Building #306

Building #306, 1994 (Pentax 67)

BEFORE AND AFTER

Here's the shot as it came out of the 4990 with vuescan, with only resizing for the web. Above is the finished version for the web. It may seem extreme, but if you pick up Ansel Adams' The Making of 40 Photographs you will see similar examples.

2 weeks

Not quite official since the day she ain't over; but this does mark the two-week mark for ye olde addict. It is nice to be able to carry boxes up the stairs without getting winded; and I think there were some unexpected effects such as wanting to shower every 20 minutes, and clean the house, and have some feeling of being organized.

At this point, the physical monkey is supposed to be off ye olde backside; and all that's left is the big psychological monkey. I definitely feel that monkey as a couple of times I went to reach for a cigarette and realized I didn't have any anymore and had given up smoking.

Last night I just about slept through the night for the first time since quitting. But around 5 a.m. was woken by this dream that I swear I've had before.

One of those - I'm late for a test type dreams - where I'm running up flights of stairs. I'm not sure if this school is college, high-school or what, but the stairs have mesh fencing. Everyone is already sitting down in class waiting for a teacher to hand out papers. I get to the top floor and the halls are empty. I don't remember which classroom I'm supposed to go to. As I run down the corridors I open each door and see perfectly geometrical classes of students with their hands clasped, awaiting something.

I'm trying to remember which class I'm supposed to be going to. Spanish? Algebra? History? I have no idea. To make things worse, I can't remember if I'm a student or the teacher. The only thing I know is that I have to get to one of these rooms and do something.

Finally - I open a door to a closet where there's an eraser-cleaning machine. The room is filled with chalk dust and the door slams shut behind me. The machine goes on by itself and I start suffocating on the dust. I hear knocking on the door behind. I can't talk. I want to scream out that I'm drowning in chalk dust but my mouth is too dry. I catch sight of myself in a mirror - white-faced.

The door opens behind me and I jump past this Lincolnesque figure and continue running; but now I'm leaving white footprints in the corridors. I'm running and running and soon I realize that I'm going over my own tracks. I fall to the floor and look through my bookbag. That's it. My bookbag. What books do I have. I open them up, one at a time. They're all the same book: The Anthropomorphic Arcade. But the pages are blank.

Bells are ringing. I find myself - as you do in dreams - at a registration desk on another floor where I'm asking if they have a record of me going to this school and if so what class am I supposed to be in. All stuffy old ladies thumbing through cards. Finally one them recognizes me.

Mr. Beckerman. Are you feeling alright? Why aren't you in your --

At which point I wake up.

Yes, that's day 14 for you.

Schurz Park Trees

Schurz Trees in Rain

A few years ago I setup a glass plate in front of the camera for this shot, and put different substances on the glass: water, vaseline etc. I don't remember anymore how this particular shot was done. I guess I could just have bought a fog filter, but I had been reading about effects that were used in motion picture films in the early days and I had wanted to fool around with the idea of shooting through glass that wasn't right up on the lens.

When I looked at the scan of the negative, it still wasn't "enough" diffusion so I ran it through a median filter - and blended it with the original shot. For better or worse - I'm not sure yet.

Mirror and Cup

Mirror and Cup

Day 13

Nothing unexpected here - but here ya go:

"- When I faced what seemed like a wall of used Nikon F100s at Adorama a short while back, I wondered how long it would be until Nikon started paring back their film-camera line. I got my answer today: except for the extremes of their SLR line (the new-ish flagship F6 at one end, the lowly FM 10 at the other), all of their film-based cameras are biting the dust, along with a lot of their remaining manual-focus lenses. There's a lot of demand for the F6, and presumably the FM 10 (the student-shooter's standard, affordable sidearm, courtesy of Cosina)." - Barrett


TODAYS NEW YORK TIMES

TOKYO, Thursday, Jan. 12 - The Nikon Corporation, the Japanese camera maker, said Thursday that it would stop making most of its film cameras and lenses in order to focus on digital cameras.

A company spokesman said Nikon made the decision because sales of film cameras have plunged. In the most recent fiscal year ended March 2005, Nikon said that film camera bodies accounted for 3 percent of the 180 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in sales at the company's camera and imaging division. That is down from 16 percent the previous year.

By contrast, sales of digital cameras have soared, the company said, jumping to 75 percent of total sales in the year ended March 2005, from 47 percent three years earlier. Scanners and other products account for the remainder of the division's sales....

The beat goes on, and the beat goes on... (Sonny & Cher)

Man at Street Fair

Man at Street Fair

Your Move

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone," it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."

-----------------------------------

"Well, I was just inventing a new way of getting over a gate - would you like to hear it? "

"Very much indeed," Alice said politely.

"I'll tell you how I came to think of it," said the Knight. "You see, I said to myself 'The only difficulty is with the feet: the head is high enough already.' Now first I put my head on top of the gate - then the head's high enough - then I stand on my head - and the feet are high enough, you see - then I'm over, you see?"

(Through the Looking Glass)

Day 12

I put up Lost Music for sale. That shot has several hidden meanings for me; feelings about my mother who was a musician and the echo effect of the gate's vertical lines and the musical staff; as well as other things that I'm sure are not remotely apparant to anyone else.

But there you go. I can well imagine the guard in the future museum pointing out these "secrets" to the art grazing public. "Now, if you'll step this way, we'll take a look at Lost Music. Of course, the irony is that the music is not lost, it has been found by the photographer. And furthermore, if you look at the hologram closely, you'll notice that the gate echoes the idea of the musical staff." And some future wiseguy can say, yeah, 'cept that a musical staff only has 5 lines in it. So why's his fence have six lines? Huh? And the curator can explain that in the 20th century, photographers didn't like to be too literal.


How does day 12 feel? Better than day 11. My mind is still not into shooting, and I'm not pressuring myself. I went at a pretty good clip for a long time, and I'm enjoying re-working old prints.

Eating Clubs

Not having attended Princeton, I was surprised to hear that they had eating clubs at Princeton, though Judge Alito said he wasn't a member of any. I'm wondering whether these eating clubs were copied from the eating clubs we had at my old high school: DeWitt Clinton. Here are a couple of eating clubs that I remember:

Smashing Face Eating Club
Dumb and Happy Eating Club
My Race Only Eating Club
My Race Only II Eating Club
Get The ?*!* Outa Here Eating Club

And here are a few from Princeton:

Ivy Club 1879
Cap and Gown Club 1890
Colonial Club 1891
Key and Seal Club 1904-1968
Dial Lodge 1907
Arch Club 1911-1917
Cloister Inn 1912-1972, 1977-
Court Club 1921-1964
Prospect Club 1941-1959

Judge Alito may not have been a member of any of these eating clubs, but he does know which side his bread is buttered on.

To read more about these clubs and their history, click here.

Lost Music

I'm still working over old images. This one is tantalizing because I can make out bits and pieces of the lyrics and the chords. The phrase Let It Rain is in there twice. A first draft of: The weather outside is frightful? And I can make out that it is for a guitar and what key it is in and the time signature is 4/4.

This interest in a piece of lost music, now really found music - that's sufficient for day 12.

Winogrand

I've been going through the Winogrand, Figments from the Real World book (yes finally Matt). He comes across as a sort of Kerouac beat photographer - rough around the edges and clicking at a thousand frames a minute. Sort of like automatic typing. And I can understand the flash that such energy imparts into the world. At the same time - I have to admit that neither Kerouac nor Winogrand are my cup of tea.

What? Heresy? It's true. I could never finish On The Road. And looking through the Figments from the Real World makes me want to go find a good HCB book to flip through. And what's even worse is Winogrand was from my old neighborhood - well close enough to call it my old neighborhood.

I know how it happens. The early shots - full of energy - tone - the things that excite you when you first start - get warped over by theory. Or maybe we all just run out of steam at some point.

Throw out the old - in with the new - throw out the technique - replace with something different. Stream of consciousness.

And - to make matters more inexplicable - the shots that I found myself staring at the most were the Rodeo shots; the Texas shots; the application of a New York sensibility to a foreign landscape. Those shots I liked a lot.

I'll just consider this part one for now - and don't know if there will be a part two - but if there is - who knows - my reaction may be completely different.

Day 11

Ozymandius Preacher Montage