On a sunny, windy Sunday afternoon
A mother and her two children struggle to launch their kite into the wind blowing across Hoover Reservoir Dam. My Final Photo for Sept. 22, 2013.
Gone fishing when the weather cleared
A young man readies his boat for launch at Hoover Reservoir after the weather cleared. My Final Photo for July 27, 2013.
Family fishing at Hoover Reservoir
Family plays as its father fishes along the shore at Red Banks on Hoover Reservoir
Mid-century family on Hoover Reservoir
Mother and son at docks on Hoover Reservoir is My Final Photo for May 17, 2013
Today’s photo is slightly different than most I select for My Final Photo. At least it has a different treatment.
The scene is relatively ordinary. A mother helps her family lead their boat onto the trailer at a loading dock at Hoover Reservoir.
The unusual aspect is the brightly painted aluminum 1958 Starcraft with a 1959 Johnson 7-½ Sea Horse motor. The family has owned it for several summers but often have taken to the serene waters of Hoover in a pontoon boat.
As their son get older the pleasure of a water outing is more often towards the Starcraft. Even with the lowered engine limits on the lake, the family enjoys the speed and maneuverability of this boat.
This was the boat and motor of my youth. My father, a World War II veteran who revered life after war, built two houses. on Lake Hutchinson in central Florida. The first was nothing more than a foundation, concrete floor, a pedestal of block walls and old growth pine boards more like a work shed than a weekend retreat. No matter that the walls never kept our strong rain storms or hungry mosquitos.
A hand painted sign over the door named our weekend retreat “Jan’s Juke” after my mother. The family, especially my younger brother and sister, thought it a great name. My mother took it in stride despite the somewhat sinister and illegal operations of a “Juke joint” just over the county line where alcohol could be served.
The structure was later replaced with a normal lake house with bedrooms, a bathroom, screened front porch, and running water. Running water no longer meant running down to the lake with a bucket for water. The old house became storage for our summer supplies, still with the sign over the door.
iPhone version of the mid-century family
As I studied this family returning from their excursion I remembered my youth and the joy of family on the water.
Even as I shot the photos I knew I wanted to use a Photoshop plugin and smart layers to add a retro look as a visual reminder of those times. My father was an avid photographer shooting Kodachrome for the important moments so I ran the photo through onOne Perfect Effects for the grungy slide look and added a contrasty, warm color lookup table for the final color.
Another day watching the light
Soccer practice fields at Hoover Dam – My Final Photo for April 25, 2013
A steady flow of runners, walkers, athletes, bikers, and small kids led their parents on a trek across the dam at Hoover Reservoir while I waited for the afternoon clouds to part for just a few minutes at the right time.
Ten frame multiple exposure
There were many other photos to shoot while waiting for soccer practice to begin with the hope the clouds would then separate throwing a rim light across the freshly green trees and active youth on the fields beneath the dam.
The photo trek, on my bike, included a brief trip off the dam but most of the time for about two hours was traveling end-to-end on the dirt, asphalt, concrete, and steel span observing early shafts of light and the people and places it illuminated. Or failed to illuminate as often one end of the dam would be in shadow and the other in full sunlight making me wish I’d the ability to float over the scene to show the natural variety of light in such a small space.
Recumbent bike with slow shutter speed
Even later as the clouds began to thin and light more often fell across the plain below the dam I’d have to scamper to the shelter to get out of a brisk rain shower preceding the brightness.
The wait allowed, or forced, me to try a variety of techniques to shoot a unique photo from the dam. I’ve been there many times and am always looking for something even slightly different from before.
The soccer fields are a previous subject although I’d not shot them with the trees so early in their spring growth.
I used my D300 on the multiple exposure setting for a faux blurred motion photo of the water below the dam and the clouds above. Without a tripod I jammed the camera against a concrete post and a galvanized steel railing to keep it from moving between exposures.
The blurred recumbent bicycle is standard slow shutter speed choice.
There were more bikes, silhouettes from inside the shelter on the eastern end of the dam, overheads of people running along the roadway, more blurred action of cyclists and joggers, and a fisherman at the end of the day.
Not bad for two hours of bad weather.
