# 6700-03 / common places-things • picture windows • single women ~ OT New Jersey and some whiskey

December 31, 2024

SPENT THE WEEKEND IN NJ FOR THE WIFE’S family holiday get together. Snuck (aka: sneaked) out with a few family members to see-2nd time for me-A COMPLETE UNKOWN. Both the drive down and back were a Dylan music fest in a car, our car. At times it felt like we were on Highway 61.

Speaking of which, Highway 61 wise, for the Holidays Dylan gifted me a copy of his hand annotated lyrics to Subterranean Homesick Blues. It was wrapped around a bottle of his Heaven Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon Whiskey. How nice of him.

FYI, here’s a review typical of his whiskeys:

Okay, so there's something just a teensy bit creepy about naming a booze brand after a Bob Dylan song with a title that's a euphemism for dying (via YouTube). Dylan does own the distillery, though, and presumably drinks the whiskey as well, and he's still knock-knock-knockin' right along in his 80th year. By all accounts, the man is quite the whiskey aficionado, so he's not going to attach his name to any old plonk. While not all celebrity-branded booze lives up to the hype, Heaven's Door Master Blender's Edition seems to be well worth the price. You can still pick up a bottle for around $100, which is not bad at all considering its striking Dylan-designed artwork.

BTW, not all of his whiskeys are $100 but, that written, I do have one (2020 edition) that was $650 off the shelf, now selling for $1,000-2,000+ a bottle. That’s why I have 2 bottles-one to drink, one (it was a gift) to hang on to for later sale as the supply dries up. The 2019 edition is currently selling in the $3,000+ range - iMo, this is a rather bizarre / ridiculous absurdity not unlike, say, buying a “bargain” priced, used Leica M4 for $7,557.29.

For the record, I do not buy whiskey as an investment. I buy it to drink it cuz, ya know, I enjoy it.

FYI, the design on the bottle is of one of his much sought after iron gates; gates he makes in his iron working studio that are put together with scrap metal he gathers while on tour.

# 6594-99 / common places-things • kitchen sink • landscape ~ over the river (lake) and thru the woods

December 24, 2024

***Vermont as seen across Lake Champlain*** (6th largest lake in North America-120 miles long and 13-miles at its widest point)

CROSSED LAKE CHAMPLAIN INTO VERMONT AND went to Middlebury, a quaint college town, to do some Yuletide season shopping. The main street is lined with a number of small, eclectic gift laden shops. 5 miles out of town we drove into a snow storm which created a stereotypical winter wonderland vibe. Throw in a roaring waterfall along side of the main street and a late pub lunch and it was a grand day out; although, no visions of sugar plums dancing in my head were to be had.

In any event, Merry Holidays to all and to all…goodnight (and no, rest assured that I am not saying goodbye, blog wise.)

#6594 / common places • common things ~ blog note

December 19, 2024

IT HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY CHALLENGING TO address / create the written content of this blog. That is not cuz I’m bored or due to a waning desire to do so, rather, it’s just that after 20 years of blogging, I seem to have exhausted the reservoir of things to write about-without repeating myself over and over-re: the medium of photography and its apparatus.

As I have written previously, my desire for this blog is to keep it focused on things photography/ic and to avoid, at all costs, turning it into a chit-chatty coffee klatch about pool tables, swimming, tea, et al, and, god forbid, photo gear. Ya know what I’m talking about; like all the OT stuff on TOP. With all due respect and sympathy, no doubt it seems that Mike Johnston has essentially exhausted his reservoir of things photography as well.

That written, the photo-related blogosphere-like blogging in general-has pretty much run its course. This blog keeps limping along with 1.1K visits, 880 unique visitors, and 1.7K page views a month, a fraction of its former numbers. However, the numbers do not tell the whole story; use to be that there was quite a respectable number of comments about my various posted ideas, thoughts, and musings which instigated interesting discussions of sorts-an exchange of ideas and musing. There were even bounce-back, vying opinions expressed on other photo blogs. iMo, unfortunately, all that is long gone.

FYI, the reason I began blogging was 2-fold; a) to get my photos seen, and, b) more importantly, to get my thoughts and ideas, re: the medium and its apparatus, outa my head-for all the world to see-and down on paper (virtual paper, that is) in an effort to understand / sort it all out what the hell I was doing, photography wise (and, I might add, item b has been well served in that regard). If that proved to be of interest for others, so be it. If not, it is not like I was taking up too much space.

All that written, at least for the immediate future, nothing much is gonna change here on lifesquared. Although, an important element of my upcoming New Year’s Resolution is to do a significant, fine-tuned / focused update to my WORK page.

# 6589-93 / unusual place • unusual things ~ ho, ho, ho

December 18, 2024

‘TIS THE SEASON, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la, so the wife and I and our friend Robert went to the North Pole, a little village-just a few minutes away from our house-located in North Pole , NY., the home of Santa’s workshop.

North Pole, NY is an actual place with a ZIP code and a Post Office-you can send Xmas cards to friends and family postmarked NORTH POLE. Nestled on the low north side of Whiteface mountain, the village contains 15 buildings and handful of kiddie-sized amusement park type rides. The village was founded in 1949 and is considered to be the world’s first theme park. Its peak attendance day was in July, 1951 when 14,000 Santa seekers showed up. My first visit was in the summer of 1958(ish). Somewhere in the family archives is a picture of me peeking around the very same North Pole pictured above.

It is truly somewhat of a miracle and, most assuredly, a labor of love that has preserved and kept this 75 year old time capsule alive and kicking. It should have a National Historic Landmark designation.

# 6585-88 / pinhole * common places-things ~ pin perfect

December 10, 2024

WOKE UP THIS MORNING AND DECIDED I NEEDED TO make some new pinhole photographs for my pinhole collection. That meant hauling out the µ4/3 camera and mounting the pinhole “lens” in place of the regular lens. It also meant setting the ISO to 1250>2000 cuz the actual pinhole opening is the equivalent of an f125 aperture. FYI, the effective focal length is 22mm.

Yet another adjustment must be made to regular picturing routines; the camera’s viewing screen is basically a blank black screen making framing essentially a guessing game. That written, I kinda like that aspect of pinhole picture making cuz there is always a surprise or two along the way.

In any event, I would emphatically recommend giving it a try. There are many pinhole “lens” available for most cameras and they are not expensive. And, it is as “loose”-there ain’t a lot to shuffle and fret about-a way to make photographs as there is. Just let go of all the its-gotta-be-”perfect” crap and be open to surprises. You may actually learn a few things and grow as a picture maker.

# 6579-84 / landscape • instax • film ~ I contain multitudes

December 3, 2024

MICHAEL JOHNSTON’S CALL FOR BAKER’S DOZEN submissions, re: film, got me to thinking about, well…film. Or, to be precise, making pictures with film and submitting one of my pictures that was made using film.

So, I took a trip down memory lane, picture making wise, and rummaged around looking for files of scans made from ancient pictures made using film. Came across a number of submission possibilities but ended up choosing one of the pictures from my death in ER series as the “winner” and sent it on to T.O.P.. That choice was based upon the fact that it depicts something ya don’t see or picture everyday and it was made with a camera-WIDELUX 1500 (120 film)-very few have ever seen much less used. Which got me to thinking…

….back in the good ol’ days, I used so many different cameras-35mm/120mm cameras, multiple view cameras 4x5>8x10, multiple Polaroid cameras, 2 different rotating lens panoramic cameras, half-frame cameras and other exotica + way too many film variants to mention. All of which I used to photograph all manner of things….which got me to thinking about Bob Dylan’s song I Contain Multitudes in which he wrote/sang:

“….I paint landscapes, and I paint nudes
I contain multitudes”

In any event and all of that written, it begs the question, do I miss it? Answer: kinda but not with much of a sense of longing to repeat it. To be precise, I do miss the look of C prints made from 8x10 color negatives. Nothing in the digital world equals it. In addition it is also worth noting that most of my family and friends and family/friends gatherings, events, etc. were photographed with the use of Polaroid cameras and films. And, I have thousands of prints to show for it.

While I am never going back to photographing with an 8x10 view camera, I have added a instant print feature to my family/friends and events picturing activity; the addition of an INSTAX printer to my out-and-about kit. Just as making a Polaroid picture and passing it around was a big hit in the past, making a “snapshot” with my iPhone, sending it to the INSTAX printer and then passing that instant print around incites exactly the same kinda hit. And so, my INSTAX print collection grows and grows and grows.

A bit of photography history, re: the instant prints in this entry: In the book, The Art of the American Snapshot in the chapter titled, Fun under the Shade of the Mushroom Cloud - 1940-1959,

… Praised as a “worthwhile recreation” that teaches “observation, alertness, and patience.” photography was also an extremely popular diversion in the late 1940s and 1950s… by late 1944 and 1945, more Americans from all walks of life made more photographs than ever before… in the 50s as Hollywood opened the to the bedroom, snapshooters also began to share some of their secrets with their cameras, giving glimpses of what they did in the privacy of their homes… Not wanting to be left out of this profitable market, Polaroid advertised how it “Perks up a party” and suggested to hostesses that they throw a “Polaroid Picture Party”….

I believe that Polaroid was ideally suited to implementing the idea that “snapshooters also began to share some of their secrets with their cameras, giving glimpses of what they did in the privacy of their homes”. While some were snapping away at “secrets” with their Brownie cameras, Polaroid pictures came straight out of the camera thus avoiding the possibility of censorship and the potential embarrassment of trying to have your film processed at the corner drugstore or eventually at Fotomat.

In fact, although I do not know how it could organized but a curated exhibition of “snapshooter” photographs-let’s call it “erotica”-could be fascinating to see. I’d bet there must be hundred of thousands, if not millions, of such photos out there hiding in closets or under beds.

FYI, I never threw a Polaroid Picture Party” but I did take a Polaroid camera to a lot of parties.