ok, well we’ve finally done it. we bought a condo in san francisco. 3br, 2ba, top floor unit. it meets all our criteria: gas appliances, recent construction, low unit count building, close to public transit, parking.

we’ve been looking off and on for more than a year– our latest stretch was 8 months long. it seemed like it took just as long to collect all our documentation, fill out all the paperwork, and attend all the calls and meetings.

over the next few weekends we’ll be busy painting the place. our official move date is this coming monday. most of our stuff is already boxed up. it will take us a couple weeks to complete all the tasks we want to get done before we deem the place presentable.

my dad would be so proud.

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 a picture of my parents from 1973.

i haven’t posted anything for a while and thought i would dig through the slides and find one to post. i think this is a great shot of them. the framing, their composure, and the colors. it made me think about the future, by the way they are looking off to the amazing distant horizon.

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.

This is Echo Lake, the start of our 16 mile hike.

A panoramic view of Lake Aloha, the hike destination. Click on the images for larger versions. These images are plagued by the horrible smudge that was on the lens.. but you at least get a sense of scale of the landscape.

This is a digital snappy taken at lake aloha in the Sierra Nevadas.

This was part of a weekend trip with friends to South Lake Tahoe. I call it the “workout trip,” since the first day was lower body (a 16 mile hike) and the second day was core and upper body (kayaking on Lake Tahoe). Both were awesome, but I got a really bad sunburn on my feet!

i took this on my trip to the abandoned naval air station in alameda.

on my past few photo trips, i’ve found myself focusing on repeating patterns. also, something really intrigues me when i use color film to shoot mostly monochromatic scenes. i guess it’s about finding the subtleties in life.

this one is from the same drive, but in emeryville.

today i decided to go to the hayward camera show, but it wasn’t until i was heading down the peninsula that i realized it’s tomorrow and not today. i was already on the road with the pentax and film, so i decided to go to Alameda. you can see my route on the map.

aside from getting what i think will be great images of some of the buildings on the grounds there, i met dennis, a medium format shooter! he was out in alameda, where he just moved, with his pentacon. i recognized that camera a mile away, since it’s a cousin of my kiev-60. we had a little show-and-tell, since he had been thinking about a pentax but was disuaded from getting one. he showed me a czj 180/2.8 he has — that lens is crazy! anyways, we had a great conversation and i hope to bump into dennis again.

tonight i made my first successful attempt at printing on something other than photographic paper. this is a piece of a ‘keep out’ sign, the cheapest plastic sheet i could find at my local hardware store.

i used rockaloid’s “liquid light” product.

here are the basic steps you take:

i had trouble getting a decent print really, i was happy to get what you see above. but it was neat to see it work for the first time. i wonder how clean an image one can make with liquid light.

my goal is to eventually use this method to print a portrait onto glass.

here is the back of my print: