House on Locust Avenue - Charlottesville

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Here’s a night photo of a house, the core part of which was built around 1910 on Locust Ave. May souls have passed through here, and I have known a few of them.

Night shots, time exposures; sometimes they seem to reveal something quite different. Things glow and seem to breathe light. Time exposures seem able to warp time, and night lighting makes an ordinary scene into something charged with a mysterious presence.

Years ago this was all rolling hills stretching out along the Rivanna River. Some of it was farmed and the manor house still stands, somewhat hidden in old boxwoods, on the 800 block of Locust Ave.

Parking on Water Street (Shoots, Eats, and Leaves)

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Well, you’ve probably heard of the book, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. It’s about punctuation, but that’s a somewhat unfair short explanation. When it comes to photography, the order that I do it in is; Shoots, Eats, and Leaves.

I took the above with the nifty, vintage Plaubel Pro Shift, “causing” a 6X9 Cm image. I use the term “image,” because I sometimes only think I’m taking a picture. Later, it turns out to be in focus, properly exposed, but pointless. If you’re going to experiment with what you put a frame around, it can’t help but happen sometimes.

As far as Shoots, Eats, and Leaves, I finished off a Sticks sandwich (and it was really wonderfully spicy chicken) in the time it took to expose the film for the shot above. A guy walked up and asked me what I was doing. This is across from the parking garage on Water Street in Charlottesville. I told him I was taking a picture of the unusual tree and parking lot but I wasn’t sure why. He said he played music and that he knew what I meant. That was worth a laugh, and then he was on his way. Then I left too.

This is a detail from the mid right side of the negative.

Car Series - Profile

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This is another image from a drive through of the Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville. Based on the prior exposure (see last shot in the blog) I juggled the aperture versus time to capture a profile of the driver whoever that is.

I think the back ground here is provided by Bed, Bath, and Beyond (renamed by my visiting friends from Montreal as; Bed, Bath, and Behind). I had made so many passes in front of the store that some of the employees on break were getting a bit curious.

The Car Series - Hit It!

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This photo was taken last weekend, and involved fishing around for the best exposure. I had settled for F-16 for the aperture, but had been getting images that were a bit washed out, with not much color saturation. I finally settled on what appeared to be an optimal time exposure, and made some passes at some Charlottesville malls. The Barracks Road Shopping Center has the most diverse lighting, although the speed bumps are annoying.

As ordinary as the act of breathing, driving a car. We can even express emotion to other drivers by subtle and not-so-subtle maneuvers. I drive with the pack, have a guy on my back, want to flip him off, what the blinkin, hit it! That last sentence needs a "woofer." Push that pedal fool.