December 04

 

If you want to help those in Asia affected by the Tsunami by donating money or volunteering, here's a website with all the information you'll need.

http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

 

12/31/04 6:05pm - - - Happy new year. The celebration is a little mellowed this year with all thats going on in the world, but its a chance to be with friends and that's always good. I made a few changes to my home page and set up a photo a week gallery for 05. We'll see if I can get all 52 weeks done. Im still planning on editing my other galleries somehow, but that'll wait a bit. Stacey has informed me she would like her new stuff posted as soon as possible on her web site. A lot of people must have gotten engaged during christmas this year because they are a callin'. So that'll be filling most of my time this weekend. I'll post a link to her site once its all ready to go. Its really worth a look, not your typical wedding stuff. How's that for selling! Anyway, see you next year.

 

12/30/04 6pm - - - Added a new link I think you'll enjoy. Alexander Magedler

 

12/28/04 8:15pm- - - Traffic has kinda dwindled to my site since just before Christmas. I know its a busy time of year for people and I havent exactly been posting a ton of new stuff lately. Hopefully that'll change by this weekend. Ive got several rolls of film to process and Im determined to get into the darkroom by Sunday at least. Ive always slowed down my shooting in the winter, but now with the website I'm trying to be more consistent.

Ok, not every thing I post here has to be nice and pretty right? This is a learning experience right? Right. So here's what happens when you don't wash your fiber prints properly. I even scanned it in color so you could see the lovely brown tone this image has taken on. Lets see you do this with a digital camera, eh?

 

Here's another image I came across. This was printed on RC paper, so no staining problems here.

I find a lot of railroad track photos pretty cliche actually, but this is one I like. I think its because the focus is on the large rock among the millions of little ones, and not on the tracks. I shot this down around the Port of Providence a while back.

Also, I wish I had something profound to say about whats happening in Asia right now with the disaster they are dealing with, but Im left pretty much in shock over this, as is everyone. How fragile and precious our lives are.

 

 

12/24/04- Paw #28. Its a little early I know, but I have a little free time right now.

12/24/04 Happy Holidays! I have been shooting film all week. Mostly around the industrial park where I work which can be kinda interesting to photograph. So Im building up a pretty good supply of exposed film to work on. I may just keep shooting and once the holidays are finished get myself into the darkroom for a while. I like the idea that Im not rushing to develop and print stuff so when I do get to it, I can be surprised by what Ive got or didnt get. I will continue to try and post a new photo each Sunday on my home page though. Maybe in 05 I'll be able to keep up with it all year. Also, Im still working on Staceys website which I need to finish in a couple weeks, its getting there. All the scanning is done I just need to put the pages together. Oh yeah, I still need to decide what to buy myself for the holidays. hmmmmm......

 

Red Sox fans breath a sigh of relief- Varitek is staying! Hey, its not my money, right?

I realize this is speaking about your average consumer who just wants to take snapshots of family and such. I have no problem with digtal cameras and think they make things much easier for most people out there, but why do these articles always seem to be predicting the "demise" of film? Almost like its inevitable and everyone can't wait until that day arrives. Cars came along, but you can still find a horse and buggy out there if you look hard enough, can't you? It makes it sound like you cant buy a film camera for less than $1000.

This was a yahoo news item today -12/23/04

Dollar sales of digital cameras are expected to reach $4.5 billion in the United States by year's end, which would be a growth of 15 percent from total dollar sales in 2003. Chris Chute, of research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass., speculates that sales could jump another 25 percent next year, but the growth curve will dip to around 11 percent in 2006 and a mere 1 percent in 2007. "There'll be a maturing of the market where basically everything is a commodity and digital cameras are like toasters," he said. Yet the 90 percent saturation point achieved in the 20th century by film cameras is a long way off. "The digital camera is still more of a PC-centric device — 90-plus percent of owners have computers — so that leaves one-third of U.S. households out of the picture," Chute said. Rochester-based Eastman Kodak Co. turned picture-taking into a hobby for the masses when it brought out a $1 Brownie camera in 1900. A century later, the swift shift to digital looked to have caught the world's biggest film manufacturer off-guard. Kodak insists it was waiting for a mass market to clearly develop. Three years after launching its EasyShare cameras, which are priced from $99 to $499, Kodak is now poised to edge ahead of Japanese front-runner Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). in the U.S. point-and-shoot digital camera market. While digital cameras only began outselling film cameras in the United States last year, Americans are making the switch far quicker than forecast. The Photo Marketing Association in Jackson, Mich., expects 8.2 million film cameras will be sold domestically this year. A few months ago, its projection was 10.6 million.   As the demise of film quickens, digital camera prices are tumbling. The average buyer is handing over $300 to $350 now, and that could plummet to $200 in a year, Chute said. Some single-lens reflex models aimed at amateur enthusiasts, or prosumers, have dropped below $1,000. As many as half of this year's holiday shoppers are looking for upgrades, analysts say. Dylan Smith, 53, an engineer who bought his first "cheapo" digital camera in 1999, likes to doctor his photos — red eye often spoils flash-bulb portraits of his daughter — and was salivating over a $700 model with 7.1 megapixels of resolution. Patricia Hughes, 27, who was shopping with her husband, Michael, pondered buying a mid-range camera she could "play and practice with ... for when we have kids." "I want to be able to print and edit myself and have the flexibility," she said. "We have a lot of family out of town, and to be able to e-mail pictures is one big plus."

12/19/04

11:30pm - - - Paw #27

10:40am - - - Been tinkering more with the website, Im sure it'll be changing again here and there. I figure my site is still pretty new and since I dont get a ton of visitors I'll do some experimenting for a little while. So if you are one of the valued few that check in regularly, please bear with me as I play around a little. I guess my current idea is to make the home page the hub of activity, so once you go to a page like the journal or links you go back to the Home page to check out something else. Could be a disasterous idea, i know, but I'll try it for a bit and see how it works. Im also planning on going through the galleries and doing a pretty hard edit, so a few images could be going away soon, and also Im going to reduce the number of galleries by catagorizing them. I think! Then I need to figure out a good way to post new stuff other than the Photo of the Week Image. I guess I could just use my journal for that purpose, or when I catagorize the galleries, just add a new image now and then and somehow note that there is an update in one of the galleries to view. Though I really only want to add stuff to the galleries that I feel are really worthy of it. So I could post photos here, in the journal, as well as update the galleries when I feel an image is top notch. So, Ive had this site up for what, 10 months, and maybe Im just starting to figure it out a little? Im also trying to get new work for Stacey's website ready for the new year, so that's taking up most of my free time right now. Sometimes I wish humans didnt need more that 1 hour of sleep!

12/17/04 7:10pm - - - I'm not really that great at expressing my thoughts about photos I make, at least it feels that way when I read how well others write. This is all still pretty new to me. Its funny sometimes that at the moment of actually taking a picture, the thing that attracts me first is usually the light, or composition, etc. Many times after making the print I find myself reading more into the image as it relates to how I feel about things in my life or that I want in my life. Here's one example:

 

12/17/04 7:30am - - - Here's an interview of William Eggleston thats pretty interesting to read. The article has a lot of other links to check out related to his work.

12/16/04 11:10pm - - - I made some changes to my home page tonight, more to come I think. I dont really like naming my galleries 1,2,3,4 because its pretty generic sounding I think. Maybe a small thumbnail for each would be good, or maybe I should categorize them into things like: People, Buildings, Night Images, etc...There are so many possibilities. Maybe I'll put up a for sale page. Ok, the dog is whining to go out, so see ya later.

12/15/04 11:30pm - - - Ok, its really cold outside, and inside. I just took the dog outside and i wish i had something intriguing to write about, but right now I'm too cold and tired. We watched Kill Bill Vol.1 and started Vol II, but I started nodding off. I'm going to bed now. I'll post some new stuff tomm. night, promise.

12/13/04 7:30pm - - -

 

12/11/04

11:15pm --- Photo of the Week #26. Ok, so its not a street photo, but I guess thats not all I want to do. Can you see the Harry Callahan influence? I just like the fact that I can go out in nature and find graphic compositions. Sometimes its the actual searching, and walking around for what could seem like forever, and suddenly coming across something that catches your eye like this that keeps me motivated. Does it have as much emotion or mystery as some of my street stuff? For me it does.

9:45pm - - - Darkroom time has been kinda tough to come by recently. I have been shooting a lot and have several rolls of film to process, so thats a good thing. I guess the shooting is the most important thing, I can always process and print when I have time. Maybe its good not to look at the negs too soon after shooting them, so I can be more picky when editing myself.-always a difficult thing. I like the idea though of building up exposed film and then after 2 or 3 weeks go back to the oldest rolls and see what I shot. This would be a new concept for me and would for sure test my patience.

I dont think I'll keep using the comments feature in my journal, as Im not really getting responses. I always enjoy emails from fellow photographers, so feel free. There are several repeat visitors to my journal, so it seems people are interested. I know I dont always leave comments when visiting others journals or blogs. Im thinking of a few other changes to make to my website, but that'll have to wait.

Lastly, Stacey gave me another roll of TriX tonight for Hanukah and a book of Walker Evans photos.

12/10/04 8:30pm

 

12/8/04 11pm - - - Heres a photo I took while living in Boston. It was made using my old Nikon FM2, which I still have. This bridge is a section of I-93 in Charlestown that leads North to New Hampshire.

  

- - -Also, I shot a roll of film today on my lunch break. Stacey has been giving me a roll of TriX on each day of Hanukah this week, so now Ive got a few rolls of film to develop. If she keeps em coming all week, I'll have a good amount processing to do this weekend. Here's hoping. Ive noticed that the rangefinder on my Lynx 14 is off a little. The images line up left to right, but not up and down. Though the couple rolls Ive developed from this camera seem perfectly sharp, it is disconcerting when trying to focus quickly. I think there is a way to fix this without ripping the camera apart but I'll check out the Camera Repair Forum for answers. Oh yeah, one other thing she got for me is Garry Winogrand's book of airport photos called Arrivals and Departures. In it there is a terrific forward written by Lee Friedlander who was a good friend of Winogrand's. If you like the work of these guys, its a great read , and the images are of course amazing.

 

 

12/7/04 10:45pm - - - I was looking through some older photos of mine tonight and came across this one. I havent done much in the way of nature shooting for a while, but I remember the day I was out shooting this and the calmness that I felt at that moment. No angst, no anxiety, no self doubting, just making images. It always was one of my favorites. I think at the time I was learning about Harry Callahan and really enjoying his nature photos. Many of his were very graphic yet subtle at the same time, if that makes any sense. For instance, blades of grass sticking up through the snow forming a pattern. Yet he also made incredible images in cities he went to- street photos. He couldnt be defined as any one type of photographer. As long as he was shooting something new and experimenting and challenging himself he was happy.- He was simply a photographer. Did you know? - Harry Callahan lived in Providence for many years while he headed the photo dept at Rhode Island School of Design.

Dont get me wrong I love that feeling of wandering the city feeding off that energy, but sometimes it can get overwhelming and I need a break.

 

 

Scanning's for the dogs !! - (no offense meant to all the canines in the audience)

12/4/04 8:45pm - - - Whew, just finished scanning 80 photos from one of Staceys 04 weddings! Im sure she'll edit it down some as well as combine a few photos together to scale it down. She's out shooting a wedding right now so I just scanned everything. 4 more weddings to scan. Oh, by the way, she DOES travel, in case anyone's thinking about getting hitched out there in internetland. I'll tell ya' scanning that many photos without breaking really makes your head spin. Time for a little drink I think. One more thing, in case you havent visited my links page, here's a photographer who I think you'll enjoy. He's a Holga photographer living in Minnesota and has some great images for you to see and/or purchase. Robbie Becklund

  

12/4/04 5:30pm - - - Well, today has been a fun filled day of website work. Actually, I'm working on my girlfriend Stacey's website. Trying to get some new weddings posted by Jan 1st. Unlike my website, hers generates income for her. We want to get a group of 5 or 6 new weddings posted-and thats a lot of scanning and photoshopping. Before the night is over, I'll develop some negs and tomm. will post new stuff. Although I think Im low on fixer, ooops. I'll have to check on that.

12/3/04 7:45pm - - - Just got home from some more night shooting with the Yashica 5000e. When walking around downtown there is an area filled with office buildings and once the 9 to 5ers leave and the sun goes down you can see all the cleaning crews doing their jobs inside the lit up offices and cubicles. You hope all those executives and employees appreciate the job the cleaning crews do, but Im sure many dont even realize what goes on there at night. Anyway it made for some interesting shooting tonight.

Also, in an attempt to create more traffic to my site, I listed my journal at Photoblogs.org. For today, at least, mission accomplished. I know many of the users of this service are digital shooters and probably might get bored with the fact that I dont post new photos as often as digital shooters would like. So Im sure the initial surge in visitors will dwindle, which is fine by me. But maybe a few will stick around to see some of my new work.- and maybe they'll even be inspired to pick up a film camera at some point. Well, wishful thinking. I even found a few photographers' blogs that I liked and will revisit. Oh, and if you are visiting me from Photoblogs.org I just want to mention I have other galleries of photos for you to see besides those that I post here in my journal.

 

 

Here is your Personalized Professional Critique This is a good graphic image. Framed the way it is, and especially in black and white, this reduces the subject to more of a line study and contrasts. It's a good image; there are a few things which could be done differently to strengthen it, though. First, I don't know if you printed this or had it done, but the contrast range could be a little broader. It's nicely done as-is, but as such a basic line-and-contrast composition, I think pumping up the contrast a bit emphasizes the elements more dramatically. Try burning in a bit more when printing this. Next, there's a shadow in the upper right of frame which doesn't belong. It looks like the shadow of a bench or mailbox; either way, it pulls the viewer's attention away from the line study in the rest of the shot. Framing differently, or moving your shooting position and camera angle to maintain this perspective, would crop that element. Finally, the central tree merges with one of the shadows, and this is a near-fatal flaw for this shot. To emphasize the basic line structure in the scene, all the lines should stand independently; when they connect, the harmony inherent to this shot is lost. Similarly, there's a small stump of a trunk visible at the very top center of the frame that's too small to be included, but is necessary because of the shadow it generates for the picture. That trunk also nearly merges with the main center tree. I think you could fix this by shooting slightly to the left of where you were set up, from a little lower to the ground with the camera angled up a bit more (in order to include more of that top tree, while separating it from the center one), at a different time of day. Not sure when this was shot, but you have a great position to watch and wait for the moving sun to fix the merging shadows for you. This is a good image; try some of these suggestions, and I'll bet you see a stronger picture. Good luck.