my life, as far as i know.

sometimes it only takes a simple display of order and control to make me happy. last night i was cutting potatoes with a mandoline slicer when it started misbehaving. the fries were coming out rough and the rest of the potato was getting stuck. i finally managed to finish three spuds, then manually went through the cut fries nearly one-by-one to clean them up and break off any extra potato. after going through so much effort, i took a step back and had a moment of pause to appreciated the order. ya, sometimes it’s the small things in life that bring happiness. :)

today i attended a one day class on wet plate photography, or tintype process. it’s a technique from the 1850s which produces an incredibly sharp image on a piece of glass or tin. the class was held at rayko photo center in san francisco.

the process is really magical. photographing even the most mundate scene or subject produces an awesome image. the best part is watching a negative image turn positive before your eyes. more magical than polaroid i think.

if i had more time i would likely do this at home.. it’s so fun.

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yesterday i took my crown graphic to work to show a coworker of mine. the weather was nice, so we went out to the front of out building and i took this shot. too bad i didn’t have a 25A filter for this!

some detals: 4×5 ilford delta 100, rated 125, souped in rodinal 1:50 for 11 minutes. i think the 1:50@11 is working because the shutter is slow by at least a stop or more. the image is a negative scan.. dust clean-up, levels adjust, slight unsharp mask, resize.

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this morning i went photowalking. that is, i went for a walk with my new camera. san francisco rises not-quite-so-early on a sunday, so if you wake up early enough you can watch its eyes open.

i loaded a bunch of ilford delta 100, packed my graflex and my light meter, and headed out.

the crown graphic is really fun. it catches a lot of attention, and because of that i chatted with quite a few random people today. i quickly got a routine down, and now i can shoot a subject fairly quickly if there’s a loaded film holder already in the camera. my camera side-bag held all my supplies, but it’s not as quick for grabbing extra holders.

in any case.. i always enjoy a good walk — especially with a camera in tow.

i’m so excited. i picked this camera up today at the photo fair in san jose. it’s a graflex crown graphic. i’ve already shot, developed, and scanned a first few negativese from the camera and it works great. here’s the very first shot:

one of the things ryan and i enjoyed most about france was the coffee. you can get it anywhere at pretty much any time of day. much more often than not, it was well roasted, brewed, and served. for me, having a cafe au lait also means we were sitting down and relaxing, and giving my poor feet a rest.

becoming a bit of a coffee snob over the past year or two, i would say the coffee in paris is on average better than coffee here in california. in paris, i never had more than one cup in any one spot so i had a large sample set.

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on our way from paris to rennes by car, we went through lots of small towns. between the towns there were frequently signs for castles. we chose this one, which happened to be the chateau de lassay. it’s a 14th century fortress, one of the few that remain intact and in its original design. this one even had a working drawbridge! this is a view from the rear gardens. back then, this whole area would have been purposefully flooded. the man on the right was our emphatic guide. he pointed to which section in the english information sheet he was referring to as he spoke in french.

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i shot these from mont saint michel, this incredible 5th century structure that sits on a big granite rock out on the sea. during high tide it’s an island and the visitor parking lot is under water. otherwise, you can park and walk up to it. it was added to, rebuilt, and supplemented nearly every century since the 5th, so it is quite an amazing collection of architecture.

i decided to leave this pano rough. the moving people, the changing angles.. i think add a great atmosphere. a good change from the other, more civilized panoramas :)

can you spot ryan?

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this is a view of both tower bridge and the difficult to mistake city hall building in london.

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i used my canon g3 and a pano stitching software to make this. it’s a near 180 degree view from on top of the arc de triomphe. the largest street in the center is the avenue des Champs-Elysees. it’s lined with large, high end stores.

this is a picture i took of the carnac stones in western france. carnac is a small coastal town in brittany. the stone arrangements, as they are called in french, are said to have been laid down some 5,000 years ago during the neolithic period.

our vacation to france was awesome. over the past week that i’ve been back i’ve been wondering what i should post to my blog, if anything, about the vacation.

we saw a lot of fantastic sites. we stumbled upon a lot of fantastic restaurants. we drove out to rennes and explored some small countryside towns, which were all incredible. i guess for now, i’ll write a quick itinerary and summary of our trip with some links to check out.

Continue reading…

i just got back from a two week vacation. i have lots of cell phone pics to process, some digital snaps to stitch into panos, and some notes to type up. the image above is a graffiti i saw in paris, i think it may be a banksy.