Cape Girardeau History and Photos

January 8, 2013

Photo Accidents Happen

Wife Lila took over what had been a gardening blog from Son Matt. She does a really good job with her Canon point-‘n’-shoot camera and her cellphone camera, but today she came in to say she couldn’t quite get the photo she wanted of some poinsettias growing in the corner of our yard.

I handed her my Nikon D3100 camera with a Hoya polarizing filter on it and explained how to rotate the filter to kill the reflections on the leaves to make the colors more vivid. I also showed her where to adjust the exposure, explaining that most of my photos are usually underexposed anywhere from 1/3 stop to as much as 3 or 4 f/stops from what the camera wants to set automatically.

She came back saying that the pictures still weren’t right.

I forgot to change the color balance

She was correct about that. I usually leave the white balance set on AUTO, but I had been shooting under tungsten light and had moved it. That gave the photo a blue cast in sunlight.

On second glance, though I LIKED this shot. I played a little with the levels and contrast to produce a photo that isn’t the literal representation she wanted, but is still striking. It really didn’t take much tweaking. That’s pretty much how it looked coming out of the camera. Click on it to make it larger.

You’ll have to wait until she gets around to writing about her poinsettias to see the real thing.

January 7, 2013

Jackson High School 1964

There were photos of a cheerleader clinic (more about that on another day), football practice and this frame in a sleeve marked 1964. The cheerleader shots ran in the Sept. 2, 1964, Advance Advocate and the September 4 Jackson Pioneer, so these must have been shot at the end of the summer or at the start of school.

I guess I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to document a moment of smalltown wholesomeness on the front steps of Jackson High School. Wife Lila said those white shoes were “costume de rigueur” for our era. I guess I didn’t pay much attention to shoes ’cause I didn’t even notice them.

I hope players were sharper than their pictures.

Shooting night football had all kinds of difficulties, but I can’t explain why most of the these afternoon football practice shots are, to put it kindly, unsharp.

Other Jackson High School photos

Football practice gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

January 6, 2013June 23, 2015

71 Years ago

I make it a point to call Mother every Sunday night at 7:30. Now that I’m retired, I have a hard time keeping track of the days of the week, let alone the time, so I have an alarm set in my cellphone to remind me that it’s Sunday. When I made the call this week, Mother casually mentioned that Monday would mark 71 years since she and Dad got married in Advance.

I remember her saying that she and Dad had gone to a movie. When they got out, my grandfather, Roy Welch, told them that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. “If you kids are planning to get married, you’d better do it right away.”

Florida honeymoon

A month later, they were married and on their way to Florida for a honeymoon.

Dad was luckier than many men his age. He was working for a contractor who won defense contracts to build airfields and other essential projects, so he was deferred from the draft.

One of my favorite photos

This photo was part of a series I didn’t remember shooting. It’s one of my favorite shots of the two of them in our back yard in 1970. It’s obvious that they weathered well as a couple. I wrote about discovering the series just about this time last year.

You expect your parents to be there forever. When I shot this, none of us dreamed that Dad would be with us only another seven years. I guess that’s only partially true. He’ll live on forever in our memories.

Photo gallery of honeymoon

Here are some additional shots of the honeymoon from 71 years ago. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

January 6, 2013January 6, 2013

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Looks like these boys could have used some more coaching about keeping their eyes on the ball. The sleeve says they were taken in 1965. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

My rookie mistake

I shouldn’t fault the boys: I made my own rookie mistake. I don’t know what I thinking when I framed the shots as verticals instead of horizontals. The action was moving ACROSS the frame, not up and down.

Brush back and zip down

He leaned back away from that pitch so far his pants unzipped.

Look how white those shoes are

Here’s a boy who is just dying to slide into second to get those whites a little dirty.

I wonder if any of these boys were in this picture the next year? It looks like the same field at Capaha Park.