The Closeup.

I recently scored an iPhone 3G from eBay. Since they only run on AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s networks, my intent was just to use it to take pictures and maybe shoot the odd video from time to time. This was a brilliant plan, as the new iPhone 4 had just come out and I figured an iPhone 3 would be cheap.

The hitch came right after I won the auction and realized that I wasn’t buying a “jailbroken” phone, but a *broken* phone. It didn’t work well. The listing said my new acquisition came without a battery and without cables. It wasn’t as bad as they’d made it seem when it finally arrived at my house, but the device was definitely not functioning correctly.

I sent it to my friend, J.P. in Seattle. He does a lot of things, but notably, he runs a business repairing Apple products. It’s called My Mac Hero. He fixed it and had it back to me in like 3 days. He’s brilliant. (and here on twitter)

I trust J.P. ’cause he’s the one who got me mixed up in all this Mac business in the first place. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have bought the used Blueberry iMac that was my introduction to the Mac world.

Anyway, I’ve been playing around with it (you may have noticed) and several post processing applications -the iPhones are absolutely rife with choices – and shot this of a buddy wearing an old WWII French gas mask.

An Experiment.

A long time ago, a stock photographer put to me and a friend a hypothetical question: “How would you make a picture that sold washing machines but wasn’t the standard image?” Immediately, I thought about using a machine out in a field and just standing people on it.

Fast forward a few years (and a couple of children for me) and I find that one of my neighbors is actually throwing away an old washer. Now at this point, I don’t have time to borrow a truck and schlep the thing out to a field. Moreover, I don’t have any models immediately available.

But I do have my daughter. And the house next door to ours is vacant.

This was one of a couple dozen I shot very quickly, without extra light, reflected or otherwise, but it reminds me of how I want to frame this as a serious shot later. Who knows? Maybe the little girl here will even be in the final shot.

Bokeh.

One of the local camera stores is liquidating much of its inventory, getting rid of things they’ve had in stock for ages. They put ads on Craigslist to notify folks of what they have and there were a few manual focus Pentax K-mount lenses left so I picked one up for fun.

It turns out, the 28mm lens I scored is faster than any of my other Pentax lenses and is smart enough to allow the camera to control its aperture despite the manual focus.

The reason such things are interesting is called bokeh. It’s the blurring of the elements in a photograph due to the way the lens “sees” because of depth of field (roughly, the combination of focal length and maximum aperture).

Anyway, this image shows that, despite having been shot with a Hasselblad.

Sometimes A Lady…

I almost called this post “Location. Location. Location.” ’cause I lucked into this beautiful space in which to shoot.

The ladies of the Junior League of Richmond were kind enough to let me use the Mayo-Carter House. It was built in 1895 and is done in a style called French Renaissance Revival. This house was designed by New York architects Carrere & Hastings, the same architects who designed the Hotel Jefferson, just one block east.

The house is beautiful. It has super high ceilings and is furnished on the ground floor with stuff that feels like the scenery from a high fashion catalog. As I understand it, this is just a reflection on the important outreach work the Junior League does.

Anyway, we were there for about two and a half hours and snapped a few digital images and a few film ones, to include a roll of black and white and a roll of cross process. I think I had greater success with the film than with the digital. These two are film.

Every Freakin’ Time…

Every time I go to the fair, I shoot some variation of this image. I don’t know why. Those damned swings just call to me, I suppose.

Also managed a couple of new looks at the carousel that makes me photograph it every year. Go figure.

Eyes on Her.

Yet another recruit in the creation stages of a big project for me. Things are coming together nicely.

It’s the Weekend.

It’s a 3 day weekend, at that.
And I haven’t got anything to post.
So here’s an old image.

It’s Like Knowing a Secret.

In an effort to show my students what a blog is / oughtta be like / acts like, I offered up this one. It’s the closest to a long term assignment that I’ve ever come.

I explained that mostly there are pictures but from time to time, I actually craft words (given that I am kinda good at it) and put them here for everyone to see.

I’ll be curious how many of them are paying attention. It makes me grin, just a little — like the little girl in this photo. She was standing around being a precocious 5 year old while I was trying to shoot her mom. I figured it was easier to incorporate her than to tell her to get lost. She stood there for the first shot and it looked almost right. I pulled the bear out of one of the suitcases (You never know when a ratty old teddy bear like FooFee here is gonna be a good prop.) and handed it to her. Still not right. I got her to smile and put her hand over her mouth and this little bit of stolen goodness came out. It looks completely random but is painfully posed. Go figure.

The door to that house isn’t yellow anymore either.

Radio Silence.

School started on Thursday so I’m thinking that updates here will be patchier.
We’ll see.

Here’s another old one.

Watchoutnow!

An outtake from my recent shoot with Calvin Jamison today.

I taught him 9th grade English and now he’s grown up to be a bit of a Renaissance man: well read, clever conversationalist, and filmmaker. He’s kinda slow on the “getting a site” front, but his work’s pretty cool.

Anyway, he needed some publicity-esque photos and we came up with a couple of goofy ones that I think show his sense of humor and lighter side. I’m waiting on the usual amazing postproduction from Brainchild Collective but in the meantime, here’s a rough cut.