December 30, 2004
Got back from Oregon a few days ago.
Developed my BW today...negs came out a little thin
for some reason. I have to double check everything again.
Here are some pics from the trip.
December 23, 2004
Just finished printing....whew...haven't
been in the darkroom for a week. It's rather refreshing
to make wet prints again. Always very soothing. I'm
starting a new little project....shooting some 4x5 around
Long Beach...I only had 3 sheets left this afternoon
but managed to get a shot I'm pleased with. This is
a contact sheet...the rough borders are made with cardboard.
No photoshop here folks.
December 22, 2004
playing with color....i have to get
all this stuff out of my system...
December 22, 2004
Shooting color is pretty different from
black and white. The statement seems more or less self-revelatory,
but there is more to it then just the absence or presence
of color. When I shoot black and white, shapes and compositional
elements are more prominent. There are some shots that
will only work in black and white and will fail miserably
in color.
After looking at the negs of the Kwanzaa
shots, I feel a sort of loss that I couldn't print some
of the images in BW. I think a few of the photos would
have more impact as black and white photos. It's a bit
of a conundrum as the paper wants color for their images.
So I have to shoot in color and lose the ability to
do a wet print.
The scanner is working out splendidly,
as far as shooting color, digitizing the negs and sending
to the paper. I've yet to make a print from a scan though,
which I suppose is the true test. I'm planning to prep
some 8x10 images and have them printed at the local
lab on the Frontier printer or send them out online.
I'm thinking that the scanner will allow
me to hold out on a DSLR for atleast a year or two.
I'm waiting for an affordable full frame camera.
In other news, this past month was relatively
good to me as far as actually making money from photography.
I did a portrait session which resulted in a good order
of prints. I got some checks for the photos that have
run in the Gazette. I sold a fine art print of a figure
study I did. Someone bought a contact print from my
L' Etranger series. It's still barely covering my expenses,
but at least the cash flow isn't as negative.
December 21, 2004
Some outtakes from a fortuitious job
yesterday. I happened to be a block away from an event
that needed some photos. No other stringers were available
and I had my cameras with me. I got a call to shoot
it. It's a Kwanzaa practice at a local bookstore.
December 20, 2004
Getting a little better at scanning.
It's an art onto itself. If I scan BW negatives as a
BW negative, they come out way too grainy. So I scan
them as color positives and then invert in PS. That
way, I'm getting a little more tonality. Here's a photo
that I've always wondered how it would look like when
printed.
another negative I've been
meaning to print..
December 20, 2004
Busy weekend of shooting. Thursday was
a book signing at OPEN and a fundraiser at the Lafayette
Building. Saturday was the holiday party at Crashious
Roadside Room and Portfolio. I got my scanner on Friday.
Pretty cool. I've been having only my negs processes
for color. Working out pretty well so far...best thing
about the scanner is that I can preview prints and see
how I want to print them before I hit the wet darkroom.
It also lets me play with photos that I wouldn't have
bothered enlarging but would like to see anyway.
December 15, 2004
Ordered the film scanner via Amazon.
It's a Minolta Scan Dual IV. $260 for a dedicated 35mm
film scanner. Not bad. Anxiously waiting. I have a photo
deadline of the 23rd for this months Deja View section
of MyStyle. I'm hoping to get the scanner well before
then so I will only have to pay for neg. processing
instead of prints for what I've been shooting.
December 14, 2004
I keep waffeling...but here's the math.
If I were to go digital the costs would
be around $3500 (20d, 16-35mm 2.8L, 50mm 1.8, memory
cards, extra battery).
If I buy a negative scanner, that reduces
my costs in film processing because I don't need prints
made, just the negs developed. $6/roll (includes price
of film and processing).
$3500 will get me 583 rolls of film
processed. I can scan the film and get a 35 meg file
from one frame, rivaling the digital capture of the
20D
I would have to shoot 48 rolls of color
film a month for one year to equal the amount of the
digital rig.
Realistically, I would probably shoot
around 20 rolls of color a month. At that rate, I would
have to shoot for 29 months (2 1/2 years) to equal the
digital rig. In that time, the 20D would have dropped
to about half its price.
Well, I'm seriously considering a scanner.
I get to use my current equipment, which I love.
I can't imagine carrying a huge SLR
everywhere I go, like I do now with my Leicas.
December 13, 2004
Last batch of color from the Artwalk.
Just finished a long print session.
Trying to catch up with 2 weeks of shooting....some
faves
December 12, 2004
Some pics from the Artwalk this weekend....Shot
on Superia 800, the "consumer" Fuji film.
Not bad for consumer film. I know some people that work
at the Ritz I have film developed at and they know how
to print to my liking, so the pics have been coming
out better. These shots are for the Gazette. I'm suppose
to cover the art openings in Long Beach for the MyStyle
section.
December 8, 2004
Woohoo....borrowing a 35mm f2.0 Summicron
for a few days. I've never used an actual Leica lens
before. I'm running it side by side with my Voigtlander
to see what the big deal is with Leica glass. You always
hear this talk of the Leica "glow" and its
3Dish effects, it will be nice to put it to the test.
I'm putting my VC lens on my M4-P and the Summicron
on my M2 and am shooting the same subjects with the
same settings....
The VC lens is about $250...the Leica
lens is about $1500. Will the difference be worth it?
We'll see....
December 6, 2004
Found some old polaroids while cleaning
my photo pile :) These pictures are almost a year old...back
when I was wearing glasses. All of them were taken with
a Speed Graphic and some type of polaroid.
December 6, 2004
Had a busy weekend (1am as I write this...)
I shot almost 25 rolls of film this weekend. A little
at a Heifer event on Friday...the Belmont Shore Parade
on Sat....Laura's jewelry open house on Sun....and a
party on Sun. evening.
I had a tarrot reading at the party.
My first time. It was interesting and uplifting. I supposedly
got several good cards...the Magician, the Emperor,
Temperence, the Star...what it amounted to was that
I was in control of my life and whatever I wanted I
could have, it was just a matter of reaching for it...the
only real obstacle was my self-doubt or unwillingness
to commit...
hmmm....maybe I will plunk down the
cash for the digital rig after all :)
December 3, 2004
Finally got to print. Two pics I shot
within the last two weeks that i really like.
December 2, 2004
I borrowed a Kodak Medalist 2 from Terry's
the other day. It's a camera that I've been quietly
lusting after and they happened to have one. It's a
huge tank of a camera that was produced in the 40s and
given to soldiers in WWII. It could easily be used as
a weapon in a pinch. It takes 6x9 negatives and uses
oudated 620 roll film. In order to use it, I had to
unspool a 120 roll to 620 spindle in the dark. A little
tricky procedure, but I did it. Three times. :) I didn't
have 3 620 spools, so what I did was when I was finished
shooting a roll, I'd unwind the film from the spool
and put the exposed film in a dark box and respool the
620 spindle.
Anyway, I developed the negatives and
they're huge! The only problem is that the shutter is
pretty rough. It takes a great deal of effort to trip
the shutter, so what happens is you get lag and also
camera movement from pressing down on the camera. It's
great for shots in full sunlight, or when you can shoot
at atleast 1/200 sec or greater, but not so great for
low light. I took some indoor photos of Pepper, the
barber, and was shooting at f4 @ 1/50th, not too challenging
a shutter speed, and the photos came out a little soft,
primarily from camera shake induced by pushing the shutter.
So, I think I'm going to pass on the
Medalist, though it was fun to play with and get out
of my system. I'm realizing that I have all the camera
power I need for most of my work, it's just a matter
of learning to shoot bettter now.
November
2004
October
2004
September
2004
August
2004
July 2004
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