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.

a couple weeks ago, i went out shooting in embarcadero/northbeach with some flickr folks. after lunch, reese and i made our way back through chinatown where we ducked into the wok shop. it’s an old family run business where you can buy hand-hammered woks. beyond the woks, there are a ton of other kitchen gadgets, tools, and other tchotchkes. when we saw this mirror amidst all the laterns, i knew i had to take a shot of the two of us….

after 10 years of dating and 3 years of engagement, eillenil (my step-sister) and mark got married this month. the ceremony was at mission santa clara de asis, on the santa clara university campus. it was nice to see a formal tie between the sudarios and the dimalantas.

it was such a hot day then, i wished i was wearing a barong tagalog like the goomsmen. dealing with the heat and suit made lugging a pentax 67 not too bad.

in may of 2009, our friend jonathan decided to plan a trip to yosemite to hike up half dome. the time finally came around and six of us took a friday off and camped in the north pines campsite and eventually made our way up.

i’d never actually been to yosemite before and it had been a long time since i’d done any proper camping. it was so fun, and the park was amazingly beautiful in every way. on our first night, galen grilled up some steaks and veggie packets and corn. we had a large delicious meal before packing it up and going to bed early.

the next day we woke up at 6:30am and had another sizeable meal, and headed off on a 4-5 hour hike to the half dome site.

i won’t try to trivialize the hike. thousands of people do it every year. you start at a high elevation, and you go higher (a gain of 4800ft). you hike through the woods, up over two waterfalls, and up large rock steps for hours. then you can see the half dome site.  that means you must again climb the last very steep rock steps up to the rock face. at that point, you need to make a go-or-no-go decision to actually scale the rock face.

at the base of the rock face there is a pile of gloves. you put on a fairly well matched pair because you will be slowly ascending the rock using cables that have been installed on the rock. it’s slow, because people are taking their time, or taking a break, or panicking and turning around and descending. it can take 20-25 minutes to get up there if you decide to go up the “outside” of the cables, or over an hour if you decide to stay within the cables like most folks.

once you are up the rock face, you are at the top of yosemite national park, 8842ft elevation. you have a panoramic view of the valley, and a chance to relax with everybody else who has made it to the top. i was so exhausted and breathing such thin air, that i was wheezing at first until i relaxed a bit. at several points along the hike, i didn’t think i could make it and was formulating back-out plans in my head. i’m so glad i pushed forth and went all the way. in light of foot/hip problems i’ve been dealing with over the past couple years, i feel very accomplished having done this.

at the top of half dome, you are cooling off from the breeze and taking in one of the most amazing sights i have personally seen. the bad news is, you have another 5 hours to hike back and are racing to get back to your camp site before it gets dark. i paused along the way back, wondering how the hell did i go *up* all of this??

hiking half dome was quite awesome and i’m so glad i did it.

notes:

• 2 litres of water is not enough for this hike. filtering fresh water to replenish your store should be done
• eating a granny smith apple on the way down was AMAZING
• if i were doing it again, i would start the hike much earlier and before sunrise.
• having a good flashlight is essential for the trip back

all images were shot on arista premium 400 at iso 6400, developed in rodinal 1+50 for 45 minutes. shot with a widelux f7.

this is my brother tom and his wife clare.

i travelled to indiana last week to reconnect with family, meet clare, and be there for their wedding.

tom and clare were married at the hamilton county courthouse on friday. after the ceremony, i took pictures of everybody on the lawn behind the courthouse. we found a nice shady spot and were able to take some pictures before everybody got too sweaty.

i have a good amount of film to go through, mostly portra 160vc and 400, but also some of the new kodak ektar 100.

this was shot on portra 160vc. camera is the pentax 6×7, 80/2.8. negative scan, dust clone-out, auto-curves, resize.

(2048×839)

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.

i was at the 24th/mission bus stop when i noticed the guy in the back of the bus. it looked like he was having a  moment on the bus, one of those poetic times when your mind is calm and everything goes quiet.

35mm tri-x in rodinal 1+25. canonet g-iii ql. newton rings by epson.

i’m being pushed here. i’m reading email threads, hearing a lot of unrest, and feel things are escalating to new heights. i’m talking about the recent passing of proposition 8 in california. 

you know, being a generation-x‘er, i never imagined i would have to deal with something like this or feel this way. it was supposed to be my parents’ generation that fought the good fight for what they believed in. being the son of a boomer, i was supposed to ride on their laurels — i was supposed to be a part of a new generation that used its own tools and techniques to bring the world closer.. and now i find myself conflicted.

did i really just have a civil right taken away?

for the past many years, basically my entire life thus far, i have sat on the sidelines of political and civil issues. growing up where i did, i never experienced hardship, never understood prejudice, and never had to endure intolerance. on top of that, i’ve been a non-vocal minority this whole time.

and now i am nearing the point of snapping. it feels like things are escalating and i think now i want to become a part of it.

i’m pretty sure i know people who voted in favor of proposition 8. i think we all know at least one or two.

what if i had talked to them before the election?

what if i helped them realize what the prop meant to someone they knew?

would that have made a difference?

it really makes me wonder, if i should be more out and more vocal.

this is another folsom street fair image taken with the crown graphic. i had no idea who this person was, they just caught my eye and i wanted to shoot a photo. someone on flickr identified her as shavonna star. it’s interesting to read about people you meet briefly in fleeting moments like this.

i suppose i had a better than average opportunity to chat with the strangers i shot, but i never took the opportunity. i’ll keep working on shooting people, despite my awkwardness i still enjoy it.

it’s been a while since i’ve done much photography or blogging stuff. too long. i get that uncomfortable feeling, where i swear to myself that i’ll bring a camera along to the next event i attend. well, things fell into place such that i brought my crown graphic with me to the folsom street fair.

the fsf is the largest “leather event” in the world and attracts a huge crowd. it’s a six-block-long public exhibition of fetish with vendors, artists, and street fair food.

i wondered the fair with a small group of friends, but once i split off on my own i found a lot of photographic opportunity. part of it is, which ryan pointed out to me, that i feel more comfortable with the camera when i’m by myself. the crown graphic is such a fun camera, and so uncommon now that it attracts a lot of attention so it turns out to be great for a shy photographer. being shy at an event such as fsf seems silly. anyways, i found that with the crown.. you basically set it up for shooting and people will come up and ask you about it. or you make a gesture that you’d like to shoot someone and they pose for you, let you shoot, then ask about the camera. it’s a good camera for me.

i ended up shooting 17 sheets of tmax 100 at the street fair. i wrote down a pre-calculated exposure cheat-sheet, but ended up just using 1/500 and f/5.6 the whole day. i slowed the shutter down a stop or two where i was out of the direct sunlight. it’s funny how accurate “sunny 16” is. when the same ev, i basically just worried about focus.

There’s been an email thread discussion among my friends concerning sexual racism. It’s reminded me of an experience I had when I was in highschool concerning race.

It’s funny how time always makes edits in your memories. The farther in the past events are, the more different they become. Lately I’ve been reminiscing about my high school years, since many of my former classmates are popping up on Facebook. I grew up in a town I consider “pretty white.” That is to say, people are generally Caucasian and there is a small, barely visible minority. It’s strange, since our town of 12,000 residents was home to one of the largest Islamic centers in North America, and is a suburb of what was later called one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I remember when I was in 7th grade, there were a few black students but they were juniors and seniors at that point. But I digress.

When I was growing up, a majority of the state had a single utility company supplying its power. Their headquarters was in our town, on a massive lot in a very long building. I never knew anyone that worked there, nor had I been in an office building that large before. I was so curious what was inside, especially in their computer room. I convinced a friend of mine to go on a tour with me.

We both went up to the front lobby in the middle of the building and introduced ourselves. We explained our curiosity and they agreed to give us a tour. They found someone to escort us through the building. We were walked though their office and got a tour of their data center. My career went down that path, so by now I’ve seen so many server rooms of that vintage the exact details no longer matter.

I think what struck me most was the number of African-Americans working there. I knew nearby Indianapolis was more racially mixed (though not exactly integrated), but I never imaged such a level of diversity in my home town. I’d like to think none of the feelings I had that day were out of hate or racism, that my recollection hasn’t been sugarcoated by later experiences and accumulated wisdom. Thinking back on it this morning, to me it was a mix of shock and curiosity. That was my first big wake-up call, that my home town was just a fraction of a fraction of what the world had to offer.

I later attended college in Indiana, and that was the next major culture shock to me. I definitely remember once making the mistake of thinking that someone from Taiwan was “Thai”. Embarassing, now. But can you blame a white boy from a white town?

(flickr set)

on saturday we threw a birthday party for ryan at nikon whiskey lounge at folsom and 14th in san francisco. extensive whiskey bar, great japanese food. we reserved a private even room upstairs for our party. we topped off the party with two delicious cakes from miette.

i decided to bust out my polaroid spectra camera to document the occasion. it was a big hit, everybody seemed to enjoy using it and watch the prints develop. they all turned out great!

on a day like today, it’s nice to have some home-made french onion soup. boman secured a whole box of sweet onions and cooked them all down. add some dried bread and cheese melted on top. mmmm.

while we were there, we visited with his chickens. they are five months old and just starting to lay eggs, the reason he’s keeping them. next weekend i’m helping build a hen house for them. boman is learning a lot about chickens, even meeting other people within the city that raise them. who knew?

i live in an old house. there’s a small gate at the sidewalk that leads you down a few steps to a walkway into the downstairs where i live. next to the house is a large live/work loft building with vines growing up the face. there are a lot of dog owners in the neighborhood, particularly in the loft building. and.. there’s something about the vines that the dogs love (convenient location?) and they all pee on it. on the curb at the street. and, for some reason, right in the middle of the sidewalk just outside my gate. for a while, there was a hand-written sign placed behind the vines asking people to not let their dog pee on the plants (i noticed that sign is gone now).

anyways, last night i was driving home from dinner when i saw a car parked at a weird angle in front of my gate. the driver’s side door was open and there was someone standing there facing the car. i could see in plain sight the entirety of this person’s ass. their boxers and jeans were pulled way down. was something lewd happening right in front of my home? was there some sort of sex act going on, or were they sick? needless to say, i decided to park a few cars further down the hill.

by the time i walked up the car was on its way. i looked at the street where the car was. there was a puddle with a stream going down the hill. did guy just take a long piss on the street in front?

it’s bad enough that all the dogs do it, and perpetuate a urine smell in the area. but a person?

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

red.. blue.. blah blah blah. someone wake me up when government actually does something interesting and positive. it’s not like democrats are all that great these days.