Road for wagons ????

While in Kansas several weeks ago I noticed a strange "formation" for lack of a better explanation.
There was a raised "road" of sorts running through the plains. It was in the West side of the highway and obviously hadn't been traveled on for decades. It was still there though sticking out for all to see. Trees had sprouted on the North and South sides of it and it ran until it was out of sight. I wish I could hear the stories it could tell from the beginning. It would surely be the true history of settling the area.

Once again, click on the image and it will enlarge.

Carterville again.....

Browsing through the Carterville shoot I found a visual statement that may reflect the image of many small towns. This is obviously a second hand store/thrift shop/flea market. Many of the small towns are feeling the loss of jobs, anchor businesses, and old long standing businesses are passing on to greener pastures or just failing entirely. It's sad from the standpoint that the quality of life in the small towns is generally good with neighbors knowing neighbors, and several moms looking after the "kids in the neighborhood. But the jobs that sustained these people have either disappeared or moved to a larger population area. The hit that Carthage took when WalMart came was almost devastating to the Carthage square. The stores I grew up with, Western Auto, Otasco, Scotts, Kresge, Millers Clothing, The Fox and Roxy theaters, Lees and Doc Bakers News, The Hobby Shop, Killingsworth and VanPerks Ladies shops, Edmonsons, Belks, The C&W Cafe, College and The Carthage Pharmacies, Bank of Carthage, Central National Bank, Charles Cook Attorney, Murray Duncan Drug, and several other business have vanished. The square has some businesses, a few are doing well but the complexion of the economy has drastically changed. It seems as though opportunities exist in the town but it will take a true effort to revive it to it's past business activity.

Looking at this images I'm captured by the expanded view of the surroundings both inside and outside the storefront. The street is almost vacant but there is still the hope of potential business with the lighted OPEN sign. Click on the image and it will enlarge....

7,000 views so far this month...approaching 50,000 !

Obviously adding new images to my blog is a game changer. The more I add, the more views I get.
Should seem pretty obvious but I haven't thought much about the relationship of that until just recently. As I have said many times....I'm not a rocket scientist.....

I'll get some more images today and hopefully have them posted by tomorrow.
Thanks for looking ......by the weekend I could be over 50,000 views. I'll keep you posted.

How the past finds us....

As many of you may know I originally started college as a printmaking and drawing major. That went well until I took my first photography course at SMS, for no credit, something that I had always wondered about since seeing the movie Blow Up. That in it's self is a long story but the magic of seeing the print develop in the trays hooked me from the first time. The magic still continues almost 48 years later.

I got a note from Susan Fix Griffiths, a neighbor of ours growing up in Carthage, and whose family I became good friends with. She was working at the Powers Museum in Carthage and came across a drawing I had done when I was 18. I remember drawing it and it is a part of history now because it is no longer there. Morrow Mill was a fishing area, swimming hole, and relic of past times in Carthage.
I am very appreciative of Susan dropping me the note. I had no idea where it was. This is the drawing.

Morrow Mill-1968

Carterville revisited...

Growing up in the Cultural Mecca, as a teenager at 16, I used to go to the Webb City pool hall and shoot pool with my friends. We would go over on old 66 , aka Route 66, and really never thought much of it. As I was growing up I remember occasionally listening to a grab and gab talk show on a local radio show from KDMO. It was broadcast from the Boots restaurant which was just south of what they called, "The Crossroads of America." the intersection of U.S. 66 and U.S. 71. It was hosted by Lee Crocker and George Kolpin. They would interview people traveling through while they were grabbing a bite to eat. Being on the Radio was a really big deal then and they had no trouble getting takers for the interviews. For all practical matters the Mecca was not only the center of the United States then, but also for most Carthagenians was the Center of the Universe. But there wasn't a pool hall we could get into. That necessitated the trip to Webb City.

Between the Mecca and Webb was Carterville. It was inhabited by miners and their families and at one time was pretty prosperous. Way before I arrived however. In the 60's the loss of mining employment was getting to the economy and what was there was soon to be gone. Now it is more or less a narrowing wide spot in the road, a nest of memories. I stopped through there this last weekend and copped a couple of shots. The terrain has changed, the chat piles we used to play on are gone and there is no traffic. There were a couple of shots I should have taken but I didn't. Maybe next time.
Click on the image and it will appear larger on your screen.

More images from Burlington...

As I said yesterday I would add a couple of more images from last weekends shoot. So...here they are.

It may be a guy thing but rusty cars with historical logos really are a draw for me.

Be sure to click on the images so they will get bigger. A really fun shoot and great material for my new book.

I hit the gold mine of images.......

We had a road trip that took us just south of Topeka Kansas this last weekend and on the way we passed through Burlington Kansas. I made a note to remember it on the way back so we stopped. Absolutely more than I would have ever imagined image wise. Hog Heaven. This is one of the images. They will be in my next book that I am starting soon. The light was right everything worked. I hope you like them. I will be starting an internet store soon so prints will be available.

The light was right the subject perfect....I'll add more tomorrow. A great day to shoot.

Our Family Portrait

This last weekend my wifes' relatives got together and I mentioned that I would post the image of everyone on my blog so they could get copies.  Here it is gang ! Great to see and meet you all.
Mike and Karen.

The key to getting a good file to download and make a print from is to click on the picture with your mouse and it will get larger. Then holding the button down on your mouse, click on the enlarged picture and drag it to your desktop. If you want  to make a print at your photo provider place a blank CD or DVD into your slot for the CD or DVD on your computer. Once you see an icon image for the CD/DVD drag the photograph on your desktop to the icon and it should start burning the image on to the disk. Then take the disk to your provider.

Shop Vida

I got a note the other day from Vida, a ladies clothing manufacturer, that they had seen my blog and were wondering if I would be interested in designing for their broad array of ladies clothing using my images. Well obviously there was only one answer that I could give so..........the process has begun.

It is rather different because each article of clothing has a necessary pixel count that must be hit for the garment to have a solid enough image to be printed on it. A tote bag has one size while a wrap has to have a much large file. Suddenly I am glad that my Nikon delivers a 36 megapixel file. I have completed several pieces and really am happy with the look. The problem I'm encountering now is duh................uploading my signature to them for the label to be put on the clothing. It will be the Michael S. Morgan line.......imagine that. The rest of today will be taken adding designs for the look on different items. I'll keep you posted.

Well ....

Quick post !!! Passed 43,000 views.............more relevant news tomorrow.

Amazing .....

I have passed 42,000 views and rapidly moving to 43,000..............we could pass that today.
I have been particularly busy the last two weeks. I didn't get in last night until 10:30 primarily due to a drive from an assignment that started about 5:00. It was fun and I did a good job of it. Today is a paperwork day consisting of billing and processing images. This is the time an account never see's. I really don't miss wedding photography for that reason. Many "photographers" will approach a wedding with the idea in mind that numbers count. They couldn't be further from the truth. When I shot weddings it was really like the choreography of a ballet. There was a set plan and order to the shooting mainly set to the 'music" of the wedding. This is not to say that the schedule didn't have to be altered on occasion but it gave me time with the wedding party in planned segments that allowed me to produce a complete album with the images that were most important. Granted there were a few candids throughout the album, but I rarely shot more than 300 images. This is even a bit over the line as a reality check due to the time in editing and manipulating the images. When I hear of photographers shooting thousands of images all I can think of is the time wasted in editing, and the poor wedding party members that have to spend hours looking at images that are probably just snapshots that Aunt Milly could have taken.

This week looks great as far as my scheduling goes...I'll keep you posted and thanks for being a reader.