For Squatters

For about a week after Hurricane Sandy hit, I was without power and work had been cancelled.  My mother got power back within a few days so I went and stayed at her house. There was not much to do so I walked around for miles and miles and took photographs of post-Sandy Yonkers. 

During my wanderings I happened upon this broken toilet under a bridge (which looked as if someone lived there) and framed it with some graffiti in the background. 

For Squatters:




Rolleiflex Automat
Zeiss Tessar f/3.5
Kodak Tri-X

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Dress Like You Are Going To Work

Tomorrow is my Christmas gift from my best bud and I do not know what it is exactly. I have a feeling it is a play or classical music concert because he said I should dress like I go to work (shirt, tie, etc.). 

Example:

 

Anton and Invention

A little backstory on the photo (pulled from my Flickr stream):

I knocked over my entire basket of paperclips in the crevice between the desk and wall in my office at work. There was no possibility of my arm being long enough to reach the multitude of strewn about metallic paperclips. I thought for a moment and devised a tool to help me retrieve all of the precious supplies which was made of many extra large rubber bands, two ovoid promotional magnets, and a stick of hard candy. It worked like a charm.

I asked my coworker, Jessica, to take a picture of me with my invention in a victorious pose.

Yes, the patent is pending.

So now I am visualizing an outfit for tomorrow.

Photography has really helped me figure out how to dress.  I have found that understanding colors, textures, patterns, which is essential in photography, is also essential if you want to look your best. 

Not everything carries over though...like repetition of patterns.  In photography you might want to look for a pattern that repeats itself three or more times, but that does not really work on a person.  I recommend you not be the guy who wears a striped shirt, striped pants, and striped tie.  I would typically say similar patterns should not be used more than twice, which often does not work in photography.  Notice how I weaseled out of making these statements absolute; really, they are guidelines.  The world is not so black and white :-)



Holga 120N
Kodak Tri-X
Bentley W-14 flash unit

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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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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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Practice in the Park

I am not sure if this man was practicing Buddhism meditation or some form of Yoga, but he was doing it in Union Square Park.  Whatever he is doing there definitely seems to be a sense of order to the entire scene - everything is set up precisely and he seems to be unaffected by his surroundings. 

I find it a little odd that he would choose to do this in the middle of a very public park, but perhaps he is making a statement, or a demonstration to onlookers.

He definitely exuded a sense of peace.  It was pretty easy to take a picture of him.

I took the image with an Ansco Memar (from the 50s), one on which I performed a minor diy restoration by bringing the shutter and focus back to life from being stuck.  The lens is all hazy which gives the images an really flarey look.

Ansco Memar
45mm Apotar f/3.5
Kodak Tri-X

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Jazz in Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is one of my favorite places.  So many artists gather to play all this great music that has really helped me expand my musical horizons beyond hard rock and heavy metal.

I seem to be leaning particularly towards the jazz.  Just five years ago I would say something like "jazz ain't my bag, man", but tastes change over time and here I am.

There is one jazz band (who is quite excellent) that regularly plays the park, but this saxophonist:



Only occasionally plays with the group, but when he does, he breathes a new sense of excitement and life into the music.

To say the least, this sax player really cooks.

I took the image with an Ansco Memar (from the 50s), one on which I performed a minor diy restoration by bringing the shutter and focus back to life from being stuck.  The lens is all hazy which gives the images an really flarey look.

Ansco Memar
45mm Apotar f/3.5
Kodak Tri-X

flickr photos

What the Eff?!

Michael Raso from the Film Photography Project giving his "what the eff'?!" pose.

Also, Edwin Land is photobombing. 

Mike really makes this image sing with personality and humor, which is one of the reasons I love it so much.

Same technical jazz as the posting a couple of days ago:

I used the Polaroid Land 100 with the Portrait Lens Kit and Fuji FP-3000B film.  The grindy borders are the result of the negative being scanned.

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