.: The Focused Eye :.

Lower Vancouver Island, May 2012

thellum — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:34:40 +0000

The following is a URL to a primarily iPad-only gallery of images I shot over a few days on the lower end of Vancouver Island. I was amazed to find the road up the west side of the Island is so short. It barely runs 100 kms north from Victoria. Perhaps this is a good thing. So much of the Island is still so wild. For me, the west coast was *much* more interesting than the inside east coast.

At any rate, the collection of images in the following URL is poorly-edited and contains far too many similar images. But wotthehell, Archie:

BC2012

Fawcett’s Funny Animals – No. 40

thellum — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:15:43 +0000

Another issue scanned and available as PDF! This issue is also from 1946.

Featured in this issue:

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny
Captain Marvel Mechanix illustrated Ad
Roger “Doc” Cramer Ad for Wheaties
Willy the Worm and Sammy
Sherlock the Monk and Chuck
Ball-Band Canvas Sport Shoes Ad
Uncle Don Broadcasting – Willipus Wallipus story
Billy the Kid and Oscar
Charm-Kurl Supreme Cold Wave Ad
Fuzzy the Bear and Benny Beaver
Rice Krispies Ad
Muscle Power Ad
Charles Atlas Ad
Merrilee Peddles Ad (Schwinn bicycles)

Fawcett’s Funny Animals – No. 41

thellum — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:40:51 +0000

Here is another comic download as PDF (will fit onto an iPad nicely):

Appearing in this issue:

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny
Willie the Worm and Sammy
Rick Ferrell for Wheaties
Benny the Beaver
Jowett’s Tough Man book
Sherlock the Monk and Chuck
Uncle Don’s Willipus Wallipus story
Billy the Kid and Oscar
Fuzzy and Denny
Mechanix Illustrated Ad
“Pepsi” The Pepsi-Cola Cop
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Ad
Wonders of Science Book offer
Adventures of “R.C.” and Quickie

Fawcett’s Funny Animals – No. 42

thellum — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19:56:37 +0000

The next instalment of scanned comics from my father’s youth…

Featured in this issue:

Thom Mcan shoes advertisement
Hoppy the Marvel Bunny
Charlie Keller advertisement for Wheaties
Fuzzy Bear
Billy the Kid and Oscar
Uncle Don Broadcasting “Cash Flashers” (A Willipus Wallipus Story)
Willy the Worm and Sammy
Ball-band canvas sport shoes advertisement
Fuzzy and Benny
Sherlock the Monk and Chuck
Benny Beaver and Fuzzy Bear
Captain Marvel advertisement
Kodak Brownie Reflex (synchro model) camera advertisement
X-acto knife advertisement

Walt Disney Comics – December 1946

thellum — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:48:10 +0000

Here is the next installment [comic] from my father’s collection from when he was a boy (these work great on an iPad BTW):
Appearing in this issue:
Song of the South Ad
Donald Duck & Huey, Dewey and Louie
Bucky Bug
The Li’l Bad Wolf
Mickey Mouse
The Real Stuff (story)
Uncle Remus and his tales of Brer Rabbit
Rescue Dog (Pluto)

Walt Disney Comics – November 1946

thellum — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:06:35 +0000

Here is another comic from my father’s collection from when he was a boy:
Appearing in this issue:
Donald Duck & Huey, Dewey and Louie
Bucky Bug
The Li’l Bad Wolf
Mickey Mouse
Frank Duck
Mickey’s Mystery (story)
Mickey Mouse and House of Mystery
General Mills Magic Show booklet

Walt Disney Comics – October 1946

thellum — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:52:19 +0000

I am planning on scanning in a large series of comic books my father bound into a now ricketty old book when he was a child. The first comic in the collection is now scanned and ready for download as a PDF. You can get it here. Its pretty low in resolution to keep the size down. As it is, its just over 6 megabytes.
Appearing in this issue:
Donald Duck & Huey, Dewey and Louie
Bucky Bug
The Li’l Bad Wolf
Johnny Fedora (from Make Mine Music film)
Goofy the Magician (story)
Bath Day for Figaro
Donald Duck in Lighthouse Keeping
Mickey Mouse and the House of Mystery

A Geisha

thellum — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:42:57 +0000

Finn decided out of the blue (to her parents, at least) to go Hallowe’ening as a Geisha girl this year. It was to be a mix of Mulan and a Geisha, but we talked it through and Mulan might have been less what she had in mind in the end, as many of the attributes she wanted as Mulan turned out to be those of what she also (rightly, as it turns out) thinks of a geisha.

Without having gone into any detail regarding the historical nature of geishas and their role in Japanese society (ahem) with her, I sallied forth today to paint her up as a geisha for a pre-Halloween party this afternoon and evening. And so here is what she looks like today:

December 28, 1960

thellum — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:04:27 +0000

In late December 1960, my parents were married in Montreal, PQ. My future mother and father were then 28 and 27 years old. So young! I was 37 when I married Carrie… Yet, my future parents in these photographs look older than I felt when I was married, older even than I feel now.

Their marriage has come and gone, but left three children in its wake and five grand children (three by marriage). Its so interesting to look at the people in these images, know many of them well, ponder on the futures that lay before them. I wish I had known my grandparents better. Granny Bets, my maternal grandmother – such a mystery. I have scanned her face in these images gleaning detail to flesh out this person who is so closely connected to me and yet an utter stranger (she passed away when I was a small child); I was afraid of her. Similarly, the imposing figure of my paternal grandfather, Grandpa Gus. I have dim recollections of him as a seven year when my father and I visited Norway in 1971. He seemed so much bigger and more important than me. He was always serious. My maternal grandfather I knew better – Grandpa Will; he Christmas’d with us for many years out west, flying from Montreal (and the house many of these photographs were taken in!). I wish I’d paid more attention to his pilot stories from WWI. I was afraid of him.

And my mother, here at 28. So beautiful! I love her wedding dress, understated and utterly elegant. She looks so happy. My father looks a little bewildered, much like I felt 41 years later on my own wedding day. My goodness he was/is a handsome man.

Enough prattle, here are some scans of beautifully-printed, but poorly taken images from my parents’ wedding December 28, 1960:

L toR: Al Aldred, August Hellum, Betty Spriggs, Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

L to R facing: August Hellum, William Spriggs, Doreen Simmons, Al Aldred, Patricia Spriggs

L to R: Doreen Simmons, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Patricia Spriggs

Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

Kåre Hellum and Hilary Spriggs

Kåre Hellum and Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

Receiving line L to R: Al Aldred, Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

L to R: Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Anglican Minister John Kerr.

L to R: Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Patricia Spriggs

L to R: August Hellum, Betty Spriggs, Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Patricia Spriggs

Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

L to R: Frank Hanson Sr., Patricia Spriggs, unknown person

Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

L to R: Doreen Simmons, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Patricia Spriggs

L to R: William Spriggs, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Betty Spriggs

Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs)

L to R: Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Al Aldred, Patricia Spriggs, Doreen Simmons

L to R: David Spriggs, August Hellum, Doreen Simmons, Al Aldred, Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), William Spriggs, Patricia Spriggs, John Spriggs, Frank Hanson, Jr.

Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Kåre Hellum

L to R: August Hellum, Kåre Hellum, Hilary Hellum (née Spriggs), Betty Spriggs, William Spriggs

Adobe Pixel Bender examples…

thellum — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:30:10 +0000

The following images were shot Thursday October 6th and Friday October 7th, and edited with Adobe’s Pixel Bender Photoshop Plugin. The first few are from inside the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, where parts of the film BladeRunner were shot, the rest from a 1.5hr golden time i spent in Joshua Tree National Park east of LA last Friday.

The following was actually shot at the Los Angeles County Art Museum:

And this was shot on approach to LA when still out over the desert: