Influences
For some reason, I’ve put a lot of thought into a post that Gordon wrote some time ago. The title of his post was Early Influences, followed by another post, Later Influences. And then, a great bit of evidence in the post, Bits of St. John where you can see clearly the influence on Gordon’s work. In the first post, Gordon asks a question that was asked of him at a workshop:
What was the first two dimensional piece of art that really had a strong influence on you?
When I first read the question, I pondered it for a while, then came up with no answers. My first reaction was to say Ansel Adams, but that was just a name that I knew off of the tip of my tongue. I don’t know if he really was an influence. Later, I thought of HCB, but then again, I don’t really think that he was an influence, only a name that I happened to know. I don’t really own any picture books of photographers or follow any photographer’s work closely. Perhaps it was a black and white print that my friend Bob Jennings showed me, but I doubt that it influenced my work.
I remember that i kept thinking that there ‘should’ be someone who influenced me, but there doesn’t seem to be. I had one guy tell me that my work looked a lot like that of Freeman Patterson. At the time, I said Freeman who? I didn’t even know who it was, so I guess that it was coincidence.
All in all, I guess that my work is my own and not really influenced by other work that I’ve seen, or perhaps it is but I just don’t know it. Anyone else? Do you feel that you have any influences in your photography? Certainly, there is nothing wrong with it. On that same note, I’m really feeling that I’d like to do some portraits and would just love for my work to be on par with that of Cheryl Jacobs. I just think that her work is fantastic! That is certainly my cup of tea!
A flying squirrel?!
He flies through the air with the greatest of ease …
I know that you’re used to seeing pictures of Hobbs, but Hobbs has taken the day off to nap in the sun. Instead, I bring you Bagheera, the flying squirrel. I’ve never met a flying squirrel, but this is one cool little dude. Hobbs is mildly interested from time to time, but for the most part, he still likes to get his sleep. 
So, where did Bagheera (Named after the black panther from Jungle Book) come from? Well, Pedro’s girlfriend is visiting for the Thanksgiving weekend and Bagheera came along for the visit. It was an interesting first meeting between Bagheera and I. She had Gee (Named after the president of Ohio State), as they call him, out and about. Suddenly, Ghi jumped off of her arm, on to the couch, up on my shirt and then down the collar! This all happened amazingly fast. That little critter can move fast!
His favorite place in the house seems to be a box on a shelf in Pedro’s room way at the back of the closet. As he is nocturnal, he sleeps all day and likes to hop around at night. They keep him confined in Pedro’s room because, although Hobbs doesn’t seem very interested, he is interested in chasing rodents. That’s what miniature Schnauzers like to do!
Now, I’m not one share my drinks with a pet, but it doesn’t seem to bother Pedro or Anna Kay, his girlfriend. I’ve seen Ghi scamper up Pedro’s arm, stick his head into Pedro’s orange juice and take a sip. No thanks! As much as I love Hobbs, he isn’t kissing me on the mouth or sharing my food or drinks! Ick!
Anyway, he’s a cool character and would make an ideal apartment pet. I’ve considered getting one but the next batch of babies will not be born until March and you can only get them from a breeder. However, at the same time, even though it would be cool to have a little buddy, I’m not sure that I want something to take care of at this time. We’ll see.
I’ll probably have some more pictures of him pretty soon. He’s not camera shy at all. I just have to keep him from jumping on my camera and running down my shirt!
Black Friday
Today is Black Friday in the U.S., or basically the day after Thanksgiving, “The official start of Christmas shopping”. Today, retailers will hope to entice us with amazing sales in order to get us to buy, buy, buy! After all, that’s what Christmas is about, right? Many stores opened at 2:00 or 3:00 AM with ‘door-buster’ sales, etc. I continued to sleep, door-buster sales or not!
I never go out on this day and stay as far away as possible from malls and shopping centers, safely tucked away in my house, hanging out with family, watching movies, and munching on leftovers from Thanksgiving Day. It also is the beginning of the Christmas movie season, so heading to a theater to see a movie, of which many of them are at malls, is out of the question. That’s double trouble! You might as well park at home!
With the recession still pretty strong, in my opinion, it will be interesting to see how consumers take to the malls and if retailers will be able to whip them up into a spending frenzy. I’ll order online and have my stuff shipped, what little that I buy! It’s the way that we’ve been doing it for several years!
Is there any equivalent day in Europe or Australia? Any plans to go out on Black Friday?
Time, opportunity, and choices.
The Hero of daily life
On yesterday’s post, Earl said:
Paul, as i read your post I wondered if being in Charleston on your own each week with evening time to develop and scan has made your usage of film easier or more enjoyable? If you were home in Charlotte would finding time for film be harder to come by?
I was going to answer him in the comments, but thought that his question deserved a bit more elaboration than I could give, or wanted to give in a comment, thus, this post. I’ll start with a short story from back in the day … but, first a sidebar: I remember working with a bunch of ‘old guys’ when I was in my mid-twenties. They always seem to have an anecdote ready for most any situation. I thought that it was funny and interesting that they had experienced so much, but alas, I’m the old guy now and seem to have experiences for most anything that comes along. So, on with the story from the old guy:
Back when I was doing software development for MCI, I was a pretty gung-ho developer. I wanted a name for myself. I wanted to be the highest paid, most sought after, well known software developer in Dallas, Texas. Now, when I look back at that, I cringe! *shudder* Anyway, I put in countless hours reading technical books, practicing my craft, etc. My wife and I were both driven and our weekends consisted of hanging out in Borders books absorbing and buying new technical books, she more than I, but we both had quite a few books.
As one would expect, I quickly rose to the top of the ranks amongst my peers as did my pay and my reputation. Certainly I did not have fame and fortune, but I was fairly well known and well paid. A fellow developer, Donna, once asked me how did I get so good in such a short time. I told her about my trips to the book store, my late nights spending 5 or 6 hours after work studying and experimenting, etc. She was somewhat appalled saying that she’d rather watch television in the evening and unwind from the day’s work. Certainly nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t where my head was at that time. I believe that she was wise and I was foolish.
Anyway, to finally get to Earl’s question. Yes, having my evenings free from the rigors of everyday family life does play a huge role in my ability to use film. I had considered it some years ago, but wasn’t quite ready. There is a place in our house that would be ideal for loading film and I had my own separate room with my printer, scanner, and assorted photo gear. However, I think that had the film bug bitten, it might not have bitten so hard. Still, I’ve made decisions here that support my photography. I don’t own a television, which helps a lot. No boob-tube distraction. I balance my free times in the evenings between reading fiction and doing photography things.
Were I to have never left Charlotte and come to Charleston, I do wonder if I would have been developing film at this point in my life. Who knows, but here I am and I’m making good use of my time, I think. It’s not like when I was trying to be the ‘best’ of this or that, it’s more comfortable than that. It’s fulfilling to be able to do something just for the sake of it without worrying about or wanting a reward.
Lastly, Earl, I would imagine that since you retired some time ago, your life has blossomed and turned in directions that you never would have expected nor have had time to do when you were working 5 days/week. No? I would expect that when I reach that point, I would do something else. Perhaps I’ll make my own emulsions and use glass plates! LOL!
656 and going strong
Who knows where it’s going?
When I started with this whole film thing, I had no idea where it would lead. I certainly had no expectations that it would magically make me a better photographer. As a matter of fact, I had no expectations other than it would be different and fun and it has been exactly that.
As I scanned the last few images from the last roll that I developed, I looked at my photo count and see that I’ve scanned 656 negatives. Certainly the bulk of them have been 35 mm scans as they are easy to do. I can do 12 at a time. With 120, it’s one at a time, so I tend to not scan the entire roll. I pick and choose. As near as I can tell, I’ve shot about 18 rolls of 120 film, or about 270 images, of which I’ve scanned 196. I’ve shot 13 rolls of 36 exposure 35 mm film and scanned 460 of those images, giving me 656.
I’ve (re)learned a lot about film and have developed likes and dislikes. More than likely I’ll stay in the middle of the range with Ilford films. Though I like really small grain, and Ilford Pan F suits the bill, I don’t like its really high contrast all that much. I prefer FP4′s tonal range as well as HP-5′s speed and tonal range. I shot a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 and, IMHO, it should be Delta 1000. It’s cool in a pinch and I have another roll of it to shoot that I’ll probably shoot at 1000 ISO. My go-to developer is still Rodinal. I hear that my mad scientist friend, Tom, is mixing up a home brew batch for himself!
I’ve found that I really like medium format film. It’s beautiful and I don’t have to break the bank to have a full frame camera, 35 mm or medium format.
Of course, my D300, slighted though she may have been, is still my go-to camera for color, low light, and sports. It just cannot be beat. On the streets, it’s the Olympus and the Leica, and for B&W landscapes, the Mamiya 645e. I want to try a roll or two of color slide film, but also want to keep costs to a minimum and not have any outside development costs.
Thanks to Tom, I have some old school 120 film that I’m going to shoot. Some of it is 10 years old! I’m not quite sure what the developing times will be, but I’ll do some research and figure it out. It’s all about the fun anyway.
Although I make jokes about digital being “The Dark Side”, of course, you know that I don’t mean it. No one’s going to pry my D300 from hands!
It has indeed been fun and I still look forward to those evenings of developing film while watching a movie. Hopefully, you’ve found this interesting, too. Perhaps it may have even sparked your interest a bit … maybe you’ll try some film one day. It’s great to have choices!
The Candid Frame
A Hoboken street portrait.
Walking the streets, you never know who you are going to meet. On this particular day, my first day in NYC, I met a group of people from Better Photo. One of the happened to be a man named Ibarionex Parello. He told me his name, but on a busy New York street, I couldn’t quite understand what he said. I asked him to repeat it, but still, no dice. After seeing it in writing, I asked him how to pronounce it, so for all of you who have no idea how to pronounce it, here goes:
My name is pronounced Eeba – rio – nex
This is straight from the e-mail that he sent me. Now you know.
We struck up a conversation and I found him to be quite likable and very personable. Of course, this was another one of those cases where I didn’t have a business card; however, he didn’t have one either, but he did have his iPhone so I gave him my information and he said that he’d contact me. Well, true to his word, he contacted me. After his contact, I realized that I had heard of his podcast before, The Candid Frame.
If you’ve never heard his podcast, give it a listen; however, be warned, it is not something that you can sit and listen to in 3 or 5 minutes. These interviews with photographers are fairly long. I like Ibarionex’s style. He asks a question and actually lets the photographer answer at length without interruption. Further, he has that type of smooth, buttery voice that just works well for a podcast. Not all of the interviews are face to face, some are contacted on the telephone.
So, if you get a chance, dig through his archives and see if anything strikes your interest. I’m sure that you will.
Gift ideas
Waiting to go…
I was reading a blog today and the author was talking about inexpensive gifts for photographers. Each year, I am less and less concerned with buying stuff, rather, I feel the need/desire to give of myself. Now I understand what my mother was talking about when she said that she would rather that I make something for her rather than buy it. My wife says the same thing to the guys.
During the past couple of months I’ve stumbled upon what I think are pretty good ideas. The first, I think that I saw on T.O.P. (The Online Photographer). It’s called Help-Portrait. In this effort, there is no joining or anything. It’s just a date set aside where we, as photographers, can give back. Certainly, you could do this on any day at all, but 12/12 is the date. The idea: Find someone in need. Take their portrait. Give them a free portrait. That easy. You could use this as a way to practice those lighting skills on some willing models, to meet new friends, or to just interact and give back to the community. I already have one in mind and may try to do two, or if it gets really good to me, one a month for the next year, but we’ll see.
The second one, my friend Tom, The Photo Father, told me about. Operation: Love Reunited. This is another good idea. Here, photographers sign up and, if approved, get assigned to cover the return of a soldier to his/her family at a nearby base. The assignment could be at the enlistment, deployment, or return. You simply have to provide a printed album consisting of 4×6 prints to the family or the soldier for no charge.
I think that both of these are excellent ways to give something meaningful and memorable during the holidays. Tom has participated in Operation : Love Reunited. I certainly hope that he will share his experiences.
Should you forget to bookmark the links, they are on the right side of this blog under “Other” links.