Iowa Farm Boy

Lilies - Before and After - HDR and Ansel Adams Too

2012-02-20T04:00:00.000-06:00

In late January I got some flowers from Trader Joe's that had some lilies that had not bloomed. I took an image of them with a Gerbera daisy. But I usually keep flowers until the petals start falling off and sometimes I do photography on that process.

But the lilies bloomed about a week after I got them and the studio light was in good shape so I decided to take some flower portraits. The nice thing about flowers is they pretty much do what you want them to do, they hold still and they have a great attention span.

I have been using the spot metering capabilities of my camera to see how it impacts the exposures from the matrix metering. I used to have a handheld spot meter when I was shooting film and I used the Ansel Adams Zone System for my black and white work. Now there are some guidelines that are pretty straight forward to use the Zone System for digital color as well. A digital camera doesn't have the full zone capabilities so you need to think in terms of a smaller zone or you can use multiple exposures at different shutter speeds to give you the full range. But then you have to blend the images together to get what we call a HDR image or High Dynamic Range image. And most of the time they look fake because we go nuts over the processing and make them look fake.

While there are many HDR processes available I like Nik HDR Efex Pro. You can get the same over-the-top look or you can get a realistic look.

Above is what a bad HDR image can look like. All of the details, contrast, saturation are all exaggerated too much. Now this could be a bold look and possibly a good look for some things. Buildings come to mind. But not for a beautiful lily.

The image above is the original image. This is just one image and remember the HDR image generally uses three or more images to bring out all the tonal range you that human eye sees. This is the image that would be considered a normal exposure to the camera.

And above is the image after running it through Nik HDR Efex Pro and some work in Photoshop using some other Nik filters. Hopefully it looks pretty normal like the original image but that it has the depth from having a wider tonal range. That is part of additional color because the underexposed image has more saturation in the colors that work well with the HDR blend. The idea of blending these images together is to take the best part of each of the exposures to produce one image that is more what your eye saw rather than the camera. Your eye has no boundaries when it come to seeing extremes of exposure.

Then you can do something like this as well. This is the photograph above but it has a texture added to it.

The texture is called Blush Rose and it is from the Flypaper Textures Spring collection. I lowered the overall opacity and then using a brush at 30% opacity I removed the texture from part of the flower. The texture overlay brings the brightness down and actually brings out the reds. Textures are another way you can improve a photograph (or at least that is the general idea of using a texture).

So what do you think? Which is your favorite? The HDR full processed, the original or one of the HDR realistic processed photos? I'm guessing that each of the images will appeal to someone. We tend to forget that people don't see colors the same way. If you take the color out of some of these images you will have something completely different. Oh, I forgot to mention that the last image also went through a super secret processing that using Silver Efex Pro 2.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time. If you like the blog share it with your friends. If you are a classic or vintage car lovers the car shows will be starting pretty soon and that means the American Photo Picker will be showing some car images.

Don't forget to stop by Zenfolio as well. You can find images from last years car shows and I will be putting the 2012 shows into their own gallery,

Is Spring Around the Corner?

2012-02-19T18:52:00.000-06:00

This has been an unusually warm winter. Today is supposed to be in the 40's and it is supposed to be warm all week with maybe some rain Monday. Seems like spring is in the air. I have heard some weather forecasters say that March 1st is really the time spring begins, rather than March 20th (which is the Vernal Equinox).

This week I am starting to consider my overall health as something I want to improve in 2012. So for me that means to start walking. I have Type II Diabetes and for the last 3 months I have been working to keep my blood sugar as low as possible. That has been successful and now my feet don't bother me so much - so that means I can start walking.

So today Betty and I decided to go someplace to walk, rather than around the block by our house. I didn't want to drag the SLR with me so I opted to pull out the iPhone when I saw something that might be interesting. Since it isn't anywhere green yet and flowers aren't out that was few and far in between.

We went to a sort of arboretum close to a school and walked around it. Not all that far but it had its ups and downs and by the time we got done we were winded. So we have a long way to go. Betty said that tree pollen is high right now. February - high tree pollen - that doesn't make sense. By as we walked we saw a tree that was starting to bud. Now this is a poor photo of a tree bud. The iPhone had some issues with the exposure with the closeup.

The path went through some trees and followed the contour of the swails around the area. So I stopped to take a picture of the trail and some trees and to also get a little breather. When I got home I decided to play some more and create diptics using the same image processed differently and overlapping them in the diptic to create an unusual image. If vertical is good, horizontal is better?

I'll let you figure it out.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker.

Processing With an iPad

2012-02-12T13:32:00.001-06:00

The iPad offers a lot of processing opportunities with a lot of available apps that are easy on your wallet. And once you get a couple of apps you like you can pretty much do what you want to do with your images.

My favorite camera app for the iPhone is Camera+. It offers more options than the app that comes with the iPhone and the price is right. Once I get the images in the iPhone I can move them to the iPad and do my processing. I can process them in the iPhone too but my eyes don't see that good anymore.

Or you can also download your DSLR images into the iPad and process them using the same software. That's what I did the images below.

I originally took both of the images on the trip to northwest Iowa last October on The Harvest. I used an app called Vintage HD to get the old age effect and then used Snapseed to tweak the image a little more. The top image was an old granary with a shed attached. With the trees growing in and around it, giving it personality. The corn field was a bonus. And the light was great as well.

The image of the thresher was some found equipment and a friend wanted an photograph of a threshing machine. With the rustic and rusty look it was perfect for the Vintage HD effect. Again Snapseed did the final lifting on sharpening, details and some basic adjustments.

Then I used one more app to make a four image collage. The app called Diptic has several options available to make a collage. I picked this one and dropped the entire image in the box and then put the image in the smaller box and moved it until I found a look I liked. The larger boxes didn't quite have enough room for the entire imate so I used the smaller one teo add waht was missing from the larger one.

If you are looking for unique ways to process your images and you have an iPad or iPhone the possibilities are unique indeed.

As photographers we differ in so many things. Nikon or Canon, PC or Mac, Nik or OnOne and on and on ... Some people shot film and still think that is he only viable medium and some think digital is the only way to go. Then you need to consider F/Stop, aperture and ISO. Zoom lens or prime lens. And don't even mention RAW or Jpeg difference!

After that we 'discuss' processing. Some want minimal processing and some think the sky is the limit. Some people enjoy looking at any type of photos and some won't consider anything other than what they shoot. Some shoot and share everything and some don't share anything. And it's been that way for a long time. Some things don't change. Some like color only, some like black and white. Some don't like square images some do. Lots of decisions to make when taking a photograph if you want to.

Me, I'm willing to try different things. I still keep my macro work moving forward and I can't wait for the car shows to start. But photography is so versatile and there are times my creative streak just wants to go wild. If you enjoy photography go wild sometimes. Find out some of the wonderful things you can do with Photoshop and Nik filters. Maybe even OnOne and Canon equipment will work ... So you can see what a revelation something like the iPhone can be to everyone. It changes almost everything about photography. Love it or hate it, it is part of the future of photography and that will always change.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. We are heading for some sleet and ice, then snow for tomorrow morning's drive time. Oh boy! It has been cold the last few days.one of the weather guys in Omaha said, "We are on a polar coaster," and that seems to be the case. Have a great week. Check out Zenfolio if you have some time.

Delphinium - Before and After

2012-02-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

Photography has always been an opportunity to work with an image to create something that is more atuned to your creative process. There are pictures from the 1800's that have been modified and manipulated in the darkroom. But there are also purists who say what comes out of the camera is what you should show to people. That's a great idea if you use photography as a means to take a photograph and do nothing with it after the fact. 'Artists' have used photography to capture a scene they want to paint in the future. And with digital photography the creativity has moved to a new level.

So here is what that process looks like - This what we call straight out of the camera (SOOC). Nothing done to it at all. It isn't too bad, it has nice colors, composition isn't the best but it is sharp.

But if you use a camera as a tool to find the base for something your imagination can wander around in, then you get an idea of what can be. I saw something in the photograph and when I took the image I made certain that I had room around the middle flower.

So what could I do to make it more interesting ... I think this is interesting. At least more than the original image.

This photograph has a lot of stuff going on. First of all I cropped it in Lightroom then quickly went to Photoshop and Nik filters. Color Efex Pro 4 got me the colors I wanted. Then back to Photoshop with a new textured background. I bumped up the contrast of the background texture and then removed it from the flower so it looked like it was a background. Then a vignette and a border to complete the effect.

Some people will prefer the original, some people will like the bottom image and some people want something in between. Let me know which one you prefer and why.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker.And check out Zenfolio for more of my photographs.

Ground Hog Day

2012-02-06T04:00:00.000-06:00

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Thursday, so we get 6 more weeks of winter. Big deal - it was a record 69° Monday, in the 50's Tuesday, Wednesday and today. For Nebraska a winter day like these is a day to wear shorts.

But remember in my last post I mentioned that weather is a fickle thing in this part of the country. And so it is. Friday morning started warm and dry. As the morning got moving rain started spitting and the radar showed the rain south of Omaha. The weather prognosticators were no better than Punxsutawney Phil with what was in store for us this weekend.

Late Friday night the snow started to come down and Saturday it never stopped. We got about 8-10 inches. I had a couple of post Saturday about the weather but I still wanted to get my Monday morning blog out.

I have been busy at work this week with pending projects so the only photographs I have taken are with the iPhone, mostly of my grandkids - OK mostly of Luke. But in preparation of the upcoming snow event and the fact our pantry was a little bare, we got our groceries Thursday night. And that meant a trip to Sam's Club. I found some neat looking flowers that I decided to take home.

I thought these flowers were kind of cool bit I didn't know exactly what they were called. Thank goodness they had a label on them ... Delphinium. A check on Wikipedia got to the heart of the Delphinium. It is from the buttercup family or more commonly a Larkspur. Not only that, they are toxic, so I don't want to let the kids get into them.

I finished this image in Photoshop and Nik plugins. It is two separate images with the focus on the first set of sepals and then another with the focus on the other set of sepals (or petals). Then in Photoshop I used a mask to blend the two images together and making certain the center right part was the main area. Then I use a white vignette and a narrow border to finish off the image.

I took most of the images using a white background and some with the black background. I am starting to like the white background for flower photography. These flowers had a lot of white in the sepals so I worked to keep the background and sepals separated. I tried it on black but it just didn't look as nice.

This started in Lightroom where I did a little tweaking and cropped in square (I love square remember), then into Photoshop where it went into Nik Color Efex Pro 4. I used a Pro Contrast, Glamour Glow and Image Borders to finish the image. I figure this is a little out of my normal flower photography but these are interest flowers. If you click on this you should be able to make it larger. There is a lot of detail in the full flower.

And these are much like a buttercup so I wanted to make an image with multiple stems. I had a small vase and picked some out for this image. This image is a little mor complicated. First in Lightroom for some quick corrections, then into Photoshop and Nik plugins for Pro Contrast and a couple of others. Then back to Photoshop and I added a Flypaper Texture and then I created a border effect to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Today is supposed to be 35° for a high and then it is going to be colder. So that snow better melt by tomorrow so we are ready for the next round. I know the weather forecasters are not saying it, but remember March is coming. Check out Zenfolio for more images.

It's Alive! ...

2012-02-04T23:01:00.002-06:00

... and here is the proof. I went out to blow the snow and Betty took a photograph before she came out to do the clean up scooping. The snowblower fired up but it had a flat tire, the clutch needs adjustment and it was a little down in the dumps. Looks like a spring tuneup is in its future.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Stay warm.

Mr. Lonely Not So Lonely Anymore

2012-02-04T12:26:00.001-06:00

Betty said what is happening now is my fault. I don't see how it could be my fault. Just because I write a blog that not many people read about my lonely snowblower it snows up to a foot of snow. If that's true you need to reading my blog and telling everyone you know that I am a prognosticator of weather.

So, we needed the moisture, that is for sure, and we are getting it. This is a look to the west. There's isn't a lot of wind so it just builds up. And it is wet so it won't be so much fun shoveling ... I'll use the snowblower and Betty can cleanup after me.

We will probably be the last to clean our driveway but that's OK because it will melt soon anyway. There is a fun movie on right now that I got hooked on.

As far as the snow. You're all welcome!

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. The photos today are from my iPhone using Nik Snapseed and the blog completed on my iPad. Check out Zenfolio for more images. And enjoy the snow.

Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely ...

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-06:00

This was a tough blog to name. I really wanted to use this title but I don't want to attract the wrong type of blog reader. So away we go ...

Ah, the lyrics of the song Mr. Lonely from 60's crooner Bobby Vinton. While Mr. Vinton sang he was lonely he undoubtedly was not as lonely as the subject of this photograph ...

That's right ... my snowblower. This has been a dry, warm winter. We have had two snow falls. The first snow fall we scooped was a heavy blanket of snow that went away quickly due to several days in the 50's and a warm December all around (how about a warm winter). The second snow was recent and I sweep the snow to the end of the drive way and then scooped it off to the side. This is all that is left of the snow. And it is Saturday, January 28th as I write this blog. And the forecast is possible record high temperatures this week. This just isn't normal for Nebraska in January.

Not once have I gone to the shed where the snowblower has sat. Waiting for someone to come and crank it up ... to get the oil flowing ... to get the snow flying ... to bring it life. For it has sat alone since I stopped mowing. It's only companion were the lawn mower and assorted tools.

But it's time may be yet to come this winter. March 1st was the day that farmers moved to their new place to farm for the year in Northwest Iowa and probably many farm areas around the country. Many farmers did not own the land they farmed, but rented or sharecropped. If the owner did not think they were doing a good job or the farmer didn't like the owner, they found a new place to farm. Many is the time that we had a good old fashioned blizzard on that day.

And for some reason we had a blizzard or severe snow storm during the Iowa Boys State Basketball Championship. My brother played on a team that went to the championship in 1957 and if I recall they had a drive through snow to get home from Des Moines.

It's funny, when you live in a place that gets snow it takes a lot of snow to keep you home. Betty and I traveled in several snow storms and didn't think much of anything of it. In 1976 I went to Remsen, Iowa to photograph a wedding in a blizzard. I got there but didn't get home until Tuesday morning. A family was gracious enough to let me stay at their house during the storm.

But my poor snow blower. Sitting out in a cold, dark shed, waiting for someone to come and open the door, stick the orange key in the slot, prime it and get it started. May it be unused this year. Either way, I'll spend some time in the spring draining the old oil and cleaning it up ready for the next time it needs to be used.

Both of the photographs in this blog were taken with the iPhone using the Hipstamic app. I am trying to get used to the various apps available and this app is popular, but there is a lot to learn. It acts like it is a old, leaky, plastic camera. And it has different lenses and film to use. Each combination creates something different. About the only thing you don't get is a regular clean image. That's OK because there are other apps for that.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I have put up most of the iPhone images in Zenfolio. I invite your comments as I work on the process. If you tell me what you like and don't like it will help me for future photography.

Trader Joe's Flowers

2012-01-27T04:00:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday was Trader Joe's day. That meant picking up some new flowers along with the regular food items. I splurged a little and bought a $5.99 bouquet rather than the $3.99 bouquet. It has more greenery and more flowers. So that meant Sunday was flower photography day.

Sunday was cloudy so my studio was perfect for taking images. In my last blog I compared a couple of photographs, one taken with my Nikon and the other taken with an iPhone. Check that blog out and see if you can tell which photograph was taken with each camera.

The first image was taken about as close as I could get to the Gerbera with my Nikkor 60mm lens. I stopped the lens down to f/16 and spot exposed for the slightly brown flower in the middle. I finished it off in Lightroom to crop it square, then in Photoshop I used Nik filters to add some Pro Contrast, and even a little softening. Finished up with Nik Sharpener Pro, brushing sharpening in on the flowers center.

Along with the red Gerbera's were a couple of pink one. I like the white ends of the petals. And for the background I used some lilies. Hopefully they will be blooming in a few days and I can take more photographs. I also added a Flypaper Texture, removed it some from the lily and the pink leaves. From there it was into Nik filters for the finishing touches. I look forward to photographing the lilies when they are ready to bloom and that should be this coming weekend.

The last image uses several of the floral part from the bouquet. There were some little berry type of branches along with some open lilies. They added some color but more importantly they added some leaves to the grouping. This one is a little different however. It is actually 9 separate exposures blended together in software called Helicon Focus. Each of the exposures had a slightly different depth of field focus and when blended they provide and image that if sharp from the front all the way back to the little berries. That distance is about 4 inches. And while it doesn't seem like much when you are shooting wide open from about 12 inches the depth of field is more like ½ inch.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I put some extra posts out this week because I had a few images I wanted to share. Let me know if you enjoy this type of post the best.

The weather has been pretty up and down for the last couple of weeks but it won't be long and the car shows will start again. I am looking forward to that and have been thinking about how I want the images to go for 2012. When I figure it out you will be the first to know.

See ya ... and check out Zenfolio.

Let's Compare

2012-01-25T04:00:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I got a couple of Gerbera daisy's at Trader Joe's. If you live close to a Trader Joe's and like flowers for photography you can get some pretty nice flowers inexpensively.

The Gerbera's were starting to fade so I thought Sunday would be a good day to take some photographs. The day was cloudy and my studio had some great light to shoot. My studio is my kitchen table with an east wall of windows and a south door that I can open to let in additional light. I had them all wide open and used my Micro Nikkor 60mm f2.8 lens.

Below are two photographs. One from a little distance and the other much closer. Which one do you like the best?

Some people are going to like the top one because it shows the entire flower and some will like the bottom one better because it fills the frame with the flower petals. They are both OK but there is one difference.

The top photograph was taken with my Nkon D300 and the bottom photograph was taken with my iPhone. So this at least answers some of questions about the iPhone and what kind of photographs I can shoot with it. I used an app called Camera+ and I did cheat and after working the image in Snapseed (which is coming to a PC to you soon, you lucky Mac folks can already download and use that program) and I used Nik Sharpener Pro to sharpen the image. Could I take the same image with the Nikon that I did with the iPhone? I sure can and it might be sharper, etc. but overall the same iamge.

The top photograph was processing in Lightroom and then I used Nik Color Efex Pro 4 to add some details using the Detail Extractor, used the Pro Contrast and finished it up with a border. Then I used the same Sharpener Pro to sharpen the image.

So, if you didn't know what kind of photograph you could capture with an iPhone you do now. Is it as good as the Nikon? No in some ways, but in some ways I like it better. Overall it is a nice tool. Photography is changing. I think the time of the Point and Shoot cameras is coming to an end as the phone cameras continue to get better. The apps they have for them are great and for less than $25 you can get most of the apps you need to make some pretty darn good images. Like I said before ... think different. Use the light to your advantage and see that something extra.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I hope I am giving you something to thing about photography for 2012. Check out the Zenfolio gallery as well and I will be adding several of the images I have taken with the iPhone. I have been taking more photos of my family with this phone. Since it isn't as big it doesn't seem so scary to the little ones.

Getting There

2012-01-23T04:00:00.000-06:00

Getting there is half the fun. The other half is whatever you want to make it ... in my opinion. More and more as I explore photography I find out that digital photography is just like film photography. It is all about the light and how you see it and use it to your best advantage.

It really doesn't matter what kind of camera you use (well maybe it does, hint hint Nikon hint hint (-; ) because the camera is the tool to start your creative juices flowing. The camera is getting there. Every day we see all kinds of cars on the road. We see basic cars and super fancy, expensive cars. Bottom line is they all get us humans where we need to be. You don't have to understand the mechanics of how the car works to get your there. You put the key in the ignition, turn it, put it in gear and drive away.

Same thing with a camera. I think of the three basics of photography (ISO - Shutter Speed - Aperature) just like the key, ignition and gears. You need a working knowledge of the camera and photography, but you don't need to know all the little things that can drive you crazy. Click - look at the LCD and if it looks good - move on for more images. Unless you are taking photographs as a professional it doesn't need to be perfect because it is for you. It might have a little blur, be a little off center but it is a photograph of your grandchild ... Do you always want to take the best possible photography ... sure you do.

There are so many different photography tools (think camera) it is hard to decide. Canon ... Nikon ... Olympus ... Pentax ... Leica ... iPhone. It is a tool.

What was new to me this week was the iPhone apps. Hipstamatic app has various processes built right in. Change the lens, change the film and you get a different look. But the favorite reason I like it is because it shoots SQUARE! I love square photographs. So here is one I did of some 2-week old Gerbera daisys that have been hanging in there. I was showing someone the camera, and using the Hipstamatic app took the photograph. This isn't too bad for nothing more than taking the photograph.

So I decided to see what I could do with it in Snapseed and with a little more effort I like the photograph better.

So the question remains ... will the iPhone replace my Nikon? Nope. I still like the ability to have a big digital negative to play with and a variety of lenses so I can shoot close up. Just like cars, I know that any of the cars will get me to my destination but I also know that one gives me more room to play than the other and is just more fun.

I'm not a pixel peeper so much anymore. I look at the image and determine for myself if many of the things that photographers swear to uphold really matter. That would be the "rules" of photography. I prefer to think of them as guidelines. Or you could say rules are made to be broken. Just try to break them gently.

If the image/photgraph/whatever conveys something meaningful for me or evokes my imagination of what could be, then I like it. If it is another picture of the same place where 8 million people have taken the same photograph then not so much. Not even technical correctness works. It needs to have that creative vision of the play of light. I want to see something that is more than a picture of what they saw, but rather taking that memory and creating art.

Don't take photographs for camera club competition (oops, did I say that) but take pictures that bring back a flood of memories when you look at them, or tell a story to people that look at them, or are just gentle on your soul. It doesn't get any better than that.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time. I enjoy your comments and appreciate your thoughts. Check out Zenfolio for more images.

My New Camera

2012-01-16T04:00:00.000-06:00

My old phone reached the two-year mark and was ready for an upgrade. I like the HTC Incredible because it was a replacement for my Palm T/X. But the Android platform has not produced many photo apps (and I know they have some) to keep up with what is available for the iPhone.

And camera's are changing. There are new camera's out (some call them EVIL - sounds like Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb) that will change the way we use cameras on a professional level soon. These are camera's that do not have the mirror that slaps up when you take an image with a DSLR. That means they are smaller, thinner and lighter and the lenses are smaller and they are quieter. Image ... carrying your entire camera outfit in a small bag around your waist. Sweet!

Oh ... back to the phone. Since I "needed" a new phone I decided to move from the Android platform to the Apple platform. I already use an iPad to process a lot of my photos so I don't have to repurchase those apps. Getting these apps at around $1 to $5 is much better than the $600 price tag for the full Photoshop. Maybe Photoshop Elements is back in my future. Anyway, I picked up a new iPhone 4s. Is it perfect. Nope. There are some things I miss on the Android.

I figured most everybody has heard about the iPhone 4S, what it looks like, how it works, etc. so for me I was surprised at the heft of the phone. For lack of a better way to say it, "It fits nicely in your hand and you know it is there."

My left hand fingers get in the way of the lens but I can work at that. When you hold a SLR camera you use both hands. You just hold this one differently.

So, what do the images look like? Here is the first image through the camera. This was shot using the Hipstamatic camera app, then taking it into Nik Snapseed for the finishing touch. The Hipstamatic offers a Vintage approach to the images and then I used Snapseed to add more Vintage touch along with some focus on the one flower. The overly brightened flower is the result of the Hipstamatic and Snapseed vintage process. But I still think it is artistic and interesting,

I will be doing a little more research on iPhone photography to help me understand the process a little better. The iPhone works well in the iCloud and drops the images on my iPad, even if I am not a home.

What will the future hold photographically for me? I don't know exactly, but as I get older it is tougher to carry a big DSLR/lens combination for a day. Will the iPhone be my go-to camera. Probably not, but it will be the one I have with me all the time, so there will be images that I will capture that otherwise would have been left to my memory - and my memory isn't as good as it once was.

Stay tuned to the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker in 2012 to see my evolution into iPhotography and beyond. Maybe by the end of 2012 a new EVIL camera will come out that will replace my DSLR in the future. In any event photography is going through a huge evolution like we have never seen before. And there is still a lot of life in the Nikon D300. Check out Zenfolio as well. I will get a new gallery just for iPhoneography images. Think different ...

The Future of Photography

2012-01-14T14:09:00.001-06:00

Imagine what early photographers like Mathew Brady went through to get photographs. His images of the Civil War are reminders about the horror of war. But the camera was large and bulky with a viewfinder in the back. Think of a large view camera. The film was a piece of glass that was treated with chemicals just before the image was taken. The exposure was about 15 to 30 seconds depending on lighting and conditions. Then the plate needed to be developed in a series of chemicals that produced a negative. Then they took the negative and placed it on a sheet of light-sensitive paper in the sun to make a picture. The pictured needed to be developed as well by processing, washing and drying to make the finished photograph. That's a lot of work for one photograph. You gotta want it ... bad.

Kodak came up with the film on a piece of coated cellophane and brought photography to the masses. They even made a Brownie camera for everybody to use. Later cameras could still be a view camera or a 35mm SLR. The exposures could be measured in 1,000th's of a second. The processing was pretty much the same. Process the film, then use an enlarger to make the print.

What happened next - digital! You could see the results on the back LCD right away. No film. But now you needed a computer and software to generate photographs. The original digital images could be equated to the Mathew Brady type since the sensors (think film) were not as good as today. Many DSLR's can take over 5 images a second and the shutter can go as high as 1/8000th. And the film - today that is an ISO and a small memory card. And the ISO can go as high as 102,000. You can take a photograph in the dark and get an image. Whoa!

And the cameras are getting smaller.The new iPhone is about the size of a deck of cards. Not only can you call people on it, they have apps for a calendar, word processor, some games, and the ability to take some pretty good photographs. The apps can produce all kinds of interesting effects. And a good share of them are free or a whooping 99¢.Will it replace a SLR? Not yet but I know there are engineers somewhere working on exactly that.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your comments, so please feel free to leave some for me.

Please check out Zenfolio too. I try to get more images out there or at least the ones used in the blog.

I embraced technology for digital photography but Betty was kind enough to buy me a digital camera in time for the birth of our first grandchild. He was the one in the photograph from the New Year blog. But I am making the decision to look into the future of photography will be and see what is possible (at least for me) with the new technology.

Flower Time

2012-01-09T04:00:00.000-06:00

This past week has been fantastic weather in Omaha. Thursday we had a record high. While it is getting cooler it is still above normal for us. We haven't had any moisture and that isn't good going in to spring. It is always possible to get a snowstorm before the year is over. You just never know what nature will throw at us.

Even with the warm weather my schedule hasn't allowed much time for me to go out and take photographs. The holidays are busy anyway and I just didn't find the time. I did find some $3.99 irises at Trader Joe's that I figured I would give a try. Trader Joe's has some pretty decent flowers at affordable prices. They had some Gerbera's with small roses and berry's for $3.99 that I got Friday night. I took some photos over the weekend but I haven't had the time to process them yet.

One of my goasl for 2012 is to make sure I get the image "in the camera". That means rather than take 50 shots I will make certain of my exposure before I trip the shutter. Hey, that sounds like shooting on film. And that is pretty much my goal. Back in the days of film I wouldn't think of taking 100 images of a flower to get one photograph. The cost would be too high

That is a nice thing about digital. People say it doesn't cost anything, but it does. The shutter only lasts so long so you wear the camera out sooner. And more importantly the cost comes within the photographer. When they feel they can just start taking shot after shot they miss out on important decisions that help them create better images. And another cost is the time it takes to go through so many images to find one that you like enough to work on further.

The iris was one of 60 images I took working with two different flowers. I took more than usual in some cases because I was working on a process called focus stacking. Basically the process consists of taking multiple images without moving anything except the focus of the lens. This means everything is on manual and I moved the focus every so slightly between exposures. The idea is to use software to overlay all of the images. The software (Helicon Focus in my case) picks the sharpest parts of each exposure and blends them together into one image. Cool. The end result is an image that has a greater depth of field - or it is sharper throughout the image.

Once I got the iris blended I decided to crop it square (yes another square image). From Photoshop I took the image into Nik Color Efex 4. The first filter I added was tonal contrast to give it a little pop in both the purple and green and the second filter was levels and curves. I also did burning and dodging using the U-Point technology developed by Nik. I then went back to Photoshop and added three textures from Flypaper Textures. There are two different textures and the third deeped the depth of the image making it look a lot like a painting. Finally back into Nik Color Efex 4 and added the border.

I will get more flower images out in the future. I have two other iris images that added to this one might make an interest diptic of some kind. And I have some new images from the Gerbera that I haven't even processed yet. Patience and slow down is the motto for 2012.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Give me some feedback on the image and whether you are interested in how the final image was produced. Check out Zenfolio as well. I will add pictures not seen on the blog there as well.

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-02T04:00:00.000-06:00

The ball has fallen, the fireworks have exploded and the parties are over. Happy 2012. Overall I enjoyed the last year. There were some high points and some low points. Lately I have just been in a funk. I don't know why because the weather is fantastic. Sounds pretty typical though.

Last week we enjoyed the company of our two oldest grand children for several days. Friday was the day we took them home and they wanted to eat out and go the the Henry Doorly Zoo. After I got off work we ate at Five Guys Burgers and Fries and then headed over to the zoo.

We went through the Jungle and enjoyed it. The problem was the mold in the warm, humid area took its toll on Betty and me, so we were glad to get out into the open. Late December in the Omaha area has been fantastic. Temperatures were as high as the mid 50's and we didn't go below freezing for a few nights. Today the high was 48°F with tomorrow getting to 54°F. For December that is shorts weather in Omaha.

Walking though the Jungle provided a lot of sights as well as smells. The light coming through the roof was muted by the clouds outside but it offered lots of opportunities. I was using the Canon P&S because I didn't want to carry the bigger camera. Betty and Jake were standing looking at some monkeys in a tree and the light was coming down just right. To me it was a black and white when I took it.

I don't know how the photo looks on your screen but you can make it bigger if you want. Just click on it. I used Lightroom to bring out some of the shadows and then into Photoshop with Nik filters. There was a lot of noise in this picture but Define did a great job of getting rid of that. Then I put a little bit of light on Betty and Jake's faces, took it into Nik Silver Efex Pro2 for the black and white. Added a border and a Flypaper Texture over that and I was done. I might tweak it over the year and enter it in the Clay County Fair.

After the Zoo we hopped on to the Interstate and headed to Iowa. While traveling just north of Council Bluffs the same light from the picture above was lighting the trees. So I took my last image of 2011 and this is what I got.

Again I started in Lightroom for cropping and then to Photoshop and Nik. I used Viveza2 for some contrast and color tweaking, then ColorEfex Pro4 for some Tonal Contrast and one of favorite filters, Duplex. Then I added the border and called it done.

So now I am thinking about photographer for 2012. Lots of things going on. I still have my full time job and that is first and foremost for me, but I want to continue to take photographs of flowers, people and classic cars. I have enjoyed bringing the blog to you over the year and I hope you have enjoyed your time reading the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Please make a comment on what you enjoyed the most in the blog for 2011 and what things you would like to see in 2012. I haven't really explained how I do my photos until lately and even now I continually experiment. That is what I think is so great about the digital photography world.

One thing I will do sometime in 2012 is to pull out my old negatives and scan some of my favorite ones and see what can be accomplished in the digital darkroom. The Omaha Camera Club purchased a slide/negative scanner for members to use. I wouldn't have bought that for myself and I am looking forward to see what some of the negatives look like after 40 years or so. That's how far they go back. Once I get the scanning done I can dump the negatives. Storage is always difficult.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker and see you throughout 2012. Don't forget Zenfolio.

Memories of the Mind

2011-12-26T04:00:00.000-06:00

It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That may be, but no one will say a word or smile if they don't see the picture.

I would guess millions of photos are taken every year on digital cameras, phones and tablets. I would also guess most of the photos are still in the digital camera, phones or tablets. Or if not on the device, they are probably sitting on a computer hard drive. Unloved and unseen. What's the point of taking them if you aren't going to share them - somehow.

My first project of the new year is to complete my Christmas shopping. The reason I wait this long is due to the nature of the present. It is for Betty and it is my yearly photo book for her. So I need to wait until the end of the year before I have all the images for the book.

For me it is the most special present I can give her. It reminds us of the year past. We can smile over photos of Luke, our new grandson, or photos of all of our grand children. Family members we see once in a while or those we see often. It is a glimpse into our past. It provides me the opportunity to give a gift that can be picked up, held, looked at and shared. It will also provide future generations the opportunity to see the old folks and what we looked like when we were younger. For me the photo book is like the photo albums of the past.

This photo book is also the most important long term project I work on during the year. It is an opportunity to take photos of my family having fun, working, playing, whatever is happening during the year. Sometimes I don't get as many taken as I would like - but I try. Strange as it may sound, all of the things I practice to improve my photography during the year come down to taking better photos of my family for this book. It is that important to me.

Six years ago I started with Mpix for my processing. They do a great job and their turnaround time is fantastic. Co-incidentally that is when I produced my first photo book. One of gifts that I already have delivered is my annual Family Calendar and Mpix prints a great calendar. I have two versions - the first is for work and it has some of my favorite photos from the previous year (2011 was the year of the car) and the other is for the family. Each month has different family photos and of course the birthdays and fun stuff. The calendars are 8.5"x11" folded and they open up to 11"x17".

There are a lot of variations to the photo books, but the one I like is the coffee table book. They come in various sizes, covers and paper. You can expand them up to 50 pages. They even provide software to help you design your book. You can get a lot of images packed into 50 pages along with captions.

Throughout the year I use Lightroom as my image library and RAW processor. I break my images down into various folders and subfolders along with keywords. Now I use Lightroom to filter the first round of picks and put them in a "collection". From there I will select the final picks and if necessary do some processing on them. Once that is done comes the task of designing the album.

It is a lot of fun because I look at all of the images I took in 2011 and decide which ones I will include. The images don't even have to be in focus to make the book (not that I take images that are out of focus). Somehow when someone is looking at a picture of them they don't really care if the color balance is perfect, if the focus is tack sharp, or if the pose is exactly right. They smile because I took the time to put the picture of them in the album.

Why not drag out all of the photos from the camera card or hard drive and make a digital scrap book at Mpix and have them print it out. You won't be disappointed and you will be surprised how much fun you will have putting it together. And your future generations will have something to remember those that started everything. Start a new habit with your family when they are little and do an annual photo book. Those books will be priceless.

The picture at the top ... one of favorite photos of the year. And I didn't even take it (Betty did and won a Best of Show Honorable Mention at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, IA. The fair received a first place award in the General Display Photo Competitive Exhibits from the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. Sweet ...), but it's me with my new grandson! See how much fun this book will be when Luke is 20 ... He is going to be a climber. Saturday he climbed on a box, then onto a chair - and he can't walk yet!

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. You can check out more of my images at Zenfolio.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T16:22:00.001-06:00

From the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker ...

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Is It Art or Science?

2011-12-19T04:00:00.000-06:00

This is a bit off base for me but I have been thinking about this for some time. I have discussed it with photographer friends and I think I have finally come to grips about what I do.

Photography can become a science. Exact exposure - shutter speed, ISO and f/stop - combine to bring something that happens at a moment in time. Light goes through the lens, hits the sensor (ah, the good old days of film - not so much anymore) which translates it to millions of numbers (based on the sensor size - my Nikon D300 is a mere 12 million pixels compared to some today), and software shows you the image. Then you can use any number of programs to take the image to your view.

That is where the art part takes over and why I consider myself more of an artist than a photographer. I use photography to gather my ideas much like artists carry a sketch book around to draw their ideas. From there I use Lightroom, Photoshop with Nik filters and even Snapseed to bring the image to life as I saw it in my mind. Sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't. That is where the science part comes in.

If you have a lousy starting point you will probably wind up with a lousy finish. Unlike an artist that can sketch the basics of the scene they have in front of them and then change them as needed in their final product, photography gives you one chance for composition and exposure so you can come away with a great finished image.

Now I need to start seeing more creatively. That means not just taking a photo because I think it looks good, but taking a photo with a final image in mind. So the journey has started and I will work on that for 2012.

As a first effort I decided to see what an image I took in northwest Iowa for my Harvest trip in October. Northwest Iowa is a neat place to be but most people will not see much there. They only think of the mountains, forests, oceans, etc. as worthwhile places. But there is a lot to see there if you just take the time to see. This is the image that I took of a single leaf hanging on a tree. This was about the best fall color we had during the three days.

This is what you can call a RAW image. There is absolutely nothing applied to this image. It is SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera), just like a negative would come out of a film camera. It is up to the lab (in this case me, using software) to process the negative and make it an image.

For this image I had my zoom lens on my camera racked out to 200mm. At that length the lens is at f/5.6 so there is some depth of field that would not be there if I had an f/2.8 lens. But that costs around $2,000 so that won't be happening. But before I could do anything I needed to make the click. I knew that Lightroom, Photoshop and Nik could really make a difference.

Once I got it in Lightroom, I added a little contrast, sharpening and corrected the white balance. Oh, and I cropped it - square, my favorite. From there it went to Photoshop where I used Nik to remove some of the noise in Define. Next I went into Color Efex Pro 4 and did some Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow. Then I added a border and brought back the twig with the clinging leaf. Some sharpening in Nik Sharpener Pro. Then I added a Flypaper Texture and called it good.

I hope everybody is ready for Christmas or Hanukkah. Enjoy the holiday and I will have something for you on the 26th.

Stop by my Zenfolio website and enjoy other photos. If you want to remember the car shows this summer check out the images in the Car Show gallery as a slide show. And if you like tractors there are four gallery's just waiting to be viewed as a slide show as well.

So while the original was OK, it was the base of what I had in mind when I clicked the shutter. Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker.

Winter's First Shot

2011-12-12T04:00:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday winter decided to fire it's first volley of snow. It started out slow but by the afternoon it was coming down pretty hard. It was a wet, heavy snow that stuck to most everything. Trees bowed down to its weight, streets became difficult to drive and scooping the snow was heavy, hard work.

We had gone to lunch with our daughter and headed home just in time. So we sat around watching some Christmas stories on Hallmark. As I looked out the window around 5:00 pm CT, I saw the snow was giving up and the sun was trying to make a statement just before sunset. The sky was bright but muted. As you know I like square images so I decided this was a good fit. I used Nik plug ins to bring out a little more contrast and then changed the the tones slightly with the Duplex filter. This is more to what I saw. Slightly warm because of the sunset, the evergeen was bending with the green colors warmed by the sun. Any leaves were still desperately clinging to the trees but most had lost the battle. And the sky was just a light blue gray. Add the border and you're finished. That's one reason why I like Nik so much. Just 5 minutes and you get this this.

It snowed again this week A bitter sweet week for reasons I won't go into. It is Saturday as I write this but you won't be seeing it until Monday. I am going to have an image available on Mondays. Hopefully it will bring a memory of a past or recent event. Even better if it brings a smile to your face. It doesn't seem possible that it is only two weeks from Christmas Eve. I am pretty much past the presents at my age, but I do love to see the excitement from my grand children as they open their presents.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. As you prepare for Christmas I hope you take time out from the hustle and bustle and slow down. Take time to see what is around you, enjoy it and smile more. I can't wait until the snow melts, the sun warms the soil and the sleeping bulbs bring forth a green stem to see what the new season has in store. I plan to be there for that and capture the fact that nature has decided to give us another encore of its beauty. Check out Zenfolio for more photos from older blogs. Or you could read all the blogs. I look forward to Monday's with all of you.

I had this blog all done but then I decided on a different crop and turn this into a tinted, black and white. Hope you enjoy this as well. Just trying to bring something different. This one made it to my iPad. If you would like it for an iPhone or iPad let me know.

Chain, Chain, Chain

2011-12-02T04:00:00.000-06:00

Chains ... chains are a part of a farm. Heavy ones. Light ones. Long ones. Short ones. You can use them for a lot of things. As I looked at these chains in the machine shed I wondered if they were the ones my dad and I used in 1966 to pull 1.5 miles of steel posts because they were working on the road by our house to blacktop it. Dad had the loader on the tractor with the chain attached. I took the other end of the chain, wrapped it around the post twice and he used the loader to pull the post out. One down and a whole lot left.

Chains are pretty much ignored until you need them. So they get rusty, they are dropped in a pile to get covered by dust and whatever ends up on the ground around them. They are the unappreciated workhorse of a farm. You don't need them often but when you need them ... well they are ready to deliver.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. It is definitely starting to look a lot like winter is here. Tomorrow rain/snow is predicted with temperatures around 38 for a high. Then Saturday it gets cold. Oh well, in just a few short months the tulips that we planted will poking through the ground ready to bring spring. I am not a big fan of winter but I wouldn't want to live someplace that is pretty much the same all year. My dad always said there was a reason why it got cold. He said it cleansed the soil. It was a natural way the soil prepared for the coming growing season. I am certain there is a lot of truth to that. Take some time to check out Zenfolio. Until next time ...

The Corn Harvest

2011-11-17T04:00:00.000-06:00

As a kid living on a farm that grew corn I didn't really put a lot of thought into corn. Hence, that is why I am not a farmer. That and the fact that corn pollen and I don't like to occupy the same space. We planted the corn in the spring, as it grew we cultivated it, weeded it, walked it and when it was ready we picked it. That was the life cycle of the corn stalk from seed to seeds.

One interesting thing is the growth of corn. Corn likes hot, humid weather to grow. And when that weather hits northwest Iowa corn grows. It grows so fast that on those warm nights you could lay in bed and actually hear the snap, crackle, pop of it growing. Off in the distance the wailing sound of a train whistle as it crossed the roads on its trek north.

How many of you have brought home sweet corn still in the husk? You had to strip the husk off the corn and pull out all the silk so they wouldn't get in your teeth as you munched on the delicious sweet kernels. Well the corn that is corn for livestock isn't sweet corn. It is called field corn. It is different in a lot of ways. From the size and shape of the kernels to the starch content most people do not want to eat it. (my Uncle Ed did like to eat an ear of field corn along with the sweet corn however).

When the corn is ready for harvest the silk on the field corn turns dark brown, the husks and stalks dry to a medium brown and the kernels 'dent'. Now is the time to pick or combine the corn.

This bit of silk is sticking out of the end of the ear and it twists together almost like a ponytail. I changed the color of the image slightly by darkening the entire image but the color of the silk didn't change, which surprised me. This is the first time in my life that I actually took the time to look at the ear for a purpose other than to just throw it into a wagon.

Maybe it is because I am getting older, maybe it is because it is close to the harvest, or maybe it is because I decided it is time to take a closer look at nature again. I liked science as a kid so why not now. Nature doesn't pull any punches. It is beautiful and brutal almost all in the same square inch. I don't like to get out during the winter so it will be flowers and other things that I will photograph for the next few months. I might also take some time to work on camera skills and processing skills too.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for more images. Until next time ...

The Harvest Continues

2011-11-16T04:00:00.000-06:00

When the weather is right the harvest continues into the night. Corn needs to be at a specific moisture content and when that happens the harvest doesn't stop. If it is too wet the corn needs to be dried and that cost money.

When we were there in October the moon was full. That was one of the reasons I went to northwest Iowa for The Harvest. There are so many programs available that provide the time of sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moon set but I like The Photographer's Ephemeris the best. Not only does it supply just about everything you could want regarding the sun/moon it is a great map for the whole world. I have relatives in Germany and I can enter their address and go right to where they live. Doesn't offer me directions but I can see when the sun will rise and from which angle, which for a photographer is the best.

We knew when the moon would rise and where it would rise so we positioned ourselves and hoped everything worked out. The clouds had other ideas.

I would like to say this is straight out of the camera but it needed a lot of contrast plus some Nik love as well. Topaz has a new filter that has some cool twists as well and it was the final process to put this image together. Is it the best image ... nope. But it is the best image I was going to get given the circumstances.

I wish we could have gotten someone picking corn but that just is not popular anymore. For one thing once you pick it you need more physical storage space because you are storing the entire corn cob. Plus you need to get the corn kernels off the cob at some point and that requires a corn sheller.

My Uncle Delbert was the corn sheller in Calumet and the surrounding area. The sheller was mounted on a truck and had a feeder that linked together to go down the middle of the corn crib to feed the corn cob into the sheller. It then used rollers to take the kernel off the cob. The corn went into one wagon, the cobs went into another wagon and the husks went into a big pile on the yard. They were blown out of the sheller down a huge white chute. All in all it was pretty impressive and quite a lot of work as well. I wish I had been involved in photography back then because it would have been a great thing to shoot a day of corn shelling. Now the combine does it all.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Stop by Zenfolio for more images. Until next time ...

Ethyl ... or Regular with that windshield wash?

2011-11-15T04:00:00.000-06:00

I filled up my car tonight and gas was $3.129/gallon for 10% Ethanol. That's down almost 20 cents since I filled up last time but it is still too darn high. I remember the days when gas was much cheaper. Back in the 30's gas was cheap by today's standards but I wonder just how much that gallon of gas would cost today.

Well thanks to the wonders of the Internet all I needed to do was to use the CPI calculator. And of all things the numbers surprised me.

With the cost of a gallon of gas costing 16.5 cents in 1932 today that same gallon of gas should cost $2.74 - not the $3 plus cost. That is interesting. On the flip side the candy bar I bought for a nickel in 1954 should now cost 42 cents, but it cost 69 cents. OK, so maybe this isn't the flip side (-; So candy has gone up more than gas. My guess is that the taxes have really gone up on the price of a gallon of gas.

I guess the interesting thing to me is that everything cost more than it should based on the CPI (oh, that is the Consumer Price Index) so I think someone is being a little wrong.

And the 16.5 cents was for Ethyl which cost $3.449 tonight - even more of an increase. Everything I could think of cost more then the CPI says it should cost today. Now I really feel lousy.

There were two types of gas you could get for your car back then. Regular or Ethyl. Ethyl was a product of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation. It had a lead formulation in it that made high-power cars run smoother. It actually had a red tint to it. We used to have a small tank of it at the farm because the V8 in dad's car ran better on Ethyl. I can't remember how much more it cost per gallon.
Enough with the downer. I couldn't believe what a wonderful job was done at the recreated service station in Sanborn, Iowa. There were glass globes on the top of the pumps that the America Pickers would love to have back at their place in LeClaire, IA.

Phillips still uses the same orange color but the logo is slightly different. I think it would be a hoot to stop at a store like this today. You probably wouldn't pump the gas yourself (who doesn't remember that part) and someone might even clean your windshield while the car fills up with gas.

In 1966-67 I worked at a Dividend Bonded Gas Station at Saddle Creek Road and Leavenworth in Omaha. Gas was about $.35/gallon and we pumped the gas, cleaned the windshield, checked the oil and pretty much whatever the customer thought they needed. We even put air in the tires if needed. Now having said that I think I earned $1.25 per hour and the only benefits were the fact they provided a uniform for me to wear. The times have changed.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check Zenfolio for more images. Until next time ...

Catching The Light

2011-11-14T04:00:00.000-06:00

For a photographer everything is about the light. Some light is better than others and sometimes the light is just right. Kind of like the porridge from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Monday was a little soggy but Tuesday had that kind of light in the morning. There were still some clouds lingering around hiding the sun and diffusing the light. God's big 1 stop diffuser - the soft clouds.

As we were driving to Sutherland I noticed an old grain bin of sorts on a farm and really didn't say anything but I knew I wanted to take photographs. So after our first stop out of Sutherland the place I wanted to stop was only about a half a mile down the road. As we were passing by I saw the lady that lived there checking her mail. So we turned around and dropped in. She said help yourself to photographs but I knew there was that "Why would anybody want to take a photograph of my old buildings?"

This is why! It looks really great right out of the camera but I was thinking black and white from the beginning. After several options I decided to go with the black and white with a softlight layer on top with a lot of masking. There is a hint of color in the sky and the corn on the right. You think the trees show green but there is so little it is a little bit of magic. And the entire scene was soft. There was a lot of light as you can see from the shadows but still soft.

This is one of my favorite photographs from the trip. I wanted to turn it into my background screen but it is too busy for that.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time and I hope you tell your friends and family about the site. If you ever lived on a farm or know someone that lived on a farm a lot of the posts will provide a bit of nostalgia. And hopefully most of the blogs are enjoyable. One last thing. Thank you Mrs. J. for allowing us to take photographs on your farmstead. I know I will be back for more. Check out Zenfolio for more images or the opportunity to see all of the images from the blog in one place. Until next time ...

Ingemann Swedish Lutheran Church

2011-11-13T04:00:00.000-06:00

The Loess Hills of Iowa reveal a lot of history if you are willing to take some of the roads less traveled. Last year we stopped at the Ingemann Swedish Lutheran Church west of Moorhead, Iowa and with beautiful clouds got some interesting images.

This year we didn't have the cloud formations so I concentrated on some unusual angles that reflected some character in the church. While it is not decaying as super fast, it is starting to show its age. Cracks in the wood, paint that is chipping and peeling, siding that is starting to rot and yet the windows seem to be intact and the simple spire still stretches to the heavens. I couldn't see this image as anything less that a toned black and white with the subtle color of the windows offering something of the life left in the church.

If you get a chance it is an interesting place to visit. There is a cemetery for you to walk around and the land it sits on is hilly, with the uniqueness of the Loess Hills surrounding it on two sides. As you stand at the front door and look out you see a small valley sloping off to the east and the road winding around the edges of the hills.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. The weekend will soon be over so enjoy the day. Check out Zenfolio for additional images. Until next time...

Iowa's Rolling Prairie

2011-11-12T04:00:00.000-06:00

I sometimes wonder what our farm looked like before the settlers came west and plowed the soil. I know that Native Americans roamed the area. Cherokee and Sioux mostly. I found artifacts on our property when I was a kid wandering along the creek. But most of all the landscape. It is for the most part flat but there are areas where the land just rolls along.

This is the view looking north from the family farm. The signs in the front are 1/2 mile away and the house on the right side is about a mile north. So you can see there are small rolling hills along a good share of the road. The same thing to the south. When you are standing there is really doesn't look like it undulates that much. And it really isn't a huge roll. I was pretty low to the ground to get this effect. I used my longest lens and that compressed the photo.

The first time I saw this effect was in the movie Electra Glide in Blue. It started out at ground level on a road in Arizona or New Mexico. They kept on focusing the lens until the entire image was in focus. Cool. Then the Harley drove into and past the lens. Those movies probably impacted me more than I know when it comes to photography. I didn't pick up a decent camera until 1971 after I got home from basic training in the Army. Got a little training in the Army (very little) and from there it was learn from making mistakes.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was underestimating the power of getting images like this on film. I took some but not the amount I should. I liked to take old barns and stuff but just the day to day living and what it was like I let go by me. Probably because it wasn't new to me. I saw it every day of my life so it was - well, life.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for more images and until next time ... enjoy the ride.

Ever Have One of Those Days?

2011-11-11T04:00:00.000-06:00

You know the kind I'm talking about. The time changed last weekend, so now you get up at the same time as before and you go to bed on the new time. So rather than catch up on the sleep you missed you are losing an hour every day.

Or everything at work just kept on heaping on. You know, that kind of day ...

Well pull it all together and crash right where you are. Take a break. Take a nap. Go outside and scream. You've earned it this week.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your visits and please take some time to comment on some of the blogs. Check out Zenfolio for more images and until next time ... take it easy - you've earned it.

Wilting Away

2011-11-10T04:00:00.000-06:00

What happens when Gerbera daisy's start to wilt? They look like this ...

The petals really curl up and twist in and all around. I am starting to work with flash photography again this was a practice session. I should have taken more images of the Gerbera's last week but I thought they would hang in there a little longer. Not so much. There are probably more where I found this one.

Thanks for stopping by the abbreviated blog post at the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. Until next time ...

The Harvest

2011-11-09T04:00:00.000-06:00

My Loess Hills Safaris subsidiary is where all of my photo workshops are booked. The 2011 theme was The Harvest. Monday it drizzled for a good part of the day and we just took our time driving to Northwest Iowa and cataloging things for the next two days.

Tuesday was clear and dry so we went to my brothers farm. He was busy combining corn. Gary and I stopped at the farm and walked around the machine shed and some other places taking images as we felt moved. I took this photograph looking south to a corn field that Bob was combining. The combine is about a quarter mile from where I was standing and the bales in the back round were almost three quarters of a mile away. The land is relatively flat with rolling hills and slow moving creeks through pastures of brome grass.

The corn is mostly stored in steel grain bins dotting the land as you drive through. Some are small and other are huge. Rather than the tall concrete grain silos of the 50's and 60's they build huge steel grain bins for the storage. Almost every town has an elevator that busy and sells grain, stores it for farmers and mixes feed to sell to their customers. We didn't take the time to photograph the grain elevators this time but I think another time that will be part of my itinerary.

I don't know when I will go back next year but I know I will go back at least once or twice. I am finally enjoying the slower pace of life, the friendliness of the people, the open area where you can see for miles the sky stretch out. The clouds are so big you feel like you can reach up and touch them. And on a clear,still night you can see the Milky Way. That isn't as easy as it was when I was a kid but there are not as many farms so there isn't a bright light every quarter mile.

It won't be long and the snow will be drifting across the roads. Sometimes the drifts can reach 30 feet. It can take a while to dig out from a huge snow storm. The winds come racing across the prairie bringing a chill to the morning. But above it all the livestock had to be tended. Feed and water were more important to them than us. They were our living as we used the grain harvested to feed them until they reached market weight. By that time the next hogs were being born or the next load of feeder cattle arrived to start the process all over.

For the most part the harvest is complete in Northwest Iowa. There is still some corn left to combine or pick - there almost always is someone that gets to it late. After all it isn't Thanksgiving yet. Now the land is ready to take its well deserved rest. For the farmers they will see their hard work become cash and ready themselves for the next year. My brother said seed corn was $300 a bag for about 2 acres. Next year it will be closer to $400 a bag. If you have 240 acres of corn that's about $48,000 for seed corn. That is one stress I couldn't take for too long.

Thanks to the American farmer and those especially in Northwest Iowa. The black dirt is deep and fertile. Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for some of my other images. By the way, anything you see in my blog as a photo is for sale. If you are interested in one of the images just send me an email and we can make sure you get the photograph you want.

Sutherland Gas Pumps

2011-11-08T04:00:00.000-06:00

Driving through Sutherland, Iowa we passed by an old style gas station. I don't know if it was used for anything other than a hobby and I forgot to ask my brother about it. So, I can't say for sure. But it was fun to photograph and then turn it into a Vintage style image.

These three pumps are about as different as you can get. The one on the left is what I was used to in the 50-60's era. The middle one I have only seen in movies and museums like this one. The one on the right were the pumps of the 70-90's. No place to stick your credit or debit card. No LCD display to tell you the price per gallon and how much as been pumped down to the hundred of a gallon. Just whirling bulbs, numbers that turned on a spindle with a 'ding' noise every so often to keep you awake. And the gas did not have ethanol - nope, it had lead. You could get Regular or Ethyl. The big engine cars used Ethyl because it provided the necessary energy for those big 4-barrel carburetors. Kinda brings a tear to your eye doesn't it?

There are other similar museums around northwest Iowa. One of my favorite ways to drive is off the interstate. It is a slower pace and you can stop when you see something interesting. Most of the time you don't spend that much more time driving but you will arrive a little more relaxed and refreshed. The tension is taken away just because you took the time to smell the roses - or something like that.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. The car shows are over for 2011 so I can start taking some flowers again and get ready for the 2012 car shows. In the meantime take a look at Zenfolio to relax a little bit with the cars and the blog photos. Not a bad way to spend a winter evening. It's coming. We all know it's coming. Until next time ...

Corn Stalk Bales

2011-11-07T20:35:00.000-06:00

During the time I photographed in Northwest Iowa one thing that was a common theme were huge round bales in all kinds of fields. They left a distinctive look to the landscape. The one thing I couldn't figure out is why they were in the corn fields. Growing up we used to disk the corn stalks into the ground as fertilizer.

Not any more - at least for a lot of farmers. The corn stalks can be used as fuel in Ethanol plants and apparently other things as well. They also make excellent bedding for livestock. So they are now turned into a cash crop. I can't believe they let the corn cobs fall onto the ground. They would make a lot of corn cob pipes.

Farming is changing for sure. For years farmers have been the one group that consistently protects their land. They have way too much invested not to protect it from erosion, etc. So when us city slickers think we are the big ecology people because we recycle our plastic - we aren't even close to what the America farmer has done over the years. So get to know a farmer. You might need some food from them some day.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate you take some time to step with me to see where my camera takes me. I put most of my images on Zenfolio so please go there to view images from the past.

Summer Home

2011-11-06T19:24:00.000-06:00

This is the time of year when summer homes are vacated. They are no longer humming with activity but sit idle waiting for the day when the owners come back and get prepared for next year. When I was in Northwest Iowa I was lucky enough to find such a home. It was a simple home, one room, nice view and just right for a small family.

Hopefully the family will be back next year. This image was processed in Snapseed, Nik's processing engine for the iPad. It has some great features and I am starting to enjoy working on it. The next time you see a bird house I hope you will appreciate it a little more.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your visit and hope it brings a smile to your face and a little bit of warmth to your heart. Sometimes I wonder why I do photography. But sometimes I find something as simple as this bird house and I think about its purpose. And then I had the opportunity to photograph my daughters family. Wild, abandoned, subdued, all kinds of emotions. But then I realize this is the next generation and they need to know something about their grandpa. Hopefully this will be part of their reading.

Don't forget to check out Zenfolio too. I have most of my images out there somewhere. I should probably dump some of them and clean up my site, but somehow I hope that someone new will find it and the images will bring a smile to their face - maybe some memories too. And I hope you go back just because you want to do the same thing. Until next time ... tell your family and friends about Zenfolio for me. I don't know them yet.

Mums the Word

2011-11-05T04:00:00.000-05:00

We got a taste of snow Wednesday but it has turned around and is warmer. Now we are going to get high winds tomorrow. That will take my family photo sessions indoors tomorrow. That's OK, we'll make it work.

I wanted to share a couple of flower images tonight. Last Sunday when I was photographing the Gerbera's I cut off some our our Mums and brought them in for some photographs. I have trouble with yellow. I overexpose, underexpose, correctly expose and still leave something out of the image. So I decided to blend them with the Gerbera and see what I woul get. And I went right back to the square format for this one.

There is some detail in the closest mum and it blends in pretty well with the back of the Gerbera. Nothing great but it helped me get closer to the exposure I need with the yellow mums.

I kept working with the Gerbera's and I decided I wanted to get the color to pop out but yet still be a little soft. So I tried some things with Nik and Photoshop, then went old school with a duplicate layer set to Multiply. A little layer masking and I got this.

This really brought out a side of the Gerbera that I wanted to show. And again the square format. Sometimes I feel like I am wasting some pixels when I crop to the square format. But as long as get a good exposure I can crop without losing too many pixels. I try to crop in the camera but in this case I lost a little from the left and right side of the digital negative.

Don't forget to change your clocks back this Saturday night if you live in North America in Daylight Savings areas. We get back the hour of sleep that we lost when Daylight Savings Time started. I am not certain I ever got the hour back and I doubt I will now. I will wake up at 5:00 am and realize it isn't 6:00 am.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I will be getting these images out onto Zenfolio soon. See you next time ...

Gerbera's Best Sides

2011-11-03T04:00:00.000-05:00

I like square photographs. I probably have told you that several times, but I like them. So I decided to try a slightly different take on the front/back Gerbera. No textures (OK, just one) but other than that some levels, curves and some Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex 4 and I was good to go.

More details, more saturated colors and the white background. You decide which you like better.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the home of the American Photo Picker. I try to bring you something of my photographic vision - or non-vision depending on your thoughts. Photography can be anything from a photojournalist image where nothing is changed to something that is art at its truest form. I haven't gotten quite that far yet but I will be working on that over the winter. Check out Zenfolio for more images.

Vintage Gerbera's

2011-11-02T22:20:00.000-05:00

I felt like playing just a little bit before I hit the hay for the night. Today was cold, it rained and snowed. The good news is the snow didn't accumulate. More good news is that the I-680 bridge over the Missouri River opened today. It was closed in June and it meant detours for a lot of traffic.

Back to playing. I took several images of the Gerbera's this last Sunday and I am starting to get around to reviewing them. I pulled one out of the pile of the front of one Gerbera and the back of another with just a hint of green. This time I had a white background that was kind of blah. So I decided to add some textures to the image.

I have four different layers on the image. One of things I did in Lightroom was to lower the Clarity. This made it look like it was a soft focus so you don't see a lot of detail in the image. Then there are four separate textures to darken, lighten, add some texture and then to lighten it again. It has a Vintage effect with bright, muted colors and a totally softened look. I think I like it.

Let me know what you think and welcome to the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your stopping by to check out the blog. Take a few sips of coffee or your favorite beverage and enjoy some of the other blog entries. Then mosie on over to Zenfolio and check out more of my photos. If you click in the right place you might even see a slide show. Until next time ...

Corn Cribs

2011-11-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

All over northwest Iowa and probably the farm country you see corn cribs. When I grew up on the farm the corn crib held the picked corn. With its open sides it allowed air to move through and help dry out the corn. We had three bins in the middle of our corn crib. One held soybeans, another held oaks and the third held shelled corn or whatever extra we had after harvest. Plus we could store two or three wagons in the alley way.

Now days corn cribs are usually empty and even the alleyways might be empty. Corn isn't picked anymore (there might be a couple of farmers that pick yet) they combine the corn that does the job of the corn picker and the corn sheller. It takes the seeds off the cob and everything is done in one round.

The one above still has an elevator going to the cupola so it could drop the specific crop for storage. IT is possible this one still has some type of grain in bins about the alleyway. Hardly anyone raises oats anymore and they now use steel bins for storage. So the corn crib sits like so many other farm buildings. Falling into dis-repair and looking like a sad sack rather than the proud part of the American family farm. Things change and someday kids won't even know what they things are and what purpose they held. That is unless they read the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker.

Thanks for stopping by and we'll keep the corn crib door open for you ... Check Zenfolio for all my images.

Both Sides

2011-10-31T04:00:00.000-05:00

Ever have an argument with someone and about half way through you see their side and realize you were wrong because you weren't looking at both sides? What's more embarrassing is you can't back down so easy because we don't want to lose the argument. One nice thing about getting older is losing the argument isn't so bad.

We are bombarded by images every day. The number of images being downloaded on the interest each day is probably in the millions. I tend to stay away from social media because of all the 'noise'. I don't really care that somebody had pancakes for breakfast or they are tired or whatever. Darn it, I got sidetracked again.

If you start out with the thinking that you need to look at both sides you might see something interesting. As it is with Gerbera's the back side is a complementary color with twinges of the same color. So I decided to put the front of one Gerbera and the back of another Gerbera into one image. Not only that but I didn't crop it square either.

I made these colors 'pop' because they were nice and subdued but I wanted the detail and color to be front and center. So whenever you are looking at something think about what is on the other side. You just never know what you might see. Interest how all the petals flow and yet one petal just never got a good start. And they are an orange/yellow on the back with a red/yellow on the front. Kind of like picking up a tomato so you can see the whole thing. You never know what you might find.

Thanks for taking some time and stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Have a great week and check out Zenfolio.

Gerbera's

2011-10-30T16:56:00.001-05:00

I got some nice red Gerbera Daisy's at Sam's Club yesterday and today I decided to take a few portraits. One nice thing about Gerbera's is they never complain about how long they have to hold the pose, the light is too bright, etc. The bad thing is when you haven't taken close up photos of them for a while you tend to forget how tough it is to photograph close ups.

So this one was one of the first images. It's OK but it isn't anything that great. But it is nice to look at in the blog.

So then I decide to go real close in.

Red is a complicated color to shoot. It wants to dominate just about everything so exposure is important and so is how you handle contrast. I like the bold colors of this one with just the hint of green but again I need to take time and determine how I want to deal with the colors.

Once winter sets in I tend to do my photography indoors in my studio. I have a great east side kitchen with a huge light source on the east and a door to the south. Once the light gets to around 11:00 am until about 2:00 pm I can play with my images. Today was bright sun and even with a diffuser it was tough to tame all the light. So the fun begins. Flowers and grand kids will be what I do now. Plus I get to work in Photoshop and Lightroom and upgrade my skills there as well.

With all the snow around us it seems like winter could be a long, wet one. It has been dry here so the moisture would be great but a lot of snow doesn't interest me. Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate the visit. Drop me a comment or email anytime.Check out my Zenfolio blog. I plan to get more photos out there yet today so there should be something different.

Haunted House?

2011-10-30T11:47:00.000-05:00

Halloween is just around the corner so I thought this might appropriate for the fall season. Many of the farms in northwest Iowa are abandoned. The buildings, or some of them, still stand waiting for the inevitable decay until they fall down under the weight of their age. Sounds like people.

This is a house close to Sutherland where I graduated from high school in 1966. One of my fellow graduates grew up in this house and when I looked at it I realized that time is passing. That was 45 years ago. While the house stands it doesn't bear much resemblance to its former self.

There is a tree to the right that is quite striking and I might have that in a blog down the road but right now I am saving it for a snowy day. There are days when I feel like the house. I have aches and pains and my joint crack more often than they did in my younger days. So may this house hang in there and even though it is showing its age it can remind us of times past and that there is value in growing old. Now I just have to figure out what that value is. Hopefully I can do that just like Melvin from my June 26th blog.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. The blogs have been a little slow this month as all kinds of things have kept me busy in other directions. I bought some Gerbera Daisey's yesterday at Sam's Club and that is next on my agenda today. Zenfolio has more of my photos - at least as soon as I get some of my latest photos uploaded to the site. Check it out any way. If you like tractors or cars you will find something interesting. And if you click on slide show you can sit back, relax and enjoy a show of Things That Go.

Snapseed Fall Colors

2011-10-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

What the heck is Snapseed Fall Colors? First the Fall Colors. The 10th - 12th of October my friend Gary and I went to Northwest Iowa to photograph the harvest. Mission accomplished. We got some photographs of the corn harvest. But we also stopped at several farms that were abandoned or the buildings were aging. Some proved to be good subjects and some were so-so.

But I decided to take a couple of photographs of the fall colors. Northwest Iowa around Calumet is not exactly the place to see fall colors but there were bits and pieces. So, I took a couple of photos - literally. I have been using an iPad for several months and this was the first opportunity to download images from my Nikon directly the the iPad. Then they sat for a while because of just plain being busy. Today I had time while waiting for some tests so I took the opportunity to fix a couple of images on the iPad with an app called Snapseed. This is an app from Nik Software. They are famous for the Nik plugins that I use on just about every image that I post. So here are my fall colors direct from my camera via Snapseed to the blog.

This lonely leaf was hanging on a walnut tree. As many walnuts as I picked up this year this place made my walnuts look like nothing. They were everywhere and thick as could be. So if anyone likes walnuts I can give you the location of a place you could probably pick up walnuts.

This was some sumac. This was almost the entire volume of sumac that I saw that wasn't green. So I did a couple of things in Snapseed to give is a subdued look. Nik just updated Snapseed with some new tools and they really add to the process. I might do more photos in Snapseed moving forward. I didn't take my laptop, just my iPad and it was fast and easy. Things in digital photography are changing. The neat thing about Snapseed is the price - under $5 and the updates have been free so far. This program has a lot of power for $5.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for more photographs or to see all the blog photos. See you next time.

Farm Cats

2011-10-16T13:09:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big cat person, but cats on a farm are important because they keep down the rodents. My brother has a few cats around and I always enjoy visiting with them (yes I talk to cats and most animals). They were relaxing in the machine shed when we got there and were pretty mellow.

This lady has been around for a few years. She is a nice cat and likes to be petted. She obliged me with a photograph so I wanted to share.

I don't remember her name but perks up when Bob comes in the shed.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog - home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate the visit. If you enjoy the blog tell others. And Zenfolio contains a lot of my photography including the blog photos. If you like classic cars there is a special gallery from 2011 classic car shows that you can watch as a slide show.

Phillips 66 Gas Station

2011-10-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

Things American are taking a hit with a lot of people. History doesn't seem to important to them. History has always interested me and I wish I had taken more photographs of farming in the 70's when I had the chance. I have some but things really change. No one picks corn anymore, it is all combined. They actually bale the corn stalks. They can be used for hog bedding and apparently an ethanol plant in Emmetsburg burns them for fuel to convert the corn to ethanol.

Gary and I drove around Tuesday and we found something in Sanborn that was really interesting. It is a replica of a 1932 Phillips 66 English Cottage gas station. It apparently was actually in Sanborn in the 30's. There was also a museum behind the station but it was closed. This is something to go see. Young and old can learn a little about what the people in this country accomplished.

We could not get inside but I could put my camera lens up against the glass and take some images. This is the front counter. Not very big but a lot of stuff in there.

In a time when everything goes so fast it is nice to take time and find out about our heritage. This gas station was probably state of the art back in 1932 and now we think it is old fashioned. It's a wonder we ever came of out of the dark ages. But not only did the work get done, it got done with pride and done well. These folks led the way for us, so let's not screw it up. Go to a history museum in your area and slow down, smell the roses or in the case of this gas station the fuel. You will be glad you did.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. One of my goals is to make certain people have access to photographs of working people in the midwest, getting it done and making it happen. I am proud to be part of that heritage.

Also take a peek at Zenfolio. I have to go through a few photographs from the trip and that will take a while. Lots of stuff going on in the next two weeks. Until next time ...

The Harvest Thresher

2011-10-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

I was able to go to northwest Iowa the first three days this week for the harvest. My brother still farms and that was one of our destinations. A friend from the camera club was unable to go along but he likes threshers.

Threshing machines are no longer used other than old time events called "Threshing Bees" so they are a little difficult to find. It is even harder to find one that works. We didn't get that lucky but this one isn't too bad.

This image was finished as an HDR and then a Vintage effect plus an old style border. I remember threshing once in my life when I was about 3 or 4. Combines now do all the work of the threshing machine. They were specifically for oats around my part of the country. I don't think anyone raised wheat. Lots of belts, lots of noise and lots of work to get the crop harvested.

I have been to a couple of "Threshing Bees" and they are interesting. Unfortunately they are usually during the hottest time of the year and I am not a big fan of heat. Maybe 2012 will be the year to attend another event.

So Larry, here is your thresher. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I will start to get a few blogs back out as soon as I process some of the photos. Check out Zenfolio for more of my photographs.

Turn, Turn, Turn

2011-10-09T15:32:00.005-05:00

I am a product of the '50's and '60's music. My favorites are The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, The Beatles, Iron Butterfly and others. One of my favorites are The Byrds. They were a rock band and folk music type of band at the same time.

A favorite song they recorded was 'Turn, Turn, Turn'. Written by Pete Seeger and based on Ecclesiastes it was a 1965 hit. If you get a change listen to it. I especially like the 12-string guitar. Just a sound that will stir your soul.

Right now autumn is here. It has been warmer than normal and dryer than normal. That means the crops are being harvested. That is on my mind because my brother Bob farms and I want to get to northwest Iowa to photograph the harvest. The Harvest Moon may be out Tuesday as it is the full moon so that is something else to consider. Plus it means that plants are preparing for winter. Walnuts have been dropped from trees (my back is testament to the fact the 3,000+ walnuts picked up will really strain the back muscle). It doesn't heal like it used to either.

Flowers are wilting and petals are falling as they prepare for winter.

To everything (turn, turn, turn),
There is a season (turn, turn, turn),
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven.

This purple coneflower has reached its season as every living thing. But ultimately it is not the end because the seeds it has sown will come up next season for that is their purpose. What is your purpose?

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog. I have been distracted this week with lots of things. Writing a daily blog isn't as easy as it seems. But I will work at starting a new season and see how it works out. I need to get out and take more images to share. I have no idea what it will be but I have a plan.

You can check out my photos at Zenfolio. Now go out and do something with your family.

Ford Motor Company

2011-10-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

Ford Motor Company had more than one line of cars. They had the Fords and the Mercury's. What we have here are a pair of 1950 model cars.

This Ford is cool because of the way the doors opens. They opened to the back. This car has a ton of customizations. The lines are all smoothed and the top has been chopped and plenty of chrome under the hood.

And my favorite - wide white walls, lake pipes and fender skirts. Coolness.

Next up is the Mercury.

It starts out with a bullet grill. This is in black and white, just so you wonder where the color went.

Add to the the wide white walls, lake pipes and some high chrome rims with baby moons to give it that custom look. And like the Ford before it the top as chopped.

The Ford was a Ford Custom, the Mercury was listed as a w-door. Extra special love on both of these cars was enjoyed by everyone at the show.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home at the American Photo Picker. Check out all the photos at Zenfolio and put it together with the slide show on your HD TV for some beautiful images.

1953 Chevy Belair

2011-10-04T04:00:00.000-05:00

This Belair convertible had a fancy paint job, bullet grille and plenty of chrome all the way around. It has the wide white walls, the lake pipes, and fender skirts to make it a classic.

Even had a great wax job to reflect the car next to it as well. But you just needed to step around to the back to see what made this a true KUSTOMS car.

An Elvis tribute painted on the continental kit. So it had it all ... even frenched tail lights. Kinda brings a tear to an Elvis fan.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. The West Point Last Fling Til Springs photos are wrapping down. You can see all of the 2011 Car Show photos at Zenfolio along with a great slide show.

Moto Meters

2011-10-02T04:00:00.000-05:00

What is a Moto Meter? They didn't have the instruments on cars like they do now days. When I had my car in the '60's it had gauges rather than the "idiot lights" that the cars have today. But given the attention span of most drivers today the idiot lights are necessary so they can see the light tell them something is wrong.

A moto meter is the original temperature gauge for a car. This was the radiator cap. Since the radiator caps were visible the moto meter was built to display that function of the engine.

The first moto meter is from the 1928 Packard 526 4-door. I have photographed this car before and I hope to photograph it in the future as well. This is a great time of the year to have me photograph your classic car.

The next moto meter is from a 1923 Ford Roadster T (we refer to it as a Bucket T nowadays).

The last moto meter isn't a moto meter. It is just a hood ornament. I included it because these were the only photographs of the hood ornament/moto meters. This is from a car that, well it really surprised me. The car and the hood ornament are unusual.

If this isn't the most unusual hood ornament you have seen let me know one that is more unique. This is from this car.

It is a 1949 MG TC EXU - just like the plate has it. This thing is pretty small compared to most of the American cars at the show. The Nash might have been smaller but it would be close. The ornament. If you still haven't figured it out is a - mosquito. That's right, a mosquito. What kind I don't know.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I am almost ready to wind down the West Point Car Show photographs. A few more days and I should be done. If you want to see all the photos from all of the car shows for 2011 check out my Zenfolio website. There are even photos that have not been in the blog. You can even enjoy this as a slide show. Sit back, relax and watch on the PC or hook it up to you TV and see it on the big screen. It even has some music to relax you.

West Point

2011-10-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

West Point, Nebraska is an interesting town. It sits by the Elkhorn River and is home to Wimmers. It is also home to the annual Last Fling Til Spring Car Show. They limit the entries to 750 and I believe they had all of the slots filled.

I love to take photos of cars but I also like to look around to see what I can see (it that something Yogi Berra said?). After checking out the first cars this is what I saw ...

An antique store all gussied up for the car show celebration. I decided since it was an antique store that an old style photo was in order. So Nik filters to the rescue and a few clicks later I have my image.

Walking farther on I came upon what I think might have been some artwork built with used parts. If someone threw that together without thinking they did one heck of a job of luck.

After checking out this and the cobblestone streets I decided that another trip to West Point might be in order.

You just never know what you might find if you just look.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time and hope you enjoyed you visit.

If you want to see all of the car show images for 2011 check out my Zenfolio gallery.

Until later ... keep the lights on.

I ... Am The Champion ...

2011-10-01T04:00:00.000-05:00

There are so many names for the model of cars out there. The Champion is one that Studebaker used in 1941. This is the 1941 Studebaker Champion.

It might be an orphan car but this thing is bodacious. This is a lime green/yellow color. Just a good amount of chrome and a minimal front bumper to make it sing, "I Am The Champion." The later in the night it gets the stories ... well I won't say.

I did take a photo of the grill because of the way it wrapped around and came to that point. Everything flowed from the point and to the point. I doubt it was green in 1941 but it sure is cool today.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time and hope you are enjoying the images from the Last Fling Til Spring car show in West Point, Nebraska. Stop by my Zenfolio web page and check out the slide show with the 2011 Car Show images. I put some new music on it and it is kind of relaxing. Hook up the computer to the big screen and start the slide show. Relax as you relive the days of summer at the car show. "Hey, isn't that Spike's car." or "That one is Tom's 37 Roadster." Just about like being there but no sun beating down and nothing but cars. Make some popcorn and snuggle in for the winter time adventure. It's all about the memories so enjoy.

Surf City Here We Come

2011-09-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

It was songs like Surf City that was a #1 hit for Jan and Dean in 1963 that brought people to southern California and surfing. That and the Woody they sang about in the song. Now a Woody is pretty rare these days but there are some out there. Part of the lyrics were "You know it's not very cherry, it's an oldie but a goodie" (I never said the lyrics were super duper but I remember them and the tune pretty well.

Woodys were old station wagons that had wood along the side. Interesting concept and interesting car. But not all cars were woodys. Some were an oldie but a goodie. That is the case with this 1955 Chevrolet 210. The 210 must be the Chevrolet station wagon back then. It isn't cherry but check out the surf board.

Car shows are about fun and what you enjoy. The owner told me the story that he used to have the surf board standing by the car, but it fell over one day and almost hit a Corvette. The owner of the Corvette was mad. I don't know why, he got lucky and didn't damage the surf board.

It's a great big world out there so enjoy the ride. (the phase may or may not be copyright by Nissan so I am saying that right now) Thanks for stopping by the American Photo Picker home of the Iowa Farm Boy blog (or vice versa). If you enjoy the blog, let me know. If you don't enjoy the blog, let me know. See how easy I am. Plus I can delete all the bad comments if I want to. Check out Zenfolio as well for all of the car show images.

Handyman or Nomad

2011-09-30T04:00:00.000-05:00

Ah the question of the day. Do I want a Handyman or a Nomad? As Gary and I wandered around the car show at West Point (and I really did try to call you Dave) we saw a Chevy station wagon.

The sign said a 1956 Chevrolet 210 Handyman. Looked like a Chevy Nomad to me. So I ask the owner to tell me the difference if it wasn't a Nomad. He said "Look here." I did and saw this ...

Well what do you know. A Chevy Nomad or NU MAD as his license plate displays. They are the same ... except they are different. So a side shot was in order.

1956 Chevrolet Nomad .......

1956 Chevrolet 210 Handyman.

The side scheme is slightly different with the Nomad having more two-tone than the Handyman. More chrome too so it was more expensive. So the Handyman was a car built as a low cost station wagon. I bet several grocery stores of the day used these to deliver groceries. Yeah they actually delivered groceries. There are a couple of difference between the two. The Handyman has fancier wheels and Nomad is more stock. Plus the Handyman has a blemish on the door to the right of the door handle. Well, it's not a blemish - it is a fly. I was going to get rid of it but when I saw it was a fly I left it there.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. I hope you are enjoying all the car photos. I have had a love affair with cars most of my life. I finally realized I don't have the mechanical skills to keep one running so I do the next best thing. I take photographs to share for older people to remember, for younger people to see what grandma and grandpa drove when they were younger and to appreciate America and American muscle. So keep on bringing your cars to the shows and I will keep on taking pictures. And I hope to meet more of you and visit with you about your car. That's getting to be most of the fun anymore. Too many people walk on by, take a crummy photo with their camera phone and call it a day (and please don't send me camera phone hate mail). Five seconds and it is on the next car. What we need to do is start talking to each other and get to know one another. So thank you car show people. WE LOVE YOU. Boy that sounded like the end of some rock concert.

Until next time ... check out Zenfolio, You know the drill. Click on the word and you will whisked away to Zenfolio. Lots of photos to see and leave a comment. I might respond and you might get a free photograph of your car. And I know who you are. Or if you click here you can email me.

Fall Bonus

2011-09-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

The weather has been great the last couple of weeks in Nebraska and a large part of the midwest. The flood waters are receeding, part of the interstate is now open and the birds, bees and squirrels are preparing what appears to be a tough winter.

Years ago we planted butterfly bushes in our driveway area and they have continued to grow pretty well. Not many butterflys have been to visit our area this summer. Lots of flys and bees but not many butterflys. When I came home last night I noticed a nice one flying around and decided to get the camera and see if I could entice it to come on down. I talked to it for quite a while and finally it decided I wasn't going to hurt it and came on down. I got a few photographs before it left so I decided to share it with you.

This is finished in the new Nik filter Color Efex Pro 4. It has a learning curve (one more thing to learn) but it has been improved big time from version 3. So this is a bonus for today and I hope you enjoy it.

If you are a member of the Omaha Camera Club or want to find out how I created this photograph come to the meeting on October 25th meeting and I will show you how.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for all of my blog and cars photos. If one of your cars is on the blog let me know and I will send you a free jpeg for your use. Or we can make an appointment to take photographs of your car. Either way I appreciate you sharing your 'hobby' with me so I can share mine with you.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird ... No, It's Superman

2011-09-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

What does Superman have to do with a car show. Come on, that has got to be wrong. But when I saw the next car it was the first thing that came to my mind.
Not the comic book version of Superman (although I used to read them), not the recent movies but the 1950 TV series The Adventures of Superman. With George Reeves starring as Superman (I mean Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for the Daily Planet) along with Lois, Jimmy and Perry White (The Chief).

This was the model of car that Clark drove for the Daily Planet. That right ... it is a ... you don't know do you?

Still don't know do you. It is a Metropolitan. This is a 1957 and I think the one they drove was an earlier model. The manufacturer was Nash - as in the Nash Rambler fame. From the song "Beep, Beep."

I don't know how to describe these vehicles. They are pretty utilitarian, but then most of the Nash cars were that ... transportation.

The ones at the car show were at least colorful. So enjoy a piece of history and maybe a trip down memory lane. Thank you Superman.
Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. All of the photos are out in Zenfolio. So take some time, hook up the computer to the speakers and set up the show as a slideshow. You can even hook it up to the HD TV. Better than the game.
If you see a picture of your car or any car and would like to buy a print, let me know and we can make that happen. I would love to sell you a photo of your car or even set up a car session to zero in on your baby or babies. I take kids too.

Starlight, Starbright

2011-09-29T04:00:00.000-05:00

Born to be wild is an interesting statement about a car with a propeller in back. But it does have 4 exhaust pipes and it is yellow. So what kind of car is this?

It is a 1948 Studebaker Starlight. Never heard of it ... until now. But the back of the car is only the beginning. Look at the way the rear window wraps around the car.

As you can see this is an interesting car with a wild stripe pattern. Until now I didn't think about it but it is possible this is a two-seater car because it isn't the largest back area. It starts to get interesting from here.

It is still yellow and has a wild stripe pattern but look at the way the front bumper drops down. It almost makes you think the propeller in the back has meaning. But no, this is the styling of the car. It looks a little bit like a Tucker with that bullet in the middle. I remember Studebakers with a big bullet nose in the middle but this car has a headlight.

So there you have it - three headlights and looks at that cool grill. Looks like a yellow smiley face coming at you.This car had styling that had to be way ahead of its time in 1948. And if you want to see the front end close up here it is ...

I doubt there are many of these cars around. This is another car that could make its way into a magazine as a feature story. I am glad I saw the car and talked to the owner for a short time. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. I have all the photos from the Last Fling Til Spring on my Zenfolio blog. They are the photos at the end of the line and there a lot of photos from car shows this summer. It has been a great one for car photography.

Black - Green

2011-09-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

When I walked up to this 1932 Ford 5-window Coupe I thought it was black. It is a great looking car. The 5-window Coupe is another one of those cars that just oozes class.

OK, so the top is black. Then I started checking out the fenders. They looked green. Green? Yeah green. It wasn't as bold as this image so I finally ask the owner. He said it was black blended into a dark green. Whatever the painter that did this paint job is one heck of a painter. Blending black with a dark green can't be too easy.

The engine was pretty serious as well. Eight carbs delivered plenty of fuel to the engine. Probably doesn't get 40 mpg. But you're having so much fun who cares.

Thanks for stoppung by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. All of the images are in my Zenfolio gallery. Check it out. See you next time ...

Power

2011-09-28T04:00:00.000-05:00

What else do you see at classic car shows? A lot of American muscle. I don't take a lot of engines but I picked up a few this time. If you like to see chrome engines check out my friend Gary's blog. He likes the chrome engines and he got a bunch of them. You can click here or look for the Rockie Geezer blog to the right of this story. He does a lot of crazy things as well.

The last one is a ringer. No horsepower, just leg power. This is a 1952 Schwinn American. It was a great restoration. My first bike was a Schwinn. If was mine after my brother got his first car. I could barely reach the pedals but I had that bike for over 11 years. I took it apart and put it back together once - and it amazingly still worked.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog - home of the American Photo Picker. All of the images are in my Zenfolio website so check them all out.

Smooth Ride

2011-09-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

This car just oozes style. This was one of my favorite cars at the show. Chopped top, channeled and lowered, sucide door, white and chrome. It has it all. And the leather interior matches the color of the top.

This 1937 Ford Roadster could be in just about any car magazine as a feature story. I appreciate the owner closing the hood. This car looks like it is about 50 feet wide and 80 feet long from this angle. The new cars have nothing aero on this car. The '30's was a time when classic cars rolled out of the manufacturers and onto the streets of a recovering America. These cars were signs of American's optimistic outlook.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. All of the photographs from the Last Fling Til Spring are on my Zenfolio blog. Please come back often.

The Fury

2011-09-27T04:00:00.000-05:00

This is a 1958 Plymouth Fury. I don't recall the size of the engine but it was probably in the 400 ci range.

It had to be a big engine. Look at the size of that chrome bumper. No plastic parts in this area. The headlights are huge as well and since the grille is not plastic that must be gold plated. At the price of gold right now that could be a valuable piece of history.

One of the things that really makes the images "pop" from some other locations is the cobblestone brick streets. That deep dark red brings out the best of almost any color of car.

This is a soft beige color and it really looks good beside that dark red.

When you moved around to the back of the car there was more of the same.

Look at the sheer size of those fins. So many of the cars have a huge taillight but the fins are about a foot tall with plenty of chrome. Then the rear bumper has that quick swoop up and wrapping around the back. Smooth. Oh the taillights are not all that big on this beauty. The last thing that brings it all together are the wheels. I believe they are American Racing Wheels. Pound-for-pound this car stands tall.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. All the photographs from the Last Fling Til Spring are out in Zenfolio. You can take a sneak peak now and then check back to read about the stories behind some of the cars.

All of my images are finished using Lightroom, Photoshop, Nik filters and RadLab. Check out NAPP for a free DVD and discounts on most of the products I use,

Last Fling Til Spring

2011-09-26T19:36:00.000-05:00

First of all I apologize for not having posts lately. There have been a couple of reasons but most of it is my back. I am not exactly certain what I did but for the last three weeks my back has been causing me pain. I am sitting in the chair with a heating pad on it right now, hoping that will help some. It sounds like 6-8 weeks. And I have a lot to do.

September 12th was the Last Fling Til Spring Car Show in West Point, Nebraska. My friend Gary ask if I wanted to ride with him and that sounded like a good plan. About an hour from Omaha this is one of the biggest in the area (if not the biggest). They limit the number of entries to 750 and I think they came close to that number.

One thing I have learned is to take images of cars and car parts that I am not familiar with or like so much I could take them every time I see them. There were a lot of cars at the show and I am wondering how I want to handle the posts. I could run 3-4 images a day for the next three weeks or I could run a couple of posts a week for a couple of weeks, but put all of the images out in Zenfolio so you can check them out all together. If you have any choices or wishes let me know and I will use the comments as my ideas.

The first car we came upon after parking was this 1960 Pontiac Bonneville. These cars are huge. Red seems to be the choice of color for a good share of these full size Pontiac's. This one was a good example of the Bonneville.

Two round bullets centered on a fin that must be about 2 feet wide ... OK not that big but pretty darn big.

Just a good start to the show.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time and comments so don't be bashful. You can check out the photos of all the cars from the Last Fling Til Spring at Zenfolio. Check back for some stories about some of the cars. The images are only part of the story from the Iowa Farm Boy.

Bennington Car Show Finale

2011-09-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

What better way to wind up the Bennington, Nebraska Labor Day Car Show than to show a couple of Corvettes. After all, the Midwest Early Corvette Club sponsored the show and made it a great show.

Remember when I had the blog showing the Corvettes as the first thing I saw entering the car show. They were also the last thing I saw and I purposely waited until the end to check them out. This is the rear end of a 1954 Chevrolet Corvette. Interesting design and car. These cars are neat sports cars. Two-seaters and convertibles. Perfect for the summer cruise.

There was also a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette right beside it as well. Just to show you the similarity of these two model years I photographed the headlight of each one.

Pretty darn close. The wheels on the 1953 model are not stock like the ones on the 1954 but other than that I have no idea of the differences in styling. Either way they are good looking cars.

This is the last of the photographs from the car show the day before Labor Day. There are more weekly shows if the weather holds out. I am completing this post on Wednesday and it was cold and sunny for the car show tonight. Unfortunately my back isn't cooperating so I decided to stay home. Gotta keep it great for the weekend.

Thank you for stopping by all the Iowa Farm Boy blogs on the car show. All of the images are posted in the Zenfolio gallery for you to check out. You can even set it as a slide show.

If anyone has a classic or new car they would like photographed, I am available for photography sessions. Please let your friends know about the blog and Zenfolio. You just never know what I am doing from week to week.

Chevrolet 4-door

2011-09-19T04:00:00.000-05:00

I have seen a car like this in a state of "I need to be restored". Even then I knew this 1939 Chevrolet 4-door is just plain cool. It has lines that are unusual. Bulky looking and that translates into powerful to me.

The car has suicide doors and my favorite wide white walls and even neater wheels. This car would look pretty cool with a set of racing style wheels as well. This thing looks big enough to hold a huge family with plenty of room to spare.

And check out the fog lights with the yellow lens. I can see somebody haulin' down the road on a dark foggy night . You can hear the roar of the engine for a mile or so. Just a fabulous car. And it is red to boot.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog the home of the American Photo Picker. Check out all my 2011 car show photos at Zenfolio. You can even view the photos as a slide show.

Chevrolet Styleline

2011-09-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

After several post on the Chevrolet Deluxe Fleetlines I came upon this 1952 Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe.

It starts our like a favorite. Fender skirts, wide white walls but this one has all chrome rims. They are so reflective the red from the car next to is picked up in the wheels. That is reflecting.

This was a nice color and the top photo shows it the best. The one above picked up some blue from the sky and red from the other car. There is lots of chrome and overall it is a nice looking car.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check out my Zenfolio site for a gallery of all the 2011 car show photos. You can even turn it into a slide show with music.

The Older Sister

2011-09-18T04:00:00.000-05:00

In an earlier blog post I introduced a beautiful 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS. Nice car with plenty of good looks and horsepower.

I also mentioned that the 1964 was updated from the 1963 Chevrolet Impala SS. So what is the difference.

The 1963 has the same three tail lights wrapped in chrome. The 1964 tail lights have the chrome trim above the taillights rather than wrapped like the '63. But a closer look shows the back is not squared off but has a point. The bumpers look a lot alike.

The side is similar and you can see the difference easier in the rear end. I didn't get the roof line of the '63 but it wasn't changed in '64.

The front end has a similar style as the back. The rims on this car are all chrome. From the chromed wheels (the first time I have seen this style) to the chrome stock style hubcap is really cool. So this is the big sister (or brother if you prefer) of the 1964 Impala. Both Classic Cars from the '60's that I remember well.

Thanks for stopping by the American Photo Picker and the Iowa Farm Boy blog. I appreciate your time. It won't be long and all the photos for the Midwest Early Corvette Club Car Show at Bennington, Nebraska will be completed. The next car show I will stretch out over the winter because it is just a lot to get everything done in short order. It has been good practice for my Photoshop techniques so that is a good thing. Some don't turn out so well but most are passable. Check out Zenfolio for a slide show of all the 2011 Car Show photos that you can play on your computer or TV as a slide show. If you might be interested in a DVD of the car show let me know. I am thinking $10 plus shipping for a nice DVD. And I know that more photos will be added yet this year.

Deluxe Model

2011-09-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

I am starting to really like the early Chevy Deluxe models. This is a 1950 model. I think what I like about them is the variations that everybody has in terms of how they restore them. Some restore them almost to original factory specs. Some of them totally make it their own with color and chrome, along with high horsepower engines.

This one looks to have a straight 6-cylinder engine. They were durable and used in cars and trucks of the day. This one however is probably not stock. I see two carburetors sitting on that manifold. So even though this is a 6-cylinder engine I suspect it is a "sleeper" and can haul the mail if needed.

I like the color combination of the white and sea green color top. Two tones were the rage in the '50's and '60's. Then vinyl tops took over. This is a great combination and a nice looking car. Wide white walls and the spinners of the day make this a great retro car.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. I appreciate your time. Check out Zenfolio for the car gallery, hook up your computer to your TV, and enjoy the slide show.

If you have seen a photograph of your car and would like a print, let me know and we can make it happen for you.

Ford Hot Rods

2011-09-17T04:00:00.000-05:00

After checking out a lot of cars, I saw this 1932 Ford Roadster. Interesting car. It was pretty small overall but with an engine that provides plenty of horsepower and get-up-and-go. Nice blue color and smooth flow.

And this 1923 Ford Bucket-T. Similar to the one in an earlier but this is wide open. No top. The Bucket-T's are pretty versatile.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog home of the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for additional photos of the cars. They are all available in one gallery and you can watch a cool slide show.

1950 Chevrolet Fleetline Deluxe

2011-09-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things I enjoy about car shows is visiting with the owners. You can find out about the car - you know - how long they have owned it, where did they find it - those types of things.

This 1950 Chevy Fleetline Deluxe was a surprise because it appeared on the cover of the October 2009 Rod & Custom magazine (CLICK HERE) and there is a nice story there as well. Just in case you can't find it, it is on page 32. Earl and Marcia Jones are the proud owners of this classic car.

The car is not red - it is MAROON! I don't know if this photo captured the car as I would like but it is a sweet ride. There are parts from several different makes/models/years to reach this NIF T 50. I would like to take a complete set of photos of this car some time.

Ah, lake pipes, fender skirts and wide white walls. The triple crown of my favorite class cars. Look at the flare from these rear fenders and then how they blend into the overall flow of the car. What a beautiful fastback.

Read the article on the car and you will see all of the love (and money) are spent on these cars. I> am so thankful that people are willing to live this dream and keep these beautiful cars alive so that young and old can appreciate them.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. You can see a slide show of all the 2011 car show photos at Zenfolio. All my photos are completed using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop plus Nik filters and RadLab. Join NAPP by click on the NAPP logo and get a free DVD for your membership. Until next time ...

1923 Ford Bucket-T

2011-09-16T04:00:00.000-05:00

Bucket-T, my Bucket-T, Bucket-bucket-bucket-bucket-T. Catchy works from a Jan and Dean song from the '60's. It was a song about a Bucket-T (I couldn't resist adding Bucket-T again). Maybe not this Bucket-T but the song may have put the notion into the owners head until he found his 1923 Ford Bucket-T and built this one.

This is very much like one that appeared in Hot Rod magazine a long time ago and I believe appeared on a Big Daddy Roth t-shirt. Big Daddy was a guy that had wild, colorful t-shirt designs with various cars and starring Rat Fink (oddly enough my initials). They were popular then and you can still order them from his website (RatFink). His t-shirts are some of the wildest you will ever see. I checked his site and he doesn't have anything with the Bucket-T but his website has some cool art work.

Anyway this is a classic Hot Rod. The white top has a cool tilt forward with an oval window in the back. Together with the red color and wide, wide rear wheels (the owner said they are 22" wide wheels) it is a wild ride.

I love the way the header flow into the side exhaust that sit out from the side of the car.

The motometer is also a classic from the past. I didn't know what the style of radiator cap was called until a recent episode of American Picker. These are called motometers and the driver could see if the engine was too hot. They didn't have instrument guages for that back then.

Lots of chrome on this car and it is definitely only for summer driving. It would be just a little chilly.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for all the photos from the 2011 car shows.

1932 Ford 5-window Coupe

2011-09-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

I figure any guy that is willing to paint his car pink deserves to have the car on this blog or any blog that matter. Not only that, this car looks pretty good in pink. A 5-window coupe. This isn't a six cylinder engine either. This is a dual-quad carburetors horsepower beast.

The rear wheels look wide enough to dig in when you give it the gas but I bet it leaves a couple of wide strips of rubber on the street.

It's got some great design with the bridge, etc. And I like the 5-window design as well.
In order to make this a little edgier (if that's a word) I decided to tip the camera and then take some of the color out of everything except the car and even grunge that up a little bit as well.

Just about anything that isn't chrome is pink. I didn't even know you could pink spark plugs wires. I have seen red but pink ...

Even the engine block is painted pink. One of the interesting things about this car is the roof. It looks as if it has a huge area that could be rolled back and you have a sun/moon roof. I think it has that future but I can't remember for sure or tell from this photo if it is removable. One last photo from straight on.
Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Zenfolio has all of the photos you see in this blog for cars that can be viewed as a slide show. Hook up your laptop to your big screen TV and you can see these cars in all their glory. I might even make a separate slide show of the car shows for 2011. If anybody would be interested in a DVD that can be played in either your DVD, Blue Ray or computer for around $10 plus shipping send me an email. If enough people are interested I will get that done. There is another month of the car show. The weather is turning a little cooler so it won't be long before I'll have the winter to get it produced.

As always I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop plus Nik filters and RadLab to complete my images. You can get a free DVD if you sign up for NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) using the NAPP logo on this blog.

1949 Chevrolet Convertible

2011-09-15T04:00:00.000-05:00

I don't remember seeing a lot of convertibles in northwest Iowa when I was a kid. Summers weren't too long and winters could be pretty tough. Not too many people had a summer car and a winter car. There were always some out there. As I look back those people were pretty adventurous.

Remember when I said having yellow paint to sell would be a money maker? I think red paint beats out yellow. I like the red color together with the black convertible top on this car. And the wheels really bring out the chrome on the rest of the car. Lots of chrome on the grill. This car even has a chrome piece in front of the rear wheel fender. Not only was it there for the look but it also stopped the rocks picked up from damaging the paint.

No fender skirts or wide white walls but the chrome wheels really set this car off from others.

And the lines of the car are unique. This car doesn't have the chrome strip down the side but rather a chrome strip just below the windows. That helped set off the convertible top whether it was up or down.

Thanks for stopping by the American Photo Picker and the Iowa Farm Boy blog. Check Zenfolio for the car show slide show. As always my photos are finished using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop along with Nik filters and RadLab. Sign up for NAPP and get a free DVD by clicking on the NAPP link.

1947 Chevrolet Fleetline collage

2011-09-14T22:24:00.001-05:00

I have had this in my ToDo list for some time. This is one of the most photogenic cars I have seen this year. So far I have photos from three different shows. So I thought why not put some of them together in a collage. So here it is. Click on it for a full size image. This is a 20"x30: photo. Enjoy ...

Clay County Fair, Spencer, Iowa

2011-09-14T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa is dubbed the World's Greatest County Fair. I have been going to the fair off-and-on since 1955. My mom and dad went every year, but this fair is held when school was in session so they went during the week.

The Clay County Fair was important for farmers. It had (and still does) have a huge display of farm equipment. All types of agricultural businesses had displays at the fair. And back then I had all the pencils I needed for the school year. That's because all the seed corn companys handed out pencils. I remember Pioneer and Dekalb the most but there were a couple of other companys as well.

One year my dad took me to the fair. We spent the entire day and it was the first time I rode in a helicopter. That was a cool ride. Those are the things we remember the rest of our life. I still enjoy flying in small aircraft but don't get that much of an opportunity anymore

It was four years ago when we first took our entire family to the fair. We had a great time letting the kids ride any and all of rides they wanted, as much as they wanted. They had a one-price for the rides the first day. I remember one of the rides was a NASCAR ride. Jake and Zoe decided they wanted to ride that. The first time around I got a photo of Zoe with a look of terror on her face as the ride spun and turned. The second time around I got a photo of Zoe with a hint of a smile and the third time around she had a huge smile on her face. That photo was entered into the fair photography competition the following year. I didn't win but I came in fourth.

Betty took a photograph of Luke and me taking a nap. The lab (me) turned it into a black and white and I encouraged her to enter the photograph in the fair. She did and she got a blue ribbon in the Black and White People, plus it was pulled for the Best of Class/Fair competition and she got an honorable mention. not bad for the first time. Check it out below. It is in the bottom left. I used the Canon S90 to take the photo and Betty used the same camera to take the photo. It makes a great 11x14 and I know it will be on our wall when we get it back from the fair.

I entered three photos. I got three blue ribbons and two of them were selected for the Best of Class/Fair competition. I also got two honorable mentions. I'll take that any day. There were a lot of great photographs. The photograph of the lilies in the upper right is the first of my photographs and the swallowtail butterfly on a coneflower is the second. It is on the bottom.

I have another year to figure out what I will enter ion 2012. I almost forgot. This year my son and I went to see Huey Lewis and the News live. They put on a 1 1/2 hour show that was fantastic. They are a heck of a show band and they can all sing as well. If you ever get a chance to see them take the opportunity. They are coming to Omaha later this year. So check 'em out.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. I apprecaite your time. Zenfolio is also a good place to go it you want to see more blog photos. Until next time ...

1939 Ford Coupe

2011-09-14T11:44:00.002-05:00

This is a neat looking Ford. Smooth lines and a flowing fast back. Maybe not the fastback look like the Vette or others but something that was way ahead of its time. I doubt they had wind tunnels to figure out the best line to streamline the air flowing over the car. Just somebody had a lot of creativity and decided this flowing back would look pretty cool. Gas mileage wasn't on their mind.

This '39 Coupe has my favorite wide white walls and the double chrome trim in the wheels. The rims were painted matching car color with matching narrow rings in the outside chrome ring.

Another thing that the 1963 Corvette borrowed from this car and others like it was the double window in the back. I bet the trunk is big enough to hold a couple of adults to sneak into the drive-in theatre. Not that I would ever be party to something like that. I don't even know if the drive-in in Council Bluffs is open anymore. But it was big back in my day. My best friend and I visited Cherokee, Iowa a lot back then. That was the closest movie theatre and the drive-in theatre. Lots of fun.

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days. I have been having back pain the last couple of weeks and this weekend we went to the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa. My sister lives in Spencer and we take the whole family and have a good visit and enjoy the fair. I also enter photos in the photography contest and this year I encouraged Betty to enter one. More on that in the next post.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. It has been great sharing the Bennington Labor Day car show sponsored by the Midwest Early Corvette Club. I still have more to go and starting today I will get them posted. You can check Zenfolio to see all the photos from the car shows and even make them a slide show. Hook it up to your TV and enjoy the show. There is music along with the show. I didn't have a lot of choice but if you have something that would be better background music let me know. It has to be open music or I am violating copyright laws. I wouldn't want anyone to use my photos for their commercial gain and I won't do the same.

The Edsel Ranger

2011-09-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

There were a lot of cars produced in the '50's. All makes and models and designs. This is a 1958 Ford Edsel Ranger. Looking at it now you wouldn't think it was not popular. The total difference of this car was a unique design. Today it doesn't seem as unusual of a design. In some respects it may have been a little ahead of its time.

The look at the back was a departure from the regular Ford product. The two-tone opened up as it went back and the tail light lens wasn't round like many of the Ford products.

The front end had a forward headlight assembly. So overall the car was just different enough but it just wasn't the big seller. As I recall being called an Edsel was not a good thing. I am glad someone decided that it was worthwhile because this is a sharp looking car. Thanks for the restoration.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for all the Bennington car show.

Hoodies

2011-09-12T04:00:00.000-05:00

Almost all cars have hoods. But some hoods are better than others. The hood on the 1928 Chevrolet Phaeton tilts forward, much like the Corvette and other sporty cars. Remember, the Phaeton was a sporty car.

This one has a hole in the hod because of the unique carburetors on this vehicle. This had to be a pretty sporty car back in 1928. I remember a lot of the movies from this era and they all had sporty cars.

Then comes the hood of this 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe.

I like the color of the car. It was such a soft color and the car had a combination of smooth lines and hard, sharp turns. Just an excellent design that has stood the test of time.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog - home of the American Photo Picker and Zenfolio. If you go to Zenfolio you will find a separate gallery that contains all the car photos from 2011. It will grow as I go to the final shows of the year. And you can watch it as a slide show. Hook the computer up to your big screen and watch it. It has a nice jazz background music for your viewing pleasure.

A Unique Chevrolet

2011-09-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

This is the engine compartment of a 1928 Chevrolet Phaeton. I have never seen any engine like this. I don't remember all the details but it is an engine that was almost an experimental engine at the time. And its another yellow car. Told you yellow paint was a good investment.

You might wonder what a Phaeton is? Well Phaeton is type of automobile body. Generally sporty and quite often open. So here is the roof line of the car.

This car has a hood but you will need to wait until the next blog to see it. So for now, thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. There are so many cars and so little time but I am going to get all of the cars I photographed at the Midwest Early Corvette Club Bennington Car Show over the Labor Day weekend in a blog. So please keep checking back. I am getting out two a day so it will be over soon. Probably just in time for the next car show. All the photos are in Zenfolio and I think I will move them all to their own gallery so you can see them as a slide show. Put them up on the big screen and sit back and enjoy the show. Until next time ...

1964 Chevrolet Impala

2011-09-11T04:00:00.000-05:00

In the early '60's Chevy made some awesome looking cars. The Impala was the top of the line and the SS (Super Sport) was the big dog. The easy way to tell it was an Impala was the rear end. There were three tail lights on each side. Lesser models like the Biscayne only had two lights. Another thing about the Chevy's of this era is they really looked good in red. Just about any red. They had all the chrome so the color was the deal.

Something that made them standout was the roof line. It was pretty straight forward but it had two bends in it. It almost looked like a hard convertible top. Just something the designers did to make the cars something different. They had to because every year the cars changed quite a bit. Some car dealers would put paper of the showroom windows for the premiere. This was about as big as the new TV shows of the day. And a white interior. Not so much today but back then they were popular.

I decided to have the business end in black and white. The four-speed with the big V8 was the only way to go. Other than that it is pretty much stock. The tach is added on but that was done a lot back then.

Thank you for visiting the Iowa Farm Boy blog - home of the American Photo Picker and Zenfolio. I still have a lot of cars to go so keep on checking in and see the cars that were at the show.

1959 Pontiac Bonneville

2011-09-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

This car could be considered a Land Yacht it is so big. Long and wide this thing was huge. But it had a really smooth design and it was a little more modern than others. The rear window on thing is so big it looks like it would take an entire bottle of Windex.

It has the lake pipes and wide white walls . Check out the interior. That is a beautiful silver/gray color and what the heck - the seat is facing out. That's right the seat turns. That's right out of Popular Mechanics from the 60's.

The owner of this beautiful classic is the second owner. He bought it from a little old lady from Pasadena, wrong song, he bought it from a little old lady in northeast Nebraska. She was in her 90's. I would have liked to have her drive up if she was my grandma.

The engine is a 454 ci V8 (I think) and that should provide enough horsepower to handle the long drive. This thing rides like a yacht on a smooth ocean. But there is one question I have to ask. "How do you get into this car?" There isn't any door handles. It's a remote. So it blends the classic with the modern.

You can tell the car has been lowered because the fender almost covers 1/2 of the wheel. And last but not least is the custom rear end. That is definitely not a factory tail light. Neat. Thanks for bringing this beautiful boat to the show.
Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. You can check out all the photos at Zenfolio.

If you see a photograph of your car you like let me know. I would love to sell you a print of your classic.

All of my photographs are finished using Lightroom, Photoshop, Nik filters and RadLab. Check out NAPP and become a Photoshop professional.

Until next time ...

The 1950 Ford Custom

2011-09-10T04:00:00.000-05:00

If I owned a paint store that catered to classic cars I would invest in yellow paint. There are a lot of classic cars that are yellow. That's OK with me because you can't miss them. This 1950 Ford Custom had white walls that were a little narrower than most but I love the lake pipes and the hubcaps. I really like the baby moons but in the '50's they weren't around so this is the spinners of the day. The good news is when the car stopped so did the spinners. This car didn't have fender skirts but it was lowered and there wasn't a lot of ground clearance so it looked like it had some.

And the wide shot provides a little better look at the rear right side. Not so much chrome on this version but I think the owner sort of de-chromed it. Sometimes you feel like the chrome - some times you don't.

Thanks for stopping by this days Iowa Farm Boy blog - the home of the American Photo Picker. Zenfolio will have all the photos pretty soon so you have an opportunity to see them all in one place. Just click and go. Until next time - have dreams of classic cars.

An Oldsmobile? Really - an Oldsmobile

2011-09-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

Oldsmobile was always called "Your father's car" for me. My best friend in high school had one but you got what you got. And it was a nice big car. But this is one of the first, if not the first Oldsmobile's in the car shows this summer. And it reminded me of a Purple People Eater. It was purple and it was big.

This is a 1947 Oldsmobile as you can see from the sign. Car with the sunscreen over the windshield were kinda cool. Then you add the spotlight and you almost have a police car.

And the back shows a huge truck and a smaller sized rear window.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. I am also getting these images out in Zenfolio if you want to see them all in one place.

I Didn't See This One Coming

2011-09-09T04:00:00.000-05:00

A bright blue 1982 Austin Mini. I did not see that coming. This is more of the classic Mini, not like the new ones.

This car has a cool set of wheels and some pretty big tires. Why the heck does it need tires so big?
Because of this ...

This is quite an engine. I doubt it was stock. I picture this car in a road rally. With six lights up front this car can probably see a fly at 100 yards - or meters. I don't that much about the cars but I do know they race them in Europe and specifically England. Cool cars. Stars of some movies as well.

There was one more surprise. As I walked around the car looking for a new angle I looked in the passenger side window. It wasn't the passenger side window. It was ...

the driver's side. This is definitely a European car. It has been a long time since I saw a right hand drive car. And that was a custom car for the rural mail carrier. So if you see this car check it out. It has a lot of surprises.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. All of the photos were processed in Lightroom, Photoshop and Nik filters. Check out Zenfolio for more photos.

1958 Chevrolet Impala

2011-09-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

I have been to a lot of car shows this summer and this is the first 1958 Chevy Impala I have seen. I had a friend in high school that had a black one. Not only did it look great it was pretty darn fast as well.

I knew this was a '58 Chevy from a distance just because of the headlights. They were just set back into the fender in a cool way. This car had crisp lines that flowed pretty well from the front to the back.

Here is where the customization comes into play. This is not the original taillight on this car. There was three lights on the back. The outside-inside lights were red and the middle was the reverse light. This is a pleasant treat however and it just shows how these cars can be customized. And it is definitely blue.

You don't see a white interior too much these days. Almost all the new cars are gray, black, or some other non-descript color - pretty much like most of the cars. But you could order white for the interior through the early '70's. I worked at a Buick dealership in Omaha and I sold a car with a white interior. But it had to be special ordered because we never ordered white. They are a pretty classy color.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the home of the American Photo Picker today. There are several more days of images from the Midwest Early Corvette Car Club Car Show at Bennington during the Labor Day weekend. I can't wait until next year. I have all of the blog photos at my Zenfolio website so go check them out along with Digital Escapes and others.Until later ...

Yellow 1940 Ford Coupe

2011-09-08T04:00:00.000-05:00

One thing about the classic rod hots is the color. The manufacturer never saw these colors coming for a long time.

I think the most beautiful yellow I have ever seen was on a 1967 Porsche 911S. It was called Bahama Yellow. This Ford Coupe wasn't quite this bright but I decided to bring out the bold colors.

I love the way these classic cars have the fenders. They did a lot with them as well. The headlight cover is so chrome and the headlight itself really shines as well. You can see the bright blue sky and the clouds that I worked to keep at bay. Even with a polarizer there were some angles that it did not matter.

The other thing I like about this Ford are the wheels. The red is a great contrast to the yellow and there are two layers of chrome. The chrome ring around the outside and the small hubcaps with FORD in red tie the wheels together.

When I got around to the back wheels the light had changed enough to get a great reflection of the car sitting next to the Ford Coupe. It was the same wheels but I noticed the red trim rings inside the outer chrome ring. That was a great touch. The little things like this make each car special. And the Goodyear Eagles are pretty stout on this sweet ride.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. If anyone wants a photograph of their car please send me an email or comment on this blog post. You can have that big photo on the wall of your TV room or even at work. I can even put a collage together for something different. Once I get through the Bennington Car Show I will start on one for your viewing pleasure. If you know I took photos of your car and you haven't seen them yet, just hang on. I am posting two posts a day until I get them done. I might sneak in another one if needed. Because guess what, there are more car shows on the way. Zenfolio will have all the blog photos along with other photographs.

All of the photographs you see are finished in Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and Nik filters. Want to find out more? Click on the NAPP logo and you will get a free DVD if you sign up to join the National Association of Photoshop Professionals,

AMC AMC - 1badX

2011-09-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

The color of this car was sort of a light beige, gold color. I almost think it might have been an original color available on these cars. Unlike the bright red car with wide white racing stripes this one was subdued. But this car was immaculate. See those little round medallions on the front? Those are from the American Motors Owners Association. They mean the car was entered into their competition to determine if the car is really original. They get to the point where they deduct points because the cap on the tire value wasn't the correct one that came with the car - seriously, this is serious stuff. This car won the Best of Show which means it was the best AMX out of all of them in the country.

Red line tires were a cool touch to almost any car. With the AMC wheels the red line tires really made this car stand out. By the way, the color of these photographs is all over the board. This was in bright light and the color wasn't the easiest and I forgot my ColorChecker Passport. This is the best match to the original color of any of the photographs.

This was sort of the color but I stylized the color and added a pretty good glow.

This almost makes the car look almost white but I added some grunge that took some of the color. Trying to make this AMX the Bad X the license plate says it is.

They used to road race these cars and it is possible that you might see nothing but the induction hood scoops in your rear view mirror as the AMX came haulin' up to pass. I don't know how these cars did in the racing. What I do remember is AMC deciding they wanted to change the look and came out with the Javelin. I don't know how many they sold. I don't think it was a big seller. But it does remind us all of how many different automobiles were manufactured in the US. Not all survived. So thanks for keeping this piece of auto history alive. One last note - this car has an engine every bit as powerful as the red AMX. This one is what we would call a sleeper because it doesn't look like it's fast (well it really does) but when the left foot leaves the clutch and the right foot stomps on the gas it moves pretty quickly.

Thank you for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Zenfolio has all the images in the blog plus a lot of other photographs from Digital Escapes and others.

AMC AMX 1968

2011-09-07T03:30:00.000-05:00

Alphabet soup on this car. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these. And there was another one to the left of this one. This red one has a 390 ci V8, red line tires and side exhaust pipes. In other words, this isn't the car you drive to get groceries. I might do that but that isn't what it is for. This car only holds 2 people and if memory serves me (that is a hit-and-miss deal now days) and it was built as an alternative to the American Idol - the Corvette. I think American Motors had one of these on the drag strip and a couple out racing the Vette's.

The power end of this car was an engine with plenty of output. The car was shorter and smaller than the Corvette so the slightly smaller engine probably gave it some edge in racing.

I lined up the racing strip from front to back and I like this photo. And the next one verifies what the owner told me ... "Yes it is straight."

That's a lot wide tape to get straight. Then to make certain you get it cut to go over all the louvers over the back window, and then over the wing to match everything else.

I salute the person that put that racing stripe on the car.

The red really looks good on this car and it is a great looking addition to the American Muscle car line-up.

The last photo is the side.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. There will be several more days of vehicle photos dropping out from the Midwest Early Corvette Club Bennington Car Show until I get them all out. So if you haven't seen yours yet keep on comin' back until you do. Mention the site to your friends as well. It is an opportunity for them to see you car and other great cars that they can see at the car shows in the Midwest. Zenfolio will be the best place to catch them all.

It's a Pontiac

2011-09-06T16:00:00.000-05:00

This was the first non Corvette I saw coming into the show. At first I thought it was the Chevy Fleetline without the speed chrome down the sides. Then I saw the tray on the driver side window that the drive-ins of the day used with a hamburger and fries and the close I got I realized it wasn't a Chevy. I actually had to look at the placard in the window to see it was a 1948 Pontiac Deluxe. I love the lines of this car. It has a fastback that almost reminds me of the 1964 Corvette. Maybe they stole it from this car.

There were actually two trays attached to the car. You can see the back one in this photo. Why I didn't take the time to grab a photo of that tray I will never know. Hopefully I will see the car at another car show and add the photo to the collection. Lots of chrome/ The small sized rear window was cool and the wide chrome strip down the trunk lid was also cool. As big as this car is the tail lights are really small.

Along with the wide white tall tires I like the red rims on the car. That little inch of red around the chrome rims between the white walls adds a neat look. This was a car that had a large chrome area on the front of the rear fender. I think this could have a been a gravel guard. It would protect the finish from gravel. Back in the late '40's there weren't too many highways. Lots of gravel roads.

And check out the chrome hood over the headlight. Wow! There was chrome all over the place. Maybe that's why I didn't get the drive-in tray.

That little red marble on top of the hood is probably something that would glow at night. It might have been as much a decoration or possibly something that would give the driver the location of the front of the car.

The second image looks brown. Again the light was so bright and the cars are so polished they pick up everything within 20 feet. Heck you can even see the clouds clearly in the photograph at the top.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and home of the American Photo Picker. Check out all the blog photos plus some extras at Zenfolio. More to come ... If your car isn't on the blog yet, just wait because I have a lot of cars to go. I hope as people look at these classic cars it will bring back memories of your youth. Whether these were cars that were built around the time you were born, or maybe it was your first car, or even one your parents owned I idea is to just let people know that these cars are alive and well - at least in the midwest. I know they are all over the country and hopefully I will be able to attend other car shows. Oddly enough a town called Bennington, Vermont has a car show the 16th - 18th of September. It is their 45th annual. Three days is a lot of looking around. It is also a swap meet and unlike the Bennington, NE show they actually charge the people to get in. I guess I will stick to the local show. It is the best I have been to this year.

Another 1957 Ford

2011-09-06T03:30:00.000-05:00

I was in the '50's Ford alley for a little white. Close to the two Ford's from yesterday was this cream color 1957 Ford Fairlane Sedan. What makes it a Sedan? The fact it has a pillar in the roof line. On some cars that might not look good, but on this car and the long roof line it really adds character. The chrome has a logical place to end and it is a good start for the change of metal flowing forward.

The roof line was smooth. They used a huge chrome strip around the top which gave the rear window a big inset. I like the way the rear tail lights were formed into the fins. Styling was key back then and I don't know what you call it (like Art Deco) but they had a lot of metal to work with and they did a great job. These cars have stood the test of time. Detroit was the king of cars.

From the single bullet tail light to the single headlight with a large hood over it the car is smooth everywhere.

No hard edges and lots of metal. And I almost forgot the wheels but the style of mag wheels really look great on Ford's.

In my opinion the chrome Cragar mags look great on almost all Chevy's but this style of mag wheels look best on Ford's. Has a debate started?

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog, home of the American Photo Picker. These are photos from the Labor Day weekend Car Show in Bennington, NE. I am putting all the photos from the blog and some extras on Zenfolio. I don't know how many blogs I'll have for the car show. This has been a busy summer of car shows and I am really enjoying meeting everyone and seeing how much effort they put into these beautiful cars. Thanks for sharing.

The Tail of Two Fords

2011-09-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

One of the cars came in as I was checking out another one. You couldn't help but know it was coming in because it was a runner. Found out it was a 350 ci Ford with some special cams, etc. that cranked out some serious horsepower. It sounded like a car coming to the line at an NHRA event.

This is the front end of a 1955 Ford Fairlane. Bullets and chrome. You can't see the horsepower but there is plenty of it there.

This was a soft blue color and with all the bright sun (why can't we get some cloud cover) it comes out with more almost white colors.

Walk around to the back of the car and you will find the stock tail light. Again, the bullet with the finned fenders. Part of the look back then.

This is pretty stock as far as the body is concerned. Most of the effort was put into the paint and the drive train.

I visited with the owner for a while. He does take the car to the Wednesday night show at 84th street. One of the things I appreciate about him is he likes to drive the car.

No taking it home and sitting in the garage all week. After the Wednesday night show he will drive over to Council Bluffs and then sometimes down to Plattsmouth.

Might as well enjoy the car. After all they were built to drive so you might as well do exactly that. He gave a me cool idea as well.

I left the car to seek others and you will see those in a later post. This post isn't over. After photographing two other cars I looked back down the street because more cars had filled in places that weren't supposed to be places. The cars were stacking up and it was great to see them all.

So I looked down the street and I saw a continental kit on a car. I walked down there to see what car it was attached to.

It wasn't a '55 Ford but a 1956 Ford Fairlane. Almost the same blue. But his car was different than its younger sibling. This car wasn't so much stock - it was customized.

Mickey and Minnie on a continental kit. Plus the rear tail lights were "frenched". There was so much light bouncing around the blue hardly shows. When the blue colors get so much light about all they can do is go white.

Since everything was going toward the white side anyway I decided to stylize the photo of the white walls, the fender skirts and the lake pipes. That is a wide piece of chrome floating through the middle.

So what was this wild idea that the owner of the '55 had? He told me the two cars were very similar with just a few differences and that I ought to blend the two cars together. So I said I would give it a try. The Hot Rod '55 and the customized '56 blended together.

I haven't worked on a photograph like this before so there I didn't get the distances as well. (Note for next time) But you can see they are almost the same color blue. But the differences in the front ends are distinct. The custom car has a custom grill but the bumpers are the same and the lights are close. The interesting thing is the chrome strip above the windshield. I think the windshield might be a little different anyway but I missed the distance. If I get a chance I will do that again. Two cars that come to mind are a 1963 and 1964 Chevy Impala. Similar and that could be interesting.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Lots of cars coming at you in the next few days so stay tuned. Zenfolio will have all the blogs photos and maybe a couple that didn't make the blog so check it out as well. All my photos are processed in Lightroom and Photoshop using Nik filters. You can find out how to use Photoshop by clicking on the NAPP logo. Get a free DVD when you sign up.

Midwest Early Corvette Car Show

2011-09-04T21:14:00.000-05:00

The Midwest Early Corvette Club sure knows how to put on a car show. This was the 4th Annual Car Show in Bennington, NE and it was great. Over 200 cars showed up with a little bit of everything.

There were four blocks of cars and trucks. Here is the look to the south and east.

Here are the north and west looks. You might remember the Packard from the Millard Days Car Show.

This is the entrance to the car show (actually the second entrance) looking east. It is car upon car upon car.

Turn around from the entrance above and this is the entrance into the car show. A whole line of Corvettes - and this is just the right side. There are as many on the other side of the street as well.

Thanks for the members of the Corvette club and the people of Bennington for all the fun I had today. I saw a lot of cars, took photographs of a lot of them and talked to a lot of the owners. It doesn't get much better than that.

So over the next several days I will be dropping blog posts for everyone to enjoy. I don't have a priority so it you don't see your car just keep on checking in to the blog and it will be there. If you would like a photography let me know and we can work something out. I really appreciate everyone that talked with me today. It's always fun to see if there is a story behind the car and even if not, just enjoy each car with the owner. Since you share your hobby with all the folks that came out today I enjoy showing my hobby to everyone as well.

So buckle up, lock the doors, adjust the rear-view mirror and we will start our trek down four blocks (both sides) of classic, sports, hot rods, and all kinds of American and some non-American iron. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom - enjoy the ride.

Check out the photographs on Zenfolio. I will try to get them up as I add them so you might see your car in Zenfolio before it shows up in the blog. Tell your fellow car enthusiasts that your car will be on the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker.

Wishin'

2011-09-04T10:01:00.000-05:00

Found this dragonfly when I was out at Walnut Creek. I had never seen one like this except recently on my friend Gary's blog and Mike Moats in Michigan had a photo of one. So I had to take one.

Only problem is it sucks. It is sharp, almost too sharp. It has contrast, the dragonful has beautiful colors and transparent wings like I never seen before. So why is it bad? The background is so bright that I got nothing with the dragonfly. He is doing exactly what he needs to do to survive - blend in.

So despite what I think about this photograph this is as far as it will get. I tried black and white and even that didn't help. If you want to see this bigger check out Zenfolio. You can see the details in the wings but you just can't separate the dragonfly from the background.

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Hope everyone is going to have a great Labor Day. It is nice to have an extra day off and they are forcasting cool weather for our area the next two days. This afternoon I will be going to the Bennington, NE Auto Show. That should be a great time and I hope I get some great photos to share.

Three Different Cars

2011-09-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

Cars are so diverse. Designers have done all kinds of things to metal and fiberglass to create something unique. Here are three cars from the past that each have something unique.

This is a Mercury. What's unique about this car? See the rear window how it goes forward rather than back like most cars. It is hard to see but the rear window is down. This car had a window that you could open up and let the breeze through. I don't think any car other than this one had this style of window.

This Mach 1 Mustang had a really cool fastback look. I don't think there was any head room in the back seat of this car . Lots of style for a one of a kind Mustang,

This Lincoln is probably the most unique of all. The hood opens to the front - like a Vette and other cars. So that is one thing. The doors are suicide doors. If you notice this is a four-door but the door handles are beside each other. It is a little hard to see but if you look closely the passenger doors are open. The rear door opens to the rear so you have a large area to get in the back seat. Those are called suicide doors. And last, but not least is the convertible. Just like the Ford Skyliner from a few weeks ago this one is a hardtop convertible. The top folds down into the trunk - and the truck opens to the back. This car has so many different things happening - wow. It looks cool and unusual all at the same time. It would be interesting to see everything folded up like it would drive.

Thanks for checking out the Iowa Farm Boy blog and American Photo Picker. Don't forget Zenfolio either. I appreciate your time and hope you tell others about the blog.

Chevrolet Fleetline

2011-09-03T00:30:00.000-05:00

This isn't the first time I have put this dynamic car in my blog. You just saw it yesterday. I took those photos at the Millard Days Car Show. It was at the Wednesday night show and it had some room around it. I had my zoom lens on so I had some flexibility. Then I decided to stylilze the image. I was hoping it would look great and I think it does. So enjoy this car because it is a beauty.

Make this photo as large as you can because there is a lot to see. Thanks for checking out the Iowa Farm Boy blog and the American Photo Picker. Zenfolio is open all the time so you can see all the blog photos along with other photos from the past.

Millard Days Car Show Finale

2011-09-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

There were a lot of nice cars at the Millard Days Car Show. But there were motorcycles there as well. My favorite was this 1947 Harley Davidson.

Who doesn't like red. And this thing looked better than a lot of new motorcycles. It is amazing the simplicity of these old motorcycles. They got right to the point of the reason they were built. No fancy do-dads or government mandated stuff. Bright chrome wheels, black leather seats and saddle bags, aluminum colored heads. Neat looking.

One vehicle that interested me was this 1953 Mercury Monterey. It was a creamy beige color. Very stylish and classic. The interior was a subdued red leather and it was just a neat looking car. The owner was actually dressed in matching colors.

One thing that caught my eye were the wide white walls. Or so it seemed. As I looked at them they actually seemed to match the car. That's right, the white walls seemed to be beige walls. So I told the owner that I would take a photo and see how the original wheels compared to ones that I made white.

Can you tell which of the photos is the beige toned tires and which of them is the white wall tires? All I did was add a little contrast to one of them and bingo whiter tires. One of those optical illusions.

Thank you for visiting today. Stop back again soon. And check out Zenfolio for all of the photographs. You can friend or follow me on Google+ too.

A Tail of Two Chevy's

2011-09-02T04:00:00.000-05:00

The 1947 Chevrolet Fleetline has been on the blog before. This was an opportunity to get a little closer and talk to the owner.

It's a given I like the wide white wall tires. The three chrome strips are also cool. I think I heard that they are called speed strips. They give the appearance the vehicle is going faster. Now that I look at it, it does seem to be moving.

The taillight even has speed strips. All the chrome is reflective so it looks like two sets of strips.

Then there is the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. This was a good looking car. The white racing strips along with the rear deck spoiler added to the fact it had a 502 ci V8 and 600 horsepower. No, it wasn't a factory 327 ci that probably came in it. But it was cool

Thanks for stopping by the Iowa Farm Boy blog and American Photo Picker. Check out Zenfolio for all of the blog photos in one space.

Until next time ...

Your Last Ride

2011-09-01T04:00:00.000-05:00

Yep! This could be your last ride. Unfortunately you will be riding in the back. This 1966 Cadillac Funeral Coach or Hearse was an interesting find.

The owner even had some extra props inside and outside the vehicle. One of my uncle's said that someday everyone will ride in a Cadillac. This is the one he had in mind. That was one of the things that the Funeral Homes in my part of the prairie had - a Cadillac Hearse.

Let's hope it is a long time before this car is COMIN 4U. Check out the curb feelers on the passenger size front.

Until next time ... the Iowa Farm Boy blog and American Photo Picker thank you. Check Zenfolio as well for all the photos.