Philadelphia part 2

These are the second round of pictures from the trip. (Tri-X 400, HC-110):

Hmm...The first shot of the roll sometimes looks like this, half the frame has been exposed to light. Artsy.

Shallow DOF = very artsy.

Technical difficulties? Yep.

Showdown!

Cigarette + Camera = very serious artsy photographer

Even artists need gelato. Yum.

(I love the expressions in this frame)

That's all for now, just ordered some more film. I want an enlarger. And a new lens. Donations welcome.

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend was a three day affair (Happy Labor Day), for which I didn't make any concrete plans. Nevertheless it turned out for the best; as usual more the result of spontaneous and utterly random inclinations than anything resembling a carefully calculated plan. Friday night the usual suspects and I went out for sheesha and drinks, and as the night drew to a close the essential question was posed: "What shall we do this weekend?". After a flurry of suggestions and anecdotes, it was decided that we would go to Annapolis (not sure who posed the question, most likely me) for two reasons: A) none of us had been to Annapolis and B) what's in Annapolis anyway? Thus our plan was set in motion; we were to meet at 10:30am the next morning to allow for a full day of whatever there is to do in Annapolis.

3pm the next day, we had not yet left DC (surprised? I'm not.), but after finally getting all our affairs in order we departed, due East, for the Maryland shore. We arrived that evening, finding a small town bustling with tourists. It was Maryland's take on Williamsburg; all the same buildings were there, just rearranged every so slightly and of course there were the ever present naval cadets (in lieu of our colonial patriots and "indentured servants"). We made a quick run through town and had dinner a 6pm. After which we made one last walk around town and jumped back into the car for the return trip home. However as we took our seats there was a short pause, then another simple and innocuous question arose:"....Philadelphia?"...silence as the it hung in the air...eye contact...then smiles. The engine came to life as we made a mad dash for Pennsylvania (to the tune of Tupac's "fuck all ya...").

We arrived to Philly at 9pm, booked a room with a view, and then went out to explore the city. Oddly enough, the city was almost entirely deserted that weekend; and to add to the surreal-ness of it all we encountered the most fantastic and unusual architecture I had seen on the East coast. Anyway, I'll let the pictures put in their thousand words, however suffice to say the randomness was just as enjoyable as the sights and sounds themselves:

(half in color (Fuji Pro), the other half I shot in B&W, will appear on my next post):

Gritty and Ugly

Those are the words I would use to describe my latest attempt at developing b&w. It was 1230am last night and I wanted to load the film before going to bed, so I doused the lights and fumbled around in complete darkness trying to load the film. It didn't take. Tried again..and again...and again until I finally just jammed the end of film in, wrapped it around the canister,
and just hoped that the film wouldn't crease or crumple. Guess what, it did. Problemo numero uno. I finally developed the film this afternoon, however I forgot that I had pushed the film and therefore most the shots came out under-exposed. The result?

That's what happens when you don't load the film correctly. Sleepy + impatient = mistakes. Whatev, I used photoshop on the worst, and the rest of the roll actually turned out well.


mmm...gritty.

Ah Crystal...this frame would be a lot better if i didn't completely destroy this end of the film and underexpose it.




I was taking a light reading when I accidently took a photo. The strange thing is it was perfectly developed and scanned beautifully, the tones were all correct. Oh and the place I eat lunch happens to be dead center...wtf.







Important work related business.





One last night at Prince Cafe with Amna before she left for Tunisia...





....

Salut,

New post? That's right, I finally developed a roll of film that I'd been carrying around for the last month. I got all my chemicals and essentials, however they sent me the wrong graduate which meant I had to guess at the amount of developper to use (two teaspoons seemed about right...).

400TX
6 mins in HC-110
2 30s stop boths
7 mins in fix
1 min wash
1 min hypo
10 min wash
1 min photoflo
everything at 68F

The results? Check it out:


At first I thought I over developped, but the highlights were fine, it was just that I had no shadow detail...scanner issues? who knows.

Ok so like with all stories, I'll start with teh beginning:

Dave finished with school and came up to DC for a couple of days before heading out to Paris.

He wouldn't be my brother if he didn't have at least a little attitude ;)

Metro to the airport. Felt like I was in the middle of nowhere (which I was).

Standing around waiting for the bus to Dulles.

Sunday afternoon at work...Get. Me. Outa. Here.

Mo was in the neighborhood..and then there were two.

We left work and hit up G-town mall for a bit. Cool.

Mr. Kazoo. This guy was rocking out at the end of this alley with a kazoo and guitar and I just had to take his photo (Mo made the introduction). Very cool.

Fast forward three weeks: national gallery of art.

The french impressionists were what I wanted to see. There's also a small gallery on early east european surrealist photography. I had weird dreams that night.

Wardrobe malfunction? Janet Jackson wasn't the first...

Ladies and gents, my kitchen sink:

cya.

D

Line 2: pte. de Dauphine. Old scan from winter, probably sometime late at night.

Thursday

Took my SLR to work last Thursday just for a change of scenery. I switched up the 50mm and pulled the 28 off the shelf; the majority of photojournalists use wide angle lenses b/c it gives the impression that you are there in the picture not just witnessing the event but as a part of it as well (see Nachtwey).


Went to the airport first thing early morning to drop off the bro:

Later that day...pressing matters required our immediate attention:

Some ppl seem to appreciate photography less than others...

;)

(More later)

one weekend

Beautiful weather last weekend, so we went over to the mall and decided to walk around randomly for awhile:

mmm..nice and green.

more chillin...oh yeah!

We decided to head north past the capitol building, in search of something new and possibly some coffee.

We stumbled upon the Capitol hill neighborhood, it used to be kinda run down but recent investment along with young and trendy Washingtonians have changed the feel of the neighborhood...very chill.

ho-ho! mirrors...very random.

heheheh

All in all, very chill....