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shooting in a panoramic format has made me appreciate it more. when you’re close to a subject but the background is a distance back, distance becomes distorted. when everything is far but at the same distance, distortion is low and the angle of view is very wide. when you’re right up on a subject and the background is also near, you get shots like the one above. the same camera in different situations produces so many varieties of shots, despite having limited controls and consistent physical behavior.

this particular frame is very evocative of a movie still, something jeff bridges mentions in his writing about the widelux.

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a storefront in berkeley, california. near the ashby bart station.

ilford pan f+, rodinal 1+15 for 11 minutes.

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the easter bunny plays with kids in mission dolores park, san francisco.

this was the mid day scene in the park, part of the all-day celebration put on by the sisters of perpetual indulgence. it was fun to see the kids running for easter eggs, having a good time, and sharing with those that didn’t get many eggs. after the madness, the easter bunny spent time with everybody, surrounded by parents snapping pics with their cell phones (and a weirdo or two with strange looking panoramic cameras).

shot on ilford pan f+ 50, rodinal 1+50 for 13 minutes.

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this is a pen-and-pencil drawing i made today from a deck at the metreon, overlooking yerba buena gardens. it’s funny, i’ve been on this path of departures since i met this group of shooters. one of them is a very talented artist. it was interesting to relate to some of the concepts that came up in conversation to similar situations in photography. like taking a long time to paint a scene, and how to deal with elements that change over that time.

a flickr friend asked this question of one of our social groups. why do you take photographs?

for some reason, creating images is something that i’ve not taken for granted. photography is, for me at least, a mix of science and art. it’s a very hands-on process with artistic influence at every step of the way, from the moment of capture to the way the final printing is executed. it’s something that fits well with how ithink and like to approach the world.

it’s also a way to express myself. looking through someone’s photographs, you get a sense of their life and how they see the world. it’s a passive but deep way to get to know someone, seeing how they choose to portray a particular scenario or pondering what they chose to capture because they felt it was worth capturing. taking photographs is easy for me – easier than writing or drawing.

shooting with my leica i3 today with 2,8 phonelux.

being able to shoot without much thinking at the moment of exposure is really opening up opportunities. there are so many interesting characters that pass through The Mission, and now i can fairly easy capture moments like this one.

tri-x 400 at 800, shot with a canonet ql17 g-iii.