Images From the William Schwerin Collection

Today I really dug in to one of the small boxes of B+W negatives from my Grandfather's collection of photography. I'm in possession of most of the negatives and the rest of his collection is spread across five different families. Which is just a nibble of the whole picture because my Grandfather photographed from before 1920 clear up until the late 1960s. He used a variety of cameras from medium format folders in B+W to 35mm color negatives and slide film. He even used a 110 instamatic for short lived period. He was quite prolific, photographing trips as a young merchant marine to family gatherings and social events. In addition to photography he was quite the entrepreneur. Running a variety of businesses during his lifetime. Schwerin Brake shop that he founded is still in business on Bush St in San Francisco today. Here are some images I discovered today.  God's blessings to one and all,     

Chris

Finding My Grandfather in Me

Just recently I restarted setting up the process to digitally record my Grandfather Schwerin's vast collection of negatives and prints. In cleaning out our garage I discovered even more brake boxes of negatives that I had forgotten we even possessed. They were in brake shoe boxes because he owned a brake shop, Schwerin Automotive, on Bush Street in SanFrancisco. It's still in operation today. His collection is a mish mash mix of everything which brings me to my main point. I'm pretty much the same way. Maybe slightly a bit more organized only because I haven't had relatives along the way combing through my stuff and tearing apart photo albums and boxes. His collection is so very much like mine sitting out in our garage right now. His images are in negative sleeves and brake boxes while mine are in slide sheets and slide boxes. Either way it is a beautiful mess.

God's love and blessings to all, Chris

New Norm

It has now become the new normal that late summer and almost all of fall is the fire season where I live in the coastal mountains of Northern California. It is really hot and dry. People are nervous. I check on Calfire and the local community fan page whenever  I hear sirens or helicopters.  Our phones are all set up for NIXL reports in the case of fires. We have a to go box packed and ready to go in our living room.  Sadly we should have two boxes but like many others we haven't gotten around to getting the rest of it ready.  Hopefully I can finish that after  I finish posting this. Normally we are smoke free but this past week there has been an offshore breeze blowing the smoke from the August fire complex directly to us. The air quality has been thick and unhealthy. Visibility was knocked down to less that a 1/4 mile. At times i couldn't see past the trees in the backyard. I was just a thiock wall of gray.  This morning the ocean breeze kicked in and pushed the smoke eastward the other way. Here are two images I captured of this mornings sunrise over the Little Lake Valley and the Mendocino Range. Both images were captured with a canon EOS 7D camera with a Canon EF 28-200mm lens. AV mode, ISO 800 at F 13.0 .  God's blessings and safety to all the first responders out there dealing with the fires. 

Country Roads

 This morning I had an appointment in the big city of Ukiah. On the return trip on a whim I decided to drive out Reeves Canyon Road and have a look around. It has been quite a few years since I have been out that way. I stopped a couple of places to create some infrared images. Infrared is challenging and I'm still learning what it takes to create and process and image. Enjoy the country road with its iconic mail boxes at the beginning. God's love and blessings to all, chris

All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D  camera converted to Infrared Hypercolor with a Canon 10-22mm lens.

Iconic Adirondack

Last week Lenore and I headed over to the Mendocino Coast for a break. We avoided people and had a really nice picnic lunch all by ourselves next to Lake Cleone. After lunch we drove up the coast to the fingers area where I knew the chance of running into people was pretty slim. Pulling into the parking lot we saw two other cars. We wandered around on the trails taking in some magnificent views of the ocean. We spotted one photographer on our way out. Coming back down the coast we stopped at Pacific Star Winery.  Lenore went in search of some wine while I wandered around the edge looking for something to photograph. I was immediately drawn to this row of Adirondack chairs all lined up inviting people to sit down and take in the views. It was a classic image. Lenore got a nice bottle of wine and I captured an iconic image. God's light and love to all, chris

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 7D camera converted to  infrared Hypercolor. The lens used was a Canon EF-S 10-22mm. 

Working the Corner

Recently I went out during the middle of the day at almost high noon to do some photography. I had a spot in mind that I have photographed many times before. Normally high noon is one of the least desirable times for landscape photography. The light is very bright making images look very flat and uninteresting. For me it was just the perfect way to explore doing some more infrared photography. Once I arrived I started looking at the many possibilities for images. There are some wonderful S curves in the road there for creating leading lines as well as the many beautiful valley oaks that are subjects unto themselves.  I found some great images to explore  before the midday heat drove me back to the car. All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D camera converted to infrared Hypercolor. I was using a Canon EF- S10-22mm lens with a red filter. God's love and blessings to you, chris #teamcanonusa

Branching Off in a New Direction

After a lot of thought my photography is branching off in a new direction. I've always liked exploring and learning new things. Infrared photography has always intrigued me. I suppose because it is often done in B+W which is what I did a lot of during my early years in photography. I loved the darkroom and shooting in B+W both in high school and in college.  Which now brings me to the present. They make and convert cameras that shoot in infrared. After a couple of months of off and on research I ordered a Canon EOS 7D that had been converted to Hyper Color Infrared.  I was like a little kid in a candy store when it arrived. Photographing the forest in the front yard and driving out to the Little Lake Valley and photographing the large valley oaks. It's crazy what you can do with it. Processing images from this new camera has been challenging. It has stretched my Photoshop skills to a new level with new settings such as channel swapping and and desaturation levels. It's going to be fun to go out to create landscapes and seascapes with it.

God's love and blessings to all, chris
#teamcanonusa All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D camera and a Canon EF-s 10-22mm lens.