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Philadelphia part 2

2007-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

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...

....

2007-06-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-18T20:06:00.001-07:00

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

Thursday

2007-05-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

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....

Baseball

2007-04-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

So I took Thursday afternoon off and went to a baseball game with Pete & co. Phillies vs. Nationals, RFK stadium, 1pm.

Who is who?? Yes, coincidently, the Phillies and Nationals have pretty much the same uniform.

unhappy peter.

happy peter.

beer, baseball, and photography...oh yeah!

mmmm...water.

Billy goat trail

2007-03-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

Random weekend/went hiking through a national park with Peter & Mo/beautiful weather...

We found a great place next to the river and took in the sun. Recent rains fueled the flow of water into the river which gave the kayakers their money's worth.

Mo smoked his smokes

Pete found a natural armchair

The park was filled with wild animals, probably had rabies if I had to guess...

In other news, I'm trying to get a new camera, unfortunately in my case economics has failed and demand > supply, meaning I'm looking to Canada/ebay for the goods.

lata alligata ;)

Goodbye Paris, Hello DC

2007-03-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

So after failing to beat the beast that is the French bureaucratic employment/immigration system I decided to return to the U.S. and put France on hold. My time there feels so much longer than it really was but I wholeheartedly intend to return. These are the last couple of shots of Paris I took, and a couple more in DC:

This is the definition of "right place, right time": I was standing on the corner and was amused with all these scooters lined up under this stop sign, but I had been here before (see earlier photos) and I wanted something new. So after standing around for about a minute trying to think of a new angle, this bright red mini drives up the street and stops right in front of these scooters and I couldn't help but laugh and take a photo:

Lonely chair...

Sunset on the Seine....

....Goodbye Paris....

....Hello DC.

Peter + Mo...we stopped by the zoo where Peter motivated a Cheetah to pose for shots:

At first it was just the young elephant, then the mother came out and watched us for a good 5 minutes. Interesting elephant facts: a) they can swim. b) their kidneys are similar to that of other sea mammals, indicating evolutionary links. c) they communicate over miles with extremely low frequencies of sound.

There is a definite intelligence in their eyes...

Animal...

*click*...peace.

B&W

2007-02-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

I upgraded from kodak gold to Ilford HP5 and took some random photos over the last week. The film is of a higher quality and it really shows: the darker tones are rich and inky and the grain is better, the midtones are a little iffy though. I developed this roll in HC-110 for 5 minutes agitating for 10s every minute:

Jardins Luxembourg: this is right next to where I used to go to school, the majority of the people here are students and tourists, but everyday you can find the same group of guys playing "boule":

St. Germain:

Eternal flame for the killed in action:

Business complex right next to the river (rive gauche). The entire thing was designed in the 60's in a completely post-modernistic style, which is probably the strangest type of architecture that exists: bright colors, bizarre angles and shapes, and the desire to place all buildings on stilts so that they look like lunar landing vehicles. This place was totally deserted and was very bizarre, kind of like being on the set of Clockwork Orange...

I have a thing for signs:

escalators that lead nowhere...

The post-modernist monstrosity:

I know I've seen this before...

Finishing off the rest of the film so I can develop it...

A beggar whom I see almost everyday, most likely from Turkey/Kurdistan.

Au revoir.

Night

2007-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

I went to see Bruce Davidson's exhibit at the HCB museum last week, which was simply stunning. His photo's were quite powerful, and the prints themselves..fantastic. I would say the quality of the prints are at least 3 times better than a reproduction in a book, and incomparable to anything on a computer screen.

These are all from a roll of color ASA1600 film which is really meant for low levels of light (street at night wooo) however the grain blows (larger chunks of silver to grab the light). I've been using it for the last couple of weeks, so there are a lot of different locations:

Some friends from class, celebrating the end of the semester:

I wish the focus were a little closer on this one, it says "Chinese massage"....yup.

This one seems ironic, I'm not sure why ...

In recent years, the Champs Elysees has become a victim of its own fame. The rent is so high, that most of the smaller stores, restaurants, and movie theaters can no longer afford to stay here; in there place are the large clothing retailers, fast food restaurants, and shopping centers...destroying the original atmosphere. However it's still interesting just to walk around at night and there are still a couple of cafes around.

Talk to the hand.

The HCB museum:

Yallah beace.

2007-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

Some more random photos (click to enlarge) that I took over the last week, most of them are from last weekend (St. Germain) and today (Montmartre).

No hidden meaning here, just checking to see if I had film in the camera already ;)

This little guy was following me around, he looked dangerous...

I posted a picture a couple of months ago of a small tile thing on a random wall in Paris, which is actually a "space invader" public art piece by this guy who travels around europe putting them up; anyway I found another one in St. Germain and I took another picture when this guy came up and started talking to me about it. Apparently this artist dresses up as a construction worker, puts up safety cones and installs these pieces where he wants. The funny thing is, I turned on the tv a couple of days ago to find a couple of guys who were doing the same thing in Boston (but as an advertisement campaign for some cartoon) being held by the police while the bomb squad went around Boston taking them down and destroying them (they thought they were bombs??) And even funnier is the artists' press conference following the incident . WTF...

Montmartre early this morning:

I heard this guy whistling and when I looked inside I saw him working in this store filled with clocks, I mean there were clocks everywhere. All I could think to myself was if I get one picture right, it has to be this one. So I stand in the doorway and bring the camera up and start focusing when he sees me, stops whistling, and just starts flapping his arms like a bird like some kind of crazy man, and I took the picture just then. He then resumed his work like nothing had happened and that was that. Crazy store, crazy dude, hilarious, but totally crazy:

remnants of Friday night...

2007-01-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

(As always click to enlarge photos)
Just developed another couple of rolls, funny thing is the roll I though wouldn't turn out well turned out great, and the photos I thought would be great turned out horrible:

Went out for a walk the other day, I've been using the CLE exclusively recently (Palais Royale):

Stopped by the park in the afternoon (Place de Concorde ferris wheel in the background)

Went over to le Marais, an older part of town between Pompidou and Place de la Republique:

I crept up on this person walking down this alley, not sure what she was doing but the graffiti was great:

...followed by some more random outings (stereo store here)

(A highly impressive feat, considering it was made by hand under difficult conditions using rivets and complex iron structures, it was only supposed to last 9 years..)

A big downside for rangefinders, you can't get that close (it's like the human eyes, if you get too close you'll become cross-eyed, thus there's a limit on minimum distance), I'd have prefered to be closer on this one, colors are great though.

A local guy was walking around with a cat on his shoulder and a dog on a leash, he then set them down and walked off momentarily, long enough for myself (and a lot of others) to take a photo:

Local firestation:

Thanks.

2006-12-24T03:41:00.000-08:00

I developed two rolls of film yesterday, and after many hours of work I've got all the best frames scanned and edited. I had a couple of shots from when I went to Centre Pompidou last weekend, and the next roll and a half I took yesterday morning while just walking around with the Minolta rangefinder and the SLR for wide angle and telephoto shots.

The Centre Pompidou is famous for its architecture, essentially the building was constructed inside out so all the interior structures are visible, kinda cool:

(I'm pissed I cut the right side of this photograph, I was rushing to catch the subject in the frame before a group of cars/scooters stole the moment, bah.)

The pigeons think they own this place.

Right across from the pigeons, was this lady (Chinese I believe), in a traditional outfit playing traditional music. Why was she there? Where did she come from? I imagined a lot of various scenarios, none of which are probably close to the truth...

Street artists too...

I met with some other students who sat around and had lunch while I discreetly tried to take people's pictures. Ice cream anyone?

I then got up yesterday morning, and grabbed my cameras and went out walking randomly . I finished off my first roll, and then a second roll of film:

An apartment right around the corner, the architecture provided a fair amount of contrast:

A small street off of a major road which people seem to over look, it was fairly early which means the contrast was fairly low:

Another angle:

...and another....

Pizza Hut a-go-go (a la telephoto):

I then took the metro over to Passy, where I had taken one photograph last month and really wanted to explore in more detail. I got off at Passy and walk under the bridge towards Bir Hakim, switching between my wide angle and telephoto lenses as I went. I ended up shooting about the entire roll of film here:

Progression:

Saturday morning, the French know how to sleep in

...and then took the metro back home...

I couldn't resist taking this picture ;)

Ciao.

2006-12-09T15:01:00.000-08:00

(As always, click on the photos to enlarge)

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but since I'm currently living in Europe it was only a matter of time before the weather here lived up to its reputation, however the last couple of days have been great and I was able to finish off the roll of film (I still had a couple left from a couple of weeks ago, I've placed them at the bottom of my previous entry).

A couple more class photos, my concentration is essentially non-existent at this point in the semester:

Rock On woooooyeah!

He's not paying attention either...

This is a good example of how not to take a photo: the film is all wrong for the setting so that there's motion blur, focus is slightly off meaning it was rushed, and the framing could be better. However it's probably one of my favorite photos, the motion blur reveals that Tatanya lifted her menu to hide from the camera, and the colors are quite energetic. Truth be told, I knew it was going to turn out pretty bad but the expressions were priceless and the setting was too good to pass up:

Postcard central:

I took these one handed, with a bagette under my other arm...(hence the slanted angle, whatever I still like it)

Jazz...

They actually sounded pretty good...

Christmas Madness...

When I saw this all I could think about were all the renaissance paintings that contain a flurry of activity with one central character to anchor the image (e.g. the last supper, anything with Napoleon, etc.), however the 21st century version contains your typical french chic with a cigarette walking lazily down the street oblivious to the crowd surging past her ;)

It's a long way home...

A little private neighborhood of two streets, it felt deserted compared to area around it...

Ciao.

Part 2

2006-11-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: click on photographs to enlarge)

Ilir and I decided to go the Louvre on the first sunday of the month, as it was free that day. I got up a 6am, got ready, and headed over. I was fairly early, I arrived just before 8am and there were like 5 ppl in line waiting for the doors to open, so I walked around and took some pictures to kill the time. Paris is awesome early in the morning, the city is completely empty and the light is great, although on this particular day it was cold as hell:

By the time the doors had opened, it was 9am, and the line was long enough to wrap around the pyramid (probably several hundred people), but Ilir and I finally got inside. The Pyramid is the center of the museum, from which there are entrances to the various exhibits:

If you look closely you can see what looks like a guy taking a picture of me as I take a picture of him (note: all pictures taken w/ a Sigma 21mm..I love wide angle)

Le Louvre has a lot of art, I would even dare to say, it has too much art. Walk through the halls of this museum and you will notice that every corner and wall has some piece of art on it, it's so saturated that it's almost impossible to consider each piece for anything more than a couple of seconds. Paintings are stacked on top of each on the walls, so that one's attention is diffused over the entire gallery rather than piece by piece:

The disappointing thing was that this hallway was the only place in the museum with natural light (which pretty much limited my interior photos to this one place). The Mona Lisa was the big draw of course, it didn't seem that large of a painting, but there are definitely some strange things going if you look closely enough (the dark figure to the left of Mona lisa, the faint number "6" on the top left...Ilir and I have a couple of conspiracy theories but I won't go into those ;) )

Actually the most enjoyable painting was Veronese's "Marriage at Cana" which is probably the largest painting I've ever seen (the characters are quite interesting, several of which stare at the viewer which is uncharacteristic for a renaissance painting). It stands right across from the Mona Lisa, it's as big as a house, but nobody pays it any attention...

This hallway had the best paintings in the museum (tech note: this is where a polarizing filter would be handy, it would eliminate the reflection coming off the painting allowing the viewer to see the details in the painting):

It was a lot of fun, even if you're not into paintings/sculptures/archeology/etc. it's still a great place to see if just for it's amazing architecture (although in all honesty it would take a week to see everything...)

Saturday(s)

2006-11-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: click on the photos to enlarge)

So I finally got the film developed in my Minolta X-GM, however I had been running around with it for the last couple of weeks so the pictures are kind of random..

We had wanted to go to the Doisneau exhibition at the Hotel De Ville but it was a holiday and the gallery was closed (booo)...so we decided to walk down Rue de Rivoli for awhile instead:

We stopped at a cafe to grab something to drink because it was so damn cold outside and I felt like acting Parisien...the service was terrible but the tea was good..(50mm lens)

Is it just me or do I look like I'm about 12 years old in this picture? The superior framing and composition is because Cristina took this photo:

We continued down Rue de Rivoli, and proceeded to do some shoe shopping. Actually, Cristina did the shoe shopping, Ilir and I pretty much just stood around awkwardly (you can see Ilir's reflection in the mirror)

Cristina: "look natural!" Ilir smiled, and I continued to do a good job of looking like I was 12 years old (whatever...it was cold)

We went to the Louvre for a photo expo last saturday, and as we were entering we decided to stop by this now famous (DaVinci Code?) pyramid. There was this woman standing in the foreground, who probably didn't know she was in the frame as I was using a wide angle lens. If you look closely in the middle ground you will see a girl laying on the floor face down (click to enlarge), this girl would try climbing the little stone pyramid, and then slide down face first over and over again...it was really hilarious to watch her in the background as the woman in the foreground stood perfectly still. Far in the back is the Virgin store, which oddly enough, has a sign that lines up perfectly with one of the panes of glass in the glass pyramid so that it looks like there is a Virgin logo on the pyramid (talk about a good marketing techique, it has to be intentional...):

Afterwards, we met up with Ilir and M.Ali (who were playing soccer) and headed over towards Opera to get something to eat. M.Ali knew this japanese restaurant which turned out to be a pretty chill end for the day:

Another random photo: I was coming out of the metro stop on my way to class, and I wanted to take a photo as people emerged from underground, so I stood on one side of the wall and waited until I heard footsteps and then took this picture.
Problem #1: I was using the SLR. SLRs are loud. Very loud. (the shutter blind slaps open and shut as you hit the button, which is why rangefinders are so much better for this kind of shot).
Problem #2: I didn't hear the old woman coming up the steps, and so when I turned and took the photo, I surprised her senseless.
Problem #3: People don't like surprises. Needless to say she wasn't happy, and demanded to know what I was taking a photo of. I pointed off into the distance, waited for her to turn to see what I was pointing at, and then promptly walked away...lesson learned.

(I'll publish the other half soon)

2006-11-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

These are the last couple of photos from the first two rolls I shot on the CLE. I was going to finish off the roll of film on my XGM today, but it was rainy so I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow...

October, lunch break. This guy comes up and tries to start a conversation with students from my class, however he didn't speak English or French, and was fairly drunk as well (he had an open bottle of wine in his jacket pocket hahaha). Most ppl tried to ignore him, Muhammad offered him some of his dessert, and I took his picture (you can see why a wide angle lens would be so much better here, I would be able to capture the ppl to either side of him, and the background as well):

Another photo within a metro station, not as good as the one I posted earlier from the same location:

I ducked down here briefly as I had a some time to kill before going to class, I wasn't too serious about the composition cause I want to return later with a better lens:

I took this picture through the window of the metro, she was standing like this perfectly still.....it's kinda funny how the inanimate poster in the background creates the sense of motion more so than she does. CLE + 40mm, taken from negscan.

2006-11-04T02:26:00.000-08:00

Some more random photos...

Bubblegum twins (they dispense bubblegum to the public, kind of like a modern corporate robin hood for the bad of breath (haha...ehh):

He looked up just as I was about to take a picture, I was originally trying to catch him him sitting at the bus top reading his paper, but I prefer his look of surprise so much more

A little metro action, I had to push it wide open to get the appropriate amount of light.

That's all for now, I'm working on another roll on my X-GM, I'll probably finish it off later this week.

running around town

2006-11-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

We had Wednesday off class, and decided to head over to Musee Rodin to check out some statues. This guy must of been loaded b/c nobody has a house this big in central Paris, even if he lived 150 years ago. The current house/mansion has been turned into a museum for his work and there's a little park attached to his property with more of his artwork displayed. I'm not really into statues, but the gardens were nice and the light was excellent. More CLE fun:

Taking the RER to meet my friends, it's more like a train than anything else

Waiting outside Jardin du Luxembourg for my friends to arrive. I saw her setting up her little cart, it's funny how many ppl seemed to know her.

Heading over to la musee underground. Gotta love the 1970's era french post-modernist architecture...

Rodin's "Le Penseur"

I love the eye-contact in this photo...

Ilir, Cristina, Mariana

We asked her to take a group photo of us, she gave us a stern "no" and told us to leave her alone...however she didn't move, but just stood in this position for a couple of moments then hurried off, but not before I took her picture ;)

Class

2006-11-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

I borrowed a Minolta CLE rangefinder for the week to take some photos, and since I spend 6 hours a day in and around my french class, I might as well start there. The camera itself is excellent. Minolta teamed up with Leica in the early 80's to produce this rangefinder (as well as an older version in the 70's) as well as three lenses (90mm, 40mm, 28mm). I'm currently using the 40mm. I took about two rolls of film (ASA200) this week, and then had to pay 30 Euros to get them developed and put on a CD, which is pretty much equivalent to armed robbery...time to pull out the scanner I guess...

1030am

Phonetics class...you can tell I wasn't paying attention

Mariana drinks tea

Everybody's watching someone else...

I was waiting for a friend to meet me at this station; I was early and decided to look around. I came out at the top of a long vertical tunnel, with this escalator rising up through the center which people were taking to the surface, all in complete silence. I stood at the balcony and raised the camera to my eye just as I saw an opportunity, this guy seemed to know I was there and turned to face me just as I took the picture. I prefer this result so much more, it's as if I'm intruding upon something sacred, that I'm not supposed to be there. I actually imagined the picture would turn out a lot differently but the CLE's light sensor can be iffy at times...the results are interesting, even if unintended

Patrick representin' Germany.

If you don't know what this is, you really need to check out http://www.space-invaders.com/ This guy travels all around the world putting up "space invaders" in obscure places in major cities, some kind of huge street art project. I was fairly surprised to see this in some alley while walking back to class from lunch.

Mohammad Ali (Yemen) and Ilir (Albania). Ilir: that picture's gonna be worth a million dollars. Me: why? Ilir: 'cause I'm in it ;)

September

2006-10-31T20:52:00.000-08:00

Alex + cameras + paris = PHOTOBLOG

These were taken with a small Canon digital:

(La Motte-Picquet, above ground stations rock)

St. Cloud, (west side Paris).

La Defense, I'm coming back armed with a wide angle lens. (I had to stand like half a mile away to make this happen)