REAWAKENING TO LIFE

Shot on HP5 with a Holga, left the roll out in the sun in my car, and kept it loaded in a developing tank for a month… I do bad things to film.

Purposed wanderings yield better prints and expanded minds. If I don’t find what I am supposedly looking for, I am confident that it will find me.

Two posts today - lucky you.

Taken in Rothrock with an Ansco Speedex R on HP5 - a $5 buy at a fleamarket. I am a fan of the out-of-focus spins you get in the background and foreground of the image, which a lot of the old lenses have at their full aperture.

A reinterpretation of a natural scene - I feel that photography and camera/lens design has always tried to capture *exactly* what the scene is, and the image quality was limited by the technology of that day when the camera was produced. I think very few cameras are designed to give the images it captures a special look, like designing a lens that purposely creates a spinning blur. I think about my Canon SLR which is designed for very little image distortion and accurate color reproduction, and I feel that most of the images that are produced striaght from that camera are stale/sterile in comparison to a camera that uses inferior lenses that were made several decades ago.

I feel that photography will never be able to faithfully reproduce what we see in real life, so why try so hard to? Take images that reinterpret the scene and choose a camera/lens in the same way you would choose a paintbrush for a particular texture.

Nikon 5400, color capture to BW. It does a great job with the ‘bokeh’ - which is the blur quality of out-of-focus portions of the image.

I walked past these arms of dead wildflowers everyday when I come into work. Traveling to get unique images would be great, but great possibilities for photographs are usually in sight, as long as you are willing to look at the mundane with freshness.

A simple quote from my bosses on their secret to photography (who are in Antarctica photographing the endangered icebergs and who were both BBC Photographers of the Year):

“All it takes is vision.”

Maybe influenced by the trip to DC and referencing the nation’s obelisk? A boundary marker around the house where I work. The wonders of shooting in digital color and converting them to BW.

I shot 6 rolls of film this past weekend with the Yashica, and they are sitting in my bag unable to be processed until Wednesday…ugh. I shot a ton of statues and art work in the museums, trying out lighting schemes and dissecting the way the figures approach the viewer (or vice-versa). It reminded me of my time in Italy, and analyzing how heavenly and spiritual subjects are represented in an earthen visual language of statues and paintings.

How and why does gold represent holiness?

Drab color and contrast in the original, so I upped the saturation, used a raw converter to go black and white, and gave it another shot.

I am trying to figure out what form this blog will morph into, so bear with me in these early days. Should I post more images or keep it to once a day? Post image data? Keep my thoughtful and inspiring insights about daily life to myself? Explain theological mysteries or my contempt with modern economic superstructures?

I guess when I have it, I will post it. Right now I have a ton of images that have remained hidden on my computer for wayyy too long, all of which need an audience.

An image fresh out of my new/old camera - a Yashica GSN. My grandfather graciously gave it to me after finding it in his basement. I had previously lusted after one that I saw at a flea market for $40 (and I don’t think it even fired…).

There are rumors and claims that it is as sharp a lens as a Leica (ahem… I make no claim such as this), but it has a f/1.7 killer fast lens, and I’d say it is pretty freakin sharp. I burned through a roll and processed it with sweaty palms. Can’t wait to shoot more. Thanks Pop.