“Candid” tripod shot on Christmas eve, when (according to German tradition) the tree is lit for the first time. Boris and Michele on the left, then Jet, and Sarah, his godmother. Probably shot on Kodak E200, 1 second exposure, f8? Focus variable throughout – not the best situation for the Spud’s optics. Lighting is tungsten and a bit of window light. Jet’s godfather, Travis, released the shutter.
Just a few houses down from us is an intersection that I’ve always judged to be hazardous. Melbourne Avenue intersects with Kenwood Lane in a “T” in such a way as to invite sleepy or otherwise impaired motorists onto your property. Melbourne goes over a little rise right before meeting Kenwood on a little steep downhill. The rise prevents a motorist from seeing the stop sign until about the last hundred feet before the intersection. If you don’t know the roads, and you’re going too fast, chances are you’d not be able to stop – especially because coming over the rise your car would be “lifting,” and your traction would be reduced.
To make matters worse, DIRECTLY in the path of Melbourne, i.e. exactly opposite Melbourne, is a house, 1321. When I first saw this arrangement, I immediately thought: I would not want to live in that house; but if I was forced into it, I’d always park some kind of large, heavy, junk car in front of the house. Well, of course the current owners never do that (and amazingly, STILL don’t do it).
So, coming home at night last winter, we noticed a lot of flashing lights just down the road from us. Jet is totally into emergency vehicles, so we went to have a look. I had a peculiar suspicion. Sure enough, an automobile was lodged in the living room of the house opposite Melbourne Ave. Upon coming closer, though, I noticed that it was not 1321 – the house right opposite the intersection – but 1323, the house next to it. The car had come over the rise much too fast and could not stop. The driver had tried to make a left turn, but came nowhere near completing the turn. They jumped the curb, plowed through some bushes, and ended up as you see in the picture, entering the house at a diagonal angle.
To their great fortune, the family was not at home. I ran back to our house and grabbed the Spud and a tripod. With a policeman’s permission I set up at the corner of the property. I shot a roll exposing between 15 and 30 seconds onto RXP (fuji 400ASA). Local TV and newspaper reporters were there too. In the aftermath the story circulated: this driver had been running from the police, all the way from interstate, outside the city. They had come into town at high speed, taking random turns, ending up at this very unsuitable intersection.
The house has just been repaired, some nine months later. I guess it took a while to get the insurance money straightened out. I’ve not yet talked to the homeowners about the event – I might give them a stereoview sometime as a conversation starter. But I have talked to the neighbors at 1321, where I always thought such a mishap would be the most likely: they were surprised by the event, but remain otherwise not much more concerned than before, still not parking their car in front of their house.
For the past year or so there’s been a hotel going up across the street from my studio. Though I swore some years ago that I was “done” with “clear buildings,” the proximity and thus convenience of this building stimulated me to make one last one. It’s the reason I bought a Sigma (DP-1 Merrill) camera: this last Clear Building will be shot with some decent resolution, so that I can make truly large prints.
That work has been digital and is ongoing. But on a recent early morning, I found the building looking quite attractive, complex and mysterious. I shot it with a Sputnik, shooting cha-cha to obtain a larger baseline – maybe 12 inches – to give it more depth and interest. I did not record exposures but I think I shot thirty seconds at f-11 onto Kodak E-200.
I shot the USBG earlier this year during the day, and it is a smorgasbord of post-industrial steam-punk vs. wilderness 3d imagery. I returned last month to try and capture the magical evening light, which makes the place look even more mysterious than it already is. I was hampered by equipment problems (in part of my own making), and did not get very many shots. This is one of the better ones, taken about 5 minutes after the “magic” lighting had ended. (Equipment failure prevented pictures during the magic 15 minutes!).
Then, on the drive home (about two hours highway driving), my car broke down near Culpeper, about halfway home. Michele and Jet had to come fetch me in the middle of the night. The car was repaired in Culpeper over the course of three more weeks. I only got it back just recently. All in all, an ill-fated photo mission.
Sputnik, RSX 400 film, f16 probably, 30 seconds exposure.
Here we have the renowned UVA Lawn, centerpiece of the Academical Village designed by Thomas Jefferson for the first public University in the United States, which he founded. The Rotunda is at one end (to the North) and this slide shows the view in the opposite direction, towards Cabell Hall.
Another pretty fall view? You all know UVA has been in the news of late, so you also know that’s not all this view is about.
Just another dull foliage shot?
I’m including a wide angle from my twin Sigma rig, to give you a sense of scale…
What do you guys make of it?
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, this year we have a supposedly historic piece of Berlin wall grafitti art on our campus, on loan from the Hefner Collection. It is Dennis Kaun’s KINGS OF FREEDOM. I’m still researching the provenance of this artwork, because I’m a little bit suspicious of it, as it is clearly signed “copyright” 1990. Continue reading
Last fall, I got on a foliage kick. Finally, after many years of dismissing foliage imagery as “beneath me,” I thought, okay, it does look pretty spectacular, and maybe MF3d would be a good way to capture the beauty of some of our foliage here in Central VA. So for a couple of weeks I went around shooting foliage. Most of the shooting was digital video, actually, and there’s a video I ended up publishing on YouTube, best seen on a 3DTV in HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1mU646qYeM
But some of the trees I found were SO spectacular, digital could not do them justice. One of them is in the view I’ve put in this folio “Foliage.” I loved the structure of the tree, and the many different colored leaves that it had on display: lots of yellow and red, to be sure, but also greens and browns. The mid-morning sun was backlighting the leaves to brilliant effect. I had first been attracted to this tree, because it was dropping leaves. I was trying to get video of leaves coming down towards the camera(s). But then I noticed the tree for its own sake… The next day I went back to the tree, bringing the Sputnik and some rolls of Velvia, and it really captured the colors beautifully.
This view is almost as it would be if you were lying on your back underneath the tree. And I could have done so all day! Who needs TV, with trees like this right outside? The tree was in a busy part of UVA campus called “The Corner,” but you’d almost never see anyone taking notice of it. Truth be told, I had not noticed this tree until this fall, when I was really looking for foliage imagery, and I’ve been in that general area thousands of times over the past 30 years.
A couple of months ago, Michele and I went hiking with Jet. These days, about the only chance I get to shoot nudes is with her and the boy nearby. Fortunately, he gave me about 15 minutes with which to work, because he’d fallen asleep on the way to the location.
So in that quarter of an hour I shot a roll of 120 on my lovely model, then the second roll needed to be of Jet and my lovely model, as he had awakened, and was of course hungry. The boy is ALWAYS hungry… (at least for nursing at the breast). Maybe next round I’ll put in some slide(s) of Michele at the Blue Hole, but for now I think Jet is the more current topic!
Sadly, I have precious few MF3d images of Jet, as I discovered while looking to put my folio entry together. I’ve got thousands of digital images, of course, but now I must try to get some more on film!
Where last year all you got to see were photos of Michele a couple months pregnant, here is a shot of Jet (sorry, out of focus) visiting with Chuck Holzner (of Folio II). Jet had just started walking the week prior, and was eagerly careening around any and all available venues.
But not all is happiness in this picture. Chuck is ailing from stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and the doctors doubt he will make it to 2014. When I visited him here, in this photo, he was already three months into his diagnosis, and faring much better than anyone had expected. I’m presently helping him get his photographic legacy in order, in particular his collection of MF3d Newfoundland views, a number of which he has entrusted me to mount.
At the time this picture was made, he was in good spirits, considering his plight. Of his diagnosis and prospects, he said, “I haven’t had so much excitement in my life, in a long time!” He went on a big road trip with his two sons (hunting in Wyoming), and has been travelling to see family and pay last respects.
This view got mounted a bit “far,” with infinity points too far apart, and even the very near foreground behind the stereo window. Not sure what happened there, but it was not my intent. Been rushed lately, which hasn’t helped.
In the summer of 2012 the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors attempted the ouster of the university’s president, Theresa Sullivan. This was a bold and misguided move, which received national attention (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/magazine/teresa-sullivan-uva-ouster.html?_r=0).
Among the events that turned a “done deal” into a retreat by the Board, and a re-instatement of Sullivan, was this rally held in her support on the Lawn in front of Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda. Professors quit their jobs amongst a general hue and cry from the academic community, which was heard around the nation.
This image is an accidental double exposure with the Sputnik. This is not a snapshooting camera! Besides the many time consuming steps required prior to releasing the shutter, there is always the possibility that in the heat of the action some steps might be forgotten. In this case, I forgot that I’d already released the shutter, when, probably five seconds later, I decided to do it again! Fortunately, the tripod mounted camera had not moved, and the result is probably better than either image would have been alone. For one, the exposure is good! For another, now the scene is full of interesting stories, as some people moved their positions in that five second interval, whereas others turned their heads (resulting in several two-faced persons), and still others barely moved at all.
Date: July 2012
Tech:
taken with the Sputnik on loan from Chuck Holzner on Fuji Astia RAP100F, 1/25 sec., f22. This is the original slide.
Notes:
Here we have my new model Ava reclining amongst some rocks in the James River at Lynchburg, VA. All summer I had wanted to find a nice spot for photographing a nude in water. This place wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, but sometimes you just have to play the cards you are dealt. The remainder of the summer was taken up with NSA prep (thanks to Chuck for helping me mount MF3d for a month!), and thereafter a trip to Germany. Water pictures must now wait another year. Pray that the film processing remains available through 2013!
Date: June 2012
Tech:
taken with the Sputnik on loan from Chuck Holzner on Fuji Astia RAP100F, 1/10 sec., f22. This is the original slide.
Notes:
The slide mount is mis-titled “Old Shed.” But that’s okay… makes it a rarity (LOL, as if other MF3d slides weren’t already). Here we have my beloved posing on a granite outdoor dining set sculpted by Japanese sculptor Turo Oba. We were visiting a friend’s country estate. Believe it or not, she’s three months pregnant in this picture. We are expecting a child in December!
Date: May 2012
Tech:
Available light exposure of 1 second on FUJI Astia RAP100F film, at f22, with a modified TL120 (65mm lenses) on loan from John Thurston. This is the original slide.
Notes:
Chuck Holzner was also along on this expedition with a model, whom we took hiking in St. Mary’s Wilderness, just south of Afton, VA via the Blue Ridge Parkway. We ended up hiking down a trail about two miles before finding a pretty spot with a waterfall. This shot was taken along the way, when we spied some impressive looking boulders. We tried to get this done early enough in the year to avoid full foliage (looking for dappled sunlight), and also lots of other hikers. We mostly succeeded. There was still some sun in places, and only one couple of hikers disturbed us briefly, while we were working. Chuck nearly had a heart attack climbing out of the valley, it was so steep.
Date: April 2012
Tech:
Available light exposure of 1 second on FUJI Provia RDPIII film, at f22, with a modified TL120 (65mm lenses) on loan from John Thurston. This is the original slide.
Notes:
Earlier this year I had the chance to photograph inside an old coal fired power plant. Chuck Holzner and I travelled to the plant three times with various MF and digital cameras, and this slide is just one of probably over a hundred made coming out of those expeditions. The plant is in Fork Union / Bremo Bluff, VA, and was built about 1930. It was the first plant to be built with an “automatic” central control room. That means that valves, pumps, and other control elements could be remote-controlled electrically from the control room. This plant was decommissioned in the 1950s and now sits adjacent a newer plant.