Is Fun Still Relevant in 2022?

Don't you just love the turn of phrase, "Is X still relevant in 2022"? Like the state-of -the-art computer or lens you bought last year? Anyway, remember fun? No, neither do I. But, digging through my image archives, it looks like there was a lot of it to be had about a decade ago, even while out photographing... Good reminder to myself. I need to start doing more of that again. Shooting for fun. This little iPhone 4 photograph got a whole lot of love on Flickr. Remember Flickr? Ha!

Art or Archeology?

I've heard it said that architecture, or let's say the built environment, is one of the main visual manifestations of cultural forces. Seems like a pretty solid argument to me. And I suppose photography is one of the best tools in our quiver to interrogate the built environment in order to explore these cultural forces. The close relationship between culture and the built environment is undoubtedly why so many photographers are drawn to making images of architectural subjects. These cultural forces draw us in like moths to a flame. A critical question, in my view, is whether we approach the work as archeologists or artists.

Among the Dead

In my opinion, there is no place better to enjoy a quiet lunch or a simple cup of coffee than a cemetery. At least I used to feel that way. Recently, our local cemetery has become a popular rendezvous spot for runners and walkers, and can be quite crowded and busy at times. It is where my wife was infected with COVID-19 back in 2020. If you don't mind driving through small towns, you can still find some pleasant spots. A number of years ago, I found this old marker while on a wander and was surprised by the fact that a person born in the 18th century had lived to the ripe old age of 87. 

I was shooting with my first digital SLR, the Nikon D50 and a vintage Nikkor lens. I no longer remember which one. I was pretty bad at keeping notes back then. Still am.

Milestones

I still remember the first time I heard 'Straight No Chaser' from the Milestones album of 1958. It was one of those moments when you realize you are experiencing something truly remarkable. Those musicians were without question breaking serious new ground. I mean, even just in terms of the horns repeating the head over and over and letting the rhythm section improvise. That would be considered pretty rad even today. Of course, I was hearing it several decades after it was released, but it was still new and eye opening to me. Something similar happened when I shot a large format camera for the first time. Several decades late, you might say. Working my way through the entire cumbersome process from loading the film to setting up the shot to developing the negatives made me feel connected to the history of the medium in a way I hadn't before. I used to wish I could have heard Miles and his band live in New York, but I'm over it now. 

What Is Your Greatest Fear, Old Man?

What is your scariest nightmare? For me it is breaking down on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and slowly coming to the realization that no one is going to come. I'm on my own, waiting for the wild dogs to come and do their grim work.* Anyway, I'm not forgetting my nightmares as quickly these days, like I did when I was younger. Is that typical? No idea. On the bright side, I'm slowly learning how my nightmares connect to photography, in some instances at least. Maybe I'm turning into a surrealist?!

*A reference to a show we've been watching called, "The Old Man".

Tasting notes: Leica SL2, 35 mm f/2, Ortho 80 +.

Waiting for Godot

Seems that way sometimes. You keep thinking he’s about to get here, but no. It's just a group of aging ayatollahs. But I digress... I was waiting in the parking lot of the veterinarian while my cat was getting his shots and I had some time on my hands. He tends to freak out at the vet, and it can sometimes take a minute. There were one or two photographs to be made in the mean while.

Tasting notes: Olympus E-330, 25 mm f/2.8 lens. 

Sofa Shots

Is the word sofa actually an acronym for sit on fat ass? I (and others in my life) have certainly expressed that opinion at various times. But the fact of the matter is that sometimes all you need to do to capture a fine photograph is to SOFA. For example, the photograph above is a sofa shot, and came directly out of the camera looking like this. 

Good light to you this weekend. Get your ass out there and make a few images!

A Spy At Home

Like most kids, I suppose, I had a certain fascination with spies and spy craft when I was growing up. Had... Who am I kidding? The interest persists to this day, as evidenced by, among other things, my avid streaming of Slow Horses this Spring. Anyway, I purchased a nice working copy of a Minox B on eBay a few years ago and I usually take it out for a spin once a year or so. The main stumbling block? It’s a bit of a pain to develop and scan the film. But, when I do make the effort, the quality of the images I get always amazes me.

Ridiculous Vehicle... Or Maybe Not…

 

I remember just absolutely hating these retro styled vehicles when they first came out about 20 years ago. The styling and performance seemed to miss the mark for me somehow, and I don’t think I was alone in that opinion. In fact, I know I wasn’t. Turns out that due to the lack of sales, only 24,000 of these Chevy SSRs were ever made. After the passage of a couple decades, it looks like these old sleds have become collector’s items, just like some of the old cameras I love experimenting with. 

Nice copies of the SSR can go for upwards of $40K! Now that's a lot of camera gear...

Tasting notes: Minox B, 100 speed film.

Summer Solstice 2022

Looks like a long, hot summer ahead of us this year, and probably for most years moving forward. Enjoy! 

I Ain't No Dang Luddite!

I certainly appreciate old and overlooked cameras and lenses, and I love demonstrating to myself that they are capable of producing great images to this day. And, of course, I also still enjoy shooting film and even working in the darkroom from time to time. But I ain't one of them Luddites, neither. It's more about trying out and enjoying all the options available to me as a photographer, old and new. I'll take the prix fixe over the giant ribeye all day long, you know what I mean? There are a number of aspects of modern cameras that I am particularly enamored of, none more than image stabilization. I love being able to ditch the old tripod for 95% of what I do. For example, the shot above was made using a stabilized full frame camera and a macro lens at near 1:1 magnification. Shooting hand held at shutter speeds near 1 sec really does open up options for new kinds of images to be made.  

Rubbed Out Around the Corner

Living in Berlin for a couple of years back in the day, I learned a good bit of the German language. Sadly, it's faded over the years, but one of my favorite expressions was um die Ecke bringen. It means to get rid of someone, as in to rub them out (like a cigarette) as we might say in English. The expression has a certain Cold War vibe, and may be coming back into relevance, who knows for sure what lies around the corner?

Tasting notes: Leica R9, 35 mm Summicron (version 2), Lomography Berlin 400, Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta.

Insane Telephoto

A few years ago I thought it might be fun to go birdwatching on the Gulf Coast. It certainly was great fun, but it also was meltingly hot and humid already in February, which you could say effectively dampened my enthusiasm for being active outdoors. Turns out, I preferred just watching the birds rather than trying to photograph them through a spotting scope and sweating all over my gear. In the end, the spotting scope was much more fun to use after I got home as an insanely long telephoto lens. 

Tasting notes: Panasonic LX3 and Kowa spotting scope.

A Fan of The Blues In the Middle of Nowhere

You never know what you’re gonna find out there, I mean, I sure wasn’t expecting Lead Belly. But there he was, alright.

Hope you have good light and plenty of shutter time this weekend. Whatever you do, be sure to stay hydrated!

Tasting notes: Leicaflex SL2 film camera, 35 mm Summicron (old version), Ilford Ortho film.

Fixin’ to Rain

Sometimes we get some really strange light before a thunderstorm down here. It was in the upper nineties yesterday and humid as hell, too. I was hoping for some evening rain to drop the temperature and humidity in one fell swoop. Suddenly, we noticed the light was yellow. Yellow, for real. So I took a few photographs and damn if the white balance wasn’t off in the camera. So, I edited the files right away to make sure the color was just right. In other words, before I forgot what I saw. And of course, I double checked with my wife.

Tasting notes: Canon digital camera of modern vintage.

Space and Time

When I was younger I went through a pretty serious Zen period. What I mean is, I put real effort into sitting meditation. I spent plenty of time on a zafu in front of a white wall. These days, I have a different approach, easier on the old piriformis. Plus, it ties into my art practice a little more directly, I think. I try to bring my visual attention to a state of focus so that I can notice things. I enjoy this practice and once in a while get a photo that is meaningful to me. 

In Praise of Funky Old Phone Photos

My son ruined his phone the other day by going into a friend's pool without thinking first. Sigh. I rummaged through my junk drawer to see if I had an old phone I could give him. Turns out I did, so we are covered on that front. It also turns out that I had saved my iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 for sentimental reasons. Which got me thinking...

Here is an image I captured on the road in Wyoming about a decade ago using whatever phone was current at the time. You remember... the ones where the cameras were still a little rough around the edges. I find that I kind of like the wonky colors and low resolution. That said, with current software it is possible to bring these old digital files closer to their full potential, which is kind of fun, and a bit of a relief.

Iced Cap

Going on a cruise wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it was strange in ways I hadn't foreseen, too. It turned out that what I liked best was cruising the open sea between ports, feeling the power of the ocean as it pushed the floating hotel around. And the iced cappuccinos. I'd never had one of those before, sweet tea and Mountain Dew being the preferred options in my neck of the woods. At any rate, I found this sweet spot on one of the lower decks where you could look out and watch the ocean go by while nursing an iced cap. The view was kind of distorted by the plastic material used for the windows. It was my vibe for sure, and I took a number of frames to be certain I got one that resonated with me back home. I'm damn glad I did, too, because these days I have pretty much lost all interest in being on a cruise ship ever again.

Tasting notes: Olympus EPL2 digital camera with the 20mm lens.

Diptych

Crepe myrtles and their shadows. Rolleiflex SL66 with the 80 mm f/2.8 lens.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Anywhere

You can find interesting compositions anywhere, provided you’re aware of what’s around you. That level of attention is key, at least for me. I had just looked at a wonderful museum show of mid-20th century photographs and was chilling out in the sculpture garden when I made this photograph.

Black Water

Black water. Like a cup of tepid, bitter Southern tea. Where the gators and snakes hang out, and where you swim at your own peril. And let me tell you, son, this is the time of year when the snakes come out to play. I surely love being in nature, but much prefer standing at the water's edge with a camera than feeling the cold snake bodies flitting across my submerged legs.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveller.

Meatscape

This image is part of my new body of work entitled "Meatscape". It critiques a bunch of stuff and all like that. Right. Of course, I jest. I don't have what it takes to pull off a project like that. Plus, these days I'm trying to be a tad less conceptual. Anyway, let's just say that that it was more of a Winogrand moment in which I was curious to find out what a slice of prosciutto looked like when photographed. Not that great, if I'm honest, although monochrome certainly helps. The other kind of weird thing is I've never seen a pig with a rectangular leg before. It just makes you wonder, is all. A friend of mine bought an actual Iberico ham. I mean the entire leg. He stores it in the guest bedroom of his house. Now that's some yummy ham.

More Pinhole Goodness

Here's another image made using the WoodBläk 66 pinhole camera, designed and made at Mottweiler Studio in Portland, OR. With the camera mounted on a skinny little monopod, I pretended the set up was just a fancy walking stick, hoping not to look like too much of a photonerd while keeping things nice and steady for photographing. Anyway, personal vanity aside, you can see that the camera is capable of producing high quality, detailed images. The focal length of roughly 25 mm on 120 film is pretty freaking wide, so the shadow of my head makes an appearance in this frame. As you might have guessed from the color palette, I was shooting Kodak Ektar 100 that day. 

Pinhole FTW

My wife was wiped out from a day of hard work, so I was walking alone yesterday. What better camera to bring along on a solo outing than a pinhole? I could work as slowly as I pleased without messing up the rhythm of the walk. But it wasn't my grandfather's pinhole camera I had with me. No, it was the Woodbläk 66, a thoroughly modern affair, that I've come to really enjoy shooting. Given the late afternoon light, I decided to work handheld using HP5+. With a focal ratio of 120, I knew my exposures were going to be in the 1/2 to 1 sec range, so I was searching for interesting value masses that might look okay with some motion blur. It is the time of year for magnolias, and this one was illuminated by direct sunlight. I developed the film right away and scanned in the negs after dinner for a pretty quick turn around. Split toning helped achieve a nice contrast between leaves and flowers. 

The Fullness of Time

This is a photograph I made back when I was but a lad -- in the 80's or thereabouts, I reckon. I found this negative in a pile of old crap memorabilia, and decided to scan it into the computer. The good news is that it looks like the negative held up okay over time. Hey, there's an image to work with. The midtones do look a little 'fluffy' to me, if that makes any sense. But mostly, I'm feeling pretty satisfied with the overall composition that younger me came up with. I think I was out on a hike trying to 'discover myself' or something along those lines. That's how we tend to remember ourselves, isn't it? As clueless wanderers seeking enlightenment. In the fullness of time, though, I hope I can be kinder to my youthful self.

Tasting notes: Canon AE-1, Canon 50 mm f/1.4 FD lens, Kodak Tri-X, D-76 + Sulfite 1+1.

Self-Portrait Ordeal

In retrospect, I'm not sure the venerable Rolleiflex SL66 is really the best choice as a self-portrait camera, but I still had a good time setting up this shot. The trick, of course, is to get at least something in the frame in acceptable focus, which, thankfully, I was able to do using only a single roll of Tri-X. I did end up cropping a bit to get a decent final composition. And I do really like the motion blur on the D-string and my hand and pizz finger. My left hand was responsible for actuating the shutter using an extra long release cable.  

Tasting notes: Rollei SL 66, 120 mm f/5.6 S-Planar lens, Tri-X.

Imperfection Is Perfection, Kinda

A younger version of myself would probably have been bothered to bits by the small amount of lens flare in this photograph, but the current me just don’t give a crap. I mean, the camera was pointed into the freaking sun and I still got a nice image that didn’t need any work in Ps. These days I’m happy when I don’t have to edit much on doc style images. Also, one nice thing about using a real camera instead of a phone is you don’t have to remember to wipe the fingerprints off the lens before you trip the shutter.

Tasting notes: Canon M6ii, 22 mm lens.

Relief From the Heat

As the summer weather starts to kick in, I begin to seek shelter under the trees when I walk. Shaving off a few degrees of misery can be the difference between dripping wet and just plain hot. The views are different too, in this season, and sometimes the good ones seem harder to find. But they're there if you can avoid the sweat in your eyes and the mosquitos and ticks.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

Sun Salutations

Observing your breathe is an established method of becoming centered and preparing for another day of working in the studio. I suppose they're both called 'practice' for a reason. Becoming aware and noticing things. Sometimes an opportunity to make a photograph also arises...

Tasting notes: Olympus Stylus 1 digital camera. 

Making Your Own Civility

It is so easy these days to get sucked into a doom spiral of disturbing news and the accompanying images. Is that really a healthy state of affairs for humans? I rather doubt it. To me, it seems like an unfortunate  condition of the times we are living in. Now, I'm not saying we should switch to only watching the Hallmark Channel, not at all. But in a world lacking in civility, perhaps we need to more proactive in making our own when we can.