July 04

7/29/04

1:58pm- I just added a couple new images to sell on ArtByUs.com. No sales yet, but its still a new website and my photos are getting lots of views. I figure if I stay with it for now who knows. anything can happen right? I think I just like sending my prints off somewhere in the mail knowing it could be hanging on someone's wall. Also, any photographers out there who are doing interesting work, I'd be happy to do a print trade anytime. Here are my ArtByUs listings.

7/28/04

11:10pm- Finally added a new Photo A Week image. Actually, I'm thinking about abandoning this concept and just call it my "Featured Image" on the home page. We'll see if I can keep up over the next few weeks. If not, I'll probably change it. Photo a Week image #15

 

 

8:45am-Today

I begin my vacation. After I take Stacey to work I'm off to do some shooting to start the day. I'm in the process of making a slight change to my galleries. I'm just adding next and previous text buttons to make it easier to go from one photo to the next without needing to go back to the thumbnails each time. I feel sometimes maybe people bypassed the galleries because of how it was setup. Although I'm sure sometimes its just that they dont care for what they see in the thumbnails. Each to their own.

Also, Ive gotten one of my photos set up in an interesting gallery. Its part of the Digital Truth website. If you scroll the curser over the numbers on the board, see if you can find my photo in the preview. Then click on the # for a larger view. Here's the gallery so you can see what I mean. Which image is mine?

7/23/04

7pm- So as of now I'm officially on vacation from work. Hopefully I'll be able to get some new work posted here and get out and shoot a bunch of film. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I added a new link to the library of Congress and their archive of the FSA (Farm Security Administration) photographers. It includes work by Dorathea Lange, Walker Evans and more. They were sent out to photograph in all corners of this country to document life in America at the time.1935-1945. You can even order prints from negatives for a reasonable price. I think I'll be buying a Walker Evans photo or two. Enjoy!

7/20/04

7:30am-This is an excerpt from a recent news article:

Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen
taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas.
The man, described as white with dark hair, was seen taking pictures outside
the refineries, all located on the same highway, at about 5 p.m. CDT on
Saturday, said Bruce Clawson, emergency management and homeland security
director for Texas City.
While it is not illegal to take pictures of a refinery from a highway or
street, officials would like to talk to the man to find out his reason for
taking the photographs.
"This is based on the idea that al Qaeda does its homework," Clawson said.
"That's not to say we don't have enough home-grown idiots already who might
want to do something.The man was seen driving a white van."

Makes you think twice about going out to photograph these days, but we just need to be careful and realize there are certain places to stay away from. You never know who's watching.

7/19/04

9:50pm- So for the second week in a row I havent had the time to get a new Photo a week image posted. I just need to do better at managing my free time, its just that sometimes when I do get that little window of not having any pressing plans all I want to do is relax a little. I'll work on it and try to get some new work posted soon. The good news is that I have 2 rolls of TriX waited to be developed and I'm planning on getting out to shoot at least one day this week after work. So if I plan things correctly I can do some serious printing on Sunday. Also, I'm on vacation next week, so I'll have some time to get in some good long outings with the camera.

7/16/04

11:15pm- I finally made it out to do some shooting today. I went downtown again walking around all the narrow streets. The sun was really strong, with nice long shadows as it got later and later. I'm finding myself less interested in shootng what some define as" street photographs". That being images of people. Not that I won't if an opportunity shows itself in the context that I like to shoot people. I guess I'm still trying to figure out my "style", if that's possible. Its just about shooting what I see, what I find interesting.

8:40pm- I was speaking of Andre Kertesz yesterday. Here's an interesting link that gives you a good idea of what he was all about. There's even a short video clip with subtitles.

7/15/04

7:30am- Made a bit of a change to the look of the links page. I think it'll be easier to read and for me to add new links. Anyone out there who would like to trade links and who's work is somewhat related to what I do feel free to email me. I'd like to find more sites where the photographer uses mostly black and white film and prints in a darkroom.

7/14/04

6:35pm- So the weather here this week has been crappy, rain rain rain. I'm hoping tomorrow will be OK so I can get some shooting in after work. I've been into a book I found by Kertesz called J'aime Paris. The man just had amazing vision and sense of composition. I have a video of his that I've watched over and over. In it he is interviewed, and one line among many that stands out to me is when he says, in his hungarian accent, "you've got to have respect your materials".Maybe it has more impact when you see the video and he's sitting in his office surrounded by dozens of his own prints. He just had this calm demeanor about him that had a big impact on me. He talked about having patience with yourself, with the light, with the process, etc. This where I bought the video. They have a great collection of documentary videos on famous photographers.

10:40pm- Added another new page about some of my cameras.

7/11/04

11:35pm-I finally managed to get a few images of my darkroom done. Sorry about the quality, I'll work on it. Darkroom photos I took the photos from the doorway which is covered by a large heavy piece of black material.

10am- So i've taken some photos of my darkroom using my Yashica Electro, but I didnt like the way the negs looked. Being not too bright in there I needed to shoot with the famous 1.7fstop setting on the electro and thus had no depth of field in the shots. Ive got an old SX-70 polaroid that I may try it with. Just need to buy some film. I know some are waiting to see some pictures of my darkroom so I'll do my best there. Oh yeah, I hope not to dissapoint you when you see it. Its pretty basic and remember a master carpenter I am not. Though I do like the system I came up with for my print drying racks. This might be the sort of situation where I wouldnt mind using a digital camera.

7/10/04

9:35am- Its been a busy week, no time to get out and shoot. I just made some changes to the homepage. Better or worse? Not sure, but its kinda fun to fiddle around now that Im learning Dreamweaver some more. Plus Peggy, my cat gets some much needed lap time. I'll have some new photos soon. Also I joined a black and white photo webring as seen on my home page at the bottom. Im hoping it will bring some more people to view my website. After looking at the latest photos that I posted, I realize the scans arent all that good. I need to work on it as Im not sure if thats as good as it gets or I'm doing something wrong. Its just a bit dissapointing how much the image loses from the print to the website.

8:35pm- So I have gotten some more traffic from the webring link.-for what its worth. Some of the sites in this ring are interesting, some are just kinda fluff. Here is one site that I've enjoyed. Shapes and Shadows.

One more thing, these Red sox are gonna give me a heart attack one of these days. Just when you think their season is kaput, they start winning.

7/7/04

11:15pm- I added a line under my name on the home page. May seem like a small thing, but to me its important to let people know that I dont use digital cameras for my black and white work. Whatever you want to call it: Traditional, classic, old school, film photography. It just seems to be less and less relevant to people these days. I think digital photography has it's place and uses, just not for the work I want to do here. I guess when I think of photographers like Kertesz and Callahan and Bresson, I picture them in their darkroom struggling to make a good print and getting as frustrated as I sometimes do and then finally getting it to look just right. And then when you're finished printing, having to clean all the chemicals and some of it spills, and then you have to wash the print for an hour and wait for it to dry and..............

7/6/04

7:33am- New Picture of the week posted. I have to get going to work, so tonight I'll post a few other new images.

11:15pm- Just added 4 photos in New images gallery.

7/5/05

3pm- Just finished developing some new film from a recent shoot and as soon as its done washing and drying, its down to the darkroom for a while. Check back later tonight or tomorrow for a new photo of the week. I may pull out the hair dryer for the negs so I can get started printing.

7:10pm- Prints are washing now so I'll be posting some new images soon. I've got 3 or 4 images I'm pretty happy with off one roll of film. You know I find that when I think less about making a technically perfect print or photo, I am much more happy with the result! Of course you cant disregard certain technical aspects such as composition, light, etc. But for the most part those things seem to happen pretty naturally. (sometimes more so than others). I guess the key is to know the basics well enough so that when out shooting you dont need to think about those things and just concentrate on the world around you.

7/1/04

10:20pm- As planned, I made it downtown after work and got in some shooting. I only shot one roll, then made my way to the library to check out their extensive photography section. Providence has many alleyways connecting the main streets and that's where I spent my time today with my camera. Sort of dark and mysterious feeling to me in these alleys and it made me think about photos I've seen by Eugene Atget(1857-1927) in Paris. I ended up bringing home a book of his to study for a while. I'm thinking I may be spending some time in this part of town. There is a lot of construction going on around this area as new fancy condos and restaurants are trying to "upgrade the downtown". I'll admit there are a lot of empty storefronts right now and so its good to see people trying to bring life back to the downtown area. Here's one example of a photo by Atget- Rue Cardinal April 1922