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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.