i recently went on a photowalk with our flickr posse, the blow-up gang. we all met in north beach and loaded our cameras up with kodachrome, a legendary film whose unique processing will cease at the end of the year.

this is david teter, trying to get a higher vantage point on an already high hill in san francisco.

kodak tri-x 400, shot with a rolleicord v. developed in rodinal 1+50.

this is jose marco, a local photographer friend who attended the grain over noise show at space gallery.

it was my 3rd time using the “party camera” and I think I have it pretty much down now, thanks to some tips from a flickr contact. basically, i flipped the sunpak 444d to auto mode. it uses its thyristor to measure light bouncing back to it and stops when it hits a certain point. then i just pick a reasonable shutter speed, use the rangefinder to focus, and let the flash do its thing. and then you have a 4×5 shot at night in good focus!

i accidentally shot this film set (delta 100) at iso 400. it’s not usually pushed so there wasn’t good data on how to develop it in rodinal. i started with a base time of 14 minus for 1+50. i added 20% per stop and came to 21 minutes. seems that pretty much did the trick.

it’s nice to use cameras i haven’t touched in a while. i’ve been carrying around the rolleicord for a while now, outfitted with a thin domke camera strap. it’s a little difficult to get sharp focus on it, since there is no split screen and the view is a bit dark. regardless, it is fun to use and has a great lens.

rolleicord, xenar 1:3.5/75. film is kodak tri-x developed in rodinal 1:50

This is one of my photographer friends, Yve Fontilea. She’s an easy bay based professional photographer. She and I agreed to do a mutual portrait session. We met last weekend at the Alameda Naval Base, which has an endless supply of interesting backdrops for pictures. A cute downtown area, barren huge parking lots, abandoned and active warehouses, Navy ships, subsidized housing.

These were taken with my Burke & James 8×10 camera, with the Gundlach triple-convertible lens. The film was Kodak TXP 320 pulled to ISO 80, developed in stock Xtol for 5 minutes. Printed on Ilford MGD.1M glossy RC paper.

You can see one of the pictures of me Yve took, here.

I’m finding this combination – lens, film, developer – works really well for these portraits. The lens itself has so much character, it really makes these images work. I feel sometimes that I’m just enabling it, I’m not really doing much at all myself. I just set it up, point, and shoot.

in san francisco, pink saturday is the day before the annual gay pride parade. the parade itself is a spectacle in itself, with an estimated 1.2 million attendees. the night before the parade, however, is when the craziness happens. a large swath of castro street and market street are blocked off. the area becomes a multi-stage concert venue and block party.

as is our annual custom, we went to a house party in the castro before coming outside to brave the crowds out on the street. i decided to bring what i’ve called the party camera, a crown graphic with a sunpak 444d and four grafmatic backs. entering a sweltering house packed with people, bringing such a huge camera, heavy camera might not cross your mind.

preparing for the party reminded me of last year’s folsom street party, where i felt really disconnected with the scene. this was a little different. it felt more like bringing along one of my crazy cameras to a party where all my friends were. “oh, you need to let schlachet take your picture with his crazy camera!”

i did learn a few lessons from shooting with this setup. first, when the subject is very close i should be looking through the camera and ignoring the sports viewer. second, when i slow down and think my shots come out much better.

overall, i am pretty pleased with the set. it’s quite an experience shooting hand-held 4×5 at night, let alone seeing your friends at a party in large format.

this is brad evans, talented street portrait shooter.

last weekend a group i’m in on flickr held a bar-b-que in golden gate park. i brought my burke&james camera and holders loaded with 320TXP. i shot portraits of some of the group using the gundlach rapid rectigraphic. these are contact printed onto ilford mgd.1m paper with a #3 filter. these dark images are so nice on paper in front of your eyes, and i can never get the scans to look just right.

coy, with his partner erwin.

rai

adam

reese

it was also wonderful to spend time in the darkroom again. i vowed to not post negative scans as much, while producing more physical prints this year. the negatives from this set turned out very evenly exposed, so printing was very easy. i think the 8×10 is my favorite portrait camera by far.

met this canadian guy named ryan last wekeend at a picnic. he seems really nice. this morning i caught myself thinking, what am i doing? what are my intentions? it just all seems so natural.. maybe that’s not the kind of think you should question? and tonight we’re having dinner together. it sounds like a date.

from my journal, dated august 8th, 2003.

dad would be 62 today. although it is easily searchable in my blog, i like to let pass the memory of his last few days and replace it instead with the day he was born, december 9th.  people have the most potential on the day they were born. i like this entry from wikipedia:

The term birth is used metaphorically to refer to a beginning, especially of a natural phenomenon, one that is impressive in its scope or complexity, or one that is viewed favorably.

thanks, branden, for digging up, scanning, and sending me this photo.