Printing Photos

Taking good photos is hard, editing them to print is even harder! But I've found the hardest to be just getting good prints. I prepared one of my photos in both a black and white and color version to be printed on 8"x10" paper, then proceeded to get it printed at a number of places. It's amazing how different they all are, and even more surprising to see none of them match what I see on my computer screen. I'll keep working on it...

What's Been Happening

What have I been doing since my trips? Well, actually I've been pretty busy. I've gone through all my photos and have selected a couple of hundred to really work with. From those I produced a short DVD for our Lilly Grant Participant Dinner. Now I'm in the process of trying to get test photos printed, and so far it's been disappointing. I have a little show lined up, which will be at my school in conjunction with the fall school play, "Working" by Studs Terkel. I plan on getting 12 - 20 pieces framed. I signed up with "Trucker Buddy International" and hope to help teach safety to the students within our school. So overall, not too bad. Stay tuned!

Back Home Again, In Indiana

Here it is, late July. Time is short now, money for my project is getting short also. School starts Monday for me and my time for travel like I've known it this summer will not be available. But I have some plans and hope to carry on in the limited fashion possible. Over the weekend I'll be traveling up to Chicago and the western suburbs, then next week I'll be visiting Southern Indiana. There may be photo opps in those days, so I'll keep my camera close. So far I've accumulated:

38 Gigabytes of data (about 4,000 images).

Driven close to 8,000 miles.

Totally ruined my Canon G10.

Visited ??? many truckstops.

And I plan on:

Sifting and sorting all my images to compile good records, tags, backups.

Photoshopping my best images for printing and framing.

Talking to some local galleries for possible shows.

Producing a couple of nice books through one of the many online services.

And, continuing my blog in a scaled down version with future content.

I-94 Through Chicago

Making my way South along I-94 I tried to take some photos between the Wisconsin/Illinois State Line and down into Indiana along I-65.

In a construction area near the Wisconsin border I found a place to wait and see what drove by. It was Saturday, a slow day for trucks being on the road.

If you start to notice, there are a lot of container trucks on the road.

A nice looking Freightliner Coronado.

I was on the road headed South along I-94 and took many shots as we drove along.

Downtown is off in the distance and traffic is busy.

The transit sytem in Chicago runs trains down between the Interstate lanes.

I-94 runs South and joins up with I-80 on the South side.

Construction is always going on in Chicago.

Once we were out and onto I-65 we saw more construction.

Northern Indiana has sections which are very flat. You can see for miles.

A couple of nice W900's sitting in a rest area along I-65.

Up In Northern Wisconsin

My journey has taken me to Northern Wisconsin and Door County. Up in the "thumb" of Wisconsin, Door County is famous for Cherries, tourists, and art galleries. The little towns are serviced with trucks, and as you can see below, everybody needs a septic tank pump truck now and then!

Up at the tip of the penninsula State Road 43 ends with a ferry ride to the islands out in Lake Michigan. The road features a nice series of curves and is very pretty.

I've got to admit, I've been on a bit of vacation for this leg. Seeing family and driving around we saw this goat grazing on the roof of a restaurant. I'm off and headed back South to Indiana with a trip through Chicago on I-94. I'll try to get some photos along the way soon.

Wisconsin Along I-43

After an airline flight back to the midwest I found myself traveling up Interstate 43 North of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I would have liked to have taken some photos during the trip out of Chicago, but while driving I wasn't presented with any good opportunities and since I wasn't alone, couldn't focus on it. Maybe going back through I can get something? So I waited until I was clear of not only Chicago, but Milwaukee and on the nice clear roads north of there.

The terrain and farmland of Wisconsin are beautiful and just as varied as most other states. This area, along the Eastern edge, not far from Lake Michigan is known as the Lake to Lake region and produces a lot of milk.

 

Back to seeing the trucks more common East of the Mississippi River: traditional 53' trailers without combination trailers. Doubles are common, but regulations on larger vehicle combinations have traditionally been tighter here.

Remember Rich I met at the Iowa 80 truckstop? We're close to his companies (WEL) home terminal.

Wisconsin is home to a couple of other large companies, Marten from Mondovi is one of them.

I stopped in Algoma to see their little harbor and lighthouse.

Wisconsin in July is very green with fields of alfalfa, oats, corn, wheat and peas.

Cabbage At Dusk

I've left the Pacific Northwest and am working in Wisconsin now. But I never got a chance to post some of the photos I took of Cabbage when I revisited it at dusk. It was that incredibly hot day, and after being out working in the heat I found a motel, cleaned up, and headed out near sunset to experience the mountain in a different light. I wasn't disappointed, but with the camera I've been using (Canon G10) I found it a challenge. Smaller digital cameras just don't have the latitude a larger SLR has.

The shadows were less distinct and the light a bit warmer.

If you know where to look you can see the crack in this wall way down in the valley.

The trucks just kept coming, up and over, and on to Idaho and Utah.

I don't think there are any other mountains quite like Cabbage.

A 5% grade, which is typical all over on the Interstate System means you climb 5 feet vertically for every 100 feet of travel. Not much, unless you're hauling 80,000lbs.

The ever present water barrels along every curve and pull out.

It got to be kind of spooky up there as it grew dark. I wish I lived closer to this mountain, it would be cool to visit it in all weather or times of the year.