this is a new addition to my collection. within an hour of openening the box, i already developed a roll i shot with it (i was a bit anxious to play with it). this camera is roughly twice as old as i am. and i can already tell it is going to be a fun camera to shoot with. the first roll was ilford delta 3200, shot at 400. already i can tell differences in using a finder to frame up subjects. oh, and 6×9 is AWESOME :)
it feels good when prints come out the way i want them to. tonight i reprinted some shots to fit the mattes i have. these came out so well, i wouldnt mind the public seeing them. i think my esteem is rising slowly.
the more i view and admire elsa dorfman’s work the more i like full body portraits. since i started shooting 6×6, i’ve shot a few portraits, full frame full body. i like doing them that way. it’s so much more information about a person. more to read from the image.
it’s hard to dabble in model photography.. for me, anyways. i’ve used myself to try out some ideas i had, in the past. and i feel weird asking people to pose for me (photography is a pretty solitary activity for me). thinking about it, through, i already have ideas i want to try with a model.
did some printing tonight. square images on 16×20.. printed this size to fit some frames i have. the prints all turned out perfect!
as promised, ender joined them at the gate before it opened — just barely before. he walked down the corridor lined with his soldiers, who looked at him with love, with awe, with trust. except bean, who looked at him with anguish. ender wiggin was not larger than life, bean knew. he was exactly life-sized, and so his larger-than-life burden was too much for him. and yet he was bearing it. so far.
orson scott card, ender’s shadow
this morning in took the long way to work. it’s not difficult.
first, you need to set yourself up — purge and prevent distractions. i like to open the sunroof to let some fresh air in, even if it’s cold outside. i can always turn on the heater. then i pick one of my favourite cds to listen to. something i’ve heard a million times. i find that something i know so well lets me think about it less. turning the volume up on something you dont have to think about really lets you concentrate on other things.
the drive.
pick a route that has a lot of stops. it doesn’t need to be a direct route.. it can detour through another city or even start off in the wrong direction. just know generally where you’re going before you leave.
let the “speed limit” be the actual limit of your speed. this allows you to do things like: slow down to let someone merge in, let faster drivers pass you, and observe more of what’s going on.
this morning i watched a bird land on a street light where other birds where. one of the other birds kept pecking at the new bird until it left. i watched a little boy eat a donut in the passenger seat while his mother drove him to school. i saw a homeless guy at a stoplight asking for money. i saw some highschool kids waiting at a bus stop. i saw a guy wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants walk accross the parking lot of a korean grocery store.
the think.
now that you have few distractions, you can actually think. i find that when i make effort like this and let my mind work, it works. i actually do think more. about stuff going on in my life. stuff i need to think more about. things i’m worried about.
… and these children
that you spit on
as they try to change their worlds
are immune to your consultations.
they’re quire aware
of what they’re going through….
david bowie
the more people talk to me (not me talking to them) about me buying a property, the more i feel i’d be doing it for them and not for me. :-/
i am completely exhausted from this weekend. i woke up at 5:30am both days to help with and be a part of a two-day garage sale. at least i have less junk now.
one of the characters in ender’s shadow uses an old adage that i like a lot: “even a broken clock is right two times a day”
on my way into dana street for my usual, i was walking down the sidewalk. i noticed one of the regulars crouched down picking up one of the asian newspapers he always reads. as i continued towards the coffee shop, he ran past me towards the door. now this guy is always wanting to sit in the window. if the seats are taken, he is visibly upset. when someone leaves, he immediately moves his paper to the table next to the window. this morning he runs past me to beat me through the door. his paper is tossed onto the empty table in the window. thise morning, he wins.
i did some reading this morning.. not for the full hour, but enough. i’m almost half way through ender’s shadow. michael asked me what i’ve been up to. i told him about the flea market. i also realized i haven’t done much new photography lately, save for scanning. i should fix that.
anyways.. good morning.
on my mind:
took this on a walk around san francisco; a coworker and i went shooting, our miniproject was to shoot only subjects above our head.
this is also one of my first published scans from my new scanner. it’s so sensitive to dust, like any scanner. this scan actually did pretty well. at least i dont have to take a picture of my negative to get some images online.
weekend was busy. friday was family birthday dinner down in capitola. lance tagged along, mark was there too. the restaurant we went to, zelda’s, is known for their prime rib.. which everybody in the family ordered — except me. i wasn’t in a beef mode. i had their blackened chicken.. not bad either.
saturday was furniture shopping and errand running. in going to my mom’s house to visit the cat, ryan and i drove through the city of san carlos art and wine festival. we stopped by that. i saw a lot of inspiration photography. i really should do something with my work. oh, i also finally ended up getting a scanner. an epson 3170 photo. i’ll post images from that soon.
sunday ryan and i went to the san jose flea market so i could hunt for cameras. i saw a bunch of canon ae-1 and some older stuff. even saw an old tlr (which was in very bad condition). i almost bought a 35mm slr there, but the condition was shotty and the guy was asking $100 (he said his real price was 150!) and ryan didn’t think it was a good idea to pay that much for anything at a flea market. in any case, it was fun.
i got myself moved at work, back into the cube i’ve been in the longest.. where it makes sense for me to be. actually getting a lot done this week.
work has been ok, as well as other things.. but im feeling weird again. not go to the shrink weird.. and not i want to run away from the world weird. just feel like i need some personal time off. two days or so. and not a weekend. i’ve been so busy lately. just some time to do my own things and not worry about anything else.
doing something spontaneous is really hard for me. if i decide i want to do something for/by myself, i can escape if i really have to. but if i don’t know what i’m going to do, i just spin my wheels and things get worse for me. so i need to think about it, and put it into high gear. i shouldn’t plan too far in advance, either. i’ve already been thinking/talking about this. i shouldn’t let another week go by without this happening.
tonight’s music: jackson browne - the pretender.
after reading about negative scanning on the net and came up with some scanners i wanted to possibly buy.
first i visited best buy. aside from the epson 3200 photo, which everybody seems to have, the rest of the scanners weren’t up to snuff. they didnt have stock of some of the units and some of the boxes were opened/damaged. then i went to fry’s. i couldn’t find a singe decent scanner that wasn’t opened and returned. another guy was there looking at scanners and we shared our frustration at the lack of new merchandise. then i went to office depot. i lifted the lid of a hp scanner and the alarm went off. the noise was too loud to stay while one of their employees got a key to unlock the alarm, so i hung out at the edge of the store. when the alarm was turned off, i returned to find another disappointing display of merchandise.
maybe i’ll just order the scanner online.. :-/
last night i developed my first roll of film shot using a reversal ring. fun stuff! the extreme depth of field is neato. just a tad hard to focus sharply.
i need to get some sort of scanner. may get an epson 3100 flatbed today..
this morning i walked into the starbucks in which i’m known as the “google guy”. i ordered my usual. the girl wrote “google” on the cup jacket and made a smiley-face out of the ohs. the registered showed $1.75. “what?” i said. the girl behind the register put her finger to pursed lips. “shhh!” she said, with a big smile. so i paid her $1.75. i felt kind of silly not paying for my drink so i put $3 in the tip jar. the woman making the drinks chatted with me a little. it was nice. they were pretty busy, so i couldn’t chat much.
yesterday i had lunch with ryan at an armenian restaurant in sunnyvale. it was pretty good food, but what was more interested was its location. the restaurant is this strange pinkish two story building with circular windows, in the middle of a parking lot. the back of the lot is bordered by this dilapidated strip mall which includes the following establishments: two asian grocery stories, a flilipino restaurant, a pizza place, a bar/dance club, a dentist’s office, and mexican goods store. it seemed really random.
work was blah and i wanted to go out and play. so i left early. i drove around parts of palo alto i’d never been to and shot a roll of pan-f 50. then i wandered around menlo park. i saw a middleaged woman talking on the phone while putting on lipstick in her lexus suv parked in a handicapped parking spot.
camera club tonight.
at pacc, the guest judge talked about taking pictures where everybody else has taken a picture before. if you’re standing in a group of photographers and you’re not on a club, get out of there. if you’re putting your tripod down in indentations from previous tripods, it’s time to move somewhere else. and i thought about the photographs i’ve taken.. :-/
maybe having my work criticized by strangers is the best thing that will happen to me.
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