Mielke Photography

Photography like so many things in life is constantly learning. I have been on my photographic journey for some time. Along the way I have met many helpful people. Many of the pictures in the enclosed album came about through conversation. I read blogs, subscribe to groups, and listen to podcasts. I also look at many pictures in magazines and online. The hand pictures wouldn’t be here without the comment in one of the groups I frequent. He said as a musician, I always look at the hands. The hand pictures wouldn’t be there without interfacing with other photographers and people. How does their activity make them feel, think and act. What’s important to them. I know the only picture I currently have printed from my recent wedding is our hands and the ring sliding on.

There are many ways to learn in photography and to take pictures. Sometimes being a casual observer helps and other times you have to jump in and be apart of what your seeing, learn more and get more ideas for what might be interesting when you capture it in your lens.

I love the Renaissance Faire. You can step back in time, be someone else, act differently and see so many different costumes and groups that one might not normally see. The care that some people put into costuming is remarkable. I’m also always surprised at the number of women who are able to defy gravity with their costuming! Truly a wonderful place to sight see meet people and to take people pictures.

I chose the S5 for these pictures because it allows me the most exposure latitude as well as colors. I also chose to shoot Jpg. The S5 is a wonderful camera, but can be slow if shooting in RAW. There are ways to speed it up some. Using the correct CF cards is the best way, but regardless, there might still be delays as the buffer empties itself at times. The camera is great for contemplative photography, but if you need it for action, you might miss some shots. Since people are always changing their expressions and moving at the Faire, I opted for Jpg.

I also met another photographer doing a much more professional job. Mark Meier. He had is D3 with a 300 F/2.8 lens as well as a D2X with a WHITE 70-200 lens. The white 70-200 is the first one I had seen with my own eyes. His pictures can be viewed here. We could have had dueling 70-200s. One in black and one in white, but with be lowly S5 against the D3 I don’t know as I had a shot. Now in the color department that would be a different matter.

For the photographs, please visit here.

Track day. Now my daughter would just go crazy with so many horses about her. For whatever reason when one is blessed with two X chromosomes for some reason a love of horses goes along with it. For her this would have been one amazing day, but she would have wanted to touch and grab and be apart of the fun. Now as far as the whipping, I don’t know how that would have went.

I am not a gambler. I will purchase photography equipment like there is no tomorrow and frequently for some reason I think there is where that is concerned. Ask me to place a bet on most anything and I can’t. Not that I think it’s wrong or not moral, I literally can’t place a bet. I had a buddy who got married and took a trip out to Vegas to do it. I flew out to be his best man and also to get some pictures of Bryce Canyon. He gave me $50 because in all of the years since preschool he has known me he had never seen me gamble. There would be big games in his basement with people all over and I would watch. Some would think it’s not fun to watch, well I am amazed. I just couldn’t spend that $50…it seemed wrong. I could have however purchased something with it or even ate it, but to gamble it away! I can walk through Vegas and not drop a quarter in a slot or even a penny. I just don’t have it in me.

Horse racing is like that as well, but the Million! Well that is different. Until I had a run in with a bad machine I was gearing up to spend my vast little fortune on some horses…since that time in 2007, well now I’m back to I just can’t. I still love going. Crowds were down this year though. Maybe racing has gotten a bad name or maybe just the price of Gas and Milk has gotten us down, but it wasn’t even close to as busy as past years.

The park looked great and who couldn’t love sitting out on a sunny day dressed up and ready to drink an eat. I purchased a liquid refreshment the Millionaire, the signature drink and got down to taking pictures.

I have been stretching some recently. I have been trying to take more people pictures…or people in public pictures. This is something I just started, I’ve also wanted to see what I could do with a wide-angle lens to show more of an environmental portrait. The lens was the Tokina 11-16 and other than the photographer gelling his flash a bit too much. (I took it out in post) I really liked the results.

You can look at the photos here.

Made a trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens with a new toy. I have been holding off on the Nikon 14-24 for sometime now. I fist tried the 15-30 and for the most part I liked it. You can see some samples from my gallery here. Most of the shots of Eureka, AR downtown were taken with that lens. With the rest of my lenses being of the AFS or HMS variety I really was looking forward to faster focus. Then came the Sigma 12-24 HMS. It arrived on my doorstep, not to long before a scheduled family outing at the gardens. I received a used one from KEH, one of my favorite places to get used equipment. I can’t complain about the equipment or the service. I went used since I didn’t want to take the downward pricing that takes place if I went new. Especially since I wasn’t really happy with the Sigma 15-30 I didn’t want to have alot of unsatisfactory glass on the way.

I couldn’t have been more pleased with this lens…on my D3, this is very WWWIIIDDDEEE. Since my skills needed some honing behind this hunk of lens I was more than happy to mount it on the D3 for the first part of the trip. I have also been working on my mundane shots that fill in the scene. For the most part I had some success, until of course later in the set I was distracted by flowers and sunsets.

The Botanic Gardens is one of my favorite places to go. Especially during a weeknight, on this case Friday, we found ourselves practically alone, after a good dinner and some liquid refreshment we were off.

What a great find, with the family members helping me spot exciting things to photograph, I came up with beetles, hummingbird moths, swans, ducks, fish and of course flowers. It is called the Gardens afterall. The 105VR served me very well on the flowers, with the R1C1 attached to it, I couldn’t have had a better macro kit.

The family had an enjoyable time and I captured towards the end of the evening some off-camera lighting. As all know I have been working very hard on this portion for quite some time and I am getting close to liking the results that I have gotten recently.

Hope you enjoy the shots included…more from our trip can be located here. Comment either here or in the picture pages.

This is my son. I also have my daughter in this photo as well. She is starting into the phase where dad won’t be cool. She is 7, it will get far worse than it is today. As you see from this picture my son has his arm around her and she is sitting quietly next to him. She is just starting to understand that Tyler is slightly different than she is. Her friends already understand that. Since I am new to this blogging thing and sharing all of the little things that matter in life. All of those items that get my blood boiling or raise up my passion as I reside on this planet that rings around a sun some million of miles away. I as a man am not against sharing of my feelings. When I was in desperate need of therapy and some may say that I still am, I had a counselor tell me that almost everyone knows how I feel about whatever interests and passions I might have. I overshare.

There is a new movie starting today. For some reason beyond what I might understand as Tyler’s father or as Alexa’s the writer of said movie seems to want to poke fun at going “Full retard” It’s something that actors are not suppose to do. I will not name said film, I would rather not give it anymore publicity than it has already had. I will not be seeing this film…I do not find the phrase “don’t go full retard” to be funny. I am not an activist, nor do I even pretend to be one. I am just Tyler’s father. I do get up in arms about the state of the world probably more than others. A favorite show of mine is PTI. Tony Kornheiser refers many times to Wilbon’s America. Well I have always had My World. In My world many things don’t ever happen. So much of life I just plain don’t get and don’t understand. Frankly I’m still trying to figure out what happened to Kenny Rogers. Given time and succes, I’m certain you will read more of those here. For now we will look at Full retard.

I’m very afraid this will just take off. We will see it on shirts and on coffee cups, it’s a catchy phrase and most don’t seem to understand even what “retarded” means. It means you have mental retardation and an IQ below 70. People who are at this mental capacity seem to be the last bastion of groups that can get picked on. Some fling it around like it means the word stupid, Oh that is retarded I’ve heard on more instances than I can remember. An author on a photo blog that I used to go to used it here. If you look at the number of times he has written retard or retarded, he has issues. Granted he writes alot, but I don’t know as I found that many references to stupid. It’s his go-to word to discuss things lacking in intelligence. I wrote this author and his response told me that how he used it to celebrate retarded people. I tried to be more clear on why I thought his use was hurtful and he never responded back. I find his incredible number of uses of the word both demeaning and unacceptable. I don’t go there. If any others have a problem with how he uses the world please email him at Ken@kenrockwell.com and share your thoughts. I wouldn’t expect a response though.

I read a book after Tyler was born titled Expecting Adam many thing I could identify with during the magical time before Tyler was born in a happy way and after he was here in a maturing way. Things were just different many good and many bad. In the book the author goes to great length to show how these had an affect on her life. She grows from her overacheiving self to see just how shallow and ignorant many of the Harvard people are. She likes to dress her son in Harvard sweatshirts and refers to him at times as the retarded kid. It pained me to here the last words, I found these scenes to be borderline darkly humerous at her son’s expense. Not having had her experiances though, I also believe it to be a coping mechanism after Adam’s birth. Coming to acceptance that Adam won’t go to Harvard nor achieve as much intellecutally as she has. Other than these scenes it is truly a wonderful book.

Now onto this movie that is opening today. We brand some poeople retarded by how they look, act and speak. Since as of today we don’t carry signs around our necks with our IQ, how else can we tell. My son at 8 runs up to me when he sees me…it’s like he has first met me after a long break. Sometimes that is a couple of days and sometimes that is only an hour. He jumps differently, runs much slower and less athletically and looks slightly different than my daughter. He can barely speak, but when he said Dad for the first time at 5 it was an amazing day. He might not ever read, nor achieve so many of the things that I take for granted. None of these bother him. He walks with a wobbly gate, he is an incredible Wii bowler though.

As he walked down the block one day some to play with Alexa, two boys called him a retard. I ask how did they know? I don’t even know what my son’s IQ is. I could find out, but until recently I didn’t even know my own. Some may dispute it, but it truly is above 70. So in Ben Stiller’s world we don’t want to go full retard. I’m glad he had a choice in it. Some don’t. We don’t make a choice on intelligence it just is. When Tyler was conceived he got an extra chromosome. Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome. In a world where everything is extra sized, mega or supersized I always say I am chromosomly challenged being in the condition that I’m in with only 2. By the way it’s Down and not Down’s, but thats another rant. I’m truly glad that some will laugh at this line, in there world they had a choice as well. Tyler and millions of others didn’t. Count yourself lucky in your world. Me I count myself lucky in mine to have Tyler in mine. The boy’s down the block didn’t play with Tyler, they sent him home. I give Alexa credit, she went with him.

Maybe some laughing at Stiller’s joke might also have an IQ below 70 and not know it because they are of the supposed “normal” looking and acting group on this planet. The actor uttering the line continues to get second chances despite amazingly not throwing his life away in some form of drug use for years. We still like him. He takes drugs, goes into rehab he comes back. That is his life. Though I would personally question his IQ, it must work for him at the end of the year on his W-2 is alot more than on mine.

I don’t think of Tyler as “retarded” I think of him as Tyler. In my world he could be or he might not. I live day to day with what he does and how he lives and acts. I worry that some won’t accept him for who he is before they even meet him and then I shouldn’t. It’s there own ignorance and that shouldn’t concern me.

During one of my rants on the aforementioned movie I was told it’s just a word Chris, why should it concern you so much, why care that much. Teach Tyler how to act when the word is thrown to him. Good sentiments for certain. I am mostly a pacifist and a chicken. I run from fights or turn my head the other way. As a person I would be Switzerland. I didn’t understand why I was so passionate nor couldn’t turn my head until now. I wish I had told this person this. I am my son’s father, his champion. I will defend him and love him regardless of who he is, what he does or how he acts. If there is a time that he understands what is said to him and about him I will let him handle it. Until such time, I am his voice. It is not a role I can let go of nor care to. If that means I have to bust some heads, insult some people or rattle some cages I will. I am his champion.

I am also Tyler’s dad. I cheered when he learned to walk, I cried when I learned about his day for the first time that had words I could understand spoken by him. I cried one night looking at a CD of things that I missed while he was at school that I didn’t hear about, because he couldn’t speak. I cheer when he runs even though he finishes last. He makes me laugh because he has the greatest sense of humor and comic timing that I know. He wants to be laughed at or with, it makes no difference, he’s happy when your laughing. He may be a full retard, half retard or maybe not retarded at all….All I know is he is my son and I love him.

I had an opportunity a great short trip out west. My plans included trips to San Francisco and Kingman, AZ. Little did I know that storms would hit the Chicago area which would delay my departure until Tuesday morning. I wasn’t feeling the love from United despite being a Premier member they still bumped me off of my flight into Denver. I had a layover before I would get to SFO. As I was at the airport they told me I might get to Denver that evening, but once there they wouldn’t have any idea when I might make it from Denver to San Francisco. Since I had pressing business plans and needed to be there Tuesday if I was to be there at all, I concentrated on the latter half of the trip with a flight to Vegas and then driving through the rocky dry country into Kingman, Arizona. I was all set to go with at least a little love from United in letting them bump me over to a flight to Las Vegas when a tornado warning hit the O’Hare airport. Since it was obvious that I was not flying tonight or at least any time soon and I was only a few miles from home, I opted to sleep in my own bed and see what tomorrow might bring me for flights.

Well Tuesday morning I got out of bed disgusted with O’hare swearing off ever flying from there again…that lasted a whole 3 weeks. I found a flight out of Milwaukee (MKE) to Vegas for as little as $240, but it was leaving and my bags were already checked to SFO from the night before. With nothing but a bag in hand and my computer…of course the cameras were in with the computer, I packed the important things and headed to MKE to catch the flight. All went well there. Almost all of my travel experiences go well out of Milwaukee. After landing I needed to find where the rest of my bags were. Worse thing was that with those bags was my tripod, Circular Polarizer and extra battery. Just a few of the incidentals. Midwest Airlines helped me track my bags down, but I wouldn’t receive them from United until Wednesday. So I was left with few clothes, no tripod and no CP. I’m in the middle of the Great Basin without a CP and that is just asking from trouble. I won’t even go into how I can’t hand-hold anything anymore. I did have my trusty Fuji S5 for this trip…love those colors.

As I walked around the Vegas airport…have I said I don’t gamble. Vegas to me is interested and very scary. What was really scary to me is what Carrot Top has done to himself. Well I jumped into the car and headed off to get myself a CP so I could take some pictures. I didn’t know what to do about the tripod, but I would figure it out later. With the help of my dw, I found a place called Casey’s. Nice Photoshop and very good prices. I picked up a Rodenstock and then was able to head out.

I found a great road to take off the beaten path. This lead me to Grapevine Canyon and a wonderful place to see Petroglyphs. Now this would have been perfect had it not been 105 and without a tripod. I did the best I could as I was wobbling from heatstroke. I had a great time…I did my research beforehand with one of my favorite photography guides. I highly recommend this Newsletter, Photograph America.

After getting back I was trying out the Silver Efex Plugin from Nik…pretty pricey, but it does a nice job. I love Control Points. Don’t think I will buy it because I like the conversions almost as much from other programs.

So without further adieu, here are the pictures. Enjoy and comment…don’t make comments on how much out of focus they are. I wanted my tripod there and it didn’t happen.