Shared Passion

14 January 2011

As you may or may not know, one of my great passions has been creating a digital archive of thousands of photographs from my family’s personal history. When my mother and I moved my grandparents to the nursing home, we spent a great deal of time preparing their home for a large auction. We spent countless hours sifting and sorting through all kinds of treasures. I managed to find all kinds of interesting things in their home – old photographic negatives, memorabilia, and even a stash of old stock certificates that belonged to their neighbor. During that experience I personally vowed to create a digital archive of all the family memorabilia and photographs I could find. I’ve been scanning negatives on-and-off for about three years now, and my library of images is well into the thousands.

I always find it interesting when I meet or discover others who share my passion. The other day I came across the below story about a twenty-something guy from Chicago who stumbled on to a treasure trove of old street photography. At a storage unit sale he paid approximately $400 for a box of negatives from the 1960s. He soon learned he had uncovered unknown photographic work from a woman named Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier was a Chicago nanny and took over 100,000 photographs. Now, decades later, John Maloof has made it his personal goal to preserve her photographic memories. It’s awesome to see someone doing something so similar to what I enjoy doing.

Please check out the story below.

For more information on John Maloof and the Vivian Maier project, please check the following blog: http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

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Nashville Blanketed in Snow

11 January 2011

When Laura and I moved to Nashville from New York we were told we were giving up snow and wintry weather.  Sure, it would be humid and cold, but we were under the impression that snow wouldn’t be a regular part of our lives.  Well, this year it actually snowed on Christmas day here in Nashville.  And, the snow has fallen several times this winter.  It doesn’t stick around for long so I made sure to take numerous photos of Music City blanketed in snow.  Please check out the panoramas below.  I highly recommend clicking the “FULLSCREEN” button on each to have the best viewing experience.  Enjoy!

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More Nashville Blanketed in Snow

11 January 2011

More of my Nashville Snow panoramas.  As before, I highly recommend clicking the “FULLSCREEN” button on each to have the best viewing experience.  Enjoy!

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That Cow is Staring at Me

02 January 2011

Here are a couple more pictures from Arkansas. This cow was awesome. I crept as close as I was willing and he just stared me down the whole time …

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Arkansas Night Sky

01 January 2011

Here are a few shots of the Arkansas night sky taken during the early morning hours of January 1, 2011. It was amazing to see so many stars in the sky once we left the city lights behind. I’m also including a working file of my unfinished video. Enjoy!

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Happy New Year

31 December 2010

Happy New Year!  Laura and I got to spend New Year’s Eve in beautiful Arkansas with a group of very dear friends.  The sun set beautifully ending a wonderful year :)

2010 12-30 Adam Thede - Sunset

2010 12-30 Adam Thede - Sunset

2010 12-30 Adam Thede - Beautiful Arkansas

2010 12-30 Adam Thede - Happy New Year!

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For The Love of the Road

30 December 2010

Laura and I love taking road trips.  And, now that our family includes two tiny and adorable gentlemen pups, it’s just much easier to travel via car.  Of course, our dream is to one day have a bubble top conversion van with an Airstream trailer behind it.  For now we have to make do with our somewhat tiny Suzuki.  Talk about taking a cozy drive!  The first few legs of our journey were rather tight.  We picked up Rosie in Kentucky and had three adults and two dogs in our tiny car for the adventure to Denver.

Here are a couple of pictures I took while we were out driving.  Maybe they’ll help explain why we love the open road so much.  Enjoy!

PS - I recently downloaded the app camera+ on my iPhone.  I love what you can do with the app!

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Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas

30 December 2010

Amazingly, Laura and I had the opportunity to pay a visit to Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas.  What made the experience amazing was the fact that we visited on the last day they were accepting Kodachrome film for processing.  Even more amazing than that is that Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas was the last place on earth still developing Kodachrome.  December 30, 2010 marked the day in history when Kodachrome film could no longer be processed.  Kodak discontinued the film and then stopped manufacturing the processing chemicals. Kodak hand picked Dwayne’s Photo to be the last place they would continue supplying with processing chemicals.

By a random sequence of events I knew we would be driving near Dwayne’s Photo and I also knew the significance of the day.  Earlier in the week Laura and I had seen a program on Sunday Morning where they discussed Kodachrome, it’s importance, and it’s upcoming retirement.  Also, I had read an article in the New York Times profiling the same story.  And, Parsons was just 30 minutes out of our way on our massive December road trip.  So, of course, we had to visit!

Our visit was incredible. We got a full tour of the facility, had a chance to mingle with people visiting for the same reason we were (some coming from as far away as the UK), and even ran into a group of guys we had volunteered with in Nashville when we did flood recovery work.  Davis Watson from Nashville was there filming for his documentary on Kodachrome (http://www.kodachromemovie.com).  We also had the opportunity to meet and chat with Dwayne himself.  The most memorable moment for me was when Dwayne started asking me about my photography.  With my digital camera in hand, 79 year old Dwayne asked, “are you shooting film right now?”  Of course I had to tell him I was shooting digital, to which he said, “do you have a film camera?”  I happened to have my film camera in the car, so next he asked, “have you ever shot on Kodachrome?”  I’ve scanned a ton of my family’s Kodachrome but I’ve never fired a roll myself.  Dwayne finally asked, “do you want to shoot a roll?”  Dwayne then handed me an unexposed roll.  My first, last, and only roll of Kodachrome was given to me by the last person on earth who could process it.  Dwayne told me to run around and have fun with the film but to bring it back to him before 5PM so he could process it.

Dwayne, thanks for an awesome visit and an incredibly memorable experience.

RIP Kodachrome 1935 to 2010.

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The Colorado Night Sky

22 December 2010

I love timelapse videography/photography.  To help facilitate my desire to shoot my own timelapse movies I recently purchased the Canon TC80N3 Intervalometer.  The device lets you preset the interval you would like to shoot pictures at (i.e. every 30 seconds), and for how long you would like to expose the shot (i.e. for 30 seconds).  Here’s one of my favorite shots from my recent experimentation in the mountains of Colorado.  I’m also including a working file of my unfinished video.  Enjoy!

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Lunar Eclipse

21 December 2010

This year the Winter Solstice came on the same day as a Lunar Eclipse - December 21, 2010.  We were back in Colorado to celebrate the holidays and were fortunate to have crystal clear skies for the lunar show.  I had trouble making a timelapse of the event, but did manage to create the below montages.  Enjoy!

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