Looking Back.....

The blog served it purpose, I left photography behind after my father died, my life changed. This blog kept me together. Today for the first time in over a few years I looked at it. I looked at the pictures, felt some of the feelings, and for once have the urge to say more.

Its time.

I am not in Worcester anymore but I still have my gear, my Shannon, Lily, and family.

And I have realized what I truly miss is taking pictures of my thoughts, writing about them, and letting the chips fall were they may.

Stay tuned..........

A few Holga shots.

First shots with the Holga trying to see what she will do. Focus for the most part was pretty decent considering its a Holga. I had a few lights wisps. Deciding if I like it or not yet. What I noticed is that it is possible to identify the photographer by the characteristics of their Holga shots. Its like a identifying notch in a whales tail, or a scar on ones arm.

All these shots are unedited except for a white background added to each shot to distinguish the edges of the frame.

I like the look it gave in most situations.











Ilford XP2 Super 400

A little Photo Shop work.

I was bored so I decided to look up an old image and do some Photo Shop work on it and see what the result would be. The image is from the Rural Cemetery in Worcester. More the a few names have been sliced into its bark and I settled on this little token of ones affection for another. I blurred and darkened the edges. Cropped it a bit and converted the image to mono. The film neg was Kodak UC 400 scanned to disk.

Its not an earth shattering image but its what I hope to get from my Holga. Maybe a little more ruddier.

Anyway.............

Here it is.

The Frikkin Patriots, my new Holga, and one more shot from Worcester Common.

O.K. Let me get this out of the way first.........

Those G*ddamn Lousy Sons Of Bitches! I have never seen a team actually beat itself as bad as the Patriots did last night! They deserved to lose and I hope they get massive hemorrhoids from sitting on their asses watching the playoffs at home like the rest of us. I still have my Chicago Bears to root for but Son Of a Bitch! I should be cheering Patriots dammit! Every true fan in Patsville is looking for a dog to kick today so beware..........

OK I feel better..........No I don't!

Those ASSHOLES!!

OK, NOW I feel better, for now.

On to my Holga.....

I will let the Wikipedia entry explain just exactly what a Holga is:

"The Holga is a medium format toy camera. First produced in Hong Kong in 1982, its name may be a corruption of the Cantonese phrase "ho gwong"—"very bright."

The camera has a following among toy camera enthusiasts and LOMO photographers. The low-fidelity 60mm f/8 plastic lens exhibits many serious faults including soft focus, vignetting, and chromatic aberrations. The plastic camera body is no less prone to fault, often allowing light leaks and failing to hold the 120 size film flat against the film plane when used in its 6x6cm aspect ratio mode, without its 6x4.5cm frame insert. Also, multiple exposures are possible as there is no shutter interlock. In other words, the film advance and shutter are independent, whereas in most contemporary cameras the shutter of a camera is cocked simultaneously with the advance of the film as the film advance lever is wound or flicked. Problems with fogging and scratched negatives are also aplenty. The low-tech aspects of Holga photography often associate it with the pinhole camera.

While these elements are typically seen as undesirable consequences of poor design and engineering, many users find the unpredictable and abstract results fascinating and desirable."






Its a beautiful thing isnt it? Actually wanting to by crap specifically for its lack of quality. Images from it do have a distinct look. Light fall off on the edges, vignetting, iffy focus, and lightwispss and fog. Love it. It in a way takes the art of photography out of the hand of the multi function cameras of today and places it back in the hands of the photographer.

Where it belongs.

Anyway...........

The shot below was from the same night I shot the others a post below. One thing about it is even without a little PS tweak the image appears almost as a painting in the neg. Its been slightly cropped.

Worcester Common at night.

The other night it was foggy and wet. I had a roll of Fuji Superia 1600 gathering dust in my camera bag and I thought I would go out to the Common to see how well the film would work in low light on a foggy night and how well my camera would meter in matrix mode. All these shots were hand held. Most of the shots were done at shutter speeds between 1/15 and 1/60. All were edited in Photo Shop. Some converted to mono.

P.S. I went to Weatons to get my chemicals and wound out walking out with the chemicals and a Holga!




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Screwing around.

Nothing new or earth shattering here. Just playing a bit trying to get a different feel.

I am going to purchase a Holga though. 120mm Toy camera I have recently read being referred to as the pin hole camera of today. Its a plastic camera that one can buy for under $30.00 US. I want it for the odd looks it sometimes gives. Also I want the larger format and to be able to shoot a 6x6 negative. I find I am often cropping images to a square frame, knowing when I shoot the shot I am going to crop it anyway.

Both shots Kodak TCN 400. Played with in PS.

P.S. I am going to make it to Weatons tomorrow! I went out last night in the fog with a roll of Fuji Superia 1600 to see what I could get hand held. Time to get the chems for developing.

Maine, Maine, and more Maine.

Been a bit since my last post. We have been traveling back and forth from Maine the last two weekends. Shannon left to day to stay for good, or until I start wigging out.

Little Lilly and mommy are doing well. All systems are A.O.K.. I am doing OK as well.

I need to get to Weatons to get some chemicals to start processing my own film.

The Lenswork magazine in the shot above had a great article on artist pricing themselves into oblivion. In the Article the author, Brooks Jensen, recalls seeing a unknown photographer asking for, get this, $3700.00 a print. As Mr. Jensen states, who the hell does this person think he/she is? Who would buy the print?
Why would your average Joe even consider looking at it? He makes some great points about photography, and the arts in general. A good read.

Thats about it. Shot the above Sunday just to burn some film and get some shutter time in. The comp is OK. Not my best effort.

Kodak TCN400. PS.