Film
I'm so happy to be working with the great people at Red River Theatres in Concord NH. I've been hoping to work with them for a long time. They were the awesome people who let me propose to Sara with my Muppet Proposal film. Since then I've been trying to get my foot in the door. And, recently, I've been working with them and I absolutely love it. For all kinds of reasons.
We took some head shots for the employees of Red River for their new website.
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Sara and I were in an antique store, an I came across this little 3 1/2 x 6 inch flyer for old Kodak film. It was only $1, so I jumped all over it and I brought it home with me and scanned the front into the computer. At some point, I'll make a large print of it and hang it on my wall.
Film is not dead. Believe in film.
#BeliveInFilm
I'm a huge fan of vintage photography. I love old cameras. I love old lenses. I love old photography methods. There are times when I wish I could just flush the studio out and start over shooting nothing but wet plate photographs. Someday I'd love to start shooting wet plate and tintype.
Lemme tell you about how my recent lens purchase, and about the gentleman who made my wood lens mount.
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I love photographing musicians. If I could figure out to making a bajillion dollars doing so, that would be what I'd want to do. It's what I'm trying to do and have tried to do for many years now.
As someone that loves creating photographs of musicians, I have a few photographers that I love who actually do photograph musicians as their profession. One of those is Danny Clinch.
He came out with a book towards the end of 2014 called "Still Moving" and its' a hard cover, lovingly created portfolio of photographs of musicians over the decades. It's really beautiful, and thi cover image of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is why I love his work so much - simple, elegant and wonderful.
His book is available on Amazon. If you love music photography, especially portraits of musicians, pick this up and dig in. It's lovely stuff.
I missed the documentary "Finding Vivian Maier" when it had very limited theatrical release. It just came out a while ago on DVD, and I anxiously snapped it up off Amazon.
It's so good. Watching someone discover the negatives of an unknown photographer and then what seems like overnight turning this photographer into a world renowned street photographer is amazing. People are on both sides as to wether Vivian would have wanted this kind of attention, but her images are incredible. Her story is crazy to watch unfold, and I for one and glad that her work was presented to the world. A beautiful, crazy, detective-like documentary about a seclusive photographer and her amazing body of work. Definitely check it out. Pick it up on Amazon (woah! for only $14!! what a steal!) Highly recommended.
Trailer below.
I believe I'm obsessed with wet plate and tin type photography. I think that is a safe thing to say. I love it. LOVE it. I'm constantly daydreaming about the day when I'll be able to mix my own wet plate chemicals and build a large format camera to use specifically for wet plate and tin type photography. It's true alchemy. It's being a Wizard; concocting a magical potion that can freeze moments and do it with such style and clarity and contrast. Beautiful.
Sara and I had our wedding portraits done as large, 20x24" tin types by Yige Wang. I love that man. I love our portraits. They are amazing. So when my friend Edith Weiler started concentrating on wet plate photography, I started getting really anxious to watch her. To help her. To sit for her.
Edith is working on a body of wet plate portraits that will be part of an exhibition in November. She asked Sara and I (and Dave Seah) if we would want portraits taken of us by her.
Excuse me? Abso-freaking-lutely.
Every session we've had with Edith has been fantastic. She lets me ask any question I have. She lets me look over her shoulder throughout the entire process. I've got a pretty good feel for how everything should go just by watching people like Yige Wang, Keith Alan De-Franca and Edith make their wet plates and tin types. I'll be ready when the day comes.
Here are some shots from our first session with Edith a few months ago:
and
This image looks like it's straight out of a WPA photo book from the 1920's, doesn't it? I look like someone during the Depression. This exposure was around 25 seconds, so there is some slight blurring and movement. I kinda like it though - it adds to the "age" of it.
Images were taken in Edith's backyard, with a simple roll of black backdrop paper gaff taped to the back of her house. Her camera is in the foreground to the left.
The front of Edith's camera. She had this really lovely lens cap made from leather. Since Petzval and other older brass lenses don't have apertures, you need a cover over the front of the lens to prevent light from getting in. This gorgeous leather cap was custom made for Edith.
For our next visit with Edith I shaved my beard a bit so that I could look a little different.
The exposures were better this time, especially on Dave's face. I love the tones and the contrast that these images have. These scans are nothing compared to the real plates themselves. If you ever get a chance to see a real wet plate or tin type, please do. They look so much better in real life.
Trying very hard to "look the part" during our shoot. I think I was meant to live in the 1900's.
Looking a little more dapper this time, complete with a bow-tie. Look at those tones. It's gorgeous! it's me, but a me from 1912. I love it.
Edith then wanted to get a shot of Sara and I together:
So awesome.
Please visit Edith's website. She's a treat to work with, and I'm looking forward to working with her in the future.
Wet Plates and Tin Types are amazing.
I love old, vintage, product boxes.
Old advertising, old boxes, old packaging - I love it. I love the simplistic design. So elegant.
Someone sent me this old Polaroid box in the mail because I wanted to scan it in and print it out to hang on my wall. Then I started toying with the idea of taking the design elements and making them into business promo's for my photography. It seemed like a fun idea to try, so I spent an afternoon scanning old camera-related boxes and turning them as closely as I could into promo pieces that I could use to mail to companies and places I'd like to work with. A kind of elbow-in-the-ribs private in-joke to those who see it. Maybe some will get it and laugh. Maybe some won't understand.
Fujifilm box
Kodak film box
Impossible Project box. Yeah, this one isn't vintage, but I love the nod to the Polaroid colors it uses. and I love that SCP font; all nice and thin and long.
I don't know if I'll actually print these and send them out, but I thought they came out pretty cool. Definitely fun. And that is the most important thing. Fun. Humor. Good times.
I must be better about posting my weekly Podcast here. Here is this weeks episode 53! Dave Seah tells us about some recent trips to some local BBQ joints. Then, because it has started filming, we totally fall into talking about the new Star Wars movie. Of course. Recorded May 12th, 2014
SHOW NOTES:
Our Intro and Outro music provided by the amazingly awesome Michael Bellar & AS/IS Ensemble
Like a Phoenix rising from the Ashes, the Portable Portrait workshop returns for 2014.
Dates for the workshop has just gone live! They are:
Saturday, MAY 17th, 1pm
Saturday, JUNE 21st, 1pm - ALUMNI REUNION SPECIAL!
Saturday, JULY 26th, 1pm
Saturday, SEPTEMBER 20th, 1pm
Saturday, OCTOBER 4th, 1pm
All dates held at Sid Ceaser Photography Studios, Nashua NH.
Workshop starts at 1pm and goes until we fall down dead! We've had workshops to until midnight in the past.
Workshop price: $275.
There will be a special "Alumni" date on June 21st.
If you have taken the workshop in previous years and wish to take it again, please email me to reserve your spot on that special date at a special price!
WE'RE BACK!!!
Visit http://www.portableportrait.com/ for all the info!
To see examples from previous Portable Portrait workshops, CLICK HERE
Oh man, am I TOTALLY EXCITED about this:
Back in July of 2013 I had an article posted on PetaPixel about my 20x24" wedding tintypes. Shortly after, I was contacted by the folks at Lomography who were starting a Kickstarter about a new Petzval lens design for DSLR cameras, asking if I would be interested in being gifted one to test out for future review. Wait, WUT??!?! I excitedly said yes, and after lots of back and forth emails, a lens arrived at the start of February.
I'm beyond excited for this lens and have some big ideas planned for how to give this a really great workout for it's review.
Here is a test shot taken with the lens and a few quick thoughts so far:
My initial reactions are that this lens is *not* for the casual shooter. This all-manual lens really needs to be massaged and finessed to get a good shot from it. I think most casual shooters won't have the time or patience needed for this. Focusing is a bear and the way the lens is made will find focus slipping constantly with even the slightest tip of the camera. To really get the effect from the lens, you need to have the subject dead center and you need to have something in the background that will really showcase the effects the lens creates. For full lengths you'll also need visual clutter in the foreground as well. This is a very specificportrait lens, and all the complaints I've been reading about this Petzval so far has been because the lens won't do everything the owner wants. This isn't that kind of lens. It has one main purpose only.
My review will be a little ways off, but I hope to really give it a serious workout.
