Construction

For the past year or so there’s been a hotel going up across the street from my studio.  Though I swore some years ago that I was “done” with “clear buildings,” the proximity and thus convenience of this building stimulated me to make one last one.  It’s the reason I bought a Sigma (DP-1 Merrill) camera: this last Clear Building will be shot with some decent resolution, so that I can make truly large prints.

construction_MFT-folio28A

That work has been digital and is ongoing.  But on a recent early morning, I found the building looking quite attractive, complex and mysterious.  I shot it with a Sputnik, shooting cha-cha to obtain a larger baseline – maybe 12 inches – to give it more depth and interest.  I did not record exposures but I think I shot thirty seconds at f-11 onto Kodak E-200.

 

Old Rag Mountain Views

Ektachrome 200 (I think, check slide mount notation). A little over exposed, handheld with a Sputnik on loan from Chuck Holzner.

Old Rag Mountain is about a five hour hike in the foothills of the Shenandoah (8.5 miles), north of Charlottesville. Here’s a picture of my betrothed Michele as we near the summit, with the ridge along which we climbed in the background. In some places, the trail involves some surprisingly challenging rock-scrambling (I would jest, “we forgot our ropes!”).

Ektachrome 200 (I think, check slide mount notation). A little under exposed, handheld with a Sputnik on loan from Chuck Holzner.

This is the view from the summit at Old Rag Mt., again looking back from the way we came. Off in the distance, you can see the rocks upon which the earlier image was made – notice the other hikers there? Getting from there to the summit took about a half hour. It was crowded and hot when we did this hike in the summer of 2010. I rather like the under-exposure in this view, as it gives detail to the sky.

Bike Works NYC

This is a great little bike shop in SoHo that I discovered years ago while shopping for some esoteric bike parts online.  They have a fabulous web page with lots of fun historical content, plus galleries of unusual bikes they’ve had in their shop (see this page showing some of my bikes).  My city bike, pictured at the lower left of the view (black frame, 20″ wheels), is in their web galleries as well.  This view is of their “showroom” and counter – an area about 10 x 15 ft. bikeworks_NYC_1_MFT72_ To obtain this exposure, I held the camera upside down against the door frame above my head, shimmed a bit with a bicycle cog under the front edge of the camera (I couldn’t bring a tripod on my bike).  I took numerous pictures this way, bracketting my exposures.

Kodak E200, f16, 8s exposure, Sputnik on loan from Chuck Holzner.  original slide.