Quadograph Flags

P.S. I do find this kaleidoscope effect interesting. Recipe, begin with the shot in upper left corner. Flip horizontal and place upper right corner. Flip this one vertical and place lower right corner. Flip the original and place in lower left corner. You do have to schmear (I'll take a schmear of creamcheese please) the jointings a little. But almost any image that has something halfway geometric along the right and lower edges will give you this kaleidoscope effect.

I think I'll name these: Quadographs.

[Camera: Canon 20D / Post-processing effects by Beckerman Light & Magic]

27 Years Later Part 2

The things they say sound pretty cold
Hope I die before I get old...

And sure enough - that's what happened. Just about all the great ones died before they got old, at least in the wonderful world o' music. Mostly drugs - though disease and murder played their parts as well. Except for Dylan - my generation won't have to sit around and watch their idols perish.

Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Phil Ochs, Janis Joplin, Momma Cass, (Richard Manuel, Rick Danko - The Band), John Lennon (my favorite Beatle), George Harrison (the youngest Beatle).

Oh and there were the politicians as well - and that whole Camelot thing which I was too young to buy into and probably wouldn't have bought into it even if I were older. And the other brother slain - who I thought was an opportunist the way he tossed his hat into the ring only after seeing which way the wind was blowing.

But whatever. All gone. And so as I say - we won't have to sit around on our rockers and commiserate with each other about how so-and-so died at 89 (how young he was).

But - we haven't been entirely spared - because the actors - and I mean the male actors - of our generation - now they have survived and prospered.

Attica! Attica! We get to see the big trio: Pacino, DeNiro, and Hoffman - age and as I say - prosper. What we do have to look forward to is the day when DeNiro (and he isn't far from this yet in terms of film choices) will be pitchman for adult diapers. (You talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?). Sorry - my hearings been going lately and I didn't hear you. Oh, you are talkin' to me.

For some reason (less drugs?) the major stars of my generation (even Clint Eastwood) are still going strong. Who would've thunk - that when you saw Dustin Hoffman step onto the scene in his scuba suit - that he'd still be a major star 40 years later?

I mean - even Bill Shatner is still going strong. Now the actresses haven't fared as well in terms of work - but they've not kicked off.

That's all. There might be some point to all this - but I forgot what it was. Oh yes, bejesus - that we would be spared witnessing the aging of most of my generations idols because they had all split so damned soon. That was the idea. And how they did change the world in their three decades!

Not tryin' to 'cause a big -- s-s-s-ensation.
Just talkin' 'bout my generation. (the Who)

Girl with Pail

Sales?

It's always deadly this time of year - no big holidays. No holidays at all.

I haven't had a sale for over a week now. My first reaction - which I will admit is perverse - is to raise prices.

But I'm thinkin' if they don't buy it for $75 might as well have 'em not buy it at $100.

Then I was thinking - do a one-of-a-kind print. One print numbered 1/1. The buyer gets the original negative cut into pieces with one part missing (in case they want to glue it together and make more prints). I like that idea. Instead of $75 for that print, I would do a bidding on eBay and start the bidding off at $1000.

Matt Weber (New Work)

Friends - go to Matt Weber's NEW WORK

Wait for the page to load.

Besides the great opening shot which is the Times Square that I remember, scroll down to the shot of the three guys with coffee cups (about the 12th photograph). Are the first and last guys twins, brothers, or am I seeing things. I was walking with Matt when he snapped that - and as he'll tell you a chuckled.

I'm not sure why I laughed. Recognition that this was a Matt shot. It all happened so fast. We had just seen the Gordon Parks exhibit (he died yesterday or the day before at 93) and were going for coffee.

I was on Matt's left. As we crossed the street the trio approached. I recognized a repeating pattern of cups and similarity of dress. But I didn't want it and besides wasn't quick enough and had the wrong lens on anyway.

Matt snapped and we continued. Then he berated himself that he should have tilted the camera down more. I think - and he can correct me on this, that he said, "I should've tilted down another 3 degrees. I think I missed their feet. "

I thought I knew what the shot would look like, but I was wrong. Matt had a wider lens than usual for him - and I didn't even notice the guy on the right at all. I also didn't have a sense of the distance between the trio. I did see that the third guy gave Matt the old why'ya takin' a picture of me and I'm on to you, eye. That I saw.

Anyway, we continued on to the coffee shop and juggling for the seat with the best view. Although in street shooting, no one knows where the seat with the best view will be. Can you imagine a bar called, The Street Shooter? Lot's of windows looking out onto the street. Revolving chairs. And the best street shots taken from those chairs on the wall?

Promenade Redeux

Hi Dave

I thought I'd let you know that my 'Promenade' print arrived this morning.
Its amazing! You're right about the grey tones; there's a goregous three
dimensional quality as the trees fade in the distance; I could just take a
stroll down there! Its going next to Nightstorm on my wall so when I wake
in the morning I can see something that inspires me.

Print arrived in superb condition with no creases, bumps or bangs; you
have packaging down to an art too!

I'll have to start thinking about what I want next, 'Brooklyn Bridge
Crossing' or 'Roosevelt Island Tram' are high on the list. Hope you've
recovered from the trauma of international posting for Promenade!

Thanks again Dave, pleasure doing business with you!
Allan

* * *

One of the ironies of living through the switch from darkroom to inkjet is that an inkjet print still doesn't have the - je ne sais quoi - of a darkroom print. For the regular Joe out there - an inkjet print is still related to that junk that comes out of their home printer.

That will change someday just as I have pencils all over the house but can't draw a lick.

The irony, as you can see from yesterday's price list, is that the cost of producing the fine art inkjet print is probably double the cost of the same darkroom print. In fact, thinking about it, I'm ballparking it - the quantity of ink used increase with the square (the area) of the final print and so ink costs zoom at that rate - rather than at a linear rate. You know what I mean.

This is a good subject for someone out there to investigate - the cost of producing an inkjet print compared to a fine-art darkroom print. Other expenses come to mind for the inkjet print that have no equivalent on the darkroom end: software upgrades, cleaning cycles, storage for the digital files.

The major difference is in the time to reproduce the next one. It may take as long or longer to produce your first version of the inkjet print. Maybe you'll spend days making test prints and corrections in Photoshop. Maybe not. But once you feel you've got it - and if you've got your process down - then you leap ahead - as the amount of labor to make inkjet reproductions is minimal compared to the darkroom experience.

silver rag

My two rolls of Museo Silver Rag are on the way. Should be here tomorrow. Phew, I only had about three sheets of the Luster left.

Here are the prices:

sheets:

09904 300 8.5 x 11 sheets, 25 sheets/box 41.60
09905 300 13 x 19 sheets, 25 sheets/box 105.60
09906 300 17 x 22 sheets, 25 sheets/box 144.00
09907 300 24 x 36 sheets, 25 sheets/box 320.00
09908 300 35 x 47 sheets, 25 sheets/box 528.00

$/roll

09909 300 17" x 50 ft roll 144.00
09910 300 24" x 50 ft roll 192.00
09911 300 44" x 50 ft roll 336.00
09912 300 50" x 50 ft roll 368.00

* * *

Paper arrived today (3/8/06)

Here's my original post about the Silver Rag Paper.

on the mend w hcb

Yes - the signs of being mended abound. First off I found myself looking to pick up a new rangefinder lens - which means that my attention is starting to wander to things besides my health and age. I was surprised to find out that the Leica lenses, at least the new ones - had actually gone up in price since the last time I looked. Remember, I still only have the 28 Voigtlander and the 50 f2.0 Leica and that's it. I'm in the mood for a nice 35mm to nibble on. For example, here was that luscious 35mm f/2.8 Summaron with "goggles" made for the M3 (which is my main camera) for only $650. Wouldn't that be a nice addition to my family?

I could put the goggles on that one and keep it that way and then use my nifty R2A with other lenses. Or buy a second M3 at some point. Or that nice Hexar RF - they have new bodies at B&H. Once the mind goes off in these directions - then I know that spring is on the way and a young man's fancy turns to glass (I said glass).

Then all I have to do is find a roll or two of 40-year old b&w film; hire some extras that I can dress up in 50's or 60's garb; and take some shots that HCB might have taken; make the contact sheet; age it; and tell Sotheby's that I discovered this contact sheet in a little store near the Seine - on my last trip to Paris. That should take care of my money problems for a while.

Actually, I did go out twice today and stomp shoot some film with my Hexar (two rolls) - and came back for a nap. I sort of forgot just how hard street shooting is.

And the Mets are playing. I actually watched an exhibition game yesterday! I tuned in late so they were playing the new guys by then and I didn't recognize many from last year. But it was fun to watch a Cleveland player drop a ball in the sun. Ah - here comes the sun. I can feel it.

27 Years Later

It happened to me while I was rummaging through my desk drawer looking for my weekly pill container - one of those plastic things with a separate sealed cube for each day's worth of pills. I stumble across the flotsam from past lives: a transcript from NYU Graduate Film School (entered Fall 1979). It is a musty xerox. Grades for film production, directing, acting. I was 27 years old when I went there. I remember being embarrassed to let anyone know how old I was since just about everyone else had just emerged from college and it had taken me until my 27th birthday to get out of college. It is now 27 years later.

Other bits from the past surface. Here's a business card from the software company I started: Tigercub Software, Inc: Delivering Lotus Notes to All PCs in Your Company. You don't even know what Lotus Notes is - and if you do - probably hate it.

That was my slogan. I remember sitting with my partners in the Indian restaurant telling them how I had come up with the name: Tigercub. It was based on an old saying: If you want tiger cubs, you need to go into the tiger's cave. Similar to the New York lotto slogan: you need to be in it to win it.

That was another two years of mostly wasted energy. (Though I put up my first web site for Tigercub so you might think of this site as a tiger cub - now grown up.)

Here's the small album with pictures of the old girlfriend. She must be retired to Florida by now.

Here are all the empty pill bottles from years with the chronic disease. With memos about doctor's appointments. With keys from an old car. Keys from the old summer house - long gone.

You're only as old as you feel.

My nose is running and my back is sprained. I'll be sixty in 6 years. These are facts, my friend. You can't argue with facts. If all goes as it is supposed to you get about 7 decades in this country. So much of it wasted.

Those first two decades are almost entirely a waste. You don't control your own destiny. Everything is about the future. They're gonna make sure you feel guilty about something or other and try and get you ready for the rest of your life. Be careful because you may find that the so-called rest of your life that you've been preparing for doesn't arrive. You're always preparing for the next decade.

I'm supposed to be preparing now for the last two decades, 6 and 7. Screw that. That's about all I've learned. What am I going to do - retire at 62.5? Retire from what? I'm already retired, I just don't have the retirement program to prove it.

Well, the cat jumped up and is sitting on my lap purring away, so I guess this confession must come to an end. Besides, there's still more flotsam to wade through.

At least I'm not alone. This has got to be the largest aging population in American history right now. Remember how old "64" sounded, when you heard the Beatles sing, "When I'm 64?" I remember learning that song on the guitar. How quaint it all sounded. Now it sounds damned close.

Photography Lessons

I continue to get requests to do some lessons. So thinking out loud - here's what I've come up with:

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPY LESSONS

$100 PER LESSON. 1.5 HOUR LESSON.

MINIMUM 4 LESSONS. during the course of a month.

The reason for the 4 lesson minimum is - let's only take serious people. You can't expect to get what you need in an hour-and-a-half and there's going to be some sort of assignment for each session so you can do things on your own. I can if you like combine two lessons into a 3-hour lesson.

First half hour is an evaluation (let's try and figure out what you need).

The concentration is black and white output, but there are so many possible areas: digital capture, film development, inkjet printing techniques, photoshop techniques (uh, that is vague but geared towards the b&w print), useful photoshop plug-ins for b&w, street shooting, urban landscape (composition - bring a tripod), rangefinder shooting technique - in other words, anything that I know something about is fair game.

I'm guessing that every person is going to arrive with different goals and different expertise so I would like, as much as possible to tailor it to the individual.

Note: All of this in my state-of-the-art, fully equiped, smoke-free studio (studio can fit two comfortably). Have I left anything out? Let me know.

Academy Relics

" I live in Edinburgh, Scotland (a beautiful city, visit it one day!) and use a mixture of Contax G2 and Pentax 67 for different stuff. It was snowy here yesterday and I was working in the Old Town using the 67, looking for patterns on the roofs of the old buildings. Camera was mounted on tripod when a tourist (American) looked at me in wonder, and asked was I using 'a new type of digital camera', and looked totally bemused when I told him that no, it was film, and black and white too! He kept looking at me as if he'd just seen a relic...! "

It's pretty easy in this country to check whether you're a relic or not. There is a simple test this time of year:

How many of the films nominated for best picture at the Oscars have you seen?

ZERO = relic! Total relic. You're still using glass plates.
ONE = you're not a relic yet, but you will be one next year.
TWO = you're just old. But if you don't get out more you will be a relic all too soon.
THREE = You're no relic. You're swingin' baby. You just got the latest powershot.
FOUR = You just picked up the latest Canon digital SLR and you don't even take pictures.
FIVE = You are the lastest in digital. Not even available yet.

Oh - I've seen zero (total relic). I don't want to see I Walk the Line. I'm not even such a big Johnny Cash fan and that guy who's playing him reminds me of the bad guy from Gladiator.

Truman Capote and cold blood. I'll see it on DVD.

Where's the big blockbuster?

Cab Window in Rain

2006, Cab Window in Rain