I have heard it said...

that Baltimore is the New Brooklyn. So Mark Supik, next door, has taken upon himself to adapt the title of Betty Smith's 1943 novel.  He is "building" a new tree in what he calls the Empty Tree Pit project. Continuing with the mid-centuy theme, ala Joe Friday you can get all the facts, right here at the Empty Tree Pit BlogSpot. I got an email from the Supiks the other day annoucing the effort, along with some encouragement to take some snaps — not like a lot of encouragement was needed. So click on the snap below to see the tree from almost every available angle. BTW, it is not clear from the snap below whether the local tree experts are ready to accept it as one of thiers.

Really cool this tree.  Apparently there are nine more segments to go.  Mark says they are all finished but he is only adding one a day.  I am off on the road for a few days so I guess it will be a lot taller when next I get to shoot it. Presumably it is going to take a wider agle lens then.

Shot with the a7r with the Canon 45 TS-E and the Canon 100 Macro.  A number of the 45 TS-E snaps are using tilt to diminish the background.

Maybe next time when that guy isn't watching

100 bowls

Off to event today for/by the woodturning Supiks.  Mark's brother Ed bought a live christmas tree in 1984 and after christmas planted it in his yard.  By 2009 the tree was 60' high, 30" around and encroaching on the house. Down it came and became the stimulus for a project by Mark to turn 100 bowls.  Mark turned some but most were turned by amatuers.  Ninety-nine bowls were on display at the Schiavonne Gallery in Highlandtown today and Mark was there to turn the last — number 100. I was there to grab some snaps. Those will get posted along the way tonite and tomorrow but... I decided to capture the bowl turning on video. Fortunately I had the 7D with me, which has an easy to understand movie button, I have no idea where it is on the 5D Mk II, should probably look that up.  I also left the tripod in the car, so this my first real attempt at at video has some shaky parts, visually shaky, the whole thing is artitically shaky. Anyway in for a dime — in for a dollar, stuck the 85 f1/2L on the front, dialed the aperture to, what else, f/1.2 of course, why pay for if you ain't going to use it. Great receipe, no experience, no support system and a razor thin DOF. Post processed with a trial version of Final Cut Pro and uploaded to a virgin Vimeo account. Don't know squat about them either.

Here we go....

Edgar checks out the harbor

So the Supik's invited me to a fund raiser for the Poe House at the Creative Alliance last night.  It was run in conjuction with the folks who brew Raven Special Lager.  Mark Supik & Co. make the Raven tap handles and one was on offer via auction.  Turns out in addition to having a great time, Edgar came home with me. This morning I decided to give him a look around from Veranda number four.  

Three shot HDR sandwich, Canon 5D Mark II, 45 2.8L TS-E, ISO 100, f/8.0, bracketed around 1/250, on the Gitzo. FWIW, beer tap handles are the same size and thread as camera tripod mount (who would have guessed) so Edgar is checking out the Baltimore scene from the top of a light stand.

Snap expected to appear shortly on the brewers web site, www.ravenbeer.com.

 

Mark Supik Co.

Got this incredible invite from my neighbors, Mark and Nancy, to visit their wood turning business. They do architectural wood work and beer taphandles, mostly for emerging breweries.  Mark started the day off with a tour, noting that only one machine in the shop was purchased new — at least one is a centagenarian. I don't have the whole scoop but in the boiler room out back is the studio of an artist who is a friend of Mark's from MICA. I spent a combined two hours in both spaces today, in what was some pretty intense heat. I had long since forgottten that a lot folks work in places that aren't air conditioned. I haven't done it since a summer job when I was 18.

So there were a lot snaps taken, both spaces are pretty dark so I bracketed a bunch of them and the processing includes some that were treated with mild HDR, some with exposure blending and some I just used the best exposed of the bunch. I started out handholding the 45 TS-E, 35 f/1.4, 135 F/2.0, 85 f/1.2 and 70-200 f/2.8 IS. I finished off in both spaces with the 45 TS-E on the tripod.  All were taken with the 5D Mk II. I had the X100 with me but I just stuck with the 5D.

I have processed about most of the snaps and there only a few more to go, there is a large number of them so, only two are posted here, one each from the shop and the boiler room studio and the rest are in galleries. Clicking on the link or the "anchor" snap will take you to the gallery. I plan to add more over the next few days as I get time to do more post processing. (In the galleries click on the first thumbnail to get a full size image — use the symbols to navigate back < and forward >.)

Mark and Nancy also own the incredible Chey truck that has made several appearances on these pages. Their web site is here.

For the shop snaps click here or the snap for the gallery.

For the boiler room studio snaps click here or the snap for the gallery.