Pinholes from Pittsburgh ~ Upcoming Events

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Soldiers and Sailers #2 Carnegie Dinosaur #1

Pardon the lack of updates lately, strange things happen to me and computers it seems during the summer…

Anyway, there are some spectacular Photo Events coming up in my two favorite cities in the States, San Francisco and New York, that I wanted to promote.

This Saturday August 29th, the alternative visions of f295, make their first symposium stop on the West Coast! I’ve been attending these events for the last 3 years in Pittsburgh and Tom Persinger brings together an amazing collection of “21st Century Photographers” to discuss their unique visions that incorporate the old and new technologies available to photographers. What’s great about this one day event at San Francisco State, is that it is free! It’s a full day of knowledge with featured speakers: Jo Babcock, Martha Casanave, Susannah Hays, Kerik Kouklis, Chris McCaw, Brian Taylor, Claudia Wornum, and of course Tom Persinger.
The above pinhole pictures were taken at this year’s f295 Photowalk in Pittsburgh.
For more info and to register for this FREE EVENT click here

D65’s Workflow not Workslow 4-day Lightroom seminar is also coming to San Francisco. I feel Seth and Jamie, of d65, give the best workshop on Lightroom that I have ever attended. You eat, drink, and breathe photography and a little wine for 4 intense days. Every person I’ve talked to that has taken this class has optimized their Photo organizing skills as well as gained a better understanding of the photo industry. The dates are September 11th-14th and for the SF workshop they are offering a special deal:

Buy one get one at 1/2 off  – you can bring a friend for half price

The total for two people would be $1648.00 (no other discounts can be applied)
Discount code is: SFSPECIAL
All the information on the workshop is at:  http://www.d-65.com/workshops.html

Now to New York…20+ of my images are hanging at the John Allan’s Club that is located on the 7th floor of Saks 5th Avenue! They’ll be up for another month or two before their next stop…but if he happen to be shopping on 5th Avenue, go check out my work!

I just got word that “Lost American” and Night Light Painter Supreme, Troy Paiva will be in a group show in New York that opens on September 9th. I don’t know where yet, this is really hot off the press, but I hope to see you there!

Heading back to SF, another Night Photography exhibit that features Troy, Joe Reifer, and Mike Hows opens on Friday September 4th at the Lucky JuJu Gallery. More details can be found here.

And finally…Are you afraid of the dark?
Well, this Halloween I will be teaching a Full Moon Night Photography Workshop in the Catskills of New York. The class will be from 2pm-2am on Saturday October 31st and will cost $300 including room and board! I’m limiting this workshop to 10-12 people so that you can get the most hands on experience. If you are interested in attending, email me ASAP at gabe@ruinism.com
I already have 7 people on the waiting list and it will be on first come first serve basis.
More details to follow…

WWPD Photos and Upcoming Events

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WWPD'09 #07
WWPD'09 #01 WWPD'09 Tulips 01

With the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom and exposures averaging 6 seconds, last month’s World Wide Pinhole day was truly a perfect pinhole~icious time.  I met 9 1/2 of my friends at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, it was one of the few hot and sunny days we’ve erratically had here in NYC.  Shooting with Fuji Instant 4×5 backs and the Lensbaby Zone Plate, newcomers to the pinhole realm were able to easily get feedback on exposures and how to compose without a viewfinder.  Pictured here is a selection of my favorite shots, click on them to make them larger and get more detailed info.

The next full moon is Sunday June 7th, and if you are in the New York area and want to brush up on your night photography skills come check out “The Fine Art of the Long Exposure” seminar that I will be giving twice on Wednesday June 3rd!  The first talk will be at B&H’s Event Space from 11am-1pm and then 7:30 -9:30pm that night at the Flushing Camera Club.  I’ve added about 30% new content and will feature images and insights from a recent trips to Prague and the Pearsonville Junkyard Workshop.

Time Exposed, my solo exhibit at John Allan’s Tribeca has been extended until June 11th.  From there it will move to the John Allan’s at Saks 5th Ave for the summer before ending at the flagship John Allan’s Midtown.  I hope to have another opening for the Midtown location this fall, so stay tuned.

And finally I just got back from the f295 Symposium in Pittsburgh.  I’m still recovering from seeing so many amazing tintypes, dagguerotypes, and other alternative processes and visions from some of the top 21st Century Photographers.  More images and info as soon as the film dries!

World Wide Pinhole Day 2009

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Coney Island Dreams Zero Image 4x5 pinhole camera ~ 75mm setting f/216 ~ 2 1/2 minute exposure on Fuji FP100C instant film
Coney Island Dreams ~ Zero Image 4x5 Pinhole Camera ~ 75mm f/216 ~ 2 1/2 min. exposure ~ Fuji FP100C Instant Film

Time to dust off your pinheads and get creative as today is World Wide Pinhole Day!

What is a pinhole camera?

It’s a camera that’s lens is actually a small pin-hole, usually pricked through piece of aluminum and then placed over the opening of a camera or box. It is the oldest form of photography and with the aperture of the pinhole lens equating to f/150 and beyond it can easily open you to seeing the world in a whole new way. Most modern glass lenses max out with an aperture of f/32 so a pinhole camera’s minimal exposure is usually 2-8 seconds on a sunny day.  Given that much time in a single exposure I choose to add subjects that have movement within the image, like water, clouds, or people walking. A pinhole will also give you infinite depth of field, so it is important to place something strong in the foreground to heighten that depth. The above image features both those elements. Shot at Coney Island during last year’s gloomy NYC World Wide Pinhole day I place the wide angle pinhole camera about a foot away from the rocks. I also made sure the camera was high enough to show the tide of the water coming in and out during the 2 1/2 minute exposure.
Weather-wise tomorrow looks to be a much better day in NYC with temperatures in mid-80’s! A group of us will are planning on shooting at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and maybe take a quick dip to Coney! Feel free to send me any of your WWPD images and I’ll post them on this site.
Here’s some more info on Pinholes and how to make a homemade pinhole camera.

Intimidated with making a pinhole camera here is a list of “Professional” pinhole camera that you can purchase and get consistent results from:

Build your own paper/cardboard camera by Lomo. These are fun cameras that give you the experience of “building our own camera” but with all the dotted lines to fold along! Both take 35mm film but do not feature a tripod socket. It’s a simple and fun way to get into pinhole photography but if you are serious you will need a camera with a tripod socket.
holgapinhole1 For a little more money you can upgrade to a medium format Holga or Diana plastic cameras. The most interesting of the bunch is the newly released wide angle multi-format Holga 6×12 Pinhole! My good friend and fellow blogger, Mike Murray just picked up one of these and I look forward to seeing his panoramic pinhole results!
santa-barbara4x5 Stepping up to Large format, the Santa Barbara wooden pinhole cameras offer sizes of 4×5, 5×7, 8×10, or 11×14. The 4×5 baltic birch superwide is the most common and is economically priced under $60! But the 11×14 size is pretty tempting for under $250!
zero-image-new My favorite is definitely the Zero Image brand of cameras. These cameras are handsomely constructed of teak and brass and offer a variety of formats to choose from. I personally own the 6×12 and 4×5 versions. Both offer a turret system so you can choose to use a pinhole or zoneplate lens, or a combination of both!
1_lensbaby_composer And finally the Lensbaby Composer or Muse can take the ZonePlate/Pinhole optic and easily make turn your digital SLR camera into a visionary camera. See my previous blog for examples.

Well whatever you use, from an oatmeal box to a high end pinhole camera I hope you have a great day slowing down and seizing the moments of time!

Pearsonville Junkyard Workshop

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Would you consider photographing a junkyard? What if it was during a weekend workshop by the light of the full moon? Does it sound dirty, fun, or both? What if I told you that master lightpainter, Troy Paiva, teamed up with ghost-making Joe Riefer to lead the expedition to the classic car filled Pearsonville Junkyard? Does that peak your interest? Both of these guys are on the forefront of capturing long exposures at night in surreal and abandoned urban areas. They both have huge followings – Troy with his vibrant light paintings of desolate planes, trains, and automobiles has practically all of Flickr following his every post. His recent book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration is an inspirational look at forgotten America. Joe Riefer’s blog on Night Photography is probably the best out there and if you don’t have it in your feedreader, mark it now. Joe is the Ying to Troy’s Yang, his subtle CTO light painting finesses (opens) the shadows and his digital post processing information is one of the best in that deals with the night light.

So when they invited me to join them on a 7 hour drive to the Mojave desert to take their Pearsonville Night Photography/Light Painting Workshop, I cleared my schedule. This was their second workshop they’ve offered at this truly unique place, the last one took place during October 08’s full moon. The class is limited to 11 students and a bargain at $500 for two nights! We had total access into the Pearsonville Junkyard – a virtual wasteland of decaying classic cars and trucks mainly from 50’s -70’s’.

Pearsonville, population 24, has definitely seen better days. Troy and Joe have been shooting this place for years, and have built an excellent relationship with the owners, which is literally the “key” element to shooting a semi-abandoned place like this.

The lucky 11 met with Joe and Troy on Saturday at 1pm. They showed us their Pearsonville pictures and went over several night lighting techniques before we made the 20 minute commute to stock up on the food and enter the graveyard of cars.

The 40′ tall Uni-Royal lady surrealy beckoned us to the gate, we had a little over an hour before sunset to scope out the 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile junkyard looking for possible night shot set ups. Joe and Troy warned us not to get lost in just a few cars or a small area as there was an amazing shot every step you took. And with exposures averaging 6-8 minutes, you really didn’t want to spend more than two set ups for each car. I walked half the back lot of the car graveyard during the sinking sunlight, getting quick digital grab shots to see what angles worked. I’m not really a car guy but 3 steps in and I was captivated by these dying engineering beauties. I worked quickly in the sinking sunlight getting grab shots of these hulking metal beasts I’d only heard rumors of, familiar wide 70’s chryslers to the famous rare Edsels.

My gear list consisted of 3 camera rigs:

  1. Fuji S5 with a Nikon 17-55 2.8 to shoot the daylight test shots
  2. Nikon D3 with a 14-24 lens ~ Thanks to Mark Kettenhofen at Nikon for letting me borrow this perfect rig. A single battery lasted me the entire 7 hours of shooting each night!
  3. Mamiya 7 and the 43mm wide angle lens of course I’m gonna shoot film, especially when you have time for the 45+ minute exposures!

Wide or Super-wide are really the way to go. The two modes of thought when capturing the cars were what accentuating angle (usually wide) do you interpret the vehicle with as well as sharp detail shots. Of course on the first night I got lost in a small area of old and modern trucks in the back, but finally met up with Joe at the racetrack. Yes, they used to race cars here as well back in the day! In the middle of the track was a firetruck from the 20’s that I spent a lot time trying to figure out. In between exposures Joe asked me to become one of his classic ghosts. The image, ironically called, Towing from Beyond came out great and you can see it here.

The second day we brought our top 5 shots from the night, got feedback from Joe and Troy and then went over several digital post processing tips on how to get the most out of your image. Joe has been posting several of these techniques on his website, check out A Warm Car on a Cool Night.

After mainly working alone the first night, I made it a point to spend a couple hours with Troy and Joe each night and improve my light painting techniques. You can see Troy’s collaboration with me on the red chained trailer, candycane 18 wheeler, and of course the famous D’oh! shot! Joe taught me the cool and ever useful steering wheel shadow technique and how to get the most of my gelled color temperature controlled flashlights by gently remove shadows and adding highlights to certian areas of the vehicles.

For and extra $100 Joe and Troy offered a bonus 3rd day of night shooting that 3/4 of the class participated in. You could see flashes popping and colors flashing in the distance as we worked well into the final night of Pearsonville. As we drove away late that last night, I knew I had only scratched at the surface of the secrets of Pearsonville, and that I would hopefully, be making this trip again before it disappears.

Check out a few more of my shots as well as the rest of the amazing work from the rest of the students on the Pearsonville flickr page. Troy is still creating Pearsonville gems on his 5+ visit, check out his new shots here. And finally Joe’s blogs on shooting and post-processing techniques can be found here and here and here! Oh just check out his whole blog!

Rumor has it that Joe and Troy will be offering this again in October, so stay tuned if you are interested in capturing the rides of your night-time!

Upcoming Events

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2009 is turning out to be a creatively successful year so far and March is packed with some great group shows as well as my first solo exhibit in NYC!

First up, the 11 th Annual International Krappy Kamera Show, which features one of my previously unseen images, opens on Tuesday March 3rd at the Soho Gallery.  This is always a fun exhibit featuring images made from creative artists and their toy cameras.  The Opening is from 6-8pm, with voting on the People’s Choice Award ending at 7:30pm, so get their early, drink some wine, enjoy the images, and vote!

Jill Waterman and Daryl-Ann Saunders curated and brought together some of the best modern nocturnal photographers for two exhibits featuring the fine art of Night Photography that will open on Thursday March 5th at the Farmani and Safe-T-Gallery.  These Galleries are right across from each other in DUMBO Brooklyn, and the opening will be from 6-8pm.  Several of these photographers will also be speaking at B&H’s Event Space on Monday March 9th.

On Friday March 6th a couple more openings:

First, my dear friend and fellow blogger and photoartist, Angelia Lane, will have several of her paintings featured at ArtSlant’s Group Show, World of Imagination.  The opening is from 6-8pm and will run to the end of the month at the APW Gallery’s new location at 48-18 Van Dam Street, Long Island City, NYC.

If you are heading upstate that week, one of my photos will be in a Group show titled Festival of the Visual Arts, at the Morton Library in Rhinecliff.   The Amtrak train drops you off within 3 blocks of the Library and the show is curated by the newly engaged Sandy Bartlett.

Now mark your calendars and plan your trip to NYC accordingly; I’ll be having my first solo show titled “The New York Years” at John Allan’s in Tribeca on Friday March 20th from 8:30-10:30pm!  This exhibit will be touring the four NYC John Allan’s locations throughout the year but you’ll definitely want to come celebrate with me on March 20th!

And finally, on the last day of the month come and test drive the newest Lensbabies at B&H’s Event Space.  David Brommer, Jennifer Diamond, and I will be giving a slideshow presentation on how to get the most out of these creative lenses and then take you on a photo safari as we Lensbabify Times Square!

So shake the winter blahs off and I hope to see you out there this March!