Centralia: Sorta Documentary Photography Session!

 

No! No more blogs about realistic human behaving war animals! Stop!

Thank you.

Ahem, welcome to blog post number five! The Documentary Post! The Final Blog Post!

Now, I know last week I promised this week we would talk about typologies...but....well, something came up. I got to play tour guide on a trip to Centralia, in which I literally got replaced by an actual tour guide. So this week's topic, as said in the title, will be some Centralia pictures, as opposed to typologies. Sorry to disappoint you typology fans again.

Now some of you littluns may not know about Centralia. Some of you biguns may be well aware of it the story. If you know it, skip to the next paragraph. If you don't, here is an extremely brief summary that doesn't do the long story justice. Back in 1962, a mine fire was accidentally started under the quaint little town of Centralia. People tried to put it out but failed, and the fire spread. In 1981 a sinkhole opened up under a kid, and had he not grabbed a tree branch, he would have fallen into the fires and died. Everyone panicked, the state began to move people out, a few die-hard residents decided to stay, and under ten people remain living in Centralia today. But for a more fleshed out version of the story, as well as some other Centralia information, I direct your attention to the Offroaders website.

Ok, so, everyone is caught up on at least the basics of Centralia. And when people hear about the basics of Centralia, they usually expect crazy pictures. The entire landscape covered in fog. Old, decrepit buildings with broken windows and roofs missing from the houses. A giant pit with flames at the bottom.

At least, that's what I thought I would find the first time I went there. That's really not the case though. Photography people, get ready, because I'm going to cross over from history lecture to pretty pretty pictures!

That's mainly it. You may want to enlarge it after reading my description of what you're looking at it. It's basically the layout of a town. You can see the road, but instead of houses, now trees grow in the vacant lots. In the middle right side of the picture, there's a still running Centralia Fire station. And in the middle leftish, a small church that sits on top of a hill. And to the bottom left of that, a small orange dot with a white triangle (you probably can't see it, but in higher resolution, it's there). That's some people doing road work. When you really look at it, there's still activity going on in the town. Sure, not a lot, but there's certainly signs of modern times.

By the way, how bad is the sky in that picture? Sheesh, must have been taken by some amateur! Am I right?! Hah...yeah....moving on....

One thing I should stress though, is that, just because there's activity going on in Centralia...it doesn't mean that all the activity is good. The dang kids have ruined the town. A few years ago, a group of teenagers destroyed a bunch of tombstones in one of Centralia's cemeteries. There's a highway lined with graffiti (more on that later). But perhaps worst of all, is Centralia has become a dumping ground for trash.

 

Now that's just one of the spots that is covered in trash. Sometimes, you'll find dense trash piles. Other areas like this are more spread out. But I've counted 29 car tires in this picture alone. That's not counting the bags and bottles and plastic whozits and whatzits. Personally, it just saddens me. We got a town where people just want to live peacefully. But due to the lack of residents and police, it's treated as nothing more than a dumping ground by hooligans.

...Speaking of hooligans..

Please ignore those dang hooligans super-best-friends-4-life in the upper right corner of the picture.

Anyway, you're probably wondering...what is this a picture of, Chris?

Well...I don't know. One theory is that this was once a sacrificial altar, built in ancient times by aliens. Another theory is that this is the remains of a more modern structure. A house, maybe...a concrete something. Or like...a testing thing for the air. I don't know. But the point is, this was something. Someone said "I'm going to make this concrete/cementish thing and put metal through it to do something!" and now....now it sits alone, in Centralia, crumbling away day by day until nothing will remain, many years from now.

So, the smokeless hills of Centralia were departed, and a new destination was found. That, of the original spot the fire started. Of course, it's all covered in dirt. They don't want people running into a burning mine fire, I suppose. So what now stood over the grounds of history?

I think it's like, a vent. To relieve pressure...I'm not quite sure...this was where our tour guide was first run into, and at that point, I was thinking "I hope she doesn't murder us" and less focusing on what this actually was.

But how about that black and white, eh? I'm not really a super big black and white fan, actually but here...well...there really wasn't much color in it anyway, so I said "Let's go black and white"

After viewing that, you now know why I never make things black and white.

The next pictures...they can't be black and white. Well, they could, but they wouldn't show off the colors of the graffiti on the abandoned highway. That's right, there is an abandoned highway that leads into Centralia. This here is why it was abandoned:

Have a go at this! The road is split in half! That goes like, 50 feet. It gets about as deep as I'd say...2-3 feet, judging by the road's height when you stand in it. And generally speaking, it's safe. Sure some smelly smoke comes out, but you can walk in it, stand in it, jump in it.

But truly, it is an impressive sight. Seeing the layers of rock go down...some plants growing out...it makes you realize what will happen to the world if people just disappeared. Sure, a crack this big won't form as fast without the help of mine fires....but this here...this is truly a look into a post apocalyptic future.

Finally, I'll end it with a summarizing picture, and an inspirational concluding monologue.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury....you have seen the evidence. Centralia has been given an unjust reputation as a dangerous town...a scary town..."Helltown USA!" All it is though, is just people living their lives...and nobody cares about them. Their infrastructure decays from age...their homes....destroyed. The landscape...littered...and miles upon miles...of some of the must vulgar graffiti you can imagine. It is not Centralia that is the monster....it is us.

END SCENE

But like seriously, the picture has the crack, it's got the garbage, it's got the graffiti...it even has a faint wisp of Centralia smoke in the crack! See it? It's in the area that looks like someone went into photoshop and decided to take out a bunch of contrast!

There we have it. Another entry done. Kids, be sure to tune in next week, as I take a closer look at...you guessed it!

No! Not animal's acting like people! Typologies! TYPOLOGIES DANG IT!

Typology

Welcome to blog post number four! My Birthday Blog Post! The Final Blog Post!

As much as it may pain all of my amazing fans and required readers...today, I'm going to be very serious. No fun and games. No comedy. This is strictly business.

 

I know that disappoints many, many people. But you artistic people may soon be singing a new tune, since I am going to be talking about...typology!

So why are we talking about typologies? Well, the other day in my wonderfully joyous photography class, everyone was like "Yo Chris! Start doing some typologies, brother!" and I gave my political response of "If I am elected your representative, I will look investigate the use of typologies in my future work! God Bless America!"

So to begin, we must first google example typologies. Easy enough, I just typed in "typology photography" and started looking through all the images. And what we find is that many of the-

....Oh my God....

Is that....?

YES!!!

Holy crap! There's a person out there that takes pictures of WAR CHICKENS! Or like, chickens that want to pretend they're military generals! Or something like that! This is absolutely amazing! Screw typologies, that's next blog post! This is now officially about chickens!

Or...uh, more professionally, this post is now about Cally Whitham, War Poultry Photographer.

Look, her work may not be exactly what I myself want to make, but dang it, there comes a time when you need to share a photographer with the world, and this is it.

Now looking at her site, she doesn't just do chickens. She shoots other birds, other animals...and she does it with the final pieces looking like paintings. Some may call it gimmicky. I call it genius. I mean, we haven't seen animals acting like realistic people since the black-and-white movie era!

I'm about to post some more example pictures. But I'm going to make it into a little bit of a game. You get to decide which are photographs of a rooster, a duck, and a sheep, and which are portraits of General Patton, General Eisenhower, and General MacArthur. Go!

 

Well, I bet that was really tough for you to figure out which was which (Hint: The animals all have the name Cally Whitham in the bottom corner). But it should have been tough! All of these pictures show heroic figures. Figures with a face of brimming with confidence. A strong body position, showcasing only the most perfect poise! Light and shadows falling all across the subjects, yet having them stand out against the background!

Honestly, I would totally give up everything if I could make animals look like they led troops in a war. But...I really only have access to a cat. And she's much too cute to make into a war hero. I figure that means I'll just let Cally Whitham stick to what she's doing. I really don't want to steal her idea. Even if her idea wasn't combining Watership Down with Animal Farm with Lord of the Rings, well....that's what I'm imagining.

Now to wrap this up...with Cally being from New Zealand...and this post having a very American war theme....Let us celebrate the glorious country of New Zealand with its national anthem!

Thank you. God Defend New Zealand!

And yeah, sorry to disappoint you looking for typologies. Unless you're reading this months later, you're just going to have sit back and wait!

FREE Preview!

Ladies and Gentlemen, who is ready for blog post number three! The Third Blog Post! The Final Blog Post!

Now next week, February 3rd, one day before my birthday, two days before the Super Bowl, one day after Groundhog's Day...is critique day! For those who don't know what a critique day is, it's when a bunch of young photo students eagerly put up their photographs onto a wall. Then, a delicate ritual is performed, where the students must "criticize" each others pictures, while doing it in the nicest way possible so as to not hurt anybody's feelings. At the end of the ritual, each photographer is supposed to walk away from the experience with a clearer mind, knowing that they have yet to achieve their any of their goals exactly as they envisioned.


But who cares about the critique?! What if I just said "Screw this giant presentation and critique! For the people who truly about my work, they can view my pictures in advance on the internet!"

Well that what if is about to happen...because this blog is going to be dedicated completely to ME!

So for those of you who are going to stick around for the remainder of this post...well...I just want to tell you good luck, we're all counting on you.


PICTURE ONE!

 

Know what that is? That's an elephant. Some may argue and say an elephant can't sit like that. I disagree, just look at it! It's sitting on its legs! Perfectly normal!

 But what about taking the picture of the elephant itself? Well folks, this elephant, he sure was a tricky little fellow. See, what you don't realize is that this elephant...has white tusks! ...Well, okay, you may have actually realized that. But see, I didn't until I was photographing it. I just stole borrowed a bunch of stuff from my mom's room, basically. I saw an elephant and said "All the kids are into elephants these days! This will be great!" so I took the elephant, brought it to the studio, placed it down on the white paper, and then realized exactly what I said nobody had realized before I made a mention to realize it.

So I walked the tight rope of getting the white background along with the not-actually-as-white-but-still-white tusks. Step one involved positioning the elephant correctly, so that one tusk was surrounded by the dark elephant. Done! Simple! Step two? Take the picture, and tweak it in Photoshop so the tusk get a bit darker...but not too dark, you know? And thus, I achieved this happy result. Elephant Complete!

Picture #2. 

I'm not quite sure what this is. Judging by the fact that there's a $ sign on the bag, I reckon this dragon got transported back into a 1930's cartoon and just robbed a bank.

Whatever happened to this dragon, one thing is for sure. After the first photo I took of it, I was smiling like a butcher's dog. But, I still needed to pose it correctly. Get the right angle, yada yada yada. This picture...I'm not sure it's the right angle. I like everything about it...but the wing that goes behind the mouth just irks me a bit. I've asked people about it, no one has had a problem with it. They didn't mind it....but still! 

So, I'm conducting an experiment. My prediction is nobody reads this before February 3rd. So, I'm going to go into class, put this up, and see what folks say. If someone is like "Yo, what is UP with that wing in the mouth?!" I'll be like "I know! It's ridiculous!"

If everybody is silent? Well..........I'll keep it. Loose lips sink ships, you know?

The Third Picture!

This is cologne. It smells bad, since I had it sprayed on me. But it's expensive. So since it was expensive, I'd figure it would make people view me as a classy guy, which will help me at the art show in the future!

To continue with my formulaic writing style this specific post has developed, here's what went down with photographing it. The light that I was using to light everything with? See, it made everything very light. My little bottle was suddenly a very dull gray. No contrast. It was terrible. So what did I do? Well, let's just say...I "upped the blacks" ...Heh heh heh!

....But seriously, that's what I did. I upped the blacks. It really solved the problem easily.

Picture Four Time!

 

...It's so BLUE!

 

This one picture doesn't really have a good story to it. I was running low on time and needed to get some pictures taken quickly. So, I just threw it on the table and snapped a few quick pictures, then took it off. So maybe the lesson is: Don't think, just shoot!

Note: That is not a real lesson.

King Kong Bundy: FIIIIIIVE!!!!!!

 

And there it is. The grand prize. The art piece. It's colorful and saturated. It's comical. It's a white background. It's centered. It's one of MY pictures. It doesn't need an explanation. It is simply Joseph.