Hunting for Old Treasures

It’s not unusual for me to bring home odds and ends I might find while out and about.  My garage holds an assorted collection of feathers, animal skull’s, a horseshoe or two, knurly sticks and rocks, old fishing bobbers, and other assort objects of like kind.  While hardly treasures of real value, it is fun to do such things, and even more fun to research something about them. One of my favorites is an old bottle I found around an old ship wreck way back in the mid-1970’s while I was stationed in Winchester Bay, Oregon during my Coast Guard days.

The Oregon Coast is littered with shipwrecks.  Along that stretch of the Pacific one can find some of the stormiest weather around which plays havoc with vessels of all sizes…that’s why the Coast Guard is there.  Many of them ran aground near the mouth of the Umpqua River at Winchester Bay.  South of the Umpqua River Bar, sometime during the early part of the 1900’s, a schooner ran aground and was lost.  Over the years, its remains were reclaimed by the elements and the frame was covered by the encroaching sands. 


I don’t remember the exact date, but during my tenure in that location probably in 1975 sometime a particular storm blew in that disrupted a stretch of beach for several miles in either direction.    The storm washed a lot of the sand away around where the schooner ran aground and exposed what remained of the wooden frame.

It was a decent hike down to it, but one day I did just that, took a hike to see if I could find it.  Sure enough, I managed to find it a few miles down the beach, along with several others who had the luxury of driving down there in 4x4 rigs.  I searched around the blackened old timbers and found an iron spike and a brass spike, but nothing much of interest.  That is until I began to look along the wall of sand that extended along the beach at the high water mark.  Two old medicine bottles were sticking out of the sand both still retaining their cork stoppers.  One was a small round Listerine bottle, the other a typical medicine bottle of the early 1900 era.

At first I thought the Listerine bottle must be more modern, but after closer examination, it became apparent that it was of an older design with numerous air bubbles embedded in the glass and it had a pale purplish hue.  The top or lid was an obvious give away as to its age as it was clearly applied after the bottle had been blown.  The medicine bottle also retained many of the same traits.

Over the years, I misplaced and rediscovered both bottles numerous times.  I still have the Listerine bottle, and somewhere the other one lurks hidden inside of a box probably in the attic.  Resent research indicates that the schooner remains where I discovered the bottles might be one of three vessels.  The San Gabriel which ran aground 4 to 5 miles south of the Umpqua River Bar in Jan of 1913 (I remember hiking a couple miles from the last parking area south that was accessible at the time), or the Caroline which is listed as running aground just south of the bar in June 1913, or The Novelty which ran aground south of the bar in 1907.   Other than that, I really don’t have much information about the name of the actual vessel, it could have been either of them, or possibly another one entirely.  Research on the Listerine bottle also indicates that the style of bottle was manufactured from sometime before 1900 to around 1915, which would place it well inside the date ranges of all three of those vessels.

Some years later another small treasure I found was discovered in Oklahoma near a Civil War battle field just north of Skiatook.  Believe it or not, there were a few Civil War battles fought in what was then Indian Territory.  Although they had little influence on the outcome of the war, they did affect the lives of the native populations who were engaged as a result.  Here is a brief description of one of the battles known as The Battle of Chustenahlah.

Confederate troops had undertaken a campaign to subdue the Native American Union sympathizers in Indian Territory and consolidate control. They had attacked Chief Opothleyahola’s band of Creeks and Seminoles earlier at Round Mountain and Chusto-Talasah, not far from present day Tulsa. Now, they wanted to finish them off by assaulting them in their camp at Chustenahlah in a well-protected cove on Battle Creek. Col. James McQueen McIntosh and Col. Douglas H. Cooper, commanding the Indian Department, planned a combined attack with each of their columns moving on the camp from different directions. McIntosh left Fort Gibson on December 22, with 1,380 men. On the 25th, he was informed that Cooper’s force could not join for a while, but he decided to attack the next day, despite being outnumbered. McIntosh attacked the camp at noon on the 26th. The Union defenders were secluded in the underbrush along the slope of a rugged hill, but as the Confederate attack came forward, the Native Americans began to fall back, taking cover for a while and then moving back. The retreat became a rout as the Federals reached their camp. They attempted to make a stand there but were forced away again. The survivors fled;  many went all the way to Kansas where they found loyal Unionists. Chief Opothleyahola’s band of Creeks and Seminoles mounted no resistance again.

Today, the battle site lies on private property.  One summer day 10 or 12 years ago, I drove over there and talked to the owner who granted me permission to look around.  I found nothing of consequence on that day, but did return several times.  On one of those return trips, my friend Ralph wondered why a rose bush would be growing out in the middle of this one field and he thought there might have been an old shed or building there at one time.  So we began to work the metal detector around that area and almost immediately started getting hits…some of them quite deep.  


What we began to find were old wagon parts…hubs, broken pieces, harness rings…things of that nature.  One thing we learned was that during the battle, many of the encamped wagons were overturned and burned.  We were suspecting that we had stumbled onto one of those old wagons…which oddly enough could have been carrying a rose bush as these were mostly civilians trying to escape the ravages of a war that had been thrust upon them.  Somehow, over the years, that rose bush must have taken root and survived until modern times.  I also read from the original officer’s account of the battle that many of those who were killed in buried in a common shallow grave.  At the time I was doing the research, no one knew for sure where that burial site was located.

While searching and between the loud solid hits on the large metal wagon parts, I picked up a very faint signal…so weak that I almost ignored it, but I dug around and discovered what appeared to be a decorative piece from possibly a purse.  I believe it was probably made of brass, but was very delicately made and showed no real signs of corrosion.  I kept the part in an old cigar box…if I could old find that old cigar box, I’m sure it will still be in there.

Eventually, I gave up the search having not found really anything of consequence, but it was fun to look around.  Hunting for old treasures can be as simple or complex as you want...I've never really made much of an effort to do so, just superficial, but those superficial moments were full of anticipation.  There's a good probability I might do so again soon.


Keith

Dynamic Mood

What makes the photographs produced by the pro’s different…what sets them apart from everyone else?  Over the years as I have attempted to elevate my photography to new levels, those are questions I have continually asked myself.  What is it about their photograph’s that makes them better than mine?  At first thought the answer to that question might seem obvious…well, maybe not so much.  There has to be a reason(s). 

Overall, you can discount things like subject matter or equipment…although those are important elements they are more objective in nature and tend to be dictated by the photographer’s interest and pocketbook. What I’m looking for are the things that separate amazing from ordinary…one that elicits a second and third look from an image you normally would pass by.  What is it that catches you the viewer’s eye when a photograph catches your imagination?

Volumes could be written about that concept, but when all the rhetoric has cleared, the one thing that remains, and consistently separates the amazing from the ordinary, is how the photographer uses light.  Think about some of those amazing images you’ve seen in magazines or on websites and ask yourself…what was it that caught my attention?  I’d bet most of the time it was what I like to call ‘Dynamic Mood’. 

Dynamic Mood is difficult to define…what it is not, most of the time… is big and bright…bold and powerful…although not always just limited to those.  Certainly a bold and bright image will catch your attention and can provide Dynamic Mood, the trick is to create one in an unusual way that doesn’t resemble the thousands of other big and bold images you’ve already seen…in other words…avoid the cliché.

Dynamic Mood means to present the familiar in unfamiliar ways…something that subtly looks like what you’ve seen before, but doesn’t mimic or copy what has already been done.  This offers wide variations of interpretation and is open to the photographer’s intuition.  The key ingredient in an image that demonstrates Dynamic Mood is how light is used to emphasize what is important.  Secondarily, composition also comes into play…both light and composition work together to introduce the viewer to a dynamic portrayal of what the photographer saw.  In some cases it can be quite realistic…in other cases it may have a very abstract nature about it.  Both are equally effective.

So how do we accomplish this?  Sometimes luck plays a roll…most of the time it is the photographer’s ability to recognize the potential of any given lighting condition and then arrange the composition by effective placement of the camera and lens selection.  Exposure is critical, as is effective post processing, to bring out the potential of what the photographer saw.  Being able to see photographically extends the photographer’s mind past the realm of seeing the obvious and into the realm of seeing and recognizing the extraordinary.  It is a learning process that has no ultimate end…you never fully arrive at a graduation day where you can say…I’ve got it…it’s more of a curve that continues upward but with each degree of climb, the more comfortable you become in understanding how to recognize then capture the content.

It’s looking beyond the obvious, and effectively using the qualities of the equipment you possess.  It is understanding that all lighting conditions are subject to Dynamic Mood. It’s just that certain types of light more readily define the concept.  Dark moody light, soft subtle light, direct warm light, hard cool light, light that flows thru and not on, light that blends shadows, light that defines direction, light that pushes the senses, light that stirs the emotions…these are all effective Dynamic Mood generators.

So , next time you are thumbing through a nature magazine and come across an image that causes you to pause for a second look…instead of simply looking at it…try to define in your mind what the photographer saw and how he captured the image.  Ask yourself, why was this moment important enough for the photographer to capture its flavor?

Color May be In...but Black and White is Where its At

Many years ago my first attempts at photography involved using an old box camera that my grandparents had…an old No 1 Kodak Brownie model with the additional optical view finder that added .25 cents to the original $2.00 price tag.  It used 117 or 120 2 1/4 inch black and white roll film and you know it actually took very good pictures. Many of their old photo’s can be dated back to the early 1910’s and still hold up today almost 100 years later.  They used that old camera for many years eventually storing it in a drawer where I happened to find it one day some years later after they had graduated to a more modern camera.

With that old camera I took my earliest pictures…none of which survive today that I am aware of…I was fascinated with the fact that I could insert a roll of film, turn a knob until number 1 appeared, look thru the tiny view finder and push a silver lever to release the shutter, repeat that process until all the film was used up…then after a day or two at the drug store receive back all the pictures I had taken.They were black and white but full of rich tones and character…the composition of the shots left something to be desired…but, it was a beginning.

By the time I was in my early teens I had graduated to the point I was able to do my own B&W processing in a make shift photo lab I set up inside a cramped closet.  I didn’t have much money to spend so I ended up making my own enlarger out of old Quaker Oats boxes.  It actually worked better than you might think…I used a large light bulb with the guts removed and filled with water as the condenser to diffuse the light…a regular 40 watt light bulb as a light source which was connected to an old fan timer as an on/off switch (I simply counted the exposure seconds), a lens from an old bb-gun rifle scope, and a red Christmas tree light for a safety light.  It lay on its side, for construction simplicity, and projected on the wall and the negative was inserted into an easel made out of old shoebox cardboard.  Another shoebox easel was attached to the wall that would hold the print paper which was inserted after all the focusing was done…which by the way was accomplished by simply sliding a smaller oat mill box, with the lens attached on the closed end, back and forth inside a slightly larger oat mill box. If I needed a larger image I simply moved the whole contraption back a few inches. Hey, when your allowance was a dollar a week, you made do with what you could…so we learned to innovate.

The pinnacle of those photo processing days came when I was able to attach an Estes Camroc camera to the top of a model rocket that snapped a single image at the apex of the flight…which would reach upwards to 1000 feet depending on which rocket engine was used.  I would manage to make two or three launches and then rush home to process the negatives…wow…pictures of ponds and cows from the air…even aircraft on the ground as we often would launch on one end of the local airport…with permission of course. Great fun.

Today with the advent of digital photography…man how the world has changed since then…but you know, color digital photography may be in, but Black and White is still where it’s at.  Only today it is so much easier to create great B&W images…and only slightly less fun than watching with anticipation those images appear in the chemical trays. 

I recently acquired some B&W conversion software called Silver Efex Pro by Nik Software…all I can say is I never realized how great digital B&W could be until I started using this software. I’m not trying to promote or market a software package, but what I’m attempting to do is speak about the nature of B&W and the visual impact it can have. Just think about it for a moment…who hasn’t seen the greatest movie of all time ‘Casablanca’…talk about the power of black and white…it was never more effectively used that in that movie.  Only black and white can give an image the kind of strength and graphic expression that captures all of the viewer’s senses and imagination.  It is a powerful form of photography that too many people tend to discount…myself included until lately.

Although I will continue with the color variety of images…you will begin to see more black and white on this blog as it allows one the opportunity to explore photography in its truest form of expression.