Street photography with a Pentax 6x7
Photo walk with a local photographer group in Baltimore using a pentax 6×7
Its Halloween in Baltimore, Maryland and I went out on a photo walk with a bunch of local photographers. Met some cool people, explored a new part of town, and got some great photos and a decent pumpkin beer to cap off the night!
There were lots of halloween decorations around town, but like a moth to the lamp, because I didn’t bring a flash and was shooting ISO 400 film, I was drawn to some more well lit parts of the town.
1 roll of HP5 on the pentax 6×7.
It was difficult to resist not taking 100 photos of the photographers themselves on the walk.
I ended the photo walk with two exposures left on the roll, so I decided to burn them at the skatepark. Riley was willing to pose for a photo so I made sure to send them a copy when it came out!
The photos certainly did turn out spooky due to the time of day, will have to return for golden hour some day.
Ghost tours Annapolis
Some lingering thoughts and breakdown on a photo I took in Annapolis while overhearing a “ghost-tour” of the area.
The sunset was stumbling right down main street at just enough of an angle to create some interesting shadows. The harbor area of Annapolis always screams wealth and privilege to me. Yachts anchored in the harbor calmly bouncing along the waves while people playing music and chatting with friends or family. Pedestrians shop or eat out at some of the fancy restaurants. The Naval Officer Cadets can be spotted here and there in their dress whites, like sharply dressed spirits. You can hear cars rolling over cobblestone streets, like vibrations accented with a satisfying clink of brick on brick. I always feel a sense of not belonging when I walk the streets. This feeling persists despite having plenty of friendly conversations with people who stop and ask questions about my 4×5 field view camera. I am happy to chat with them, they usually want to ask about the camera because they themselves use to be a photographer. Street photographers mostly try to be ghosts, unseen by the people they photograph. Street photography with a large format camera is an act of being both very visible and completely invisible. Most people don’t notice, or chose not to see me. They walk by afraid they will end up in my frame or they have no idea what I am doing. They stare as they walk by, averting their gaze when I make eye contact. I am like a ghost, invisible, to all but those who choose to see me. Photographers are the only ones it seems, who notice the ghost standing on the corner with a victorian era camera. Or at least the only ones who would be willing to approach them. Maybe next time I really try and sell the bit, dressed in full 1870’s fashion.
If you do look closely, really take in the scenes of Annapolis, you see the beauty and wealth but you also begin to notice some things that don’t quite fit the aesthetic. The paint chipping on a parked car, stickers covering a light pole, a spray painted trashcan or a walking “Ghost tour” led by a teenager tiredly explaining the history of the buildings and their deceased inhabitants. Those on the tour look towards the old windows in hopes of seeing a ghost staring back, but they aren’t really looking, if they were, they would notice the ghost with the camera, listening to the tired teenager as he fiddles with his frame.
That begs the question then, in the photo above, the man in the street, what does he see? what is he looking at that made him stop in the middle of Francis St. Does he see a ghost in a window? Maybe he is trying to take a photo on his phone? I like the thought that maybe he sees the light splashing against the side of the buildings and the top of the Maryland Statehouse. Another photographer would notice that - that I could relate to. Maybe he just had an epiphany, or maybe he is simply lost.
When I took this photo, I remember the guy in the white shirt who almost spoiled the frame, I remember the paint chips on the car and the way the flag was shaped by the wind. I remember the trashcan and the smoke-shop sign, the way the tree branches were splintering across the white building like a shattered pane of glass. The way the streets were shaped like a funnel, channeling the light down towards the harbor. I remember that all these details are part of why I clicked the shutter, but I don’t remember seeing that man standing in the middle of the street.
My D&D Sleeve Tattoo
So this year I have been working with a tattoo artist named Jeffy at Brightside tattoo in Baltimore to create what I think is just the absolute coolest sleeve tattoo ever. He did such a great job making so many different textures and his line work is so clean! Check him out if you like monochrome tattoos in an illustrative style. I am so happy with how it came out and have been waiting for it to be fully healed to take some photos! How many of these monsters can you name? It is so hard for me to pick a favorite individual monster
First roll on Mamiya RB67 Pro S
I am overall very happy with how this roll turned out. There were a few exposures I took an educated guess on because I shot without a light meter. There are others I didn’t expect to turn out well and actually became one of my favorite from the roll. An Accidental double exposure that is just so dang crispy it makes me want to shoot an entire roll of double exposures. But mostly, because its made up of a bunch of people I see on the daily at work. None of them are engineers or scientists, but they all make NASA happen every day. I am excited to share their portraits with them.
Recent 35mm Scans, Ilford Delta and HP5
Two rolls of film, 35mm trying out a Nikon N8008 that I was gifted. took a walk along a creek, some backyard flowers, some pet photos, and interesting light shining on the walls of the house.
Birthday and Anniversary Week - Glenstone Museum and Old Town Alexandria
My wife and I took a week off of work as this week in June we celebrated our five year anniversary as well as my birthday. We didn’t do any big travel plans, instead opted for a stay-cation. It was really relaxing and fun. We got to explore the place we live in and came across some rather unexpected experiences.
First we had some delicious food at the Barca Pier and Wine Bar in Old Town Alexandria. We also stopped by the Torpedo Art Galleries down by the Harbor. We then continued to simply walk around and explore the area before everything got too hot. Below are a few of my favorite frames from the trip.
This crooked little staircase stopped me in my tracks. The contrast of it all, the textures of the old stone. It was very much in keeping with the vibe of old town.
I like groups of 3. The clouds here served as an interesting background to an otherwise simple foreground. I am reminded though of how much work Ansel Adams would put in to make his skies seem dark. The blue really is not much different, tonally than the clouds in the negative. I worked them a bit in lightroom for the scan, but to do that in the negative for a print will be quite a challenge. Possibly better off using a color filter to make the blue sky much deeper contrast from the white clouds.
We did a little shopping at a consignment shop as well as just poking our heads in to a number of different stores. They were a great respite from the heat.
We then got turned around a few times looking for where we parked. We eventually found it just past with this mural on the Linder Academy. I remember hearing these words she wrote and spoke at the inauguration and being absolutely enthralled. If you have not heard it, I recommend you find the time. Here is the link to the speech.
We eventually came home and I saw this light coming in through the bathroom window. I took a number of frames on my Pentax 6x7 as well as my Intrepid 4x5 of the sink. They are all stunning though I am most excited about the 4x5 frame. I may scan it, I may not. It may just become a print. I am reminded of Edward Weston’s Excusado, 1925. He wrote at length about his attempts to get the image just right.
A couple days later, on my birthday, we went to the Glenstone Museum. The Pavilions were unfortunately closed for construction, but we will certainly be returning. We saw a number of artists work and I am surprised at how many names and works I recognized or simply knew by the art itself. (thats what an MFA degree gets you I suppose). I was very surprised to see a handful of original Diane Arbus prints. But Richard Seras installations sort of stole the show. His use of steel and the common thread of balance is palpable in each of his works at the museum. That being said, there are not many photos of the art itself, you will need to go experience it for yourself as a photo simply does not do any of them justice. You will need a few more of your senses for this museum.
Instead I took photos of the surrounding area, the nature the museum is found in is wild and beautiful in itself. We even had a Heron black our path at one point before he politely walked off into the woods.
There is a lot of procession at this museum. You spend some time walking up to these big art pieces. But the walk is always enjoyable. I was stunned by the landscape which rivaled the art. A very old Sycamore Tree with a curve in its trunk is still whispering to me to be photographed in golden hour light despite being an hours drive away.
You may notice some weird drippy artifacts on these scans, it is due to the negative slipping out of the holder while it was drying. The film unfortunately got a bit crumpled on the ground and dried that way. I have learned this lesson and will be figuring out a solution before my next development.
I still have more photos to scan, but My wife also bought me a 2000+ piece lego set of the Discovery Shuttle and Hubble Telescope, so I am going to go spend the rest of my weekend building that!
I am, and always will be, a child.
New Medium Format Camera
Recently purchased an Asahi Pentax 6x7 with the MLU and I got to say, it is a beautiful camera. The 105mm lens lives up to the hype. I have uploaded some photos from the first couple rolls I put through, but I think this is going to be my new primary for a while.
I have been playing with the decision to keep or lose the film border on my scans. I want there to be evidence of the physical process but I understand how simple it would be to fake this border. That being said, I am not sure how else to document the physical in digital spaces. Maybe I begin making prints, and taking photos of the photos? Maybe we shouldn’t have to prove the physical?
Portraits of friends
One of the curses of life post-military experience is that the friendships which remain are often separated by physical distance. Fortunately we still find excuses to come visit even if only for a short period of time. Dan and Hannah both share a love of art and creativity almost as strongly as they love each other and were there for some of the best sitters I could ask for. This impromptu portrait session was created using my Intrepid 4x5 camera and a couple new film holders loaded with ilford hp5 ISO 400. One of the film holders I discovered after development had a light leak, but I think it added a very pleasant flair to the final image.
Also, I cannot get over Hannah's expression in her portrait. After I set up the camera, I asked her to look at her husband, clicking the shutter as soon as the expression formed.
