upside down & backwards

corn

2011-08-02T23:12:00.006-04:00

when we moved to indiana there were two things that immediately stuck out to me: first, the flatness of the land - i had no idea that such incredibly flat land could exist - and second, the corn.

one of the first little excursions i took was out into the farmland. i drove out from the city, not really paying attention to where i was going or how i would get back home (i had my gps). i just drove admiring the golden fields of dried corn stalks (apparently they harvest it after it's all dried up).

overlooking the fact that it's all going to end up as either cattle feed or high fructose corn syrup, i've loved seeing corn throughout the year.

corn in the fall

corn in the winter

going low budget - branching out

2011-05-06T23:57:00.007-04:00

for a long time i could only use slide film (usually fuji velvia or provia) or professional black and white film. i did this in order to have what i thought would be highest quality pictures possible. i felt that only the best would do.

as part of my therapy to break me of this mindset i bought some fuji superia 400 speed film - your standard print film - from walmart, took some snapshots, then had it processed at walgreens (just the film) then scanned it myself.

this is a big step for me. in the end, i have to say i'm very happy with what i got. the scans are somewhat unsaturated and grainy but i think it actually adds to the feel of the pictures.

at the detroit science center...

out garage sale-ing...

and the rest from a recent in-town vacation...

thanks for looking.

sacred grove

2011-02-14T18:03:00.003-05:00

last summer we drove to boston for my brother-in-law's graduation and on the way home stopped in palmyra, ny to see the historical sites.

we spent some time walking through the sacred grove (click here if you don't know what happened there) and i got the following shot.

(here i am setting up the shot)

i was pleasantly surprised with how this one turned out. it was a beautiful, cool day. the sun was sprinkling in through the trees. it was very peaceful.

i'm happy about the way the sky appropriately glows a brilliant white at the top of the picture. i'm happy about the way the subtle shading from black to white just fell into the right places without any help from photoshop.

it's one of my new favorites.

the celebration

2011-01-11T18:42:00.002-05:00

to celebrate the arrival of the scanner, i tried out some of my fuji provia slide film.

remember this post? remember how at the end i said i'd get the pictures up as soon as i had them? well now i have them. it only took me a year and a half.

see that white speck on the horizon at the end of the little path?

here's that section blown up:

yeah, that's a boat.

thank you epson.

self sufficiency in scanning

2011-01-10T18:31:00.006-05:00

back when i was at byu and had free access to an imacon scanner for my 4x5 film i didn't know how good i had it. i didn't really have a plan for scanning my film once i left school - i guess i just figured i would cross that bridge when i got there.

well, that bridge has been harder to cross than i ever imagined. in new york i had to rent time on a scanner in manhattan. not too bad but still somewhat expensive. now that we're in indiana, there aren't really any viable options (that i have found) for getting my film scanned...

until now.

thanks to epson (as i've mentioned in a previous post) that bridge has just been shortened significantly.

i've gone and made the leap, purchasing the epson v700.

this beauty is a fraction of the cost of the imacon yet is almost equal to it (from what i've read) in quality.

i've got a handful of slides to scan and, if the u.p.s. man comes through, i should have the scanner in my home tonight. i will be, in a way, fully self-sufficient - photographically speaking.

that calls for a celebration!

photographs on display

2010-12-01T22:30:00.004-05:00

i'm really excited to announce that i've got 15 photographs hanging up at 816 Pint & Slice (a restaurant in downtown fort wayne) from now through december.

it's a pretty cool setup they have there - every month they give local artists a chance to display their work, free of charge or commission.

so if you're in the area looking for some pizza, stop by, get a bite, and take a look!

816 Pint & Slice

816 South Calhoun St.

Fort Wayne, IN

abstract glow bracelet art

2010-10-19T20:08:00.010-04:00

recently i made a couple of purchases - a new camera, and some glow bracelets.

first the camera. after researching point-and-shoots, mega-zooms, and d-slrs we picked up a panasonic lumix fz35 because of some of the features it has. mostly i wanted to have manual controls, image stabilization, hd video, and long(er) exposure times. so this one was the winner.

second the glow bracelets. i saw them at michael's - 15 for a dollar. there's no passing that up - i'm still very much mesmerized by the neon glow of glow sticks/necklaces/bracelets.

when my two recent purchases - and my boys - joined forces one night in the backyard, this was the result...

and this...

and this...

the exposures were somewhere around 8 seconds and i kept the camera moving to keep the background (neighbor's house, fence, etc.) from registering on the picture.

let's hear it for free flowing creative expression! woohoo!

drum roll please...

2010-10-04T06:28:00.003-04:00

i've finally put some finishing touches on my new gallery including some new 35mm 'street photography' shots. i think i'll call it finished for now.

also, i just got some large format slides back from the lab (woohoo!) so as soon as i get my photo budget out of the red and well into the black i'll purchase this and post them in my gallery.

as a side note, i have to say that finding this was a miracle. for a while the only reasonable way to get my 4x5's scanned was by using one of these. byu had one that i used while at school and i was able to rent time on one in nyc for a reasonable fee but since leaving ny i haven't had access to one. thanks epson for bringing high quality, large format scans into a reasonable price range.

boston, and other news

2010-07-18T22:13:00.003-04:00

can i just say, i love my new camera. it's so compact and user-friendly. that might sound weird considering it's size, but compared to my old camera, this one is a real champ.

anyhow, last may (sorry i'm a little behind on my posts) we went to boston to see my brother-in-law - and the city - before they moved away. just before we got boston we stopped in at the vine lake cemetery in medfield, massachusetts. my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great (that's 9 greats) grandfather, james allen, is buried there. he was the first of my allen ancestors to come to america - somewhere around 1637. he was also one of the original 13 founders of medfield. it was a pretty cool experience to learn a bit about him and then see his gravesite.

i brought my large format camera and took some shots of james allen's headstone.

here i am, about to photograph acorn street in boston. i'm not quite sure how the picture will turn out because of the crazy light - an overcast day would have been better but hey, you can't really schedule that when you're just visiting.

we also stopped by the sacred grove in palmyra, new york on the way home.

and now for the first bit of news, i got a new (used) lens!

this piece of work is the calumet caltar 90mm f/8 lens (woohoo!). i sold my other camera and was able to get this wide angle lens with the proceeds.

it's not the top of the line lens, and f/8 is a little slow for this type of lens, but it is a good lens and also an enormous improvement on what i was using before.

and as for my website... it's coming. i hate to promise but hopefully it will be up by this weekend. cross your fingers.

heads up!

2010-06-14T07:22:00.001-04:00

if you head over to my website and find this, don't be alarmed. i'm just in the middle of transitioning to a new site. hopefully it will be up by the end of the week. thanks!

grand central terminal

2010-05-15T00:10:00.002-04:00

sometimes luck has a lot to do with the success of a picture - especially when that picture is taken with a holga.

i was up on the balcony with the camera sitting on the railing, the lens propped up by my keyless entry remote on my keyring, and i held the shutter open for about a second. after that i crossed my fingers and waited.

i keep finding myself drawn to symmetry and order in my pictures. i feel in a lot of ways like i'm taking portraits of places. showing the simple truth of what something is.

sometimes it's purely informational i.e. - "this building is here, i found it interesting, let me show you what i see" - and that's all. nothing groundbreaking in the way i take the picture, nothing to knock you off your seat, the subject just speaks for itself. and that's all it needs.

the photograph above is extremely symmetrical and orderly (despite the usual rush of the travelers and tourists), even down to the formation of the people in it - an inverted triangle with a single man at the bottom (looking at his phone or something) holding it all together and drawing your eyes up and into the gorgeous space of the grand central terminal.

i'm grateful that he held still for that one second.

greetings from the lavatory

2010-04-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

it has become a habit of mine to carry my camera with me at family gatherings or other similar outings. i enjoy snapping candid shots of what's happening around me - conversations, kids playing, friends laughing, etc. those pictures also make for great little surprise gifts for the people in them.

the picture above (the obligatory self portrait of photographers everywhere) was taken on one such outing. my family had gone to buca di beppo - which i think is becoming a family tradition at christmas time - and i had my camera right there with me... even in the bathroom.

after this trip i have to admit that i kind of burnt myself out photographically. i developed 8 or 9 rolls of film and then scanned something around 200 pictures and cleaned up most of them in photoshop - all within a week's time. it was awesome, i got so much done... but i haven't so much as loaded a roll of film into my old canon since. no need to fear though - the fire has been lit again.

i've got plans to explore the farmlands of northwest indiana now that it's warming up. i also might get a second chance to photograph in boston next month (if i can fit it into the schedule).

other than that, my next item of business is selling my old view camera. with the proceeds from that camera i should be able to buy a decent used lens.

it's good to be back.

cambridge, mass.

2009-12-08T22:41:00.002-05:00

two and a half years ago, my family and i moved into a subleased two bedroom apartment just off of western ave. on memorial drive in cambridge, massachusetts. it was our first time venturing out and away from our families.

we immediately fell in love with boston and its surrounding areas. what we found when we arrived was a warmth and richness of life that was almost tangible. we only had 3 months to enjoy it so we made sure that we took advantage of all the time that we had there.

about a week before moving i finally found and purchased a large format camera in my price range. i was ready to take the dive and cambridge was a great place to dive into.

i would pass by this building every day as i walked to the “t”, boston’s subway, to go to work. this poor building looked like it was just plain tired of standing up straight – like it needed something more sturdy to lean on (like the building next to it). i also discovered what happens when you don’t check the corners of the ground glass carefully after raising the lens. the passing car was an unexpected bonus.

not too far away was this building on the corner of river street and pleasant street. i love this building - it's made of that dark red brick that you see so often in boston and the windows are framed by copper that has been streaked by years of green patina.

i only wish that i had more time to explore boston and cambridge with my view camera. i guess that's all the more reason for me to go back some day. i'll put it on the list...

holiday sale and giveaway!

2009-12-07T19:00:00.001-05:00

from now up until the clock strikes 12 on new years day, you can get 10% off of your order from my gallery! simply use the super secret coupon code 'holidaypromo' as you check out and the price will be magically reduced!

but that's not all!

as an added bonus (for me and for one lucky winner), marta of the famed 'marta writes' blog has included me in her lineup of holiday giveaways! she is featuring various artists and other crafty people every weekday this week and all through next week. be sure to head on over to her blog on tuesday, december 15th and comment on the giveaway post to be entered.

happy holidays!

happy halloween!

2009-10-29T12:45:00.007-04:00

when i look for something to photograph i usually try to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. things that you walk by every day and don't notice but when you actually stop and look at it you find that it is something special, something unique.

this picture was one of those instances but not one that i would have normally seen as an opportunity. i don't usually go for the creepy when it comes to subjects but i had to take advantage of this scene.

just about every day as i walked home from campus i would pass this sign:

i remember thinking just how creepy it was - rusted metal, creepy hand-painted lettering, and especially the "...." at the end. i think if they had had a little more room at the end they would have added "or else!" to top it off, the trees were cold and bare.

for my part to add to the creepiness i knew the picture had to be taken with my holga - out of focus and dark corners, lo-fi reproduction, and a low angle to get that creepy sign looming above the viewer - everything came together nicely on this one to make one creepy image.

the truth

2009-09-28T12:34:00.006-04:00

"the camera never lies. the film sometimes does." - rodney smith, from the end.

depending on how you define truth, the camera (or film) rarely tells the truth. photographs are stylized moments in time, made visual. the camera by it's design actually modifies the truth of what it sees depending on various factors - shutter speed, aperture, focal length of the lens, film characteristics, grain, and camera movements (with view cameras), etc.

i've often heard people say that they want to capture exactly what is in front of them - the truth of what's there. but in my opinion it's the way that cameras distort the truth that makes photography so exciting.

despite what i've just said, i've discovered (for myself) an exciting way to show "truth" in photography - by photographing people when they don't expect to be photographed.

what do people (almost inevitably) do when someone's about to take a picture of them?

"smile!"

that's all good and fine but sometimes it's hard to really catch someone's personality if they're always putting their smile mask on when being photographed. sure it takes some guts to snap a picture of someone (even family) when they're not expecting it - but to capture them in that natural setting can be truly rewarding.

- unrehearsed subjects caught in a moment where the truth is subjective.

snapshot sunday!

2009-09-13T21:00:00.005-04:00

i hope that even with all of my film-promoting, analog-loving, big camera-praising posts you don't think i'm an anti-digital photo-luddite. i would, in fact, love to get my hands on a nice dslr some day. the problem is that whenever i have some surplus cash in the photo budget it usually goes into buying film, chemicals, or - if i'm feeling ambitious - a new lens for my large format camera. seeing as how my current circumstances leave me without a digital slr, i rely on our digital point and shoot to get shots when i happen to have left my 30+ pounds of photo gear at home. here are a few shots that i've been able to snag with our dear little cyber-shot.

a king crab at the oregon coast aquarium in newport, oregon. dim light, show shutter, thanks for holding still mr. crab!

sam the giant!

sam and the seal.

navy pier, chicago.

flatiron building, nyc.

getting chased through the fall leaves in our yard.

chicago and the chicago river.

inspired

2009-09-03T12:10:00.007-04:00

i find myself fascinated and inspired by scenes of ordinary life.

unlike pictures of notable monuments or famous locations, pictures of ordinary scenes usually don't grab your attention immediately - it usually takes some time to let the details soak in. i guess it's the idea of seeing through the mundane and plain and finding the extraordinary in it that really intrigues me.

here are a few of the pictures that i've stumbled upon lately that have inspired me.

stephen shore:

beverly boulevard and la brea avenue, los angeles, california, june 21, 1975

joel meyerowitz:

dairyland, provincetown

george tice:

strand theatre, keyport, n.j. 1973

next photo assignment: find and photograph an ordinary location and make it interesting. i'll report back in a while once i'm finished.

double whammy!

2009-08-16T14:30:00.010-04:00

to make up for my lack of posting the last couple of weeks i'll give you a double whammy.

first: let's all give a warm welcome to the shen-hao.

oh yes, this is my new camera and boy is it a joy to behold. it's time to say goodbye to my graflex camera. it has served me well but an upgrade was definitely past due.

the beauty of this camera (aside from its beautiful construction) is that it folds down into a nice "little" box so i can now tote it around with my supplies in a backpack.

yesterday, to christen this camera, i packed up my stuff and headed up the connecticut coast for a one day photo excursion. this leads to the second part of my post...

ever since the third grade when i did a report on rhode island i've wanted to visit that little state. but, despite living in new york for a year and boston for a summer, we have never been there. so, for my trip yesterday, i planned to make newport rhode island my farthest destination before heading home.

here are some of the stops i made:

new haven, ct - home of yale university.

i had expected a lively college town but what i saw when i got there told a very different story. so that's what i shot. i wasn't really there for very long so maybe i didn't get a good representation of what new haven is actually all about.

sperry auto wholesale in new haven - the first picture taken with my new camera. it was a very blank looking warehouse, very worn. it's about to be torn down to make way for yale housing. glad i caught it when i did!

i found an empty plaza on the corner of an intersection in new haven. there were a lot of empty park benches, a lot of cigarette butts and trash on the ground, and plenty of grass growing between the tiles. i knew there was something in store for me there.

then it was off to rhode island.

newport is a beautiful town. it would be a great place to spend a week or so.

i visited the grounds of a couple of the famous rhode island mansions. wow. unlike anything you've ever seen.

i wish i could have spent more time there but i had one more stop to make before i headed home - stonington, connecticut - another place i'd like to spend a week.

i'll get pictures up as soon as i have them. thanks for visiting.

all content, no context

2009-07-29T12:59:00.006-04:00

i find that some of my favorite pictures are those of subjects that don't have a pre-formulated meaning in my mind (or others' minds for that matter). they are subjects that when i see them i just think "this is a nice scene, i think i'll try to capture what i'm feeling here". the spontaneity of photographing like this can be exhilarating.

this is looking south from battery park - the southern tip of manhattan. at first i considered framing this picture with the statue of liberty in the background but then decided against it.

if i had done that it would have become a picture of the statue of liberty with a boat in the foreground and once you looked at it you would have labeled it a picture of the statue of liberty and that would have brought up thoughts of what pictures of the statue of liberty should be. by excluding it you are forced to make your own conclusions about what the picture is saying.

here's another example.

this is in the harvard square station of the boston subway. the picture was taken with my holga camera set on the ground with my keys under the lens to point it up slightly.

there's nothing in the picture that says boston or harvard or even subway. it's just a set of stairs and a couple of escalators in some type of concrete structure. without any context you have to look at the content to appreciate the picture - the strong lines, the blurred people moving on the escalators - all the action swirling around the empty stairs.

you're free to see what you see without any preconceived notions about the subject.

sale at jeffreyallenphoto.com!

2009-07-24T15:29:00.005-04:00

head on over to jeffreyallenphoto.com for a 10% off deal on prints from 8"x10" up to 16"x24" (excluding canvas prints).

the sale ends monday at noon so head over there, pull up a chair, and stay a while.

sorry paul simon

2009-07-23T12:10:00.006-04:00

yesterday must have been a sad day for paul simon. they finally took his kodachrome away.

yes it's true, kodak announced yesterday that they are discontinuing this beloved slide film.

kodachrome was loved for its vibrant and very accurate color reproduction. it was a favorite of photographers since it was first released in 1935. for example, the famous 'afghan girl' on the cover of national geographic was shot using kodachrome.

i can't say i'll miss this film though - i've never actually used it before. still the news that it's being discontinued is sad. it makes me wonder what the future holds for film in general. i don't think it will disappear completely any time soon - there are still too many advantages.

seeing as how i've never used it before i thought i had better give it a try before it's gone completely. i went ahead and shelled out 11 clams to get a roll of it. now that's some pricey slide film - i thought velvia was bad at 6 bucks a roll. i'll see for myself what mr. simon was so excited about back in 1973.

now for those with an extra 18 minutes to spare i've included a video (in 2 parts) that kodak made in 1958 to show how film is made. if you speak dutch you're in luck (don't worry, there are english captions). you can also watch a higher quality version of the video here.

a plug for a blog of a friend of a friend

2009-07-22T11:52:00.005-04:00

rodney smith is a clever and interesting photographer. i first heard of him back at school when the museum of fine art held a show of his called 'adam's dream'. in a lot of his work he uses well-dressed models in strange and interesting situations. his black and white photographs have a nostalgic, romantic, and other-worldly feeling.

i just received word today that he has started blogging. i can only imagine that his writing, like his photography, will be whimsical and interesting. if you haven't heard of him yet, check out his site and his blog.

in his own words:

Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues, Associates, Enemies, Fans, Detractors, Etc.

I am very proud to announce my latest endeavor: a blog of biblical proportions that lifts the veil that for too long has shrouded my work in secrecy. Please visit here, where The End is just the beginning. Please link me, add me, and otherwise follow me.

All my best,

Rodney Smith

stop by his site and check out his blog for a minute or two, you'll be sure to enjoy it.

new arrivals in the holga family

2009-07-13T14:22:00.013-04:00

i've got some new arrivals in the holga gallery! - san francisco, manhattan, brooklyn, and washington dc. here are a few of them...

once again, the brooklyn bridge:

honestly, can anyone walk over this bridge with camera in hand and not take a few shots? it's such a great location - kind of a photo-cliché but that's ok, right?

love the flatiron building... and the raindrop-covered chair.

i modified my holga so it can focus as close as two feet. it really emphasizes what's in the center of the picture and get you some extra vignetting. the picture above was taken like so.

this is one of my favorite new additions. it just seemed to work out nicely straight from the scan. it's kind of a visual contradiction - everyone is there at the lincoln memorial but no one is looking at him. in fact, they've all got their backs to him. it makes you question the situation.

photographs from holgas have a distinctive style, i.e. lo-fi, (usually) square, optically inferior, etc., etc. it really seems to work well with certain subjects (for me, architecture).

so what scene or location would you want to see in holga form? is there something you feel would fit particularly well into this category? what do you think?

a run-in with the authorities, pt. 2

2009-07-08T11:49:00.010-04:00

if you haven't read my post a run-in with the authorities, pt. 1, check it out and then come back.

so here's the photograph that i came away with (luckily i might say).

i'm extremely happy that one of the pictures turned out from that night. i don't think i'll be going back there any time soon.

here's the original photograph by george tice - petit's mobil station - from 1974.

things have changed quite a bit since 1974 when tice was there. the trees have shot up, the water tower has been repainted, and there's a lot more light on the tower. it's kind of lost it's looming qualities but i think it still works. it's one of those ordinary places made more interesting just by noticing it.

the brooklyn bridge

2009-06-29T12:22:00.015-04:00

if you were to ask someone to name a bridge in new york city there's a very good chance that they would say "the brooklyn bridge". it has to be one of the most famous bridges in the world. as such it is probably also one of the most photographed bridges in the world. despite its superstar status i figured that i had better not miss an opportunity to photograph it while we're living in new york.

one catch with photographing famous places it that they all have their famous shots - sunset on delicate arch, yosemite valley, the golden gate bridge from the marin headlands - they're the pictures that you see over and over and over. if you visit these places at the right times you can usually see a row of people with their tripods set up to capture that famous shot for themselves.

i'm not against the idea of taking famous photographs for yourself, in fact i think it's a good place to start - just don't end there.

here are two familiar shots of brooklyn bridge that i took in december:

the straight on shot of one of the the towers...

the shot from brooklyn with downtown manhattan in the background...

now here's a shot that i took as i was crossing the brooklyn bridge. i guess it's not really a picture of the brooklyn bridge per se but rather a deeper view into manhattan which includes the brooklyn bridge (as well as the manhattan bridge, the empire state building, and the chrysler building).

the world is full of new ways of seeing things if you just take a little more time to explore and find them.

christmas in florida

2009-05-20T12:38:00.009-04:00

the year my wife and i were married we went to florida with her family over christmas vacation. i would definitely recommend doing this to anyone - the crowds were minimal, the weather was great, the water was swimmable, and the opportunities to photograph were new and exciting.

we stayed at ormond beach (near daytona) in a hotel that sat right on the beach. on the other side of the hotel was "a1a - beach front avenue" (think ice ice baby). the thing about the east coast that was new to me was that you can't watch the sun set over the ocean. to get that view you have to be up for sunrise. however, for some reason this wasn't a problem for me. i love to get up early on vacation to go out and explore.

this was one of my first chances to get out with my newly acquired canon ae-1. i think i was shooting on fuji astia slide film.

this is what most of the mornings looked like. as the sun came up the sky glowed a bright orange. it was awesome.

the sky shifted to a beautiful blue gray as the sun rose higher. the gentle slope of the wet beach made a great mirror for the clouds and birds.

just a stone's throw up the beach was this sign warning swimmers of the perils in the water - along with the pelican standing guard. the message of the sign spoke loudly to me as i have a fear of swimming in anything but swimming pools - i don't like not being able to see my toes...

you can read more about the nathan f. cobb here.

as a side note - here's a picture that my brother-in-law took of me from the hotel during the trip. thanks eric!

salt lake city

2009-05-06T12:31:00.005-04:00

one of my favorite things to photograph is the urban landscape. i love seeing the way man made things fit into and interact with their surroundings. the urban landscape has many similarities to the natural landscape - a row of buildings is a canyon wall, a bridge is an arch, city lights are stars, streets are rivers, etc.

given enough time in a city an emotional attachment begins to grow. things that would mean absolutely nothing to someone else begin to have sentimental value. i quickly grew to love boston and new york city, and after spending four years in provo at school i grew to love its subtle uniqueness.

i spent a couple off years at the university of utah before i got married. sometimes after classes i would take the train into downtown salt lake city and just walk around with nothing to do but explore and see things. it's an interesting experience to be in the middle of a city with no particular agenda - to be able to just watch everything else happening around you.

a couple of years ago i spent an evening photographing salt lake with a friend. here are a couple of the shots from that night.

there is a time right after sunset but before dark that the sky glows a deep cerulean blue. this is one of the best times to get pictures of buildings - especially well-lit buildings. you can get the lights, the building, and the sky all within a nice range of exposure. this is the main entrance to the open air gateway mall which used to be the union pacific train depot.

this shot of the salt lake temple, the church office building, and the joseph smith memorial building was taken from a parking lot a couple of blocks west of temple square.

back to my roots - oregon

2009-04-23T12:28:00.014-04:00

the next big trip my dad and i took was to oregon.

first of all, our family has some history with this area. for the past 12 years we've gone up to the same little house the oregon coast every couple of years. it's beautiful, the back yard is the rocky shore with a little sandy cove. at high tide the waves come crashing up onto the rocks - it's hard to resist the temptation to roll the giant driftwood logs into the water and watch them get tossed around by the waves like they were made of foam. at low tide you can go out and play in the sandy little cove among rocks covered with sea stars and mussels, or you can go search the tide pools for other little sea animals. did i already mention that it's beautiful? oh yeah.

when my dad and i went up we stayed in a hotel in portland - about 30 minutes away from the columbia river gorge. it was april so everything was superbly green. in all we spent a few days there - about half of which was spent in the gorge.

this is elowah falls - we were lucky to find a little path that led down to the river from the trail. we had to scramble a bit but the view was worth it.

once again we had to scramble to get this view - except this time it was up instead of down. it had actually started raining as we were hiking up to this waterfall - wahclella falls. after i took this picture it started raining even harder so we found some shelter under an overhang down by the falls. we weren't really prepared to be shooting in the rain but i was able to get a few more shots closer to the falls.

one day we spent driving down the coast from cannon beach - picture mikey from the goonies matching up the holes in the dubloon with the rocks off the coast - that's where we started. after that we headed down the coast, had lunch in nehalem, then stopped in at the tillamook factory for some awesome cheese and ice cream. our destination for sunset was a beach in the little town of oceanside.

there was a main area of the beach but to get where we wanted to go we had to hike through a wet, dark, roughly hewn tunnel that was cut through a large land mass that juts out into the ocean. the tunnel takes you to the appropriately named tunnel beach and if the tide is low enough you can walk further to agate beach where you can find - you'll never guess - agates! just don't get stuck back there at high tide - you might be in trouble.

if i remember right the picture above was taken from the point between the two beaches. i had climbed up onto some rocks to be able to get a better view of the water with the rocks.

this last picture was taken from the old columbia river highway at sunrise. it looks down over the columbia river with the vista house (a historical rest stop and very stately building) in the bottom right - the bump on the hill right above the 'p' in 'copyright'.

this was one of those mornings where we got up way too early to catch the light that was too beautiful to pass up.

back to my roots - utah

2009-04-15T12:24:00.016-04:00

my first adventures in photography were with my dad. we usually went camping and took photographs of where we went. sometimes we would stay up way too late or get up way too early to take pictures. i remember one night that we spent looking up the narrows in zion national park right next to the virgin river. it was one of our first experiments with star trails. it was cold and we probably didn't have enough layers on. but i loved it. i loved the sense of discovery, of the unknown, the solitude, and being with my dad.

that was one of the first (if not the first) of many photographic excursions. southern utah seemed to be the destination of choice in those first years. among other places, we photographed arches national park, bryce canyon, and nine mile canyon - (below).

we spent a good amount of the night here trying different exposure times, different lighting, etc. for this one we left the camera open for about 45 minutes with a coleman propane lantern shining on the petroglyphs for just a couple of minutes.

fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the road that ran right next to this petroglyph panel was taken out and you can't get as close to it anymore. for some reason that makes this picture even more special to me - more unique.

another memorable trip was down to "the wave" in arizona. right between kanab and lake powell there is an expanse of red rock/desert known as the paria canyon-vermilion cliffs wilderness. to see the actual "wave" you have to get a permit (of only 20 offered per day) and hike in using landmarks to guide the way - or a gps. at the end of the hike you find yourself in this wavelike (hence the name) formation of striped sandstone. i was lucky enough to get there and snap a few shots before the sun was hidden by clouds.

to say the least this place is incredible.

thanks dad for getting me into photography and taking me to these amazing places. i'm indebted to you.

a few more pictures... and a theory

2009-03-04T12:30:00.011-05:00

here are a few more pictures from my latest batch.

elliot.

kaylinn pulling a face... or her face, i guess.

elliot and sam learning about robots at the m.i.t. museum - thanks eric!

cute taylor ann.

so i have a theory, and here it is...

the more time and effort you put into something the more value it has to you. it may not be a monetary value and it may not hold any value for anyone else but you but it still has value. i think that's one of the reasons i still do film photography. if i had a digital camera i don't think i would value my photographs as much.

when i release the shutter i understand that i am using up a piece of film that i will have to develop, scan, and retouch in photoshop. i believe that because of this i am more careful about what i am doing with my cameras - especially large format where setting up and taking a few pictures can take a half hour! this may not be the most cost-effective or efficient method to do photography but it works for me and i love it.

a little fuzziness is oh so nice

2009-02-17T12:31:00.009-05:00

say hello to sam as seen through my old canon ae-1, a 30 or 40 year-old metal body slr.

i've heard people say they want to get away from the "point-and-shoot" look and get a "nice camera" that takes great pictures with "fuzzy backgrounds", etc. i've also heard of people going out and buying an slr hoping to get those great pictures but then being disappointed with the point-and-shoot-like results from their expensive new slr.

so what's the problem? how do you escape the grasp of the point-and-shoot?

their are two solutions to start with - both relatively easy to implement. interestingly enough, the camera actually has little to do with the problem.

the first is the flash. if you just use the default flash settings you'll get a very brightly lit picture just like a point-and-shoot camera will give you. you can usually set the flash to a "fill flash" setting or manually tone it down so it's not so intense. and don't be afraid to bump up the iso setting in low light. but this is all beside the point, i want to talk about the fuzzy backgrounds that are oh so nice.

the fuzziness is caused by shallow depth of field and the two things that effect depth of field are the size of the aperture (bigger = shallower depth of field) and magnification (higher magnification = shallower depth of field). as for the magnification, think about macro photography or telephoto photography - both magnify the subject quite a bit and therefore produce shallow depth of field. this leaves big apertures to do the work when it comes to normal shots of people and such.

back to the problem - most new slr's come with zoom lenses (everybody loves zoom lenses, right?) and most zoom lenses don't have very big maximum apertures so it's a bit more difficult to get the fuzzy effect with these lenses.

solution? sacrifice the zoom capability and get a fixed focal length (non-zoom) "normal" lens. something around a 50mm lens should be good. just make sure the lens has a big maximum aperture - you can find this right in the description of the lens. it will say something like "Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens" - the number 1.8 is the maximum aperture. remember that with apertures the smaller the number is the larger the aperture will be, so an "f/1.8" lens is pretty good.

all the pictures in this post were taken at f/1.8 (wide open) at about 1/60 or 1/125 second on 400 speed kodak tri-x film without a flash.

these lenses are also very inexpensive - usually somewhere around 100 bones. you'll have to zoom with your feet instead of the lens but that's a small price to pay for a big aperture.

a little more pinhole

2009-02-02T13:37:00.009-05:00

here are a couple more pinhole photographs for your enjoyment...

this is an old abandoned office next to where i worked during college - it was pretty trashed on the inside and kind of falling apart in some places. for some reason i'm fascinated by old abandoned structures. seeing them is like talking to someone from an older generation - they have stories and experiences that you can't find anywhere else.

this is another picture taken with my panoramic pinhole camera. this is the sun setting over the beach at ocean shores, washington. i took this while on a road trip with a good friend. this was our first stop in washington on our way up to seattle. beautiful place.

this next photograph isn't a pinhole image but rather a picture i took to help demonstrate how images get flipped upside down and backwards when they pass through a pinhole or a lens.

the image is passing through one of my large format lenses and being projected onto the wall.

one more thing - during my last semester of college i had a technical writing class. for my final project i wrote a manual on how to build and use your own pinhole camera. so if you already have a basic knowledge of photography and you'd like to make and use your own here's a link to a pdf version of my manual. look for the box with the link that says "click here to start download".

pinhole pt. 1

2009-01-29T12:27:00.009-05:00

pinhole photography is usually thought of as just something you "did in a photography class in high school" - something used merely as a learning tool to teach photographic principles and some of the history behind photography.

fortunately this isn't all it's good for.

so why use a slow, labor intensive method of photography in our digital age? a well-built pinhole camera with a carefully crafted (or laser-drilled) pinhole can take very high quality pictures. pinhole cameras can even be designed to take pictures that just can't be taken with regular cameras.

since pinhole cameras don't have lenses they have infinite depth of field - everything in front of the pinhole is equally in focus. also, since you are most likely making your own camera (they can also be purchased online) you can modify the film plane in any way you want to. a good example of this is having a curved back on the camera. i built a camera out of a section of 10 inch pvc pipe that holds 3 pieces of 4x5 inch film to form a sort of panoramic tryptich (here's a drawing of the camera). it has a whopping 150 degree view. the train picture in my blog header above was taken with this camera.

here's a picture of the gallivan center in salt lake city that was also taken with this camera.

here's another pinhole image that i took with a regular old 150 mm pinhole camera with 4x5 film. it's a staircase in the joseph fielding smith building at byu - looking up.

unfortunately if you're looking for crystal clear pictures then pinhole photography may not be for you. the images have a softer feel because the pinhole isn't able to focus the objects perfectly. however, this softness can also add to the aesthetic of the picture. if you're going for a sharper pinhole image you can use a larger type of film - like 4x5 inch sheet film - and the details will be a lot sharper.

it's definitely an exciting experience building a camera from scratch that actually takes new and exciting pictures.

as for pinhole pt. 2, i plan on making a camera obscura and photographing the image cast on the wall. for those of you who didn't have that high school photography class, a camera obscura (literally dark room) is a completely darkened room with a small hole at one end. the scene on the other side of the hole is projected (upside down and backwards) onto the opposite wall. it's basically the precursor to the camera. pretty exciting...

scanography pt. 1

2009-01-05T13:22:00.021-05:00

have you ever thought to use a scanner as a camera? truthfully i hadn't until i stumbled upon "scanography" on the internet. basically it's using a scanner to take pictures of objects. usually scanners are used to scan images and pictures, etc. but then you're limited by the resolution of the image that your scanning. you don't get much more than a digital copy of your picture that's been degraded by being enlarged.

so what if you scan something that isn't limited by resolution - the closer you look the more detail you see. i tried this with some japanese maple leaves in the fall last year. the result is a high resolution image that i could print out at 40 inches wide.

this technique can also be used with 3d objects - check out dawn campbell's flower scans for some examples.

as for pt. 2 of this post... i'm hoping that in the near future i can try out another branch of scanography - using the scanner as an actual camera by placing a light tight box on the scanner with one of my large format lenses on the front of it. because of how the scanner captures images (with a moving bar) anything that is moving in the scene will be distorted depending on how it's moving.

take a look at this site for some examples (those are cars in the street on the bottom right).

scenes from the boston subway

2008-12-06T23:22:00.020-05:00

did you ever see castaway? you know how a friendship grows between tom hanks and wilson, the volleyball? well, while we were in boston i made a friend kind of like wilson; he was hand drawn (with what i think was a light colored lip stick) on a tile wall of the alewife station of the boston subway (the "t"). i would pass this little guy every day when i would get off the subway on my way to work.

i first noticed him because of his simple shape - an arc, a straight line, a squiggle for teeth and two eyes. i thought it was pretty clever. i also liked how it was someone else's addition to the "established art" that already existed on the wall - the painted tiles (which i assume were placed there to break up the monotony of the brownish red tile-covered wall).

i also love how the tiles are all a little uneven - it gives the wall more texture.

i've included this detail from the picture just to give you an idea of how awesome the resolution is on 4x5 film.

there was just something nice about the porter square t station. i loved the big arching wall and the big pipes sticking out on the side. the next best thing about this t stop has got to be the absurdly long escalator. i swear it must go up like 5 stories. don't look down if you have trouble with heights!

edit: i just discovered that the escalator goes about 143 feet from bottom to top. and at an angle somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees that would put it at a total of 60 to 70 feet vertical rise (thanks pythagoras!). so i guess i wasn't too far off when i said it went up 5 stories!

nyc update

2008-12-04T08:08:00.005-05:00

i took my long anticipated trip into new york city last tuesday, spent the day there, and hopefully will come out with some nice photographs. i started at the flatiron building, then headed down to battery park, then i walked across the brooklyn bridge taking pictures along the way and then finally ending up at brooklyn bridge park which has a great view of the bridge with downtown manhattan in the background.

i've sent the color pictures in to get developed and i'll develop the black and white stuff in my bathroom/darkroom soon. and as soon as i find a reasonable price to get them scanned i'll post some of them!

by the way, i was never stopped or questioned by anyone - but i'm guessing that was because i was prepared. if i hadn't gotten the permit i probably would have been stopped and told to leave!

a healthy dose of holga

2008-12-02T15:11:00.012-05:00

for some reason i feel that the holga lends itself well to architectural photography. maybe it's just my own preference, maybe it's because the holga's plastic lens cuts out sharpness and detail and reduces objects down to forms, maybe it's the square format, who knows. whatever it is there's something unique about the way it captures architecture.

here's a dose of holga architecture photographs...

this is the foot bridge leading to the wells fargo building in salt lake city with one utah center in background. if you've ever seen this building and/or bridge at night it's pretty exciting - it glows this great shade of neon blue - it's not harsh, it's just nice and cool. i tried this same shot at night with the lights on but it just didn't work. the color detracted from the forms of the bridge.

the utah commercial and savings bank building was built in 1888 and has since been squished between the two newer buildings on either side. it makes me feel kind of sorry for it - hang in there little buddy!

looking back at the parking levels of the portland international airport i noticed the soaring framework above - i had to take the picture. i thought it was fitting for an airport to have such a lofty structure.

the southeast tower of the salt lake temple - nice day downtown at a wedding...

wading through the red tape

2008-11-21T10:00:00.003-05:00

ever since we arrived here in new york i've wanted to do some large format photography in the city. i mean who wouldn't? there's so much to see there.

i soon discovered that this might not be as easy as i had originally thought it would be. a friend of mine told me that you need a permit to use a tripod in the city. so i did a search for permit/photography/new york and discovered that you did actually need to get a permit from the mayor's office of film, television, and broadcasting in order to be able to use a tripod in the city. apparently "handheld" photography has always been okay but if you had any other equipment you needed to get the permit. i believe they now include tripods in the "handheld" group. anyhow, given my recent experiences i figured i had better be prepared. i looked into the matter and found a form that you have to fill out giving your personal info and stating what, when, and where you will be shooting.

i had it all ready and i faxed it in but when they got back to me they said i needed to be more specific about my locations, and also that if i wanted to take pictures on the brooklyn bridge (that was one of my locations) i would need to get permission from the department of transportation. they very kindly gave me the contact information of the person who could give me permission. so after getting permission from the d.o.t. and sending a more detailed description of the locations i finally got my permit!

oh yes, so excited.

he-man, army guys, and ducklings

2008-11-14T12:39:00.004-05:00

one of the great things about the holga is that its lens suffers from a bad case of astigmatism (among other optical "defects"). this means that the further away the object is from the center of the image (towards the edges of the frame), the more out of focus it will be in the picture. although most people would find this to be a problem, it actually adds to the aesthetic of the pictures it takes.

one way to take advantage of this feature is to center the subject in the picture. this isolates the subject and makes it stand out more in the picture.

here's fisto from masters of the universe hanging from my rear view mirror with some onlooking army men.

and here are jack, kack, lack, mack, nack, ouack, pack, and quack following their mom, mrs. mallard, on their way to the boston public garden.

fun with fuji in the fall

2008-11-10T12:10:00.003-05:00

a very generous photographer friend of mine recently gave me a supply of large format film including some fuji instant color film. it's like polaroid film but this stuff is so much more spectacular.

when you look at a print it feels like you are looking at the scene through a very clean window - like you could reach in and touch it. the colors are bright and clear and since there is no enlargement in the print, the details are as sharp as you could ever imagine.

here are a few pictures taken on the fuji instant film with my large format camera. unfortunately my scanner can't reproduce the quality and detail in the pictures so you'll have to use your imagination.

elliot and sam in our front yard (sam had just thrown some leaves up in the air)

the first test run of the fuji instant film

elliot actually took this picture of me

a run-in with the authorities, pt. 1

2008-11-03T10:55:00.002-05:00

we just returned from a trip to washington dc to see some some friends and some sites. we had a great time but on the way down we had a little run-in with the authorities in cherry hill new jersey.

the whole story begins a couple of years a couple of years earlier while i was at byu. i was just getting into large format photography and i discovered a book by george tice called "urban landscapes". he had gone and photographed typical scenes from typical places in new jersey - his home state. one of them in particular caught my eye. it was a photograph of a gas station in cherry hill, new jersey at night with a huge water tower looming in the background - the tower just barely lighter than the dark night sky. it's a beautiful picture.

as we were getting ready to head down to dc i noticed that we would be passing through cherry hill. i thought it would be neat to see the water tower so i found its location - thanks to google maps - and we planned to stop there. it would be dark by the time we would get there so i packed up my large format camera to get some pictures of it 34 years after the original picture was taken.

it used to be a mobil station but now it's a lukoil station with a 7-11 next to it. we pulled into the parking lot, i set up my camera, and started taking some pictures. with large format photography the process is quite involved and so we ended up being there for about 45 minutes while i took the of pictures.

i had noticed a "no loitering" sign when we pulled up but i figured that was probably just meant for local hoodlums, not us. anyhow, as i packed up and got ready to go maryirene mentioned to me that there was a guy in a car in front of us that had been there for quite a while and that occasionally he would turn around and look at us. i thought that was weird but didn't really think much about it. i went inside to use the bathroom and as i walked back out towards our car the man stepped out of his car and said "could you come here please?" and then "could you put your hands on the car, please?"

i was totally and utterly confused but i complied. he started asking me questions like "what are you doing?" and "have you ever been arrested before?". i explained that there was a local photographer that had photographed the water tower in '74 and that i wanted to do the same. his reply was "you want to take a picture of a water tower? at night?" "do you know why this looks suspicious?"

by this time - and quite suddenly - about five more police cars had arrived and there was a cop talking to maryirene. they asked us a ton of background questions - where we were from, what we were doing, and where we were going (maybe to see if our stories matched). luckily i had printed out a copy of the original picture and i had some test shot polaroids that i had made before they showed up. i think this may have helped back up our story.

honestly i never would have thought that taking pictures of a water tower at night would be a problem. apparently when people start taking pictures of infrastructural things in a community those concerned with homeland security get very very worried.

eventually they let us go - after about 45 minutes - and we continued on down to dc.

part two:

i figured that i would have no problem photographing in dc given its popularity... but i was wrong.

my friend and i got up early to photograph the lincoln memorial and the washington monument at sunrise. after a few shots right by the reflecting pool we hiked up to take some pictures from inside the lincoln memorial. once again i was questioned about my photography. "what are you doing?", "what website are you going to post the pictures on?", "you can't have a tripod anywhere on the monument.", "you can't post pictures from inside the monument on the internet.", etc., etc.

so off to the washington monument we went leaving mr. lincoln unphotographed.

i can understand the importance of national security but it made me sad that i was so restricted in my innocent pursuit of pictures.

the wonderful world of large format

2008-10-28T12:59:00.005-04:00

large format cameras are as their name describes - large. most use film that measures 4x5 inches however some go up to 20x24 inches or larger.

the main advantage with these cameras is the size of the film. a 4x5 negative is 13 1/3 times larger than a negative from a regular ol' 35 mm camera. sweet detail. another advantage is that the front (the lens) and the back (the film) can be moved independently of each other - this lets you adjust the focus in the picture and also control the perspective. imagine looking up at a building - how the sides appear to lean in. the movements on these cameras allow you to keep those lines parallel. check out wikipedia's page on view cameras for another explanation.

this beautiful piece of work is the graflex graphic view 2. this is what i currently have - ebay, $330. it was probably made some time in the 60's and it still works beautifully today.

here are a couple pictures that i took with my large format camera when i was in san francisco with my dad last spring.

on the golden gate bridge just after the bridge police tried to boot us out (because our tripods might interfere with the pedestrians).

a view of the bridge from china beach

here are some links to some of my favorite large format photographers: joel meyerowitz, george tice, tom till, and jack dykinga. if you're ever in moab, ut check out tom till's gallery (he's a large format nature photographer) so you can get a feeling of what large format photography can do. it's amazing.

fun with an old polaroid

2008-10-19T10:41:00.005-04:00

this cumbersome piece of machinery is the polaroid 101 "automatic" land camera named after edwin land - polaroid's founder. it was made in the mid-sixties and originally cost about $135 - i got mine for $35 at an antique store in parowan, utah. sweet.

one of the things that makes this camera fun is the way the pictures are made. after taking the picture, you pull a small paper tab which comes out completely but also exposes another tab. as you pull this tab a small pocket of chemicals is broken open and is spread over the picture. you wait about a minute, peel the picture away and there is your picture! the black and white film worked well overall but i was thoroughly unimpressed by the color film.

these were all taken with my polaroid land camera...

the kids

the girl

sammy watching for trains in boston

stay tuned for a post about the champion of instant photography...fuji large format instant film! oh yeah!

the holga

2008-10-10T08:31:00.010-04:00

"Did you think your eyes were open?"

"I'm afraid to say that until this very moment they have been closed. The unassuming Holga is here to save you from a future of digital pixels and images shared on small screens on cameras or phones. We have all become numbed with photography, there is no denying it, but a chunky camera made almost entirely of plastic has been put on this Earth to save us. It will reawaken your vision, fill you with joy, make you see beauty when you thought it had disappeared forever, and bring out sunshine on a cloudy day."

- www.lomography.com/holga/

the holga is a cheap, plastic medium format camera (it uses film that is about 2 1/4" wide) - and it only costs about 30 bones.

the beauty of this camera is that it really makes you rethink the way you take photographs. the process is as follows: after estimating the focus of the camera, choosing one of the two aperture options, pointing it in the direction of the subject (the squinty viewfinder is only somewhat effective in framing the shot), and tripping the single-speed shutter you hope that the picture turns out alright. in the end you will be amazed by what this camera can accomplish given it's extremely rudimentary design.

i took the following photographs with my holga when we lived in cambridge massachusetts last summer.

central square, cambridge massachusetts

harvard square t station

round 2

2008-10-08T08:16:00.001-04:00

i'm giving the internet another chance. this blog will essentially be my photograph depository. i had another website/blog (round 1) that i worked on consistently from october of 2005 through february of 2007. if you haven't been there, ~~check it out~~ [not there anymore, sorry]. i've got family info and news, fun stories and pictures from our lives during that time, and even a couple songs for your enjoyment if you can find them. you'll also find a gallery there of some of my favorite photographs from that time. unfortunately maintaining the site was kind of labor intensive - i built it myself using dreamweaver. so this time i thought i'd give blogspot a chance and let it do all the work.

i don't intend for this site to be a comprehensive gallery of my photographs but rather a sampling of what i've done or am currently doing. over the years i've experimented with many types of photography - large format, holga, 35mm, instant (polaroid), digital, pinhole, etc. and i will try to present a variety here on this blog. thanks and enjoy!