by Bruce | Nov 11, 2014 | Patriotism, People, Photography
Remembering On Veterans Day
I constructed this poster collage some years ago with a different set of photos. Every so often I change a few of the photos and change the style and placement to update the poster. This is the latest rendition re-created in 2013.
Many people don’t know the origin of Veterans Day. All they know is that it is a day off from work, and the stores have their wares on sale. The following text is from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.
“An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.”
When I was a kid in Brooklyn, growing up in the 1950s, on Veterans Day you would see many veterans going into the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post and the American Legion post for a ceremony remembering their fallen brothers. Afterwards they would have a light repast consisting of hot dogs and beer. I imagine the same is true today, although many posts have closed.
I made the photo of Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia in 2005. This photo is unique because you only see three guards walking together when they change the guard. These soldiers are dedicated to protecting the tomb and never falter performing their duty.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall photo and the Three Soldiers Statue at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial photos were also made in 2005.
The photo of flags lining a drive in New Jersey in preparation for a Veterans Day memorial ceremony, was made in 2008. It was a quick grab shot and came out quite well.
My son Rob Lukaszewicz is in the California National Guard unit training at Ft. Knox, Kentucky photo; he’s the soldier on the left side of the photo facing the group. My dad is in the Ft. Belvoir photo; he is the fourth from the right side of the photo, bottom row. He was a combat engineer in WWII, serving first in the Philippines and then in Japan during occupation and reconstruction. At the time Ft. Belvoir was home to the Army’s Combat Engineers.
The photo of the POW★MIA Flag is from the POW★MIA website. If you don’t know about the origin of this flag, please visit their website. There are still over one thousand service members still missing from the Vietnam War and the organization is still very active.
The photos of the gravestones were made at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego, California. This cemetery is unique in that it is located inside Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation. Located on Point Loma is Naval Base San Diego, Fort Rosecrans and Cabrillo National Monument administered by the National Park Service. Planning on visiting this area remember you are subject to vehicle searches and federal law, so plan accordingly; read: no firearms or funny cigarettes. Be on your best behavior.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Bruce | Oct 13, 2014 | Photography
Closed Inspection Station
Most of this weekend I was reminded by the Post It notes that I left all over the place that I had to get the car inspected this week for the bi-annual smog testing. This morning I awoke nice and early, drove to my local Starbucks, purchased my favorite bold, black coffee, and headed over to the Inspection Station.
As I passed by the rear of the station I was elated to see no lines, which equals no waiting; a rarity in this state. I confidently pulled around to the front entrance and was I was surprisingly stopped dead by a chain and a sign – Station Closed. So I’m sitting there thinking, why are they closed; budget cuts, switching them to a four or five-day week? I then pulled out my trusty phone with a calendar and discovered it was Columbus Day. So much for planning ahead.
October 13, 2014 – Best price this year at Wawa in New Jersey.
The upside to this story is the lowest price for gasoline I have seen this year. Wawa, a chain of convenience stores with fuel stations (gas and diesel) along the east coast, always has the lowest price for gas in my little slice of heaven. Today, I paid $287.9 per gallon for regular. Last Friday, with a different vehicle, I paid $293.9 per gallon. Today was a welcome improvement of six cents per gallon.
I use an app appropriately named GasBuddy, available for free on iTunes, and Google Play, to check and report gas prices in my area. Since it is user fed, it is usually 99% accurate.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Bruce | Oct 1, 2014 | Photography
What did one pumpkin say to the other.
Halloween is one of the most photographic times of the year. It is rich in decorations that beg to be photographed. Pumpkins are a recurring theme and between the leaves changing color and the pumpkins, every photo becomes a potential seasonal masterpiece.
If you remember from one of my earlier posts, I never go anywhere without a camera. A few years ago when I was living in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego, I would always walk my son’s dog while he was at work. It kept the dog and me active, and I was always on the lookout for a photo opportunity.
When I made this photo, I always knew what I wanted to do with it artistically, it just took me a while to refine the idea. There was always a project or two distracting me. I finally settled on pumpkins, coffee and Starbucks. Love pumpkin pie, and hot black Starbucks coffee. I’m not a fan of the Pumpkin Spiced Latte, too sweet for me, but it does have a huge following.
Two full size pumpkin scarecrows.
The Ocean Beach area of San Diego is both eclectic and eccentric. The residents there are very easy-going and never turn a neighbor down if they need a hand. It has also been called “… where the 60’s Hippies retired …” You never know what you will find photographically throughout the community and the various seasons.
These two photos were made while I was out walking the dog just before Halloween. Two separate locations, blocks apart, and basically the same theme. The Happy Halloween photo was made with my Nikon D90, Nikon 18-200 lens, massaged with Lightroom 5, finalized with Comic Life 3.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Bruce | Sep 30, 2014 | Photography
Strategy Meeting
Whenever I decide to spend a few hours just making photographs, I will shoot everything. If it’s in my field of vision, I compose to capture the subject at hand and I also think about what I can do with the photo in post-processing.
This photo shows of one of my favorite subjects, seagulls. Most of the early photos that I made in my childhood were of seagulls, probably because I was always at the fishing piers or the beach. I burned a lot of film on seagulls. In the early years, it was Kodak film, and a lot of blurred photos. My favorite format, because I could not afford color film, is black and white. I shot so much Plus-X and Tri-X, sometimes I think in black and white.
Stats on this photo: Nikon D90, Nikon 70-300, 70mm, 1/320 at f8.0, ISO 200. Post processing with; Lightroom, Tonality (trailing), and Photoshop Elements 12.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Bruce | Sep 16, 2014 | Photography
Three men, three dogs, one visible shotgun. Going hunting?
I recently discovered a box of old-time glass plate photos in my garage. The box labeled, Stanly Dry Plate Company, has ten exposed 4×5″ plates. I scanned some of the plates on my flat-bed scanner and then inverted and massaged them in Photoshop Elements. The photos were grossly underexposed and I was unable to pull any more detail than what is shown in these images. I have no idea of the identity of the people in the photos.
Woman sitting at her prized possession, a piano.
There was a faded piece of paper glued to the back of the box with a description of the photos. While the writing is in English, it is written in cursive script making most of it difficult to read. There appears to be a few references to places called Campbell’s Dam and Campbell’s Pond.
A quick search on the Internet and I found a likely place in Millburn, New Jersey named Campbell’s Pond Dam.
Description of exposed plates from Stanley Plates
According to the Stanley Museum in Kingsfield Maine, twin brothers F.E and F.O. as they were known, had an interesting life. They started out as teachers, manufactured violins, and then purchased a photo studio in 1875 at age 26. They invented and perfected the dry plate process after ten years of research. They developed other projects and became enamored in a steam engine automobile that they encountered. They sold the dry plate company to investors that eventually made the dry plate company the cornerstone of the newly launched Eastman Kodak Company.
The Stanley brothers went on to fully develop the steam engine and the famous Stanley Steamer Automobile.
Boys on boat from Stanley Dry Plate collection
The Stanley Company Dry Plate Box Cover. Note that this box cover is from before the company was sold to Eastman Kodak.
Steam engine at station
Unknown group of people doing something I can not identify
Like this:
Like Loading...
You must be logged in to post a comment.