Meow.

These are the top 25 blogs. I’m not sure how they’re calculated but what I thought was interesting was that this one was included in this secondary list. I kinda always thought this image might work for that site. *Shrug.*

I guess you never know.

Working the Land(scape).

I’ve been looking at a lot of work by other people and, as I’ve mentioned here before, I’m not really all that thrilled with my landscape photography. Beyond that, I have this Holga camera that seems underutilized. I was truly inspired by this fellow to just kinda shoot stuff with the camera and see where it took me.

With all that in mind, I went traipsing around the city back to some of the places that I thought, “That’d make a great photograph.” as I’d passed them before and grabbed a few.

I scanned them and then toned them the way I might’ve if I’d been printing them and I kinda like what I got, although I’d probably print a film border and a bit of a vignette. Whatever the case, here are 4:

It’s interesting how the lens bends things in its sight. It’s an aberration I wasn’t expecting but I’m really growing to love when I see straight lines captured.

In the Center Ring.

I’m not as good at taking pictures of “things” as I think other people are. It’s something about myself that I routinely wish to change so when the opportunity to practice comes, I try to grab it.

I’d found this collection of stuff while wending my way to D.C. a couple of weeks ago and decided to seek it out again. The circus tent that had been there was gone, but the man who owned it all was amiable enough to let me wander around.

Here are a few of the images I got that I liked.

The View From Here.

This was fun. Two cameras, one subject, same vantage:

Hasselblad.

Holga.

Kicks.

I was playing around with some new film I got to shoot a wedding later this year ’cause I hadn’t used it before (and ’cause I’d gotten burned with this stuff) and the easiest models I had accessible were my wife’s shoes.

I wanted to see what the light requirements would be with the Holga ’cause that’s what the wedding will be shot with. When I got my first look at the negs for these two images I was worried, but once I did a few scans, the worry went away.

I’ve gotta set up one more session with a real-live person to feel really comfortable, but I’m pretty sure the kids are gonna be alright.

Swans.

It was snowing at my folks’ river house when we saw them.
All I had with me was my Holga, loaded with cross-process film. It took me forever to get a decent print out of these negs and when I did, I got it framed for my folks. Now that I’ve scanned them, I like them even more.

If you can see dust in the images, it’s because there was a lot there. It took forever to clean out in Photoshop. I kinda wished at the time that I’d brought a different camera (and different film) because I felt that I wasn’t gonna get much detail with the low-fi camera. Now that I’ve scanned them, I find that I’m pleased.

Bah.

My buddy Joe over at Brainchild Collective asked to have a look at some of the prints I’d made myself back when I could print color and I dug an (extensive) envelope out of my office to drop it off. There’s bunches of stuff in there.

We were chatting online the other night and he mentioned that this was one of his favorites from the group. I’d completely forgotten about it until he said something. Of course, it’s from the fair, and interestingly, it’s shot with a Holga (actually a Woca with a flash, but for the sake of argument…). I’ve long since ditched the body of this camera for one without a flash because once I saw what this looked like, I decided I didn’t wanna MacGyver a flash diffuser for it.

Anyway, here’s an old shot to make up for the quiet week. I’m still grading papers for the end of term. Many students were keen to hold on to stuff until the very last minute, much to my chagrin.

Thank goodness a short vacation’s on deck.

Footprints.

There’s an old Tribe Called Quest song called “Footprints” that I honestly was thinking of when I shot this. It’s sort of fitting for the end of the beach photos. A woman and her Scottish Terrier had just come by and stopped to talk to Zoe. She was having none of the little dog, was happier to see him from a distance.

As the Scottie and his lady wandered on down the beach, I snapped a couple with the Holga. I like the effect here but wish I’d been a little higher so that the prints would stand out some more.

ROAR.

Another old pair of negs.
When I shot these with what was at the time a new Holga, I thought that maybe they’d work as a diptych. I managed to print them once but didn’t think to flip the tail (or the head, I suppose) so that they’d look like a complete animal.

This fella lives on a playground in Charlottesville where children routinely ride him into submission, I suppose.

Portrait of the Artist.

And the generation before him and after.
Weird Holga-ness.