220 ml cartridges & Mets

I stuck my first 220 ML cartridge (gray, gray black) in the 4800. My plan is to use these larger cartridges for the grays and black. It is sort of unsightly - the way it juts out - but saves me money on ink.

THIS IS A NOTE TO MYSELF SO THAT I CAN GO BACK LATER AND SEE WHEN I PUT THE FIRST 220ML GRAY GRAY BLACK CARTRIDGE IN. IT SAYS THAT YOU SHOULD USE IT WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF OPENING; AND I WONDER WHETHER I WILL OR WON'T USE THE CARTRIDGE IN THAT TIME.

I'm also using the non-beta Silver Rag for new prints. I've had a couple of orders at the new prices.

I did prints of both Steelworker pictures. #2 is better by far. Maybe you can judge these things on the screen.

Could this be the year of the Mets? They've got the closer. They've got the lineup. They've got the starting pitching. Where are they weak? Could this be their year?

leica etc.

I do think I lucked out in terms of when I got back into Leica. If you are happy to go with some pre-aspherical lens, then savings are tremendous. Example: the modern 90mm summicron - is in the $2K range. The earlier version - used - is around $450.

Same ratio goes for the earlier 35mm summicrons. Man - I don't know but the 35mm pre-aspherical summicron I have looks plenty sharp and beautiful to me. $675.

I suppose that $675 even sounds like a lot for a 35mm lens - but for a Leica? Take my word for it - that is inexpensive. The prints I've been doing with that lens are - well - they're no slouches.

Ah - that MP body would be nice - but I would need to hit a lottery for that. In the meantime, if I wanted a second body - I'd go with a second M3 double-stroke. Great stuff that.

* * *
Ooh. And my nice 39mm summicron vented lens hood $16 arrived today. Good deal. I think I'm going to call my next website: www.39mm.com

Cigs, Times Square

Cigs, Times Square - 2006

Dave,

Come on mate!

Where's the shots from Times Sqr you where telling me about?!

You said you were standing and watching the world pass by clicking
off some good stuff with
the new 35mm?!

Pappy III

Dear Pappy,

The thing is - I was saying that I was clicking away and that I felt invisible. But unfortunately for me the crowd wasn't cooperating. They brought out the boring - do nothing interesting - crowd that night. The best I could find were this couple exchanging a cigarette. Sorry matey.

DB

STEELWORKER SCULPTURE

STEELWORKERS, #2, UNION SQUARE



STEELWORKERS, #1, UNION SQUARE

Which one do you like better. I like #2 better because of the trees in the background and I think having a better sense of the entire sculpture. In case you can't tell, or haven't seen this before - it is actually sitting atop a truck, and I suppose can be moved around the city. Whether it is an exact reproduction in sculpture of the famous photograph (was that one done while building the Empire State Building?) I don't know. But I haven't seen this before in Union Square and my initial reaction was: only in New York.

Dad's Birthday in Tarrytown

Back from two days at the Marriot Tarrytown Hotel. It was the annual family reunion for the patriarchs birthday. I used to think that I could find something to shoot anywhere - but as I stood on the 10th floor balcony overlooking the parking lot with the highway in the background and some office building that looked like it has just landed and unfolded - I thought long and hard about pressing the shutter and concluded that as sterile as it was - it wasn't worth a 1/36th of a roll of film.

And I guess you got me there. Stick me in the suburbs and although I've seen work by artists about this tortured sterile land - I don't want to document it. I don't. You can't make me press the shutter.

And inside the hotel. A major dance contest - mostly ballroom. Little girls heavily made-up with their hair tied back. Bigger girls marching their little potential contest winners around.

Help me Ronda. They've taken me to another planet. I can leave any time I want - so long as the cake has been served and the presents for the octogenarian handed out.

Presents - my dad asks me if I'll buy him a CD changer (5-CDs) and then calls (after I've bought it) to declaim that he has thought better of it and that he doesn't have room for a CD changer. How would I like to have the CD changer for my birthday (in December) instead.

He has no room? He lives in a five room apartment in Long Island - each room as large as my entire apartment.

No - he has talked with his companion and there is no room. And he would just like to see me. That's all the present he wants.

Dang. Now what. I can return it. Maybe I'll find a spot for it.

But I only have one thing to say, "What a wasteland" out there. How do you do it? So happy to come back to my tiny apartment in what I will call a freakin' neighborhood. I need a neighborhood to be happy. Hey - Johnny! What's goin' on.

Noodle Shop

Noodle Shop, Times Square - 2006

Padlock

Padlock, 2006

Purple Haze

Before I soup my next two rolls of tri-x - question. Lately my tri-x has retained a slight purpleness - i.e. the film hasn't gone to clear.

Am I not giving it enough time / hypo?

Too much time in the hypo?

I'm using Ilford Rapid Fix for 5 minutes, shaking every 30 secs. This is pretty much what I've been doing forever. Then I wash it for about 30 minutes.

What've I done wrong? I have three rolls to soup.

* * *
Consensus is that the hypo isn't doing enough of it's thing (too cold, weak, not enough time). That's the easiest thing to fix (no pun intended) as I can take a piece of this film and put it through the fix again and see what happens.

I ended up down in Times Square around 11 p.m. (after seeing Spamalot) - and I was just having this great time with my new 35mm summicron buddy. I had been creeping through one roll of film over the last week or so - nursing it along - and then ZOOM!!! Times Square took over and neurons sped up; stuff was zipping around, and although I was shooting at f2, I could watch as people walked in and out of focus and just see it so clearly.

Oh - Spamalot is a great show if you like Monty Python humor (I'm a fan from way back). From even before - Beyond the Fringe - Peter Cooke et. al. Anyway - this was a tremendous production and frankly - when I left - I felt like I could sit through it again if someone would give me another ticket. Special kudos to the lady in the lake who stole my heart.

* * *

THANKS ALL. I doubled the hypo time to 10 minutes and negs. look the way they should.

Articles Blog

I'm moving the articles into a blog format so people can comment on them. I've just put the first one in. This I would expect, would be more of a repository than a fluid blog.

PHOTO TECH BLOG

Boy on Bench, Paris

Here's Boy on Bench 1/100 on eBay. I think it's pretty special. I know that a lot of readers of this blog liked it when I first posted it, but I'm not sure if this will sell or not since my own experience is that scenics, architecture etc. sell better than anonymous people.



Boy on Bench on eBay

d.u.m.b.o. on eBay

I put 1/100 up on eBay. dumbo on eBay doesn't sound appetizing but this is a good print. Yeah, there's a reserve - I'm not going to sell it for $25 or whatever but it's still a bargain.



Here's the link to the item on eBay.

SOLD. That went fast. Let me see what else I've still got a number one of.

So is knowing the actual edition number something that makes a difference - or only if it is the 1/100. Let me know. I never went through the trouble of integrating the print number with my cart so that it would bump up after a sale was made. Maybe I should. Maybe it only makes a difference if it is 1/100 or 100/100.

Going to St. Pat's Parade

Going to Parade