wandering between jobs

So I didn’t actually end up with a ton of free time between jobs; there was a lot of stuff I needed to get done in that week and a half. But I did have one day where all I did was just walk around and take photos. This was the first part of that day. I’m not sure why the month-old roll took so long to get processed, but it did.

The second and third church photos are actually mosaics of two pictures. Color film is still very hard to get the color right.

I have some idea of what I need to do to complete the San Pablo project; what it’s about, at least to me. I did a big edit of the photos and I got a feel for what was working. I’m not sure if I want to proceed with the project on film or keep it in digital. There’s something to be said for consistency, and that’s one thing this project never has. It is mostly shot on a digital of some description. Maybe I’ll continue in that vein.

I know this is a little disconnected and rambly. I’m all over the place right now, keeping all the plates spinning. Winter is the time to recharge; right now, we go full steam. Onward!

streets again

Again, taking the same photo over and over. again, looking at the street. feels like I’m getting really in tune with the film camera after these last couple weeks. its wants and needs and places it likes to go. The night shots in particular were a bit of a surprise. I took them at whatever slow shutter speed I figured I needed, and expected them to be blurry. but here we are, and they’re pretty OK.

Not a lot to say tonight, been working out and cleaning all evening. Excuses, I know. Getting ready to go to Boston and points north; there’s a wedding. Also getting my shop area ready for when my parents are here; I’m hoping I can spend some time getting more practical instruction from my dad, which means the workshop has to be in a usable state.

One small technical note: the picture with red’s java house in the background. it looks like I have sprocket hole agitation marks, but none of the other pictures seem to exhibit them. I’m too tired to take them out, anyway. I’ll be more careful next time, developing.

grilled cheese made on a grill

I’m not going to lie, this is a lot of pictures. I could do a tighter edit, but I really like all of these, and there was almost no work on my part. I shot them, I ran the film here, and then I took them and had them scanned at Photoworks SF, and that’s pretty much it. I didn’t even do the fancy deluxe scans, I did the 5x7 scans. They’re perfect for throwing the pictures up here on the interwebs. No, they’re not paying me.

Anyway, real grilled cheeses, really grilled. This was the same day as this post except I’m way slower to get black and white done (I was waiting for a month to get some specific chemistry in, anyway). I can do runs of 1, 2, 4 or 8 rolls at a time, but I don’t like doing the 1 or 2 reel cans really. It’s way more fun when there are more pictures.

repetition (again)

Just a little post, with a few things to say. I’ve been walking the same streets a lot lately (which may have been evident by the two posts about the mission, or all the odd salon posts, etc). And there’s a vein in photographic thought that echoes the popular sentiment: that if you’re not doing something new, you’re not doing something worthwhile. St Winogrand said something along the lines of “I never want to take the same picture twice.”

So what does going against that guidance get you? Well, the first picture here is one I’ve attempted dozens of times. Not every morning at the train, but many of them. A lot with just my phone camera. They never are quite what I had in mind, but each iteration is closer; there’ll be a cluster of some that kinda work, and then a long fallow period where nothing sticks, and then one like this comes along and just knocks me back. it’s close enough here that I imagine I might be able to pull a print from it that is what I actually want.

Fences, alleys: you’ve seen those, too. I’m super curious what the hell Boner Dog was. Now it’s an empty lot, of course, but it looks like there wasn’t ever even a slab in that lot. So what was there?

Odd Salon: never predictable, always interesting. The for-real devil came up on stage and drank whiskey at us. Maybe there’s a sameness to the practice that makes me call it the same things, and it feels like I’m shooting the same things, but only in the moment. I always say you can’t tell anything about how good the pictures are in the moment; I think that may apply to this idea of ‘sameness’ that I have in my head, too.

The pictures aren’t the same, they can’t be; Everything moves, everything changes. The light is never the same. I always thought re-photography seemed like a gimmick, a little hollow. But the idea of looking for ‘equivalents’, that is, things that are emotionally the same, or at least feel the same, that’s something really interesting.