Category: Fine Art

Session 9, Eddie Adams Workshop, & the Lensbaby Plastic Optic

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Happy Halloween Everyone! I hope you all spend some time living out a fantasy, eating candy, or at least watching a scary movie tonight!Nancy and I just watched Session 9, which is thrill/horror movie that just gets under your skin. It tells the story of the haunting of the Danvers State Hospital, which was built in 1878. At the time it was a beautiful 70,000 square foot Gothic spired building that from high above looked like a giant bat. It was the model for humane treatment at the turn of the century but we know how that worked out in the lobotomy happy 50’s. The fortress-like castle was closed in 1992 and Brad Anderson filmed Session 9 there in 2001. The movie, to some extent, foretold the future of Danvers State Insane Asylum as it was renovated in 2006 by Avalon Communities. Only 1/3 o the hospital remains but for as little as $1175 a month you can rent 775 sq ft in a former “Haunted Insane Asylum.” Of course, a fire broke out in April of 2007 and destroyed 3 unfinished buildings that were to house 147 apartments. The cause of the blaze was “officially undetermined”Check out urban explorer extraordinaire, Mr Motts, who has some amazing photographs of the pre-renovation Danvers State Hospital. His website Opacity is probably one of the best for historic ruins. I don’t know how he gets into all these places but when he does he truly captures the essence of the space. His site not only showcases some amazing photography but also features the rich history of these abandoned buildings.

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In other news, I’m still recovering from the Eddie Adams Workshop up in the Catskills of New York, where I volunteered during the Columbus Day Weekend. This was the 21st annual EAW and the 4th that I have attended. It is the premier workshop for young photojournalists; thousands apply via portfolio but only 100 are chosen. Those 100 students are divided into 10 teams of 10 and then assigned a famous professional photographer, editor, and producer to their team. The workshop takes place at Eddie and Alyssa’s Barn in Jeffersonville, New York. The students are given 2 days to complete their assigned shoots, while the rest of the team work around the clock to edit and put together multimedia slide shows for the final presentation on Monday. The 100+ Industry heavies that come up and volunteer their time and share their stories make this an amazing community event in an industry that is not always the most communal. I usually average about 8 hours of sleep, total, for the whole weekend. But of course there is always a little mandatory after hours relaxation going on! I’m part of the Black Team, who runs all the behind the scenes activities like AV, IT, Security, Transportation, Hospitality etc. A really humorous movie about “Black Team Love” and what really happens behind the scenes was made by my man Andre Costantini and can be viewed here.

I’m also continuing my beta testing for Lensbaby who sent me an updated Composer with the Plastic and Pinhole/Zone Plate Optic kits. As mentioned in my previous blog, the new Lensbaby Composer is actually a unique housing for several types of Optical Elements that Lensbaby calls their Optical Swap System. Essentially you can own one Lensbaby but have up to 4 different optical effects! I was very excited to try the Plastic Optic as it is a single plastic lens that is suppose to have the image quality similar to the very popular Holga toy cameras. I really have to say that it actually looks better! The two shots above were taken with the Composer Plastic Optic and the first one has an extraordinary glow from the shiny students arriving at the barn! The second image in the more subdued light combines the best of the Lensbaby selective focus and Holga plastic perfect imperfection. It is a picture of Philip Andrews, who coincidentally won the top prize at the workshop…a 10k scholarship from Nikon to continue his studies. Congrats Phillip!

 

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The next weekend after the EAW I continued my travels with the Lensbaby Composer to the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. It was peak foliage time, and I had a blast just driving around with my family and stopping for Composer Inspiration! Yes, big thanks to my Mom, Sister, and stepfather who patiently waited for me as I shot and stopped every 5 minutes! The first two shots were taken with the Zone Plate Optic and have that great zone plate glow. The next two shots were taken with the Plastic Optic and interpret the foliage in more Lensbabified way. I had a blast shooting with them both. If you shoot with any Plastic Toy cameras like the Holga, Diana, etc then getting the Plastic Optic for your new Lensbaby is a must! I also noticed that dirt and dust do show up in your image more frequently when using the Zone/Pinhole Optic. This is not a fault of the lens but a reality of using a lens with a small aperture. Remember the Zone plate is f/19 and the Pinhole f/177. If your Digital SLR has a dusty sensor and you shoot with an aperature of f/2.8 and then f/22 the dust WILL be more prevalent in the image you shot at f/22. That’s just the facts. So be careful when swapping your lensbaby optics and lenses on your DSLR and always have a little rocket blower in your bag.

Oregon Full Moons

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I spent the last full moon weekend in Oregon visiting my oldest friend, Angus.  In the 20 years that we have known each other, we have had plenty of epic adventures in New Hampshire, Seattle, SF, Portland, and NY.  Usually one of us is visiting the others new home town and the fun follows.  However, on this trip out to see Angus in Portland, I suggested we do a road trip around the Oregon Coast.

Recently i was easily guilted into purchasing a 4×5 large format camera by another dear friend, David Brommer.  He had been nudging me this way, calling all my cameras “weenie format” as he lugs around his beautiful 8×10 Deardorff.  The Large Format cameras really haven’t changed that much in the last 75+ years.  They’re usually wooden, need a tripod, a dark cloth to view the image, and produce negatives/positives that are 13x larger than a 35mm neg.  You get optimal image quality and less to enlarge in the dark or lightroom.  Pictured on the left at the bottom is what my Wisner Technical Field camera looks like, red bellows and all.  It only weighs 6 lbs and I love it!

So I have been “getting to know” the Wisner lately and wanted to dedicate this trip to Large Format shooting.  I warned Angus that if he thought I was an annoying photographer friend before, this LF camera would only make things worse.  My man has the patience of a saint and did a good job documenting our escapes!   I probably got it down to about 8 minutes to set up and 2 minutes to break down the camera.  My shortest exposures were 1/4 of a second and my longest 30 minutes.  However, I decided to throw a wrench into the whole process and wanted to get some 4×5 nocturnal images.  Again, you’re looking through a 4×5 inch piece of glass with a loupe under a dark cloth to focus.  This is not the most conducive way to focus at night and required me using lots of high powered flash lights or simply not shooting certain subjects because I couldn’t see or focus on them.

The first shot of the White Satin Sugar Factory is the simple story of passing by a subject several times and saying to yourself, “I’m going to shoot that.”  I knew it would make a great night image, my only concerns were the trains that were frequently running or parked in front of the factory; plus every other time I drove down this street, several cops were pulling over “perps”. Lo and behold, when I arrived at 12:30am to shoot,  3 cop cars were across the street and a train was parked in front.  Not wanting to be mistaken for a perp, I parked about 50 feet from the cops and as I got the gear ready the train started to pull away.  I dashed across the street, crossed two sets of train tracks and went down a small incline to take the first test shot which was a 7 minute exposure.  Right at the end of the exposure, another train pulled up and parked, completely blocking me from the street and cops.  I moved the camera to a better position right between the two sets of tracks and started my 14 minute exposure.  I had to stop the exposure 11 minutes through because the train next to me started to chug and take off.  It was obviously shaking the ground and I did not want it to affect my picture.  Luckily you can easily do multiple exposures with LF cameras so 2 minutes later I finished off the exposure and left the scene.  When I got home from this trip I developed my test shots first and then fine tuned my developing for the final negatives.  The correct exposure was 7 minutes at f16 and this image was 14 minutes, so I underdeveloped this negative by one stop and saved those precious highlights on the right from getting blown out.

The other two images were taken at the ever popular Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast.  The whole coast is pretty amazing with massive rocks, ancient trees and cliffs all coming together to form something very primordial.  Haystack Rock has probably been captured millions of times and as Angus and I strolled down the beach I wondered when the last time it may have been captured with a LF camera.  As I was setting up a shot under the dark cloth, I peered out to find about 8 people gathered around me wondering what the hell I was doing.  I let everyone take a peak at the image’s reflection on the glass under the cloth and gave a brief history of photography.  One guy thought he was going old school by bringing his 10 year old Sony Mavica digital camera that writes directly on CD.  He quickly conceded to me.

Enjoy, and more stories and images to follow!

Photowalk, Sleepless, and I’m Published!

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Scott Kelby is hosting a Worldwide Photo Walk to celebrate the release of the Lightroom 2.0, probably the best image editing software out there. These Walks are taking place all over the world on August 23rd and I will be leading one in NYC! The Photo Walks are a social photography event to get you out from in front of your computer and behind your camera with a group of like minded folk. Each walk is limited to 50 people, my walk will take us over the Brooklyn Bridge where amazing views of the city and for now, the NYC waterfalls, surround you. We will then meander around DUMBO and end the adventure at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory where we can share our work and have a scoop or three! The Photo Walks are 2 hours long and if you don’t see one in your city why not sign up and lead one? All the images will be uploaded and judged by Scott Kelby, with the winning image earning the photographer thousands of dollars in cool prizes! Again space is limited; so click here to sign up and find out more info on Brooklyn Bridge walk.

The International Guild of Pinhole Photographers just released Dark Chambers Volume 2, which features 3 of my images in it! These beautiful textured fine art books are each hand stamped and the produced in England. The name Dark Chamber originates from the Latin, Camera Obscura. This latest volume is over 175 pages and features 200+ inspiring pinhole images by 28 artists from all over the world. The book will be limited and produced in a small run. Dark Chamber volume 2 costs approximately $25 plus shipping and can be ordered from the Urban Fox Press website. or by contacting them directly at info@urbanfoxpress.com.

Also pictured is our newly decorated living room. The coffee table is an amazing wedding gift from my brotherman/groomsman, Angus. He created, crated, and accompanied this work of art out to us in April and assembled it in our house… now that’s what we call service! It features a hidden compartment which flips and reveals a ready to play cribbage board! Anyone game? Behind the table is Nancy’s chaise lounge that she has been transporting across the country for 10 years. 3 years ago she finally reupholstered the chaise with the luscious blue velvet fabric. Prior to the chaise, that same blue velvet covered Sandy on the Frozen Hudson seen below.

Pictured on the wall above the table and chaise is “Sleepless” by France Scully Osterman. Nancy and I fell in love with this image at the f/295 exhibit in Pittsburgh. It was a gift for Nancy for her Birthday and our 2 year anniversary. Sleepless is a 44×50 waxed salt print and was limited to a production of nine. This image is beautifully printed using the 150+ year collodion process. This gives it a lush and tonal depth that you can’t keep your eyes off.

Our Gallery Living Room in Brooklyn is open to the public by appointment only, and you better brush up on your cribbage game!

69th St Transfer Bridge ~ Photo of the week ~ and a little history

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First off I want to thank everyone who attended and wished me well at my sold out lecture on Pinhole and Night Photography yesterday! Thanks to David Brommer and B&H for giving me the opportunity to share my vision, I’ve been doing this for several years now but I still learned a lot while compiling my research. I did catch a cold the day of the lecture and my voice is officially shot after speaking for 2 hours!

This week’s photo of the week has been over 6 months in the making! Last October I went on a great 25+ mile bike ride that started in Brooklyn and continued up the scenic bike path along the West Side Highway. This is my usual route to work but I only get to take advantage of the wonderful views up until 34th street. Then, I met up with the infamous David Brommer, and we made a decision to explore the West Side Bikeway as far as our bikes and legs would take us. It was a beautiful day in October and a wonderful ride. We stopped several times for photos and yes, I confess, once for Dinosaur BBQ. Of course I had packed a 4×5 pinhole camera and lightweight tripod along. This black and wide image above was definitely the most amazing thing we saw! For some lame reason, I forgot about it and never had a chance to develop it until 2 weeks ago…What a pleasant pinhole surprise! I couldn’t remember where this was along the highway but I was determined to retrace my bike treads and find out more information. So last week after work, instead of biking south along the West Side Highway, I headed north and in less than 10 minutes, I started to find some answers.

“The New York Central Railroad 69th St Transfer Bridge has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior 2003”

was stamped onto a plaque on the grassy field in front of the ruin.
The top color image, and Official Photo of the Week, was taken as the sun set on a gorgeous May evening.
But now, I wanted more info – the who, what, and where of this Transfer Bridge story…

To understand what a transfer bridge is you must first know what a car float is. The car float is a specialised form of the train ferry. A railroad car float is an unpowered barge with rail tracks mounted on its deck. It is used to move railroad cars across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise access, and is pushed or towed by a tugboat. Until the advent of post-war trucking, the railroads had 3400 personnel operating small fleets with 323 car floats, plus 1094 other barges, towed by 150 tugboats between New Jersey and New York City. Deep searches into the internet yielded this excerpt that Christopher Gray expounded further in the New York Times article from 2004:

To speed the operation, several designers developed suspension systems that raised and lowered the transfer bridge from an overhead structure. In 1911, the New York Central Railroad built such a system, designed by James B. French, at the foot of West 69th Street. French patented his design, which uses two separate decks raised and lowered independently and a wide shed running across the top to protect the lifting machinery.
French’s design “swept the field,” says Thomas F. Flagg, an industrial archaeologist who has studied and written about transfer bridges for three decades. Mr. Flagg says that such an operation could unload 800 tons of cargo in 15 minutes. To a non-specialist, the rail-car transfer seems unwieldy, but it is faster than a modern container crane, Mr. Flagg says.
In the mid-1920’s, the Long Island Rail Road built several float bridges of the same design on the East River at Long Island City; they accommodated 100-ton cars and could rise and fall 18 feet.
As American railroading – and rail freight in the Port of New York – declined drastically, these float bridges tumbled into disuse, and by the 1970’s were wide open for graffiti, vandalism and urban adventure. In 1998, Gantry Plaza State Park opened at 48th and 49th Avenues, succeeding the Long Island Rail Road transfer point there. The landscape architects Thomas Balsley Associates incorporated float bridges into the design.

For further reading check out: New York Streetscapes: Tales of Manhattan’s Significant Buidlings and Landmarks
I just ordered mine!

Carroll Street Pigeons

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The word routine was born in 1676 according to Merriam-Webster.
We can thank the etymology of this word to the French. Specifically the Middle French, from the word route, meaning the traveled way.

Now, some of us have more routines than others.
There is no doubt about it, routines definitely help us streamline and accomplish the tasks that surround our day to day life.
But a break from the old routine of things…
Well, that can send ripples…

When I step outside I feel that anything can happen.
I can hear the subway’s echo as it enters the underground.
And if I’m lucky…
I’ll see pigeons flying in the sky.