Saturday was the last big sale day for my favorite local comic shop. Leonard, the owner, is retiring as of Labor Day.
The good news, however, is that he may have found a buyer for the place. They have to get things worked out with the bank, but otherwise it’s a go.
That’s my friend Jon Hart in the background, there, digging through the alternative titles. I’m mainly a Spidey and X-Men guy, myself.
I have this list of things I want to stop and photograph on my way into work. Concord, Mich. has quite a few little things like this sign that are on my list.
This month-long project is the perfect excuse to pull over, grab the camera, and check one off the list.
I’ve watched these weeds envelop this sign all summer long. Now I got it.
A brick wall I pass every day on my commute to and from work, in Concord, Mich.
Love that, even after it’s been hacked, it hasn’t been fixed.
This time of year is both happy and sad. Happy because, hey, it’s still technically summer.
But it’s sad because it’s the Sunday of summer – the last little bit before fall starts creeping in. Nothing says this more than harvest time, especially this cool summer in Michigan that feels like half-fall anyway.
Fall is a lot of people’s favorite season, but not mine. The crops, though. Man, I’ll take those all autumn long.
Michigan is known mainly for its cherries, apples, and blueberries, but we’re lucky in that a lot of crops grow well here. Peaches, melons, corn.
“You can tell it’s a Michigan [insert crop here],” my family used to say. “They don’t grow these like they do in Michigan.”
I’m not positive that’s true. But I do know that everything tastes pretty darned good this time of year.
Never realized this rope was tied around my dying apple tree in the backyard. Hm.
Also, this one was edited in Aperture for old time’s sake. Do most of my editing/culling in Lightroom, and export to Aperture for management.
Lots of abandoned goodness in Albion, Mich. Took a little drive Friday afternoon during lunch and spotted a row of buildings that looked like they used to be thriving businesses.
But no longer.
It’s county fair time here in Jackson County.
Despite some thunderstorms, the fair went on – muggy, sticky, and steamy.
For a horse, that means bath time, obviously.
This is the stuff nightmares are made of.
Bald-faced hornet nest. Huge. Hanging.
To keep a safe distance, I stuck with the EF 85mm f/1.8 for this one.
Found in a random spot in the outside wall of an abandoned church in Albion, Mich.
Early- to mid-June is raspberry season in Michigan. Everyone knows that.
But I didn’t know that blackberries ripen in late July. And there they were. Smaller than the kind you usually buy in the store, and not quite as sweet. Finding a bush full of free ones, though, was all right.
My grandmother’s house growing up had one of every kind of berry: red, white, and black raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and grapes. Diving into the pricker bushes was so worth it, just to get at those suckers.
It took a while, but this year’s garden crop is finally starting to produce.
The plentiful rain, the sunshine – a totally different than the hot and dry weather we had last year here in Michigan.
Tomatoes, squash, green beans, zucchini. All the usuals. This year’s new edition is cucumbers. I’m not a huge fan, but it’s fun to grow something new.
Nice to see my vegetable budget pretty much disappear during these months, too.
I pass almost nothing but farmland on the way into work. Vast soybean and corn fields.
Not sure exactly what this machine does, but it looks like it’s waiting for something.
Really, I liked the colors of this scene on my way into work Friday morning. Stop in the middle of the road, check behind me for approaching cars, snap the photo, and drive on.
Bingo.
Today’s photo was a quick one – I hadn’t pulled out of the driveway for my morning commute when I saw the sun reflecting (as it so often does) on my front lawn grass.
There are lots of pretty views on my way into work each morning. Usually the sun is rising over some mist-covered field, or the sky is painted with dawn colors. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day, my morning drive.
It’s getting to that time of year where the sun wakes up a little later each day, so by September the mornings will be perfect. Just perfect.
Sure, the big stuff in Detroit is great. The bridges, the Renaissance Center, the athletic fields, the Fox Theatre.
But so is the stuff in the alleyways between those great monuments. Everything is tagged. Right down to the dumpsters.
There’s not a surface that doesn’t have spray paint on it: from billboards to the stands that hold them.
This Friday, I started the photo-a-day challenge from the guys at On Taking Pictures.
One photo. Each day. For at least a month.
This shot, from Woodward Ave in Detroit, isn’t the first. But it’s the first one I’ll share, along with some catch up from this weekend.
I’m in Detroit for some Google Adwords training, and spent my time after the seminar to do a little photo walk around downtown – something I’ve been meaning to for ages. And with the unseasonably cool temperatures here in Michigan this week, it made for a nice walk.
On the project: Taking a photo every day shouldn’t be too hard for me, usually. Usually I have my iPhone on-hand to grab an Instagram shot while I’m out and about.
What will be hard is taking some time and putting some thought into each shot. If I grab a bunch of photos, like I did tonight, which one will I share? What will I do if I’m not somewhere fun like Detroit?
The way I see it, this project will give me a perfect chance to play with my newest toy: the fire-sale’d Canon EOS M (only wish they hadn’t discontinued the white model!) with the 22mm f/2 lens. So far, so good, as you can see above.
It’ll also give me an opportunity to flex some creative photography muscles. Maybe try some different things.
When I get a chance, I’ll also share the photos on Google+ – and to the OTP Community.
Here goes nothin’.
I’ll say this about my photography hobby: it’s taught me to see the light.
Not just see it. See It.
I’m lucky in that, around my house, the light hits the main rooms in a lovely way, morning and sundown. The front and back yards, too. Just gorgeous light comes pouring in during sunrise and sunset. It doesn’t matter the season either. The Light is there.
A summer garden has been a tradition for me since 2010 – even before I had my very own garden.
While this year’s has had a bit of a late start, it’s going much stronger than last year. More rain. Plenty of sun. A bit of tending.
Here come the tomatoes.
Head to downtown Jackson on the last Friday nights during the summer, and you’ll find Cruise Night.
And at Cruise Night, you’ll find some interesting characters who may or may not normally walk down the middle of Michigan Ave.
I remember first walking into Nostalgia, Ink. at 10 years old and feeling like I was discovering a whole new world.
Up to then, collecting comics was a catch-as-catch-can operation. I’d find a few titles at book stores, or at the pharmacy, and once in a while I’d see a classified ad of someone selling their collection.
But a whole store? Devoted to comics? Heaven.
From that time on, I’ve had an on-again, off-again comic habit. In the early days, I’d bike down West Washington Ave. in Jackson by myself once a month to get the latest issues. As an adult, I’d drive to the shop on Wednesdays to get the newest editions.
Then the editors of Amazing Spider-Man would piss me off with their latest bad idea, and I’d quit buying for a year or two. A habit’s a habit, however, and I’d always make my way back.
So a month ago I get my usual Superior Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men issues, and I notice a flyer on the counter: Leonard’s going out of business. He’s retiring.
I nearly cried.
I’ve been coming here since I was a kid. Through the comic bubble of the early ‘90s, through a Magic: The Gathering card collection, and now into adulthood.
Not for long.
Until Labor Day, everything’s on sale at increasingly-discounted rates. Back issues, books, everything.
Leonard says it’s time to retire. He’s been looking for a buyer, for a way out after almost 30 years. No one (as of yet) has come forward to take the business over. But there are a few things in the works.
For now, he wants to unload everything. Clear out the inventory.
And what an inventory. Miles and miles of long boxes. Bagged and boarded. Organized, roughly.
Not just comics, either. If you were into D&D, or Magic, or – hell – old issues of Playboy, Nostalgia was your place. Toys, shirts, posters, cards. Everything.
Hunting for the thing you wanted was half the fun. If Leonard didn’t have it, he could order it.
Lots of good memories in this place. Maybe someone will swoop in and help spirit Leonard away to retirement properly. Until then, we’ll help him clear out that inventory.
All the best, Leonard.
– – – –
View the full set on Flickr.
Read MLive’s coverage of the store’s closing.
(All color images edited with VSCO Film. Photos created with a rented Fuji X100. Many thanks to Leonard for allowing me all-access to the store.)
A series of Instagram shots posted over the last few days, called “Cloud Atlas.”
It’s amazing what can happen when (a) the weather rolls in just right and (b) luck and timing line up for photo opportunities like this.
I created each image using the fabulous new Mextures app, which I’m really excited about – especially with landscape stuff, and running them through VSCO Cam.
The world of mobile photography is exciting, especially lately.
My little wooden Buddha has the best spot in the house, in terms of keeping an eye on me. He rests right above my TV, facing the couch, in the living room.
And it’s a good thing, too, because I trust his insight.
Or my insight, as it were. Because my little wooden Buddha reminds me to develop that insight through an on-again, off-again meditation practice I’ve tried to keep up with since 2006.
When I am practicing, I find it helpful. I can relax, concentrate, and unspool the tangled wires in my mind. But finding the time, as with anything, is hard. And even when I think I’m starting the habit again, it doesn’t take long for me to fall out of practice.
I often share the National Geographic story that helped me tinker with meditation as a way of life. I figured, if a Buddhist monk was, on paper, the happiest person alive because of meditation, surely it’s worth a try.
There’s also something about a philosophy/religion that tackles attachment and confronts desires that appealed to me. It still does.
So my little wooden Buddha sits up there, eyes closed, palm in palm, waiting for me to sit my butt on a cushion and close my eyes for 10, 15, or 20 minutes. And breathe.
I picked him up in a little gift shop on State St. in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2005 – when the idea of some sort of meditation practiced first took hold. Now, all these years later, he’s still sitting there calmly, waiting for me to begin again.
What can be said about the iPhone that hasn’t already been said?
Personally: I (gladly) waited for the second one. I love having a camera with me at all times. I sync it every night.
It’s my everything. My muse. My camera. My window to the world. My mobile fact checker. My jukebox. My communicator.
I’ve broken it. Dropped it. Had to replace it. Upgraded it. Traveled with it. Did my work on it. Everything.
I waited a long time between the 3G and the 4S models, and in a lot of ways that worked out well. Now I think I’ll stick to the “S” updates: the good made better. The beautiful, revised.
And when the new one comes out, I’ll get that one, too. Gladly. What else would I do?
// VSCO Kodak T-MAX 3200+ (switched to color mode)
