the big water and also the rocks. I had to position my camera carefully with each leg of the tripod supported by one of the smaller rocks a few feet from shore. Using a right-angle view finder proved very helpful in composing the shot. I could keep the camera low to the ground without having to kneel down in the water.
When I saw the results I knew I wanted to tone the print. I had read Tim Rudman’s book on toning and talked to some other photographers about split-tone printing. I used Kodak Selenium at a dilution of 1:4 and Kodak Sepia bleach and toning kit. Because this was my first attempt at split-toning I had no idea what to expect other than to watch out for that smell! The results have put me on a new path for my photography. I hope in the spring to be finding more images like this one.

Northern Ohio Film Gathering, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

September 28, 2008, I had the pleasure of attending a regional gathering of photographers who still use film. Not only do they use film, they are using Large Format View Cameras. As in 7x17, 8x10, 4x5 etc.

This was a truly amazing event. We had a display of wooden cameras, a demonstration on wet plate collodion (tin-types) and a tour of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The food was great too!

Our host, John Powers, will be featured in the Western Reserve Historical Society exhibit in Cleveland, with his 7x17 photographs of the canal system.

Wednesday, December 3, 20087:00pmJohn Powers’ Ohio & Erie Canal PhotographsEast Boulevard ComplexJohn Powers uses a special 7”x17” camera to create stunning studies of the Ohio & Erie Canal which are on display at the WRHS. Learn from John how he composes his photos to show the fascinating results of the battle of age, the devastating effects of flood, neglect and nature on the canal - once a beautifully constructed work of engineering. Free with museum admission. http://www.wrhs.org/index.php/homepage/programsandevents

To get a visual idea/perspective, here is the 7X17 camera along side a 4x5. The negative on a 7x17 camera is actually 7" x 17", and is contact printed.

All this was made possible through a wonderful internet forum known as the APUG group or Analog Photography Users Group. http://apug.org/ This is an international organization promoting the use and preservation of film. If there ever was a technical resource for photographers, this is it. And much to my delight, there will be future gatherings.

Richford Hotel, downtown Erie

Any time I work downtown I find myself wandering around at lunch time. It's one of those places that gets taken for granted far too often. Everyone is in such a hurry. There are a lot of old buildings in Erie, most of which go un-noticed. The Richford Hotel is one such building. I happened to be in the area when it was very cold and windy. I'd been taking my Argus75 camera to work, because I don't have to think about light meters, tripods etc. It's a simple point & shoot, medium format camera that is a lot of fun. Shutterspeed & Aperture are fixed as is the focus. You could call it an early version of the instamatic. I have to respool the film onto 620 size spools, but it's not that bad. Here is one of the images I took last week at Perry Square during the cold wintry lunch hour.