One last from the refuge. I like this picture a lot. It’s another film shot, but the film negative doesn’t have enough contrast for my poor scanner to read it with any meaningful detail. I’m told black and white negatives are the way to go here. We’ll see.
Here’s part two of yesterday’s shot.
I thought I would join the growing trend of people doing these retro film shots. I tend to take my film camera to places where my other camera may be damaged or even stolen. It’s the camera I took in the snow and it’s the camera I end up taking to a lot of weird places. So this could be a cool series. (of note, the snow was not kind to the camera. Luckily, and this is another reason why I should continue doing this, a replacent film body was less than $30 on e-bay.) The series of shots will be on hold for a bit.
This picture isn’t run through a retro filter or anything like that, it’s a scan of the negative from yesterday’s shot that I’ve photoshopped as best I could to look like a real picture. I was hoping that this could be a recurring theme on the site, but I found out two things. First, my scanner is not capable of distinguishing the detailed colors of negative color film. Second, it’s not easy to take a scanned color negative and make it look like something that isn’t a landscape from a zombie movie. This was my best attempt, but you can tell that I lost a lot of the detail, including the words on the bird feeder and most of the color.
Here’s a cool bird feeder from the Patuxent wildlife refuge. This is actually a two part post so stay tuned
Speaking of College Park, I was saving this for the NCAA tournament, but…. it doesn’t look like I really need to save it any longer. So here’s a shot from outside the Comcast Center in College Park.
After a generally good time among the sprawling retail establishments of College Park last night I remembered this sticker and thought it would make a great post. Some of you are probably thinking that this sticker is awesome. Others are probably laughing at this sticker, thinking that it must be ironic. The truth is probably somewhere in between.
I got this quite a few years back and had nothing to do with it, so I stuck it to my microwave, where it has been ever since.
There’s plenty more Brunswick pictures for a later time. I’m told that today’s weather will be nice and so I’m hoping that this shot from Beltsville matches that.
We’ll end our trip to Greenbelt with the Buttresses of the Community Center, which are considered to be one of it’s defining art deco features.
The marquis of the greenbelt movie theater. I couldn’t get inside, but I’m sure it’s awesome in there. The shopping center wherein the theatre is located is operated as a co-op by the citizens of greenbelt.
Another sculpture by Thomas sits in the center of the Greenbelt shopping center. This one, also commissioned by the WPA is called Mother and Child. The modernized Greenbelt aquatic center sits in the background.
Welcome to Greenbelt, a community that was planned by the government during the depression as a result of new deal programs. It was one of only a three such communities spread throughout the country, but it’s proximity to Washington, seemed to add to its importance and was certainly responsible for the frequency of visits from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during it’s construction.
Like most planned communities it called for all the things necessary to create self sufficiency. There would be a grocery store, a community center, school, and recreation facilities.
Today the name “Greenbelt” has taken over as the identifier of much of the area surrounding its historic core. I went years without ever knowing that greenbelt was more than just strip malls and restaurants. While there are highways and major roads criss-crossing modern day greenbelt, the Art Deco inspired center of the town is still standing and still thriving. Even the sign pictured today is a remnant from the town’s WPA past as it could easily sit outside of a National Park.
This week MDP is going to visit some of the town’s attractions.