96. 150≥ - April 12-18, 2015
Paul-
Here’s what I had planned to do this week before it spectacularly fell through—probably for administrative, archival, and security reasons. Love Library at the University of Nebraska/Lincoln has in its Special Collections vault a copy of a Shakespeare “First Folio” (published in 1623). Many years ago, when I worked at the University, they had to do some minor archival work on it and I was given a chance to see it and touch it (with cotton gloves of course). It was thrilling. Authorities on this seminal Shakespearean publication believe there may have been as many as 800 copies printed. Today there are only 233 known surviving copies and they go up for auction about as often as space shuttles do. Which is to say, good luck if you want one for your coffee table.
I was disappointed not to see it again, but the staff agreed to provide me access to something else they though was pretty special and was definitely more than 150 old. They pulled out personal correspondence of J. Sterling Morton. Morton was a Nebraska newspaper editor of some renown who served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. Among his many accomplishments, he started Arbor Day which is celebrated with great fanfare here in Nebraska. Some other states celebrate it as well. Unfortunately, closer scrutiny of the document (and others in the collection) revealed it was written after 1865.
So I asked one of the archivists if he might pull out a non-textual artifact at least 150 years old. He brought out this amazing hand-held scale used by countless prospectors to determine the weight (and hence value) of the gold they prayed they’d pulled from the earth. It was used by a man who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush which followed the California Gold Rush. I asked the attendant to print out whatever information they might have about the owner…only to find the Klondike Gold Rush took place between 1896 and 1899. Bummer.
With two strikes against him, and wanting to redeem himself, the archivist asked if he could bring something out a few thousand years old. I nodded like I was having some kind of happy seizure. What you see is (and what I was not allowed to touch or remove from its box) is a Sumerian clay tablet dated between 2113BCE-2000BCE. There may be older, non-pictographic writing than cuneiform, but a lot people regard it as the definitive, nascent beginnings of what we would call writing. The thing’s even been translated! This is a big deal since the world is not exactly rife with people who are fluent in the different cuneiform styles--and most community colleges don’t even have it on their curriculum list anymore. The documentation on this artifact identifies it as a “business accounting for royal receipts of wool garments in the ninth month of the year of the city of Umma in southern Mesopotamia during the UR III Dynasty period.” And in case you’re curious, I did look up samples of cuneiform from this era to make sure I wasn’t taking a picture of it upside down. Of course for all I know it's supposed to be read sideways…
Our story so far…
Nikon D5200 with a 18-55mm (focused at 38mm); ISO 600; 1/40 sec. at f/22; aperture mode, two-shot high dynamic range sequence set at normal;” and -2/5 EV. Tripod used. After the shot, I tried to use the clay tablet to see if I could press it against a newspaper to see if it would pick up the print. (Hey, it works with Silly Putty.) I was abruptly escorted out of the library and called some very unkind names along the way.
Here’s what I had planned to do this week before it spectacularly fell through—probably for administrative, archival, and security reasons. Love Library at the University of Nebraska/Lincoln has in its Special Collections vault a copy of a Shakespeare “First Folio” (published in 1623). Many years ago, when I worked at the University, they had to do some minor archival work on it and I was given a chance to see it and touch it (with cotton gloves of course). It was thrilling. Authorities on this seminal Shakespearean publication believe there may have been as many as 800 copies printed. Today there are only 233 known surviving copies and they go up for auction about as often as space shuttles do. Which is to say, good luck if you want one for your coffee table.
I was disappointed not to see it again, but the staff agreed to provide me access to something else they though was pretty special and was definitely more than 150 old. They pulled out personal correspondence of J. Sterling Morton. Morton was a Nebraska newspaper editor of some renown who served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. Among his many accomplishments, he started Arbor Day which is celebrated with great fanfare here in Nebraska. Some other states celebrate it as well. Unfortunately, closer scrutiny of the document (and others in the collection) revealed it was written after 1865.
So I asked one of the archivists if he might pull out a non-textual artifact at least 150 years old. He brought out this amazing hand-held scale used by countless prospectors to determine the weight (and hence value) of the gold they prayed they’d pulled from the earth. It was used by a man who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush which followed the California Gold Rush. I asked the attendant to print out whatever information they might have about the owner…only to find the Klondike Gold Rush took place between 1896 and 1899. Bummer.
With two strikes against him, and wanting to redeem himself, the archivist asked if he could bring something out a few thousand years old. I nodded like I was having some kind of happy seizure. What you see is (and what I was not allowed to touch or remove from its box) is a Sumerian clay tablet dated between 2113BCE-2000BCE. There may be older, non-pictographic writing than cuneiform, but a lot people regard it as the definitive, nascent beginnings of what we would call writing. The thing’s even been translated! This is a big deal since the world is not exactly rife with people who are fluent in the different cuneiform styles--and most community colleges don’t even have it on their curriculum list anymore. The documentation on this artifact identifies it as a “business accounting for royal receipts of wool garments in the ninth month of the year of the city of Umma in southern Mesopotamia during the UR III Dynasty period.” And in case you’re curious, I did look up samples of cuneiform from this era to make sure I wasn’t taking a picture of it upside down. Of course for all I know it's supposed to be read sideways…
Our story so far…
Nikon D5200 with a 18-55mm (focused at 38mm); ISO 600; 1/40 sec. at f/22; aperture mode, two-shot high dynamic range sequence set at normal;” and -2/5 EV. Tripod used. After the shot, I tried to use the clay tablet to see if I could press it against a newspaper to see if it would pick up the print. (Hey, it works with Silly Putty.) I was abruptly escorted out of the library and called some very unkind names along the way.
Jerry-
I Googled for a house or building that was at least 150 years old and came up with the Ard Godrey house in Northeast Minneapolis near the Riverside area. Boring. Hmm. How about a rock? Got a cute agate and that was nice. Hmm. A few years back I bought a blob of old Roman coins on eBay that you could clean up yourself (kind of a treasure hunt) with the hopes of finding a few decent ancient coins. I did manage to get one which is in my photo. Its from about 370 AD and is made of bronze (copper and tin). I perched it on a piece of rock salt (very, very old) taken from a mountain side salt mine in Colombia.
Taken with my D750, 105mm Micro Nikkor set to f16 @ 1/640 second, iso 6400. Trusty desk lamp with 60 watt regular bulb.
I Googled for a house or building that was at least 150 years old and came up with the Ard Godrey house in Northeast Minneapolis near the Riverside area. Boring. Hmm. How about a rock? Got a cute agate and that was nice. Hmm. A few years back I bought a blob of old Roman coins on eBay that you could clean up yourself (kind of a treasure hunt) with the hopes of finding a few decent ancient coins. I did manage to get one which is in my photo. Its from about 370 AD and is made of bronze (copper and tin). I perched it on a piece of rock salt (very, very old) taken from a mountain side salt mine in Colombia.
Taken with my D750, 105mm Micro Nikkor set to f16 @ 1/640 second, iso 6400. Trusty desk lamp with 60 watt regular bulb.
Byron-
The theme this week is to photograph something that is at least 150 years old. That would be 1865. I have had experience working in the tombstone business so naturally my first thought was to head to a cemetery. I found this tombstone less than a mile from my house. It is the stone for Carl Harder. It’s amazing because of all the detail. Much of it looks like wood. From the logs on the top to the frame around the name to the name at the bottom. He was born in 1841 and died in 1915. Although the tombstone is not 150 years old, it commemorates Carl who is 174 years old. It looks like I shot this in either early morning light or at sunset. I did shoot it at sunset but there was no direct light hitting the cemetery. This is where Joe McNally’s training session kicked in. I set up a strobe with a full cut orange filter off to the right to simulate sunset/sunrise. I had Erleen hold a second strobe slightly to my right with no filter. I adjusted the balance between the 2 strobes until I liked what I saw.
I think there should have been an inscription on this monument. I would suggest “Life was hard, Carl was Harder”
ISO 100, WB Flash, 50mm, f1.4, 1/60 sec
The theme this week is to photograph something that is at least 150 years old. That would be 1865. I have had experience working in the tombstone business so naturally my first thought was to head to a cemetery. I found this tombstone less than a mile from my house. It is the stone for Carl Harder. It’s amazing because of all the detail. Much of it looks like wood. From the logs on the top to the frame around the name to the name at the bottom. He was born in 1841 and died in 1915. Although the tombstone is not 150 years old, it commemorates Carl who is 174 years old. It looks like I shot this in either early morning light or at sunset. I did shoot it at sunset but there was no direct light hitting the cemetery. This is where Joe McNally’s training session kicked in. I set up a strobe with a full cut orange filter off to the right to simulate sunset/sunrise. I had Erleen hold a second strobe slightly to my right with no filter. I adjusted the balance between the 2 strobes until I liked what I saw.
I think there should have been an inscription on this monument. I would suggest “Life was hard, Carl was Harder”
ISO 100, WB Flash, 50mm, f1.4, 1/60 sec
Deron-
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholicmission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. The settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become 21Spanish missions in California.[10] San Gabriel Arcángel, named after theArchangel Gabriel and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles",[11] was designed by Father Antonio Cruzado, who hailed from Córdoba, Spain. Cruzado gave the building its strong Moorisharchitectural influence. The capped buttresses and the tall, narrow windows are unique among the missions of the California chain. (text borrowed from Wikipedia).
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholicmission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. The settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become 21Spanish missions in California.[10] San Gabriel Arcángel, named after theArchangel Gabriel and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles",[11] was designed by Father Antonio Cruzado, who hailed from Córdoba, Spain. Cruzado gave the building its strong Moorisharchitectural influence. The capped buttresses and the tall, narrow windows are unique among the missions of the California chain. (text borrowed from Wikipedia).
Kevin-
Okay, I have to admit that this week’s theme was very difficult for me. I started researching buildings, to see if I could find something 150 years old or older. But not in Palm Springs, California. The community is too “new” for that. I did the same sort of research around Phoenix and came up with the same result, everything was too new. There were various things like old looking trees to photograph, but unless they were something like giant redwoods I didn’t have knowledge or research to prove they were 150 years old or older. I knew I could make another drive up to Joshua Tree National Park to photograph rock formations. But I have done that so many times for the WPOTM or just for myself. I was heading to LA for an ACHA conference and found a couple of buildings that were more than 150 years old (though not by much). Distance and traffic made two of them impossible to drive to. One, the Centinela Adobe, was closed off but just 15 minutes away. I went there and snapped a photo simply but because it fit the specific criteria of the week week, having been built in 1834.
So I felt there was only one option. I invented a time machine. I set it to transport me back 13.8 billion years in time, with my Nikon, to a micro-moment after the creation of the universe when a singularity bust upon the nothingness and began the nearly light speed inflation of all the matter and energy into the universe we know today. But then if you have read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time or seen the movie The Theory of Everything this is all familiar to you.
Since the universe would be expanding at such a rapid rate I knew there was only time for a single shot before I would have been engulfed in all the energy of The Big Bang. So one click and I instantly returned to the present.
Nikon D3s, 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor at 120mm. ISO 3200. 1/160th of a second at f/4. Pity it was just a one round trip time machine. If I hadn’t had to waste it on this shot I could have briefly visited the future, determined some stock prices, traveled back to the present and put down a small amount of money that could have soon meant new Nikon's, or Lamborghini’s, for all of us.
Okay, I have to admit that this week’s theme was very difficult for me. I started researching buildings, to see if I could find something 150 years old or older. But not in Palm Springs, California. The community is too “new” for that. I did the same sort of research around Phoenix and came up with the same result, everything was too new. There were various things like old looking trees to photograph, but unless they were something like giant redwoods I didn’t have knowledge or research to prove they were 150 years old or older. I knew I could make another drive up to Joshua Tree National Park to photograph rock formations. But I have done that so many times for the WPOTM or just for myself. I was heading to LA for an ACHA conference and found a couple of buildings that were more than 150 years old (though not by much). Distance and traffic made two of them impossible to drive to. One, the Centinela Adobe, was closed off but just 15 minutes away. I went there and snapped a photo simply but because it fit the specific criteria of the week week, having been built in 1834.
So I felt there was only one option. I invented a time machine. I set it to transport me back 13.8 billion years in time, with my Nikon, to a micro-moment after the creation of the universe when a singularity bust upon the nothingness and began the nearly light speed inflation of all the matter and energy into the universe we know today. But then if you have read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time or seen the movie The Theory of Everything this is all familiar to you.
Since the universe would be expanding at such a rapid rate I knew there was only time for a single shot before I would have been engulfed in all the energy of The Big Bang. So one click and I instantly returned to the present.
Nikon D3s, 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor at 120mm. ISO 3200. 1/160th of a second at f/4. Pity it was just a one round trip time machine. If I hadn’t had to waste it on this shot I could have briefly visited the future, determined some stock prices, traveled back to the present and put down a small amount of money that could have soon meant new Nikon's, or Lamborghini’s, for all of us.