58. Mystery - July 20-26, 2014
Kevin-
Mystery. Which mystery should we discuss? The mystery of why I thought this might be a good theme? I imagined there would be so many possibilities. But for me it was far more of a struggle than I had imagined.
So let’s talk about the photo instead. Explanation is important. In downtown Milwaukee there is a doorway half-way down a narrow one-way street/alley near the Milwaukee River. The door has a plaque next to it that says Universal Exports, Ltd. What could this place be one wonders? But if you dare to open the door, and if you know that password, the mystery will be revealed as Universal Exports is a front for The Safe House, a very unique, spy-themed bar/restaurant/nightclub.
The Safe House has been open for almost 50 years now (since 1966). Byron and I probably first visited the place in the late 70’s. This of course was long before the days of the internet which now reveals so much. Remarkably though it’s still in business. Inside The Safe House are things like a phone booth where if you dial the right number it will rotate around and dump you back into the alley. There are secret passageways, two-way mirrors (so you can spy on your date while you use the bathroom) and much more.
I wanted to be there at night, when only the lights outside the building would illuminate the entrance. And given that this was in an alley in downtown Milwaukee I didn’t want to be walking alone, carrying my camera gear. So after driving many laps around the place looking for a place to park I finally had to pull over outside of The Safe House and hope I could get off a shot before another car tried to drive past me, or would-be spies came out to worry that I was trying to reveal their identities, preferring that they, and The Safe House, remain mysteries.
No time to set up a tripod, so I cranked the ISO up to 12,800 on my D4s. Shutter speed was 1/100th of a second at f/2.8 with my 24-70mm Nikkor set to 36mm.
Mystery. Which mystery should we discuss? The mystery of why I thought this might be a good theme? I imagined there would be so many possibilities. But for me it was far more of a struggle than I had imagined.
So let’s talk about the photo instead. Explanation is important. In downtown Milwaukee there is a doorway half-way down a narrow one-way street/alley near the Milwaukee River. The door has a plaque next to it that says Universal Exports, Ltd. What could this place be one wonders? But if you dare to open the door, and if you know that password, the mystery will be revealed as Universal Exports is a front for The Safe House, a very unique, spy-themed bar/restaurant/nightclub.
The Safe House has been open for almost 50 years now (since 1966). Byron and I probably first visited the place in the late 70’s. This of course was long before the days of the internet which now reveals so much. Remarkably though it’s still in business. Inside The Safe House are things like a phone booth where if you dial the right number it will rotate around and dump you back into the alley. There are secret passageways, two-way mirrors (so you can spy on your date while you use the bathroom) and much more.
I wanted to be there at night, when only the lights outside the building would illuminate the entrance. And given that this was in an alley in downtown Milwaukee I didn’t want to be walking alone, carrying my camera gear. So after driving many laps around the place looking for a place to park I finally had to pull over outside of The Safe House and hope I could get off a shot before another car tried to drive past me, or would-be spies came out to worry that I was trying to reveal their identities, preferring that they, and The Safe House, remain mysteries.
No time to set up a tripod, so I cranked the ISO up to 12,800 on my D4s. Shutter speed was 1/100th of a second at f/2.8 with my 24-70mm Nikkor set to 36mm.
Byron-
This photo represents one of the great mysteries of my life. The mystery is: When I was in 6th grade how did I win the class Chess Tournament? I wasn't a great chess player then and I'm still not. I apparently rose to the occasion, lo those many years ago. I beat the odds on favorite, Jeff Softing. When he made a mistake in his final move I checkmated him. Did he hold this victory against me? I don't think so. In fact, he's the one that bought my Fiero after it caught on fire.
I shot this at ISO 400, F/16 at 1/100 sec. I also used my 2 Nikon SB-700 flash units mounted to umbrellas. The background is my shower curtain diffuser I built earlier this week.
Please cut me a break if the photo is not up to WPOTM standards. The last couple days have been tough. A close friend of mine died yesterday at 4:30pm. I've been thinking of him a lot. Today I had to drive 200 miles to my 10 year old grand nephews funeral. He was killed about 1 month ago in Houston Texas. After not sleeping much last night I am very tired and lacking creativity.
This photo represents one of the great mysteries of my life. The mystery is: When I was in 6th grade how did I win the class Chess Tournament? I wasn't a great chess player then and I'm still not. I apparently rose to the occasion, lo those many years ago. I beat the odds on favorite, Jeff Softing. When he made a mistake in his final move I checkmated him. Did he hold this victory against me? I don't think so. In fact, he's the one that bought my Fiero after it caught on fire.
I shot this at ISO 400, F/16 at 1/100 sec. I also used my 2 Nikon SB-700 flash units mounted to umbrellas. The background is my shower curtain diffuser I built earlier this week.
Please cut me a break if the photo is not up to WPOTM standards. The last couple days have been tough. A close friend of mine died yesterday at 4:30pm. I've been thinking of him a lot. Today I had to drive 200 miles to my 10 year old grand nephews funeral. He was killed about 1 month ago in Houston Texas. After not sleeping much last night I am very tired and lacking creativity.
Deron-
Who killed Mr. Burns and in what room and with what weapon? Here is the lineup of potential murderers- now you figure out who done it.
Very tough topic for me to interpret. I went with the board game of mystery: 'Clue'... But not any old 'Clue'! No, I went with the Simpson's Edition of the famous game.
I tend to lean towards Krusty the Clown as the culprit, cuz clowns are creepy!
Who killed Mr. Burns and in what room and with what weapon? Here is the lineup of potential murderers- now you figure out who done it.
Very tough topic for me to interpret. I went with the board game of mystery: 'Clue'... But not any old 'Clue'! No, I went with the Simpson's Edition of the famous game.
I tend to lean towards Krusty the Clown as the culprit, cuz clowns are creepy!
Paul-
“When the local constabulary found the Lilliputian mayor dead near the town square, Detective Lemuel Gulliver knew this was going to be a case full of mystery and plenty of small clues.”
A challenging theme, this one. I was wracking the grey matter trying to think of something that would meet Kevin’s topic without coming across too cliché or predictable. I hope I succeeded, even if it is far from my best submission! For this shot, finding some expanse landscape or studio set-up wasn’t really necessary. I just needed a prop or two to establish scale. For the mock chalk outline of a body, I downloaded the appropriate image then went to work with an Xacto knife and some liquid paper. The “police line” around the scene of the crime is just a strip of orange paper. Of course, Jonathon Swift’s literary character wouldn’t exactly be toting around an Olympus SLR, but I couldn’t resist. (Thanks, Byron!)
Our Story So Far… The pride of International Business Machines, the MultiVac II was the penultimate computing machine in 1953 (second only to whatever the boys at the CIA had operating in their basement), but the bane of its principal engineers. Its hundreds of vacuum tubes, miles of soldered wires, tanks of liquid mercury, and thousands of rudimentary transistors were anthropomorphically temperamental at best and needed constant nursing from exhausted technicians. Nevertheless, when fully functional, the MultiVac was capable of processing instruction sets aided with a blistering memory-speed of 700 microseconds. And this would have been put to good use by the aforementioned company had not one Ernst Theremin—a portly coding operator of erratic character and enormous appetite—inadvertently input the recipe for his mother’s Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte instead of an algorithm to assist with market projections. As a result, the Senior Vice President of Operations—who took whatever the MultiVac reported as unquestioned electronic gospel—immediately placed an order for something that wouldn’t exist for more than half a century: an Olympus E-500 capable of capturing images with a 14-45mm zoom lens (shot at 19mm); 1/50 sec. at f11; ISO 400.
“When the local constabulary found the Lilliputian mayor dead near the town square, Detective Lemuel Gulliver knew this was going to be a case full of mystery and plenty of small clues.”
A challenging theme, this one. I was wracking the grey matter trying to think of something that would meet Kevin’s topic without coming across too cliché or predictable. I hope I succeeded, even if it is far from my best submission! For this shot, finding some expanse landscape or studio set-up wasn’t really necessary. I just needed a prop or two to establish scale. For the mock chalk outline of a body, I downloaded the appropriate image then went to work with an Xacto knife and some liquid paper. The “police line” around the scene of the crime is just a strip of orange paper. Of course, Jonathon Swift’s literary character wouldn’t exactly be toting around an Olympus SLR, but I couldn’t resist. (Thanks, Byron!)
Our Story So Far… The pride of International Business Machines, the MultiVac II was the penultimate computing machine in 1953 (second only to whatever the boys at the CIA had operating in their basement), but the bane of its principal engineers. Its hundreds of vacuum tubes, miles of soldered wires, tanks of liquid mercury, and thousands of rudimentary transistors were anthropomorphically temperamental at best and needed constant nursing from exhausted technicians. Nevertheless, when fully functional, the MultiVac was capable of processing instruction sets aided with a blistering memory-speed of 700 microseconds. And this would have been put to good use by the aforementioned company had not one Ernst Theremin—a portly coding operator of erratic character and enormous appetite—inadvertently input the recipe for his mother’s Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte instead of an algorithm to assist with market projections. As a result, the Senior Vice President of Operations—who took whatever the MultiVac reported as unquestioned electronic gospel—immediately placed an order for something that wouldn’t exist for more than half a century: an Olympus E-500 capable of capturing images with a 14-45mm zoom lens (shot at 19mm); 1/50 sec. at f11; ISO 400.
Jerry-
The first thing that came to mind with "mystery" was the Masons, but the second thing was the Catholic church (much more available, as long as I stayed away from the Vatican) so I went on a photo quest at the St. Paul Cathedral and at St. Vincent's Cemetery in Osseo. My favorite photo is one of Christ on the cross at the cemetery, complete with peeling paint. The sun was setting and cast an orange glow, especially on the face. Nikon D5200 with 16-85mm at 85mm, f8 at 1/125, iso 800.
The first thing that came to mind with "mystery" was the Masons, but the second thing was the Catholic church (much more available, as long as I stayed away from the Vatican) so I went on a photo quest at the St. Paul Cathedral and at St. Vincent's Cemetery in Osseo. My favorite photo is one of Christ on the cross at the cemetery, complete with peeling paint. The sun was setting and cast an orange glow, especially on the face. Nikon D5200 with 16-85mm at 85mm, f8 at 1/125, iso 800.