Posts Tagged ‘Nikon F100’

Good morning. I’m going to blog a bit now while I have a chance. There’s a good pile of boxes to my right. The shelf is empty and the closets are following close behind. Of course some of those boxes I didn’t have to pack because they were already waiting there like they’ve been the last 2 years or more. I don’t quite know what the feeling is to witness these piles of hundreds of 8x10s most of which not even grant me pride. Nonetheless, when I reach my new home I plan to pull them out and get them on to the walls for once. Perhaps I will see many of them in a new light.

But for now, more fancy colours.

I found this roll from 2007 somewhere inside a tube. It had never been cut. So I’m rewinding a bit to once again revisit moments that occurred when I first moved to Main street a couple days before I move again.

This circumstance will be familiar to some.

My buddy Maarten was in town to work with us for the summer. I was happy to see him again and still wish I made more time to spend together.

This is a series of JJ attempting to play Forza Motorsports.

He’s not getting much positive encouragement though.

Because somebody wants some candy, and somebody wants it really bad.

Desperate times…

Sometimes there’s nothing left to do but to move in for the kiss.

I got a kiss that night too but I did make $5 for it.

These things happen on the bus late at night.

Never met them before or again.

We’re waiting for the b-line.

That dinner felt like a parody.

All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.

We’re getting some air outside. It is the second last Fake Jazz Wednesday at the Cobalt.

This week and the next, people were taking tiles or any piece that would remove as souvenirs before the end of The Cobalt. I just took some photographs.

In the ladies room the art was more ambitious.

Hello.

That was a random angry human yelling at me like many others have done. Their finger is sore and yes that’s a cigarette.

Hello.

Hello.

Man, I really wanted that shirt. I had trouble taking no for an answer. I’m sorry I was so persistent.

I really don’t remember much of that night but I did leave my phone on a bench near where we’re standing right there. There was a nice guy delivering papers early in the morning who found it and when I realized I’d lost it I got in contact with him and he drove up to me at the 7-11 payphone within 2 minutes. He leaned across and handed me my phone through the passenger window of his Honda Civic. His car smelled like a cigar and he had a nice moustache. He told me his karma must be doing good this week because he just found a wallet full of money the day before that he was able to return. I told him I didn’t know how to thank him but I gave him $20 which was all I had on me. He smiled and decided he’d take his wife out for breakfast. That would make me very happy I said. Later when I was looking at my call history I noticed he tried to call ‘Mom’ at 6am thinking that was a good person for him to call! Sorry, Mom! Haha.

Our Town = Our town.

Sitting by the window with coffee and a book.

So for Craig’s surprise birthday party the theme was being old. Everyone dressed up like we were triple our age. Well most of us did.

Naturally I brought the horse for some reason.

I wanted a photograph of her for years before this moment arrived.

Newlyweds Jon and Randie gave me a couch to sleep on that night after I had trouble getting home. In the morning Jon made me coffee and toast and we played video games. All the good ones are taken!!!!!

Fraction of a second too late.

Maybe that’s what the end of times will look like.

And then I discovered the Vancouver Ukelele Circle which gathers every month at Our Town Cafe.

They are led by this man.

He seems to take his role very seriously.

That night there happened to be a film crew from Japan visiting.

He’s no relation to the crew but seemed very interested to tag along either way. Just like me.

I thought their camera guy ruled actually.

A week later I was at the Cobalt again for the final Fake Jazz Wednesday and the final show ever at the Cobalt. Yeah that’s a paint brush.

I actually loved their set but didn’t learn their name.

Next was Anha.

Goodbye Cobalt. I hardly knew you.

This entry really was about the end of things and the passing of time. Good bye East 14th Avenue. I already know that it will be difficult to remember you fondly and that’s an injustice because you were the best place I’ve ever lived.

I never thought I’d see a resonance cascade, let alone create one! I am imagining the general theme for this entry will end up being things overlapping, like the occurrences presented and images themselves. When you’re shooting 2 cameras concurrently it creates a challenge to sort them back together, but since a couple of these rolls are rife with double exposures then perhaps the fair lady of the universe has sent a resonance upon my cortex.

Our new subway line in Vancouver has a system of television screens which appear will be used for advertising. The first time I rode the line I saw this unregistered software notification on the screen so I snapped thinking it wouldn’t last long. It was at least a couple weeks before they did something about it.

If you’re used to shooting on the street with a 35, this compositional catastrophe is what happens when you try and do it with a 50.

They were getting ready for Halloween already in September at Value Village.

When chasing a child around the store becomes exhausting, this is possibly your best option.

Until it is learned that ears could be very fun toys!

Who likes some kitty portraits? This feline’s name is Frida.

I still believe firmly that the best pet portraits are the ones where you can make them out like historical evil dictators. I couldn’t quite nail that mood here.

Dave.

Hanging out at the studio after working on some tracks.

And here to add some ancient history to this post are a few shots beginning with Kevin.

So this is what ends up happening when you fail to realize or remember that you’ve shot a few frames on this roll before and then pulled it back out of the camera. Oh, and not sure what Kevin is up to but we’ll get a closer look…

Wasn’t sure which framing worked best. The frames are completely off from being aligned.

Quite flattering. If I remember correctly, he had a couple drinks.

This frame helped me finally to date the exposures. It was 2 years ago last September that I was sitting at that table. I was waiting for my new landlord to meet me at the cafe to sign the lease for my new apartment. The same apartment I will leave in 2 weeks.

So this is what the kids are doing these days. They plug the iPod in to the sound system and then they don’t have to actually perform any music, they just get to sing in the microphone. It helps if the venue is almost empty.

This is Tom and he’s waiting to play next. A couple days ago I saw him running for the bus on Broadway. Tom, you run for buses like a fucking pro.

He’s not so bad with the sound machines either. The name of this group is Haunted Beard.

Now, this shot and some that follow point back towards the title of this blog, the thoughts which inspired it and the associated conflicts. If I wish to document, do I have boundaries? I have to admit I’m less and less a fan of those constructs which persist when they do so without imminent harm or danger. But again, harm and danger are too subjective for my confidence.

If you wanted to understand what’s resonating through him I encourage you to find out.

“It’s not what I imagined.”

My favourite for the surreal quality.

f/1.4 and 1/4th.

Here’s Noah. Seeing him that night was part of a long string of random coinciding encounters we had. Or maybe not so random!

I named this guy Disneyland. Creative, I know.

We wanted to give Scott a ride home but since we had 5 people to fit in the car, with his bike, it wasn’t meant to be.

Another night at Our Town. Noah again, in plaid. Actually, Disneyland is in that picture too haha!

The Collapsing Opposites.

The Head That Was Out Of Focus In The Last Frame.

Thee Ahs. Damn, I came across this looking them up. Big thumbs up around here.

Wasn’t allowed to type between those two.

Dave watching GI Joe PSAs.

Heading home just before sunrise.

Hi, me.

Carcassonne. These double exposures were again a mistake.

As an artist I have some profound statements to make.

See, I told you. I think this statement is something like: I know how far .7m is.

Another important statement: What a Bentley being towed for illegal parking in the handicap zone looks like.

Getting a cappuccino. These are on top of a jazz quartet if you didn’t figure out yet. And it gets weirder.

Like Jon sitting next to himself playing the trumpet while also blowing the trumpet in Rick’s ear back in the previous frame.

So something else that happened at the stag was one guy locking himself in the mens room at the restaurant for an hour. This was a case of what I’d call overenthusiastic pre-drinking. I was in the mens room with Norm, on the left, when he finally unlocked the stall. You can tell Norm isn’t quite sure about this situation.

So there’s Norm playing the drums, with Jon blowing his trumpet while Mike is exhaling his hit off the hookah on the porch behind Norm’s house.

Later in the morning, sitting with Norm before catching a bus back home, and… a pole on a bus.

Trying to look a bit proper the night of Jon’s wedding and another example of flash thievery at a party/show I went to in September.

Meant to do that one actually.

The view in the window of a restaurant with some party goers.

It was groovy to run in to Weston at that party. I had no idea he was into that scene.

This hallway we’re in was stocked with chalks for anyone inspired to create artworks.

Most times when individuals become aware of intended to be candid photograph attempts I’ll just stop because it becomes something I’m not interested in. But I guess sometimes it’s still a good idea to keep going.

Long story, short; this guy thought I couldn’t stop his eyes in a photograph in that light if he kept them moving constantly.

Some thing happening.

Hi, Noah! I am not sure how I received that look from her but I think it makes my temperature rise.

At this point I could click Save Draft and continue this entry later but I’ve reached the extent of what I currently have scanned.

Hi, this is my first picture of this entry.

In the bay, there is a person in the water of the lake among the trees between the mountains.

It is a beautiful day, but this refreshment is fed by glaciers and is cold.

And she’s coming to visit me where I cower upon the edge of a dock I photographed 4 years ago. But let us rewind a little.

This happened one evening in our town while I was finishing off ‘Platform’ by Houellebecq in August. I enjoyed all of it happening. But what I wanted to happen for most of the summer was forest fires to stop burning, roads to open and a vehicle to take me with special people to the family cabin. Well, eventually it happened.

And we were on our way.

We pulled down the soft driveway over pine needles and into silence early in the morning. It must have been nearly 3 am if it hadn’t already passed.

And in the following day I watched my nephew, Weston, crawl around the same grounds, picking up the same sticks and tripping over the same veins of the earth that I once had during the same age.

Because it’s an isolated environment many things never leave and seem to last forever, like toys, and so he set to fill the same trucks with the same dirt I used to haul in my childhood.

I think it was actually one of the strongest emotions I’ve ever felt.

And here I am at this dock again…

So I thought I’d wander around and raise the elbows at various objects. The condition of this tree actually makes me a little nervous. This point of view betrays the scary angle its hanging at today. The Gun Lake Noise-Makers is us, my family, or at least it used to be back in the 70s. Most of the noise seems to have come before my time.

The trucks used to roll across here for sure, among the alien moss and fungus formations.

He’s new.

He is not.

Think I edited these when my eyes were crossed.

The dump truck has a lever with that ball attached on the end and it manipulates the angle of the truck bed. The truck on the right has foam paddles attached to the front axle and when it rolls it scoops things up from the ground back in to the bed of the truck from underneath. In my opinion these are both good ideas for toy trucks.

My sister was hunting through the past too.

Although we don’t see much of a sunset from our position on the lake, later in the day a tranquil ambiance descends as the light reflects gently off the water.

While our first evening set in we brought out some beer. Somebody was a little anxious cracking theirs.

Lacking the thought of something to play I motioned that we take a simple chord progression from a Nightwish song and turn it into a wilderness folk-jam.

No, I didn’t sing it.

We made fajitas for dinner.

Although this is now ‘the kitchen’ now, there used to be 4 dirt bikes lined up in this corner all my life. They made good towel racks, said my sister.

The art did not evade me for long.

This place is looking a lot different than it did four years ago.

But I guess being there in the fall helped to bare the trees for the light. Also I had bigger balls, shooting wide open.

Maybe that one would make more sense during a different season or at a better time of day.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

If it was the light before noon that gave me trouble it, it gave me other things as well.

Something quite anonymous.

Another structure, less anonymous.

Having wandered a while I wanted next to be stationary and shoot at some cans.

The look of failure.

More super-productive jamming happened throughout our stay.

And on the last afternoon there we realized something.

Weston will feed a horse all day long.

It doesn’t really matter if the horse is not real, or if all he’s got to feed the horse with is branches and dirt.

We went for a walk and I managed to convince my sister it would be a good idea to wear the horse for a while.

If ever a photo needed to be printed, framed and hung on the wall…

Hmm, nice moment to reflect upon.

He was completely uninterested in becoming the horse, unfortunately. Not that I blame him, it’s a rather isolating and claustrophobic environment to be in.

Putting things in your mouth though, you usually can’t beat that for a good time.

We stayed at the cabin for 4 nights. Just enough time to finally unwind and be comfortable, then it’s time to pack up and leave. And we had planned to leave at 11 am! Well in the morning I asked Randall to give some assistance making some artistic portraits. Especially because inside I had found in a stack of children’s books this book titled ‘Horses’. I thought it’d kind of be just like a dude sitting on the porch reading ‘People’ magazine.

I knew the light at that angle wasn’t going to work so I gave my position a turn and got a bit sophisticated.

On the road back home, just outside the town of Lillooet it was necessary to make a brief stop.

The horse child had an accident keeping his breakfast stored in his stomach. He got cleaned up and the remains were buried in the gravel.

Spirits were raised.

It almost seemed like he was emulating me there.

Nearly 7 hours later we were back to civilization.

A gesture which speaks volumes.

I think that’s it for now. Thanks for having this party with me. Bye.

Maybe it’s not the typical time to be doing so but I did a lot of reading over the summer along with a lot of coffee drinking. Here is a summary of my cirriculum.

• Watchmen, by Alan Moore. Glad I read it but I felt let down for all the hype. On the other hand it lowered my expectations for the movie and ended up enjoying it unlike the fanatics.
• A Singular Man, by J. P. Donleavy. This guy is a virtuoso. I can’t wait to read more Donleavy.
• Beautiful Losers, by Leonard Cohen. Some great stories in here but something about this book felt dated to me, as if culture had moved on or at least I had. I bet it was amazing to read 30 or 40 years ago.
• The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. Not sure what to say about this but I think everyone should read it, especially you fence-sitting agnostics. As awkward as Dawkins comes across when speaking publicly, in print he has a charm which reminds us that he’s probably the most passionate and outspoken ultrageek we’ve ever known. (Note: It should go without saying that when we read books, especially books like this, we don’t read them to be told what to think, we read them to challenge and re-evaluate what we’ve thought and will think)
• The Runes of the Earth, by Stephen Donaldson. Book 7 in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It was terrible and yet I’m still attached to the series for some reason. I guess it’s just because Thomas Covenant fucking rules.
• What is the What? by Dave Eggers. The story of a Sudanese refugee and his coming of age. It is disturbing and also humbling.
• Platform, by Michel Houellebecq. If he’s not my favourite author he’s the author I most wish will write more books.
• Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. One book where I feel insulting to think of using mere adjectives as description. There is a quote from this book I might talk about in a future entry as it relates to photography. Some of you may have already figured out what quote that’s going to be!

But of course I do actually have some photography to share.

Down the block from my apartment this was happening.

But that evening in Yaletown something involving a bit of drinking was also happening.

By the way, many of these wides are from my little plastic Nikon Series E 28mm f/2.8.

In most entries you’ll see them playing instruments, but this time you’ll see them chewing chicken.

We both laughed after that and I said “you know what I got, right” and he said “yes, I know what you got.”

The next thing to do was to take a little walk…

And to get back just in time to witness Jonathan extract a shot from somewhere between Tanner’s legs.

By now you might have guessed that this was Jonathan’s stag.

We continued to drink into the evening outside on the patio. f/1.4 at 1/6th. Later we went to see dancing girls and due to my camera I was refused at the door. When I eventually got inside I realized why, the girls performing at that venue bored me sober.

How to transition from the peelers to hanging out with my family gracefully? No idea really.

This photo is best without context…

Shifting gears a bit, aheh. And films, shooting 125px in the Leica and Tri-X in the F100. On the first weekend of August my mother was giving her new dragster some break-in runs at Mission Raceway.

Catching the launch.

That was the first time I really wanted to have a rapidwinder on my M.

Here’s the crew before heading down to the end of the track to guide the dragster back. That’s my grandfather on the right wondering why she didn’t hit 3rd gear on that run.

I followed him back to the trailer. My grandfather made a name for himself racing in the 60’s with a car that he built himself, the Syndicate Scuderia.

He brought the car to put on display and it was difficult to get a moment when it was not being crowded with digital cameras.

My sister was camped down near the end of the track, the only place you’d ever find some shade, but it was a long walk back and forth.

The shutter on my M drags at 1/1000 so I made one at 1/500 just to see what I could catch of a nitro funny car. That car ran 6.739s at 207.08 mph.

It had been forever since I’d seen my nephew that weekend. He loves the cars but the sun was intense, it was one of the hottest weekends of the year.

Then my mom sent us a text to let us know it was time to drive again.

When I caught up with her they were in the staging lanes. I’ve never seen my F100 overlap a frame like that before but it hasn’t happened again fortunately.

The one time I brought my F100 to the line to make use of continuous mode, she was placed in the opposite lane. Sad face.

This is almost comedic, especially if you haven’t tried to shoot something like this before. Anticipating a bit too quick, but it is a barrage of the senses, feels and sounds much more beautiful than it ever looks.

Looks like she bounced there.

And the crew setting off to meet her at the end again.

Mom wanted to run alongside him but their crew told us their car wasn’t running straight so they did seperate runs. He ran straight, but slower. Good thing for his ego I guess ;].

Lady spectating in difficult light. f/2.8 @ 1/4000.

Bringing the car back after the burnout.

Catching some air again.

Pulling back up to the trailer. She was running pretty consistently about 140mph that weekend, but I don’t remember the times. Right around 9 seconds I’m guessing.

Went to watch the funny cars from another angle. Even in the first half of the 1/4 mile you can’t stop them at 1/500.

I think my good man maybe needs some shades.

Getting some shade again with my sisters friends.

Finishing off the roll back in the city.

We had some lovely mini-taco things.