Mielke Photography

Chicago Construction Sunset, originally uploaded by BCMielke.

Timing is everything for a sunset picture. Especially if the sun itself is in the photo. When I first started making photographs seriously many years ago I was surprised how fast the yellow orbital fell below the horizon. You don’t have much time in which to capture the sun, especially if you want to place it someplace.

There are many tools you can use to show where the sun will set, sunrise/sunset charts, iPhone programs and most have something on their GPS. I prefer in most cases to just leave that to happenstance. That is what I did for this photo.

Nikon D700 Nikon 24-120 Lens, converted in Aperture.

I always am forgetting how to fold my backgrounds. This will help me remember and I figure others might find it helpful as well.

ScanCafe Clutter, originally uploaded by BCMielke.

I am in the process of sending out many of my old negatives to a scanning service. After some amount of research I chose ScanCafe, mainly because they allow you to bulk send them in and choose the ones that you want sent back to you digitally. Since most of what you see in this picture is cherished family memories, my plan is to use ScanCafe in 3 bulk shipments. It also helps spread the cost out as well.

I do have a very nice Nikon scanner that I have in the past used to scan in my slide film pictures, but my plan is to only use that equipment for those scans that might need more resolution. Though ScanCafe can provide that they also increase the price accordingly. The standard scan is 6mp and that should be adequate for the family pictures, for some of the landscape shots I may at some time want more.

I will let my readers follow me through this process with regular updates and also give my impressions of the work at the end of the process.

I am a curmudgeon. I don’t know as I personally like this personality trait, but I have lived with it for so long that I now just accept it. It takes me awhile to warm up to ideas outside of my own. So I am a selfish curmudgeon. I do finally after complaining either in my head or outside of my own head. With my children I try to make it on the inside.

I did not want to go to the Rainforest Cafe, but I had said if she gets all of her spelling words right that she can pick the place to have dinner. What I didn’t realize was that I would have such fun with Photography with all of the various lights and animals that this restaurant has all around the seating area.

For this outing I had chosens just a Nikon 50mm lens and the D700. I wished that I had packed my own light, but I was reduced to using the pop-up flash located on the D700. The array of lights all around the resteraunt lent itself for the exploration of my creative pictures. This picture would have been perfect with just a touch more flash on my subject. If I can just prompt her to get all her spelling words correct again, we might have that shot.

A picture of a very happy Punkin celebrating a great effort.

African Statue: Photo of the Day, originally uploaded by BCMielke.

I always walk through the Atlanta Airport. For some there is an easy train ride, but as many times as I have flown into the ATL, I always walk past the trains and onto the long walkway to Baggage Claim. It’s only a mile and you are blessed with artwork from Africa and other places while you stroll.

These statues have been in place for quite some time and they are well lit and professional maintained. I always pause at one of the pieces as I make my way through the gallery. This was sculpted by Edronce Rukodzi from Zimbabwe. You can find his gallery here.

Here is a picture that almost didn’t happen. I know most photographer’s have a story like that and I will share mine. On a cross-country trip with my sister and ex-wife we stopped at the Grand Canyon. I was just getting into photography and had my trust N90 and Fuji Velvia. I was going to capture the quintessential picture of every national park we went to during that 1 week trip back driving across the country.

I was tired having driven all day, and really didn’t have any clue what happens in canyons at sunset when the light is at such a severe angle. Having lived my whole life in the midwest we just didn’t have photos taken that way. They just don’t exist. Canyons and Mountains however are different. Standing on the edge as the sunset I stopped and looked and wanted to go home just shortly after I saw the sun disappear. My sister however kept wanting to look at the cloud and stopped me. having concentrated on some detail pictures of the canyon itself I never even looked to sky to see what the clouds are doing. Those are things you learn with experiance. Something I didn’t have.

Now quickly unpacking my gear, I loaded the camera with Fuji Velvia 50 film. Quickly I set up and just before this picture was taken the rocks erupted with the splashes of light that you see here. Had my sister not stopped me to look at the cloud, I would have never had the chance to take this picture. Lesson learned I now wait until far after dark to capture the twighlight and when in the mountains you wait until the light is gone.

Nikon N90 Fuji Velvia film scanned with a Nikon LS-4000 scanner

I will admit as a child to loving every disaster movie made during the mid to late 70s. Poseidon Adventure, King Kong, Towering Inferno and Earthquake. Above all else the series of movies that were about airplanes titled Airport. There was at least 5-6 of these made about every two years. There even was a spoof of these movies that was popular as well; the Airplane series of movies was equally popular maybe even more so.

The best of this series in my childhood memory was Airport ‘77 which had the plane crashing into the water and resting some 60 feet below the surface. I remember all of my friends discussing this for months after we were first able to watch this movie on TV. Some may not know, but there wasn’t any DVD’s or VCR’s back then. A first-run wasn’t seen until well after it exited the theater and “sold” to television for the “Movie of the Week”

Another memory etched in my mind of an earlier film, I remember the scene of Charlton Heston tight-roping across a line to get into the cockpit in Airport ’75. The first Airport I don’t remember being that riveting, with a bomb threat being used to captivate us. I believe the series ended with Airport ’79 crashing into the snow, the plane changed then and the series died. Substituting out the 747 for the then faster than sound Concorde STS. For a decade though the 747 was THE plane if you were a kid.

Even though in the movies the plane was destroyed it still didn’t matter. I still was infatuated with the 747 and it signified to my adolescent brain that an adventure was going to take place! 30+ years past that point I still can’t help but think when I see a 747, something big and adventurous was going to take place. I’m sure this might sound odd I still feel that way about the Titanic, another great submersible from years before.

Though I currently fly quite often and have been in many different aircraft I to this day have never been in a 747. That adventure has never happened for me. I’ve seen them on the runway, watched them take off, but have never been close to one.

While walking through the Detroit Metro Airport today parked patiently waiting for passengers to embark on that adventure that I have longed for was not one, but two 747s. Who knew that their safety net was in Detroit Metro

Like the excited kid that I still get on occasion I just had to stop and gape. Seeing the little bubble where the first class cabin is as well as the cockpit where the pilots fly, it was as beautiful up close as it was in the movies or on the runway. While standing there gaping at my good fortune, I almost forgot to flip out the camera and snap a few pictures. This one through the rain is my favorite.

Panasonic LX3

Spring has finally arrived in the Midwest. I know that this is a common saying as winter finally exhausts itself and the Daffodils and Tulips start to pop out of the ground. This one was captured in my front yard. The Daffodils don’t last very long though a spring storm pelted them down just a few days later and they were gone.

Panasonic LX3 with a touch of Glamor Glow Nik Color Efex 3 filter.

Child Doctor, originally uploaded by BCMielke.

This was another photo of the day that was taken during my hiatus. Buddy loves being a doctor and in this case he made his own costume. Kate and I were doing some work in the basement and had our safety glasses and dust mask. Tyler decided to do his own costume. After he put these on he came to show me and pronounced himself a Doctor.

Panasonic LX3 with just a little Nik Color Efex 3.