Bermuda!

Plain and simple, Bermuda is beautiful.

I was there for part of my vacation a couple of weeks ago and I still look back on the time spent.

This picture was taken near Tobacco Bay in St. Georges - a spot that a local had tipped me off.  Every place I went to I chatted with some of the people from the area because, of course, if they think something is worth checking out, then surely it is worth checking out.

Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda, is nice, but is just a city, so I recommend St. Georges.  St. Georges has more breathing space and is less off the beaten path, so that is the place to go if you want to get away from other vacationers.

One thing that bugs me about this picture is that there has to be a tiny light leak in the bellows which caused that magenta shift in the upper right hand corner.  Despite the leak, the Perkeo I is still one of my favorite cameras.  Great lens.  Light weight.  Small.  Medium format.  Pair it up with some Portra 400 or Tri-X and you are good to go.

Voigtlander Perkeo I
Color-Skopar 80mm f/3.5
Kodak Portra 400

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...and justice for all

I am going to keep my political opinions to myself, but I will admit that I am one of the 99%.

...And Justice For All

Holga 120N
Kodak Portra 400
fill flash w/ 1/2 CTO gel

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A Couple More From The Anachronism IV

So there are a couple more images that I have yet to post from this great night.



How I love this most colorful of costumes on the maddest of hatters. Kodak's Portra really gives great tones throughout.



Again nice tones here, but the guy looks a little reluctant in the image, hence I dub thee "Reluctant Time Traveller."

Images taken with the Holga 120N, Kodak Portra 400, and a small flash with a 1/2 CTO gel in order to warm up skin tones and colors a bit.

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Medieval Festival (part 3)

The first time I saw this person at the festival she was far off and I did not have the chance to take her picture. I made a promise to myself to keep walking the grounds until I ran into her and could ask to take an image.

Point of the story: be resolute.

This girl had on an elaborate steam punk outfit. Maybe she was a little out of place at this festival, but the costume still worked. Very cool nose-ring.

I think this is the final picture I will post, so I hope you enjoyed the images over the last few entries.

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Medieval Festival (part 2)

This gent made me laugh while I was taking his picture. I asked him if I could and he said yes, but then started talking in character like "What do you mean take my picture? Are you going to paint my image? Are you taking my essence?" and so on...

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Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park

I lugged my Bronica SQ-A to a Medieval Festival held at Fort Tryon Park and had an okay time.

The park is very nice, but so many people showed up that it was hard to get around.

A lot of the people that dressed up were really friendly, but it felt like there was something of an attitude of irritation in the air emanating from the mundane folk. Maybe it was the crowding.

The Anachronism (part IV)

This my last part in this series of entries. Just recalling parts of this event, even after about two weeks have past, brings a smile to my face.



I think this person had this serious of a look throughout the night. The parasol is an eloquent touch and adds a nice backdrop to the image.



I avoided a bluish tinge on the photograph by using a 1/2 CTO gel over the flash head.

The White Elephant Burlesque Society, led by Viktor Devonne (above), closed the evening for me. Joy, exuberance, and abandon oozed from each dancer and put a big stupid grin on my face the entire time. The finest part of their show was when Viktor started controlling a dancer with a video game joystick, but then the dancer got a hold of the joystick, which forced him to start dancing and the look on his face...priceless; he acted like the whole performance was against his will. Absolutely hilarious.

I can not wait until the Slipper Room in NYC opens again as I must inject more burlesque into my weekends.

White Elephant Burlesque Society

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Anton's Portra 160 Experience

Check out my review that is up on the Film Photography Project's website!

http://filmphotographyproject.com/content/features/2011/08/antons-portra-160-experience

Leave comments, thoughts, and positive vibes!

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Summer In Central Park

A couple of weeks ago I strolled into Central Park on a hot Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. My plan was simple: shoot some film with the Holga 120N that had seen little use over the last year; an issue I was bent on rectifying.

The camera felt a little unusual in my hands because I had not used it in a few months. Its weight is probably the most discombobulating feature as it is made almost entirely of plastic, and thus extremely light. My mitts are usually holding a metal camera with a solid weight, something that screams "machine," "tool," and "camera." I do not think of the Holga as a "toy" like so many others would be quick to say, but honestly, it requires an entirely different mentality to shoot properly. Whether I was shooting with the proper mindset is questionable, but, so it goes.

Furthermore, I accidentally managed to flick on the bulb setting switch that bought me one-way ticket to motion blur town; a real destination for anyone who has handled a Holga before.

Anyway, here are a couple images that I took with some mildly expired (but cold stored) Portra 400VC:



This dance squad put on a fun show that I was smiling the entire way through. Well done gents. My attempt of an action shot with a camera made for action.



This kid zoomed past me on his unicycle while displaying some impressive juggling skills. You can not tell all of that from the shot, but I like it for some reason.

I think I have taken some of my best shots with the Holga in the past, so I think I will be grabbing it more often from now on.

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A Day Leading Up to Midnight in Paris

Yesterday happened to be a long and wonderful day where I woke up bright and early and went to bed too late, but everything in between was magnifique.

I picked up some bagels for a bunch of my coworkers, 1 onion, 2 cinnamon raisin, 1 salt, 2 whole wheat everything, with regular and scallion cream cheese and butter. Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Co. in Chelsea certainly know how to do those chewy grainy sinful pleasures, and their coffee is really good too.

The walk from the store to my job is about a mile and a half, but you know, morning walks happen to be one of my favorite things because they are relaxing get you geared up for the rest of the day. Anyway, I finished my large tasty coffee before getting into the office, but it made me jittery for about two hours. I do not often have coffee in the morning (so my body is not accustomed to the caffeine level), but do find it very enjoyable every now and then.

The day went smoothly and after work I dropped off a roll of 120 Portra 400VC at Printspace, a really great place to get your C41 developed, and got on the subway to head home.

I got off at the usual stop and was exiting through the turnstyle when this guy in his 60s started yelling at me "DON'T PUSH, DON'T PUSH!" Now, I happen to do this every day, so I feel I have a pretty good grasp on how to exit a subway station, but apparently this fellow had a problem with my methods. Truth be told, I was bewildered and said:

"But that is how it works..."
"Didn't you see I was in there?"
"But I was not pushing you."
"Don't fucking push!"
"I wasn't."
"Don't fucking do that again."
"Have a good day" - it must not have been to good to be yelling at a total stranger and I totally meant it).
"What did you fucking say?!"
"Good day to you sir!" - with a salute (maybe that was to irritate him a little).
"Just try to say that again!"

I had plans to meet up with Metal John later in the eve for dinner and catching the new Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris", but I had some time to kill before then and decided to go into the second hand store where I almost purchased a suit that fit me perfectly for $25, but while it looked nice the material felt a bit rough, so I opted out.

On the car ride up to Hawthorne Metal John and I listened to the Screaming Trees album that I did pick up in the aforementioned store, and it was oh, so early 90s. Scott Stapp must have been listening to the album and taking notes, as Creed sounded like a lot slicker version of the band.

We dined at the Oriental Diner on some okay food, but we both surmised the Japanese restaurant near my home was far superior. I do not think we will head back to that establishment even if we are going to see a movie in Hawthorne again.

Truly, the movie was a joy. Real and surreal. Characters hilarious, yet poignant. Hemingway and Dali were real highlights of an already stellar feature.

A couple of favorite quotes:

Hemingway: It was a good book because it was an honest book, and that's what war does to men. And there's nothing fine and noble about dying in the mud unless you die gracefully. And then it's not only noble but brave.

Hemingway: No subject is terrible if the story is true and if the prose is clean and honest.

I would try to cite the ones from Dali, but I would not do the lines justice.

As I was watching the movie I was thinking to myself that this was definitely a movie I am going to need to own.

There are a ton of other reviews online, so I am only going to end my quasi-review by saying that the movie left a smile in my heart. Trite, but true.

Maybe I will go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MoMA tomorrow to check out the works of some of the artists referenced in the film. It would also be a great excuse to enjoy the best brunch in Manhattan (at Lexington and 93rd).

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Thoughts on the New Kodak Portra 400

Well, this review is hyper late as the film was released months and months ago, yet I still felt like writing about it. I just finished the roll of 120 that I had popped into my Voigtlander Perkeo I back in mid May, but better late than never.

So I will preface this by saying that I loved the old NC (neutral color) variant of Portra because of the warm and neutral tones it imparted on an image. When I had heard that Kodak was consolidating their NC with VC (vibrant color) films into one flavor I was a little concerned, but in the back of my head I had a feeling that Kodak would not let down the film community. In many ways, I think they far surpassed everyone's expectations.

I had seen numerous reviews of the stuff and all were very positive, but ultimately I needed to decide for myself.

Here are a few images from my first roll:



Yogi/acrobat/contortionist in Washington Square Park collecting money after a show.



That is impressive.



Some cherry blossoms at the Sakura Matsuri festival in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

All in all, great colors and skin tones with an incredibly fine grain. Colors seem to pop where you want them and are subdued elsewhere - somehow a mixture of the aforementioned VC and NC is achieved.

I am also interested in a claim by Mat Marrash from the Film Photography Podcast who says you can shoot the film at an ISO of 3200 after pushing the film only one stop (i.e. shooting at ISO 3200 and developing it as if shot at ISO 800). There is another photographer who shot and developed the new Portra at 3200 with great results. Extraordinary, really.

I want to test the film out some more, but I have a feeling this will be my color negative of choice.

So there it is. I did not put the film through the ringer with overexposure and underexposure tests, but all signs lead to a high performance and flexible film. A bit more punch than NC and not quite as vivid as VC. I like it a lot.

Not to detract from the film, but I want to say that the 50+ year old Voigtlander lens performed quite nicely as well.

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Family Photos

I was very excited to get home yesterday and start scanning my recently developed film. It has been quite a while since I last posted some pictures up here, so I hope these are enjoyed.



I really like this one of my folks - the feeling conveyed by the picture is one of the best I have ever captured of them.



You do not mess with Grandma. World class beauty!



My pops really has a great face for pictures; his expressions are second to none!



Another example of a great expression, though this one seems a lot creepier than the last - probably due to the almost blacked out eyes. Despite all said, I still think he looks wonderfully friendly.

These were taken with my the Bronica SQ-A and 80mm Zenzanon lens at f/5.6 and 1/500s on Kodak Portra 160NC. Off camera flash (Nikon SB 25) coming from camera right. If I were to go back and make an adjustment, I would put some kind of reflector on their lap to lift the shadows on their necks and eyes.

I have sung the heralds of Kodak Portra before, but I am a little sad to see the two varieties and two speeds (160NC, 400NC, 160VC and 400VC) bite the dust by being conglomerated into one Portra film with one speed (400). However, I have yet to test the two rolls of the new stock I recently purchased. There are a number of websites out there reviewing the stuff saying that it is a film that can be pushed and pulled like mad while still retaining insanely fine grain and color. So, we will see how I feel about it.

One of the great benefits of the Bronica is that the lenses house a leaf shutter that will let me sync them up to flash at any speed. This is so important when you want to control the ambient light. If I did not keep the shutter speed so high, the background would have been more exposed which could have detracted from my family's faces and personalities. This is still a feature of the camera that I need to explore more thoroughly along with the nature of flash photography, though I did pick up a new tool to help me on my journey.

This was the first time I was using my new light meter, the Sekonic L308s which proves to be quite accurate. I am quite happy with each exposure where I listened to the device. On a number of pictures I did not believe the settings, so I tried to figure it out with guide numbers and such, but I was left with woefully underexposed (yet slightly salvageable) images.

Nevermind all of the barely technical stuff above, what really makes the pictures are the subjects.

There is still a roll of cheapo 35mm that I have to make it through, so I will be posting some more photographs within the next few days.

Other personal news soon to develop.

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Images From Figment and Bronica SQ-A

I finished up the roll of film housed in the Voigtlander Perkeo I for many many months, finally. These are some shots at Figment (which I talked about in my last entry):



This is one of my favorite shots I have taken of John. He looks very relaxed and I think I caught a great expression.

The colors are a little bit off because the film (Kodak Portra 400VC) used expired a decade ago. They had a bluish cast (the fact that we were under cloudy light did not help either), so I had to warm them up a bit, but still, I was very pleased that I pulled usable images from the roll.

The performance of the camera, the smallest 6x6 I have ever seen, can not be accurately judged because of the film's age. If I was forced to make an assessment of what I saw so far, the lens might have low contrast as it seemed like I had to add a fair amount to every image. I also have to figure out what is going on with the flash sync, as it did not seem to work even though a flash fired off. The good news is that the images look to be exposed fairly correctly, so I probably will not have to break into the shutter and lube it up. There are also no light leaks! These old folding cameras can have a problem with their bellows after so many years, but I may still want to apply some product to keep the leather supple.

In other news, last night I received the Bronica SQ-A outfit I had purchased through the classified section of the Rangefinder Forum. I had been holding out on buying another real camera (ie Leica M2 or Canon P) so that I could afford a medium format slr with all of my requirements. I was not going to purchase one unless it had a built in meter (or came with a metered prism), a couple of lenses, and was 6x6. This one fulfilled all of my needs and the entire system cost less than a well used M2 body alone - beyond a great deal. I will take some shots of it soon with my digital so that you can see what mine looks like, should you be curious. I will absolutely post some images from the roll I have in there once developed.

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