Nebraska City

In Nebraska City today, an old man stopped his car near where I was photographing the side of an old truck, rolled the window down, and asked me just what the hell I was doing. I told him I was just taking pictures of random things. He said that his wife still used a camera with 110 film. It surprised him when I said that was actually pretty hip at the moment. When I told him about my travels in Nebraska and the little details I like to capture, he made a sort of strange face.

"The world has more than enough pretty landscape pictures," I said. The old man thought about it a second. "I bet you'd have better luck selling them though."

We said goodbye and he drove away.

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Nebraska City is one of those places that is just plain... nice. The town's main street is sort of idyllic with mom 'n pop diners and locally owned shops, and the people are always friendly. It lies nestled in the hills above the Missouri River so the recent flooding hasn't had much effect, outside of what's shown in the photograph above.

I did notice that the business that once held a small showing of Ben Richter and I's work a few years back is no longer there. It's been replaced by yet another attempt at an antique store.

It's still hot in Nebraska, unfortunately. The heat index isn't 115 anymore, but I'm still anxious for fall to get here all the same.

Nebraska City

near Lake Waconda

Kodak Ektar 100

My prior experience with color film was largely with Fujifilm's now defunct NPS 160. It produced a low contrast image with a lot of exposure latitude, something that gave images a certain look that I was really into at the time. This look stuck with me as I began shooting ninety-three. Over time, my tastes changed (and my processing skills improved) and I've settled on a bit different look for my images.

Recently, I've been shooting with about as new of a color film that exists in this now digital world. Kodak Ektar 100 was introduced in the fall of 2008. Ektar is an unusual sort of film, a negative film that behaves a lot like a slide film. It's more forgiving than most slide films, but offers a lot more contrast than typical negative films.

I have recently found myself drawn to the Kodachrome images of photographers like William Christenberry and Saul Leiter rather than the sort of pristine perfection of someone like Stephen Shore's large format work. With this in mind, Ektar has been the perfect film for a somewhat sloppy photographer like myself to come back to. It's not as picky about exposure as slide film, but has a certain look that is pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Ektar is very sharp film with a fine grain structure. It appears to scan well from what I've seen so far, although I'm without a scanner to really dig into just how much detail is there. Even the machine scanned files look pretty good printed at 18x12, if a little short on resolution upon close examination.

I've settled on Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas for film processing and basic scanning. The quality is top notch and they offer a fast turn around. I send a few rolls out in a Priority Mail flat-rate box and I get a package back in the mail a week later. The wait has taken some getting used to, but it's been worth it. The results are great and it's immensely satisfying to carry around this tiny camera and lens that are worth less than $100 altogether.

I'm looking to debut the South Omaha photographs sometime next year, perhaps in May at Hot Shops Art Center. Stay tuned for more details, as they say.

Independence Day

This 4th of July finds me once again searching South Omaha for photographs. It's a fantastic day, not entirely too hot, and just enough clouds to make for good images. Everywhere I walked, the loud bang of a firework was never too far away and sometimes close enough to startle me. You never know how people will react to a strange bearded guy wandering around with a camera around his neck.

The project is slowly moving forward. I was happy with much of the last four rolls I got back from Dwayne's and have another three ready to go out in the mail. Above is a photograph of the back of some of the businesses along 24th Street.

At this point, I'm thinking I'd like to have a small show to reveal the work. It's been too long since I've exhibited anything.