Friday, October 24, 2014

Des Plaines River Dam


I decided to check out the Des Plaines River today and found these two anglers wading in the river.  Image was taken with a Nikon D300 camera and Sigma 24-105mm f4.0 Art Series lens.  Image processed with Photomatix HDR software and enhanced in Photoshop CC.

Fall colors were seen as I walked back to my car...

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Possible Blacklock 8 Skillet - 1896-1910






Back in 1896, Joseph Lodge assisted his minister friend to open Blacklock Foundry.  While Lodge was not actively involved in the company in the beginning years of the company, he later helped out when the company was struggling.

In 1910, the Blacklock company burned to the ground, so Lodge later opened his own company just a few blocks away and called it Lodge Cast Iron Company.  Today, Lodge is the one of the only American companies still manufacturing cast iron skillets.  A new company called Finex has recently started making cast iron skillets as well, but Lodge is the oldest American company doing so.

This is the oldest skillet I currently own.  Based on the years of manufacturing, this makes the skillet anywhere from 104 to 118 years old as of the year 2014!

These are called "Possible Blacklock" skillets since very little is known about the company and its products since all their records burned up with the fire.  But based on similarities with Lodge skillets in its time period, we can assume that these cast iron skillets were from Blacklock.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Griswold #5


Griswold #5 - Large Logo - manufactured from 1920-1940.

Image taken with a Nikon D4s and Nikon 24-70mm f2.8.  1/320 sec, f9.0, ISO 100.  Three Alien Bees B400 studio flashes.

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Blood Moon - Oct 8, 2014 at 5:28 AM


Blood Moon - 10/08/14 at 5:28 AM

This image was taken with my Sigma 24-105mm f4.0 DG Art Series lens on a Nikon Df full frame camera. Not as sharp as it could have been, but better than getting nothing at all. My Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRII lens was at the school, so I had to use what was available.

Image was shot on Manual mode, ISO 200, F4.0, 2 seconds. Camera was mounted on a tripod.

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Diet Update: Down 40 lbs in 13.5 Weeks

My diet goal for 2014 was 50 lbs of loss by the end of the year.  I started my diet on July 5.

So in just 13.5 weeks, I've now lost 40 lbs.  I find that I'm losing about 2 lbs per weeks now.  Based on this, I estimate I should drop to my 50 lb goal by Thanksgiving.