Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: ladder

Another older picture. Decided we needed to inject some color into my recently-grey photo stream.

Another Martin Sernstinger photo of my father, Roger Dinda, in Engine 16 of the Kalamazoo Fire Department. This time Dad's actually driving it. 1955 or thereabouts. That's the Kalamazoo State Theater in the background. Still standing; just as wonderful today as it was new, in the late 20s. It's grown kinda raggedy, though.

I didn't know, when I started this project, that it would develop into a two year commitment--one to take the photographs, and a second to try to explain them. The building's the local Masonic temple, which is a rather ugly structure wrapped in tin siding. It sits on the edge of Mulliken's downtown park and presents park visitors with a large and forbidding wall, broken only by a door, a single window, and this fire escape. I'd decided months before that the escape would be the last 366 Snaps photo subject. So a year ago I headed downtown to find a couple dozen photos from a variety of angles. Please take note of the ice.... ========== A Photo a Day: advice * Set some simple rules. Just getting out there to take a photograph is hard, some days. Adding a layer of complexity is unwise. * Take photos early in the day. You may well take/post a better photograph later in the day, but at least you'll have something to work with if the day heads south. * Budget time. Between taking the photographs and processing them I usually spent 45 to 90 minutes each day on 366 Snaps . Some days were quicker, of course; some were slow. * Create sub-projects. These give you fallbacks for the dull days. * Scout out locations. Every day. These give you fallbacks for the dull days. * Experiment. Be creative. This goes without saying. But it means different things to different photographers. * Boredom is the enemy. Shoot anyway. * Busy-ness is the enemy. Shoot anyway. * If you miss a day, keep shooting anyway. This isn't a test, it's a project. * The last month is hard. Everyone I've followed during a daily shoot project reports this. I'm confirming it. * Some days you won't be happy with your daily photo. Those days you need to just go with what you've got. And learn from the mistake. ========== Would I do it again? Yeah. With even fewer rules. But not starting tomorrow. I've got some non-photographic projects I've been neglecting. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 24 Title of " roll :" Fire Escape Other photos taken on 12/31/2012: I spent much of the day playing with a lens adapter--attaching various Minolta lenses to my Nikon D300. The results were interesting, but in the end I concluded it wasn't a gain as my Minolta lens kit's much like my Nikon lens kit.

This is the best of many pix of these tools I shot last year. When I posted a similar photo to 366 Snaps , one of my cousins (on Facebook) mocked the snow shovel collection.... ========== A year ago I shot 90 pretty much random pics in the house, the garage, and the yard. Most were pretty arty, and many had lighting issues, but I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish. May not have known then, either. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 90 Title of " roll :" Around the House & Yard Other photos taken on 7/11/2012: none.

Mulliken's founding story-- I sketched it in yesterday's commentary --includes a claim that the Masonic Temple was moved to our town from Hoytville. These days the temple's an unattractive, nearly windowless hulk that's downtown's largest building. But I find its fire escape a tempting photographic target, and you'll see it again in the project outtakes. Eventually I just decided the escape would be the last 366 Snaps photo . And so it was. ========== Last March 8's photos were all shot from Mulliken's downtown park. It's an interesting set, as I was playing with depth of focus, framing, and camera angles using a really capable camera/lens combination. A couple ideas would eventually find their way into the daily project, but most were failures. In the end, I went with a novelty shot of the signs in the recycling center. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 12 Title of " roll :" Downtown Mulliken Other photos taken on 3/8/2012: none. ========== Source: I first learned about the Masonic Temple's evident migration from Hoytville while reading a story about Roxand Township in the October 8, 1991, Lansing State Journal . I'm skeptical. A friend who grew up north of town tells me that before they wrapped the temple in aluminum it was an attractive place. I believe her.