I fear color...

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

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

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

The Red Razzle was finally let out!

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!

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

More from Baltimore's Graffiti Alley

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

More from the fair

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

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

Art of the tourist take two

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?

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!

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!

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!

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?

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

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...

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.

More from Rachel's wedding...

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...

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!!

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

Rachel and Siddarth's Wedding

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

Holga, Kodak Tri-X

Lexington Market!

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