my life, as far as i know.

i am now the proud owner of a used rolleicord v. turns out the woman i bought it from, her husband works at action camera, this cool little shop in west portal that has a large collection of vintage cameras on display. her husband is also the president of the camera club in san francisco. we chatted a bit about the clubs we belong to. she parted and i wandered around with my new acquisition, shooting the inaugural roll of film. a woman who passed by commented that her father had left her the same kind of camera, so we struck up a short conversation. the camera is very fun to use, and such a conversation piece. when i got home i developed the first roll, and everything looks great. i can’t wait to take it out and play some more.

this morning in front of the coffee shop i saw a guy playing a guitar, smoking a cigarette, and doing a crossword puzzle.

do you remember
there was a time ahaha
when people on the street
were walking hand in hand in hand
they used to talk about the weather
making plans together
days would last forever

erasure, “chains of love”

worked on the portfolio book tonight. i made twenty-four 8×10 prints tonight. i used my darkroom notes to reproduce some of them, and took notes on new prints i made. i decided i should have more than one set of prints. one set is going into a portfolio book my #1 fan got me. ive been working for more than four hours.. exhausted..

last night did an impromptu studio session in my apartment with a friend. setup a backdrop, setup lights, took several shots on two rolls. on one of the rolls the shutter was too fast and the curtain cut off part of each frame.. i was still able to salvage some of it. i got a few really nice shots out of it. this will be my first time signing a model release form (and asking someone to sign one). and i’m learning a ton by doing all this. gosh, each time i photograph someone my mind fills up with everything that goes on!

so the first real portraits i’ve done had mixed results.

i had some preconceived ideas on the images i wanted to produce. in reality, neither of them happened.. but i did learn a lot and know how to fix things.

first, i learned a hard lesson about blurry backgrounds. they have little to do with depth of field. after reading numerous discussions, arguments, and articles on the subject, the concensus is the real affecting factor is the ratio between the focal length and the aperture (i think this was referred to as the “working aperture”). for instance, the ratio of my f4/200mm would be 200/4, or 50:1. to increase the blur i need to increase the ratio. it’s unlikely i can get a faster lens for the pentax at that focal range, so the obvious answer is to get a longer focal length at the same aperture. i read good things about the f4/300 and f4/600. they are more likely to give me the affect i’m looking for.. unfortunately, i’m not quite ready to plop down $1200 for a used lens.

second, the f4/200 is great for portraits. but the depth of field is pretty narrow so i should have used the tripod. it’s not that handling that large of a lens is an issue, it’s body movement. it clearly wasn’t shutter speed either.. it was sunny out and i was shooting at 1/125 at f/4 with asa 50 film. if i leaned forward or back a little, it threw the focus off too much. i had the tripod with me, i just had too much faith in my ability to stay still. trying to get a close up crop was too difficult.. the lens can’t focus up close enough. the answer to this is extension tubes or bellows — moving the lens away from the film plane. either of these options most likely requires a tripod for handling.

so, options? getting the first shot means i need a longer lens. i could invest in a larger prime.. or a pentax 2x converter (i’ve read bad things about third party teleconverters for p67). the 2x converter wouldnt be much use elsewhere as my primes are 45, 90, and 200. maybe 600 would be a good next prime..? another idea is to move my subject further away from the background… not quite what i want, but something to consider since it’s a zero cost solution. getting the second shot means bellows or extension tubes.. or cropping. i always hate to crop, but it is a zero cost solution to this problem. i guess it’s not like i’m losing much definition since i’m dealing with 6×7.

so it was a definite learning experience. it was fun. and i hope to keep up with it and do another try.

finished filing my tax returns for 2003. yay!

tomorrow i’m doing test shots for my people project. here’s to pushing myself..

took this on my drive up to point reyes two weeks back. just me, my camera, and dream theatre on loud volumes. nothing at all to interrupt a bunch of incredible 10+ minute tracks.

someone i chat with suggest i try photosig. they have a unique self governing system. so to be able to post i’m supposed to write critiques to get points. i wrote 3 short paragraphs on one image i liked but had some words to say about. then i wrote two short paragraphs on another image i liked better.. but i only get a third of the critique points because it already had 36 “critiques”. i enclose that word in quotes because people are all posting two or three word comments and not doing any critiquing. i think the system is flawed because people are writing useless critiques to get points so they can upload the own images. :-/ back to photo.net for me.

the new server is online. it’s too fast. oh man. i started a new mrtg to graph stats on the switch at the colo. in a few days i’ll see how things are.

bhphoto sells fp4 120 for $2.19 a roll. if i wanted to buy a greater quantity, they have a 50 roll pack for $156.50. but wait, that’s $3.13 a roll. what the..?
incidentally, they have the propack (5 rolls) for the same price as five individual rolls.

i don’t get it.

as part of offramp.org upgrades, i’ve isntalled some equipment at an ISP colocation facility in fremont. my server there is 3ms from yahoo and google. hopefully things will be nice and stable after i move all the services. i already know what i’m doing next with the equipment once it’s moved. fun!

dude, where’s my dongle?

wish list:

two nights ago i read the photo.net article, so you want to turn pro? .. it helped me dismiss the idea of being a real “pro” photographer. last night at camera club, the judge said most pros are 90% weddings. that’s not what i want to be. and i suck at marketing, so forget that. so here’s what i really want to be:

actually, if i could sell work that would be great. i’m just not good at the selling part. i need an art dealer (when my art is worth dealing in).

sidebar: the other day, i was at keeble and schucat in palo alto, talking to one of the old-timers there that’s very patient and helps me out a lot. he was answering a question i had about adjusting contrast on the beseler color head i have. he said some of the newer heads had built-in neutral density filters they bring in as you change the colors. it made sense to me.. that way you dont have to adjust timing when you add magenta to the light, for instance. wow! i want one of those. :-)

camera club is all trial. it’s a different judge every month. so it’s hard to improve, really.

i showed two images. one was boring, the other was a great print (as said by the judge) but it didn’t even make honourable mention. he later asked me where i learned to print. with pride i told him i learned on my own, by reading, and by trial and error. he said i knew what to look for in printing. so that was my little victory.

despite suggestions to crop, i’m keeping the chair image. i’m going to work on some 16×20s of it soon.

on the way home i listened to more dream theatre. i thought about the phrase “trial and error”. i decided my learning photography is maybe one part trial, two parts error. and i have been learning from mistakes. mostly.

in any case, i continue to get encouraging words from those around me. and so i trudge onward..

i will never be a model photographer unless a model approaches with me with ideas. a friend of mine offered to model for me, and that didn’t even happen. ah well. tonight i’m working on reprinting the chair image.. paying more attention to density and contrast.. something i should think about more often.

:-/

yesterday i had a great day. i went up to san francisco to check out the monthly photo swap meet. then i decided to go north. i crossed the golden gate bridge and headed up 101. i stopped at a cheese and deli shop. i ate a roast beef sandwich on a patio overlooking a lake. i picked up two bottles of a shiraz they sell that sounded yummy. then headed north again. i decided to check out point reyes. unfortunately i got there 20 minutes too late to go to the famous light house. but i had a nice time wandering around the beach. i got a call from boman, so i headed back down to the city. we went to a great sushi place in the haight district, where we met three people and made friends with the staff there. boman and i had a great talk, and it was the perfect way to end such a great day. not to mention that it was generally sunny all day long.

abandoned chair on the corner of 12th and balboa, san francisco.

i was parking my car to meet a friend when i saw this on the sidewalk next to my car. i liked the lighting from the overcast sky, so i pulled out my pentax and took three shots of the chair; this was the best framed.