Entries in hasselblad (22)

Saturday
Sep182010

The 52 Project, Week 12: Take Me Out to the Mud Hens

Ever since my mother and grandparents moved out to Northwest Ohio in 1990, my grandpa has had season tickets to the area AAA baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens. Sound familiar? Probably. The Mud Hens have been "world renowned" thanks to repeated exposure to the team name in the classic television show "M.A.S.H." As a farm team to the MLB team, the Detroit Tigers, the Mud Hens were great in the 80's, sucked in the 90's, and most recently have been a pretty darn good team. In 2003, they relocated from the rustic Ned Skeldon Stadium in Maumee, OH to the brand spanking new Fifth Third Field in downtown Toledo, OH. To sum things up, my grandpa LOVES baseball, and thereby, the closest team he can watch play, the Toledo Mud Hens. And even though he's pushing 80 years old, he goes to nearly every home game, knows practically everybody there, and is the happiest old guy I know for doing it.

 

80yr olds outside, 12yr olds inside.

 

Scan 1: Grandpa and Art

Once a group of four retired guys that go see the Mud Hens together, increasing age coupled with health complications have brought this jovial quartet down to a duo. Their spirited expressions towards the camera indicate they plan on going to ball games for the rest of their lives. For both Art and my grandpa's sake, I hope that's a long time.

 

 

 

The one kid not kicking the mascot.Scan 2: Girl with Muddy

One of my fondest memories of the Mud Hens was getting to hug/high-five their friendly fowl, Muddy the Mud Hen. I couldn't help but capture this little moment that definitely made this little girl's night.

 

 

 

Best seats in the house.

 

Scan 3: The Cheap Seats

As the next few weeks worth of The 52 Project will prove, photographing the elderly and their most candid moments is something that brings me great joy. This retired couple viewing the game from nearly the left field foul line was just "cute".

 

 

 

Something Good: Looks like all this expired Kodak Portra 160NC & 160VC from 2002-2004 isn't so bad after all.

Something Bad: All three of these shots are a little too "left heavy" for my taste. Add to that the tendency of expired film to blow out at the slightest bit of overexposure, it appears as though I've much to learn with these 30+ rolls of expired film stock.

Something Learned: You don't have to shoot the action at a sporting event. Considering my previous job included action, action, and more action, it's nice to kick back, enjoy the game, and snap some real candids when I have the chance.

Next Week: More of this 160VC, used with a little more caution and control, used with my best EVER model. ^__^



Friday
Sep172010

The 52 Project, Week 11: Back in Black...and White

 This week, after an absurd three week hiatus/disconnect from the internet, I'm going to start by doing something different. Before seeing the scans, I'm going to go over what I learned, not about film, but about the digital workflow/lifestyle.

Something Good: I backup my data bi-weekly. In the event of a total system meltdown, I still have my bare necessities. Also, my film scans from Millers come on an archival DVD, so no worries on color film; oh, and it's film, not a digital file, I still really have it. :p

Something Bad: My laptop hard drive was fried, one of my backups failed, and reformatting the system and re-importing, installing, and setting up preferences was a bitch.

Something Learned: Though it may take only a few days to get a system up and running again, life tends to get in the way of the regular blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr posts.

Next Week: Though it's over two weeks behind, should be up tomorrow. The last week of July, I accompanied my grandfather to a Toledo Mud Hens game. We had a blast, and I got a few cool expired color film images.

Now let's see some B&W scans:

 

I honestly had no idea what it was...Scan 1: Abandoned Chair

 

If the following series of images looks familiar, it's for good reason. This is that exact same, creepy house. I had a spare hour to mess around, so I grabbed some Tmax 100 and made a trip back. It was about 4:00pm, and I probably could have benefitted from some higher speed film, but this along with the next three images turned out sharp (enough). Processing was pretty standard, D-76 @ 70F for 6.5 min, regular agitation. Oh, but this time my fixer wasn't exhausted, so the scans have some extra "kick" to them.

 

 

Shaky floor boards are shaky. >__>Scan 2: Abandoned Kitchen

 

I'm never walking deeper into this house again, period. The floors appear old, rotted through, and they are. While snagging this view of what looks to have been the kitchen, my right foot started to sink through some shaky floorboards.  I managed to recover from the near miss, but also managed to miss-wind the Hasselblad and mess up my next frame. It's alright though, you can squeeze a 13th frame out of a 120 spool if you're careful while loading.

 

 

Too much development, this image has it.Scan 3: Abandoned Hallway

 

Somewhere between Scan 2 and Scan 4 resides this image. There's some cool old wiring sinking down from the second floor, creating this stark contrast between it and the far window. Oh, and note the floor closer to the bottom of the frame, it's even more precarious with a few intact boards to walk across; looks like I got lucky with these ones.

 

 

 

The title should've included "abandoned", I know.Scan 4: Toilet Humor

 

Probably my favorite of this week's images, this scene of an abandoned bathroom is powerful and contrasty, but without being overly shocking or disgusting. What you see in the toilet bowl is nothing more than wood scraps, dust, mold, and dirt. Interesting what well over ten years of weathering and neglect can do to the room of the house dedicated to hygiene.

Monday
Aug232010

The 52 Project, Week 10: My Big Fat Jewish Wedding

About a month ago, I was carousing Craigslist for some last minute gigs to fill up my weekends (like the pro I am :p) for the end of July and early August. About ten minutes into my random browsing, a particular gig in the Columbus area struck me as a unique opportunity. "Photographer Seeking Assistant for Othodox Jewish Wedding" was the headliner. Considering I'd never even attended one of these ceremonies, experiencing one on the photographic side would be a real learning experience.  And oh boy was it an experience. A 9am to 9pm kind of experience. An I'm-not-sure-when-the-next-time-I'll-have-a-break-to-eat experience. But overall, much was learned, and there are a few interesting shots to commemorate that day. 

A short warning before going through these photos with a furrowed brow; I was a lighting assistant who wasn't supposed to be taking photos. Through a little sweet talking of my main, Abish, I convinced him that a few shots of film wouldn't hurt, *wink*.  Now onto the show, ^_^.

Pre-Ceremony Shots

 Abish shooting the bride. The big lighting setup.

 

The bride with niece and nephew.  A closeup of the bride.   

 

Kids with their Grandparents. Baby needs his Cheerios. The groom with rabbi minutes before ceremony.

The pre-ceremony shots aren't that varied for the simple fact that they all took place within the same 100 feet. We started setting up the lights at 10:00AM, moved to two different locations, and finally ended up at a large, sky-lit stairway, adorned with fake foliage. Awesome backdrop? Not really; but it beat the hell out of whatever white, green, and beige walls were lined up to begin with.

With a vast majority of all my previous weddings being Catholic, prior to this shoot I was used to only one hour before, and up to two hours after the ceremony for any kinds of group pictures. This day, however, had allotted two and a half hours before, and nearly two hours after for the group pictures. "Uh oh," I thought, "this is going to be a long one." Every possible combination of relative between both the bride and groom's sides were captured, no matter how irrelevant certain said combinations were.

Post Ceremony Shots

Blessing the bride & groom, and the meal. The bride's big happy family.

Rabbis in downtown Columbus.

Did I mention this day was long and still at a fast pace? Anyone who's familiar with the Hyatt Regency Columbus and Greater Columbus Convention Center knows they're HUGE. And amongst this huge complex, this wedding's party moved between not one, not two, but seven, that's right, SEVEN banquet rooms. So aside from sweating my butt off in full black suit and tie, I was also the kid responsible for juggling a four light strobe setup between five of these seven rooms. This didn't leave a lot of time for candids where I was expecting to get them, namely the ceremony and reception. I was lucky enough to manage a few post ceremony shots that give a unique feeling to the day's events

 

Something Good: I learned A TON about Jewish ceremonies. And even though I thought I took in a lot, all that knowledge is barely scratching the surface of what I'll need to know before claiming that "I also do Jewish weddings"

Something Bad: There's some pretty nasty flaring and loss of contrast throughout these shots. So what went wrong? I was using Fuji Pro 400H & 800Z; not that this is the entire issue, but these are Daylight balanced films that don't respond well to mixed lighting and/or uncoated lens flare.

Something Learned: I need some "Jewish terms" flash cards, seriously. Maybe after three or four more of these weddings will I feel comfortable enough to go through shooting a Jewish ceremony without embarrassing myself or offending anybody involved.

Next Week: I'm revisiting B&W in a big way. More work in Tmax 100 and 400, with better handling, processing, and scanning.

 

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