Instead of Drinking

I was out and about on a Saturday and happened upon a street fair - not an uncommon occurrence here in NYC - where I caught this guy doing some break-dancing, not particularly great break-dancing either.  I did, however, think he was most awesome for doing it because he wanted to do it and had to capture the image.  I busted out the Polaroid Land 100 loaded up with some awesome Fuji FP-3000B, focused, and took the shot.

+1 for street photography with large cumbersome cameras!

It is most unfortunate that the negative was damaged over the course of the day and use it for the scan.  The scan of the positive print is not bad, but I definitely prefer the look of grindy borders and the greater latitude of the original negative.

So, the title of the post really does not have anything to do with photography, it has more to do with a question I just asked a very good friend of mine concerning Friday night:

"Instead of drinking, would you be interested in a puppet show?"

I picked the image above because the man reminds me of a marionette.

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For Whatever Reason

This is one of the most viewed images on my flickr stream:



Do you get it?  Please explain to me if so.

It is a street shot from the NYC FPP meetup 2012 taken with the MIGHTY Bronica.

Bronica SQ-A
80mm Zenzanon PS f/2.8
Expired Kodak E100SW

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Classic Camera and Photo Class

Today was an absolutely wonderful day. I took my old Voigtlander Perkeo I out to take pictures at one of my favorite parks to make a study of light and shadow. I am very anxious to see how these pictures turn out as I love the look that comes from the type of lens on this camera.

1) The lens on the Perkeo (Voigtlander Color-Skopar) has a Tessar type formula (4 elements in 3 groups) that renders images somewhat soft at open apertures and very sharp when stopped down to the mid apertures. It is this bipolar element that is unlike anything made today - it is like getting two lenses in one!

2) This lens has a single coating which reduces flare, but should still render shadow detail very nicely and this is especially good for black and white photography. I have even been thinking of getting some single coated lenses for my Nikon and Olympus cameras because the ever present multi-coated lenses have a high degree of contrast which is not especially to my liking.

Walking about and taking pictures felt so nice, even though it was a little bit cold. I ended up in the café drinking a mildly expensive, but nonetheless excellent, cup of coffee to cap off the morning. On the way back to my apartment I entered the library on a whim to check out their photography books, and though they did not have that great of a selection I picked out two: Icons of Photography and The Book of Photography. Perhaps a review down the road...

Switching gears a little bit, I would say my black and white photography class is going well. I now know how to develop film and print pictures, but need oh so much more practice at both.

The teacher had assigned (more like suggested) us to do some self portraits, intentional composition shots, and studies of depth of field so here are a few scans of my negatives that I think turned out well:


I tried to print this picture, and am semi-pleased with the result. I am going to try and get this one right.


This was the other picture I tried to print, but failed hard. Again, I am also going to try this one out again.


I will try printing this one - though it might be a dodging and burning nightmare!

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Street Shots

Street photography is not an aspect of photography that I have explored too much; it always seems kind of unusual (and uncomfortable) to point a camera at someone who may not necessarily be a willing subject, but it is something that I am going to try to overcome. I really do love the idea of the commando style and want to practice it more.

Here are some of my favorite street shots from a recent roll of Superia X-Tra, which I feel has some really decent results for being such a cheapo film. Shot with a Nikon FE and 50mm f/1.8 or 20mm f/2.8



This kid set down his boom-box in the middle of a subway car and started dancing to some Michael Jackson. I love the blur here achieved with a 1/15th shutter speed.



A blurry portrait with an ethereal look.



The kid stopped just long enough for me to capture this still.



I set the 20mm to a hyperfocal distance and took this shot at waist level. I think the shadows are interesting and I really like the solar flare (flair).



I waited for someone to walk into this frame featuring the skyscraper and luckily (ironically) caught this girl looking up at something.

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