Monthly Archives: June 2014

 

I agreed to bring Sherelene’s car to Knoxville to get it’s service done, and kill some time while that was accomplished.  I mentioned to the guys at Harper Infiniti that I was always looking for a killer burger and one offered the suggestion to try Sam & Andy’s.  Having never been there I was up for the challenge.  Boy am I glad I did, this is one great place run by the Captain family, above left to right, John and his father, George, and below their sister Brenda!  George’s wife Lucy sadly passed away back in Sept of 2013 and I’m told she was a great part of this team, and a team is what they are, first they make a great burger, a 4.5 on the 5 pickle scale which places it in the top 20 burgers in America!!!  There are several highly acclaimed burgers around the Knoxville area, but for me, Sam & Andy’s beat the rest hands down!  George uses his own special seasoning and that is the hat trick!  He does everything else right too, fresh meat, flat top grill, and top notch ingredients.  it reminded a lot of the Top Notch Cafe in Colfax, Washington and my good buddy Pete’s creation, also a top rated burger!

 

 

 

Family is important, and family business’ are my favorite, and this is one great family!  They have been making customers very happy since 1956 when Lucy and George started the business!  Even though they have a killer burger, I’m told George’s meat sauce for spaghetti is also spectacular, I’ll come balk and try it and let you know!

 

 

 

So thanks guys for rewarding me for bring my wife’s car to Knoxville!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

………and now a few more images from Memory Lane!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any of you youngsters know what these are below???

 

 

FUN STUFF!!!!

 

* Note before I share some very exciting stuff with you about a wonderful man I met, Otis Eldridge and his incredible creation, let me share a couple of other points!  I just got back from Kingsport TN where I had the great pleasure of doing a workshop with twenty members of the Eastman Camera Club at Memory Lane.  What a great group of folks and I will be eternally grateful for the invitation which allowed me to meet Otis and discover Memory Lane for myself!!! Thanks guys so much for asking me to come down and join you for a fantastic day of photography and fellowship!  Other point:  this will serve as Monday’s blog entry as I will be traveling Monday, I just couldn’t wait to share this anyway!

 

So back to Otis!  Mr. Eldridge has built a wonderful 1950’s town on his farm complete with a fully stocked general store, diner, schoolhouse, garage with an incredible collection of classic cars of that era, a field full of junkyard art, country church, airport hanger, and much, much more.  The little village has been painstakingly re-created and a visit to Memory Lane is truly like stepping into the past!  Many of you know how much I have gotten into the Americana photography arena and this location is absolutely fantastic for that kind of photography!  I know what you’re thinking and I can assure you that Otis and I are already working on plans to allow a His Light Workshop in Memory Lane!  I hope to release our 2015 schedule of events after the 4th of July and you can bet a date for Memory Lane will be on there!!!  Rather than go on and on about this wonderful place that Otis and lovingly created, let me show you some of my take from just a 3 hour shoot, and trust me I only scratched the surface!  Thanks Otis for holding on to these incredible memories for all of us!

 

In the fully stocked, authentic general store!

 

 

Medicine for what ails you!

 

 

Entrance to the general store featuring the good ole’ Rainbo Bread Logo!

 

 

 

Some to the fantastic collection of Coca Cola collectables!  The real ones!  When I was growing up in Harlan Kentucky my father was the manager of a Coca Cola bottling plant and I haven’t seen some of this stuff since then!!!!  My dad would have loved this place!!!

 

 

 

 

A fully stocked, era perfect, Diner!

 

 

Check out the fully restored historically accurate interior!  I can just smell the burgers frying!!

 

 

 

Down the street  you will find Harry’s Radio & TV Repair Shop just as it would have been around 1955!

 

 

 

Right next door is a auto repair shop with some interesting details to capture!

 

 

 

 

 

In Otis’ version of Old Car City, plenty of classic old junkers provide a ton of auto art shooting!

 

 

 

 

 

…..and lots of the little details that make this place so special!  Please believe me, this is only scratching the surface!

 

 

 

 

Thanks Otis, you’re an All American in my books, thanks again for doing all of this!!!  Thanks for keeping our past alive!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

*Photo Note:  All images with Fuji X-T1, 18-55, 10-14, 60 Micro,  and the 55-200, all Fujinon XF lenses.

 

 

O.K. for all those folks that are sick of my talking about how happy I am with my Fuji X-System, this isn’t about that, well, maybe a little, but lots of cameras have APS-C size sensors and there are a number of reasons you should consider one!  If only as a back-up body!

 

First, over the past four or five years the push was to go to “Full Frame” sensors, actually all sensors are full frame, (they occupy the entire frame no matter what their size!), what people mean is a sensor that is approx. the size of a 35mm film frame 36X24!  The push was because when they first became available they offered significantly better high ISO, low noise performance!  Not so much today.  The most recent top of APS-C size sensors have really been pushing the 35mm size sensors on noise, dropping the advantage to less than one f stop!!!   The other advantage for the 35mm size sensor was that lenses were their “actual” focal length, meaning super wide lenses, wet actually super wide.  Then the APS-C cameras got super wide lenses and super wide zooms, advantage gone.  The last big advantage was that depth-of-field was more shallow, thus leading to nicer Bokeh.  When the APS-C guys got very fast lenses, the APS-C depth-of-field more closely matched the 35mm sensors.

 

Now the APS-C guys had some advantages too!  They exhibit greater apparent depth of field at any given focal length, which a good thing when you want more depth of field, sharpness!  The APS-C lenses are smaller (translate: easier to design and make very sharp because they do not require as much light transmission!)  Size and weight?  Big advantage APS-C, they can be half the size of 35mm sensored bodies and lenses!  In my post of Wednesday I also talked about being able to use older “legacy” glass fro various manufacturers with adapters to get super long, very fast glass, sometimes at exceptional financial bargains!!!!  For me this is a real big thing! Here are some more images that would have cost  great deal more to make if I still was shooting a full frame (35mm) sensor camera.

 

Another great advantage is the close focus distance of lenses does not change, but image size does, thus, close focus performance is enhanced!!

 

 

 

 

 

Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, and many other companies make cameras with the APS-C size sensor, even if you already shoot a 35mm size sensor, a APS-C sensored camera can open up your horizons! Food for thought!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

When I started working with Jim (Begley) I really started to get into using filters to alter straight shots.  My trip to Dave Jones Truck Rescue in Sprague, Washington, i got some great candidates for applying filers!  Jim does absolutely beautiful HDR images that take a lot of precise work with layers and layer masks, not me, I’m a one click kinda guy!  All of these images are simple NIK or Topaz filters!

 

 

 

Topaz Simplify applied to above image.

 

More images altered with Topaz Simplify painting effects.

 

 

 

 

Topaz Adjust Spicify applied below;

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will be in Kingsport shooting some more wonderful Americana at Memory Lane, and hopefully finding a new location for great Americana photography!

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim