I was going to call this set “Dancing in 645 Time”, but I thought that sounded really pretentious, so, I went with something equally as creative; “2018 Submissions”. I was going to use the word “Dancing” because these four images are all cha-chas. I am a musician, and I know there’s no such time signature as 645, but I was going to use it as part of the title as all these images were shot in 645 format.
“My Thriving Ceramic Hobby” – I used to enjoy creating ceramic sculpture, and when we moved into this house (years ago) I set up a pottery shed in the backyard. Unfortunately, the equipment has lain dormant for a while now. I am hoping to eventually resume my ceramic hobby and build some ceramic stereo pinhole cameras. You’re looking at two Skutt kilns under plastic behind the pottery shed. This is a cha-cha captured with a noisy Fujifilm GA645W.
“Horned Sentinels On A Hot Tin Roof” – this is self-explanatory and should be a familiar scene for almost all film shooters. This is a cha-cha shot with a Fujica GS645W, on Kodak Aerochrome film, using a Y1 Yellow filter. A GA645W couldn’t be used to shoot infrared film as it has film sensors that would likely fog this sensitive film. This was captured in St. Lucia, during the December holiday season. See all the snow? No, I didn’t think so.
“What Stays In Vegas Decays In Vegas” – in February my wife and I drove from Las Vegas, Nevada to Los Angeles, California to visit family. While in Vegas we visited the Neon Boneyard Museum. My wife and I booked a guided tour of the Museum, and I booked myself a “Photo Walk” for the following afternoon. During the guided tours you have to keep up with the tour group, you can’t lag behind taking photos, and you can only bring one camera. No tripods, no extra lenses, and no selfie sticks. On the Photo Walks, you are allowed to bring all of your gear, and you get to roam around at your leisure for about an hour and a half. The Photo Walks happen twice a month and are usually limited to about six photographers. If you ever book a guided tour, make sure to request Russ as your guide. He’s been a Vegas resident since 1962, and he’s frequented most of the establishments that once displayed the signs that now reside in the Boneyard. He knows the history of Vegas, and the backstory for all of the signs in the Museum! This cha-cha was shot with a GS645W. I tried to meter for balance between the highlights and shadows, but I still wound up with some blown-out highlights. No matter, you can see what the blown-out signs on the right look like in the final slide of this set.
“Vacancy Row” – I was going to call this image “Cinnamon” as that’s what I think of everytime that I read the motel name on the most upright of the two motel signs pictured, but you all woulda thunk I wuz illiterate. Shot with the same equipment on the same afternoon as “What Stays…”, I also had a 1930 Rolleidoscop, a CLAed 2.8 Stereo Realist, and a Panasonic 3D-1 in my camera bag.
