Shooting a Baby

So I got this big deal event coming up.  We’re having a baby, and among other things, one of my jobs is to capture the moment of truth.  My wife says, “don’t blow it dude, bring the digital camera.”  How boring, I mean how many times will be in a labor and delivery room again?  I’m thinking this is a chance for some black and white documentary style action.  So I’ll be packing my bessa rangefinder, my lomo smena, and maybe a holga. Some neopan 1600, portra 800, and a some expired slide film to cross process.  I’m sure the midwife will appreciate my attempt to be artsy while my wife is screaming her lungs out pushing out the baby.   Not sure what to say to everyone who wants a photo sent right away.  Maybe that’s what camera phones are for.  So we’re 2 days past due date and the bags are packed, the laundry is done, and the cameras are loaded.

So wish me luck, it’s a big deal for us and I’d like to do it justice with some nice images.  Hopefully I won’t panic and leave all the cameras at home.  After all, my job is easy, she’s the one with the hard work to do.

The Beauty Of Not Knowing

I like my film cameras for many reasons, but most of all I like being surprised by my results (good or bad).  If we could put aside for a moment the economics of shooting digital and remember some of the great things about film; like picking up a roll of prints, opening the package and laughing at someone’s facial expression.  Or being proud of yourself for getting a “great shot” something you didn’t think would work, but does work even better than you imagined.  I also like the passage of time that happens from the time you shoot frame one until the time you finish the roll and get it developed.   All this is now gone with digital.   There’s no anticipation, no surprise, it’s all a calculated risk at best.  Photography needs mystique, otherwise it’s just You Tube.

I see a lot of photos on sites like flickr.  And most of the digital stuff is contrived and staged, whereas the film people seem to be more out there on a limb.  I just hope Kodak keeps making film so I don’t have to jump off.

Rejected on Flickr

We might think that flickr is just a photo sharing site, and aside from some casual networking to promote Photoworks, I mainly use the site for artistic reasons.  I guess if I was young and single I might use flickr to try and meet chicks, which apparently is fairly common.

I’ve been working on my “contacts” list lately, trying to meet more people, make some photo friends, and generally broaden my photo horizons.  A few weeks back I stumbled upon some really cool film images by an LA based photographer.  I soon became a bit of a fan of this person’s work, they use some techniques that I’m trying to master, so I did what is customary, I made them a “contact.”  I have maybe 150 or so contacts, friends and strangers who’s photos I enjoy.  Now usually if I make someone a contact, the custom is to return the favor, or make me one of their contacts as well (reciprocate if you will).   So, some time goes by and I realize that this new contact never replied back so I checked out their profile and saw that she is a woman living in the LA area.  We will call her “photolisa” to protect her flickr identity.  It seems Lisa has been posting photos and comments regularly so it’s not like she is out town.  No big deal.

Ok, so now a month has gone by and photolisa has not made me a contact.  Why the hell not?  Am I not worthy?  She has 200 other contacts so why can’t I be one?  I’m hurt, I’m pissed off, shit I feel rejected.  Lisa, what have I done?  So now I”m desperate and I guess crossed the line.  I sent photolisa a flickr email saying I admire her work and it would be cool if she could look at my work and maybe we could exchange ideas.   So, I finally get a reply saying, “for privacy and safety reasons I do not share my ideas with unfamilair men.”  OUCH!  Do I feel like a loser now.  I’m married with a kid, and another coming, I think I have better things to do then hit on women on a photo sharing website. Look at my profile, it says MALE AND TAKEN.  Now i guess if you are a woman or man for that matter you never know what kind of low life’s are out there.  But, i said “exchange ideas” not fluids!

So I guess I need to get over it, move on, lesson learned.  There are boundaries here and people are entitled to their own space……………………I hate you photolisa, I hate your pretentious photos, and you’re not one of my contacts anymore.  So there.

Friends of Photoworks

About Friends Of Photoworks

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be inside a busy photo lab? Smell the chemicals, watch the prints come out of the machines, talk to customers about their imaging needs?

Photoworks is a Photo Lab In San Francisco, Ca. We’ve been around 20 years and have survived many changes in our industry. We develop and print film, and we make prints from digital files. We try to take quality photographs and appreciate other people who do the same.

If you’re a fan of our photo lab then we’d like you to join this group. If you’re curious about how things work ( how we scan, how we print, what films are best, etc…) then this group is for you too. Feel free to post any photos you like, we’ll comment and offer advice. Don’t hesitate to use this space to offer feedback and suggestions. We’ve been around a while, but we still have a lot to learn.

http://flickr.com/groups/821718@N22/

What is this?  Well it’s my new flickr group celebrating photoworks the lab, and all of our great customers.  Please join and get in on the action.  Post photos, start a topic, all the good flickr stuff.  Thanks.

Economic Photo Stimulus Package

Our President GWB in his infinite wisdom has decided to send the poor working citizens of this country checks in the amount of $600.00, $900.00 if you have a kid. It’s called the Economic Stimulus Package, and whether or not it’s a dumb idea can be discussed on a political blog. GWB says we should SPEND the money, but he doesn’t say how, so I have some suggestions. I would not buy a flat screen TV from Best Buy because Best Buy doesn’t need the money, and you’ll be buying something imported anyway which doesn’t help the good ‘ol USA economy much.

I know of a certain San francisco Photo Lab where you can blow some of that dough. How about a nice canvas print or a watercolor print of your favorite photos? There’s lots to buy at Photoworks: Holgas(import, but a cool country), film processing, prints, etc…

I would at least consider a new camera to take some great fresh pictures to bring to said Photo lab for developing. Am I making my point? Am I selfish to want your Stimulus checks? Hey, I don’t want it all, just some, and then I can go down to Best Buy and get a flat screen TV!

Three Men And A Camera

Last Saturday I was at the playground with my 2 year old son. Weekends are when most Dads watch the kids and the playground is the place to go. The vibe is different on the weekend. Women at the playground will gravitate toward each other and talk about all the minutia of diapers, child birthing methods, and day care. Guys don’t give a crap. Our common ground is sports or cars or gadgets. On this day it was cameras. First guy called Fred wearing his Van Halen 08 tour shirt and Niners cap is sporting a Sony Cyber Shot with an 8x zoom lens. Looks ridiculous, but then again he also has a mullet. Guy number 2 has a Cannon 20D. He’s a lawyer, khakis, V neck sweater and fraternity ring. He explains that according to his partners, this is the best camera on the market. “It’s the BMW of cameras.”

On to guy number 3, me sporting dark glasses and a Diana F film camera. We’re all snapping away at our kids, but because I’m shooting film I can’t share my photos. The 2 guys think I’m nuts, out of the dark ages or something. “Hey Dave, your kid will be driving by the time you take that photo. LOL” Mullet guys is shooting close ups of his kid’s snotty nose, lawyer, having figured out the action icon on the camera is doing low angle action shots of his daughter on the swing. He’s actually lying in the sand, bad angle for little kids and bad if sand gets near the LCD. And me, well half of my shots will be light struck, not to mention black and white which everybody now hates. We’re just three fellas stuck in the playground until naptime, searching for common ground and not really finding it. The one thing we have in common is that we want to take cool photos of our kids, or at least better photos than our wives take. In the old days we’d all have funky film cameras or old super 8 movie cameras. We would have taken the same pictures with the same cameras, the same way, and the photos would be printed and preserved for a lifetime in albums.

I guess I don’t really fit in around here (the suburbs) because as it turns out I hate pro football and like manual film cameras. I don’t really have a problem with the other 2 guys and their cameras or the Niners for that matter. I’m sure I kind find some pretentious, arsty-fartsy dads at a playground in the city.

Meet Your Photoworks Staff

Thought I’d introduce some of the people who make it all happen at Photoworks. Starting with our youngest employee who frankly is lucky to be getting paid. I tried to sucker him into an intern program, but he demanded to be compensated monetarily. Normally I have little respect for anyone born in The Eighties, but Alex is a solid citizen with a “big” future, despite the fact that he fabricated his resume. The only truth below is that he was born in Simi Valley in 1985. The rest is bullshit, he’s actually a runaway who I found sleeping in the alley behind Photoworks. Meet Alex….

Name: Alex Martinez
Born: Feb 1st, 1985
Birthplace: Simi Valley, CA
Worked At Photoworks Since: July, 2007
Before that? Getting my BA in Anthropology at San Francisco State
University, with a focus on visual anthropology and documentary
photography.
Film or digital? Film, 35mm mostly, but just got a medium format
camera and have been enjoying 120.
Gear: Nikon F100, Fuji GA645, Yashica T4. For film I shoot Kodak
Portra NC, and Ilford HP5+.
When Not At Photoworks: Interning at Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter,
exploring the Bay Area, spending too much time on the internet.
Most important question, matte or glossy? Any borders? Matte, clean
white borders. Always.
Website: http://www.stopinternetromance.com/

Anything Photo Related

Judging by my last pathetic post, it seems I’ve hit the wall in terms of fresh blog stuff. So I’ve enlisted the aid of my wordsmith buddy Donald Ord. He has lots to say about a variety of topics. I’ve asked for “anything photo related.” Here is some of what’s in Donald’s head:

CAMERA

 

For Christmas about four years back my girlfriend, now my wife, bought me my first digital camera in an attempt to bring me into this century. I had worked for about a dozen years in film editing, but that came to an end at about the same time folks stopped using film in the process of making them.

 

I didn’t really make it into this century, but I do love the camera. I was told that I could make these mp4 movie images, which I have, or that I could use it to play songs, which I have not, but what I mainly do with it is take pictures. There were a number of weddings the following year, 2004, which took us to places such as Denver, Portland, Montreal, then down through Vermont to Cape Cod. We enjoyed these trips, though in New England we couldn’t help but encounter Red Sox fans. One thing people forget about Winslow Homer was how he started to paint more and more out of New England once Red Sox fans started appearing on the landscape.

 

What I liked about the camera was that it was tiny, and could easily be stuck in a pocket. Apparently it was the kind used in the movie “Tomb Raider”, which I never saw. Never was really into Angelina Jolie, even before she started using the same accent for ancient or medieval roles. Something about the big lips. Folks make a big deal out of Anna Kournikova and Scarlett Johansson, but again, there’s that big lip thing. It’s not as if Ms. Johansson would be out of options without them, and as for Ms. Jolie, did she never watch “Deliverance” and the trouble her pop almost got into with the hillbilly that didn’t rape Ned Beatty on account of the “pretty mouth” thing?

 

Back to the camera. The problem with it is the amount of pictures I can take. The card that came with the camera was 64 mb, which took me to about the end of June 2004, through the last wedding, including a stop in Plymouth on the way to Logan. By deleting a photo or two, I was able to make room for a couple of shots of Plymouth Rock. One would think that if the Pilgrims were going to travel so far in a boat in order to inflict Puritanism on countless generations they would at least have landed on something more substantial than Plymouth Rock. You go somewhere like Copenhagen, where there are very few Red Sox fans, when they have something really little to photograph like the Little Mermaid, they let you know it’s really little). Anyway, Rock plus Christmas, four weddings, a party or two and a handful of mp4s gave me room to stuff 313 pictures on the original card, which having been born on 3/13 was pretty perfect.

 

Then girlfriend, yet to be wife, goes and buys me this Magilla card, way more powerful than the original. Since then we’ve been to Yosemite, Germany, Buenos Aires, Sea Ranch and attended more parties and weddings. Don’t think I’m anywhere close to filling this card, and for a while there, when I wanted to show somebody a photo of say, the ’76 Olympic pool, I’d have to press a button a few hundred times before remembering, Montreal…that’s on the 313 card.

 

Finally we got married, and my wife took first one card, and then the other, and shoved them in to this thing she calls a device, and shoved the device into one of the computers, so now all I have to do is reach behind the computers and press this button on another device, the one that lets me switch from the stubby, Ned Beatty shaped PC over to the taller, more elegant Mac, which I use to peruse photos in a better way to locate that Olympic pool, but really, not any easier than going up to the attic and opening a suitcase and pulling out envelopes containing just 36 photos thank you, from say 1978, and reminiscing about how folks like Ron Guidry and Bucky Dent fought the good fight.

 

Anybody notice how it wasn’t until everybody, including me, started taking digital photos that the Red Sox or Patriots got any good? Or that Tom Brady was raised on the edge of Silicon Valley? “Capricorn Two”, shot with real film, will expose all of this.

 

 

Murray’s Linhof

On a recent visit to the folk’s house, I went fishing through the garage and discovered an old, but pristine camera case. Inside was a 4×5 camera, a Linhof Technika from the fifties. There were German lenses, film holders, and various unfamiliar accesories. There was also 4×5 film that had to be 50 years old. I brought the camera case into the house, and was about to open it up when I heard, ” do not touch that camera.” Turns out this was “Murray’s Linfhoff” and I was not worthy of holding it. I guess the fact that I walk around without lens caps, or a proper camera case does not bode well for me touching my dad’s 4×5.

I was however, permitted to borrow the camera manual which is in itself a piece of art. I’ve been reading and researching these amazing instruments, and yes, you just don’t grab a 4×5 like you do your point and shoot. It turns out that some of the oldest cameras around are still the best cameras around, and all the digital technology in the world cannot touch the image quality of this 50 year old 4×5 camera. Here’s something from the manual:

“Photography’s function is to record the world we live in, accurately, clearly, in all its true color, as our eyes see it. A photograph should omit nothing, add nothing; a concise definition of its real function, which at times would seem to have been forgotten. This absolute truth to nature is a matter for photographic technique. True perspective, such as one is accustomed to in ordinary vision, critical sharpness, giving clear rendering of the most minute detail, and the full scale of tones and colors one would like to recognize in one’s pictures. ” (from Linhof manual 1957)

A far cry from photoshop! No surprize that with this type of schooling Murray does not “do digital.” And I’ve been missing the old preparation when composing a photograph. The age of motordrives and fast firing lenses has really ruined the calmness of carefully setting up a photograph, and I’m thinking I’m ready for a return to a camera that’’s older than I am, so next time I visit Murray, I’m going to ask for a lesson on the Linhof.

Maybe he’ll let me hold the camera this time.

Show Me Your Stuff

Do you want to share your photography with others in a non-threatening environment that encourages creativity without boundaries? Do you want to cross the line, and possibly offend the uptight owner (me) of this photolab? Yes, well why aren’t you in the Photoworks Photographer’s Showcase? You know this sight is seen by millions of people a day, so why not get some free exposure?

Honestly, I thought this gallery would be a waste of space, but I was wrong. This work is very good, and I’m a cynical critic who hates almost everything. So, let’s see what you’ve got! www.photoworkssf.com/gallery