Whenever we go on a trip, I take a lot of pictures. Before I share any of the pictures, I post-process them – sort of like putting them through a digital darkroom – to remove flaws and adjust the saturation and contrast. It takes time, but I have been able to streamline my process somewhat.
I have just completed processing the last groups of images from the first big western trip we took after I retired in 2007. I’ve started creating videos using photos from that trip, with background music from YouTube audio swap. The first two of the series have been already posted:
Since I’ve finished with all the groups of images from the trip, the video for today is a montage of photographs from the trip; for the most part, one picture each day of our travels and explorations.
The audio track is Paul Mottram’s “Sidewalk Saunter.”
USS Razorback, SS 394, North Little Rock, Arkansas
A Balao-class submarine of the Sandlance variant, USS Razorback was built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.
Her keel was laid on 09 September 1943. Razorback was constructed in Drydock #1 at the shipyard, and she was launched, along with two sister ships USS Redfish (SS-395) and USS Ronquil (SS-396), on 27 January 1944. USS Scabbardfish (SS-397) was also launched at the shipyard that day. This was the largest single-day launch of submarines in US history.
After five WWII combat patrols and extensive service during the Cold War, on 30 November 1970, USS Razorback was decommissioned and transferred to the Turkish Navy, where she served until decommissioned on 08 August 2001. She reached her new berth in North Little Rock, 29 August 2004 at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum.
Begging Burros is a name used to refer to feral burros (asses) in Custer State Park, South Dakota. The burros are descendants of a herd that were used to carry visitors to the top of Harney Peak. When the rides were discontinued years ago, the burros were released into the park. Elk, mule deer, white tailed deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, and mountain lions also inhabit the park.
ass: (noun) 1. A hoofed mammal of the horse family with a braying call, typically smaller than a horse and with longer ears
burro: (noun) 1. The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E. africanus. In the western United States, a small donkey is sometimes called a ”burro” (from the Spanish word for the animal).
William J. Clinton Presidential Center, May 12, 2007
The Clinton service is remarkable not only for its revolutionary design but also for its significance to the history of the American presidency.
The Clinton administration coincided with the bicentennial of the White House as home to America’s first families, a role it had played since John Adams, the second president, took up residence there on November 1, 1800. To commemorate this event, and also replenish the stock of official state china for the first time in nearly two decades, President William Clinton and his wife, Hillary, commissioned Lenox to create 300 12-piece place settings in 2000.
In a dramatic departure from previous White House services, the Clinton china features a border of pale creamy yellow, instead of a bright primary color, and images of the White House facades, in place of the customary presidential seal. Each piece in the placesetting is decorated with a different pattern, the motifs derived from outstanding architectural elements found in the State Dining Room, East Room, and Diplomatic Reception Room.
Fittingly, the china was used for the first time at a dinner attended by former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George Bush, their wives, and Lady Bird Johnson, former first lady.
Just over a quarter of Nebraska is mixed grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes, referred to locally as the sandhills. It is the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere.
In 2007, we visited a relative’s ranch in the sandhills, a place of fond memories for me. The accompanying video was produced from pictures from that visit.
The Nebraska Sandhills – Lincoln City Library: “The Nebraska Sandhills are the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere. Over 50,000 square kilometers, or close to 20,000 square miles in extent (not counting some outliers), the Sandhills are fragile grasslands that are wild, sparsely settled, desolate, and beautiful in unexpected ways.”
I’ve created a short video using photographs from the civil war and mixed it with a couple of medleys of civil war music recorded almost 100 years ago. I titled it “Torn Asunder–Images from America’s Civil War.” It can be viewed in high definition by going to YouTube.com and then selecting the full screen icon in lower right corner of video (move mouse cursor over lower part of video to see icon).
Before and after:
This little project took a lot longer than the one’s I’ve created from my own photos and videos. I assembled it photo by photo as I found them in the U.S. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. Each image was “adjusted” to correct fading, remove spots and scratches, or other enhancements. The audio was enhanced to filter out most of the static, hisses, and pops.
The video shows very little of battle. First off, there are very few actual photos of battle. Second, for most people, including the soldiers, the actual fighting was only a fraction of their war-time experiences.
I am using the frames from some of the photographs in the new header on my Daily Observations from the Civil War blog, which, of course, also has a post on this video, with a different slant to the blog post content.
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Description of photographs:
Keedysville, Md., vicinity. Confederate wounded at Smith’s Barn, with Dr. Anson Hurd, 14th Indiana Volunteers, in attendance, September 1862.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform and forage cap.
Chickahominy River, Va. Grapevine bridge built May 27-28, 1862, by the 5th New Hampshire Infantry under Col. Edward E. Cross.
Unidentified young soldier in Union uniform with musket, bayonet, and knapsack.
Aquia Creek Landing, Va. Embarkation of 9th Army Corps for Fort Monroe, February 1863.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform and slouch hat, missing jacket buttons.
Cedar Mountain, Va. A Confederate field hospital, 1862.
Unidentified young soldier in New York Zouave uniform.
Cumberland Landing, Va. Federal encampment April – May 1862.
Unidentified young soldier in Confederate shell jacket, Hardee hat with Mounted Rifles insignia and plume with canteen and cup.
Military Bridge across the Chicahominy, June 1862.
Unidentified African American soldier in Union uniform in front of painted backdrop showing military camp.
Rebel gun in front of Fort Hell, April 1865, a Confederate cannon inside of Fort Sedgwick in Petersburg, Virginia.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform.
Yorktown, Va. Embarkation for White House Landing, Va.
Unidentified young sailor in Union uniform.
Antietam Bridge, September, 1862.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate shell jacket and slouch hat with object hanging from neck in front of painted backdrop showing waterfall.
Confederate prisoners at Fairfax Courthouse, June 1863.
Unidentified girl in mourning dress holding framed photograph of her father as a cavalryman with sword and Hardee hat.
Hand colored; Tending wounded Union soldiers at Savage’s Station, Virginia, during the Peninsular Campaign, 1862.
Two unidentified women reading letters.
James River, Va. Sailors on deck of U.S.S. Monitor; cookstove at left, July 9, 1862.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform and civilian, likely his father or older brother.
Harper’s Ferry, meeting of the Potomac and the Shenandoah, July 1865.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform.
Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., August 23, 1863.
Unidentified African American Union soldier with a rifle and revolver in front of painted backdrop showing weapons and American flag at Benton Barracks, Saint Louis, Missouri.
Manassas, Virginia. Camp of General Irvin McDowell’s body guard, hand colored photographic print.
Unidentified soldier in uniform with young woman, probably his wife.
Secret Service agents, Whitehouse, Va.
Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform of the 11th Virginia regiment with knapsack and bedroll.
Dinner time in camp.
Unidentified woman wearing mourning brooch and displaying framed image of unidentified soldier.
Confederate artillery near Charleston, S.C.
Unidentified soldier in Union uniform with Company E, 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers hat.
Confederate prisoners at Belle Plain Landing, Va., captured with Johnson’s Division, May 12, 1864.
1863, Interior view of Fort Sumter showing ruins and explosion.
Native grasses at a travel rest stop at Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge, Kansas, intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Kansas 52 – with our motorhome and car in the background.
From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
The Refuge is named after the Marais des Cygnes River which runs through the middle of the refuge and is the dominant natural feature of the region. The name, Marais des Cygnes, comes from the French language and means Marsh of the Swans. It is presumed that trumpeter swans, which were historically common in the Midwest, used the wetlands adjacent to the Marais des Cygnes River during spring and fall migration.
The Refuge was established in 1992 for the protection and restoration of bottomland hardwood forests. Approximately 5,000 acres of the 7,500 acre refuge are available for wildlife oriented recreation including hunting, fishing, and birding. A wildlife sanctuary encompasses the remaining 2,500 acres of the refuge and is not available for public use.
The Marais des Cygnes Massacre:
The Marais des Cygnes Massacre is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. On May 19, 1858, approximately 30 men led by Charles Hamilton, a Georgia native and proslavery leader, crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri. They arrived at Trading Post, Kansas in the morning and then headed back to Missouri. Along the way they captured 11 free-state men, none of whom were armed and, it is said, none of whom had participated in the ongoing violence. Most of the men knew Hamilton and apparently did not realize he meant them harm. These prisoners were led into a defile, where Hamilton ordered the men shot and fired the first bullet himself. Five men were killed.
Hamilton and his gang returned to Missouri. Only one man was ever brought to justice. William Griffith of Bates County, Missouri, was arrested in the spring of 1863 and hanged on October 30 of that year. Charles Hamilton returned to Georgia, where he died in 1880.
The incident horrified the nation and inspired John Greenleaf Whittier to write a poem on the murders, “Le Marais du Cygne,” which appeared in the September 1858 Atlantic Monthly.
