Day 31: Self-portrait with camera, mac and blog

Day 31: Self portrait with camera, mac and blog
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Here's where I've been sitting most evenings for the past 31 days. It's been good. I counted the shots: Six were planned; 12 were semi-planned; 13 were completely unplanned. Which were my favorites? "Whichever I had posted most recently". Looking back however, I'm quite fond of the old house w/piano, Sam and friend at the Y and Cheerio. Several of you liked Chalk Whispers, Flat Top @ Lemon Drop, Molly & Kiera Dance, and Summer Reading Perch.

If you'd like a print of some of the pics for your home viewing pleasure, let me know your favorites and I'll order some up.

Thanks to Heather. XO. Thanks to all of you for stopping by over the past 31 days. Thanks to whoever invented the digital camera and the Internet. Thanks to dad for putting a camera in my hands. - Jim

Watering

Watering
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Heather waters the new flowers in front of our house. The last 3 days of pictures were taken within about 25 feet of each other. It's been a close to home weekend for me . . . I haven't traveled more than 100 feet from my house since Friday night.

After dinner at our fire bowl chat table

After dinner at our fire bowl chat table
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

We have been fortunate to have a regular group of 5 families get together for a year and a half on Sunday evenings for dinner and laughs. Here, Heather (in red on white chair) enjoys a story with (going clockwise) her mom, Tessa, John, Paul and Hannah on some new outdoor furniture we got today for the stone circle on our side yard.

. . . and there are two firsts for the photoblog . . . the scene of yesterday's picture of the butterfly is contained in this shot. The butterfly picture was taken on the background steps leading to the back yard. . . and it's a pole aerial photo taken with my camera mounted on top of a 20 foot pole.

Swallow Tail

Swallow Tail
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

I believe this is a female tiger swallowtail which I found sunning itself on our side steps. Looks like something swallowed part of her tail.

Flowers and Dirt

Flowers and Dirt
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

My sister Michelle and I put out memorial flowers on our dad's headstone at Miller Cemetery just outside of our hometown in rural Indiana. The town florist asked us "What theme are you striving for in your memorial flower decoration?" We weren't thinking about "themes", but saw some nice sunflowers with cattails . . . and decided to go with a "theme" of flowers we'd see around the family's golf course.

It was a beautiful morning and I was glad to be there with my sister, but we felt the closeness of dad's passing as we contemplated the grassless patch over the burial site.

Flat Top at the Lemon Drop

Flat top at the Lemon Drop
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

I snapped this pic while at The Lemon Drop diner in Anderson, Indiana with my friend John Mallett.

Bill Pitts, the owner of the diner since 1972 was a friend of my father's. Bill (in the white shirt) is constantly in motion alternating between the grill, the storeroom phone and the cash register.

When dad and I would go out to eat, just the two of us, this is the place we'd go.

The joint was unchanged; which was comforting to me. Even the water spigot that was leaking the last time I was here with dad was still running freely.

Cheerio

Cheerio
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

After swimming at the YMCA, Heather enjoys a bowl of Cherrios while sitting on the back steps of our house.

Pitcher Street House

Pitcher Street House
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Today I was begging for a picture. By 7:35 PM I hadn't taken a photo, so I went to scope out a few of my favorite downtown Kalamazoo subjects: the Amtrak Train Depot, the old Gibson Guitar Factory and Bruno's Pizza. All three of my planned subjects just didn't have anything special to offer today. The lighting was generally bad and the buildings were lifeless. Then I remembered this house near Louie's Tavern that I had photographed before in the early morning in the dead of summer. It was a good subject 2 years ago when I last visited it and when I hopped out of my car to snap a shot today, the cold front clouds and the defoliated dandilions framed this house in a new way.

At the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery

At the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Molly mistakenly calls this place the "Fish Factory".

I went for the easy photo op with Sam and Molly while on an Audubon Society of Kalamazoo trip to the local fish hatchery.

Clare's Storeroom

Clare's Storeroom
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

A former neighbor of ours, Clare, taught me some basics of woodworking and general household repairs during the 9 years we were neighbors. He once told me that he bought his little Milwood Bungalow in 1964 because, "It was the one that was most plumb and square, corner to corner". So goes the practical nature of this good friend who is never out of arm's reach of a tape measure and a T-square.

My friend Greg Cavey, a fine woodworker himself, and I visited Clare this afternoon and he gave us the full tour of his workshop. He custom built 5 or 6 of these hardware storage cabinets in this picture to fit the peanut butter, jam and baby food jars that he'd collected over the years.

I once needed a bolt for a 1940's Schwinn bicycle that I have. I went to the hardware store, brought home the bolt that seemed to be the right size and tried threading it to the old nut, but the thread just didn't seem to line up. I called the two locally owned, old timey hardware stores in town and nether could help me with the oddly threaded nut. They were stumped.

I talked to Clare about my difficulty in finding the bolt to which he replied, "Do you reckon it has what they call a German threading?" I didn't know. He said, "After the war, they stopped making those, so I just kept a couple around if I needed one." He went down to his workshop, swung open this cabinet and handed me a bolt that fit the nut perfectly.

Boots

Energy Man
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

A Consumers Energy man in a HUGE truck calls in to HQ to get a load reading for a transformer on our street.

Molly and Kiera Dance

Molly and Kiera Dance
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Molly and Kiera do a little free form interpretive dance in an empty fountain at Western Michigan University after their Montessori School's Spring Concert.

Campus Market

Campus Market
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Dry goods

Along the Michigan Central Train Line

Along the Michigan Central Line
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

The last house on the edge of town in Galesburg, Mich along the 100+ year-old Michigan Central Line that connects Kalamazoo with Battle Creek.

Summer Reading Perch

Summer Reading Perch
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Here's the view from my favorite summer reading spot: our backyard tree house. This afternoon I read Walker Evans' "Many Are Chosen" photo book of 1930's New York City Subway passengers.

Father and Son

Father and Son
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Duane and Elbert Ratliff.

This B&W picture was taken in the early 1980's when my dad, Duane, moved back to his boyhood home of Middletown, Indiana to assume the management of the family business, Valley View Golf Course. In the early 1960's, my grandfather, Elbert VanDyne Ratliff along with his wife, Vivian and a handful of friends from the rural community, worked the land on the family's dairy farm to change it into an 18-hole golf course.

It never seemed to me that the transfer of ownership and the handing over of the reins of daily management at the golf course was an easy one for Dad and Grandpa, as is the case with many transfers of the old guard to the new, but when I came across this photo that my dad likely developed and printed in his darkroom, it . . . well, it had a lot of emotion for me because I don't recall ever seeing a photo of them together where they were even close to an embrace. And they seem happy and at ease together.

Also of note is the leather 3-ring binder in the background. It is emblematic of many of my dad's possessions in that it is decades old (likely from the 1960's), clearly used but well cared for and in perfect working order, it smells like the combination of sterile veterinary supplies and mildew that permeated dad's basement workshop, and most of all, it has that little leather zipper pull tab. One of dad's MANY hobbies included leather working. These tabs were not works of art like some of his handywork, but he made these little leather tabs to improve the ease of pulling a zipper for everything from golf bags, to parkas to duffle bags to shotgun carrying cases to 3-ring binders. And the leather he used always matched the item in style, thickness and length.

K'zoo Folklife Fiddles at Kraftbrau

K'zoo Folklife Fiddles at Kraftbrau
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Fiddle players saw into a driving reel at this season's last Old Time Music Jam at Kalamazoo's Kraftbrau Brewery. My friend Kent Fisher (wearing the hat) of the Brook Farm String Band is the long- time mainstay of these sessions. He has traveled many times to Appalacia to visit with and transcribe tunes from old time fiddle players. My favorite tune that he plays at the jam sessions is Elzic's Farewell. A driving reel in A minor.

State Theater Show

State Theater Show
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Sam enjoying a Popeye cartoon on the big screen at the State Theater as part of the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International.

Neighborhood Potluck

Neighborhood Potluck
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

At the neighborhood potluck at our house Friday night, Ken tells his May 13, 1980 Kalamazoo Tornado Story.

Cathedral Labyrinth Kite Aerial Photo

Cathedral and Labyrinth Kite Aerial Photo
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Here's Kalamazoo's Christ the King Cathedral with its most excellent hedge labyrinth. Labyrinths are one of my favorite Kite Aerial Photography targets and this one, in particular, is a dandy . . . and only a few miles from my house. Today was one of the rare days where I've had decent light and a steady wind from the East which allowed me to fly my kite to the West (camera facing East) which allowed a shot of the labyrinth in the foreground with the Cathedral behind framed by the tree filled neighborhood.

At the Corner of Rose & Water Streets

At the Corner of Rose & Water Streets
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

What do you make of this!?

He's still alive

He's still alive
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Stick with me here; it's quite a story. Last night in the woods around our house, Heather and I heard a wood thrush singing its ethereal flute song which got me to thinking about migratory birds. Almost every spring, I find a dead bird at work at the base of one of the floor-to-ceiling picture windows looking over the college courtyards. I had my eyes open today for one of these birds for a possible photo op, but didn't see one.

On my way home from work, on Parkview Ave where Western Michigan University has built a sprawling new campus extension on the site of a previous natural prairie area where I did breeding bird surveys a few years back, I saw an intense orange fireball of feathers streak low from the left shoulder of the road, across my front bumper and then, in my rear view mirror, flailing on the right-hand shoulder. I felt inclined to stop for both the reasons of a possible picture for this blog and to face up to the karma of wanting to find a dead bird to photograph. I parked my car and got a baggie out of my trunk that I keep for just a situation like this so that I can take these birds to a friend who legally preserves and collects birds for research and education. When I got to the bird, it was panting and blinking its eyes.

I wasn't prepared for that.

I decided to snap a picture and do something with the bird when I heard a woman shout over the traffic, "Is it still alive?" I looked up and saw a 55 year-old woman who saw me looking at something as she whizzed by, wondered if it was a bird and pulled over to help. She said that her cat sometimes killed birds and that she felt bad about that and has learned to take in injured birds such as this Northern Oriole, to her house, put them in a brown bag in a cool dark place in her basement to get them calmed down and rested. She has had at least one success story of recovery and release. I gave her my baggie. She scooped up the bird, thanked me for being concerned about the little birdies and made some other comment about just being glad to know that others care enough about wildlife to pause in their busy lives to do something.

I thought yesterday's picture of the tulips had color, but the incredible orange and black of this Oriole, somewhat abstracted by the unintentional fuzzy focus, holds some deep, deep beauty.

Yellow and Green

Yellow and Green
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

When I've planted tulip bulbs in the in the past, the directions on the nylon mesh baggie always say something like, "Plant bulbs 4 inches deep and 12 inches apart". I'm glad the bulb planters here, outside the Portage District Library, didn't heed the 12 inch rule as the crowded flowerbed makes for quite a tender, thick blanket of blossoms.

HIBACH

HIBACH
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Contemplation.

For Mother's Day, we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet named "1+1" in Anderson, Indiana which offered American (Pizza, Corn on the Cob and Apple Pie) and Japanese-ish fare (Baby Octopus, Sweet & Sour Frog Legs, Sushi). Perhaps the name means American+Japanese. I thought about asking the wait staff why the restaurant was named "1+1", but both people who waited on us spoke rather fragmented English and my Japanese is non-existent, so I just let the mystery be. The name "1+1" doesn't make for a very impressive outdoor, over-the-entrance strip mall sign at the Applewood Plaza when it's competing with the likes of Target and SuperCuts, but the inside was clean and bright with a huge goldfish pond/indoor waterfall/wishing well structure thing just past the lobby and before the soft serve ice cream machine.

Concerning the man in the photo, I just kept looking at his hands and how they enveloped the ladle, dinner plate and tongs when he grasped them. Also, I saw so many people standing in a similar way, in contemplation, at the varied and interesting food options. Needless to say, the Baby Octopus and Fried Frog's Legs were most popular with young teenaged boys, like my nephew Andrew, trying to gross out their younger siblings.

Sam at Grandma's

Sam at Grandma's
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Sam at Grandma's just after a tea party.

Untitled

Untitled
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

I can think of nothing to say that would add to this picture.

Finals Week Plans

Finals Week Calendar
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

I found this discarded student calendar in the recycle bin in the library.

I can just imagine this kid's to do list for the week:

Go to Anthro class.
Pray.
Study for Math.

Quiet Together

Quiet Together
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Sam and a friend sit together before swim lessons.

Today was my hardest day of picking a favorite photo as I had several great shots to choose from. This was the most subtle pic of the 78 I shot today, but I kept comming back to its graceful lines and velvet textures.

Chalk Whispers

Chalk Whispers
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Finals Week.

I walk by this blackboard several times a week and rarely take note of its daily message. Today I stopped and listened for its whispers.

May 2. 7:26 AM

May 2. 7:26 AM
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Monday morning sun lights up the bedroom book nook.

May 1. Jolly Rancher

Jolly Ranchers and a bad cold
Originally uploaded by JaySeaAre.

Candy wrapper with two emptied blister packs of pseudoephedrine along a sidewalk in Kalamazoo.

The news is filled with stories on the rise of methamphetamine use, so when I noticed these two recently discarded medicine packs with another just a few more paces down the sidewalk not far from my neighborhood, it caught my attention.

Round Bales. Carrollton OH. Pole Aerial Photo by Jim. July 2004

Northwoods Journal

I looked up the inspirational National Geographic photographer who's Nov 1997 Northwoods Journal I mentioned earlier. His name is Jim Brandenburg. He shares some comments on his photo essay with The Trust for Public Land.

Just Something to Do

Last week I was looking at an article from Aperture magazine which reminded me of a great National Geographic pictorial where the photographer, assigned to some northern wilderness area, took on the challenge of taking one photo a day for something like 40 days. The story and resulting photos were stunning. So, for the month of May 2005, I'm going to take snap shots of my daily life events and surroundings and perhaps even post them here.

I chose May mostly because it's two days away, but also because of the symbolism of spring, starting anew and because of it being my dad's birth month. Dad, who died last summer on Father's Day, was the one who put a camera in my hands early on. He encouraged me and shared my life long interest in photography.