Steve Sheppard Photography Blog

This week’s PAW came about as a result of a Saturday afternoon trip into the country. I thought this tree stand looked pretty comfy with a nice wooden swivel chair inside.

I brought back more than pictures from this trip. I had about 10 ticks on my clothes and pulled off four that had already attached to me.

Fortunately, I don’t have any poison ivy. The last time I got poison ivy was in 1986.  I used to get it by looking at the vine, but because of a treatment I took in ‘86 I think I am now immune.

I had a really bad case of it as the whelps had covered my arms from the shoulders down. I used all the normal remedies to no avail. Then I spoke with Ronnie Mabe who told me that Puccoon Root (Sanguinaria Canadensis) was the trick to getting rid of poison ivy. He gave me a piece of Puccoon Root and said all I needed to do was soak it in a medicine cup of water overnight and then drink the water. He said he guaranteed the poison ivy would be gone in three days.

Now I was game for anything at that point if it would get rid of the itchy stuff that had deformed my arms into something unrecognizable. So I drank the concoction. About a minute later, I started having sharp pains in my stomach and chest, which to this day, I can only compare to when I had a gallstone. I was getting ready to visit the emergency room to have my stomach pumped when the pain subsided.

Three days later the poison ivy was gone. I told Ronnie about the great results, but added that I was really sick after drinking it. Then he told me, “You know, I thought about that the other day and I really couldn’t remember if you were suppose to drink it or pour it on the Poison Ivy.”

I’m not sure which one I was suppose to do, but I can tell you I haven’t had poison ivy in 22 years. I, however, don’t recommend the treatment to anyone.  I just read on the Internet that the FDA considers it “unsafe” and it says that self-medication should be avoided, as the plant can be toxic.  The website also states that applying the root or juice to the skin is a questionable activity as the plant is known to be an escharotic, a substance that kills tissue. Gee, I’m glad I didn’t pour it on. 

By the way, this photo was shot with a Konica FT-1 Motor with a 40mm lens. This is part of my project to shoot one roll of film per week and post a photo from it. 

I shot the Carlisle Spring Fair this morning. Photos will be on the website later this week. 

I have added a soundslide from the Carlisle Dance concert to my website. You can view it here.

The soundslide has about 40 of the more than 100 photos I will be putting on the web that parents can purchase.

This week’s PAW photo wasn’t really shot this week, but I developed one of the rolls that I had shot previously.

I have many undeveloped rolls of film. This week, just for fun, I decided to develop one of the rolls for my PAW. I had no idea what was on the roll.

This is what I found… Carlisle’s Halloween Carnival, a Martinsville football game, friends at our home, a bar in some restaurant, Mattie in a hotel room, me in my office and finally my feet while I was watching the American Masters episode about Robert Capa. The roll was from two years ago.

Street Photographer Garry Winogrand died in 1984 and left behind 2,500 undeveloped rolls of film. I have read that he preferred to wait at least a year to develop a roll after he shot it so that he lost an emotional tie to the photographs and could judge them based on merit.

I certainly don’t have 2,500 rolls sitting around, but it is fun to develop one when you don’t know what’s on it. I’m fairly certain this roll was shot with a Leica M6 that I was carrying around at the time.

The photo I selected is of course my feet while I was watching the program on Capa. There was also a photo of my wife Mattie in a witch hat and hair at the Halloween Carnival. I thought about it, but not for long.

Carlisle softball is now on my website and can be found here.

All of the photos from Carlisle’s Spring Musical are online. You can see them here.

I met this fellow, let’s just call him Bill, this morning. He was very friendly and was eating grass through the fence. I guess in this case the grass was greener on the other side. This is part of my PAW project to shoot one roll of film each week. I shot this with a Konica FT-1 Motor and 15mm lens.

Carlisle School presented its spring musical, Bohemian Rebellion, this weekend. I haven’t processed all the photos yet, but I though I’d give a teaser as to what is coming.

Carlisle golf and tennis photos were posted on the website today. To see the photos click here.

I spent seven years at Martinsville Speedway as the director of corporate communications. One of my duties on race day was running pre-race along with a NASCAR staff member. 

After “Gentleman start your engines”, I would go through the gate at the start/finish line I would walk through the stands and stop in between the first and second turn to watch the first several laps of the race before going to the Dick Thompson Pressbox. Often, I would get a little misty-eyed because six months of preparation and work had pretty much been completed. Fans were in the stands and the race was underway.

A couple of years after I left the speedway, I was given an assignment to get a photo that screamed Martinsville Speedway. When asked, I knew the photo I wanted. When the drivers fired the engines (or as old school drivers call them a ‘motor’), I took my position and waited in between the turns.

For the first few laps I fired off a bunch of frames, but still wasn’t happy. Then a fan stood up and waved his hat. Snap, snap, snap and I had exactly what I wanted.