Holga-riffic!




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Originally uploaded by pdb206.

Just got my first roll of shots with my new Holga. Ooops!

I flipped the switch on the film counter (from 16 to 12) without swapping the mask, so I took 12 pictures (well, not really, when you omit the ones where I forgot to take the lens cap off) with the mask set for 16.

Friday Random Ten: it’s almost Saturday edition

Sunset Road / Béla Fleck & The Flecktones / Live Art (Disc 2)
Hollow Inside / The Buzzcocks / A Different Kind of Tension
Speed Of Life / David Bowie / Low
Svefn-G-Englar / Sigur Rós / Ágætis Byrjun
Coal Train Robberies (Demo) / Elvis Costello / Spike Bonus Disc
Vous et Moi / Django Reinhardt / Verve Jazz Masters 38: Django Reinhardt
The Right Profile / The Clash / London Calling
1_III. Scherzo. Allegro / Sir Colin Davis & the Boston Symphony Orchestra / The Complete Symphonies 1 (Disc 1) / Colin Davis & the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Hackensack / Fountains Of Wayne / Welcome Interstate Managers
Distant Sun / Crowded House / Recurring Dream
Mazurka in F-sharp Minor, No. 1 / Béla Fleck / Perpetual Motion

Bonus: Reflecting Pool / Let’s Active / Big Plans for Everybody

the death of film, the rebirth of photography

Danger: long, rambling, exploratory post ahead.

Getting back to being a filmwasterâ„¢ I am spending more time in camera stores — not mall stores but dealers in paper, film, and more exotic cameras. I keep running into people, employees and customers alike, trying to make sense of how quickly digital photography has taken hold.

The present
The general consumer market became the early adopters, the opposite of what usually happens, since the equipment didn’t meet the requirements of professionals. The early digital cameras were new-fangled Instamatics with the added ability to share images and re-use them online. But those images were not good enough for professionals — wedding shooters, journalists — as they lacked the depth and detail of film. Also, the cameras were too limiting: no interchangeable lenses, limited exposure controls, all made for an unsatisfactory product.

The past
Ten years ago saw the introduction of .3 megapixel cameras for $500. Today, the same dollars will buy 6 megapixels. In the same timeframe, more or less, Kodak’s APS format film, the latest greatest option, was introduced and killed. The trend is always toward simple, easy to use cameras and film: 35mm was tricky for some people, after all. How much easier does it get when you have no film at all?

Everyone has a shoebox or two filled with pictures from vacations, birthday parties, graduations, probably no better or worse organized than the files on disk we are moving toward. Are these digital files as permanent as we think? Are they even as permanent as the old paper images?

Photography, for the home consumer, has been of two kinds: the kind where you took your own pictures and where you paid someone else with fancy equipment and perhaps a studio to take pictures. The quality of the “take it yourself” images has improved (though I’m not sure a good digital image can top a good Kodachrome transparency) and at the same time become more portable in the digital age. Sharing images is easier, more immediate, and that’s what many people want.

The other kind of photography, documentary or commemorative, however you define what happens at weddings and parties, has lost its perceived value. Everyone has a brother-in-law with a new digital camera who can take nice pictures, and it’s not always clear why someone would hire a professional to capture a moment or event. In many cases, the brother-in-law is not as good as hoped but the moment is gone. Lighting, timing, the experience of setting up shots — as all weddings have a few standard shots — and the associated peace of mind, are what a professional brings to the event.

The old joke about the plumber billing a customer $150 for hitting a pipe with a hammer to clear a drain comes to mind. When the customer complained about the bill and the value of paying for a single hammer blow, the plumber itemized the bill as follows:

  • $25 for hitting the drain pipe
  • $125 for knowing where and how hard

Photographers used to make some of their money on the presentation of their work — prints and albums — where now a bride will simply request a CD with the images to reproduce. Used to be, photographers would never part with the negatives, both as a business decision and as a defense of copyright. I am surprised that photographers agree to that. I was told a story this week about a guy who used to charge $4,000 to shoot a wedding, prints and album included: now he charges $2,000, hands over the CD, and calls it even. I’m surprised anyone goes along with that. I need to review the whole “work-for-hire” vs copyright thing. Back in the 20th century, no one would sell negatives unless the price covered all potential earnings from an image.

The future
But some film formats endure. Consider that 120 film has been around since 1901 and 35mm since the 1920s, and the large format sheet films are still around. What I am seeing is a move away from film for two segments of the photo marketplace — the amateur and the professional — while the smaller niche, artists for lack of a better descriptor, are still/increasingly interested in film for its more malleable qualities, its flexibility, its tangibility.

Physical photography (or analog photography, as I heard someone call it this week, not without a chuckle) has the potential to get back to its roots as fine art, and away from being a commodity. I am finding it a lot more enjoyable and satisfying to think through what I want to capture and how best to do it. I walk away from some subjects, where with a digital camera I might go ahead and shoot. I am still likely to throw out the image when I get home: with film I have a better understanding of what the film can handle and can judge whether or not to gamble a frame.

Case in point: I am going on a school field trip tomorrow and I plan to bring at least two, perhaps three cameras — a digital (Nikon 5400), my Foldex pinhole camera, and possibly the Holga, though I haven’t yet seen what it does and would like to see how badly it leaks before I run anymore film through it. If my Polaroid pinhole or the 6×12 I keep procrastinating over where ready, they would also be considered.

I know that for some things, digital is best, since I need to share those pictures as documentary images. But pinhole or Holga will be more useful for other things, where I want more of an impression than a realistic document. I actually think pinhole images, with their inherent softness and infinite depth are more realistic since they allow the viewer to take in the whole scene, all of which is in focus, and let their eye pick out what they value, rather than what the photographer chose.

Now playing: Feelin’ by Charlie Pickett and the Eggs from the album “Uncollected Singles”

seasonal tasks

The services of ladybugs are required at Thistle Dew, so I obtained a quantity — 1500 or so — and turned them loose this evening.

Also purchased additional packets of seeds, as my earlier experiments — carrots and some salad greens — have failed to yield much and the plot looks barren. Potatoes are doing well, as are collard greens and spinach.

Carrots are tricky, for me anyway. Slow to germinate and from all accounts, inconsistent. Who needs that? So we’ll do some more greens, some broccoli and spinach, and some cabbage. Leafy greens. Tomatoes are coming along, as is basil. So we’ll have a few fresh items from the garden this summer.

One lesson I learned is that irrigation systems for small plots like mine are more trouble than they’re worth. If you water everywhere, you’re liable to get weeds everywhere. But if you water just the veggies you are about, everything else withers away. Drip systems are all very well, but who wants to run a line to each head of romaine or bunch of spinach? Easier to carry a can of captured rainwater out there and walk the rows. You can see what’s going on and deal with it at the time.

generalizations

I sometimes wonder at the completely different perceptions academics have of the world. My comments are italicized.

Marginal Revolution: Why I love the suburbs:

Why I love the suburbs

I favor the suburbs for several reasons…

1. We live 30 minutes from Washington but we also have a fox in the backyard. Deer are a frequent sight as well.

30 minutes? At any time of day? Will that last? I don’t know many people who regard a fox — a predator, with the manners and temperament that accompany that niche — as a good neighbor. The illusion of wilderness: what does the fox live on, with his home range converted to suburb? Pets?

2. Chinese restaurants are usually better in the suburbs these days.

Hoo, boy, there’s a benefit.

3. Driving is fun and a good way to experience music. MR readers know I favor a (revenue-neutral) gas tax. My worry is that car culture makes people more individualistic and thus I have some reluctance to tax this trend. Try Chuck Berry’s “No Particular Place To Go.”

As noted in the comments to the original post, driving is not fun and “experiencing music” as a reason to drive underscores how boring and undemanding — ie, a waste of time — it is. And the individuality he mentions should be called by it’s real name — self-centeredness — or it’s chief manifestation, road rage.

4. A few weeks ago, the first Fairfax County police officer died in the line of duty. That’s the first ever. In New Jersey, where I grew up, you might speak of the first local cop to die today.

This tells me nothing if I don’t have the context of Fairfax County’s population density in mind. Comments suggest this is an artifact of zoning: the distribution/division of land keeps prices high and keeps the poor out. I suspect one could make similar claims of many affluent communities. I wonder when the last police officer in Medina — where Bill Gates lives — drew a weapon?

5. Many of my friends who live in Manhattan lose interest in global travel or never acquire it. Sadly they feel they already have everything they need from the world right at home.

Yeah, this is accurate <snort>. My recollection of suburban life was that it was a way of escaping different experiences and new sensations: urban dwellers were more likely to seek out those things.

This is all a bunch of meaningless generalization, of course, in the original and in my responses, and I would hope that someone who managed to secure a PhD would realize that before he pressed the ‘Post’ button. Perhaps I am being unfair to academics, but there seems to be some reality distortion effect from guaranteed lifetime employment that clouds the vision.

The best line from the comments?

“There are suburbs and there are suburbs.”

Related reading:

The Triumph of Burbopolis
A SPRAWL WORLD AFTER ALL

ambitious photo projects

My oldest will be in 4th grade next year, and this means he’ll be going to a week-long camping trip with his classmates (and the 5th graders).

I have been thinking about a few ways to help them make it more memorable, more permanent, and photography comes to mind. How about:

  • a single use camera for each kid: they take home prints and the CD of pictures
  • a pinhole camera for each kid: same deal with the stuff they bring home
  • iPhoto picture books as keepsakes

I have found these books to be great gifts: people I have shown them to/given them to love them. I expect the ones available through Flickr are just as nice.

I think the book is a given: it will be a nice thing to have for the parents to see and for the school to show as part of the program. I like the single use camera but how predictable? They know how to use one and they won’t see anything unexpected. But a pinhole camera is a different animal. I feel pretty confident they won’t get what they expect.

Thoughts?
Some good ideas here.

The MSFT iPod box design

I never saw this when it was the talk of the Internets.

Discourse.net: What if Microsoft Had Designed the iPod Box?:

The most amazing thing about this video, though, is who made it: according to the Wall Street Journal, “it was produced by designers at Microsoft, in a spirit of self-criticism. It’s as if they know the sort of great design they ought to be doing, but are too smothered by a corporate culture to deliver it.”

If they know better, does that make them any more likable?

It’s funnier than I expected and if you have ever worked with ex-Softies, it’ll be just that little bit more pungent.

It’s a good design discussion in and of itself: if you look at good products and the design philosophy they share, simplicity is a common theme, from cars to appliances to clothes. A company as well-known as MSFT shouldn’t feel compelled to over-inform as the box video demonstrates, but their well-known inferiority complex gets in the way. Apple, Volvo, Lexus, Mercedes, SubZero . . . . they don’t struggle with that.

an idea that hasn’t gone out of style — yet

San Diego Serenade: Friday Charts – 5/19/06:

I saw the above image* on BoingBoing today. I’m not sure what it was specifically referencing, but it made me think about the recent lawsuit filed by the RIAA against XM radio. It’s broken down very well here, but basically the RIAA has decided to sue XM for making devices like the XM radio I have, that essentially act as Tivo’s for your radio, allowing you to record 5 hours of music. You can’t take the music off, you can’t give it to a friend, five hours is a pretty short amount of music to record, and it’s not CD quality. But that doesn’t stop the RIAA, whose next logical plan would have to be to seek out and sue all the widows of Gulf War veterans, just in case there are people out there who they haven’t alienated yet.

* The “Your Failed Business Model” image . . .