OOFF - Experimenting With Abstracts

  

Memory of Twighlight, Chicago IL
(Mamiya RB67Pro, 90mm f3.8, expired Polaroid 669 film, Epson V600)

Learning To Play With New Toys

A few of the first shots from my "new" Mamiya RB67 Pro.  The Holga is a total medium format gateway drug of a camera.  It's is very fun and gets you to appreciate the possibilities of the larger negatives, but it is not exactly a precision instrument.  I was looking for something that would give me better control and the RB67s have a good rep and are going for a song on the used market.  I picked up a body and standard lens on eBay and a couple more lenses from keh.com.  The Mamiya is a complete monster, it's got to weight at least 10 pounds, and is built like a tank - not exactly a street shooter - but so far has been living up to its hype.  Shooting with it is a lot more involved than with your standard 35mm slr, but I can't argue with the end results - big, gorgeous negatives.  What's not to like?

Garlic Scapes, June 2011, Chicago IL
(Mamiya RB67Pro, 90mm f3.8, Fomopan 400, developed by 120processing.com, scanned self w/Epson V600)

The photos were taken in my apartment's backyard, over the fence into our neighbor's garden.  The back yards of the neighbors on either side of our place put our backyard to shame.  On one side, we have a landscape artist whose place could be featured in a magazine.  On the other side we have an older Cuban gentleman, who has cultivated about a third of his yard into a lush garden.  He is getting on in years, but you will still see him most afternoons puttering around with his wide, floppy straw hat, his cigar, and his khaki shorts.  (We should all only hope to be so cool in our old age.)

Grubs

A couple of my youngest brother's spawn, including my most recent nephew.  He was supremely unimpressed with his uncle, as you can see.

Chill'n at Grandma's House (Panasonic GF-1, 20mm f1.7 @ 400 ISO)

Cute kids, bro.  Good for you they take after their mom. ;)

Fly Me Home

Lake Union, Seattle, Washington (mid-2002)
(not sure of the camera or lens used here, probably shot on some crappy supermarket Fuji Superia 200)

In a (probably fruitless) effort to actually get my photographs organized, I've been going back through my image archives and doing some long-overdue editing. (Read, killing of my babies, my babies I tell ya!!) Actually exercising the delete key has been depressingly easy.  Why did I keep taking pictures when I clearly sucked so badly at being a photographer?  Pure stubborn contrariness would appear to be the only credible answer.

Anyway, as I have been sorting through there have been a few images that still make me smile. Not always the best technical images, either.  Case and point is the photo above - the grain is ugly, the composition questionable and the lens flare unintentional.  Still, the light and the mood of the image for me really strongly evokes Seattle and makes me homesick and nostalgic.

Might be more of these oldies to come.

Guardian

Holga 120N, Kodak T-Max 400
(processing by 120processing.com; scanned with Epson V600)

An early spring shot from my neighbor's garden.