Young Learners Guide to American Wildlife

This roll of film takes us from dismal early spring in Kansas to the equator, as I spend Spring Break in Kenya and Tanzania with my father and sister. I’ll break the “Photo A Day” rule pretty liberally for the next several rolls, as photos of wildlife and landscapes are more interesting than 95% of my daily-life photos. At some point I plan also to compile all the Africa shots into an album – what you’ll see in the PAD posts are just select photos.

March 10, 2013. Indiana St.

 

March 11, 2013. Massachusetts St.

 

March 12, 2013. Wescoe Hall, following “emergency” evacuation cum fire drill.

 

March 13, 2013. Mississippi St, orange in the road.

 

March 14, 2013. Mississippi St Garage, view from the elevator.

Journal Excerpt – The Night Before: I find myself in the confounding situation of enforced idleness. I’ve been going full speed all week to prepare for this trip. When I get back to the apartment the chaos will resume. But for now all I can do is wait to rejoin the insanity. An eye of the storm moment.

 

March 15, 2013. Kansas City International Airport, takeoff.

Journal Excerpt – Departure:  Really, so far this is a real-time documentation of sleep deprivation’s impact on thought process. Coherent ideas that persist for more than two seconds? NOPE.

 

March 16, 2013. Amsterdam Airport, landing.

Journal Excerpt – Final Approach: This trip already has underscored how uncomfortable I am with feeling out of control. … I like to feel like I know what’s happening – that I have control over my situation – and traveling like this calls on me to accept not having control.

 

March 17, 2013.  Nairobi Wilson Airport.  Sweet Waters Camp, Nanyuki, Kenya: Elephants, Buffalo, Rhinoceroses. Latitude Zero, Harold M. Ross.

Journal Excerpt – Nairobi to Nanyuki: Flying out of Nairobi on a single-engine plane was fascinating. It seemed like there was Nairobi, then someone decided to surround it with miles of rural homes. As you get further out the beauty of the terrain takes over; buildings thin out and you start to see the traditional houses with high-peaked thatched roofs. Some are quite large and multi-storied.

It’s important to mention that today I touched a rhino.

Notes: Giraffes – just don’t even care. They wander around eating leaves and could walk right through you.
Lions – Apparently giant cats also spend their afternoons lying in a pile, cuddling, and rolling around on their backs.
Elephants – Shy? Never took off but seemed to prefer staying back behind the foliage, out of direct sight.

 

 

Welcome back for photo time, all. On this roll please enjoy my attempts to grapple with lighting, some skewed romantic content, noteworthy graffiti and the first in an absurd (and still ongoing) series of unseasonal winter storms. I promise it gets better.

 

 February 9, 2013. ???

Of the exceedingly few drawbacks of my vintage camera, one of the most unforgiving is the tendency to lose the first or last photo on a roll. This was supposed to be Phil at the Bottleneck watching the KU game. Instead it is an empty vacuum, a point of darkness in an otherwise bright existence.

 

 February 10, 2013. Balloons in a tree, 700 block of Indiana St, Lawrence, KS.

I remember this day as cold, with extremely violent wind. My girlfriend had left town that morning, it was a dismal day out, and then I found these Valentine’s Day balloons tangled in the branches of a tree down the street. It was like a physical manifestation of someone’s cast aside affections, a symbol of isolation on a cold and comfortless day. On retrospect, they probably blew over from the flower shop two blocks away.

 

 

February 11, 2013. Dark Knight window display, Game Nut, Massachusetts St, Lawrence, KS.

The day was still much brighter than this photo indicates. Chalk this up as another whiff in my attempts to adjust properly for light conditions. You can kind of make out Batman, and the “DENT, H.” with Two Face’s head mounted on. This really is the weakest window display I’ve seen at Game Nut. Maybe the camera was actively opposing a dumb photo.

 

 

February 12, 2013. Poprah/Ru Pope. Mississippi St sidewalk, University of Kansas.

There’s a little balcony of sorts on the sidewalk on my walk to campus, across from the football stadium. It seems to be the testing area for somebody who makes graffiti stencils. This one appears to be topical – I believe this was immediately after Pope Benedict announced his impending retirement. A statement in favor of the ordination of women and transgendered priests?

 

 

February 13, 2013. Mallott Hall, University of Kansas.

That moment when you think you can capture perfect sunset conditions, but your camera takes like two minutes to set up and you miss it. Part of this project is about capturing my day-to-day experiences, but there’s no specific memory attached to this. Just a record of how – despite all the beautiful architecture on the KU campus – this is what I see every day going to work.

 

 

February 14, 2013. An Orgasm. Watson Library, University of Kansas.

The inscription reads “An orgasm took place right where you are studying!” It’s written on a study desk at the library (and right next to it is “I <3 MU”). It seemed like a fitting Valentine’s Day photo, even if it’s not strictly readable.

 

February 15, 2013.

On the road to Columbia, I thought the long string of lights outside KC would be an interesting photo. Once again, I thought there’d be more light to see than there was. At this point I feel the series of indiscernible low-light photos is not really enjoyable for anyone, so I need to start leaving the house earlier, or figure out how to use my camera better.

 

February 16, 2013. MU/KU, Frederick Building, Columbia, MO.

One of my hobbies is using “high art” modes to express really “low art” content. Bathos is sort of my personal fascination. In this case I said “I’m in Columbia. MU and KU are both playing. Let’s experiment with double exposure self-portraiture!” No one wins. Well, more accurately, KU won and MU lost.

 

February 17, 2013. Abandoned department store, Providence St, Columbia, MO.

On Providence there’s an abandoned retail outlet, right by an Office Depot everyone assumes is abandoned. The place looked like it’s been extensively used as an overnight for homeless – bottles, an old mattress, clothing, a torn-up sleeping bag. It also made a nice addition to my collection of graffiti in unexpected places.

 

February 18, 2013. Floating apple, Lakota Coffee, Columbia, MO.

I’ve taken pictures indoor at Lakota before that have come out beautifully. Not much more to be said about it at this point. This may be Jonny Pez at his computer, or just a floating apple in a salt mine.

 

February 19, 2013. Pedestrian bridge, Robertson Hall, University of Kansas.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but a nice perspective shot, with some sort-of graffiti. I had just set up an appointment for travel vaccinations at the Health Center, explaining why I was somewhere on campus outside the two places I ever go.

 

February 20, 2013. De-icing, Wescoe Hall, University of Kansas.

I think I was late to be aware of the pending snow-pocalypse, and was fascinated at the trails of liquid covering all the sidewalks on campus. It was interesting to watch the community attempt to hunker down for the massive onslaught of snow. I miss it already.

 

February 21, 2013. Snowy bike, 8th and Mass, mysterious industrial building on the river, Lawrence, KS.

Snow days are fantastic, although I spent this one with a brutal hang… headache. But around 5:00 I realized I should go out and enjoy the snow (which at that point I thought was a one-time opportunity). So I got the camera, put on my boots and took a walk downtown. I even walked along the riverfront, which may have been a lofty undertaking. Ah well, snow day.

 

February 22, 2013. Snow truck, Lawrence, KS.

And the next day I decided to drive to Columbia. Here’s what the truck looked like before departing. Pro tip: dust pans work very well for clearing snow off a vehicle.

 

February 23, 2013. Snow backhoe, Columbia, MO.

Columbia got snow, too. And apparently they deal with it by just scooping it all into trucks and moving it somewhere. Presumably a massive snow landfill or penguin sanctuary. Actually, I really think there should be a conversation about how to effectively exploit large stockpiles of snow – temporary igloo housing?

 

February 24, 2013. Snow dump, Columbia, MO.

Or maybe they just dump it wherever. It’s still fun to see how places respond to overwhelming snowfalls.

Here is the first roll of photos taken with the Argus C3. It’s definitely rougher than the disposable shots, which is a bit disappointing since the variety of options should theoretically give me the ability to take better pictures. But part of this project is mastering the settings and learning how to use my tools effectively, so let’s look at this as an evolving process, hey?

Right now I think that a lot of pictures were affected by unduly high shutter speed, due to a mechanical error on my camera. Luckily I (for some reason) have two C3s, and have switched to the one that will actually let me change the shutter speed. So let’s all get excited for the next roll. Enough talk. Picture time.

1. Radio Springs at Night; Nevada, MO; Jan 6, 2013

This was taken at Radio Springs Park in my hometown while I was walking the dog. It wasn’t as dark as it seems here, but this is the gazebo on the island, done up with Christmas lights.

2. Trumpeter Swans; Nevada, MO; January 7, 2013

For the last several years a park in Nevada has served as a stopover point for trumpeter swans, the largest waterfowl in North America. You can’t really see it here, but the Canada geese looked tiny by comparison. Truly huge birds.

3. Mass Street Hooligans; Lawrence, KS; January 8, 2013

Here’s Justin and Joanna outside the Casbah. They’re a couple of cool cats.

4. Railroad Crossing and River Footprints; Lawrence, KS; January 9, 2013

I’m kind of breaking my own rules here already, posting two images for one day, but I went to take a shot of the frozen river and wound up having a perfect opportunity to snap a shot of an oncoming train. When it came down to it I couldn’t make up my mind. But yes, those did appear to be footprints on the frozen river.

5. New Workspace; Lawrence, KS; January 10, 2013

I spent the 10th reorganizing my office. Exciting? No. But here’s evidence that it happened. (I’m sitting there now!)

6. Cool Cat; Columbia, MO; January 11, 2013

For a few days there was a cat in my girlfriend’s apartment. It kept trying to get in the fridge, regardless of whether the door would close on it in the process.

7. New Development; Columbia, MO; January 12, 2013

Downtown Columbia is currently in the midst of a mad dash to tear down old buildings and throw up new student townhomes and high-rises in their place. The process has deformed downtown with hideous generic architecture and shows no sign of slowing. Progress!

8. Snowy Quad; Columbia, MO; January 13, 2013

I finally got a chance to see some snow this winter. It seemed like a perfect time for a cliche shot of the Mizzou campus. Timeless!

9. Window Cat; Columbia, MO; January 14, 2013

The cat also really liked getting in the window and chasing birds through the glass. He’s a bit camera shy.

10. Psycho!; Columbia, MO; January 15, 2013

Found a promotional cardboard thing for the Hitchcock film. Like all good finds it was in a stinking alley next to a dumpster.

11. Frozen Gutters; Columbia, MO; January 16, 2013

I apparently love winter weather, or at least frozen water. I wish I could have gotten a bit more clarity here, the water was still rippled and runneled, as though frozen in mid-gush.

12. End of an Era; Columbia, MO; January 17, 2013

I stopped in to the going out of business sale at Streetside Records with Karen and Joanna. It’s been an institution for college kids looking to spend their parents money since I was in college. A metaphor for the state of traditional media? Perhaps. Also, I’m not sure what it’s sharing space with here, but little surprises are part of the fun of a manual-wound camera.

13. The King of Carrot Flowers; Lawrence, KS; January 18, 2013

It’s hard to explain exactly how meaningful and evocative Neutral Milk Hotel’s music is. I was ecstatic to be able to see Jeff Mangum live at Liberty Hall. The place was completely packed and totally awestruck. Once in a lifetime.

14. Portrait of the Artist; Lawrence, KS; January 19, 2013

Experimenting with the “bulb” setting, which keeps the shutter open as long as the button is depressed.

15. Rooftop Ruffians; Lawrence, KS; January 20, 2013

Phil and Anna on the roof porch. Look at them hooligans! PS it was really cold out there. Love for the long-suffering models.

16. Floral Vans; Lawrence, KS; January 21, 2013

The floral shop by my house keeps a fleet of minivans on call. One was undergoing maintenance today. Even flower vans break down.

That’s it for this time. How does everyone like it so far?