GreenStPhotography

Shooting local

2012-02-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

I am sure I am not alone in often finding it difficult to find photographic inspiration where I live. I have taken to heart the advice given by a good photographer friend many years ago, I almost always have a camera on me. You can't take a picture if you don't have a camera. So even if I am just going for a stroll in the neighborhood you will often see me with some sort of messenger bag and there is likely a camera or two tucked away inside. I don't really have any specific images I am out to grab, but want to be ready if I see something. And 9 times out of 10 I return home with out a single image snapped.

The opposite is true if I am traveling and walking around a new place. The cameras are out and my problem is putting them away. This becomes a bit of a problem when traveling with someone else as I am always torn between wanting to grab the shot and not ignoring or making my traveling companion feel uncomfortable. So why is it that I can't find the same inspiration where I live?

Part of the problem is where I live. I live in Old Town Alexandria which is a very nice, touristy little part of Alexandria. The streets are lined with crafty stores in 100 year old buildings. The people who line the streets are mostly camera wielding tourists and Old ladies out to but the latest crafty decoration for their house. In other words not what I like to shoot. There is also the fact that because I live here I often feel like I can always come back another day when the light is better and grab the shot.

The usual challenge given to intro to photography students is to go out to where you live and try and find new ways of seeing the familiar. It's a great exercise, but having lived here for almost 10 years now I think I have done all I can do. But I still take my cameras with me and every once in a while I do snap a pic or two.

"Fishing on the Potomac"

Holga, Ilford HP5

New eyes...(NSFW)

2012-02-08T12:10:00.000-05:00

One of the things you learn in any good beginning photography class is to try and judge your images for what they are not what you want them to be. In other words to detach yourself from the emotions of why you took the image to see if it actually works as intended. To often when first starting out we want every image to work and end up getting attached to the idea of the image rather than how successful it is. You learn quickly that being dispassionate can help you get better by forcing you to go back and revisit a failed attempt.

Well sometimes apparently the reverse is true. Last year I had what I thought was a brilliant idea for a shoot. Most of the time in my photography I am out and about and shooting in the moment. Street photography does not lend itself to planning in advance. You can't decide on the image you want to capture and then go out and find it. You have to think and feel on the fly and react to what is around you. Even when I do studio portraits I approach the shoot much like I do my street photography. I react to my subject and try and find something interesting. I may have a few ideas going in, but I always end up either finding something totally different or making the original idea better.

Back to the point. I had a great idea. I hired a model. And spent an evening shooting. The results were not what I had in my head. FRACK! I have spent a lot of time trying to learn from what didn't work, but I have yet to go back and re-shoot. I will one of these days once I know I have a good idea where to go. So after review the results from that shoot and working a few images into the vision I originally had I ended up realizing that I didn't have what I wanted and left the images alone for about a year.

Recently I went back and looked at them with fresh eyes. nope still not what I originally wanted, but since my original concept required the combining of two images to create two personalities in frame I never had looked at the individual images on their own. I had always looked for the combinations that would convey the story I wanted to tell. It turns out that there are many images that work quite well on their own. Below is one such image. Let me know what you think and tell me what story this image tells you.

The moral of the story is to periodically review your old images. They may not have worked for what you originally intended, but maybe with distance you can find something you didn't see originally.

For those of you that care. This image was originally shot using Polaroid Sepia film. It was scanned, cleaned up and adjusted. I also converted the image to B&W using Silver EFEX Pro and then allowed a hint of the sepia tone to blend back in. I know I know to some of you altering a Polaroid (or any image) is sacrilege, but for me I will always see the image captured as the starting point not the end.

More from CO

2012-02-06T10:50:00.000-05:00

Here is another image taken above the tree line in Boulder, CO. And even more surprising yet another color image. I probably should go to the doctor because something is obviously wrong with me these days.

"Rocks"

Holga

Above the tree line

2012-02-03T11:14:00.000-05:00

Ok so yes I still have more images to edit and show from my trip to San Fransisco, but I have also started working on some of the images from the end of that trip where I sent a few days with good friends in Boulder, CO. So here is the first. This was taken on little tour my friend Brian took me on of the local parks. We started the day by packing lunch and cameras and heading into the mountains. This image was actually taken towards the end of our day. We had driven up past the tree line and got out to hike a bit and take some pictures. It was actually pretty cold so the hiking got cut short since we hadn't really planned for this weather.

And yes this is in color which is very rare for me, but I think you will agree it works much better in color than it would in B&W.

"Above the Tree Line"

Holga

That Red Bridge

2012-02-01T09:54:00.000-05:00

Ok so here is my take on the required Golden Gate Bridge. I'm still not 100% sure it doesn't need a crop, I left the bike on the left just because many of my images from this trip are about bike culture. I think it is probably a little distracting so I am sure if I ever print this image the bike will be gone. I am also going back and forth on color vs B&W but since I pretty much always show my B&W I thought I'd go against my usual instincts and show the color.

"Golden Gate"

Holga

Walk your Fixie

2012-01-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

As you can tell I love me some bike culture! Here is yet another image near Delores park with some fixie's being walked. In their defense they are walking on the side walk as they should be :)

Well I am coming to the end of the images I captured in San Fransisco, only a couple left and then I will start on some of the images I took in Boulder, Co. After that I guess I will have to get off my butt and develop the 3 rolls of color film I've had sitting around now that I finally have everything I need to try my hand at color developing.

"Walking some Fixie's"

Holga

Bikes and Beers!

2012-01-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

More from my "series" taken in Delores park during my visit to San Fransisco. I am sure it is becoming obvious that I fell in love with this park. If I lived there I would most likely spend most of my free time there. As a photographer and avid people watcher this place is a gold mine for "street" style photography. It's strange because I live in a great city (DC), yet there is no place I can go and find such a diverse street life. In New York and San Fransisco you never know what you are going to find around the next corner but at the same time I never go a day without plenty of subjects and photo ops. DC has good diversity and plenty of culture and counter culture, but I find it is much harder to just walk around and find great subjects for street photography. Maybe it's because there is so many tourists, but I rarely try and shoot in the obvious tourist areas. Maybe it's because this is my home town and everything seems more normal to my eye's. Who knows. My plan for this year involves getting into the city more this year with camera in tow to try and capture DC's culture. I figure it is where I live, I should focus n shooting the people who live here more. Hopefully I will succeed.

"Bikes and Beers!"

Holga, Kodak Porta, Converted to B&W and toned

Fixie Style

2012-01-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

So while in San Fransisco I of course noticed all of the fixie's everywhere. There is a thriving bike culture around every block. As expected anytime something is considered cool you will see the posers. I can't count how many high end track bikes I saw being walked by people who were obviously using the bikes as an accessory, I mean really when your hair and make-up match your bike who do you think you are fooling? I am for all things bikes so while I find the idea of a bike as decoration I can't really get worked up about it. It is still exercise walking your bike :)

"Fixie's at Delores Park"

Holga, Ilford HP5

More Haight

2012-01-14T11:37:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to say today so I'll just add another image from my day in the Haight. All I have to say is I love the backpack! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

"Skull and Bones"

Holga, Ilford HP5

The Haight

2012-01-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

Her is another image from last years trip to San Fran. Another of my favorite neighborhoods to hang out in is the Haight. Gone are the days of swarms of drugged out hippies roaming the street, and gone is the general grittiness and all around awesomeness that I am sure this part of town possessed. But you can still see glimpses of the past if you look closely enough. Now there is much more high end boutique shops and tourists taking pictures of the Haight and Ashbury street signs. But there are some great independent bike shops, some good vintage clothing shops, great places to eat and all around great people watching. Definitely worth a visit.

"The Haight"

Holga, Ilford HP5

Rededication to Photography in 2012...

2012-01-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

Well at least that is the plan. For whatever reason I spent most of 2011 struggling with motivation and my photography suffered a great deal as a result. At one point I was seriously considering just selling all of my equipment and finding a new passion, but even as I thought along those lines I knew I couldn't. Rather than spend time analyzing why 2011 was a bust I have decided that I just needed a break. So to start the new year I have developed the last rolls of B&W film I shot last year, ordered a few supplies to start developing my own color film. Yes I plan on shooting more color and figure it is high time I process it myself. I have started editing the last few rolls I shot last year and will start rolling them out on a weekly basis here and on Flickr.

I'll start with another from my trip to visit my sister in San Fransisco. Those of you who know me, know that I love cities. While I am equally at home camping or out in the country side, I will always live in or very near a major city. I am drawn to the endless opportunities to see and meet new people from all walks of life and frankly you just never seem to get that outside of cities. I love that around ever corner can be a completely new scene. My favorite way to travel to new places is not to research all of the "must do" tourist sites but rather to get a good map and a feel for what types of neighborhoods there are. Then I figure out the public transportation system and start walking around aimlessly. Driven by hunger and a desire to find good food I will roam with a few cameras and pretend I just moved to the area and start looking for anything that catches my interest. This method of visiting a new place does sometimes send me into random and dangerous place, it can result in an entire day of boredom. But it also leads me to find some really great places that most tourists don't ever see.

Years ago when traveling to San Fransisco with a good friend, we meet up with my friends friend (follow that?) at a little cafe on Delores St. right next to Delores Park. I was immediately drawn to the park. Nothing more than a grassy area on a hill with a few tennis courts on one end, it isn't anything special to look at. What drew me to the park was the swarm of humanity that gathers there. From young to old, hippies to the reserved. People enjoying a nice picnic to those selling "medicinal brownies". They don't gather there for a specific reason on most days as far as I can tell. I have visited the park many times on all of my trips to San Fransisco and have never seen an event going on. But everyday week day when the weather is nice people gather after work. Every weekend there is a mass of humanity. Everyone is just hanging out. It's simply brilliant. I am not the most well traveled person, but thus far I have never found a public space like this. Yes central park in NYC has tons of people hanging out, but it is so vast you can easily avoid everyone else if you want. I am sure there are part and times when vast crowds gather, but not like at Delores park. There is just something different going on and I like it!

"Delores Park"

Holga, Ilford HP5

A day in Southern MD!

2011-12-01T15:40:00.000-05:00

So back in November I spent the day visiting some good friends and doing some family portraits for them. They were great sports and their two little boys were so fun to shoot. We didn't spend too much time shooting, but hey when there are little ones involved if you don't get it in the first hour it's best to take a break and start again another day. This is why I enjoy shooting for friends, they know that I will gladly come back again and again to visit and shoot if their little ones just aren't feeling it that day. For those photographers that make a living at this I can't imagine how stressful it can be when you have a set amount of time to make the magic happen. Me shooting friends is just as much about spending a day visiting with them as it is taking pictures. I am still working through the images but here is a sample.

Now as I was editing this image I stumbled across something. Might as well add a bit about my post processing here. So the image you see above was shot digitally and converted to B&W (I know shocker that I would do that). Anyway as is often typical, the sky doesn't always cooperate on the days when you have a shoot. So when I converted this to B&W I created a duplicate layer and worked with the contrast on the sky using a curves adjustment layer. Essentially I darkened the sky and increased the contrast to make it more dramatic and also give the image the impression it was shot near sunset. In fact it was shot mid afternoon. So then I used a layer mask to allow the adjusted sky to show through. So then I accidentally turned off the layer containing the family in B&W and let the original color image show through and ended up with this:

So now I have the original color image (adjusted a bit with a slight sepia tone) and the background is in B&W. I know I know! I am not the first person to have color in a B&W image. And yes in the scope of my typical photography this is just a nice family portrait. But since that is exactly what I was attempting to create I am happy with the results. The all B&W image is exactly what I envisioned while shooting. All that said for some reason I have been stuck looking at the image directly above and I can't quite figure out why.

For some reason having the color foreground and B&W background give the image an enhanced feeling a two dimensionality (is that even a word) that I find interesting. The color also enhances the "All American" family vibe if you will (I can't quite figure out how to really explain what I mean by that). The background fades as a strong part of the image, unlike in the all B&W image above where the viewer is drawn to the image as a whole.

Anyway I am just shocked that I am drawn to any color at all and I should probably go see a Dr. ASAP. That said does anyone have any thoughts on the color, love it, hate it, why?

Delores Park Pano

2011-11-18T21:43:00.000-05:00

Since all my friends are lame and don't want to go out tonight I decided to work on some of the images I haven't gotten to. Here is another one from Delores Park in San Fransisco. I found myself spending a lot of time there just people watching and enjoying the weather during my visit. I wish there was something similar where I live, While there are tons of parks and during the summer they can be packed with people, they are always full of people with a purpose. They are there to picnic, or for family gathering, or to participate in organized rec sports. Whatever, they are there for a reason and focus on that. Delores Park is different, people just go to be, to hang out. They come from all walks of life and just co-exsist. I enjoyed just observing, maybe that's the photographer in me, or maybe that is why I picked up the camera in the first place. I just love people watching.

"Park Beers!"

Holga

Lion Love

2011-11-11T11:09:00.000-05:00

Here is a peek at some of the images I took of my good friends Gary and Diana at Penn State where they first met. They are recently engaged, congrats!!! So these are kind of engagement pics if you will. We plan on doing some more images in the DC area, but I couldn't refuse and exchange of pics for tickets to a home game in Happy Valley. As my previous post shows, game day was cold and snowy but that didn't stop us from getting out for some proper Big 10 tailgating!

After a cold day and a football game that came down to the last second (with my feet frozen solid I had hoped the Nittnay Lions could have run up the score so we might have left early...) we woke up early and made our way to join a Penn State tradition, taking your picture at the Nittnay Lion Statue!

Next we made out way around campus to take a few images at the stadium.

Obviously since these pictures were taken, Penn State has found it's self embroiled in a devastating scandal that has rocked the college football community and the nation. I think it is important to remember that the vast majority of people associated with Penn State are great people and in no way involved. They are devastated by the breach of trust and failing of those who represented the university that they love. I hope everyone can see these images and see the love of a young couple that meet at this beautiful university. They have many happy memories from their time here. I feel lucky to have experienced a weekend at this place they love so much before all of this sadness befell them. They are Penn State and I have complete faith that they will be strong and do what is right and necessary to make sure those responsible are punished and in time find a way to become even stronger.

Next we made our way on campus.

Finally we went to the Engineering building where they first met.

Thanks for a great weekend Gary and Diana! I hope we can do it again next year!

Penn State Tailgaiting - grab your lion coats this is serious buisness!

2011-11-04T17:23:00.000-04:00

So my recent posts have been all over the place, a little bit from my recent west coast trip, some from the Rebel Riders rides, some from some potential projects, and now some from a recent trip to Happy Valley to take some photographs of my good friends at the place they first met. Little did I know that the football weekend was going to turn into a blizzard. Here is a first taste from Saturday Morning's tailgating. Please note at Penn state they take their tailgating seriously you still must have your magnetic beer coozy even in white out conditions.

Anyway at least with the many varying posts I can say I have a decent body of work still to sort through and it is looking like I am finding my groove again.

"Nittnay Snow Lion"

Canon 50D

Not a project!

2011-10-27T12:45:00.000-04:00

Ok so as with most photographers I like to give myself projects to shoot, themes to explore, yada yada yada. But most of the time the minute I label something a project I stop shooting for it or find myself unable to figure out how to proceed. Or just as often I decide to shoot a project with someone who them moves away or something. Sometimes the idea are great but just don't reflect my "vision" so I decide to let them go. This image is representative of an idea I have been thinking about for some time, but I am hoping to just keep shooting it and see if it evolves into something. Maybe if I don't define it publicly something will actually come from it. Feel free to tell me what this image says to you, it may help me refine my idea.

Untitled

Holga, Kodak Porta 400

I fear color...

2011-10-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

As the title suggests I do not generally shoot in color, even when I pick up a digital camera I usually end up converting the images to black&white at some point during post. I've always just figured some photographers shoot color and some shoot B&W, no big deal. After having been in a creative slump, one that I'm still not really out of, I decided to pack mostly color film on my recent vaccay to mix things up a bit.

I have managed to get all of the color film developed and scanned (I still have 3 rolls of B&W to develop). So here is the first image I started working on. The focus is softer than I usually like (even for a Holga). I should note that I took a relatively new Holga and obviously had done a piss poor job of making it light leak proof...but hey embrace the blur and light leaks right? That's what toy camera photography is all about right? Anyway, while this is not the best image I've ever made it's one of those that I like in spite of all it's flaws and I decided to work on it first.

So for shits and giggles I decided to convert it to B&W and see if I'd like it better and wouldn't you know it, I do....sigh. The whole point of shooting with color film was to try and convince myself that I liked it. I can't say I don't like the color version, it's actually makes for a much different image if you ask me. Anyway if you have any opinions other than "that image sucks!" feel free to weigh in with which one you like better and why.

"Skater Chic, Delores Park, San Francisco 2011"

Holga, Kodak 160NC

Liberty and Fixie's for all!

2011-10-20T15:48:00.000-04:00

Here is another image from Lindsay and my Rebel Riders weekend jaunt through DC. For those of you reading this blog but who don't really know me, Rebel Riders is a bike club Lindsay and I started up for the hell of it. Basically I floated the idea and she made it happen. We are a small group of non-competitive cyclists who combine our love for bikes, beers, and service all into one fun group.

Back to the weekend ride, for some reason the fixie's wanted to demonstrate outside of the Supreme Court. I have no idea either...

"Liberty and Fixie's for all!"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Chocolate

I'll never let go, Jack. I promise.

2011-10-19T10:24:00.000-04:00

So I have finally finished scanning a ton of images from my recent trips to San Fransisco and Boulder, as well as some images from the Rebel Riders weekly happy hour rides. I still have 3 rolls of B&W to develop and scan, but at least I should have enough material to work on that I should be able to start showing new images more often around here. At least that is the plan as long as I can find the time these days to work on the images.

So this latest image was from a Rebel Rider weekend ride. Lindsay and I just got on our Fixie's one weekend and decided to pedal our way through DC with no specific destination in mind. We found ourselves riding along the south Waterfront just past the Maine avenue fish market (which by the way is a great place to grab a bite to eat!). We are on a pretty bumpy part of the path and I am concentrating on the surface when Lindsay rides up to me and says "I'll never let you go, Jack!" Being oblivious I just assume she's gone mental. She then points out this odd statue up ahead and tells me it reminded her of the movie Titanic. I continue to look at her, now fully convinced she is mental. She pedals off ahead and starts bawling, when I reach the statue I discover why....it happens to be a memorial for...wait for it...yup you guessed it, the Titanic. What the hell a Titanic memorial is doing along the Potomac river in DC is beyond me, but it was obvious photo documentation would be required.

"I'll never let go, Jack!"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Chocolate film

Impossible Altitude

2011-09-26T14:01:00.000-04:00

OK so while I am still no expert on these impossible films I have become over time pretty good about obtaining useable exposures and figuring out what setting the camera needs to be at. For the PX600 UV film you pretty much need to set the exposure wheel to maximum dark and the image needs to be protected from from light and for the most B&W tones you need to develop the film at or below about 68 deg F. So while on vacation I was in Boulder, CO which you may or may not know is about 1 mile up in altitude. I took a few images in Boulder (none shown here, I promise to post them in the near future) and encountered nothing unexpected. Basically the film behaved just how I figured it would. The problems came when I traveled up the mountains. Once I got above about 8,000 ft all of my images started to look like they were either over exposed or had been subjected to light during developing. Since I knew I was shielding the images after exposure I figured that for the first few images I had just neglected to set the exposure wheel to all dark. Turns out that wasn't the issue. So the best I can guess is that the extra UV light that is present the higher up you go was responsible. The Impossible films either don't have a UV filter built in or the filter isn't strong enough at the altitudes I was at.

Anyway here is an example. One that I actually like. I did use Photoshop to increase the contrast a bit to bring out the details. The actual image is even lighter overall than you see here.

"Fear the trees..."

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

Delores Park

2011-09-23T13:02:00.001-04:00

Ok so I think the slump is officially over! I have 17 rolls of film to process (most from my recent trip to San Fransisco and Boulder). I also have scanned a bunch of recent instant images using the Impossible films. I will start to roll them out here and on my Flickr stream. Here is the first image of my favorite park in San Francisco.

"Biker on hill"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible 600 UV+ BB

Rebel Riders

2011-08-14T13:20:00.000-04:00

So this year has turned out to be a bit of a break from photography for me. Actually this year has been a pretty rough one thus far. The loss of a great friend to a series of misunderstandings that we just could find our way past set the tone. Watching many of my friends struggle through this difficult economy. The loss of a dream I didn't even know I was holding onto. And other crap not even worth mentioning. I seem to be the opposite of many of my artist friends, they often find solace in their art and turn to it when they are depressed. Me I turn away from my cameras, I get to a point where the mere thought of taking pictures and developing the film and edit the images becomes and insurmountable task. On the plus side I often turn to exercise, which means that I tend to me the most in shape when I'm depressed.

This year I managed to work through all this crap on my bike and was determined to find a new group of friends to ride with so that I'd have a reason to continue even after I worked my way through my funk. Thus the Rebel Riders were born via my discussions with my good friend Lindsay. We wanted a bike club that wasn't focused solely on riding fast and expensive equipment. Lindsay decided that we should combine riding with her focus on supporting cancer research, thus the Rebel Riders are also about service and raising awareness and support for cancer research. We weren't done yet, as any good college student knows one of the best cures for what ales you is a pint with friends. So the Rebel riders are also focused on fun happy rides with a focus on exploring the many great bars in and around the DC area.

Since Lindsay and I are both photogs we now have the idea idea that we need to start documenting our HH outings. Here are the first two images. These were taken on a recent visit to Start & Shamrock, a Jewish/Irish bar on H St. in NE DC.

Star & Shamrock

H St. NE DC

Polaroid 680, Impossible 680 Beta

The Red Razzle was finally let out!

2011-06-12T10:18:00.001-04:00

So in case you have no idea what the Red Razzle is, it is a Polaroid 110b camera converted to accept 4x5 film. The really awesome thing of this camera is that it has a functioning range finder and coupled with it's 1/300 shutter speed allows you to hand hold and shoot which is pretty much unheard of for large format cameras. It is also relatively compact and light making it easy to put in your bag and use while walking around town. Don't get me wrong it's no compact camera, but in comparison to other large format cameras it is down right portable.

I have had the camera for quite some time, but as usual I took a few months to actually load it up and take it out. So here are a few images from Old Town Alexandria, where I live, to give you an idea of what the camera can do. I think this camera will see regular rotation in my camera bag!

"Door at 714"

Polaroid 110b Conversion (Red Razzle), HP5

"Alexandria Alley"

Polaroid 110b Conversion (Red Razzle), HP5

Breakfast with my Sis!

2011-06-11T17:14:00.001-04:00

So since I am still working, slowly, through images from last year and the few new rolls I have shot so far this year here is a quick Polaroid from today. One of the nice things about being considered a photographer by all your family and friends is that they at least tolerate you pulling out the crazy vintage contraptions otherwise known as cameras. One of my goals this year is to try and photograph my everyday life a bit more. To often I go through the day with a camera in my bag (you know just in case) and end the day with nothing. I tell myself that I passed nothing or saw nothing of great enough interest to inspire me to pull out the camera. Now I am thinking I need to work more to just find the images in the ordinary. Even look for the ordinary and shoot it.

All that said, my awesome sister is anything but ordinary! So maybe next week I'll post something blah :)

Sis it was a blast seeing you! I'll try and make it out your way soon.

"Breakfast at Perk Up!"

Polaroid 180, ID-UV

TOYCAMERA.com is back!

2011-05-24T15:31:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd share with all you that TOYCAMERA.com is back and under new management. Go check it out and join up if you haven't already, it's a great resource for toycamera photography.

I also promise to get back into regularly updating this blog soon. I still have tons of images from last year to share with everyone and I have quite a few shoots planned over the next month. Sorry for the long break, but I needed to focus on other projects for a while inorder to get my photography mojo back!

Curious Camera 3 - 2nd Place!

2011-04-26T17:52:00.000-04:00

I was informed today that my Holga pano of the Cyclone on Coney Island was awarded 2nd place in the Curious Camera 3 competition!

The show opens this week on April 30th. Click here for details. I won't be able to attend so if you happen to be in the area go check out the show and send me pictures.

Below is the version of the Cyclone I submitted. I also have shown the same image with a sepia tone. Click here to see the sepia version.

"Cyclone, Coney Island"

Holga, Ilford HP5

More from Baltimore's Graffiti Alley

2011-04-09T23:13:00.000-04:00

Often I get on a roll shooting during a period and in the process don't have the time to edit and sift through all of the images I have shot. This is one of those cases. Last summer I was have a ton of fun exploring Baltimore with a good friend and ended up with tons of images. Recently while I was transferring all of my files to a new computer I rediscovered some of the images I took when we ran across a group of graffiti artists preparing B'mores graffiti alley for an upcoming event.

I originally posted a few images up on Flickr, you can check them out here:

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

And here is one of the ones I recently sat down and edited. enjoy.

"Graffiti Alley, Baltimore"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Sepia

Day 28, 29 and 30 a bit late

2011-04-08T16:23:00.000-04:00

So here are the last 3 images from Jake's 30 days of recovery from heartworm treatment. I got a bit lazy and tired of being cooped up in the house so I procrastinated getting these edited and on the blog.

They are cropped a bit different because I fashioned myself a film holder for my Polaroid images so I wouldn't have to keep cloning out the Newton Rings. Once I clean up the holder and make it all fancy I will be sure to post images. Until then enjoy these last images. Doing the project was fun and it helped me get through the long month of worrying about Jake. Of course he was a trooper and did great, enjoyed all the attention and settled right into his new comfortable life. I don't think he will ever give up the left side of the couch.

So far Jake is doing well in the city (he was a country stray). He is loving his walks around Old Town Alexandria and his strength and stamina are building each day. I am hoping to have him ready for a trip to the dog park within the next week or so. For the most part he is pretty easy to train and I am trying to include him in most of my outings to get him used to being at my side and in public with lots of distractions. He is still overwhelmed by all the sounds and people and dogs, but hopefully he will calm down over time. Now all we have is one more surgery on his cherry eye in June and he should be all fixed up!

"Goose is down..."

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

"Getting ready."

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

"I get to go out there!"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX100 Silver Shade

Headless Portraits...

2011-03-31T23:16:00.000-04:00

So this is one of those images that kind of came to me one day. I have been sitting on it for quite a while, mainly because I have been thinking that this might be a fun project in the making but I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to approach it. I think what I'd like to do is photography various people (headless) and allow them to pick their wardrobe to either reflect themselves or even better allow them to act out a totally different personality. Then set them in slightly off settings. That at least is my first thoughts, so anyone want to volunteer to model just let me know. If you have an idea for the shoot great, if not I am sure I can think of something so just let me know your interested.

"Watering can"

Hasselblad 500c, Ilford HP5

More from the fair

2011-03-30T18:11:00.000-04:00

Here is a shot from a county fair I went to last summer. This is one of those shots that I overlooked the first time, but then kept coming back to. I'm still not sure how much I like so I figured I go ahead and do some post on it and live with it for a while. Feel free to let me know what you thunk.

"World Famous Iced Tea!"

Holga, Ilford HP5

Working through the backlog

2011-03-27T00:43:00.000-04:00

Like may photographers out there I always have a back log of images that I am working through. I think I have images from around 20-30 rolls of film from last year that I still need to edit and post at some point. So while I still need to post the last 3 images from Jake's heartworm series (Still need to scan them) here is another image from my December trip to San Fransisco to visit my sister.

Fijipet Thunderbird

San Fransisco, China Town

Kodak Porta 400

Day 27

2011-03-20T19:53:00.000-04:00

So just a few things to point out about PX70 PUSH films. The image below the bed sheets are a pale greenish blue, maybe sea foam or some other silly color name. The walls are a dark grey. So as stated before while this latest color film fro Impossible are much better they are not for capturing true colors. Not that I really care about that, but I do think there could be some improvements. At the very least Impossible should address the need for narrow temperature ranges for development. It would be nice to not have to protect the film from light while it develops as well, but if I had to pick I rather have the film able to be developed in a wider temperature range.

"I'm NOT tired!"

Polaroid SX-70, Impossible PX-70 PUSH

Day 26

2011-03-19T19:51:00.000-04:00

"MY TOYS!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

Day 25

2011-03-18T19:47:00.000-04:00

Once again I fell behind with my posts. So here I'll just post them now. Jake is now officially fine in my mind, but we are going to follow the doctors orders so Thursday will be his first day of exercise. Hopefully it doesn't rain, though at this point I think neither of us really care.

"I don't want my picture take!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX100 SS

Day 24 - PX100 Silver Shade

2011-03-17T18:14:00.000-04:00

Jake and I continue to count the days until next Thursday when we get out freedom back!!

So far during this photography project I have used the two types of PX600 films and had a first look at a pack of the color PX70 PUSH film. Now I have shot a pack of the PX100 Silver Shade film. The image below was created with this film. It was shot with evening window light and the light/dark wheel was at max dark. Not too shabby right? Some lovely chocolate tones. What you don't see is the hundreds of tiny white specs that I cloned out in Photoshop. I found that every shot in the pack had these specs that basically looked like a tin dot where developer didn't work. I spent a half an hour spotting out the specs so if you are going to make prints or show your images on-line it isn't terribly hard to clean up, even if it is a bit of a pain. I'll post another image from this pack tomorrow showing you an image using morning window light. I point this out because the cooler morning light created an image a bit more contrast with less of the yellowish tones and much more of a dark chocolate tone. I also played around with the light dark wheel. I found set at neutral you get a blown out image. While setting the wheel half way between neutral and max dark looked much the same as max dark. So my first pack leads me to believe that the PX100 film is not as easy to control with the light/dark wheel like the PX600 films are. As for developing I kept using the cold clip and the temperature I found to be best was the snowman sticker visible. I tried using body heat and ended up with an very dark low contrast image that was terrible. It will take a few more packs before I will be able to tell if these first thoughts bare out or if this film is like the first flush films and just unpredictable from pack to pack.

"I am SO BORED!!!!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX100 Silver Shade (SS)

Day 23

2011-03-16T13:16:00.000-04:00

Entering into the last week Jake continues to do great! So onto some first thoughts on Impossible's PX70 PUSH film.

Starting with yesterdays shot you can see that the colors are much better than the blue cast that was typical of the PX70 First Flush films. That said the film still has trouble with the red side of the spectrum. The top right tile (still looking at yesterday's image) is actually a deep red and the bottom right tile is a bright orange yet they look almost the same color on film. If you look at the bit of white baseboard in the image you will see a magenta hue to it also. So the colors are nice but not accurate. That isn't really a complaint, just the way it is. Some of the old Polaroid films like the Artistic film didn't have accurate color rendition either. This doesn't bother me that much. The image was taken with out a filter and developed 2 minutes in the cold clip (see yesterday's post for details) at the sunny temperature range using body heat to keep the clip warm. The light source was indoor tungsten lights.

Today's image was shot using a green filter mounted like shown here. The light source was window light. Again the light/dark wheel was pushed to max light. Jake's collar and the carpet tile under duck and goose are both bright red and again you can see that they are not rendering correctly. Body heat and the cold clip were once again used to keep the film warm for the first two minutes of development.

The nice thing about this film as apposed to the PX600 films is that I should easily be able to use it during the hot summer months here! And it isn't terribly hard to develop it in the cooler months by using the cold clip and body heat. I also tried a few other heat methods like using hot water and the microwave and the oven. None produced desirable results. And none are very portable so I really didn't experiment too much since the combination of the cold clip and body heat does pretty good.

Just to add a bit more data, I did note that many of the images from all of the PX films I have been using for this project have had the occasional developer leak from the film. Just little bits here and there randomly. Nothing like the First Flush films delamination problem, and not much different from my experience with old Polaroid stock. Just keep an eye out and clean your rollers with a bit of water and a q-tip when it happens and you'll be fine. Tomorrow I'll take a first look at the latest PX100 Silver Shade film, thus completing the a look at the complete offerings of Impossible.

"Don't you want to play with us?"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

Day 22 - In living color!

2011-03-15T18:17:00.000-04:00

Nothing new to report on Jake. I entered into this project expecting to have daily reports of all of the ups and downs of Jake's heartworm treatment. As it turned out he felt pretty bad and was very low key the first 10 or so days and since then it's been a steady return to a happy healthy dog, one who wants to go out for walks and play and is upset at me because I won't take him. I am happy that the treatment has gone so well and feel very lucky.

So since I have nothing to say about Jake let me talk a bit about the new Impossible films. First the Impossible films have come a long way from their first releases. The films have more contrast and are not as light and temperature sensitive as they were. The PX600 V06 (batches 6/10 and later) are fairly predictable films with a lovely yellow brown tone (almost Sepia). Under the right temperatures (below 70 deg F) and protected from light for the first few minutes of development the films are just stunning. It is a bit of a pain that you have to protect the film from light as it is ejected from the camera, but taping a darkslide on the front and using a cold clip for developing make this pretty easy. I have been shooting this past moth mainly indoors under temperature controlled conditions, and it is early Sprng so pretty much the perfect temperatures for this film. The new cold clips from Impossible come with temperature sensitive stickers that tell you the temperature range. There are 2 stickers and they become visible when the clip reaches certain temps.

Darkslide taped over ejection point

iPhone

Impossible cold clip

iPhone

The first sticker has a snowman image the becomes visible between 59-63 deg F
The second sticker has a heart image that becomes visible between 74-77 deg F
The third has a sun symbol that becomes visible between 86-90 deg F

For the PX600 and PX600 UV+ films I have actually found that having only the snowman visible is the best temperature range. I should note that each sticker remains visible once it's lowest temp has been exceeded. So if the it is hot enough for the sun symbol you will see all 3 symbols. That means with only the snowman visible you could actually be as warm as about 73 deg F. I have tried having the clip colder than 59 deg F and found that there was a blueish tint to the final image and it didn't develop as much as I expected. For the PX 600 films I started seeing an orange tint when the heart symbol was visible (74 deg F or above). The PX 600 UV+ was as close to B&W white as it could be when developed with the snowman visible and started moving quickly to orange tones above 74 deg F.

The big issue with the Impossible films has always been the very narrow temp range that is needed to obtain acceptable results. Using a cold clip with the handy temperature sensitive stickers should make working with these films during the Fall, Spring and Winter months easier. During the colder days one can easily heat up the clips with your body heat. The problem will still be the Summer months (at least for me) we typically get temps above 85 deg F with high humidity so we shall see. I guess I'd have to carry a cooler or have some way to cool the film as it develops. This sounds like a pain to me and will likely restrict my shooting with this film to the indoors.

While I really love the tones in both the PX600 and PX600 UV+, I have to note that the UV+ films have more flaws than I would like. They often have water mark like patterns as well as little pock marks where no developer seemed to get to. And my least favorite tendency is to have a third of the image clearly darker than the rest. There are 3 chemical packs on the film and the dark line looks like it always comes from one of the chem. packs like there was a slight variation in the chemicals and how they respond to the exposure. You can see it in yesterdays post. That needs to be fixed before I will be able to say that I love this film. The B&W tones are lovely though with the creamy whites and dark blacks. It could use a bit more richness to the blacks, but I wouldn't change the creamy white personally I just love it. I also love the yellow/brown tones of the PX600 films and hope that it stays as an option as Impossible improves their films. It would be awesome to have a Sepia film, B&W and color film.

Since I have spent so much time talking about the PX600 films I am going to wait until tomorrow to talk about my first pack of the color film PX70 PUSH, but here is my first image from that pack. I shot this with the light/dark wheel at max light. Developed it in the cold clip with the sunny symbol visible using body heat the keep it warm.

"Duck and Goose"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

Day 21

2011-03-14T17:10:00.001-04:00

Jake spent the day with my pop while I went to work. Apparently he is much more calm when I'm not around, sheesh! Since I am catching up with my posts I am going keep this one short.

Jake pretty much acts like a normal dog now, one who really really really wants to go outside and play, but a normal dog none the less. As far as the heartworms are concerned there is still a chance that some are still being dissolved which is why he needs to continue to have little to no exercise. I'd much rather have him going nuts because he feels great and doesn't like being couped up inside all day than having difficulties with the treatment. So I continue to count us lucky and count down the days until we can return to our normal routine.

Check the next post for my first look at the new PX70 PUSH film from the Impossible Project (their color film).

"Goose wants to go outside"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

Day 20

2011-03-13T17:28:00.000-04:00

I forgot to post this yesterday, so here is the day 20 image. Jake continues to do well and is feeling better each day. He is also continuing to whine about wanting to go outside and play.

He was reunited with Duck yesterday thanks to duck surgeon Spring and he is very happy about that! He still loves Goose (pictured below) but it's just not the same. All yesterday he carried duck around everywhere he went.

I think it's safe to say that Jake will make it through the rest period with no real set backs. Other than the burden I put on myself to make sure there has been someone with him at all times just in case he needed to be rushed to the vet (mostly me, but also my Sister and Father when needed) this whole process has been pretty painless. Most of the anxiety came from the unknown leading up to the final treatment and those first few weeks when he was clearly not feeling too well. I can't really complain because I know that not everyone is lucky. Knock on wood the 24th will come with no set backs and both Jake and I can start working on our fitness!

"Ghost Jake"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

Day 19

2011-03-12T16:14:00.000-05:00

Today started with an early morning wake up call from Jake followed by a long nap and then the whining and crying to go for a walk started. Such seems to be me life for the next 11 days....

While it's all worth it, blah blah blah. My patience is wearing thin. As far as how Jake is doing, all is well, no coughing or other symptoms for the past few days. His energy levels have returned to pre-treatment levels. He has started playing with all of his toys again and is constantly under foot. In other words he's a dog :) We will both be happier when we can go out and enjoy the lovely weather we are having and Jake can burn his energy off. He has taken to trying to convince all my neighbors that he is being mistreated, running up to them and crying desperately to be pet, telling them how mean I am because I won't let him go for a walk. That's gratitude for you, I rescued him, am working to treat all his aliments and not so much as a thank you.

Is it all obvious that spending so much time indoors caring for Jake is wearing on me as well?

"Can't tame the restless Spirits"

SX-70 Sonar w/timer, Impossible PX600 UV+

Day 18

2011-03-11T10:52:00.000-05:00

The crazies have officially taken over my sweet calm dog, please send help! Jake is driving me nuts. It's hard to be too mad because it is so good to see him feeling well. But it is getting harder to get work done at home with him as he is constantly whinning to go outside and play, then there is the pacing from one window to the next. Twelve more days and I can start taking him on walks again! We have also started talking with the Vet to plan his cherry eye surgery and do his final round of de-worming.

I have to give a shout out to the Lab-Rescue organization for making the process of adopting a sick dog so easy. They have a policy of covering all expenses for aligments that are identified while the dogs are fostered with them. They agreed up front to cover Jake's heartworm and cherry eye treatments and have followed through coordinating with the Vet so I don't see a single bill. It really makes taking home a pet that really needs you all the more easy. If you live in the Northern VA area I highly recomend this group. There is a bit of a process you have to go through to get approved to adopt, but it really is focused on pairing you with the right dog. Other groups tend to be on high horses trying to allow only the "perfect" (based on their critera) people adopt, Lab-Rescue seems to get that pairing the right dog fit for the home environemt is the key. I think this is a good approach. I live in a small condo (450 ft^2), I work, and I'm single. I also cared for a lab basically from birth until his death last year at 13 years old, and rescued a cat who lived with me for 7 years before his sudden and unexplained passing last year as well. Lab-Rescue took all this into account and listened to my requirements and paired me with an excellent dog in Jake!

Here is a link if you are looking for a new pup: Lab-Rescue

"I get so excited I loose my head at dinner time!"

Polaroid SX-70 w/ timer, Impossible PX600 batch 7/10

Day 17

2011-03-10T09:59:00.000-05:00

So Jake has been driving me crazy the past 24 hours. If I had any lingering doubts that he was feeling fine they are now out the window along with my sanity. Jake has been pacing and whinning and asking to go outside pretty much since yesterday afternoon. He is definately going stir crazy. Of course it has been raining here all day and everything is soaked from the rain we got earlier in the week so even if he was allowed to go out for a walk it would only be a short one.

I think it is this time during the recovery that most people have trouble with. Your dog seems healthy and is obviously feeling well but you still can't take him out for excersise. Any good dog owner knows that excersise is the key to a happy and easy to live with dog. So facing two more weeks of the insanity doesn't sound like that much fun, and it seems cruel. If you are going through this treatment and you are having doubts I encourage you to read about the life cycle of the heartworms and exactly what happens during treatment as they die. I promise you won't want to risk allowing your pup to over exert itself just so you can have a bit of peace and quiet. At this stage the heartworms are still being dissolved by the body and there is more risk of clots than during week one. Thirteen days to go....

"Sprawled"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 batches 6/10 and 7/10

Day 16

2011-03-09T16:17:00.000-05:00

I couldn't be happier with Jake's progress and just how easy he has made his recovery period. I am just lucky that he turned out to be such a mellow and easy going dog. I have no idea how anyone could have ever let go of this sweetheart. He the most relaxed dog I have seen, nothing phases him and he has settled right in to life with me as if he had been here since birth. While he is not nearly as quick to learn as my last lab, Tucker, Jake is picking up commands pretty quickly. He is solid with sit, has now proven he can stay for 30 seconds to a minute consistently, and just last night did his first down without my aid!!! Of course all of these commands were completed without distractions, but he is doing well after spending 4 years without learning a command.

While I have been lucky so far with Jake in that the heartworm treatment has been relatively without problems or setbacks, that is not always the case. I did a lot of research on the web looking for information and discovered a pretty good blog by a small town Vet. He did a post back in 2007 and he is still answering questions in the comment thread today. I found just as much info in the comments and his responses as the article itself. It really helped me understand the disease and the treatment options and gave me the ability to really discuss the details with my Vet. Here is a link: Heartworm Blog

"Watching TV"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar w/timer, Impossible PX600 batch 6/10

Day 15 - Half way there!

2011-03-08T18:33:00.000-05:00

Jake has made it half way through the recovery period! I don't think the 24th can come soon enough for either of us. Jake is really starting to feel better, he is playing with his toys and in general being more demanding of me. Constantly asking for me to give him treats, pet his belly, take him for a walk. Of course I am a sucker and give in to most of his demands except the walks of course. As you can see from the picture he is happy to have goose back. I have word from the surgeon that Duck may be ready by the weekend!

"GOOSE!"

Polaroid SX-70, Impossible PX600 batch 6/10

Day 14 - Becareful what you wish for

2011-03-07T20:18:00.000-05:00

I decided that Jake might actually be suffering from boredom rather than showing signs of lethargy. So starting yesterday afternoon I returned one of his favorite toys (goose) and started his training again. I also gave him more treats and let him walk around outside a bit more. And now Jake is acting just like he was before the treatment. He is following me around, reacting to all the sounds in the building and generally just acting like himself again.

Today I went back to work and my Parents came and stayed with him. When I came home he was laying on the couch between the two of them soaking up all the love, so much so that he barely lifted his head to say hi. Traitor! I'm just glad he is feeling better.

"Ear Scratches!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 batch 6/10

Day 13

2011-03-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

Jake is still doing well. I wish he would be a little more active, but at the same time he is supposed to take it easy. I have started his training sessions again so that he has something to keep his mind occupied. He does great with sit, and is getting better at stay. I am still having trouble getting him to figure out down. He perks right up for all of his walks, training, and his peanut butter kong. His breathing and heart rate all seem about right and he continues to have the occasional hacking cough, usually only after he drinks a lot of water and still no more than once or twice a day. I plan on contacting the Vet tomorrow to discuss his progress and start to plan for what comes next.

"I love couch!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, PX600 batch 6/10

Day 12

2011-03-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

Jake continues to improve. He spent much of last night pacing around after spending the day sleeping. Today we are enjoying having the windows open for the first time in some time watching the Hokies throw away their chance at making it to the big dance....oh well that's what the Hokies do best.

Jake has been the best patient, but I can see how spending a month with no exercise is going to really affect his fitness. I have a feeling it's going to take a few months of regulated exercise to get him back on form. I just hope that by the end of the summer all of his health problems will be resolved and he can live a happy full life shedding all over my apartment.

"Time for bed..."

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 batch 6/10

Day 11 - the routine continues...

2011-03-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

Another day down and Jake is still doing great. I am increasingly hopeful this whole ordeal will end up being one without any set backs. Jake has really settled into the routine of taking it easy. He wakes me up in the morning, he is pretty excited to go out and then have breakfast. Then he immediately takes his spot on the couch and sleeps while I connect my work computer and proceed to start work. That lasts until around 4:30 PM when it's time for another walk and dinner. Then he he goes right back to sleep after getting some extra ear scratches from me. It's like he understands that he needs to take it easy, that or he's just lazy :)

I am going a bit stir crazy spending so much time in my place. Today after work I will do my spring cleaning, some laundry and fix a friends bike. Fun fun! The worst part is the weather is starting to shift more towards spring and Jake and I are stuck indoors, gross! The sacrifices we make for our animals...

Shooting the instant images each day has at least kept me occupied, though it is getting a bit hard to think of new images to shoot each day, I mean how many different images of a sleeping dog can you take? Though when I step back and think about what these images are supposed to convey I guess they are doing the job. I just wanted a record of what life was like going through this. So if the images have the feel of the same thing happening every day, well that is exactly what has been happening. Jake's days are filled with sleeping, and mine are filled with keeping an eye on him watching for any signs that something is going wrong. That's what we have done the first 11 days and that's what the next 19 will be like as well. If all goes well no issues will come up and Jake will be given the green light to start light excercise again on March 24th.

"Another Day..."

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+ w/ND filter

Developed 4 min in hot/cold clip

Day 10 - A third of the way there!

2011-03-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

Nothing but good news, Jake is doing great. He is basically back to normal. I am feeling much better about everything. Jake continues to be great about staying calm and taking it easy. I think he is taking his cues from me. He is starting to whine to go outside more so I am guessing over the next week it is going to get worse and I am going to have spend more time diverting his energy with games and activities to distract him. That's what frozen peanut butter kongs are for, right?

Personally, staying indoors with him 24 hrs a day is starting to make me a little stir crazy. I am actually looking forward to going to work on Monday (Jake will have my father watching him for the day).

I went through a pack of the PX600 batch 7/10 yesterday playing with developing temps. I found that by keeping the film below 59 deg F for the first 4 minutes of development then allowing the film to continue to develop at room temperature consistently give the least amount of sepia/red tones. The catch is that some of the deeper blacks take on a bit of a blotchy green hue. I tried that method with the PX600 UV+ and discovered similar results, minus the green hues. I have noticed that with the UV+ all of the images I have developed below 59 deg F there are these "water mark" looking rings and a bunch of little marks on the film. I am not sure yet if this is a result of the cold or if this film just randomly has these imperfections. I'll keep playing with this and see how consistent it is.

"Ear Rest"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+ w/ ND filter

Developed in hot/cold clip 4 minutes below 59 deg F

Day 9 - Signs of Jake!

2011-03-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

The last 24 hrs have been very encouraging! Jake has really started to perk up and return to his old self. He is following me around more and has wanted to play on a few occasions. He is also paying more attention to the sounds in the building and running to the mirror any time he hears the next door neighbors ankle biter bark (I still can't convince him that the dog he hears is NOT in the mirror). I can tell he isn't at full strength, but given what his body is going through and the fact that he was on restrictive exercise the month leading up to this treatment I don't think I should expect him to be in mid-season form. He has had a few minor coughs here and there, they sound like he is trying to hack something up. As of yet these have been a most once or twice a day. From what I have read the next week is when many dogs exhibit problems. The worms are now pretty much all dead and now his body is slowly dissolving them. As this happens he should start to feel better and better and hopefully start to put back on the weight he has lost.

The last two images I shot of the PX600 UV+ pack both had a darker strip on the right side of the image, like something went wrong with the spreading of the chemicals from that side of the film. You can see it in the image below, though this image it is not nearly as visible as the first try. This is only the second full pack I have shot of the UV+ film and this is the first time I have seen this issue. I hope it's not the normal because loosing and average of 1 image per pack would not be cool. With this series I am shooting I have been working indoors under basically ideal temperature conditions, so basically this is giving you an idea of how good the films are. I don't know yet if these results are repeatable outside under various weather conditions.

"Cool Socks"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

One half tick darker than neutral on the light/dark wheel

Dev 4 min in hot/cold clip

Day 8

2011-03-01T15:29:00.003-05:00

The past 24 hrs have had me a bit worried about Jake. He has had a few hacking coughs, but nothing sustained. He also seem to be content to sleep all day and night long. Making me wonder if something was wrong. He would perk up for food and his brief walks, but then quickly curl up and fall asleep. He also wasn't following me around like usual. On the one hand he is doing exactly what I'd want and taking it easy. On the other hand I am not sure if this is a sign of something going wrong.

That was my train of thought until the middle of today when he has shown more normal behavior. While he still isn't as active as he was before the treatment, I think that is to be expected. I also tend to be over cautious and worry too much. His breathing is fine as is his heart rate. He is eating well and he is a pretty laid back pup in general and this is only day 8 and 5 days since he came home. Can you tell I am anxious for him to be cured?

"Cuddle Time"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

Medium Dark on the light/dark dial

4 min dev in hot/cold clip

Day 7

2011-02-28T09:15:00.003-05:00

Last night Jake woke me up with a start. He had a very brief hacking cough. It sounded very much like what I was told to expect. The Vet said not to worry unless he was hacking up blood or the cough became persistent. He had two very brief fits last night, but so far today all is well.

The other symptom I am supposed to look for is lethargy. This has been more tricky with Jake. Since taking him to the vet for his shots he has been a bit more mellow than he usually is. This is most likely partly due to the ordeal of staying at the vet for 3 days with all those loud barking dogs. He may also be calm because during this treatment either I or someone will be with him at all times and while he doesn't have separation anxiety, he does seem to prefer to have someone present. So far he does perk up for food and treats so I am not really worried, but I do tend to over think things so this slight change in behavior (even though it is helping with his recovery) has me on guard.

"Can we play in the rain Dad?"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

All dark on the light/dark wheel

4 min dev in hot/cold clip

Day 6

2011-02-27T09:07:00.004-05:00

Another good day, Jake has perked up but still seems to be happy to lounge around the condo as long as I am here to keep him company. I am not complaining and I sure hope that the entire month goes as easily as these first few days have.

As for the impossible film, today's image was shot with the latest PX600 UV+. This film is the most stable so far of the 600 films and it also has the most B&W tones of the bunch. You can still get a bit of a sepia tone when it is developed in to much heat. I have been using the Impossible hot/cold clip to develop the film and using coolest indicator on the clip. If you haven't seen the clip it has three temperature sensitive stickers on it the become visible depending on the temperature range. There is a snowman, heart, and sun symbol. The snowman is for between 59 and 63 deg F, Heart for 74 to 77 deg F, and sun for between 86 and 90 deg F. I like to keep the temps for UV+ on the snowman. PX600 SS batch 7/10 and 6/10 do well also on the snowman or with the snowman and a faint heart.

"Lounging on the couch with Dad"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

Halfway between neutral and all dark on light/dark wheel
4 min dev in hot/cold clip

Day 5

2011-02-26T16:13:00.000-05:00

Jake has been pretty lazy and sleepy these first few days. I was told to expect that, plus Jake has been pretty laid back since I got him. That said you are instructed to look for excessive coughing and lethargy as signs something may be wrong. Some coughing is to be expected as the worms dissolve from the heart and lungs and phlegm is coughed up. So far no coughing! But I was getting a bit worried that Jake was being a bit too lazy, until last night around 1am and he decided that it was play time. So I had to crate him for a bit until he settled down, and then I let him out and he climbed into bed and feel fast asleep.

I have also noticed that he has been drinking way more water than normal, but other than that so far things have been gone great. I sure hope that is the case for the rest of the month.

Moving onto to the Impossible films. The first few images I shot were using the PX600 batch 7/10 (the batch number is on the side of the box). I found that batch to be very stable and predictable. Yesterday and today's images were created with batch 6/10. They are much more yellow and sensitive to temperature and exposure. Where the 7/10 film responds well to adjustments of the light/dark well, I am finding the 6/10 film to be less predictable. I have also had some weird developing effects with the 6/10 batch. One image had the right third of the image with a dark yellowish stripe covering it. I find with the 6/10 batch the light/dark wheel needs to be on max dark. I also find that when using the hot/cold clip for developing the 6/10 batches responds better to the coldest indicator rather than the middle ("perfect") temperature which creates a more red and muddy tone. The 7/10 batch responds well to both the cold and middle temperature indicator, but does get a slight reddish tint the warmer the developing temp.

"Naps on the couch are the best!"

SX-70 Sonar, PX600 (batch 6/10)

Exposure=max dark

Developed in hot/cold clip 4 minutes (cold)

Day 4, Jake loves his crate

2011-02-25T16:50:00.001-05:00

Jake has been great today, very mellow and actually spending most of the day in his crate voluntarily! I suspect he is still a bit worn out from the excitement of spending 3 days at the Vet with all the barking dogs and noise. In the month I've had Jake it has become apparent that while he wants to be in the middle of all the action, he really loves to come home to peace and quiet.

So yesterday I mentioned that Jake would have to be kept calm for the next 30 days, let me explain for those who have never treated a dog for heartworm disease. Treatment involves a lot of preparation and is dependent on the condition of the dog when diagnosed. There is a lot of misleading terms out there and some of this is the result of misunderstanding and unfortunately some Vets are just as responsible as everyone else in creating the confusion. I don't claim to be an expert, Jake is the first dog I have gone through this with. The test is a simple blood test and your dog can be diagnosed at one of 3 to 4 levels. Jake was diagnosed at level 1 which basically means he has tested positive for heart worms but is not exhibiting any symptoms like coughing or intolerance to exercise. This plus the fact that he is young and healthy are all very positive.

For Jake there was a few month build up during which time he was put on a monthly preventative and given a medication to kill the baby and migrating worms. Then he was given 2 injections 24 hrs apart starting on the 22nd to kill the adult worms. Over the next 7-10 days the adult worms will die. There is still significant danger because they are in his heart and possibly his lungs with no where to go but into the blood stream. Over time his body will slowly dissolve them. The danger lies in taxing his heart via exercise that has the potential to cause a large part of the dead worms to enter his blood stream causing a clot and possibly death. Thus he needs to be kept calm for at least 30 days and then very slowly returned to exercise. In some cases it is recommended to crate your dog for the duration. My plan is to crate him as he starts acting up. Jake is pretty much a couch potato most of the time, so I'll let him crash where he wants and if he starts acting up then I'll use the crate. He actually loves his crate and retreats to it often on his own so I'm no worried that he'll be upset when he is put in there. I can't imagine going through this with a high strung dog.

"Jake and Bobo"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX-600 (Batch 6/10)

w/ND Filter

Developed using Hot/cold clip for 4 minutes

Day 3, Jake is home!

2011-02-24T16:14:00.002-05:00

I am happy to have the pup home! He was pretty tired and went straight to bed after a brief sniff around to make sure everything is where he left it. He doesn't seem to have any ill effects from the injections, no soreness. I think he tired because there was so much going on at the vet, they had at least 5 other Lab Rescue dogs for various reasons, plus all of the vet techs fell in love with him and made sure he didn't go lacking for love :) That's my boy!

While the main reason I have started photographing this difficult time, is just to give me something to focus on rather than worrying about what might happen, the other reason is I didn't find much info about this part of the process online. So many people, like me, when they discover their dog has heartworms do the research and get nervous at the difficult path to recovery, but none ever did more than state that their dog either made it or didn't leaving me and so many others with little idea of what to expect. So my plan is to try and fill in that gap.

Today a brief intro to heartworms. They can only be transmitted one way, through an infected mosquito bite. They pose no danger to people, but are fatal in dogs. From what I have read it can take up to 6 months from the time of the bite to to when adult heartworms are found in the heart. This is why you are supposed to give the preventative pills all year round even if there aren't mosquitoes about due to weather. Also it is a myth that certain parts of the country don't have to worry about this. All 50 states have had cases of heartworms. The theory as to why varies but the data doesn't. The pill don't cost nearly as much as the treatment once your dog has the disease, the bill can run $1200+. The treatment can be fatal, or more specifically there are a few dogs who die before recovering but what I have read it seems that these rare cases are more because the dogs were allowed to much exercise. More on that in a later post.

Jake came to me with heartworms. Had I known how serious that was I may not have adopted him, but I am glad I didn't know because he is a great dog and deserves a chance. The countdown to March 24th has started...

"It's good to be home and back on MY bed!"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 (batch 7/10)

Dark/light meter - half way between full dark and neutral

Devloped 4 minues in Hot/cold clip

Missing Jake....

2011-02-23T20:07:00.002-05:00

Day two of Jake's heartworm treatment. No word from the vet which is a good sign. Hopefully tomorrow he will be able to come home :)

"I miss Jake.."

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar with ND filter, Impossible PX-600 (batch 7/10)

Light/Dark wheel on max dark

Developed using Impossible Hot/Cold Clip 4 minutes

An empty house again...

2011-02-22T17:22:00.003-05:00

Well Jake is at the vet today starting his heartworm treatment. He will be there for 3 days, then he comes home and has to be rested and prevented from exercising for 30 days while he recovers and his body slowly dissolves the dead worms. It was almost a year between the day Tucker (my last dog, a chocolate lab) passed away and the day Jake came home with me. It was a huge adjustment to coming home every day and not being greeted by a wagging tail. Now after only a month I can't imagine not having Jake here. It is only for a few days, but heartworms are serious and there is the very small chance Jake won't survive the treatment so that help makes this time apart a bit harder.

During the next month Jake will need to be monitored 24hrs a day on the off chance that complications arise. I am so lucky that I have been able to arrange to work from home for most of that time. My Father has also volunteered to stay with Jake on those few days that I need to go into work and I am sure I will be calling on my sister to puppy sit while I run errands.

I have decided to try and take at least one photograph each day to document this difficult time. If I manage to stick to this I will post the results here. I will use the new Impossible project films and use this time to test out the films and really see how the work.

This first image was taken with my Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, the film was Impossible PX-600 Silver shade (the second batch without the exploding chemical problem). The light/dark wheel was set all the way to max dark. The darkslide was taped over the ejection point to prevent the film from being exposed to light and then the film was placed in this hot/cold clip heated to the correct temperature range as indicated by the temperature sensitive indicators for approximately 4 minutes. As you can see the film does well. This was the first time I used the hot/cold clip for developing and it would seem that the film is much more evenly developed than sticking it in my pocket or warming it between my hands. None of the splotches and white areas that are typical with this film can be seen. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe the pressure and even temperature of the clip helps.

"An Empty crate..."

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX-600 (batch 7/10)

Iphontography, and Jake!

2011-02-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

So I am sure it is not news to anyone reading this that cell phone photography is quite popular. You may not be aware that many “photographers” look down on these type of images and can’t stand that some people claim to be photographers when all these use to create pictures is a cell phone.

Personally I find that sentiment funny and a bit elitist. I suppose you could ask the deep philosophical questions, “What make a photographer?” Some would answer anyone who shoots and develops their own film and makes traditional darkroom prints. Some may say anyone who uses a fully manual capable camera and chooses the setting themselves. I am sure you could ask any number of people and get varying answers from all of them. Me I think a photographer is an artist who creates beautiful images. We don’t care what type of brush or paint the great painters used why should we care what tools a “photographer” uses, right? There are many great photographers that didn’t develop their own film, shoot on fully automatic, don’t make their own prints, shoot digital. What really is the difference between a point and shoot and an expensive SLR shot on fully automatic? Basically the cost. Do “real photographers” use the auto settings on their fancy cameras? Hell yes they do. When I shoot my automatic cameras I rarely shoot on anything other the Aperture priority mode where I select the aperture and let the camera select the shutter speed. There are plenty of instances where I will even use the full auto setting because I know the camera will choose the settings I would want and allowing it to take care of that frees me up to frame the scene.

So I ask what does it matter if someone calls themselves a photographer if they use a cell phone camera? Yes the “quality” of the images will be different (read in general worse by any measure) than a fancy SLR, yes there are limitations to what you can and can’t capture. But so what, if that is the look and feel you want then a cell phone camera is the right tool to create your art.

What about editing your images? Anyone who knows me or has taken one of my classes knows that I am a firm believer that the art of photography is a two step process. Step one is capturing the RAW information using your camera (either on film or as a digital file), the second is brining your vision to life by post processing (using the wet darkroom or something like Photoshop). Cell phones these days offer a range of Apps that allow you to quickly and easily post process your image. I see these as no different than more traditional darkroom or Photoshop methods. Yes they are more automated, but that isn’t to say you can create stunning images without learning a lot about what the various apps can and can’t do. Just like the wet darkroom you need to spend time making images to learn what the limits are for creating an image. Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying anything you can do in the wet darkroom or Photoshop you can do on your iPhone, rather they are different ways you can create images, but both produce photographs and in the right hands both can create amazing art.

So my answer to the question “Can you be considered a photographer if you use a cell phone camera?” Is of course you can. But your images will still be evaluated the same way as any other images created with any other camera. Much like toy camera photography once you get past the awe that the images were created with “inferior” equipment and the coolness of the effects of the camera used the images still have to say something, tell a story, instill emotions in the viewer, make an impact.

Personally I like to try and make photography a part of my everyday life, I always have a camera on me even if I don’t take a single picture. I am always looking for images and having a cell phone on me means I can grab something if I see it. I have unintentionally started creating a series of images of people on public transportation.

I also use my iPhone to capture images of my new rescue, Jake! Jake is a 4 year old lab/hound mix and he has had a pretty rough life from what I can tell. He came to me with heartworms, intestinal parasites, a cherry eye and a few pieces of either BB's or buck shot embeded in him. He recoils from certain movements like he has been beaten, yet he still is so gentle and happy to meat anyone and everyone. All he wants is for you to scratch his ears. Since Jake is about to undergo heartworm treatment and will be required to be crated almost 24 hrs a day for th next month I will post these images in honor of him. Please keep me and Jake in your thoughts as we go through this difficult time. Heartworms are nasty creatures and treatment once a dog has them is pretty scary and requires what seems to me an almost inhumane confinement. I did the research and understand why he needs to be kept calm and confined, I understand that it is what is best for him, but he won't understand. He is just now recovering from the intestinal parasites he came with and is feeling energenic and desperately wants to play. I have only had him for 4 weeks now, but already he is part of my family, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly they become part of the family. How anyone could have treated Jake like they did and allowed him to get so sick is beyond me.

"Waiting for Jake to come home"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"Jake on his bed"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"Do i really get a bed all to myself?"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"Big Paws!"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"Napping on the couch!"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"Four Paws!

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"I Love Duck!"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

"Dad, why can't I go outside to play?"

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic App

China Town, San Fransisco...A great place for a nap!

2011-02-11T17:46:00.001-05:00

Here is another image created on my recent trip to visit my sister in California. Taken with my new Fujipet. The original was color, but this one definitely works better in B&W!

"Nap time!"

Fuijpet, Kodak Porta 400

A recent blog post by friend and photographer, Blake Stenning got me to thinking about the nature of my street photography and how I seem to be drawn to the solitary figure. I wondering if I photograph people as solitary figures because I often feel like a lone individual especially while traveling. Right now this feels like way to deep of a thought to follow on a Friday. Enjoy the image and have a great weekend!

TOYCAM Best of 2010!

2011-02-04T18:56:00.000-05:00

This week will be a short and sweet post. First in case you hadn't heard the news Holga Inspire selected TOYCAM as one of it's 4 best toy camera photography book for 2010! I think I speak for the whole book team when I say we are happy that the book has been so warmly received!

TOYCAM Best of 2010

Moving on, below find another image from my recent trip to San Fransisco. Taken with my trusty Holga. You really can't beat the Holga for an easy camera to carry around while on travel. This image just goes to show you that with ISO 400 film you will have pretty good range of light levels you can shoot in. Normally I load Ilford's HP5 into my trust Holgamods Holga with 2 apertures and I carry a 2 stop ND filter giving me 4 stops of shooting capability. Here I shot wide open with no filter and you can see that I got some pretty good detail in the low light of the cafe. With a bit of dodging and burning I was able to bring down the outside details and create some nice tones for this type of lighting.

"Coffee Break"

Holga, Ilford HP5

Photographer or camera collector?

2011-01-27T17:29:00.000-05:00

So over the years I have realized that you can divide photographers in to two general categories; those that have a camera or two, and those that have 20+. One phrase you will often hear if you take any kind of formal instruction is that “It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer”. Basically a good photographer can create good photographs regardless of the equipment. So the question can then be asked why would any photographer want or need more than a camera or two?

There are obvious reasons why some photographers don’t have an arsenal at their disposal. Money comes to the top, if you don’t have the financial ability to purchase and maintain numerous cameras then you will use what you can afford. Others develop a very specific style and find and stick to the equipment that allows them to realize their vision. I could go on, but I really can’t talk from this side of the divide with any real knowledge as I fall very clearly on the other side of the divide.

There is where I admit I have a problem….I own around 30 cameras. I own a Hasselblad 500C, Graflex 4x5, Razzle (an old Polaroid converted to 4x5), Nikon FM2N, around 10 Holgas (4-5 Holgmod Holga 120N’s, a 120S, a pinhole Holga, a Holgaroid, and a TLR Holga), about 5 Diana cameras and her clones, and 8 various Polaroid cameras (including a 180, SX-70 Sonar, SX-70, 600SE, and Big Swinger 3000), 2 Fujipet Thunderbirds, my one digital camera a Canon 50D, and various other toy cameras (Sprocket Rocket, Ansco Pix Panorama or two). These are just the cameras I own currently, over the years I have purchased, used, and resold easily 20-30 others.

So the question becomes why? Why do I need/want more than a camera or two? Why does anyone? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I love cameras. So part of the answer I am a collector of sorts. Some of the cameras that have passed through my hands have been used as display pieces in my home. But there is more to it than that. I am an engineer by day, so I think cameras speak to that side of my brain. There are so many different cameras, different ways a device can be designed to do the same thing that I enjoy holding them and learning to use them. A fun result of this is I can usually pick up any camera and figure out how to use it without instructions in a few minutes. This is less true for digital mainly because not nearly as many digital cameras have passed through my hands, plus figuring out the levers and dials of old film cameras is just easier, finding functions buried in a menu is just not as intuitive.

There is still more to the equation if you will. Different cameras have different effects on the image. Each design has it’s unique methods of capturing light and that leads to visible effects on the final image as well as the effects the physical design has on how you the photographer captures an image. An easy example is the different between a pocket point and shoot and a large 4x5 view camera. The view camera requires a tripod, the film is huge and takes up space and the camera requires that you take time to set it up, focus it, set the aperture and shutter speed. This is long time consuming process and the equipment is not really portable so you can’t capture a fleeting moment that you pass on the street on your way to the bank like you could with that point and shoot. Another easy example is a toy camera vs a “real” camera. Toy cameras in general have cheap plastic lenses and little to no controls. Images tend to have soft focus (if any at all), vignetting, light leaks, etc…These effects can lend an old feel to an image and even kind of a dream like feel. You aren’t going to use a camera like this when you need sharp and precise focus. So basically finding the right camera to assist you in capturing the image you want is important, and if you are an eclectic shooter like me this means you will want various types of cameras.

Then there is also the “cool” factor. Some cameras are just cool and fun to have. They may not be a camera I use often, but they are fun and sometimes they help me just get through ruts. I may not be inspired to shoot anything, but how can I pass up the opportunity to walk around town running some instant film through my Big Swinger 3000?

Then there are the toy cameras I own. It’s is actually typical to own multiple Holgas. Some are used to tryout various hacks or alterations, but mainly having 2-3 in your bag allows you to shoot longer before having to reload film. They are light weight so carrying a bunch around is easy. I also tend to pick up a Diana or clone here and there simply because they aren’t made anymore and I know when the few I have die beyond repair I’ll want to have a few spares.

So I guess the simple answer is I just like cameras, and I am lucky to have been able to purchase a bunch that makes me happy. I usually have a few on hand that haven’t been used yet and those provide great incentive to shoot when I don’t have any real inspiration or don’t feel like shooting for any of my ongoing projects. Currently my list of cameras that I need to take out for their first spin are the Razzle, Sprocket Rocket, Holga pinhole. I just ran my first few rolls through the Fujipet!

I guess I should note that in general my camera bag usually has the same equipment. A holga or two, the hassi or Nikon, and about 60% of the time the digital. So the vast majority of my cameras are used more for fun or for very specific reasons. I could easily live with the Hassi, Nikon, Digital and a couple of Holgas and maybe one of my new Fujipets. That’s not to say I’d give up any of the other cameras unless I really had to.

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Fujipet Thunderbird, Razzle, Greflex Speedgraphic 4x5, Polaroid 180

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 (Batch 6/10)

Art of the tourist take two

2011-01-20T17:10:00.000-05:00

So a while back I wrote up a bit about my thoughts about taking pictures while on travel. Mainly I focused on how if you practiced looking for interesting photographs in your everyday life it could help you create something special while traveling. Here is a link back to that post if you missed it:

art-of-tourist

Here is another fun tip for creating some unique travel images. If you have ever really looked at the typical travel images people take you can pretty much sum them up this way "Some one the photographer knows in front of something supposedly interesting". Pretty boring in general right?

One of my favorite techniques to use when shooting with my toy cameras, especially my Holgas is overlapping images. The Holga (and most toy cameras) have a fully manual film advance that isn't tied into to the shutter. In other words you don't have to advance fully to the next frame to be able to take the next shot so you can take a picture advance part way to the next frame and take another picture that overlaps the first. You can do this for the entire roll of film if you wanted creating a very long image. Typically I like to overlap around 3-5 frames, anything longer and you need some good photoshop and scanning skills to scan in the image in pieces and stitch it back together.

Typically I create panoramas of a wide scene this way, but it can be even more fun to overlap images of vastly different scenes or the same scene at different times. An example of the first can be seen in an old post here:

accidental-art

Here is my twist of the usual "Someone I know in front of something" image using the overlapping technique. I also like to take "tourist" images in very mundane places, like in this case a bus stop. That is probably more a reflection of how I like to travel, I don't really care about the fancy tourist places or museums. I'd prefer to spend the day wandering the streets where the people actually live pretending for a day that I live there too. All I do is look for great places to eat, and enjoy the sights and sounds of where ever I am.

Carolyn, Mike, and I - San Fransisco

Holga, Ilford HP5

For those of you familiar with the Holga here is my technique for creating consistent overlaps.

1. Remove the insert from your holga

2. Tape up the inside of your camera around the lens opening using non reflective black tape, I use gaffers tape.

3. Move the slider on the film counter window to 16 and shoot on every number. When on 16 you are using the numbers for 6x4.5 images, but without the insert in you are create images slightly bigger than 6x6 so you will have a nice even overlap every time.

Notes: when you want to end an image you need to advance to the second number you see in the window so that you leave enough space to prevent an overlap. So say you take your last shot and you start winding and see the number 9 in the window, advance to 10 if you want to start a new image.

Apparently the world is in color, who knew?

2011-01-14T21:19:00.000-05:00

So every once and a while it's good to step out of your comfort zone. Mine is clearly B&W photography. I love everything about B&W images. I love that they create a slight abstraction of the real world. I love the rich gray tones you can create. I love how easy you can create various moods. Basically when I am photographing even with a digital camera I am seeing the world in B&W. It's not that I am color blind, just that for some reason I have a sense for what images are going to work when converted to B&W. There are other practical reasons, developing B&W film is very cheap so by shooting on B&W film and doing my own developing I can afford to shoot much more than if I decided to have a lab process my film. This allows me complete control from the camera to the print.

So I hope I have convinced you that color is not my thing. So often when I feel I need to step out of my comfort zone my first action is to shoot in color. Now I can probably count on my fingers and toes the number of rolls of color film I have shot in my life so it is very rare that I shoot in color. Even once I finally purchased a digital camera I have pretty much converted every image to B&W. I find it very weird to look at the LCD screen on the digital and not seeing the image I see in my head. I had to actually trust myself in the beginning that the image would work once I converted it :)

So for what ever reason when I went to visit my sister in San Fransisco I packed some color film and took my new Fujipet along with my trusty Holga. I loaded the Fujipet with Color and the Holga with B&W. Mind you I had only run 1 roll of film through the Fujipet, so not only was I using the dreaded color film, but I realy had no real feel for the camera yet and what film speed would be ideal. I think most of us when we travel with our cameras we default to taking the cameras and film we are most comfortable with so we don't miss the chance to get some good pictures. Strangely I have much more fun when traveling by trying totally new things, new cameras, new films, what ever. It is freeing to allow myself to not really care if I got the shot. When it works it seems all the more awesome because it is different from the usual look of my images. In a way this difference from the usual look of my images can also enhance the feeling of a different place to me cementing for me the experience of visiting a new place. When it doesn't work I don't really feel bad because I know I just need more time to figure out the new camera or film.

So here is my favorite image I created with my new camera, I hope you like it.

China Town, San Fransisco

FujiPet, Kodak Porta 400

Happy Holidays and have a happy New Year!

2010-12-22T10:59:00.001-05:00

So I have been terrible the last few months at posting not only here but on Flickr as well. Life has gotten in the way, I spent a month renovating my small condo and then had a few personal set backs. But I am back now and slogging my way through getting caught up on my scanning and editing. I still have quite a few test images for my Old Town project to work through including some Holga panos covering entire rolls of film (talk about a pain in the ass to scan and stitch together in photoshop!). I have put on hold my testing of the new impossible films as I lost some of my notes on the images I shot and need to recreate the tests, plus with the weather turning cold I now have to deal with the added variable of temperature which these films are very sensitive to. But have no fear I will get it finished eventually.

On the plus side I am heading out to San Fransisco for a week to visit my sister so hopefully I will have a ton of images from the trip soon. Though it does look like it's going to rain the whole time I am there....

Well here are a few images to tide everyone over the Holiday season. One image from my trusty Holga and two from my new Fujipet!!!! I will provide a bit of a write up about this camera once I have run more film through it, buy my first impression is LOVE!!!

Here's to hoping 2011 is better than 2010!

Navy-Mem Station, Washington DC

Fujipet, Ilford HP5

National gallery Ice Skating Rink, Washington DC

Fujipet, Ilford HP5

Route 5, So. MD

Holga, Ilford HP5

First attempt using on-camera flash, high heels, and of course drag queens!

2010-11-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

So I have pretty good experience using studio lights, I mainly use two soft boxes in my studio. I mean really I think it's cool when photographers use 30 different lights and spend 20 hours setting it all up and adjusting the output of each light so slightly no one can really tell a difference. Honestly two soft boxes and the occasional spot are pretty much all you need to create beautiful lighting for just about anything you might need. My motto is to keep everything as simple as possible!

Moving on, I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase a flash to use with my Canon 50D. I decided it was time to add some fill light to my available light portrait work, but of course it arrived just in time for the annual pre-Halloween Dupont Circle High Heel Drag Race in DC. The event is basically a celebration of Drag Queens. At 9PM they line up and run a few blocks. Of course the real fun in the 2 hours before the race where they parade up and down the street in their outfits and pose for pictures.

So having never used on camera flash before I set out to learn in the trenches. I set the camera to 800 ISO, played with the flash power and slapped on a diffuser. For most of the night I was shooting wide open on manual with the shutter speed at 100 and the flash either at full power or 1/4 power. I used full power if the subjects were about 15+ feet away and 1/4 power when they were closer. That seemed to work pretty well. I had the occasional over or under exposure, usually from misjudging the distance of my subject. The main problem I had was with the auto focus. Shooting wide open doesn't leave much room for error. Of course I didn't catch this until late in the evening, once I did I started shooting at f11 and that gave me the DOF I needed to compensate for the moving subjects. All in all I am happy with the results and love how well the night flash photography converts to B&W, there is just something about flash photography at night! Honestly even though the costumes were beautiful in color, they just loose something with the flash lighting.

Anyway here are the images, enjoy!

All images shot on Canon 50D

Dupont Circle High Heel Drag Race

Failure, pretty clouds, and bird poop!

2010-11-05T11:00:00.002-04:00

So this was supposed to be the post where I reviewed the various Impossible Project integral films, but of course I have been deathly ill all week and haven't been able to get all of the images ready and the review drafted. On top of that I have started a complete condo renovation, mainly involving repainting every surface where I live, but also involving a new addition to the built-in shelving in my closet (formerly my darkroom, something had to cover the hole in the wall where my sink was). So all that to say it will probably be another few weeks before I can get my review completed. The good news I ordered a few boxes of the newest color film so I should be able to add that to the review and cover everything Impossible has released so far!

Until then here is one of my favorite captures from the past summer. This is one of those that resulted from my habit of always having a camera on me, even if I don't plan on shooting. On this day the clouds were so amazing I just had to take a long lunch from work and snap a few pics. Enjoy and have a great weekend. Think of me while you are out enjoying the weekend as I will be painting my closet so I can finally put everything that is currently on my living room floor back where it belongs :)

Holga w/orange filter

Ilford HP5

Accidental Art?

2010-10-29T17:46:00.001-04:00

One of the unique aspects of photography is that you can shoot a ton of images of the exact same thing. You can really explore a subject. I suppose in the world of a painter this might also be true in that you can always add another layer of paint and cover up anything that doesn't work.

But any good photographer will tell you sometimes an image was just a plain old accident. So the question always comes up is there an value in this? One of the key skills of being a photographer is editing your work very critically, only showing the stuff that really works. This is true for just about any form of art, but maybe more so for photography. One of my favorite quotes from a good friend of mine is: "The difference between a good photographer and a great one is a trash can". Implied in that is that a great photographer only shows the images that really work. It might be then said editing is what separates a photographer.

So this brings us back to can an accident be art. I think the answer is of course it can. One of the truths about photography is that you have to be in the right place at the right time to capture an image in the first place. You have to press the shutter release to capture the image, even if by accident. I think this thought makes photography a lesser form of art to some people, I think this is what makes photography a relatively unique artistic medium. It is nearly impossible to be lucky all the time, you can't teach someone to have an eye, and while everyone who owns a camera has probably had one of those accidental captures where they have no idea how they did it, the "photographer" will have a higher hit rate in general and also be able to learn from those accidental captures and use that information in the future.

Here is a recent accident of mine that for some reason has stuck with me, let me know what you think. This was captured on a Holga camera. I have been shooting a lot of panos on the Holga recently working on a slightly new technique. While I was walking around Coney Island I decided that I wanted to shoot single images. Now my technique for creating the overlapping panos in the holga is to set the film counter window to 16 and remove the internal masks. This way I am shooting images slightly bigger than 6x6, but using the 6x4.5 counter resulting in uniform overlapping. Well on this day I swore that I had returned the film counter window slder back to 12 and was happily shooting away thinking I was creating single images. What I ended up with was 3 distinct views of Coney Island that I wouldn't have intentionally overlapped, but I kind of think it works. Here's to happy accidents!

"Coney Island"

Holga, Ilford HP5

The art of the tourist

2010-10-22T10:53:00.000-04:00

I know some photographers go out to create art. They plan ahead, wait for the perfect conditions, and go out with the goals of capturing a specific shot. I have run across some who believe that is the only way to create great images. While I definitely set up shoots where that is the exact way I approach creating an image, more often than not photography is really just a part of my everyday life. I enjoy always having a camera on me and challenging myself to capture something special from what ever I encounter. If you have never approached photography like this I highly recommend it. For one it forces you to accept the lighting conditions you encounter and really think about how to best use and expose for it. You also have the challenge of seeing a scene for the first time and having to figure out on the fly if you can capture something special. Often you might even be limited by the camera that you have on you. The old adage of using your eyes to photograph every thing you see is also useful. Just having a camera on you as you go through your day allows you to really look at the world around you and if you see something you can capture it. This is how street photographers capture life so to those who practice that craft this is just how they shoot.

The idea of always having a camera on you is also great for the beginning photographer. The idea is to always look at the world around you as a possible photograph. Now for many of you the thought of carrying around your big fancy camera all the time doesn't sound very practical. If this crossed your mind then I suggest you find your self a smaller lighter camera. The Holga (a toy camera) is perfect just this purpose. They are cheap (like $30), light (made of all plastic) and can fit in any bag you may have on you. All you need is a few rolls of film (iso 100 and 400). If you like instant results then an old Polaroid SX-70 or 600 camera could work as well. The new Impossible films are getting more stable and easier to use (Check out my review and lessons learned on these film in two weeks right here). And of course most cell phone cameras these days are pretty good (the iPhone cameras are especially fun, more on this in a future blog post).

This leads me to tourist photos. If you practice looking for images in your everyday life this can translate really well to when you go on vacation or travel to a new city. You can take your typical tourist photos like seen below, but sometimes even just using the right camera (in this case a Holga) can make the usual "Girlfriend in front on (insert iconic place here)" scene seem a bit more interesting. Plus while you are being a tourist capturing the usual images you can also capture something more special!

"Kelly on Brooklyn Bridge"

Holga, Ilford HP5

"Brooklyn Bridge"

Holga, Ilford HP5

We dont' have to be lonely anymore...

2010-10-15T12:42:00.001-04:00

So welcome to my first POTW (photo of the week) post, every week that I don't post a long boring diatribe on photography I'll post a new image. They will come from the archives or the unending pile of current work. I had planned all week to start with an image that is on the website, but then I got off my butt and started working through the pile of negatives that I needed to scan and started working on editing a few images. So here its is a new image fresh out of post!

This is an image that I personally just love, but for reasons that are unrelated to how successful the image may actually be. This is a pretty common occurrence for us photographers, we fall in love with images for reasons that are not always related to how well the image works from an art perspective. Now I have had it beaten into my head that you need to remove yourself from your images and evaluate them unemotionally and only display the images that truly work. I say rubbish! Well at least I think it's important to allow ourselves to love an image just because we do. I photograph my life, sometimes I strive to make great art from the everyday, but sometimes I am just recording moments that are only important to me. This is one of those. I actually do think this image works on all levels, but maybe it doesn't convey to anyone else the emotions I had when taking this picture.

"We don't have to be lonely anymore..."

Nikon FM2N, Ilfrod Delta 3200 @6400

And don't forget to check in on GreenSt's Filckr page every Tuesday for new images. Also if you like this blog please choose to follow it or put a link on your blog. If you put a link on your blog let me know and I'll return the favor.

Spooky Show II @ LightBox

2010-10-13T10:23:00.001-04:00

The show is up! I had a piece selected so if you can make it out to the gallery please check it out. If you can't make it then check out the images HERE!

In other news I am in the middle of scanning a bunch of film keep an eye out over the next few weeks here and on GreenSt's Flikr page to see the results. Also check out the Flickr page to see the images uploaded on GreenSt's Flickr Tuesdays.

This Friday will start my Photo of the week so check back in at the end of the week to see a highlighted image of current work or something from the archives.

Here is my image from the show:

"Electric Company #4"

Holga, Ilford HP5

Family Portraits on the Farm!

2010-10-08T00:10:00.004-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of shooting some family portraits for an old college friend, Romi. The awesome part was that the shoot was part of a long weekend visit and Romi and Family were more than happy to do the shoot informally! Romi and her husband Andrew (everyone named Andrew rocks!) have two beautiful children Kalan and Gavin. As many of you may know shooting children can be difficult, especially in a formal studio setting with a limited time frame to work in. So having parents willing to trust me and go with the flow is a luxury and really in my opinion the best way to have a chance to grab something special.

This was a first of this kind of shoot for me. I have worked with a few families in the studio, but never had I worked on location (in this case their beautiful historic Farmhouse in VA). Hearing horror stories from my other photographer friends about trying to get children to cooperate had lead me to realize that trying to force young children to focus for long periods of time with parents and photographers trying to get that perfect image with all involved smiling on cue was a recipe for failure. So I have always wanted to try an informal, available light shoot. Just me and my camera and the Family on location. If I could get the whole family to relax and get used to me pointing a camera at them I figured I might be able to produce some images that were much more than simple images of a family all smiling on cue.

So the first day of the weekend visit I made sure to have my camera with me at all times. I took a couple hundred images that day. Almost all of the them terrible, but my goal was to just get everyone used to me with the camera. And I did capture two lovely images that you could never duplicate in the studio. The first is of Kalan passed out on the couch after an afternoon at the pool, and the second is of Gavin helping Dad prepare for dinner.

The morning of my last day visiting ended up being the big shoot. The weather as expected was terrible for photography. It was over 100 degrees (did I mention the beautiful historic farm house had no AC?), the Sun was bright and harsh even at 10AM when we finally started shooting. And on cue Gavin had a melt down with in 5 minutes because he had no desire to wear the nice polo shirt his Mom wanted him to wear. So I asked Romi if I could go off with Gavin alone and see if I could win him over. Once I had him by himself I asked him what he wanted to wear, his soccer uniform he replied. Perfect! Then I asked him what he wanted me to photograph him doing, he decided posing on his bogey board in the middle of the lawn..Brilliant! I sure would have never thought of that :)

Next up he played with his cool dump truck, and then onto T-ball practice. The Holga came out for these images.

at this point the whole family was watching and I grabbed a nice simple image of Romi and Kalan.

Then it was time for some bike riding and Dad stepped in to help.

Now these images may not be fine art, but they are images that are showing the Family as they are. So they are unique and special in that way. Personaly I find these images more meaningful and more likely to be special over time. There is a bit of a snapshot of this families evberyday life here, something they can look back on a still be transported back to this time in their lives 10 years from now.

Next it was time to play soccer and Kalan joined in.

All during this time I was making a deal with Gavin, if we did what he wanted for a while, maybe we could do a few with his sister and then the family. When it was time to pair up the siblings I managed to grab some really special images (with the help of some obviously funny antics from the parents going on behind me, maybe one of these days Romi and Andrew will tell me exactly what they were doing behind my back that was so hilarious). In these images I managed to capture a few brief moments where Gavin let his guard down and you can see how much he loves his little sister. Kalan was never shy about showing her love for him.

Up next came some serious tree climbing.

And then it was time for some portraits of the whole family. The bright background actually provides the perfect distraction free background. I love having the children in trees in between the parents. I also love how again you see this natural family dynamic in an obviously posed image. Kalan is staring lovingly at Dad, Gavin as usual is in his own world, and parents are doing what they are supposed to! Put it all together and I think it adds that extra something and gives you a more true glimpse into this lovely family.

To end the shoot we went on a short hike around the property. It was hot, everyone was getting tired, but the children were now having fun and comfortable and I got this!

For me this was THE image of the shoot. It is one of the best family portraits I have ever shot. You have this perfect representation of this family. The strong, loving, protective arms of the parents representing their love and support of their children. Yet the parents faces aren't shown. Honestly their hands are all you need to understand how Romi and Andrew feel about their children. You also understand that these are parents who are not overbearing, they see their children as individuals and allow them to be exactly how they are. You see Gavin off in his own world, this is very much Gavin. Kalan is quietly experiencing everything, happy to be with her family and finding enjoyment in every new experience. During the walk she picked flowers and they make the perfect appearance here. The only direction I gave the family was to stop in a patch of shade and then I started shooting. I saw this immediately and grabbed it. I knew then that I had something special.

I grabbed a last image with the Holga.

The gear used for this shoot was a Canon 20D and a Modified Holga from Holgamods. The majority of the shoot was done with the Canon. As a solo shooter digital just allows for a smoother and quicker work flow. In retro spec I wished I had done some more work with the holga and explored overlapping images of each of the family members. I plan on heading back down to work with the Klears soon so hopefully they will be happy to let me experiment with that.

I think the main lesson learned is to not have to much of a plan going in, when you are working with many individuals and especially young children it may be better to just go with the flow and see what you get. having parents that are willing to allow you that freedom is key, they may not get the perfectly posed images they might have wanted, but they will get some lovely images of their family as they are and personally I think those are family portraits that will stand the test of time.

Hey if you just want images of the whole family on a silly blue background, perfectly dressed up and all looking right at the camera smiling on cue, I can recommend "Glamour Shots by Deb" at your local mall or Walmart. There is no sense paying a fine art photographer to create shots that a 14 year old kid can make while working his summer job!

Keep an eye out for the next article from GreenSt detailing Andrew's testing of some of the Impossible films starting with PX100 First Flush and the new PX100 Silver shade as well as his first tests of the new PX70 First Flush color film.

Also check out GreenSt's Filckr page every Tuesday for Andrew's weekly uploads of new images from current shoots and his archives. Tell him what you think by leaving comments and favoriting the images you like.

GreenStPhotography Relaunched!

2010-09-29T23:23:00.009-04:00

Welcome to the official re-launch of GreenStPhotography on the web! If you have been following this blog recently you have probably noticed almost weekly changes to the design. That has all been me editing the look of the blog as well as how it was organized to get ready for the launch of my newly designed website.

The plan going forward will be to use each website for a specific purpose. The webpage will act as my portfolio; it will be updated least frequently, but will have links to some of my current ongoing photography projects. Flickr will be a place I will load much of what I am shooting currently, the projects I am working on, and some of my favorites from my archives. The blog will be a place I will share my thoughts about photography as well as a place to share my favorite images. I plan on doing a monthly article that will either feature a recent shoot, tutorials on post processing, camera and film reviews, and possibly the occasional interview. I will also post a weekly favorite image from my archives or just what I shot last weekend to show you what I am up to.

So here is the link list, please book mark one of them or all!

GreenSt's web page
GreenSt on Flickr
Follow GreenSt on Facebook

Next Friday (the 8th) I will post my first monthly article. I will walk you through a recent family portrait shoot I did and discuss some of my tips for this type of shooting.

Here is a new image for you from where I work.

Holga w/orange filter, Ilford HP5

TOYCAM is FOR SALE!!!

2010-09-15T20:04:00.000-04:00

All the entire TOYCAM Book Team Blake, Bill, Jose, Jason, Gregory, Ben, Leah, and myself are pleased to finally announce the publication of the long awaited book!!!!

We would all like to extend a heart felt thank you to the entire toy camera community who supported this project from the start almost 16 months ago to now. None of this could have been accomplished without all of your enthusiastic support.

I would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire book team for your dedication to this project. You have helped make this project much more than I ever envision 16 months ago when I proposed a book project on toycamera.com. I can't tell you what an honor it was to work with all of you!

Ok so here are the links to purchase your copy of the book:

Purchase the softcover version - CLICK HERE (SOFTCVR)
Purchase the hardcover version - CLICK HERE(HARDCVR)

For more information about the book and project checkout the WEB PAGE! The page will have more content soon so keep checking back in.

On another note, you may or may not have heard that the final copies of the book I received had an issue with the cover (see the image below and notice the stripe of dark blue around the illustrations that should not be there on the bottom book). We believe we have corrected the issue, but as the team has already spent quite a bit of money on proofs already we have decided to release the book without ordering another round of proofs. Ben is confident that there is no way this will happen with the new books. But if you do see this please let us know ASAP.

Finally if you purchase a copy please do send me your reviews and comments. You can post them here or send the to me at info@greenstphotography.com. The team plans to add a review page to the website so get your reviews in!

From the entire team, we hope you enjoy the book as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

TOYCAM - a slight delay

2010-09-10T10:12:00.003-04:00

I just got the shipping notice from Blurb. My copy of the book is scheduled to be delivered on the 16th. Since we made changes from the proof copies. I wanted to spend my money to ensure that all is well with the book rather than have all of you order copies only to then tell you we found a major issue.

So I am pushing the official release date to the 17th. Keep in mind this is only if there are no major problems found with the printing. Judging by the proof copy I don't see any problems.

I am sorry for the delay, hopefully this is the last one I have to announce :)

Thank you all for your patience!

TOYCAM - Release Date is....

2010-08-26T14:35:00.003-04:00

We have set the release date for Monday September 13th! There is a chance that the date could be sooner so check back in often.

The final edits have been sent to the book designer. We are also working on the webpage where we will have pics of the actual book, links to Blurb, and eventually a few words about how the book came to be and some lessons learned for the next group of volunteers. We are also hoping to get feedback from all of you and we plan on periodically posting it up there as well.

TOYCAM - The Proof Book is in hand!

2010-08-11T21:25:00.005-04:00

Here are a few teaser images from the proof copy of the book! All in all Blurb has really improved the print quality over the last few years. The book looks great! We just have a few tweaks to make and the final round of edits (we did make a proof print a bit early to make sure the images would print correctly). I still think we are looking at release the book for sale by th end of the Month or the first week in September at the latest. Please link to this Blog and spread the word around!

More from Rachel's wedding...

2010-08-03T13:29:00.008-04:00

Here are the last few images that I liked from My good friend Rachel's wedding. While these may not be art, I think these images show how just taking a Holga and a few rolls with you, you can capture some lovely moments from your every day life. I can't speak for other photographers but I love to always have a camera on me. You can really learn allot even if you are shooting the every day or aren't trying to create the perfect image. I find that I often learn some of the best lessons when photographing a situation like a wedding from the guest seats. It forces you to take the most typical of photography situations and try and make something a little more special. Finding small moments and framing them quickly is a skill that requires practice and patience. And of course I threw in a quick arms length self portrait of me and my hot date :)

Holga, Ilford Kodak Tri-X, Silver EFEX Pro

More from the Hair ball...

2010-07-27T09:48:00.006-04:00

Here are some more images from the Hair Ball at Merriweather Post Pavilion in MD. I think these combined with the other two give a pretty good look at the environment and people. I guess they work pretty good as a group, but these 3 don't work as well as stand alone images as maybe the two from my last post does.

All images taken with a Holga
Iford HP5, Silver EFEX Pro

Rock and Roll Ain't noise Pollution!!

2010-07-23T16:39:00.011-04:00

Well I haven't been good this summer about posting in a timely manner. I have hundreds of images back logged to work through. It seems I have been spending more time shooting and having less time to post process. I can't say I'm complaining, but being a person who likes to keep on top of my to-do list I can't say I am happy with the length of the list right now. I guess it's better than not having any images to work on :)

I have also been suffering through a massive heat wave here on the east coast. It has been about 3-4 weeks since the day time temps haven't been below 90. This wouldn't be a problem, and actually would have been great for getting a handle on my to-do list, but 2 weeks ago my AC went out and I have been waiting for a replacement. On the plus side I now live in a sauna and am sure I've sweated off quite a few pounds. I have to give a shout out to my girlfriend Kelly for allowing me to stay with her periodically so I can cool off. To bad that she lives a 3 hr commute away from my work :(

Anyway here are some images from the Hairball in MD from a few weeks back. I'm still working through a few more images. These were both taken with my Holga. I have also been playing with combining my typical more traditional approach to image editing, i.e. sticking to darkroom techniques like contrast control, dodging and burning, and using a more digital approach like toning and using Sliver EFEX Pro. So on these images I used a Silver EFEX Pro filter and a photoshop sepia filter. Let me know what you think.

Holga, Ilfrod HP5
Silver EFEX Pro

TOYCAM Update!

2010-07-12T13:01:00.005-04:00

I hope that everyone is as excited as I am about the nearing of the publication of this book. I just sent out that 98.5% final version of the book to the team for their final edits and comments before we print the proof copy. I could have the proof copy in my hands as early as next week :)

A while back we released the design for the dust jacket of the book, it was met with mostly positive comments, but we did notice a few comments about the color orange. We were a bit divided on the team as well. It seem orange is one of those colors that people either love or hate. So we decided to change the color and ended up going with a blue that was inspired by the numerous shades of blue found on Diana's and all of her clones. We also reduced the size of the illustrations and added a few more. Other than that the cover is essentially just like what we showed you all a few months back.

Rachel and Siddarth's Wedding

2010-07-08T22:15:00.004-04:00

Here are few images from my good friends Rachel and Siddarth taken at their wedding with my Holga.

Holga, Kodak Tri-X

Lexington Market!

2010-06-16T09:16:00.004-04:00

Kelly took me down to Lexington Market in Baltimore to have my first taste of oysters. On the oyster front, I like them but wouldn't say I love them. I guess I still have some Baltimore cred in that I do love me a good crab cake! Anyway here are some images I grabbed before I was harassed by a security guard and told I couldn't take photos in the market. Mind you she told me this as there were probably 15 other people taking pics with their point and shoot cameras all around us and she didn't say a word to any of them. I guess my little old 20D looked too professional for her. That or she just felt the need to exert her power over someone. Well I dutifully put my camera away until I was out of her site and then went back to shooting :)

Here are a few images from inside the market. Let me know what you think:

Lexington Market, Baltimore MD

Canon 20D, SilverEFEX Pro

Graffiti Love...

2010-06-15T09:15:00.002-04:00

While photographing the artists at work this young couple came by. It was obvious they were stoned out of their minds. He desperately wanted to help the other artists. They set him up with a pen in this corner to basically keep him out of the way. While I as busy photographing the rest of the crew I glanced over and saw the couple embracing and grabbed the shot and didn't think more of it until I got home and took a closer look at the image.

I love that unless I really told you that this couple was stoned you may not have picked up on it. There is just a lovely moment caught here in the middle of all of this graffiti creating what I think is the perfect back drop for this young couple. Call me crazy but this image may be my favorite from this shoot.

Canon 20D

SilverEFEX Pro

TOYCAM - Last but not in any way least!

2010-06-10T19:43:00.004-04:00

the sixth and last name on the interview list for the toycamera book TOYCAM - Lo-fi Photography. Over the past year the book team collected hundreds of names, viewed many web-pages, Flickr galleries, and toycamera.com galleries. In the end we only had room for 6 interviews in the book, though we would have loved to talked to so many more of you.
So everyone please congratulate Sean Rohde (aka moominsean! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him about his photography.

Tagging Baltimore!

2010-06-09T16:24:00.008-04:00

Memorial day weekend I was driving around with Kelly and she mentioned there was the great alley of graffiti near by. So we pulled over and not only was it awesome but there was a group of artists working on the alley prep'ing it for a show that night or something. Once they figured I wasn't there for any sinister reasons they allowed me to photograph them working! Here are some of my digital images. I also took some Polaroids with my Polaroid 180, I'll post those images latter.

I decided, as I usually do, to convert my digital image to B&W. If I had been shooting film I would have been shooting in B&W anyway so for many reasons this makes sense for me. I often tell my students when photographing art to try and make it your own. On some level converting a very colorful scene to B&W accomplishes this. Also B&W allows me to really emphasize the grittiness of the alley which I don't think comes through as well in color. Anyway I consider myself a B&W photographer and as I tell everyone I see in B&W (not really I am not color blind).

All images shot on Canon 20D

SilverEFEX Pro

Congrats Rachel and Siddarth!

2010-06-09T15:57:00.007-04:00

I had the honor to watch two good friends get married this weekend! I am so happy for Rachel and Siddarth and wish them all the best! It was a lovely combination ceremony that represented both of their cultures. I will forgive them for making me sit outside in the blazing sun on the hottest most humid day of the year thus far :) Anyway I did take my Holga and shot 2 rolls of film. I still need to develop the film, but since I did get to shoot their engagement session I thought I'd share one of my favorite images from that day. I will post any good shots from the wedding latter.

"Rachel and Siddarth"

Canon 20D, SilverEFEX Pro

Hands...

2010-06-07T19:07:00.007-04:00

After a long hiatus I have finally started shooting nudes again. The pause was more a lack of models than a lack of desire to shoot the subject. I have started playing with using Sliver EFEX Pro with my nudes to create a more gritty feel to the models skin. This technique celebrates (to me at least) the flaws and imperfections in the skin and also gives a rough vibe to the images. Here is a simple example. Like my good friend and mentor, Jim Steele, I am fascinated with hands and the character they posses I often find myself making sure the models hands are at least part of the focus of my nudes (if not the focus). Please let me know what you think of the look and feel of this image.

Nikon FM2N
Kodak Tri-X, Silver EFEX

I also have a model booked to start shooting my "Self Within" series. I hope to be able to start posting some of the raw images here with in a few weeks if the shoot goes well!

The Book Thing...

2010-06-02T18:12:00.009-04:00

"The world outside"
Nikon FM2N, Kodak Tri-X
Post processed using SilverEFEX

Now that I am spending so much time in Baltimore :) I figure it is high time to start trying to capture the wonderful diversity of culture in this rough around the edges city right in my back yard. I already have a couple of hundred images to weed through but here is a taste. These two are from a wonderful hole in the wall free book exchange known as "The Book Thing"

"Elbow in the FACE!!!"
Nikon FM2N, Kodak Tri-X
Post processed using SilverEFEX

Been busy...(Post may be NSFW)

2010-05-28T11:26:00.007-04:00

Well unexpectedly life has taken over and I haven't kept up with this blog. Can't say I'm complaining :) I have been shooting, but mostly just my every day life. I will post any interesting images I can as I work through them. Where does the time go? I have been working with the new Impossible films and having some good success lately, especially with the PX100 film. It looks like the best results are obtained simply by allowing the film to develop in darkness. I just tape the dark slide over the ejection point on my SX-70 Sonar and then either put the film in my pocket, or bag, or if it's really bright out a film changing bag. I still like to use my hands to help the development with a little heat now and then. I will either just rub the whole film in the palm of my hands to slightly darken the whole image or use my fingers to darken a specific area. I typically start this heating process just before all the blue paste fades away.PX600 has needed less to no heat. Actually any small amount of heat seems to really turn the film orange or even red. My problem with the first batch of this film is the de-lamination issue along with getting ugly green tones show up in the shadows after about 30 minutes of development. I also get the snow flake issue and the weird light spots. Supposedly all of these issues have been corrected by Impossible. I have ordered a few packs of the new and improved PX100 and PX600 films so we shall see. I have to say I am not sure that PX100 needed a change, as I had already dialed in the film to my liking. I guess it would be nice to not have to allow it to develop in darkness, but at the same time if you get rid of that then you may also get rid of the ability to effect the image during development which I like allot. This has all been a fun experiment and I guess I will just be happy to continue along the ride.
So here is an example of PX100 in bright sun on a cooler day using my method of applying heat with the palm of my hands to aid development:

"Kelly & Andy"
SX-70 Sonar, PX100

I don't know about other photographers who shoot nudes, but I have always wondered if I needed to get in front of the camera to better understand what the experience is like. Not unlike many people who would never consider posing nude I have insecurities about being nude in front of a camera. But for whatever reason lately I have been thinking it was time to step to the other side of the lens. I started by figuring I would just do it, not tell or show anyone and be able to say yes I had done it. But it turns out I actually like some of the images. If you can't already see below don't freak out, the images show nothing.

Untitled
SX-70 Sonar, PX100

I didn't learn anything profound by doing this. I have always understood and appreciated the models who were willing to help me make some of the images I really enjoy. When you shoot people or nudes you are limited in that you can't just wake up and go shooting. Especially with nudes you need to do allot of planing, and most importantly you need someone willing to pose for you. Up to this point my nude photography has been rather traditional, I have spent a few years learning to shoot the female form approaching it from a very traditional veiw point. I love the images I have created, but they are rather safe and nothing new. I have a new project that I am currently looking for models for that I hope will be my first step taking everything I have learned and applying it to create images that are more me than copies of traditional work that has come before me. I hope to have something to start sharing before the end of the summer.

I will post some of the results from my PX600 film in a future post.

The big list!!

2010-05-10T18:08:00.005-04:00

The book team finally made the selections for the 7 themed galleries in the book (TOYCAM -Lo-fi Photography). We received just over 650 images from around 100 photographers for consideration for the book. The team spent 5 months selecting images and designing the layout of the galleries. Every member that had a vote was very passionate about the images they wanted in the book and there were many heated discussions. In the end this book can only be said to represent the broad range of photography appreciated by the team as a whole. These images may not be the best of the best, but they do represent the range of likes of the members of the book team and we think and hope that the galleries make sense as a whole and provide a range of interpretation of each theme. While you will have to wait until the book is published to judge the results here is a list of the photographers selected and a link to their websites (if they have one).

Congrats to all selected! And a heartfelt thank you to every single photographer that took part in this project even if you didn't have an image selected. I can't begin to tell you how many beautiful images were left out of the book for no other reason than we just didn't have room.

Adam Lanigan
Aline Smithson
Brian L. Schiele
Cameron Stephen*
Danielle Hughson
Dave Dunne
Devon Cummings
Don Brice
Erin Malone
Ernie Button
Gordon Stettinius
Graham Lowe
Holly Northrop
Jay Panelo
Jeff Evans
Jennifer Henriksen
Jenny Kolcun
Jim Rohan
Jon Wilson*
Katie Clark Slick
Ky Lewis
Laura Burlton*
Leah De La Cruz
Lena Kãllberg
Lori Bell
Marc Ilford Wijngaarde
Megan Green
Michelle Bates*
Otto Kitchens*
Paulo Jorge
Rebecca Tolk
Rebecca Pendel
Rich Burroughs
S. Gayle Stevens
Sandy Wijaya
Sarah Hodzic
Scott Keidong
Shawn Warner
Sophia Koopman
Tootie Nienow
Tread
Trevor Wood
Valery Rizzo
Vincent Leyour
Warren Harold
Zeb Andrews*

Please let me know if any of your names are spelled wrong or if any of the links don't work. I will correct them ASAP.

* means that so far I have yet to receive a response from you either providing missing info or verifying the info we have for publication.

Also keep an eye out for the last photographer that took part in our highlight interviews. We have so far announce 5 of the 6. The last name should be released sometime in the next few weeks.

TOYCAM - hang... um...5?!

2010-04-30T08:46:00.004-04:00

the fifth name on the interview list for the toycamera book TOYCAM - Lo-fi Photography. Over the past year the book team collected hundreds of names, viewed many web-pages, Flickr galleries, and toycamera.com galleries. In the end we only had room for 6 interviews in the book, though we would have loved to talked to so many more of you.
So everyone please congratulate Jack Brull (aka Glider! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him about his photography.

TOYCAM take 4! (finally)

2010-04-23T18:17:00.007-04:00

the fourth name on the interview list for the toycamera book TOYCAM - Lo-fi Photography. Over the past year the book team collected hundreds of names, viewed many web-pages, Flickr galleries, and toycamera.com galleries. In the end we only had room for 6 interviews in the book, though we would have loved to talked to so many more of you.

So everyone please congratulate Gordon Stettinius (aka Eyeca ramba)! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him about his photography.

Iphonetography

2010-04-11T15:56:00.007-04:00

Many photographers are discovering the iPhone camera as a potential creative tool. It is much maligned as a pretty terrible camera even for a cell phone. Many complain about the file size yada yada yada. A few have realized that the camera combined with the numerous camera and photo apps may actually be a tool to make some amazing images. Yeah you can't print these images very big, a few inches at max. But printing large is often the fall back of photographers trying to make their images have more of an impact than maybe their image really has. I mean everyone is impressed by giant prints, they cost more, and we all know that if it is big and costs more it must be awesome right? Well many people who know little about art do think this way, and if they happen to have lots of money then all the better :)

Anyway I hope the iPhone is showing us a glimpse of where digital cameras may go. Maybe you have seen that Polaroid has created a little Pogo camera that comes with a small printer giving you a digital way to recreate some of the experience of the old Polaroid camera with its instant film. Can you imagine that camera and printer combined with a few apps that allow you to visually recreate the old instant film? Or a digital camera and printer all in one with all of these iPhone style apps that allow you to edit in the field? Don't get me wrong I love film, but I love photography more than any aspect of it. Give me an iPhone camera with a few more megapixels and all of the apps and the ability to print anywhere in the field and I will use it.

I am going to make a regular part of this blog a sampling of the images I have and will create with the iPhone and all of the apps. I will do my best to list the apps used, but I am not going to go into the details of exactly how the images were created. Here is the first image. It was created by a composite of 3 separate images and a combination of the AutoStuch, Cool fx, and PhotoStudio apps.

iPhone
AutoStuch, Cool fx, PhotoStudio

PX100 - Round 2

2010-04-09T21:29:00.004-04:00

Ok so I took the SX-70 Sonar to Easter with the Fam loaded with my second pack PX100. The day was pretty overcast but still bright enough that you could wear sunglasses. Temperature was in the high 70's (degrees F). Learning the lessons from the first pack I kept all of the subjects (the Fam) close and focused on getting a good image. As you can see from the first image these conditions produced very good detail and the contrast is much better than the first pack. The light/dark dial was centered for all of the images.

SX-70 Sonar
PX100

As I said in my last post I thought that this film could use a bit of adjustment in photoshop. Now I am not very experienced work in color but I think this next image shows the potential. The tricky part is trying to keep the same color tones.

SX-70 Sonar
PX100

This next image has the lens pointed in the direction of the sun and you can see that as you would expect the image is a bit more washed out. I did use Photoshop to darken the image.

SX-70 Sonar
PX100

Here is another image with no Photoshop adjustments (other than to make it look as close to the original as possible). The images after this show a few experiments adding body heat to the development.

SX-70 Sonar
PX100

This image was developed in my pocket and heat was added via friction from rubbing my hand over the image for about 30 seconds. The image is darker and has a slight red tone as we expect. The shadow detail tends to go away. This method also is pretty hard to control since you can't see what is happening when the image is in your pocket. I tried twice more to replicate this and both times the results were darker and more red.

SX-70 Sonar
PX100

I decided to test out my idea from the last post. I shot this image with the dial 1 tick toward the white side of the dial (giving more exposure). I placed the image in my pocket to develop, checking it every 5-10 seconds until I saw that the image was primarily showing yellow and brown tones yet still had some of the light blue tones from the protective paste. At this point I started rubbing the image between my hands creating heat. I was able to significantly darken the image yet keeping the red tones from showing up. I am going to practice this technique as it has thus far produced the best tones and contrast.

SX-70 Sonar
PX100

First Flush - PX100 (New Polaroid film)

2010-04-02T19:59:00.009-04:00

I took the new instant film being produced by the Impossible Project for my first test shoot today. The rumors on the street were this was a pretty tough film to dial in and very sensitive to temperature and light during developing. Please excuse the rough scans here (newton rings and all). I just wanted to get my first experience out there and let everyone get a feel for what worked for me and what didn't and hopefully I will start to see some other lessons learned from other shooters and we can all start to figure out this film.

These images were taken with my SX-70 Sonar. Everything was shoot in Alexandria VA, USA. For the outside shots most were in bright clear sunny conditions. Some of the last few were bright sunny hazy conditions with hazy cloud cover. The first shot was shot indoors, the exposure was a couple of seconds (guessing by the sound and delay), handheld, with the light/dark dial centered.

1. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

As you can see it looks very over exposed. Either the light meter in the camera gave to much exposure or maybe this film needs less light under these conditions. The reciprocity curve might not hold out here, though if that is the case this is the first film I know of that needs less light at long exposures.

The next shot was outside in full bright sun with a clear blue sky. Again the light/dark dial was centered. This seems to be the perfect conditions for this film. This is the best contrast I got all day.

2. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

The next shot was of an alley way with shade and sun, same light as the above shot. Again the dial was centered. I wanted to see how it handled a very contrasty scene. The image has less contrast then above, but all in all the film did pretty good here. You can already see this film is not going to be a very high contrast film. Actually it feels very much like Polaroid Chocolate shot with a Holga.

3. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

This next image was shot in the same bright sun with birght blue sky, but I moved the dial one tick mark toward the darker side (giving less exposure). You can see the muddiness that results and the much less contrast. Still this has potential. It does suggest that only very minor adjustments of the dial will be necessary.

4. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

This image was shot an hour or so later. It is still bright and sunny, but now there was a thin layer of clouds basically turning the sky into a big bright softbox. The subjects were further away here. And all in all the contrast is way down and I did notice this film has problems with object far away, they always seem to be hazy. Dial was centered again.

5. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

Same exact conditions as the above image.

6. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

The conditions here were the same as well, but I moved the dial half way to the next mark toward the lighter side (more exposure). You do see a slight increase in detail in the tree line and the water seems brighter.

7. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

Finally I put the dial back to center. Same weather conditions. This time I put the film in my pants pocket and kept my hand over it to warm up the film. This film is supposed to get a red hue if the developing temperatures get to hot. You can see the added heat does start to give some red hues, it also caused the image to darken much more. Essentially this the same image as image 6 (same settings and conditions, take probably 5 minutes apart). Yet this is much darker. I now wonder if under these bright hazy conditions you might overexpose a bit and then develop in your pocket to create a better image.

8. Polaroid SX-70 Sonar
PX100

My first impressions are that this film has potential. It is going to take some time to really dial it in and find the right lighting conditions to really make it shine. I will say it has allot of potential if you combine it with some Photoshop post processing. At the retail price this is going to be expensive to learn this film. Hopefully if enough of those who use it share their experiences we can collectively figure it out fast :)

Another image for the Old Town Alexandria Project

2010-03-31T22:26:00.007-04:00

I won't bore you today. Just another image for my new project. All of these test shots were taken on the same day and now I am just trying to decide if I should keep at it or not.

Ansco Pix Panorama
Kodak Tri-X
Toned using Silver EFEX Pro in Photoshop

New Project? I'm still undecided

2010-03-30T22:13:00.005-04:00

I have been toying around with the idea of photographing my hometown more. I am sure many of you have the same problem I do when setting out to photographer where you live, it's hard to get motivated to photograph what you see every day. For me personally I will watch a shot I want to take day in and day out and watch how the light changes through out the day or the year. There are many local shots I just assume one day I will get around to taking. There is one image that I have been meaning to take for about 5 years now on my way to work, the light and conditions are only perfect for a few weeks each year, but I never seem to pull over on the side of the road and take it.

Moving back on to the topic I have been thinking about forcing myself to get out and photograoh where I live so I have the idea that I would take panos of the majority of the city blocks in Old Town Alexandria. The row houses are colorful and have lots of character. I figure this will be a long term project that I can work on when not working on other projects. I have already taken allot of test shots and I am still playing around with film and techniques (I may eve shot in color).

Here is my first post. This image was taken with and Ansco Pix Panorama camera. It is a cheap plastic toy camera. It claims to be a panorama camera, but it is really just a 35mm camera with a mask the cuts the normal frame in half to make the resulting image seem like a pano. The camera has no controls, you basically just load film and fire. As with all toy cameras if you know how to use them you can get some fun results. This image is 7 images layered to create a composite. The image was also toned and a filter was added using the Photoshop plug-in Silver EFEX Pro.

Ansco Pix Panorama
Kodak Tri-X

TOYCAM is please to announce take 3...

2010-03-25T20:43:00.002-04:00

the third name on the interview list for the toycamera book TOYCAM - Lo-fi Photography. Over the past year the book team collected hundreds of names, viewed many web-pages, Flickr galleries, and toycamera.com galleries. In the end we only had room for 6 interviews in the book, though we would have loved to talked to so many more of you.

So everyone please congratulate Marc Wijngaarde (aka Marc Ilford)! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him about his photography.

TOYCAM is pleased to announce...

2010-03-19T22:00:00.006-04:00

the second name on the interview list for the toycamera book TOYCAM - Lo-fi Photography. Over the past year the book team collected hundreds of names, viewed many web-pages, Flickr galleries, and toycamera.com galleries. In the end we only had room for 6 interviews in the book, though we would have loved to talked to so many more of you.

So everyone please congratulate Wallace Billingham (aka Wally)! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him about his photography.