The Wandering Photographer

Photo Friday: Toledo, Ohio Cathedral

Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 18mm, ISO 200, 1/1000 @ f/7

On a recent day trip to photograph in Toledo, OH (Visit Midwest Guest to get her take on Toledo’s Victorian past) we drove past the Roman Catholic Our Lady Queen of the most Holy Rosary Cathedral.  This was a must stop.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 55mm, ISO 200, 1/60 @ f/22

The Spanish Plateresque design church opened in 1940 and is meant to hearken back to Toledo’s namesake in Spain.  It is the only church of its design in North America.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 18mm, ISO 200, 1/90 @ f/8

The church incorporates wonderful statuary and fittings that is a cornucopia of photographic subjects.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 52mm, ISO 200, 1/60 @ f/8

The Church serves the Old West End neighborhood as a community parish as well as serving the Diocese of Toledo as a magnificent cathedral.  The church was closed the day we were there but we intend to go back to see if we can photograph the interior which is supposed to be beautiful.

Thanks to Debbie of Delicious Baby for organizing Photo Friday and spreading such wonderful images across the Web.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photographing History: Fort Sumter

The state of South Carolina officially seceded and joined the Confederacy on December 26, 1860.   Subsequently South Carolina demanded that the United States evacuate Fort Sumter, located near the entrance to Charleston Harbor.  Those demands were ignored and an attempt to resupply the fort in January was repulsed by the Confederates. 

In April, the U.S. again began an attempt to resupply.  Confederate forces in Charleston again demanded the fort’s surrender and again the demand was refused.  On April 12, 1861 Confederate artillery in Charleston laid siege on the fort.  The bombardment lasted for at least 34 straight hours and finally led to the surrender of the fort to the Confederate forces.  Thus began hostilities in the war that would change America forever.

Today, when you visit the fort you see period artillery, a display of flags that have flown over the fort and what remains of the fort walls.  As you can see from the above photo, sea shells were incorporated into walls to add reinforcement.

This is the view for the fort today overlooking modern Charleston Harbor with the excursion boat and the, very modern, Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in the distance.

General William T. Sherman forced the Confederates to abandon Charleston in February 1865 and Federal troops again occupied the fort.  After the war the, largely destroyed, fort was mostly unused.  A small garrison manned the fort during World War I and again during World War II.  After the war the fort eventually became a U.S. National Monument.  Today the fort is administered by the National Park Service and is open to visitors.  The story of the fort is important and the site is well worth a visit.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved  

Photographing History: Old Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina is a destination steeped in the history of our land.  Church yards in the old section of town hold the remains of signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  Scores of antebellum homes line the streets and horse drawn carriages tote tourists around the town making for a quaint atmosphere.  Photo opportunities abound!

Nikon D200,  Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 32mm,  1/250 @ f/11

The view from the town square shows a church steeple framed by trees including the native Palmetto tree.  The day we were there (Thanksgiving week) there was a minor festival going on in the park.

Nikon D200,  Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 @ 24mm,  1/250 @ f/4.5

We were able to get a room in a wonderful inn that is housed in a former indigo factory.  The location of the Indigo Inn was perfect, within walking distance of everything and just down the street from one of the great soul food joints in the world, Jestine’s Kitchen. 

Nikon D200,  Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm,  1/20 @ f/4.5

This is a view of the inn’s open courtyard, our morning breakfast spot.  The breakfasts were very good and except for Thanksgiving morning (light snow and 35 degrees) the weather was perfect for eating in the courtyard.  As cold weather Yankees, we braved the weather and ate out in the light snow which about paralyzed the city for a few hours.

Nikon D200,  Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm,  1/20 @ f/4.5

Bright colors dominated the buildings in several parts of town.  In this shot I was struck by the symmetry of the two windows on the yellow wall.

Nikon D200,  Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 @ 24mm,  1/80 @ f/4.5

Pink, yellow, green and blues seemed to be dominant colors all over the city.  This is the entrance to an Interior Design firm’s offices.  From the looks of the building I guess I’d trust them to design my rooms.

Charleston is definitely worth a visit especially for anyone interested in the history of colonial America, the early republic and the civil war.  Spend some time wandering the streets of the city and take in the beauty of the waterfront.

It is going to take a few blog posts to adequately cover Charleston.  On Wednesday I’ll explore Charleston’s Fort Sumter, the flash point that began the civil war.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photo Friday: Celebrating Diversity – Concert of Colors 2009 Pictured

This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending the 17^th annual edition of The Concert of Colors.  The weekend festival is a celebration of cultural diversity through the enjoyment of music, dance and unity.  The festival brings together musical acts from across cultures and across the world.  I thought I would present a few of the photos that I got on the first day of the festival.

Detroit heroes Ishmael Ahmed and Don Was greet each other on stage at the start of the Detroit Super Session.  Ish is the founding father of the festival and has shepherded it through its 17 years of music and love.  Don, a great producer and bassist, brought together an extremely talented group of Detroit artists to make up the Detroit Super Session II (as well as version one last year).  Each of the artists/groups performed a song during the two hour review.  Don contributes a lot of unheralded good to his hometown and we appreciate it.

Detroit blues star Thornetta Davis belts out a tune for the gathered thousands.

Guitarist Amy Gore of Gorvette presents an enthusiastic dose of Detroit Punk.

The Upscale recreate some Motown love with their performance.

Detroit alt-country band Blanche gives the audience their unique take on country music.


Detroiter and Stax recording great Sir Mack Rice contributes Memphis Soul to the effort with his compositions “Mustang Sally” and “Respect Yourself”

The entire cast of the Super Session joined legendary Michigan rockers Teegarden and Van Winkle onstage, and with the help of the thousands in attendance, filled the magnificent Orchestra Hall with the sound of “God, Love and Rock and Roll”

Thanks to New Detroit, ACCESS, The Arab American National Museum, and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra for presenting the 2009 Concert of Colors.

Kudos to Meijer, the Comerica Charitable Foundation, AT&T, HAP, Ford, yelp, the Metrotimes, WDET-FM WHFR-FM, and the Concert of Colors Groupies for stepping up to the plate in these hard times and providing sponsorship for the festival.  You guys hit a home run!!!!

Can’t wait for next year!

Thanks to
Debbie at Delicious Baby for continuing to deliver Photo Friday to us.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Small Boat Cruise to Alaska

Back in 2000 when we decided to head to Alaska on vacation we decided that we wanted to spit our time between a cruise and a land portion.  (You can see pix from part of the land portion here.)  We began looking at “small ship” cruise lines as we didn’t want to be lost amongst thousands of other travelers.  A number of companies with 70 – 100 passenger ships looked interesting and I was about to call one of them when I came across the web site for Discovery Voyages. 

Dean Rand captains the MV Discovery on 5 and 6 day cruises in Prince William Sound.  The MV discovery has a passenger capacity of 12, that’s right I said 12.  The six cabins on the 65 foot boat are small but the cruise and the experience of Prince William Sound are well worth it.  The food is wonderful and the scenery is breathtaking.  It is admittedly a cruise for people who like people.

Each day we would take the zodiacs ashore and explore the wild surroundings of the sound.  From Icebergs to waterfalls we explored them all.

The view from the deck of the boat was magnificent and the view from land was often even better.  Wildlife that we saw included humpback whales, orcas, sea otters and black bears, all seen right from the deck of the boat.  The orcas were so close my moderate telephoto lens was too long to capture the large mammal's face.

If you want a real adventure consider a cruise on a small boat, a really small boat!  It is the best way to see Alaska.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photographs of Isle Royale National Park

Nikon D200,  ISO 100,  Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 86mm,  1/800 @ f/7

Isle Royale National Park, in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, is one of the least visited and most interesting of our national parks.  Visitors to the park must arrive either by boat from Michigan or Minnesota or by float plane from either state.  Once on the island opportunities for hiking, camping, kayaking and photography abound. 

Nikon D200,  ISO 100,  Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 35mm,  1/320 @ f/9

For our 2006 trip we departed Copper Harbor, MI on the Isle Royale Queen IV.  The Queen is a 100 foot, steel hulled diesel powered passenger vessel that regularly travels at full capacity, so reservations are required.  The trip is generally quite comfortable even in moderate seas.

Nikon D200,  ISO 100,  Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 52mm,  1/160 @ f/7

Upon arriving on the island we checked into our cabin at the Rock Harbor Lodge.  The lodge is the only non-camping accommodations available on the island.  Accommodations available include 60 lodge rooms and 20 duplex housekeeping cabins.  We chose a cabin overlooking Tobin Harbor, an easy quarter mile walk from the dock.  As you can see from the image above the sunsets over Tobin Harbor are magnificent. 

Nikon D200,  ISO 100,  Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 18mm,  1/350 @ f/7

Most of our time in the park was spent hiking along the numerous short trails emanating from the Rock Harbor area.  This image is at the end of one such trail.  Wildlife we saw along the way included pileated woodpeckers and jackrabbits.  The wildlife we did not get to see were wolves (rarely seen) and moose (commonly seen but we didn’t get lucky). 

Nikon D200,  ISO 100,  Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 25mm,  1/640 @ f/5.6

Paddling Tobin Harbor is another activity we undertook.  A half day rental of a canoe (I know the boat in the picture is not a canoe) was included in our cabin rental and we took advantage of it.  The paddle up the harbor and back was easy and relaxing.  We saw only a couple of other paddlers on our excursion, though we did get to watch the floatplane depart.

Nikon D200,  ISO 100,  Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 25mm,  1/350 @ f/7

On what was supposed to be our morning of our departure we packed up our stuff and headed down to the dock.  The sign on the dock announced that the Queen would not be coming that day because of high seas caused by a violent thunderstorm the night before.  We had watched the storm from the comfort of our cozy cabin.  The weather had cleared but the waves on the often treacherous Lake Superior were still above 10 feet, so no boat would be coming that day. We had to extend our stay in the cabin and got a bonus day on the island.  A chance for one more hike.

If you have a chance to spend some time on Isle Royale National Park take it, you won’t be disappointed.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photo Friday: Sandhill Cranes

Earlier this week I mounted my 150mm macro lens to my D300 and went out the Kensington Metropark to practice my close-up photography.  Little did I know that the best pictures of the day would be wildlife shots.

Nikon D300,  Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro,  ISO 200,  1/500 @ f/5.6

As I entered the nature study area of the park I noticed a fellow photographer pointing his camera at a spot down the walkway that runs in front of the nature center building.  As I rounded the corner I saw what was interesting him.  About 20-30 meters away was a family of four Sandhill Cranes.  I had seen Sandhills in the swampy areas of the nature study area before, but only at a distance.  This was the first time up-close.

First I cursed the fact that I had brought only one lens, and then I started shooting.  The lighting wasn’t particularly good but I was getting a number of what I thought would be pretty good images.

Nikon D300,  Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro,  ISO 200,  1/500 @ f/5.6

We were being very quiet and stealthy in an attempt to avoid scaring the beautiful birds away.  All of a sudden we were in for a very nice surprise.  All four of the cranes started walking right toward us.  They showed no fear as they walked between us and headed to the other side of the center’s courtyard.  At one point a crane was so close I would have needed a wide angle lens to get the picture.  The birds were not begging for food but simply ignoring us as we snapped away.

Thanks to Debbie of Delicious Baby for organizing Photo Friday and spreading such wonderful images across the Web.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photographing the Kennecott National Historical Landmark

Last week’s Photo Friday showcased the view from the porch of the Kennicott Glacier Lodge.  Just down the way from the lodge is the intriguing Kennecott National Historical Landmark.  This assemblage of old mill buildings, built by the Kennecott Mines Co., is now a part of the Wrangell St-Elias National Park.

The oxide red painted buildings form a photo friendly landscape in which a photographer can revel for days.  Opened about 1911 the mine produced copper ore valued at in excess of $200 million by the time it closed in 1938.

The National Park Service is currently working to restore the mine buildings and develop a National Landmark that will educate the public about the history and culture of Alaskan industry.

The buildings are an opportunity to produce photographs that both express that storied history and make an artistic statement about industrial evolution.  Are these structures a scar on the wilderness?  Are they a testament to industrial might?  Well maybe they are a little bit of both. 

Whichever way you fall on that question, the structures are undeniably a photo opportunity that is not to be missed.  The deep red color, deteriorating condition and the unintentional symmetry of the buildings’ design make this site a photographer’s paradise. 

All of the photos were taken using a Nikon N90s camera on Fujichrome Provia 100F slide film.  Exposure information was unrecorded but the camera was likely set on aperture priority automation as that is the way I often shoot.

A note on the spelling discrepancy:  The official name of the glacier is spelled Kennicott.  The mining company, to this day, spells their name Kennecott.  The NPS states that the founder of the mine, Stephen Birch spelled it Kennycott.  Confused? Me too.

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim: Bilbao, Spain

Some buildings are just plain hard to photograph, others look pretty good from one view or another, then there is any building designed by Frank Gehry.  I think it may be impossible to take a lousy picture of a Gehry building.  Ok, yes; mediocre, yep; but really bad – no way.

Such is the renowned Guggenheim art museum in Bilbao, Spain.  This Gehry-designed building in the old steel town is a stunning architectural achievement. Built with the intent of jump starting the moribund economy of this industrial city, the titanium sheathed building opened to the public in 1997.  It houses a collection of modern art in its 11 thousand square meters of exhibition space.  For me the beautiful and unusual building outdoes the art collection inside.

Nikon Coolpix 8800,  Zoom @ 37mm,  ISO 100,  1/290 @ f/8

Here is the view as you stand on the opposite side of the Nervion River.  The building is supposed to remind the viewer of a ship in harbor.  Boats, shipping and fishing have always been an important part of the Bilbao culture and economy.

Nikon Coolpix 8800,  Zoom @ 64mm,  ISO 100,  1/260 @ f/8

As you cross the bridge to get to the museum this is the view you see.  The bright titanium shell reflects the sun and gives an unusual look to the city skyline.

Nikon Coolpix 8800,  Zoom @ 35mm,  ISO 50,  1/85 @ f/5

As you turn the corner to the front of the building you confront American artist Jeff Koon’s giant floral sculpture of a dog.  The Spanish affectionately call the big dog “Puppy.”  Of course using the Spanish pronunciation of “u” it comes out “Poopy.”  Let’s not go there!

Nikon Coolpix 8800,  Zoom @ 35mm,  ISO 50,  1/125 @ f/5

This is a shot of the walls taken from near the entrance to the museum.  It’s a good view and for that reason you will see many variations of it on the web and in books and card shops.  I think it is still a great abstract view.  It screams “Gehry!” in my opinion. 

Nikon Coolpix 8800,  Zoom @ 35mm,  ISO 100,  1/170 @ f/7

This final image is of the Louise Bourgeois sculpture Maman that stands outside the museum along the river. 

Return on Wednesday when I write about some architectural photography I did in McCarthy, Alaska

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photo Friday: Room with a View

Some hotels have fancy restaurants, olympic size pools, and well equipped fitness centers.  Some have a view.  Such is the case at the Kennicott Glacier Lodge in McCarthy, AK. 

The lodge overlooks the old mill buildings from the now defunct Kennicott copper mine.  In the distance, spread out around you, is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  Wrangell-St Elias is the largest national park in the U.S. and offers opportunities for hiking, fishing, and mountaineering.  The Old mill buildings offer wonderful photographic opportunities. 

In the end the best thing about this fabulous lodge is the view from the front porch.

Thanks to Debbie of Delicious Baby for organizing Photo Friday and spreading such wonderful images across the Web.

Visit here Monday for a look at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

© Tim Marks 2009 all right reserved