Portraits

I have never photographed so many people as I have within this year. With the youth sports photography and the photography class that I'm taking this semester... Funny, considering I'm not really good at photographing people, yet my instructor says he likes my portraits better than he does my photos of other stuff. If anything, I'm definitely getting a lot of practice.






And when you run out all your friends and their kids to take pictures of there is always the homeless people on the streets of San Francisco.

Toy Stories

it's been a while since i've really taken any pictures.

i've been kind of lazy.

but now it's coming down to the wire and i've got 3-4 prints that i have to have turned in the week of feb. 26th.

and you all know what that means.

i have to get my lazy ass out there and make some shots!

so...

with my toy holga 120 in hand, i've hauled my ass out into the abyss that is called the bay area. i figured i had this holga long enough, it was time to test it out. as my instructor says, "a camera that sits at home takes lousy pictures."

when it comes down to the wire, where does teena go in a pinch?

the cemetery, of course!

where else would i go?

i brought the holga with me when i went to vermont back in november, but only used it a hand full of times, so i still had half a roll left. the picture above is from one of those shots. it is the infamous haunted emily's covered bridge in stowe. it was nice to see it on the contact sheet after i developed the roll.

let me tell you...

loading 120 film onto the spools is a bitch! augh!

it took me what seemed like forever and a day just to get that first roll loaded. and i had two more to go! after finally getting that first roll on though, i was able to figure out how to get the other rolls on faster.

i'm just going to have to take more pictures with 120 so i can get in the practice of loading them onto the spools with no problem. i'm even looking into getting a mamiya 645 super. when i told my instructor i was looking to get he asked me why the 645. i said why not, i had to start somewhere. though after talking with him, he's not got me thinking about possibly going with the rb67 instead. i dunno yet. we'll see.

anyway, if all goes right in the darkroom tonight i might have my 3-4 prints done tonight. if not, i've got a 4-day weekend up in ukiah this weekend to get out there and get some more shots.

i'm off to the lab!

Vermont & The end of Photo 50

Last night was the last night of my Photo 50 class. Let me tell you, this crew is one of the craziest! There was never a dull moment in class or in the lab. This was one of the best classes, ever! Oh, and the instructor rocked too. Seriously, our instructor, Len Cook, was one of the funniest and coolest ever.

One of the best things I got out of this class? The friendships I made with my classmates and some of the other photo students that I met in the lab. Taking this class I was able to meet some of the coolest people and gained a few photography buddies. If it wasn't for this class, I wouldn't have made the new friendships that I have.

One of the other things I learned from this class? Photographers are the weirdest bunch of people I have ever met! Yes, will fit in just fine with the lot of them. Really the coolest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Deep down inside, they are all just a bunch of photo nerds, and I am proud to say that I too, am a photo nerd!

I have to say that the photo lab was the most kick ass part of taking this photography class. There is nothing like developing your own film and pictures. Walking into the lab, the smell of the chemicals the first thing to greet you...nothing else like it. You sure in the hell don't get that from digital. Nor can you capture that true black & white on digital. Then again I have yet to find editing software that can produce the same grain as black & white film. I have run across Alien Skin Software who has an extension pack for Photoshop called Exposure for $199 that is supposed to reproduce realistic film grain. I just haven't had the money yet to buy it and see if it does.

One of the things that we didn't end up covering in the class was how to mount our photos to matte boards. However, I wanted to learn how to do it on my own. All together I mounted about 4 pictures. These are the last pictures that I printed in the lab.

Got Pork?
Washington, Vermont

First let me just say that I know that the matte board border looks gray. I had to scan these mounted prints. The matte board itself is 11x14, while my scanner bed is only about 9x14. Therefore, the gray is the result of scanner shadowing from the the scanner bed being to small.

I ran across these pigs while I was taking pictures of the photo below. There were some chickens in the front yard of the next house on the road. I watched them cross the road to this little make shift barn yard, I guess you could call it that. I first saw a few turkey's just chillin', so much so that I was able to get in the face of one of them to take a picture and it just stayed there. I then noticed these pigs in two separate pens. The big guy on the bottom was in a pen with one other pig just a huge, and all the little piglets were in the pen next to them. Let me tell you, they were so happy to see me, as you can see by the one piglet climbing on all the other piglets. In their mind I'm sure what they were thinking were, "A human. Food! Feed us, feed us, feed us!" Erin was afraid that someone was going to come out of the junk yard house across the street and shoot us. We were there quite a while, enough time for me to re-load to get more shots of the pigs. I had to reassure her that if someone was going to come out and shoot us they would have already. I was laughing so hard taking these pictures of the pigs. I just thought it was great.

Fixer-Upper 1.5 Mil. Could Be you!
Washington, Vermont

Every time we're driving down the road where this house is, I always make Erin stop so I can take pictures of it. I'm surprised that out of the past 6 years, or so, that this house is still somewhat standing. If you can call it standing. The garage, which you see, is the only part of this whole house that hasn't started to fall apart. Then again, the garage is not attached to the house, which is probably why it still is standing. Part of the second story of the house itself has fallen into the first floor, as it has been the last few times I've seen it. One of these years I'll find this house completely sunken into or torn down.

The Old Mill
Barre, Vermont

I can't remember where exactly in Barre this was taken. It's located on the Corner of Main St and ??. I'm not even sure if it used to be a mill, but that it was it kind of looks like to me. Railroad tracks run in front of the building that faces Main St, with a little train trestle to the right as your are facing the building. I liked the way this abandoned building and how the river runs behind it. I took a lot of pictures of the front and back, but liked how this particular picture looked.

Across the way from the front of this mill, along the railroad tracks, is an alley. Erin and I noticed a bunch of vagrants down the alley. They had noticed me taking pictures and started yelling obscenities at me. One man in particular was getting very vulgar with me. As I was walking back to the car he was cussing at me, making hand gestures, then at one point proceeded to take his dick out of his pants and flap it around at me. I'm guessing he was telling me to suck his dick...LOL.

When I got back to the car I had a déjà vu of that entire scene that just unfolded. Yet, I know that this particular event has never happened to me before any other time I have been in Barre. I told Erin that in my déjà vu I ended up setting up my camera with my telephoto lens, going back to the alley opening and taking a picture of all the vagrants down that alley. I knew this is what I was going to do even before I did it. You're all probably thinking that I thought of doing that which is why I did it. But I really had no plans of taking the vagrants picture until I had that déjà vu and saw the scene play itself out. I don't know if that makes sense to any of you out there, but this was the first time that I knew what I was going to do next before it even happened. Usually it's not until after the entire scene plays out that I have the déjà vu and go, "Whoa! That just happened like I saw it before in another time." I've never had a déjà vu before where the scene played itself out before that particular moment passed, until then. It was a bit surreal really. I know I didn't explain it quite right. Let me just say that, for me, a déjà vu is how I know that everything that I have done is what I was supposed to do in my life. I can't explain it any better than that. You probably think I'm out of my mind, and you'd be right. I never said I wasn't weird!

So there are a few pictures from my trip to Vermont last month, along with the end of my Photo 50 class. Next month I'll start Photo 51 which is an Individual Project class. The next class after Photo 50 is Photo 60, but it will not be available until next Fall. In the mean time I want to still be able to go into the lab, so I thought I'd take Photo 51. Now I just need to figure out what one project I want to concentrate for the next class. I was thinking of concentrating on my cemeteries, trying new ways to photograph them, but I want to try something different than my ol' stand by. I dunno, maybe street photography, or night... I've got until the 15th to figure it out.

Dark Light

I am loving my photography class. More to the point, it's the darkroom that I am loving the most!

I've always loved black & white photos, but none more so than I am now. After developing my own rolls, then taking those negatives and developing a print from the frames... I have such a new found love for black & white. It doesn't even compare to digital. AT ALL!

I mean digital is fine for that 'gotta have it right then and there' photo, but I never really feet like "That is a great fucking shot!" as I am with actual negative film.


You're there in the darkroom.

You've got your negative in the negative carrier.

You turn on the enlarger, positioning the easel.

Raising and lowering the enlarger head until you get your image centered.

You put your test paper in the easel.

Now here is where you really get to see where your picture is in focus. You pull out the grain focuser, looking through the eyepiece as you watch all those grains come into foucus as you adjust the enlarger.

It's all those little grains that I am in love with!

You can actually see them! And feel them. Well, not in the physical sense of the word. But I can feel them.

All those hundreds of thousands little silver emulsions.

The Dark Light.

Then after to done your test strip, determining your correct exposure, and you've exposed your print, the visual results begin to appear as you place your paper in the developer.

Watching as an image slowly appears on the paper.

There is nothing quite like it. You won't get that with a digital black & white. All you get are pixels.

They don't even compare to grain on a negative.

I have fallen in love.

~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~

Tursday I developed an old roll of film I shot back in March of this year. I wasn't even sure what was on the roll. I wasn't surprised to see that the roll was one of many that I shot at Cypress Cemetery in Colma, CA. I was surprised that I didn't fuck up the development! I was also surprised to see that I actually took some really great shots that day with my SLR.

So, these are the very first prints I have ever developed on my own in the darkroom.

The first picture seen here is the very first one developed. This was the one frame on the contact sheet that jumped out at me. I decided to call it Keys to Heaven.

The second one is one that I wanted to see how it would look printed. It's not quite as sharp in focus as the first one, but it came out decent enough. That one I am calling Lion of Judas.

So these are my first try and developing prints. They didn't turn out half bad for my first try. I'm sure there are a lot of critical eyes out there that can point out probably a half a dozen things wrong with them.

But you know what?

I don't care.

I'm pretty proud of these prints.

They are my first.

You never forget your first...

~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~.~-*-~

Better in FULL view.
[Click on pix for full view.]

Keys to Heaven

Lion of Judas

I've always wanted a darkroom. After this, now I really, really want one!

In The Dark

I have been a bit negligent of my blogging duties as of late. Not that my life has had any major impacts to it lately. Well, not unless you call turning a year older a major impact. But other than that, I've just been either too busy or just too damned tired to even know one day from the next.

My days are now consumed by work and photography. If I'm not at work then I am at school, either in class or in the photo lab.

My photography class is a trip. The instructor is teaching it without a course book. I'm glad I have both of the course books that the other instructors use for this class though. It makes it much easier to go back to them and reference if I'm not too clear on what the instructor just covered in class for the week.

So far I have already developed 4 rolls of black & white film and made a few contact sheets. That was a lot of fun, considering we were all going about it totally in the dark, so to speak. Not only were we in the dark when we had to load our film on the film reels for the first time, we were pretty much in the dark in how to do it. Just some basic instructions and we were thrown into a dark room to load the film.

Let me tell you. That is a whole lot harder than you think when you can't even see you hands in front of your face, let alone not being able to see where your rolls of film are and the reels to load them onto. I had a fresh roll of film that I had shot that same day at work and 6 other rolls that I had taken earlier in the year. I developed 3 out of the 6.

I could definitely tell which rolls were which as I was loading them. The fresh roll I had no problem loading. The second roll was one of the older ones, I struggled the longest with that one. After wrestling with that one the other two weren't so bad after I figured out how to deal with first one. I was surprised that I managed not to fuck them up too bad. Not bad for my fist time, ever, developing film.

The first contact sheet I developed turned out decent. The other 3 were a disaster though. I was just too damn tired and was not paying attention when I went to put the paper in the developing solution. So they all came out pretty fucked up. After that I just said fuck it and called it a night. There was no use in wasting any more paper.

I aquired a new camera to use in the class. I found a Yachica rangefinder on e-Bay for a decent amount. The picture up top is the one I bought. (Kind of funny, taking a picture of the camera with my digital camera.) It came with an external flash and a nice old leather bag. I was looking to get a Leica rangefinder, the king of all rangefinders. However, even a used one you are looking at spending hundreds of dollars. They are worth every fucking penny though! One of these days I will own one, damn it!

The Yashica is taking a bit of time to get used to. I'm not used to the focus on it, it messes with my eyes a bit. The weight of it is pretty heavy compared to the newer cameras that are being made today. Gripping it is a little uncomfortable. I know with time it will become like second nature to me. Until then I am just fumbling along with it until it I get used to it. It's the pictures I take with that little number that I am really looking forward to the most. I dunno, to me, there is just nothing like taking a picture with older cameras. This particular camera was made around 1973, almost as old as me!

Okay, off to bed with me! Hopefully I'll have some pictures to scan and post soon.

And so it begins...

This morning I registered for a photography class at our local junior college, or better known as Chabot High, as we locals love to call it. It's only an intro to photography course, but hey, you gotta start some where....right?

Well, it certainly wouldn't hurt to learn a few things. Okay, so maybe more than a few things. More like a lot! I need all the help I can get at this point.

After all, someone once said:

Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer.
It makes you a Nikon owner.
~Author Unknown

I looked to see what book this particular class is going to be using, but it is still undetermined, and class starts on the 22nd of this month. I'm just hoping the book that we will use is either one of the two I have pictured here. All the other day classes (I signed up for the evening class) show either of these two books as the selected course books, and I already own both of these books. I bought these books a while back ago, I thought I'd read them on my own. That never happened! So depending on what book is used, I'm already covered. Unless they really want to fuck with me and make be spend even more money an a book that I don't have.

Like the $109 just to register for the class wasn't enough!

Hmmm, and I still need to think about money for parking. Depending on how many time a week I will have to go on campus (other than the night of class itself) I'm not sure what the lab hours will be like. I need to figure out if it would be cheaper to buy a parking pass, or pay per day.

I guess I better start saving money for next term if I plan to continue to take all the rest of the classes within the course!

Hell, I'm already way ahead of myself. I'm starting to plan the studio that I want to set up and all the lighting, backdrops, and what-nots I will need. Well, if I'm gonna start getting people who are willing to pose naked for me, I'm going to need a place where I can do this and look at least somewhat professional. Sheesh!

Speaking of naked... I've already had a young man contact me asking, and I quote...

" Do you have any interest in photographing a
nude male who is inescapably bound with rope?"

Now I ask you, what woman in their right mind would pass up the opportunity to photograph a naked young man that you bound, inescapably no less, with rope?! Not I, that's for damn sure! *evil grin*