At least Austin had the good sense to blur himself out. Wish I'd thought of that.
Toyo 45A, 210mm Sironar-N, Polaroid type 54 film (expired 2001)
Jonathan
At least Austin had the good sense to blur himself out. Wish I'd thought of that.
Toyo 45A, 210mm Sironar-N, Polaroid type 54 film (expired 2001)
Jonathan
People are often surprised that I am neither Chinese nor Korean.Originally Posted by Ed Bray
Film Test on Porch - with Pumpkin, Porcelain Pot, and Poland Spring
I must admit I wasn't expecting that. I pictured you of Chinese abstraction, from your surname I suppose, just shows how wrong perceptions can be!
When China was the place to get a first-rate education, many Koreans returning from China changed their name to Lee - which at the time was associated with royalty. It was a form of status symbol. Before that, Lee was not a Korean surname.
A Chinese colleague informed me that there are over 40 separate Chinese words which are pronounced "Lee". When I asked her how hard it would be to learn the language as an adult, she replied "forgetaboutit". I never knew if she was imitating a New York City accent, or just being... enthusiastic
Lee is also a name in Celtic, Latin, and Irish languages, with a different meaning in each.
Those LL Bean rubber moccasins are 100% water-proof: ideal for walking the dog at a moment's notice, in all kinds of weather.
The film test shows how nice TMY is when shot at ISO 200: open shadows, and plenty of room at the top for texture in the high values. That image was developed in Pyrocat HD, but we get the same basic contrast curve with a wide variety of developers.
(Side-bar comment: I observed that some BTZS shooters meter the open shadows, which amounts to a 1-stop over-exposure - but they use a film speed which more closely matches or even exceeds box speed - so the resulting exposure is often the same as shooting at 1/2 box speed when using the Zone System. So I decided to revert to the Zone System, which has given adequate results.)
The Epson scanner (and other flatbeds I presume) resemble cold light enlargers: no callier effect, no blocking of the high values. Notice the separation in the white paint on the building, and how the white edge of the dark slide is even brighter than the white porcelain tea pot.
The black bag the case which comes with an Arca Swiss Discovery: what a great camera !
Looks like you're playing at warp speed!
Lee for the younger folks
When I was a kid Peggy Lee sang on b&w tv, and voice over in Disney feature length cartoons
In WW2 Willis Lee commanded the battleship Washington.
But his Annapolis nickname was Ching Lee, which he broadcast in the clear to warn off the US PT boats one night north of Guadalcanal
I don't suppose I actually knew an asian Lee before i was 20 years old
Back to our regularly scheduled programming
Thanks Jiri. I was camping by myself and the days out there on the playa can stretch out very long. You have to come up with ways to amuse yourself or risk going mad. The odd thing about this picture is that if you look closely, it appears that you can see my face, only that can't possibly be my face because if it was, I'd have the the smallest head of all time. Plus, I was wearing glasses (I think the white line in the face area is the sun bouncing off them) and the 'face' is not. So I think the 'face' is just a random meeting of light and dark areas that combined to look like a face. Either that, or I somehow managed to capture some other soul trapped inside me... (cue creepy horror film music)
Sam, it might look like I'm playing at warp speed but really I'm slowly strumming for about five minutes. To tell you the truth, this is more a picture of me pretending like I know how to play the guitar than me actually playing the guitar!
This is a fun thread. And Jonathan, I really like that one of you in the chair.
Glad I'm not the only one! I've been "playing" guitar for almost 25 years, but I swear I'm not much better than when I started. I could say that it's because I spend all my extra time on photography, but the truth is music is a foreign language that I have never been able to crack.
This IS a fun thread, I agree. Makes me think I should try some more SPs. And thanks!This is a fun thread. And Jonathan, I really like that one of you in the chair.
Jonathan
From the Poland Spring to the Bean boots to your haircut, that picture just reeks of New England in all the subtle details... remember this book? http://www.amazon.com/Official-Prepp.../dp/0894801406
Yikes, Frank! I'm old enough to have gone to prep school in the 80s and I actually have that book knocking around here somewhere. I only stopped wearing Sperry Top-Siders a few years ago when my wife got a job at Keen Footwear and I switched over to Keens.
Jonathan
I had a small epiphany when taking this photo today, and I thought I'd share it. Here goes:
The photo below is rather unremarkable. No, really. Take a look. It is. Even when making it I pretty much knew this wasn't going to be one of my winners. But this begged the question: then why make it? And not only that, why go through all the trouble to hand-cut vintage aerial film from a roll, tape it into some 8x10 film holders, drag the Kodak 2D into the tiny bathroom where one tripod leg had to be in the bathtub, mount a brass lens from 1890 in an iris clamp, take a meter reading, cover the lens, pull the dark slide, stand as still as I could (also with one leg in the bathtub) for the three minute exposure, break it all down, go back into the dark closet to load the single sheet of film into an old Cibachrome drum, process it, hang it to dry, clean up all the chemistry and associated paraphernalia from the kitchen where I process my film, and then scan it?
It occurred to me that if I had a decent digital camera I could have stood there and shot this same image--handheld even--in a matter of seconds. Barring that, I could have used my Fuji GSW690II for this shot with almost identical framing and the set-up and exposure time would have been a fraction of what it ended up being. So why not make it easier on myself?
Well, why do people climb mountains to get to the peak instead of being helicoptered in near the top (for those mountains whose peaks are heli-accessible, of course)? I don't know, but I think it has something to do with the process of getting there being as important, if not moreso, than reaching the end point. You could argue that getting dropped off near the top gets you a shortcut to all the good stuff: the view, the dizzying heights, the clean, cool air, the snapshot of yourself giving the thumbs-up to the camera at the peak. I mean, it sure saves a hell of a lot of time and trouble versus climbing up there yourself. (The same goes for driving versus hiking somewhere, or baking your own cake from scratch versus buying one, or hunting your own game instead of shopping for meat at the supermarket, etc.)
The other methods I could have employed to achieve the same result you see below would only make sense if the end result were the most important thing to me, but it isn't. I know I sound like a simpleton when I say the journey is the goal, but I've realized for a while now that that's true. If my goal were to have the cleanest, fastest route to making photographs, I would have different gear entirely. But in shooting this photo today I realized, mostly while standing still for three whole minutes and staring at myself and the camera the whole time, that using this rickety old camera, feeling the finger-worn patina of the lens barrel, securing it into an old iris clamp, etc.--all this makes me happy and satisfied. It puts a smile on my face. And this is true whether the final image is a winner, or a mediocre (at best) shot like this one. Making photos I'm proud of is icing on the cake, but just making them in my own way and in my own time is the reason I bother to do it at all.
Kodak 2D 8x10, 8 1/2" Gundlach Perigraphic convertible, Kodak Low Contrast Aerial Duplicating Film (SO-277), 3 minute exposure.
Jonathan
Jonathan,
I would not dismiss the photo, it's certainly interesting, well composed, well executed...
But what you added in the text is so well said... I too have found out that in photography, the way, the process, the feelings experienced while setting up our clumsy and slow cameras is at least as important as the result...
Jiri
Jiri Vasina
www.vasina.net
@ Google+ | @ Facebook | @ flickr
My books @ Blurb (only heavily outdated "Serene Landscape").
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks