I am a big fan of natty light (as in natural light, not the beverage) so I rarely use flash. However, I am also a big fan of Bruce Gilden who uses flash almost exclusively. I watched this and thought it would be fun to try at Dirk's art show on Saturday. Bruce is impossible to emulate but I did have a lot of fun holding a flash in one hand and shooting with the other (contrary to popular belief, shooting is the fun part of photography, as opposed to "post-processing" {yuck}).

Just a technical side note, Tri-X pushed to 1600 probably wasn't the best choice for experiment with flash...I'm not an F16 kind of guy.

Antelope Island, Utah. February, 2011

Portland by day.

A Nighttime walk in Portland.






I recently realized, I hardly ever shoot scenery (re: tourist stuff) when I go on trips. This is sort of an attempt at that.
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Dudes who rule at life. Part III.



Mike Murder.

Dudes who rule. Part II.



Nich!!!!

More in this series occasionally.

Dudes who rule at life. Part I.


Charlie!

Long story short, some things happened in life and I ended up selling my digital camera and now only have film cameras. This quote is awesome:

"Don't talk to me about digital. I've got Hypo in my veins. The stains you see on my shirt are Dektol. I like the darkroom, the radio, the yellow light glowing. I rip the printing paper into quarters. One square is swimming in the Dektol. Through the clear, brown liquid I see my work emerging-my picture. Then I take it, the little piece, and give it away, a gift, to the person pictured in it, a return for what they have given me. Thirty years pass. People die. Children grow old. They keep the little piece, stuck up on a wall with thumbtacks, creased and stained: themselves, young and alive, forever. That is photography."

-Danny Lyon

I know I raved about waiting a bit before posting photos so I could look at them subjectively but....I am so excited to finally have my half-frame camera fixed and had to shoot a test roll.

Kendall Johnson and randoms. Salt Lake City, UT. February 2011.

I usually don't post two things in one day but this is my Valentine's Day Post. Dedicated to Kimmie (because it has books in it) and Me (because I tend to be compelled to shoot photos of people when they're wearing cowboy hats--see also below).

Salt Lake City Library, April 2009.

Some thoughts on Street Photography.....

There has been a big resurgence in "street photography" the last few years. I've noticed quite a few somewhat "elitist" street photography groups on things like flickr and in-public. They tend to be the standard by which "good" street photography is judged in the modern day world. I enjoy street photography as it documents modern life and carries on a tradition. However, I have noticed that people are concerned more with form than content. The "Winogrand Aesthetic" of people looking right at the camera, with a tilted frame shot through a wide angle lens. I understand the trick is to shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot, but when you have 3,000 photos on the internet of people walking through Manhattan with no real content to it.....well, maybe it's time to hire someone to edit for you. I'm not arguing against street photography, or any of the photographers involved in these online groups, I just would like to see more content....take a picture where there is actually something going on.

Now that I've been on my tirade, the photo above is pretty much everything I've argued against. No real content and a picture of a stranger. Enjoy hypocrisy.

P.S. Winogrand is king.

San Jose, California. March 2009.

Last of the Coney photos for now....

Next comes the task of looking at another sheet of oldish negatives and deciding what to reexamine next.

Coney Island, New York. June, 2009.

More Coney Island, Circa June 2009.

Speaking about Garry Winogrand (related to my previous post):

"He never developed film right after shooting it. He deliberately waited a year or two, so he would have virtually no memory of the act of taking an individual photograph. This, he claimed made it easier for him to approach his contact sheets more critically. "If I was in a good mood when I was shooting one day, then developed the film right away," he told us, I might choose a picture becuase I remember how good I felt when I took it, not necessarily because it was a great shot. You make better choices if you approach your contact sheets cold, separating the editing from the picture taking as much as possible."

Okay...so bear with me here.....

I've started to notice that I process my film much too soon. I was recently looking at some negatives from 2009 and realized a lot of the stuff I discredited as not "making the cut" was actually the best stuff on the roll. Looking back brought back a lot of memories and reminded me of things I hadn't thought about since taking the photos. Therefore, I'm going to make an effort the next few weeks to re-examine some old negatives and post on this bloggity.

Also, nerd time, I'm making an effort to shoot exclusively with a 28mm lens for the next few weeks. . It's wide, wider than I generally like but I'm hoping it will force me out of habits and enable me to get closer when I shoot with my 35mm lens (the best lens in the world, focal length wise, in my opinion).

Basically, I'm breaking my photographic "comfort zone".

Coney Island, New York, 2009.

Don't remember when this happened...but recently.