A Shitty Photo
July 11th, 2024
I’ve just been notified that I’ll have a photo in an upcoming exhibit at the LightBox Photographic Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. It’s their annual “Analog Forever” show.
This photo has a story. I was in a bit of a disagreement with another photographer who was enamored of Holga photos. They insisted that only a Holga could produce the kind of photos they were after. Having worked with a Diana camera in the past, I knew that wasn’t really true. And I made the point that you could really use any shitty camera to make shitty photos. Then I went on and said I could tape a $3 drug store magnifying glass to the front of a camera and take shitty photos. They were certain that that was not possible.
So I did it. This was taken with a cheap magnifying glass taped to the front of my Speed Graphic. The focal plane shutter and ground glass focusing screen made this fairly simple. I used a Polaroid back with the wonderful and much missed 3000 speed peel-apart Polaroid film.
This was the first exposure I made with that rig. I was guessing at an exposure since I had no idea what the “aperture” was. I guessed wrong and severely overexposed that first sheet…with this result, which I consider pretty much perfect. Thanks to the lovely EM Hayes who helped me make a lot of art once upon a time.
Little Finland
July 8th, 2024
Twice I’ve visited Little Finland north of Las Vegas with the beautiful model, Eden. Twice fate has been against us and limited what we were able to do.
These photos are from our second trip there. The first time our GPS misled us down a seriously rough “road.” If we had not turned when the GPS told us to we would have soon come to a direction sign pointing the way. We eventually found our way there and did some photos, but we only had a little time left before we needed to head back out of the desert to avoid night driving there.
But the place is a great location, so I planned a trip to return and try again. This time, when we arrived at Little Finland I was feeling very ill. Eden told me she was afraid I was going to fall off one of the cliffs and hurt or kill myself. I could barely hold the camera up. But I did manage to get these few photos. When I got back home I learned that I had COVID. Probably was exposed to it on the airplane on the way out. Fortunately I managed not to infect Eden with the virus.
I haven’t given up on this location. There are many more photos to be made there. I had hoped to make another trip this past spring, but had to cancel that one because of other health issues. It’s always something… But I hope to try again one day.
Happy Independence Day
July 3rd, 2024
Here’s a recent photo of lovely Eden with a flag background to mark the holiday.
For those who might care about such things, this photo was taken with my cell phone using the new Leica app. The app is supposed to duplicate the processing done in Leica’s digital cameras. I don’t see much difference in color photos, but I do like the black and white rendering that the app does. You can see a sample of that in this photo of Lunar Fox.
It’s a complete mystery to me why Leica would even want to put out an app like this. It seems counterproductive to provide something free to duplicate the results of their grossly overpriced cameras. But it is what it is and it is fun to play with.
Twin Twirl
June 30th, 2024
Just a quick post of a shot I did a week ago. Thanks to Eden and Oksana.
Kimberly Covered
June 27th, 2024
Just a quick post of a PG shot I did recently with the lovely Kimberly Jay. There are many more fine photos from this shoot, mostly not PG. They will arrive here someday.
It’s A Major Award!
June 23rd, 2024
Well, not that major…I received an honorable mention for this portrait of Daisy Von in the portrait show at Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis.
Two Figures
June 19th, 2024
A few figure studies with Carrie and Eden.
Carrie’s Figure
June 16th, 2024
Carrie Turner has a wonderful figure that just cries to be photographed.
So I try to do that as often as possible.
When the light is right and you have a beautiful model, how can you go wrong?
Thank you Carrie. It is always a delight to work with this fantastic lady.
Playing In The Shadows
June 11th, 2024
Some photos with the beautiful Eden playing around in a shadowy stairwell.
Sometimes less light is better.
Ancient Instants
June 4th, 2024
Ancient in a couple ways. These are from a shoot from almost two years ago. That’s how far behind I am with editing. I was making good progress, but then I had some health issues and about the time I was feeling better I went to Cuba for a workshop, and, as you can see in my posts prior to this one, I decided to edit and post the photos from Havana.
But now I’m trying to get back on track with editing. I’m not shooting much these days, so maybe I can catch up.
So, here are some “instant” photos of Carrie and Eden. These two have pretty much been my favorite models for several years now. I love working with both of them and always have great results when they are helping me make art.
And, about that second way these are ancient instants. These were shot on outdated Fuji 3000 “peel-apart” instant film. That film has been discontinued for many years now. It is a real loss to photography that this unique film with a delicious tonal quality is gone forever. I bought all of it that I could find when I heard it was going away.
All the weird stuff you see going on in these is a product of the film just being so old. I suppose I could spend a few days and eliminate those problems, but I guess I don’t see them as problems, but rather the signature of this long-gone film.
There are more photos from this shoot done with a modern digital camera. But I wanted to share these first. The others will be posted here soon.
