This was a John Huston directed movie with a who’s who of Hollywood :  Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter.  The screenplay was by Arthur Miller who was at the time married to Monroe.  At the time (1961) it was NOT a commercial success  but has come into it’s own recently.  

The producers wanted two Magnum photographers to shoot the stills so out of NYC came Henri Cartier Bresson and Inge Morath.  The drove together out from NY to Reno, NV.  This road trip is the basis of the book “The Road to Reno” by Morath.  It is interesting that Morath and Miller eventually married.

Monroe

Monroe and Miller

From ‘The road to Reno’

Movie Poster

Seen at the Finney County ( Garden City, KS) Museum

Near Montezuma, KS is this huge wind farm.  Western KS is all about their wind so why not put it to good use?

Occasionally when I buy a used book I get something extra.  This time it was an interesting postcard used as a book mark.  The book is “The Road to Reno” by Inge Morath

I haven’t gone thru it yet but it’s about Inge Morath’s trip to Reno, NV to shoot stills on the movie “The Misfits” with Marilyn Monroe.  In the middle of the book was this

Being that I’m an Airstream person this had some interest for me.

Today we lost a really good person in Robert Carter Arnest. He passed away in his sleep in Iowa where had moved to be closer to his son and grandchildren. He always had a sly sense humor, prodding me to cure him of his neurological disease. Always one to tell us the latest restaurants or coffee shops to visit. His circle of friends was large wherever he was. I will truly miss this kind soul. 

Yes my friends what you are looking at is said to be the largest hairball known to man.  Who am I to dispute this claim?  Mine is to simply go , look and glory at this thing.  It is housed in the Finney County ( Garden City, KS) Museum

Just a Saturday drive.  First out to Jetmore, Kansas.  Never actually made it to the town but got some photos.

Cows just wanna have fun!

Then it was onto Montezuma, Kansas

Here I went to lunch at Briana’s which was very good Mexican food.   My ultimate destination was to visit a friend who does amazing scale modeling.

My friends and his wife

One of his homes

The 4 ft model of the Ark

Here he is with a model rocket ready to launch

Spent last nite in Ulysses, Kansas for a hospital meet and greet.  Before the get together I visited the park across the street

With the purchase of the Cadillac ATS-V I was given a two day High Performance Driver course at Spring Mountain Motorsport Club in Pahrump, Nevada.

Scenery up to Pahrump

The Motorsport Club is a country club centered around motorsports rather than golf.  Condo’s , clubhouse, spa, swimming pool and then of course the track.

With a great staff we had equal parts chalk talk with being the track.  We had skid pad practice along with running the track noted above.  2nd day was rainy but this was great to learn which mode to select and experience slip and what to do to correct it if the stability software leaves you hanging.

Spent the last nite in Vegas it self.  I am not a fan of Vegas.  Vegas is like a friend that keeps borrowing money but never pays you back - eventually you realize they were never your friend.  Everything has a price in Lost Wages.

Love Leaving Vegas

Arbus had disc surgery last week and is now home for rehab.  He’s snuck out his cage to greet people and to go outside so we know he’s doing better.  He still need supervision.

by Frank Gohlke

I discovered that I’m not the only one interested in photographing Grain Elevators.  The above is from noted landscape photographer, Frank Gohlke. I’m not comparing my stuff to his in any way but to make the point that they can be photographed and made into and interesting and dare I say even an arresting picture as his clearly is.

by e. nitka

In conjunction with the publishing of my book In Plain Site is this video.

Duke popped a disc in his back. We didn’t know it was this serious until he had trouble using his back legs.  After much agonizing about the cost to do and MRI and fix the disc we decided to go forward.  We could have done conservative treatment and hoped he would recover but the odds aren’t as good as just doing the surgery.  I dipped into my retirement account to pay for this, so my kids thru their inheritance have contributed to this effort - thanks guys!

Have a look at the unofficial picture book of the Caravan that we took to Kentucky.  This is not sanctioned but represents photos that I really liked.  

I was able to convince some people that I am a photographer. As consequence I will be sending a photo to be exhibited at Colorado Mesa University.  I feel like I’ve already won just by being selected.  Now the challenge of getting it sold to someone.  Because I spend a fair amount of money framing I need to recoup the cost in the price.  This is not an easy task.  

Mr. Personality

I was able to partake in the Magnum Square Print sale where 6 x 6 square prints of some of their iconic photographers are for sale.  I purchased a Mary Ellen Marks photo. I had it framed at Metro Frame Works.  It came out wonderfully thanks to the folks at MFW. 

Mary Ellen Marks was an amazing photographer who unfortunately left us in 2015.  I would recommend folks to spend a bit of time looking at her work and getting to know  her name.  You will not be disappointed.

What started off in Kickstarter is now a movie about street photography and now it’s on Youtube.  It’s well done and features both old and new practitioner’s of this art.  It is centered in NY City but this is only natural as this is where it all really started.  It was never solely confined to NYC but if you want to see and talk to those that were in the first wave of this art form this is were you go.

An amazing 16K video from Prairie Pictues - here’s what they say about their film:

Imagine standing on a grassy hill overlooking the prairie in western Nebraska. It’s early summer and you are surrounded by yellow fields of Goldenrod, and whipped by a warm wind from the east. A storm approaches from the west. It’s getting bigger and darker. Soon, the sky above you is filled with swirling black clouds and you are lifted upward, light as a feather, tossed by the storm.

I’m fortunate to have grown up on the Great Plains of America where I can touch the sky often. A storm there can transform you. It’s a conduit to God, an interaction with Wakinyan, the Lakota thunder spirit. While you are part of the storm, the bonds of earth are lifted, and you are free.

Finding new ways to convey this experience to others is important to me. In early 2018, I embarked on a mission to capture storms on the highest resolution motion picture format I could reasonably acquire, which for me was 16K (15,985 x 5792 pixels). It didn’t actually exist, so I had to create it. After much testing, I decided on using two 50MP cameras fixed to a custom-made calibrated mount. It was a daunting task, but I was able to make it work.

When you watch this short film, you will see just one, large, beautiful picture. But, you are actually watching two carefully stitched images. If you swear it’s just one image, then I have succeeded.

Please like, share and comment if you enjoy the film.

The score was composed for me by the talented Benjamin Botkin. Check out Ben’s music at benbotkin.com

The lovely Tricia Brioux performs the voice of Mother Nature. You can find Tricia at triciasvoice.com

The words are by the naturalist John Muir, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

A portion of the film’s 16K footage can be licensed exclusively through StormStock, stormstock.com

If you love amazing storms and want to see them up close, book a storm chasing expedition with my company Tempest Tours, tempesttours.com

Martin Lisius
Director/DP
prairiepictures.com

Format: 16K (15,985 x 5792) 2.76 “Panavision 70” utilizing two Canon 5DS EOS 50MP cameras. On-line: 8K UHD 2.39 (7680 x 3213) Rec. 2020.

Director’s notes: Shooting “Prairie Wind” required 4 months shooting 16K, and 3 months processing the clips. I drove 8,000 miles across six Great Plains states from March through July, 2018. Most were 16 hour work days. The project was time consuming with a cumbersome workflow. It required lots of hands-on, and many hours of computer processing. There are approximately 6100 stitched 16K images in the finished film. We used two external fans to keep our 8-core Mac Desktop Pro workstation from melting. Only prime lenses were utilized, so the zooms you see are all digital. Each shot required two days to stitch, color, and render, if there were no alignment issues. Making this short film taught me Jedi-like patience. Despite all the challenges and time, the final results are quite amazing. Hope you enjoy it!

Download and sample some of the 16K images used in “Prairie Wind” we.tl/t-lSKE8dVRP6

GEAR:

(2) Canon EOS 5DS Cameras (A reliable, rugged workhorse that shoots beautiful pictures). amzn.to/2PNaLI1

(2) Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art Lenses for Canon EF (Crazy sharp and bright lens). amzn.to/2FcBlGf

(2) Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM Lenses amzn.to/2RKrZ69

SanDisk Extreme CF data cards amzn.to/2JOoYio

Vello Remote for Canon 3-pin amzn.to/2D97jAO

Sirui BCH-30 fluidhead amzn.to/2DuHJY0

Kessler QR Plates (Used on all of our support gear). amzn.to/2RDxJyk

Giottos Rocket Blaster Dust-Removal Tool (The most used piece of gear in our office). amzn.to/2PO9vV1

Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Filters amzn.to/2RGktck

CineRanch CineGrip, figured maple (A beautiful, ergonomic grip like no other). Designed, manufactured and sold exclusively by Prairie Pictures in limited quantities. prairiepictures.com/contact/

Technicolor CineStyle Profile technicolor.com/cinestyle

Canon Professional Services membership (Highly recommended). cps.usa.canon.com/about_cps/about.shtml

Apple Mac Desktop Pro (Hats off to our Mac for getting the job done). amzn.to/2JOrMvP

Apple Final Cut Pro amzn.to/2AUHTFe

Promise Technology RAIDs amzn.to/2DuniKA

Dell 4K Monitor amzn.to/2JPID1f
Digital Anarchy Flicker Free digitalanarchy.com

Divergent Media EditReady (Our video compression Swiss Army knife). divergentmedia.com/editready

Baron Weather Mobile ThreatNet (Reliable weather radar that works everywhere). baronthreatnet.com (Ask for Cliff).

Fujitsu Lifebook Convertible Tablet/Laptop PC amzn.to/2JMYIou

Columbia Sportswear Raincreek Falls Rain Jacket amzn.to/2JSER7G

Some of the links above are affiliate links. Your use of them will help me create new and wonderful videos at no cost to you. 

Copyright Prairie Pictures, Inc.

This is the last bit of Ferrania Film P30.  I was disappointed in this last roll because of the numerous scratches on the negatives.  I felt better when someone on a forum said that this first iteration of the film was prone to scratches.

Battle Canyon Highway 83

Highway 83

Kendall, Kansas

My first iteration of my book, In Plain Site has been sent to Blurb.com

More editing to come but at least this stakes out my territory for future editions