my life, as far as i know.

i am registered and booked for the first international apug.org conference in may.

i plan on getting to toronto early, spending a few days on my own before the conference starts. following the conference, the plan is to hang out a few more days then go check out montreal. i’m looking forward to it! i plan on having lots of photo gear with me, including enough equipment to develop film.

i’ll be tagging along on the tours and meeting various folk i see on the website. i’ll be attending two workshops by the well known michael and paula.

more difficult than planning the trip may be getting through the airport and customs with bags full of photo gear (including plastic trays and graduated cylinders)!

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tonight’s menu:

dendeng pedas (spicy hot beef)
singapore curry puffs
garlic baby bok choy
oolong tea

i didn’t realize what i had gotten myself into until it was very late. i’ve never prepared such a complicated meal. it all turned out pretty well — and, of course, i have some ideas for next time. anyways, i’m still a noob in the kitchen. but i like having gotten this done.

this weekend i was able to sell off my sinar f camera. i also got two new lenses. the one on the left is a red dot 19″ artar (in a barrel, with waterhouse slot). the one on the right is a 21cm heliar 4.5, which i am very excited about. the artar replaces the lens that was on the camera that was stolen out of my car. no shutter on this one, but better glass.

*open-pop-close*.

now i can move forward on my hairbrained schemes that involve overcoming my self image, esteem, personality, and lethargy.

inspired by my own self portrait and a comment made about it (and the fact that they are falling apart), i am moving on getting new glasses. one of my eyes has changed since my last check, probably five years ago.

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i went to stamper optometry in the mission district. everybody was super friendly, including doctor stamper. so much so that i personally thanked them for their good and curteous service. i know how it feels to hear compliments on your work.

in fact, everybody on the bus on my way there seemed to be in a good mood. even the guy selling churros on the sidewalk smiled.

steak: kosher salt, cracked pepper, crushed garlic, paprika
fries: fried twice for crispy, salt, parsley
sauce: creamy green peppercorn sauce
wine: 1998 de loach cabernet (los amigos ranch)
music: santana, supernatural (dolby 5.1)
jason: happy

one reason, i think, that i’m quiet is i’m no good at arguing. why bother voicing my opinion if i cannot readily defend it. best keep it to myself. doesn’t stop me from learning from others’ opinions.

ok, well it’s not done with a stick of chewing gum and a safety pin, but it is done with items i had around the house.

i had no convenient way to mount this lens to any shutter. i found the front outside thread could kinda attach to the back of this acme shutter, but the threads are wrong. danger! the back of the lens was similar in size to the front of the shutter. i figured out i could use cable ties to hold the lens firmly to the front of the shutter with no detectable light leaks. a little silly and a little risky (the shutter is getting scratched; there’s also a slight risk in dropping the lens) but it works. *knocks on wood*

this is my first version of the mount. the second version, done last night, involves moving the cable ties to go around the front standard of the camera. this way they’re away from the moving parts of the shutter, making it much easier to use. this shutter has two levers, two buttons, and a sliding aperture scale to use.

what else can you do when you have a lens you like so much?

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ok, one more image from this great lens before i show my silly macguyver‘d rig.

this was taken last night. same setup as before, although i had to re-attach the lens in a different way. this time i wanted to use a slight tilt to get some hot bokeh action.

i think i’m subconsciously wanting to become a jack of all photographic trades. there are too many cool things to learn and do, to settle down on a particular style or genre. probably not a good trait for being very marketable. :-)

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i was in a bad mood becuase my 545 holder jammed and i ruined several polaroids trying to get it back in operation. i reassembled the holder three times before i got a working shot. this first shot captures my mood perfectly.

the lens is this bausch and lomb (zeiss tessar 5×8 f/6.3) again. i’m liking it a lot.

when i see images with rough borders and sprocket holes, it gets my attention. i like images that are produced traditionally and by hand. but when i see the image is produced by a $1000 digital SLR and likely manipulated with a pirated copy of adobe photoshop, i feel downright insulted.

the images in question i saw this morning were not sharp, didn’t seem to be deliberately shot soft, and some of them had bad digital artifacts. further more, some of the image aspect ratios were different but using the same film style rough border, adding insult to injury.

i think people should embrace digital photography as a new medium and not use it to imitate film.

someone who is using more than $1300 in hardware and software to imitate images one could produce using a $50 beater film camera and enlarger (which, in the right hands, could produce better images!).

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feb 24, 1903. that’s the patent date stamped on the lens that took this photo. i had no suitable shutter for it, so i cable-strapped it to the front of my no. 3 acme shutter. i misjudged this lens as f/8 at around 250mm. turns out the clear markings on the aperture ring say 6.3. :) looking into the lens, it is around 210mm.

i plan on using this lens more and explore its bokeh. i shot an image of ryan using this lens but think i will shoot reshoot it (so i can find better light). i should also try this lens in a studio setting.

was up until 2am doing chores. i was so tense, when i drank some water before bed my stomach got tied up in a knot.

overslept my alarm by an hour (and still got only five hours of sleep). had trouble with the ticket validator at the train station.

i have nearly a week’s worth of work to do this week (thursday and friday).

i originally posted this on forum at apug.org but thought it was also suitable for my blog.

today i found motivation (thanks, ann!) to inquire on a craigslist posting about a “non digital photography club” forming here in san francisco.

i thought it was by the same gal, a wedding photographer / art student who tried to do the same last year. she managed to gather about 10 similarly aged (mostly art students) folk together for a first meeting. but due to poor communication and planning, i don’t think that group lasted more than 2 or 3 meetings.

i replied to the posting and got a reply back with a name and phone number. it was someone else. i searched for his name and phone number, and found it to by someone who had built a complete darkroom in his house and was trying to rent it out, offer private instruction, etc. it looks like (from my limited research) that the guy is inserting himself into the art scene here in the city.

he said his goal was to make a new non-digital group, make it a known entity, and eventually do group shows. i’d asked if he heard of APUG.org. nope. i was surpised.

the gal who tried before to start a non-digital group had also not heard of apug. nor did the photographer from whom i bought a large stack of film holders from.

maybe it is my “generation-x upbringing”, but when im wanting to find colleagues, community one of the first things i do is look online. the strangest thing is, this new guy didn’t seem all that interested.

i am not the world’s most social person, nor am i a part of any art scene (if you don’t count my coworkers and family). so discovering things like this is pretty interesting.

incidentally, the next big meeting of this group is on the 21st of january, which is the same day there’s a large photo/camera swap meet down in san jose. he wasn’t aware of that either.

so i think what’s happening is a professional photographer is trying to work “down” to an amateur audience (maybe his audience will be pros trying to return to or escape with traditional photography?). the gal from last year and her audience was definitely on the amateur side trying to work “up” to a real organized group.

i will try to make it to this meeting, although i am not really one for pot-luck meals which might be happening.

thanks for your attention to my rambling. this is what happens when i have a day off from work :)

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today i revisited a scene i’ve photographed before. i shot this on 6×7 and had a hard time printing it. i decided to reshoot it on 4×5 to hopefully take advantage of focus control to get a sharper image. the image tonal range is flatter this time, though i’m not sure about the sharpness. i am definitely more pleased with the overall image this time around.

a conservation group was cleaning up the small waterfront park where this scene is. one of the workers stopped by and i was able to show him this polaroid, whose exposure i’m proud of. i told him a little about the camera. he thought i was professionally shooting.

another fellow was in the park shooting with a dslr. he asked if it was a hasselblad. :) he knew about view cameras but had never used one. he was there to reshoot the graffiti, he periodically stops by to see new stuff and shoot it. it was nice chatting with him as well.

i have two other images i made today, both of which were a great experience. i will post a scan of more polaroids later.

i hope i don’t muck up the film i exposed today. :)

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this is another polaroid from the past few days. this is one of my garage-sale wine glasses. i used extreme movements and a wide open lense to get (stumble upon, rather) this effect. i also shot a sheet of film of the same scene, hopefully it’s focused properly. the dark line at the time is from the movements, that’s the rim of the bellows blocking the view. since the background can be printed white, i can easily get rid of it.. or crop it out.

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bryan and andy came over yesterday for brunch. pancakes from scratch, good canadian maple syrup, good bacon, blueberries with freshly whipped cream. and mimosas. and several rounds of guitar hero.

been winding down the first day of the new year with some great canadian folk music. the dishes are cleaned (again), the kitchen counter wiped. everything is put away. i have the next few days off, although it is supposed to rain tomorrow. i do have some film to develop (in many formats).

i can already tell this will be an interesting year.

i started out a little tightly wound
like a rocket shot up out of frozen ground..