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from our own back yard

for a change.

this is Portland. Short on words lately.

special guest blogger-- Chandler

look ma no hands. David has a neighbor named Chandler. He definitely puts the 'special' in special guest blogger. He's a kid, but he's really mature. He's also really interesting.
hell of a photographer too, huh?
he acheives the rich blacks on the 5 year old film-- dayam
taking a picture of taking a picture
big mike, big bad mike. Thanks Chandler. Also, these were probably the first and last pictures the poor kid will ever take on film. Digital-- it's here man.

we were chilling and swimming right where this weirdly suspicsious pipe was leaking into the sound-- what the hell?
Mr. Mike looking into the light.
Chilling at Big Ed's or someplace like that where they have lots of junk everywhere. These are the siblings James, my future family.
did this one get posted yet? Kind of a keeper.
not a keeper

things to do in the south-- injure yourself-- swimming injuries!

one fun thing is to rake your hands over these shells when the tide is in



That's southern cousin

Southern scenery, now with birds!

things to do in the South: a series that, oddly, isn't over yet

make the dog fetch in the atlantic ocean. UPDATE: dog may have contracted some mean, big red fleas in the South. The South is flea ridden and dog is now a flea bitten mutt. I kid!
Tease the dog. That's back to this whole "things you do in the South" idea.
hang out on the side of a great white abyss (race relations in the South: I get white guilt there big-time.)

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stop off on the side of the road for some agricultural shots

mmmmmmm tobacco
trying to get a good picture of an oak tree. It's harder than I thought it would be. First, you have to see an oak tree. Then, you have to take its picture. Rrrrrrr. Lastly, you have to know how to take good pictures. I'll never get one!

a few pictures by p dogg

just to keep things spicy, here are some shots P ace made.
Southern corn.
figure in a tobacco field. mmmmmmmm tobacco

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old home

bean field

Here is where I guessed the light levels, having let my meter fly off the roof of the car 3000 miles away. Not bad, I guess. Most of the praise probably should go to Quick-stop photo employees. They always make the scans look so nice.

Kudzu- A Southern Perspective

Close up of a kudzu patch, the stuff just eats trees and is pretty Dr Suess looking. Maybe more muppet looking? I don't know. Anyhow, to take these, I had to use a hand held light meter. I just took a simple reading of the sunlit side of my hand, then the shadowed side of the car. I then set the meter on top of the car, I guess, and went and took these shots (which could be better, probably. I shot at 28mm and 135mm, and should have done some shots @ 50mm, a nice happier medium. Some bracketing would also have been a good idea.) Well, then we sped away. The next stop was a huge field of beans or something, where I wanted to get a sweeping vista of a farm in the south. I couldn't find the light meter though. Feverishly looking through my bag, I sort of suspected the worst. Well, I took a few shots anyhow (next post I'll put them up), just guessing the light level. I suspected that the meter must have been left on top of the car in between these two locations. Which it had been. We drove back here to the Kudzu patch, but it was nowhere to be found. So we continued on our way. I was using eagle eyes (plug for Dan Wilson's solo-act), scanning the side of the road for my fallen piece of equipment. And I found it! We were doing 60 on a country highway, so I yelled at Pdogg to stop and it was all squirelly and sketchy. I ran back to where I saw the thing, and it was not totally broken, but it isn't 100% operable now either. At least the little latch that holds the battery in is intact, I guess. The manufacturer of the meter (Minolta) isn't a company any more, so the replacement part I need might be somewhat difficult to procure. Honestly though, I don't know what'll be harder: finding the thing or remembering to look for it. I'm on photo-vacation now, post regular vacation! And that is how Kudzu was invented and why it is so dangerous to the economic viability of Southern agriculture.

on the side of the road.

We stopped here to take some nature shots (to follow). Kudzu is this thing that grows in NC, it's an invasive species. I'll show pics of it next post. I wanted to post these first, showing Pdogg as the sexy ass foxx that she is on the side of the road. Holla! Also, that first shot is pretty tight, in my opinion. Of course, I'm full of myself like crazy, so my opinion definitely skews a certain way (I'm freaking awesome, huh?). One other thing is that there is a story to tell also, but I think I'll get to that in the next post as well.

Stay tuned!