Recent shot of Arbus on Kentmere 400 film developed in Caffenol Delta formula.

This was the map put out by Storm Prediction Center a day or two before the storms.

This is what it looked like on storm radar for the southern portion of the storm - Alpena is where my brother lives.

Wheeler , KS

Idalia, Colorado

The first two images are from an interesting cemetery near the intersection of Highway36 and Kansas 27.  It is near the town of Wheeler and St. Francis.

As I frequently do, I take the back roads to my job in Kansas and I have started to routinely go thru Cope, Colorado which is very close to the Colorado-Kansas border.  On the Grainery.app I found someone who also takes photos in Cope which is really random and rare given that this town is almost defunct.  So without announcing this as a competition we each show the other our latest “captures”

This roll of film was shot on Adox Color Mission which is a re-release of one of their older formulas.  At first I wasn’t sure what was so special about the film but this roll really sparkled for me, especially the rendering of the blue sky.  I also processed this myself using Cinestill’s 2 bath kit.

Pretty much the last person I would trust.  He’s an Oligarch and that’s the problem. He does what he wants and virtually has no one to answer to.

Before going to dinner we went to the Denver Art Museum for a quick look at a photography exhibition called “Other People’s Photographs”

Then it was onto Fire - the restaurant inside the Art Hotel.  They also had some nice art on the inside

Went to History Colorado last weekend.  Took the Olympus OM-4 with Ilford HP5+.  This roll was developed in Cafenol ( Delta formula)

On my last trip to Kansas I went on Highway 36 which takes you thru Cope, Colorado.  It has some interesting buildings there some of which are abandoned.  Over on Grainery.app there is another photographer who has several Cope pictures which is insane to think that there’s anyone stopping by to take pictures but there you are.

This photo was shot on Ilford HP5+ and developed in Caffenol Delta formula.  I was surprised that it even came out and not really a bad negative.

This exhibit is both part of the Denver Month of Photography and an exhibit at History Colorado.  

This is from the photographer himself:

During the fall of 1966, working as a VISTA volunteer in East St. Louis, Illinois, I purchased a Canon SLR camera and started to photograph fellow volunteers and anything that caught my eye. In time, my passion for photography grew and I was looking for a school to learn commercial photography. I graduated from Colorado Mountain College in 1975 with an associate’s degree in commercial photography. 

I worked for a variety of photo businesses in the 70’s and 80’s and started my own business in the mid 80’s. I was working as a photojournalist and specializing in portrait photography and creating abstract photo images. In the mid 90’s I started to lose a significant amount of my vision and was legally blind. I have been living with vision loss for 24 years. Even with this small amount of vision, I continue to photograph. 

After closing my business in 2003, I was hired to work in a Base Supply Center at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. Envision is a nonprofit agency that is aimed at helping the blind community gain independence through knowledge and skill. The photos shown on the website are a variety of black and white, and a series of color jump shots. The jump photos guide us away from the anxiety of the pandemic and energize us with fun and humor!

Vine of Death: John Davenport

February 17 – March 5, 2023

Pirate Contemporary Art

Opening Reception: Friday, February 17, 6 – 1o pm

Artist Talk: Saturday, March 4, 2 pm

In Vine of Death, artist John Davenport addresses his father’s career at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and his role in producing chemical weapons of mass destruction. This is John Davenport’s second exhibition as a full Member of Pirate Contemporary Art.

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) was a United States Army chemical weapons manufacturing and storage facility located in Commerce City, Colorado. The site was originally established in 1942 to produce chemical weapons and later expanded to include the production of pesticides and herbicides.

During its operation, the RMA produced a variety of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin, and VX nerve gas. In addition to the production of chemical weapons, the site was also used for the storage and disposal of hazardous waste.

In the 1980s, concerns were raised about the environmental impact of the RMA, particularly the contamination of nearby water sources and soil. The site was eventually designated as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1987, and a cleanup effort began.

The cleanup effort at the RMA was one of the largest and most complex in Superfund history, and it took nearly three decades to complete. The site was officially declared clean in 2010 and was turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for use as a national wildlife refuge. - Chat  GPT

His mixed media display was very interesting.  I have spent lots of time at the Arsenal since it’s conversion to a wildlife sanctuary but we should not lose the history of what this once was.

Poisonous Vines and Bombs

I had a great chat with John about the many dangerous places in Colorado - The Arsenal, Rocky Flats Plutonium Plant, Cheyenne Mountain where NORAD was housed and was ground zero for any nuclear exchange with the Russians.  All three have been decommissioned though the Rocky Flats is still highly contaminated underground.

I recently had the chance to walk down one of the main streets of Goodland, Kansas.  I found the facades to be quite interesting.  To be sure I think this downtown area has seen better times. 

This is a common theme in the Midwest - trying to tell you what to do.  Don’t get an Abortion, Pray to Jesus, Don’t do Drugs.  There is the famous sign on the way out of Garden City, KS that says Eat Beef - Stay Slim .  Well let me tell you if you you only ate beef and left off the double stuffed potatoes, Salad Bars piled high with shit that isn’t salad then you would stay slim.  But this is not how Americans rolls ( BTW you have to leave off the rolls too)

I have been a big fan of Diane Arbus for a long time.  So much so that my dachshund - lab mix was named Arbus.  Diane is known for taking photos of “freaks” and given that my dog is definitely different I thought Arbus was an appropriate name.  Her reputation for taking pictures of freaks was and is inaccurate.  Susan Sontag in a famous editorial slammed her for taking advantage of people on the fringes.  Arbus on the other hand called her subjects freaks because that’s what they called themselves.  And how convenient for Sontag to attack Arbus several years after her death by suicide.  I suspect that Sontag never spoke to Arbus to get a better understanding of her style of photography and selection of subjects.  On the other hand in previous blog posts I’ve indicated my disdain for Sontag - her book ” On Photography” is to me an incomprehensible word salad.  People still swoon over her.  Anyway please enjoy this short YouTube.

The three notable photographers who took up color when it came available were Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter and William Eggleston.  This is a brief video of Ernst Haas book on New York.  There is a much longer YouTube on Ernst Haas that is worth watching

How can you travel to thee states going from Colorado to Kansas when Kansas is on the eastern border of Colorado?  Simple you go Colorado- Nebraska then Kansas

Some of the sites along the way:

Yuma, CO

Haigler, NE

Otis, Colorado

ditto

ditto

Last of the Otis Pics

My only comment is WTF?

Early morning at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Preserve.  Shot on my iPhone.  Love the clouds behind the bison.  It was cold out so the bison are usually out and about feeding.  In the Summer they tend to hang out by the trees for shade.

This is an excerpt from a F1 Alphabet Book meant for little readers.

My sister in law, Julie gave me some out of date color film to see if I could use it.  First roll was a disaster - this is from the 2nd roll.  It’s Kodak 800 that I decided to process as Black and White ( only because the cost to develop C41 is intense and BW I can do myself).  Decided to “pull” the fill by shooting it at ISO 200 ( two stop pull) and then developed it in Kodak HC110B for 6 min.  The film curled terribly but I have a scanner that can handle this.  So there you go folks.

Thanks Julie