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the kiss is pretty much a sub-genre of street photography. it’s tricky to get right since you need to be close up, focusing, and yet not interrupting (or even be noticed during) the moment. i told my friend john this was a “lucky” shot, but he pointed out all the things that needed to be in place to make the shot happen and i guess he’s right.

this shot was taken at valencia and 16th, with a rolleicord v.

kodak tri-x 400, developed in rodinal 1+50. negative scan.

I decided to “travel light” to Reese’s birthday party at Shotwell’s, taking the Rolleicord V with the Sunpak 444d flash. Once again, the flash in auto mode has proven to be a great combination with the Rollei. The camera has a very dark focus screen, but I was able to get some fairly well focused images from it. My Manfrotto bracket and flash seemed to be huge, but I think it’s because I’m used to seeing it attached to a Crown Graphic. Medium and large format indoors with a flash.. I’m a bit addicted to it :)

For her birthday, Reese made a wonderfully decadent peanut butter pie (two, in fact) which seemed to go perfectly with Chimay Red.

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this is the view of our dining room from the kitchen. the image was taken with the kodak aero ektar 178mm lens, a lens that was designed to be mounted in the belly of an airplane to take reconnaissance photos during world war ii. the lens is sought after for its rendering of out-of-focus areas. you can see it makes wonderfully soft images.

i’ve mounted this unique lens on a speed graphic, so i can hand-hold shots for 4×5 portraiture. i hope to take it with me to street fairs and parties. at f/2.5, it’s quite fast.

i still need to practice with the camera, to get used to its weight and its dark sited rangefinder. i can’t wait to shoot with it again.

tmax 100, souped in rodinal 1+50 for 12 minutes.

Two of the characters I met in Dolores Park were Sebastian and Memphis. These two were with a small group of guys near the center of the park. They stopped by asking about the camera and liked the prints I had with me for show. I wasn’t sure they would make good subjects, as they were very flamboyant and seemed drunk or on something..  but you know, they agreed to stand for a portrait. Once I was under my jacket with my loupe these two just fell into this position and held it for as long as I required. For a brief moment there was a surprising calmness about them, which I promptly captured on film.

1/50 exposure on 320TXP.

The more I shoot, develop, and print large format portraits the more I enjoy doing them. I still have requested portraits to schedule, which I am pretty much ready to do now. My experience of photographing strangers in Dolores Park has also fueled my desire to do this more. The idea is further compounded to be “that guy.”

For example, “that guy doing all the 8×10 work in SF.”

It is similar to and inspired by the idea behind Mike Johnston’s very inspiring “Leica Year” proposal. You take your hobby and/or passion and distill it down into something very simple and limiting, and then you do it all the time for an entire year. Mike proposed one Leica camera with one lens, one black and white film, and every day use. The simplicity of the camera helps you focus on the image, it’s subtlety brings you closer to your subjects . The single focal length will help you on framing, composure, adapting to different scenarios. The single film will teach you how to control it, how to take advantage of its exposure curve. It’s quite a genius idea and Mike purports this way of shooting will teach you more in a one year than taking classes for three.

Thinking about the Leica Year makes me look at my own work and how few cameras and lenses I am touching these days. As much as I love exploring film cameras of varying formats and functions, I do find my range of active equipment narrowing down over time. Most of the film I’ve been shooting lately has been in the Rolleicord (on the street, general walking around) and the Burke & James (portraits). I am about to finish building another Graflex hand held camera (intended for street fairs).

To me, consolidation in the face of increased work is a great sign. It makes me feel like I am more focused in my work, spending more of my time on actual image creation.. spending more time in the darkroom, which I completely love.

So I intend to focus more on Large Format going forward. When the weather worsens I will continue my vacuum tube series work. I want to publish more images and have my work shown again. And hopefully, one day in the future someone will see me and say something like, “hey, it’s that guy.”

(photo credit: Yve Fontilea)

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Noah, Alec, and Julian passed by me and my camera in Dolores and agreed to pose for this picture. They were waiting for some other friends to meet up with and were curious about the camera.

I tried to line these guys up in an even plane, forgetting of course that the lens doesn’t have a flat focal plane. I should have directed them to move from behind the ground glass, instead of from in front of the camera.

Still, even with mishaps and mistakes, I think I will take the camera to the park again some time soon while it’s still nice on weekends.

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Last week I carried my Burke & James 8×10 camera, tripod, film, meter, a bottle of water, a set of portrait prints I’d done, and some sunscreen to Dolores Park. On the advice of two photographer friends, I decided to setup the camera there and take portraits of people who stopped to ask about it.

In about four hours, I had taken four portraits: three young guys (Noah, Alec, Julian), Nathan (pictured here), Sebastian and Memphis, and Darren. In each case, I answered some questions about the camera, showed them some of the portraits I’ve done, and showed them one of the negatives from the prints. Then I asked if they would let me take their picture. I took down their names and email addresses so I could eventually send them back an image from my camera.

Taking one picture an hour for four hours doesn’t sound like a like, but I don’t really have a benchmark for shooting strangers with a 13 pound camera on a tall wooden tripod.

My “fun fact” for the quick portrait session is exposing a full 80 square inches of film at once. That’s like shooting an entire roll of film for one image.

Film is Kodak 320TXP shot at box speed, exposed at 1/50, and developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes. Lens is a Gundlach Rapid Rectigraphic, wide open at f/8.

I think next time I will keep the subjects a bit closer to the lens, and make certain that it’s well centered on the film.

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Reese checking out the produce during lunch.

I recently acquired a Pacemaker Speed Graphic, as I’m building a “David Burnet” camera: a Speed Graphic, a Aero Ektar 178/2.5, and a very study lens mount. I’m now able to hand-hold large format shots with barrel lenses. One might think I am delving further into madness.

I’m also pleased to see the focus pretty spot on. I followed these directions to manually calibrate the Kalart side-mounted rangefinder.

Ilford HP5+ pulled to ISO 160. Optar 135mm f/4.7 at 5.6, shutter at 1/250. Developed in Rodinal 1+100 for 20 minutes.