Street scene in the Chelsea district
Visiting Manhattan over Christmas 2010 we got socked in by a blizzard. Our flight was cancelled so I got in a few more days of shooting scenes in the snow. Here I’m precariously perched on a mound of snow and could have used some snowshoes on my tripod. I love the quality of the saturated color in the reflections.
Twin Hasselblad 500Cs on a custom wood bar, 50mm, Provia 100F.
An area near the Pillars of Silence
When I visited the Southwest a few years back I stopped in Page, Arizona, and hired a photoguide to cart me around to some interesting spots. There’s one spot called the Pillars of Silence where there’s a deep layer of white sandstone topped by a harder layer of rock. As the cliffs erode there are places where a hard rock is still protecting the soft sandstone directly below it so you get to an area full of white pillars each with a stone cap. It looks like an art installation. This photo is of an area right before you get to the pillars. You can see the amazing patterns made in the sandstone as it melts away. It reminds me of brain matter!
Shot with the TL-120, Provia 100F, f22, on a tripod. Shutter unrecorded.
The Giant Wheel at the Evergreen State Fair, now in LED!
The outfit that provides the rides for the Evergreen State Fair and Central Washington Fair is Butler Entertainment. This year they’ve outfitted their Giant Wheel with LEDs. I prefer the incandescent lights, but I know the LEDs will save a lot of energy. And the LEDs look pretty cool in my time-lapse movies. On film they can have nice patterns (or some with nauseating color) but they often look like big TV sets.
The rides always look (to me) like some great engine of science fiction when captured on film, and of course people should be mesmerized by it. So I’m glad the fellow on the left is doing his part.
Shallow DOF in a long exposure at night.
Normally I don’t think to use shallow depth of field for my stereoscopic photos but I’ve been inspired by the work of my friend Frank Roberto. It was very late, around midnight after the Evergreen State Fair was closed, that I took this shot. It was obviously a long exposure — it came out looking like noon! I miscalculated the light as I didn’t expect it to be this bright but I was pleasantly surprised to see it.
Shot with TL-120 at f2.8 using Velvia 50. Shutter unrecorded.
Captured at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, Washington, August 2011.
Last year there were fireworks at the Evergreen State Fair and I didn’t know about it until it was happening. I was in a rotten spot to capture them and it all ended in tears.
This year I got the dates for the fireworks beforehand and guesstimated some good spots for shooting.
The sunrise at Poipu beach on Kauai, a short walk from our rental house.
I have long wanted to use a graduated neutral density filter with my MF photography. The problem is aligning a couple of filters on different cameras. On the TL-120, I wouldn’t be able to mount 2 filter holders side-by-side — there isn’t enough room. You could use screw on filters but then you’re limited by where you can frame the image. Problems, problems, problems.
At some point I realized that there was an extra large square filter size called X-PRO that would fit over both lenses of the TL-120. I found a used filter holder and had it modified to fit on the TL-120 and also came up with a system for positioning the filter (because when you frame the shot through the viewing lens the filter is in the wrong position and needs to be lowered precisely to take the shot).
I found an outfit in the UK that claimed to have Lee ND grad filters in X-PRO size. This was a little confusing to me because on their website Lee has no mention that they make such filters. But after several emails back and forth to the UK and assurances that the filters were real I pulled the trigger. I picked up 1, 2, and 3 stop hard-edged filters.
I don’t remember which filters I used in this shot but it was probably 2 of them, dropping down the sky by 4 or 5 stops.
I know what you’re thinking — the thing missing from this folio is some photos of Mt. Rainier.
For at least a couple years now Don Lopp has been bugging me to get down to Reflection Lake and capture this shot under a full moon. The idea is to take an exposure long enough to let the moon light the scene like day and still get star trails.
I shot some other film that night and processed it first. It came out much too dark and in the end I pushed this roll 2 stops. This was a 90 minute exposure. With the push it’s the equivalent of a 6 hour exposure (and star trails could have been 4x as long)! I am baffled by how true the colors look. I see no reciprocity failure.
Shot with 2 Hasselblad 500Cs on a twin bar. Provia 100F at f16.
This spot was suggested by Robert Hitchman in his Photograph America newsletter. You are looking toward the rainiest place on earth. As such, by the time you drive to this vista for a sunset shot, you have no idea what conditions you’ll find. This is at the Kalalau Lookout, about 17 miles up road 550 on the island of Kauai. I’m standing on a sidewalk behind a big metal rail. Nonetheless, the view there is stunning.
I can be dense but sometimes I’ll learn something from experience. I was at this spot two nights and the first time there was a cruise ship hanging out in the water below. I thought I’d wait for it to get out of my shot before I pulled out my good film cameras so I started shooting with my digitals. Now that I see those digital shots I am kicking myself. The cruise ship at that distance just becomes an iconic ship, and it looks like it’s sailing away from Eden. I think this is a beautiful picture but that was a beautiful picture that told a story and I’m really sorry I missed it.
Some months back I was trying to figure out how to use a neutral density graduated filter with my TL-120. I knew I could get the round, screw in type, but that limits the composition of the image. At some point I had a brainstorm that the cokin style X-PRO series filters were big enough to fit over both lenses. So I found a used filter holder and it was indeed big enough to fit over both lenses. Next I had to find someone who had X-PRO sized ND grads. The place I found was in the UK and they claimed they had Lee Filters in X-PRO size. I thought this had to be a misprint because I could find no evidence anywhere that Lee had ever made such a filter. But after several emails to the UK company, the rep assured me they filters were real, so I took the plunge. My best friend friend build me a mount for my camera and we devised a system for getting the filter set properly (since you can’t see through the taking lenses).
This image has some gratuitous depth in the foreground which I included because a hyper didn’t make sense with the TL-120. Other than that, I really like this image. It was taken on the road that goes up Waimea Canyon, just past the 3 mile marker, on the island of Kauai. I used a 3 stop ND grad to darken the sky. It also got me some misty hills which is an effect I’ve always wanted to capture.
Our fearless leader John has suggested we all enter self-portraits. So here you go. A couple years ago I was preparing to have a photo session with my friend (and master bubble blower) Tom Noddy. I wanted to work out the kinks before Tom came over so I experimented. Can’t remember if I had a digital slr at the time but that would have been invaluable. I’m sure I took readings from a flash meter plus I did some tests for DOF with a tape measure running away from the camera. My memory is that the tape measure showed focus on the inch numbers 28 through 32 but the notes on this image indicate a wider range.
This is shot with the TL-120 with Provia 400X, 1/60th of a second at f22. The focus was cranked to the .8 marker. The notes indicate that my face was at 32″, the bubble at 24″. There was a large potato masher style flash aimed at the ceiling and a Vivitar 283 equipped with a lightsphere (yes, I bought one of those silly things). There was black velvet draped behind to limit the depth in the scene. Shot in my dining room.
I feel like I finally got some good shots of the Tilt-A-Whirl last year at the fair. I like the combination of the magical lights, and the blue collar accoutrements. I like seeing some of the workings exposed (which is why I liked seeing Boris’ socks in the New Years photo!).
I’d been to the Puyallup (pyoo AL ip) Spring Fair on Friday night and saw a poster advertising fireworks on Saturday “at around 9pm.” I made the trek the next night, got there early, scouted where the fireworks would be and what I could get in my foreground, etc. My plan was to shoot with the TL-120, and I started capturing other images while I waited. At 8pm I had just finished a roll in the TL-120 when I started hearing boom-boom-boom behind me. Not knowing how long the fireworks would last, I zipped up my backpack, grabbed both tripods with cameras already set, and hurried over to my spot. I would have done much better with the TL-120, since I would only have to wind one camera, and there’s more to check on the 2 Hasselblads. And sync is not an issue on the TL-120.
This is from my early days with my “Don-Lopp-modified-Sputnik.” We try to visit NYC every other year during the winter holidays. This is from a late-night visit to the NYC library. I spot metered around the scene. It’s quite dark there at night, with a little bit of ambient light from the traffic.
Provia 100F, f22, 80 seconds.
I took a photo trip to the Palouse last year. It’s an area of Eastern Washington/Western Idaho that’s filled with rolling hills and old farms. the combination makes for some striking scenery, with lots of opportunities for photo-graphics. That said, a lot of those opportunities are seized using different lenses. Not an option on my TL-120. But I wanted to include a shot from my trip. It’s a well-worn route for photographers, and this truck was clearly left out front for the photo op. TL-120, Velvia 50, f22, shutter speed unrecorded.
