And last not least the picture that came out of my Spud about the same time that Chuck took his Behind The Scenes shot.
BTS: Chuck Comes Across a Wood Nymph – St. Mary’s Wilderness
Chuck Holzner was a onetime contributor to the MF3d folios, and we occasionally worked together on a project. Here we are in the St. Mary’s Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about five years ago? He joined me and my model for a fairly strenuous hike to find some nice situations where we could photograph lovely Maia, who was a champ trooping along in the woods for several hours. We were heavily laden with cameras and snacks and water! He brought his sputnik, I brought my sputnik plus a TL120-55 on loan from John Thurston (many thanks!), plus a couple of digital cameras, and all the necessary tripods. Thus armed, lots of silly pictures got made.
(by the way, the tag “BTS” stands for Behind The Scenes)
Liz 323
In the early aughts I worked numerous times with Liz, who was not just good looking, but quite a friendly jokester too. At the time, I had this inflated vinyl chair sitting around in my studio, and every single time she came for a photo session, she would remark how much she liked it. So finally, one day she came and again she said she loved the chair, so I asked her if she could show me how much she loved it, and could I photograph her loving it? That’s how this session came to be. Numerous really good images came out of the session, but probably my favorite one is this flub – the flash had failed to fire in synchrony with the shutters. She had just gotten down on the floor to receive the chair, and teasing me, had starting moving with it just so (you know what I’m talking about), when I shot this image impromtu, really before I was ready. All the subsequent images were well lit, but none showed this energy. Sometimes the best images are visible and available for only a moment, and too much gear or technical complexity leaves them inaccessible… or too much thought and direction spoils them.
Shot with twin Hasselblads CM500 on a bar, electric twin release.
M2506
Six or so years ago, when I first pursued the notion of shooting a homage to “Fred with Tires” by Herb Ritts, I made a version with my beloved M at the local Community Bikes shop. Our little boy was just a few months old and he got to watch the whole session from his portable playpen, just out of frame in this view. This was likely shot with a sputnik.
Joel Alpers d22 submission
Aspen 2
Marymere falls
Poudre Canyon Wall
Untitled
Joel Alpers’ submission for loop d22.
Alipore District, Kolkata, India
Kolkata is a very interesting city in India to visit. It doesn’t even remotely feel like Delhi, or even Mumbai for that matter. In fact, it feels like a whole different country comparatively. Being a colonial capitol at one point, it has a different ‘air’ to it. But it still has it’s alleyways, busy shopping and dealers districts. This picture was taken in an area that was very close to the house that Mother Teresa had founded to help the sick and the poor in India. We may have even visited her grave the same day that this shot was taken. I would love to go back and photograph these areas again with their endless streams of people going about their daily lives. This was one of those shots where I looked down an alleyway and had to get a shot of it. There are endless photo ops in India, but the alleyways are especially nice in 3D in my opinion. Shot with my Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F film.
Pak Ou Caves, Pak Ou, Laos
The Pak Ou Caves are located along the Mekong River near the town of Pak Ou in Laos. We visited this area near Luang Prabang, with Luang Prabang being one of my favorite places I have ever visited in Southeast Asia. The cave itself wasn’t very big, and the fact that it was filled with tiny Buddhist statues from many worshipers over many years made it seem even smaller. Luckily there was enough light that was coming in from the entrance to get this shot. What makes this one of my favorite shots I took of this location, was that you could see the smoke rising from the incense and the tiny fire in the lower part of the frame. My Sputnik failed me a little in this picture however, in the fact that it was sharper on the foreground in the right image, and sharper in the background in the left image. The image still works for me as 3D, but it may not work for everyone. This was taken with my first Sputnik, and before any real adjustments were ever made on it. Shot on Fuji Provia 100F film.
Sigiriya Rock Temple, Sri Lanka
Sigiriya meaning ‘Lion Rock’ is a giant rock structure that is surrounded by jungle in the middle of Sri Lanka. It’s like nowhere else that I’ve been and something out of an Indiana Jones movie. We stayed in a tiny hostel which was so close to Sigiriya that you could see it from our hostel room and within walking distance to the entrance. Luckily we were told that the place opened at 8am by our hostel hosts, which was not what our guidebook had said. The book said that it opened at 9am, and the place was FULL by 10am with busloads of tourists. We were literally the first people to walk in and what an amazing experience it was! There are two Sigiriyas, people called them Little Sigiriya and Big Sigiriya. The big one is what you see in the distance (standing at over 600 feet high) while we were standing on top of little Sigiriya. What was great about little Sigiriya was the fact that it was a jungle hike to get there and much cheaper to visit. If you ever go there, I highly recommend visiting both since they both offer different and amazing experiences in their own right. The structures located on top of big Sigiriya are the foundations of former fortresses and the home of the king of the region, named King Kashyapa who reined in the mid 5th Century. After his death it became a Buddhist monastery until the 14th Century. It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage site and hopefully well protected for many more years to come. These Rhesus monkeys you see here were a little out of focus, I must have been too close to them, or didn’t stop down my aperture enough to get them all sharp. Either way, I still like the shot and hope you do as well. Shot on my Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F film.
Borobudur Temple, Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia
Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Located in Central Java, Indonesia, it’s a wonderful place to visit. Before heading to Indonesia, I wanted to make sure to put this on my list of places to visit. It’s an incredible temple with layers and layers (like a layered cake) representing the different stages of enlightenment to reach a final state of Nirvana. It was built originally in the mid-8th Century to 9th Century AD. Once it was abandoned and then ‘rediscovered’ by a British Colonist who then hired a Dutch engineer to excavate and rebuild the structure. It took his team over 4 years to rebuild, however volcanic eruptions, erosion, and even terrorists have beat the structure down throughout the years. Luckily, with the help of UNESCO and tourism, it has been restored to as close to what they think it was like in it’s original state as possible. We visited it in a different way at first, in fact it was from a distance that I got a shot of it in the early morning pre-dawn light. The visit consisted of a hike and motorbike ride to an adjacent hillside. We later went back down the valley and into the entrance the same day. Made for a long day for sure! This shot is of a bas relief, one of over 2,600, that covers the structure. A must see if you’re ever in Java! Shot with my Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F film.
Foxy Vermouth at the movies
Photographed at a “New York Pin-up Club” event, March 2019. TL-120 with Vivitar 285-H fill flash, Provia 100F +1.
Studio lighting was provided for this event which I metered. Probably 1/8 at f16.
Mermaid Couple
Photographed at the 2019 Coney Island Mermaid Parade. TL-120 with diffused Vivitar 285-H fill flash. Provia 100F pushed one stop. For close portraits like this a diffusor is critical for the fill flash. Sadly the 2020 Mermaid Parade was cancelled, this event is where I do most of my Medium Format shooting these days.
Galtaji (Monkey Temple) – Jaipur India
This is a Hindu Temple in Jaipur India, nicknamed the “Monkey Temple” for obvious reasons. Taken with a TL-120 – Provia 100F pushed +1, February 2018. Probably hand-held, there were attendants hassling me about my cameras even though I had paid a few hundred Rupies per camera at the gate.
4 From Bob Venezia
4 From Bob Venezia
Timing was very unfortunate this year. I blame the Coronavirus. I received 2 folios within days of my state being identified as one of the world’s hotspots. The problem was compounded when several of my coworkers were ordered home because of potential exposures to the virus. For a while I was doing the work of 5 people. Even though by now there are 4 of us doing the work of 5, I’ve still been working long hours and not getting enough rest.
Sorry to have held onto the folio for so long. I’ll try to add some context to the photos in the coming days.
Skydiver is among my all-time favorite carnival ride shots. It’s the only time I captured the intermittent movement of this ride while it was loading. (My other captures of the ride show a more boring seamless disk when the ride was in full motion.
Photographers Playground is a slight hyperstereo shot at Bryce Canyon. At the time I was cursing these people who were messing up my nature shot. But clearly I ‘m an idiot, as you can see that they make the shot. Shot with Hasselblads at about 18 inches separation.
Fireworks (Sorry, I’ve already sent off the folio and don’t remember the exact title) is another of my hyper shots with forty feet separation.
And Edison Advances is shot with twin Hasselblads in a macrobox with a beamsplitter.
Domkhar Festival, Bumthang, Bhutan
The Domkhar festival is a wonderful experience. Before we left on our trip, we planned our trip around two festivals. Typically most occur in the Spring and Fall in Bhutan, this was in the Springtime. If you do plan on going to Bhutan during those times of year, your travel agent and/or guide will almost certainly schedule in a festival or two for you to see. The area of Bumthang was the furthest east that we travelled in Bhutan, and it’s an area that I would highly recommend. The festival lasts for about 3 days, and we visited on it’s first day. The festival is dedicated to the birth anniversary of Guru Rinpoche, the second Buddha, or more importantly the father of Buddhism in Bhutan. Monks dress as animals and other characters, and display themselves in lavish costumes. They dance in a mesmerizing choreography. We did manage to get a chance to explore the village of Domkhar as well, which felt like you were entering into a time warp going back about 2 centuries. All in all, it was an awesome experience and not your everyday trip to the beach! Shot this with my Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100f film.
Punakha Dzong, Punakha, Bhutan
As we walked over the main bridge to the Dzong, a small crowd of monks were walking up a path towards us. Knowing full well that this was a good opportunity to capture them, I ran ahead of my group, as the lighting was nice and dramatic. Happily, I managed to snap a couple shots off before they walked past. What’s great about Bhutan is the sheer beauty and photo-ops at every corner. Unfortunately, you must be accompanied during your entire stay in Bhutan, government rules. Luckily however, it’s a great way to see the country since your guide and driver are always at your beck and call, are extremely knowledgable, and are always striving for you to have a great experience no matter what. If you see a photo op on the side of the road, they will gladly stop! We had them stop actually quite often. We are not used to being ‘pampered’ on our trips, and in fact we are usually quite uncomfortable and ‘unguided’ most of the time, since we tend to travel on a budget. However, Bhutan was an exception for us and since we had no choice but to have a guide, we embraced it with loving arms! If you’re even remotely interested in visiting Bhutan, please message me and I will gladly give you all the details. Shot on my Sputnik, with Fuji Provia 100F film.