Dirty Cleveland

The Dirty Cleveland:

 is synonymous with the upper-decker where the perpetrator defecates in the upper portion of the toilet thus leaving the bathroom owner perplexed for weeks as he searches for the increasingly horrible smell.

The Butcher

The Butcher:

Steph and I were taking a sunday photo-drive, out to see the brownstones of Cleveland. We ran across this crazed butcher, ostensibly the owner and head butcher at Stockyard Meats. He chewed our ears about such topics as the downturn in the economy, the way the neighborhood used to be and back when the Cleveland Browns could whip anyone on the earth. He was extremely vibrant and animated...a real character.  If I still ate meat, I would purchase it from this man.  

A trip through the woods at Rocky River.

Not so terribly grand, I think. However, I haven't posted anything in some time, due to the time necessary to scan, re-scan, re-scan again, curse the newtonian rings, and then give up. However, I've purchased a negative carrier for the scanner, and now, it is much less painful to scan negatives, and faster, too. 

There was no time available for fuji Neopan Acros 100 pushed to 400 by my stupid metering, but I think that the t-max developer did this film some justice, even if my time was perhaps a bit long....Here's some film. 

I shot these in the Rocky River Basin about 5 miles from lake Erie using a Yashica A tlr. Fine Camera. 

Fall! Part one

Challenge

Derek,

Here is your Challenge.

Frozen/Thawing

Nearly dead

yet startled

into attempting

and then

truly

emerging

This photo represents many triumphs for me. Now, I have a place to shoot again, until the spring. It is always changing. Sometimes the Lake is blue, sometimes Aqua, sometimes it is steel-grey.  It is in constant change, and affords many opportunities to feel.  Can't wait to get back. 

Cleveland Skyline (obscured)

Sometimes

even the greatest of things

are obscured

by simple clouds

Reflection

In our reflection, truly

we see all that we have been,

might be

would be

could be 

should be

but often

we fail to see

the true essence of ourselves

shining through 

Yashica Autofocus S and Kodak Tmax 100

Here is the Tmax 100 I shot with the yashica. I was complaining to stephanie that I needed another film body to carry around with me, for color film, and she arrived one day with this little beauty.  At first, I was squeamish.  I mean, point and shoot?  Really?  No control over exposure or focus?  Its like a perverse little Holga-thing.  But no.  It has a little focus button that does pretty well. It also exposes nicely, and the lens on the tiny bugger isnt bad either.  So, enough complaining. I shot this at 160EI and 200EI via the rotating exposure ring on the face of the camera. It seems do be damned accurate too.  Whether in tribute to the machinery of Yashica, or in detriment to my skills as a photographer, this is my favorite roll of Tmax 100 so far.  This particular tmax is about 11 years old having expired in 2000.  I was quite pleased, I hope you are as well. 

Kodak Technical Pan

Kodak technical pan film was an 'almost' panchromatic film, which means it responds to the whole spectrum of light.  We don't have to worry about this much nowadays, because all black and white film is panchromatic.  At one time, black and white film was Orthochromatic, meaning it responded very weakly to red spectrum.

In every photo forum I have visited, someone is there singing the praises of kodak tech pan film.  It supposedly leans more to the red spectrum of light, simulating the application of a red filter to the lens, and darkening blues (sky) and lightens reds.  I shot this roll at 200ASA, as reccomended.  It is supposed to have a very wide exposure latitude, but the sharpness I got with my new Mamiya Sekor DTL1000 and  sekor 55mm lens seems sufficient at 200EI...I might try 16EI with the next roll I come across to see if the claims about the film are true.  All in all, it was a great test for the new/old camera and even though the film was expired at least 6 years ago, it performed nicely.

Blast from the past, Agfa 400 Expired 1986

To be honest, I really wanted to load these up one at a time, and write poems for each of them.  They are good memories, and strong emotional images for me.  I may do so, at some later date.  This Agfapan film I picked up at Loomis Camera, a great place.  The owner often sells highly expired films, and always comments that "the dust is free".  There are many wonderful items there, enlargers, ancient cameras, accessories and lenses....but, I digress.  This film is 400ISO shot at 1600EI, developed in Tmax developer.  It did expire in 1986, and in retrospect, I should have shot it at box speed, and not pushed it at all...Live and Learn.  The tones it produced at a 2 stop push were pretty nice, by my standards, and even though there is some 'underdevelopment' going on, or 'underexposure', none of the highlights are blocked up and there is still a pretty wide range of tonality, even if I sacrificed some sharpness.  I'll never complain about expired film again after this.  I'll just assume I screwed up somewhere and try to figure out where. :) 

Double Exposure Project (part 2)

Here is the second half of the project. There are lots of single images in the melee' that I chose to leave joined, rather than to separate. Derek did a better job of that in his blog.  Again, I was taken by the singular appearance of some of the 'compositions' that looked as though they were planned.  This was a great experiment, I can't wait to try it with color. I may go shoot the color photos today...:)

Double Exposure Project (part 1)

Recently, I sent a few surplus rolls of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film to my friend Derek, in Michigan. I also began reading up on several photo projects I could do that would increase my knowledge and proficiency.  I came upon the idea of doing a double-exposure project with Derek, and he said he was game, so we began.  Initially, he shot whatever he felt like shooting, and then I shot whatever I felt like shooting. It was uncanny how some of the exposures were of nearly the same subject matter, even though we had not conferred on the subject at all.  Here is the first portion of the project. Many of the exposures worked like murals, several images over several overlapping frames, due to the different cameras used.  Here are the first few.