The great Wall......

Since childhood I have been awe of China.....the art, ceramics, silk painting, and all the rest. In 1987 I was invited to join a group with Eastman Kodak to travel the country for a month meeting with  Chinese Professional Photographers. It was remarkable in the sense that I had applied to AFS to travel to China and teach English at the same time learning conversational Chinese. I wanted to do this to essentially kill two birds with one stone. See the country and learn the language. I thought that the ability to think like an American businessman and know the language could open a lot of commercial windows for me, however, I was turned down by AFS.

I was in the studio on a Saturday morning and the phone rang, it was December 1986. It was Paul Ness, an old friend, and a wheel at Kodak. He asked me what I was doing the month of July of 1987. Looking at my schedule I said "Nothing". I had no weddings booked as yet for July. He asked me to join with him and several other Professional Photographers to travel throughout The Peoples Republic. I thought about it for a few seconds and I said YES !! He said he would send more information. I was on the trip and I almost jumped out of my skin. CHINA !! At Last !!!! Then reality set in.

A month with the studio closed. Senior portraits would be beginning to be booked, probably a few weddings...I must be nuts. The professional photography business is hard. I was working as much as I could and and was getting pretty worn out. I did need a break, but a month.......stark raving mad...but what an opportunity. I left on the trip with reservation.

While in China I saw a third world country that I didn't expect. The rural areas had not changed with any technology, Buffalo carts, human energy spent on what we did with machines. But...the colors, and country defy explanation. I would look at a mountain covered with stair steps of greens going from yellow to deep emerald colors from the rice in varying phases of growth. I saw an extremely hard working group of people that in many ways are exactly like us. I also found myself relaxing and beginning to realize that there were things and vision I could change in the business.
I was really changing how I looked at my overall view of my vision and direction I was moving photographicly. It was a really astounding revelation.

We were on the great wall towards the end of the trip. A Monument of proportions you can't imagine unless you are there. This image had never been published and for me tells the visual story of the wall. It was shot with my Linholf 4 x 5 on Ektachrome film. Enjoy.

I will follow up with a few more images soon...........spread the word.

The Encounter...continued..

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about photographing a guy on a side street west of the square in Springfield while in Alan Browns class at SMS. I had just passed a run down bar and snapped an image of it for possible future use in a blend or what ever.  I collected images in many cases as future parts of completed combinations of images making one complete picture. Ya just never knew what could happen in the darkroom. Bumbling down the street I saw a guy walking toward me and the auto pilot came on and I photographed him. Hard to be discrete with a thirty five...He stopped and asked me if I took his picture. In one of my finest DUH moments I acknowledged that I did. "I don't like having my picture taken.......I want the film."  As diplomaticly as I could I told him that I needed the other images on the roll, there was no way, look for your paddle. He reached behind himself and I pictured myself getting knifed.....I knew I was dead. He pulled out his wallet and gave me a five spot...."Don't make that picture." he said and walked on. I immediately went back and printed the

print......Why has it taken me 44 years to understand the warning I saw just before taking his picture.
Go figure...

I have a new image of the Great Wall in China which I will publish in a couple of days. It's never been seen by anyone other than interested friends and was shot with my Linholf 4 x 5 when I was there in 1987. I have several more images I''ll post from China in the near future that are pretty incredible. Spread the word.

I found it !!

As I mentioned in a recent blog, I was photographing in Downtown Springfield and got a "street shot" of a guy that didn't want to be photographed. We had a discussion about it and ended the conversation on an unexpected note. That image was captured approximately 43 years ago. Looking through my negative file I found the image and the shot I took immediately before it. Viewing the pair of shots is like reading tea leaves pretty wild. I'm having the image scanned and next week it will be in the blog. Don't miss it....I can't believe it took this long to see the real message.

I was wondering where it went...

I have been coasting along with this blog fairly content with its' success, approaching 9,000 viewings,
and wondering however, where the video I made concerning drilling for water in Nicaragua went.
In a moment of exploratory exasperation I DECIDED TO FIND OUT ! I started scrolling through the different past entries and got to the "older posts" at the bottom of the page. I clicked on it started scrolling down and SHAZAAMMMM there it was, in the center of the page with the "start"triangle in the middle of a still image. Checking to see if it was still available I clicked the triangle with the mouse and it started up. My nephew, Andy Putnam, created the soundtrack music which I personally think fits it to a "T". He is a sound engineer in Nashville and is extremely talented and in demand in the city. To see the video go to  http://morganstudiointulsa.blogspot.com/ and check it out.

Another Commercial shot....

In this shot of a part of a commercial printing press I faced the same challenge as the last shot of the complete unit, however this one was taller. Living in the world of 5'9" tall items are always a challenge. Once again I had the company isolate the product with the walls and I began working on the shot. We decided not to wet the floor as it was not in bad shape and didn't need to cover past machining damages to it. The shot took about 20 minutes to get photographed and it was shot with my Linholf 4 x 5 camera on Ektachrome film. I really love this kind of assignment.

A long time account and challenging shot...

My first assignment with this company really made me think, which is the essence of the profession.
The company manufactured printing presses for commercial use. As it seems in all commercial photography assignments,  there is always a hook, generally involving shooting on  site and time deadlines. This was no exception. I was called and ask to view the product and discuss the possibilities of getting an image for advertising purposes. I arrived at the company and we talked about the shot, hopefully I would be able to get something that showed the machine in the best light.....no pun intended.

We walked out into the plant and I saw what could be a gorgeous machine....surrounded by factory works, trash cans, workbenches, and it was darker than the inside of a wolf.  The first question I was asked is whether or not I had enough lights to make it work. I answered yes. I walked around the press which was HUGE ! The floor was concrete and pretty rough. I formulated the plan in my head and explained it to the owner of the plant.

I would be back in two days when the rebuild was done and all of the parts were on the machine. I asked him to construct walls using two 4 x 8 Styrofoam sheets supported by 2 x 4 studs giving me a wall 16 feet tall running around two sides of the machine. Basically I eliminated the rest of the plant and gave my self something to reflect light off of. We wet the floor covering years of production reminders, and also something else to reflect light off of. I set up my Linholf 4 x 5 and did a walk around to get the feel of the shot.

I asked him to turn out the lights and I went to work. After about 20 minutes of grand endeavor on my part, I asked him to turn on the lights again. He looked at me with a look of "How in the hell could I have hired this guy ?, and said, Bet ya don't have anything. I pulled out the Polaroid out of the back of the camera and started the 60 second count. He was tapping his foot ....for effect I guess. The minute was up and I had the shot I wanted. He was dumbfounded. " How'd ya do that ????? Mirrors strings and wires" I replied. Then I put in the Ektachrome and finished the job. I'll have another for you in a few days.