Monthly Archives: August 2014

Wayback Machine

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NeedJurassic2363

I don’t know about you but sometimes I need some Jurassic. You know, a place back a ways, where there were little or no modern technologies, kind of like Northern Wisconsin is today. But sometimes even Northern Wisconsin isn’t far enough back. That’s when I need some Jurassic.

Fortunately for us here at the Institute we were able to get the plans for a Wayback machine from a down on his luck scientist by the name of M Peabody. Actually it was his long-suffering assistant, Sherman, who got us the plans. After a long negotiation that included the offer of food and new shoes we secured the able assistance of Sherman plus our Department of Things That Go Bump in the Night to construct the machine and the Butler building we keep it in.

We needed the Butler building, which for you non-architectural types is a large free-standing metal building, ours is big enough that we could house the Hindenburg and three of its cousins, before it exploded of course, and covers nearly 22 acres. Why so big? you ask. It’s because we here at the Institute have made some modifications in the Wayback machine since it was first constructed.

The primary difference is that in the old machine, it would transport you to the past. The new machine transports the past to you. So when you set a time on its Wayback dial it brings approximately 22 acres of the past forward into our Butler building. That way if you go in there and you find it is full of things much larger than you that want to eat you, you can quickly run out the service door and lock it behind you.

There was a small oversight in our planning however that turned out to be a slightly larger problem than we anticipated. The short story is we built the Wayback machine inside of the building and neglected to install a Goback switch on the outside of the building so we could send back our miscalculations. Fortunately we have interns. So by promising them tenure we are able to coax them into going into the building and throwing the switch. Yes, yes I know. It is hard on the interns and we do lose the occasional bright-eyed intern in the process, but many of them do make it and are rewarded with tenure, so it’s a win-win for everybody.

Yesterday we needed some Jurassic, big time. So we donned our proximity suit, steel toed boots and blue plastic hard hat with the revolving red light on the top (RadioShack 32.95 less batteries) and set the timer for Jurassic. This is where it gets tricky. Since the Wayback machine brings forward 22 acres at a time you have a split second to decide if the particular 22 acres you’ve brought forward are safe and empty of huge things that will eat you, before you hit the Goback switch and try again. We have developed a system, again with the willing participation of some our interns, where we bring along three or four of them and space them about five yards out and twenty or thirty feet apart in a semi-circular fashion in front of the control panel. That way we have a moment to decide and then throw the Goback Switch if we have to.

Before  you get all high and mighty and give us crap about putting the interns at risk, you should know that they all are provided with Day-Glo vests, bear spray, a small stun gun for those stubborn beasts that make it through the bear spray, and fire-proof clothing. Plus they sign a waiver and know that we will ship their personal effects to their home of record free of charge.

We were lucky. We picked a place that was free of large carnivores and was filled with the perfect amount of fog and flowers and the nearly silent sound of butterfly wings in the underbrush. It was absolutely perfect for a few hours of silent contemplation before the timer on The Wayback machine rudely yanked us back to the present, or sent the present back, as it were. All in all it was a good day. We got our relaxation, the machine didn’t break down and saddle us with 22 acres of Jurassic permanently. The interns were mainly quiet for a change but I think that was mainly due to fear. The terror of the unknown has a wonderful focusing effect on the young. It was nice to see them high-fiving it after we were back. I listened with amusement as they told each other how they knew it would be cool, and there was nothing to be scared about, soiled clothing aside.

Above is an image showing just a small part of the Jurassic we brought forward. We had this image made for our archives as we rarely can ever bring the same place back twice in a row. If you ever need some Jurassic, or any other time period, we have package plans that are reasonable given the risk and the amount of power we expend in operating the Wayback machine. We had to buy a tuff-shed just to store the extra D-cells it takes to run this thing. You would need to pass a physical and sign our iron-clad waiver that legal spent months developing. But it’ll be fun. So come on out. Lets pick a time and go for it.

Update: One of our interns, a Jim Flopbot, who now resides in the early part of the eleventh century, leaked our Jurassic image from the archives. We noticed that shortly after that leaking the Butterfly pavilion in town now has a very similar place, in fact almost exactly the same, as our slice of Jurassic from the last trip.

Note to self: Change locks on archive door. Remind interns of Flopbot the intern now living as a serf in the 11th century. Figure out an explanation as to how we got Flopbot sent back when we can only bring stuff forward before someone writes us asking about it. Change the cat’s litter box. Pick up milk and jalapeño peppers. Ooops, sorry this is part of my shopping list. Please disregard.

Time Travel: Japan 51 Years Ago

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Time Travel Shellfish Lady

Back then I was a young man wandering around Japan with my camera trying to absorb every shade and nuance of this exotic culture I had been thrust into. I was in the service, the Navy as a hospital corpsmen and occasionally was sent to Japan on both business and pleasure. Pleasure was always better.

Not speaking anything more than pidgin Japanese and a lot of that not fit for mixed company I used my camera to communicate as best I could. Most of the time the people took my picture-taking as a sign of friendliness and would willing pose for me, like this Shellfish Lady. The times they didn’t it was best to put the camera down and buy some shellfish, even if I gave it away later.

Back then in 1963 it was only 18 years after the end of WWII, although in my youth I didn’t put that fact together then. It is also why the majority of the people still wore the same style clothes as before the war and once you were away from Tokyo still lived very much as they had for generations. I just took everything in as a new exotic place that had been just created entirely for my benefit. It was also the beginning of a lifetime love affair with Japan.

This is image is a scanned version from the original slide taken back then. The slides and the people involved are aging and it’s time to share the experiences. Plus it just feels good to time travel. Long forgotten memories of that time are brought forward to be experienced again and again and reliving the past, during the good times at least, feels good from the comfort of my easy chair. My tea is getting cold so I must go and make some new. Let’s talk again later.

Spirit Cave

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cave1193

Those of you who have visited my portfolio on DxO in their Image Masters section https://www.dxo.com/intl/photography/gallery/dwight-lutsey  may have seen this photo before. For those of you who haven’t this is an image of seven warriors drawn on the surface of the stone and is located in a small cave at the top of a bluff in the foothills of Northern Colorado. It overlooks the plains below with nearly a 180° field of view.

It is a very special place and dates back to a time before the tribes acquired horses. Experts in these types of drawing speculate that these figures represent hunters or warriors because of the large shields they are carrying. After horses arrived the shields became much smaller so they were more easily managed while on horseback. These figures are petrographs rather than petroglyphs as they are drawn on the surface of the stone rather than etched into the surface.

As you can see there are seven figures represented and if you could visit this cave you would see that there is no way that seven people could fit into this space. It is difficult to get more than 2 or 3 people in there and that is a tight squeeze. So why seven figures? One can only speculate. Perhaps this was the number in the party that waited back in the safety of the rocks while the viewer in the cave looked for animals or enemies, or is a warning to others that he saw seven warriors below. Perhaps they were a raiding party and this was a regular path or trail they followed that could viewed safely from this cave.

To view these figures at all you must lie down on the cave floor as they are on a small ledge that forms the edge of the ceiling and are only 3 to 5 inches in height. The artist who created them had to draw them from a prone position. The seven figures are the only petrographs in the cave. The cave is a cool place to sit and watch out over the landscape below. Cool as in temperature, but also cool as in, cool.

While lying there attempting to figure out how the drawings were made and possibly why, I heard a small fluttering noise and turning my head discovered that I was nearly lying on the nest of this little wren. She was civil about it, quietly telling me to move over as she had to feed the young inside. Being a busy mom she was constantly coming and going usually with an insect of some sort in her bill. I could hear the young rustling about in the nest but couldn’t see them due to the shadows that partially hid the nest from view.

cave1289

I was hoping to have a conversation with her about how long her family had been nesting in this cave and did she have any stories about the earlier inhabitants that may have been passed own from mother to egg but motherhood was making too many demands on her time so the conversation would have to wait.

This part of Colorado has an amazing amount of history attached to it and a person is constantly made aware of all the events that took place here. There are teepee rings, and Oregon trail wagon tracks, the occasional headstone signifying the loss of a loved one by those heading further west, stagecoach stops and outlaw dens, all the stuff you heard about as a kid is here if you know where to look and be observant. It is truly a photographers privilege to be here and more so to share it with you.

Fog In The Meadow

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Never Happy4308

click to enlarge

The photographers eye. It’s not just the one that’s next to the other one in your face. It’s your ability to see things and capture them in away that non-photographers don’t. Recently a very good friend and great photographer, Jack Brinn, and I were on a shoot in an area of northern Colorado called Red Feather Lakes. Our plan was to walk through this meadow and capture a bloom of Mountain Iris that were at their peak when suddenly fog rolled in and changed a bright blue sky morning into something out of the Pacific northwest.

At first we thought that the shoot was over due to the varying density of the fog. Then it became apparent that not only were there still photographic opportunities, there were great photographic opportunities. So we took advantage of the change in weather to create some wonderful images.

Which brings us back to the photographer’s eye. We both noticed this scene above in particular, and made shots from almost the exact same place, but due to how each of us sees things, the images are significantly different. Not wildly so but enough that you can tell the images apart.

My attempt is the image at the top of the posting and here is a link to Jack’s images on his website so you can see the difference. http://redfeatherimages.com/p891259566#h35c93ab1

You as a discerning viewer will be affected by one or both of the images in different ways because art is a subjective thing. No matter the artists skill, you either like it or you don’t. There isn’t any right or wrong, just art. The point is, due to how we see the world around us we all interpret it in different ways. For two photographers to stand in virtually the same place and come up with two differing views is an example of how this whole art thing works.

Jack exhibited his version at a photographic society and won a much deserved award. I guess this is also an example of real talent will out itself. Congrats! Jack.

Captive Beauty: Tiger

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CaptiveBeautyTiger1361

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake 1757–1827

In our series of animal portraits where we feature animals that live in captivity we would like to present this image of a captive tiger in an unusual setting. Not that this setting would be unusual if it was actually located in India, but this location is part of the Animal World exhibit in Disney World, Orlando.

Sometime ago while on a family outing with our granddaughter and her parents we spent a small lifetime exploring Disney World. While some of us in the party had an agenda where she, the granddaughter and driving force that was the inspiration of the trip, would meet every single Disney personality in the park, from the world’s largest chipmunks, to Captain Hook, and of course the world’s most favorite Princess, others of us would occasionally get lost and find ourselves in the Animal Kingdom and being photographers our main goal was to photograph each and every animal there.

My son, a photographer and Photography Competition judge, spotted the tigers first and that was the end of further exploration for us that afternoon. We were stuck, trapped, unable to leave before we had taken every possible photograph that could be made of these tigers. The tigers seemingly aware that they had an appreciative audience did everything they could to accommodate us. The fact that they were in this incredible enclosure only made our picture-taking better.

The one downside was that to prevent the tigers, who occasionally have a penchant for eating tourists and that would include any photographers in the area, had tiger proof, 1½ inch Plexiglas windows between them and us. Plexiglas is not a pure, perfect, glass-like material. It is easily scratched, stained with mouth-prints from wide-eyed children and some adults, and although cleaned sometimes on the outside, not so much on the inside. Tigers will eat window washers too. So getting clear sharp images is a challenge. However, digital photography being what it is today, we both managed to come away with some keepers as you can see by today’s image above.

These tigers, while captive and unable to return to the wild, are incredible examples of Captive Beauty. If by being on display and creating a love for animals and particularly these beautiful tigers, then they have performed a service to all tigers, both captive and wild.

Life and Other Things of Interest

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Life-OtherThings1864

There is a place in the Southwest where the ancient ones used to live. It was a large city by the standards of those times and it was central to all the people in the area for a great distance around it, and they made pilgrimages to it for trade, culture and knowledge. It was the center of their society and as such it provided many things that were more than mere trade goods and socialization. It was called Chaco, then and now, and it was a powerful place.

Those people were similar to us in that they had many questions about life and other interesting things. They must have had wise people that provided answers to their questions. We know they worshipped because they built great kivas in the earth and gathered there for ceremonies that we people today know nothing about. They must have attempted to teach and pass what wisdom they had on to the newer generations so that they had some guide lines on how to navigate this life. And like the churches of today they used their architecture to provide a visual reference to how life worked.

In the image above you have three rooms that are located deep inside one of the largest buildings in the city. When you enter them there is an immediate feeling that this is an important place. You can imagine one of the elders leading a group of young people into the first room, explaining its purpose, saying, this is your childhood place. It is the largest, most open room, filled with all the joy and wonder that being young brings. You will stay in this room briefly. That is a sad lesson that you will not learn for many years. Enjoy your time here for it is very fleeting.

The next room is the room in which you will spend your middle years. You will marry, raise a family, provide for them and work very hard. You will not pass back into the first room again. These years will be filled with hardship, toil, and also a certain amount of happiness. You will watch your children grow and leave, there will be sadness, yet peace as you know you have tried to prepare them as best you could for their future. Friends will come and go. You will see that you are aging. There are benches on either side of the doorway leading into the last room. Those benches are there so that you can sit and think about entering the next room. You will need those benches and you will think hard.

The last room is the smallest. It is small because you will not need much there. There will not be much to do. It is where you stay until your time passes. For some of you, if you make it to that last room, it will be a comfortable time. It is warm there and you have your memories to keep you busy. For others it may be place of infinite sadness and you will wish every moment that you could go back to the first room. But this is not possible. How you spend your time in the last room will depend on how you spent your time in the first two rooms. We can only advise you to use your time well.

But you ask, What is that doorway in the last room? Why is it so dark? Where does it lead? We can only tell you that we do not know. None of us here have ever entered it and returned. Some enter that doorway willingly and happily, others do not. No one who has entered it has ever sent word back. Perhaps it will be clearer when you spend your time there.  We can only hope it is a good place and we say ‘Live your life as well as you can and it may make that passage easy for you’. Now that is enough for today. Leave and enjoy yourselves. We will speak again later.

Revisiting The Virgin

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Revisiting theVirgin1838

Yes I know it’s Friday. And from the number of angry letters arriving in my inbox you know  it too. It’s not my fault you had a lousy week. I told you that would happen if you kept that kind of attitude but do you listen, nooooooooooooo. So here you are, whining to me about how you need some peace and quiet and it better be damn quick.

Our Friday images are usually chosen to provide you with just that, a soothing comforting glimpse of somewhere you aren’t but would like to be. So today we’ll revisit the Virgin.

The Virgin river in Zion National Park is almost a patented, guaranteed place to soothe those mental aches and pains, return some tranquility to your soul and to give you hope that, yes Virginia, there is a place so achingly beautiful that you can’t be angry or upset or bored or depressed or any of those things that make Friday, Friday. It’s simply not allowed.

Walk along the river’s edge, feel the cool air coming up out of the depths of the canyon, listen to the murmuring of the river as it spends its day slowly rounding the rough unshaped rocks in its bed into perfect orbs of stone. Small birds flit from branch to twig singing their song as you pass by, while over head the sound of a raven calling echoes back and forth against the canyon walls. This is a good place to be.

Alright I know this is a short post today but look at the picture, there’s 1000 or more words there that I don’t have to put down here, because they will do a much better job than I ever could have in telling you about this beautiful place. So look your fill, then head out into that weekend and if things get hectic and overwhelming just remember todays post and revisit the Virgin. It’ll help.