saturday matinee

I love stop motion from chloe fleury on Vimeo.

video-time!

Like a little slice of art school.

street art

Stephen says I dont post enough - and he's right!

my idea for a digital camera

So, I had this idea, and I've been playing with it in my head all day. Here it is:

Kodak (or someone) needs to sell a square format "waist-level" viewfinder digital camera. Really, when you think about how most people use digital cameras, looking at a two-inch (or so) screen rather than through a tiny viewfinder, it makes a certain amount of sense. Look, here's an old Kodak Brownie Starflex.

Now, imagine that instead of a viewfinder window, that top lens was for a flash instead.
Oh, wait, maybe you've never seen a Brownie Starlet...
Okay, the Starlet was an old Kodak camera. It was built for the masses. It was cheap and easy to use. It shot photos in a square format. The lower lens exposed the film while the top lens bounced off a mirror and onto a viewing window in the top of the camera (which popped open, see below). If you've never used a waist level viewfinder, it's kind of nice (and you didnt have to use it at waist level, it worked just as well at chin level). I would suggest replacing the mirror/viewfinder arrangement with a simple screen showing what the lens sees, just like on any decent digital camera.

Really, I'm kind of surprised that someone hasnt come up with this idea already (well, someone has, sort of, but not for real use), because digital cameras as they are currently designed are kind of awkward, being a viewfinder-style design with a screen on the backside, forcing you to hold the thing in front of you (often rather precariously) while trying to compose your shot through the glare. A Starlet-style camera (with it's hood shading the screen from glare) would make more sense. If you really needed to have the screen visible from behind the camera, it seems like a easy job to simply make the screen pop up, rather like the hood does.
I think that if you marketed this thing right (say, first going after the retro crowd and old people) you could have a real winner on your hands. And the square format is terrific (ask anyone who loves their Hipstamatic app), especially for portraits and family photos. Find professionals who shot with medium format and hand out a few for free and watch the praise begin.
Yes, you can shoot with a regular camera and crop square, but it really is not the same. Believe me, I've done both.
Listen, Kodak needs this. They were once the kings of photography, but they've been beaten out by Fuji, by Canon, and by HP. This could be their chance to regain the consumer photography crown.
Bring Back The Brownie!

see this

Ken Murphy's 'A History of the Sky' enables the viewer to appreciate the rhythms of weather, the lengthening and shortening of days, and other atmospheric events on an immediate aesthetic level: the clouds, fog, wind, and rain form a rich visual texture, and sunrises and sunsets cascade across the screen.

An image of the sky is being captured every 10 seconds from a camera installed on the roof of the Exploratorium, on the edge of San Francisco Bay. The images collected over each 24-hour period are assembled into a 6 minute movie.



Ken Murphy's website.

stolen from Presurfer.

Through the Viewfinder no. 1

I found an interesting way to shoot photos. Using an old waist-level medium format camera, focus your digital camera on the ground glass viewing window, and shoot a photo of that. Voila! Old-timey funkiness!
Sure it's a gimmick, and it's not as easy as it sounds, but it's fun. And there's a Flickr group.

This is my first test attempt. The camera I used for the viewfinder isnt a particularly good one, but all I could find were Yashicamats, which dont quite create the look I'm seeking*.


* I dont think so, anyway. More testing is in order.

go see this: Vivian Maier

Check out this blog of photographs by a woman named Vivian Maier, who was unknown until John Maloof bought her work at an auction after her death. She was an awesome street photographer.

accidental face

In my decrepitude, I find that I must take off my glasses to see things up close. This image resulted. It was not planned, merely me recognizing a serendipitous shot when I see one.

domestic still-life no. 28

domestic still-life no. 27

people no. 34

multiframe no. 32

for my parent's wedding anniversary

domestic still-life no. 26

people no. 33

domestic still-life no. 25

multiframe no. 31

Remember when Taco Bueno looked like a Mexican restaurant?

domestic still-life no. 24

people no. 32

domestic still-life no. 23, revisited

I discovered, belatedly, a third frame that I had somehow missed when assembling the image ( I had one I thought was the third frame, and it didnt fit right, because it was not the third frame). I've added it to the piece, you can compare with the first version and decide which is better.

domestic still-life no. 23

people no. 31

multiframe no. 30

multiframe no. 29

go see this: Donna Pinckley

My friend Donna has a show on the Lens Culture site.
Go see it, she's terrific.

sharptooth no. 4

Dinnersaur theatre. Alas, poor Yorickasaurus...

multiframe no.28

That last frame bothers me. I'm starting to wonder if the piece wouldnt be better off without it.

landscape no.22

domestic still-life no.22