Old town, Warsaw.

Light leaks galore, Warsaw.

I kept walking past this pizza joint called "Pizza Killer", I really wished I stopped and took a picture. Cant think in the cold sometimes. 

My hotel was by the Vistula which runs through warsaw as well. 

I was really upset because the first roll of film from my trip ripped itself off the canister when I advanced the last picture on the roll. I think the issue may have partly been my fault, but its easier to fault the CVS brand film. So I dont have as many pictures of Plock.

The spots on the pictures, however, are all CVS.

I dont know what to say about Plock, it's Europe like I've never seen before but certain parts of it had a really quintessential (to what I identify as) feel of Europe.
There is also a certain air, or feeling of left over soviet-ness (again, subjective feels). The architecture, massive blocky apartment buildings, and I'm sure this has a lot to do with the winter gloom as well. There is a general feeling of Poland trying to escape from under the shadow of an austere socialist past towards something more western european.

My capacity to handle foreign situations has seriously suffered by being geographically stagnant in the last few years (something I've sacrificed for stability), and towards the end of the trip I was really starting to get into the vibe of things, and then it was time to go home again. I miss Poland sometimes and wish I did more while I was out here.

I just got back from a two week work trip to Poland (right?!). 

Film developed, scanned and CVS cursed for not cleaning the film correctly after developing, leaving splotch marks all over the effing negative.

Downtown Pittsburgh.

Mellon Park, Pittsburgh

Revisiting some Ektar 100 shots. Best film ever.
Lazy cropping, yes, but I think it works for some pictures.

Rose, and her little Canonette rangefinder.

State of the (Photo) Nation

So it's been a while since I did one of these where I go over what camera's I've been using lately.

I am extremely sad to report that my beloved Canon AE-1 is no more. This winter it completely tanked on me and a camera repair guy informed me that its a fault of the circuitry that makes the AE-1 so popular (it was the first camera with a built in CPU, historic!!), and that it would cost and unholy amount to fix. So with that ends the chapter of my (well it was my dad's) first old camera that I've taken everywhere. It's been to more places than I've ever been and it died a distinguished, painless death of old age. RIP.

This, with the inexplicable sudden death of my Yashica Electro 35 in Japan, and the ridiculous, crippling light leak and light meter failure (meaning camera failure) of my Yashica ME-1 left the state of my photographic house in severe state of disarray.

However, with the total and utter failure of these machines also came the opportunity to re-collect junk and rebuild a set up different from my ADD induced, too-many-camera's-than-I-know-what-to-do-with set up that I previously possessed. I had the opportunity to start new with some camera's that required me to think differently and focus(pun!) on what I really wanted from a camera.

I decided to settle on the cheapest possible decent rangefinder I could find for a 35mm camera, and just one camera. I dont think it's a good idea to shoot with more than 2 different cameras of the same format because you become too fragmented and never get any good with any one of them. So after some searching I found a this little Yashica minister III (seriously, this is my 5th Yashica) for really cheap and It's been treating me real good. It's an eccentric little thing with the most bizzare light meter, but I've been having fun with it and I got some pictures I really like with it.



Medium format has always interested me and I've wanted a medium format camera more than anything. After month after month of looking for a medium format camera, I finally snagged this incredible Bronica ETRSi for a very decent deal. It shoots 4x5, which isnt my ideal situation (6x6) but after one roll I've had some pretty good results and I cant wait to see what I can get with some Ektar 100 in it.





Viva Film!

Home is.

Light in the evening streams into my kitchen. It looks really cool; im not sure if I really did it justice here.





I must be getting older or something because I'm really starting to care where I live. I like moving around and in my few years here I have managed to move to a new house every year. Lately though, I've been really sick of living in Oakland (student/university town). Living in a student town is strange dynamic because no one is really from around here, every one here is just passing through. It feels like I've really had every experience I can get from here, and now it's time to move somewhere different. I cant wait for August when I move to Lawrenceville, a few miles away from Oakland, and from what I can tell a cool place to live.

baby

Weekends

I went to a wedding in Ohio a couple weekends ago. Friends are already getting married and it must mean im getting old or something. It was a really fun wedding though, I was really glad to be a part of it.
These pictures are kinda pre-wedding from the drive there. These were shot on ektar 100 and that stuff is really amazing.

Everything.

I absolutely love this picture. Please click here if you would like to see this picture with a black background. In this picture is everything I love about shooting film. You can't plan a picture like this.

This just makes more sense rotated this way.

Happy Light Leaks

Mattress Factory


Kubrick and his Leica M3

First REAL bike ride of the spring.

It was a gorgeous day (like shorts outside good). Amazing light. Ridiculously fast bikes hoarded up from winter. We found a couple of new trails around the city, and decided that the best way to see a city is on a bike.


Mine

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