I think this was in 2006. Photographed with twin Yashica-Mat 124s using Ilford Pan F processed at DR5.
Category Archives: Dragon
Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Israel 2018
Temple Mount is a very important site for Muslims, Jews, and Christians. It is a beautiful courtyard in East Jerusalem and is defined to be one of the holiest sites in the world. The al-Asqa Mosque is a sight to see, and since it was a beautiful day when I was there, I went nuts trying to capture it’s beauty shooting from all angles. This shot was one of my favorites of what I captured. The walled arch in the picture is called the scales of judgement, believed to be the place where people would be judged before entering the gates of heaven. Note the sundial on the arch. Israel is filled with religious history and a must see for anyone interested in the subject. Shot with my Sputnik, on Fuji Provia 100f. 
Cormorant Fisherman, Guilin, Guangxi Province, China 2018
In a gorgeous area of China, on the Li River in Guilin, there is an old form of river fishing. The fishermen use cormorant birds to catch fish. The way it works, is that the fishermen would raise the birds from chicks and the birds would then trust the fishermen. Once old enough, the birds would start fishing by instinct by diving to get the river fish. The birds would dive into the river, and come up with the fish in their mouth, which would be snatched from them by the fishermen. The birds would eventually be rewarded, albeit with smaller fish. This practice of fishing is actually not really used much anymore, and has become more of a novelty for tourists, like myself. I wanted to get an iconic image of the fisherman while I was there, but unfortunately the opportunity did not present itself. However, an easy going fisherman let me do a snapshot of him while we were walking down the riverbank. Shot on my Sputnik, with Fuji Provia 100f.
Kathmandu Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal 2016
Kathmandu Durbar Square is an incredible area of Kathmandu, filled with old temples originally built and rebuilt from around the third century. We arrived one year after a major earthquake damaged many buildings in this square. It still held up it’s integrity and prestige even after most of the damage. Sadly some of the temples were reduced to rubble and were only recognizable by placards set up by the tourist government. Due to the damage to Nepal and to it’s infrastructure, there seemed to be less tourists than we had anticipated while we were there, and allowed us to explore most areas in less crowded situations. This shot was taken in the early morning, while locals were out feeding the pigeons. Shot on my Sputnik, on Provia 100f film.
Cusco Cathedral, Cusco, Peru 2017
Cusco is a fascinating town in Peru located near Machu Picchu, and is often where travelers acclimate to the high altitudes before heading off to the famous ruins. There are many old buildings built by the conquistadors, often using stones originally cut out by the Incan, scattered throughout the town. One of the more ornate and beautiful buildings is the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin, or Cusco Cathedral for short. While we were out walking one evening, I wanted to stop and get an interesting shot of the church lit up. While walking up the steps to the church, I noticed that there were two Quechuan women sitting on the steps. This was taken on my Sputnik, when it was still working properly, on Fuji Provia 100f.
Emerald City Angels – 2016
Hyper view of downtown Seattle from Alki, with the Blue Angels overhead
I must have been trying to squeeze out some extra sharpness by setting a hyperlocal distance instead of just CRANKING the lenses to infinity. Lesson learned.
Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Fall 2006
Moshe Cohen
Clown Moshe Cohen at the memorial service for Bruce (U. Utah) Phillips
F32 and BEES There #2
F32 and BEES There #2
Boris in one of his comments on Folio A asked for more detail on the Macrobox, which is given here:
The Macrobox is based on a contraption I purchased years ago from John Hart of Colorado. It was designed to hold 2 cameras at 90 degrees to each other, and both cameras were aimed at a 50/50 mirror (aka a beamsplitter) which is at a 45 degree angle. One camera shoots THROUGH the mirror, while the other shoots at the reflection.
Overhead view of the Macrobox
Side view of the Macrobox
In the sideview picture you can see the beamsplitter on the left side of the rig. If you look carefully at the mirror, you can see both cameras.
The cameras are individually mounted on sliders so they can be slid into position. Additionally, the Macrobox is normally mounted on a heavy-duty Velbon macro slider, to help with making fine adjustments to the positioning.
Ian Andvaag’s D24 submission
For this round, I set aside fifteen or so slides and asked a few people to suggest which four I should submit. There wasn’t perfect agreement, but I think these four came out on top.
I was inspired by Paul Gillis’ D22 submission “Drill, Grind & Dry” to try some more still life in MF3D, as I think it has been somewhat underrepresented in the folio. This view of the breakfast table at Easter was taken from a pretty unconventional perspective, but I wanted to limit the far point so I wouldn’t record too much on-film deviation. I had hoped to mount the image with the orange juice protruding through the window, but I was thwarted by the fruit bowl being closer to the camera. Oh well, the window isn’t so important in MF3D anyway.
Easter Breakfast
In 2018, some friends and I went on a road trip to Utah — it’s about the closest place that you can get decently warm weather in April. We did a lot of hiking, and I wanted to keep weight down so I brought my Sputnik rather than my TL120. I also didn’t bring a light meter, so this one turned out a bit darker than I’d hoped.
Staircase Escalante, UT
My last two submissions this round are from one of Saskatchewan’s National Parks, called Prince Albert National Park. It is better known as Waskesiu, which is the name of the lake where the town-site and cabins are located. This slide was taken on a 7 km trail quite near to the town-site.
Fisher Trail Waskesiu
Our campground at Waskesiu had several bright yellow lady’s slippers in bloom. The weather was punishingly hot, and so we spent a fair bit more time in our campsite rather than hiking. I challenged myself to shoot a full roll on the lady’s slippers. A question to all the close-up aficionados — how do you get enough depth of field to get everything sharp in medium format? I believe that I am well under MAOFD with this slide, but I can’t get everything sharp at f/22 unless I use a conventional depth range of 3-4 meters to infinity. Should I try to shoot with the camera pointed straight down to limit the distance of the background? When indoors, a wall can be used to limit the depth, but often I find it challenging to come up with a pleasing composition outdoors which has a limited depth range.
Lady’s Slippers
Friends And Other Inanimate Objects, Volume One
Counterclockwise, from upper left:
“For Fear Of Branching Out on Arbor Day” – expired Provia 100F.
“Goin’ Pseudo” – expired Provia 100F.
“Behold! The Omnipotent, Ever-Knowing VooDoo Orb Sac!” – expired Astia 100F.
“Weather Most Fowl” – egg-spired Astia 100F, using the Sunflower 16 rule.
All images captured with a TL120-55, and home-processed using a JOBO CPP2 unit, with Unicolor or Arista E6 chemistry.
Kat in Studio
Kat MF-B206.
I try to make sure my models don’t grow bored in the studio. Exercise helps. Shot with the twin Mamiya 6 Rig, studio strobes, on Kodak E100G film.
Kat MF-B119.
Two views from the “No Spectators” show at the Renwick Gallery
In 2018 we traveled to visit the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Descriptions below in part taken from online sources:
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man brought the large-scale, participatory work from this desert gathering to the nation’s capital for the first time. The exhibition took over the entire Renwick Gallery building and surrounding Golden Triangle neighborhood, bringing alive the maker culture and creative spirit of this cultural movement.
FoldHaus Art Collective’s Shrumen Lumen: The elements of this sophisticated, interactive cluster of fungi each has its own particular character responding to human interaction. As participants step on the footpads located beneath each cap, the mushrooms gently grow and “breathe.zzzzz’ In daylight the grouping appears ethereal white, while at night, it magically transforms with embedded LEDs that glow through the translucent outer skin to bring the installation to life.
Truth is Beauty by Marco Cochrane. Cochrane first sculpts his pieces by hand before constructing them from steel triangles at grand proportions. Built using a mold of the original clay sculpture, the version of Truth Is Beauty in the gallery is one-third the size of the fifty-five-foot tall figure that appeared at Burning Man in 2013.
Both images acquired with my Sputnik, about 30s exposure f22 I guess, on 100ASA Fuji RDPIII film.
Jim Roy’s D23 submission
Note: I’ve had some issues getting Jim signed up on the site, so I’m posting this description he sent to me. -Ian Andvaag
Newly included slides are mostly taken with a Sputnik acquired from Paul Gillis, but badly metered on a dark snowy day. They are “Bit of Snow” taken at our first snowstorm, “Ultimate Rest”, taken at our nearest apartment trash fort and hydrant, “A Little Snow” on Woodrow Wilson Boulevard just outside our apartments, and “Netherlands Memorial Lions”, taken at Marine Memorial Park’s Netherlands Carillon (recently restored) with a hand held Rolleiflex in the 1990s. I wish I still had that camera, since I reduced my camera pile from 88 in 2004 to “only” 28 today. The only 120 film ones left are a 1960 vintage Sputnik, 1930 giveaway cardboard Kodak 50th Anniversary, and a 1926 Rolleidoscop which needs repair.
Jim Roy
Bit of Snow
Ultimate Rest
A Little Snow
Netherlands Memorial Lions
Paul Gillis’ slides for d23
Well, it’s been about 9 months since I last had the dragon box in my grubby little hands. I wish I’d taken more MF3D images in that time, but I guess it’s good that I at least got a few. All four of these were taken with my TL-120 on Provia 100F, using a tripod.
Conundrum Between Trees
This is the same sculpture that I included in my previous entry (here). I took it on a later visit, and from much further back, so that it is framed by two sturdy trees. I think I like this shot better.
Here, Have Some Snips
This sculpture is just a stone’s throw from the one above; but in an artistic sense they could hardly be farther apart. I still don’t know the name of either work, nor of the sculptors. I shot this very late in the day. The low light level was no problem, shooting from a tripod (2 sec. at f/11, I think) but it did result in some lights in the background coming out distractingly bright.
Dark Star Park (Arlington, Virginia)
Finally, some sculpture that I know something about! This little park (larger than what I show here) is actually very close to the US Marine Corps War Memorial (the Iwo Jima sculpture). Another case of the abstract adjacent to the extremely realistic.
This park & all its sculptural elements were designed by Nancy Holt & built in 1984, commissioned by Arlington County. The Wikipedia article about her goes into some depth about it. I definitely want to go back & photograph the park from other angles. The biggest challenge I had was that from most viewpoints the background was in full sun, while the sculptures were in shade.
Broken Outflow Pipe
Maybe another inadvertent kind of sculpture? Obviously not a very colorful subject, but I was drawn to the 3-dimensional complexity. Another long exposure as the day was waning.