The 52 Project, Week 14: Old People in the Park

So the great photo catchup begins.

This project is starting to change me, I can feel it. Prior to the onset of this unforeseen commitment, I spent at least three hours on the computer daily. Now? I’m getting sunlight, exercise, and am even meeting new people. This project most assuredly will be the death of me. x__x

Anywho, this week whilst not being at the computer, I went to the park to stalk senior citizens. It’s nearly as fun as it is creepy.

As soon as I hit 50, shuffleboard's my game!

Scan 1: Waiting on Their Turn

Heading out to Riverside Park in Findlay, OH on a late summer afternoon, the last thing I expected to see was a group of senior citizens enjoying a lively game of shuffleboard. Before this day, I thought shuffleboard was limited to senior centers and discount cruises; the more you know...

The game was intense, but no smack-talk.

Scan 2: Still Waiting...

This game requires quite a lot of patience. It's kind of like corn-hole's great great great grandfather. They were even keeping score on a chalkboard. Very awesome.

She backsteps, she shoots...

Scan 3: The Deciding Shot!

About as much action as one would expect from this game, but it was still a lot of fun to watch (and set up cool shots).

At least some people can appreciate nature.

Scan 4: Subtle Stroll through the Park

After a rousing few matches, I followed one of the not previously pictured couples around the park for a shot with a little more "awww" appeal. Success?

Before we skip right to the week's analysis, a little about the film used this week. It was all good 'ole Tri-X 400. Nice silvery skin tones, a pleasant brightness curve, and classic film grain. Minus a slight bump to the blacks, these scans are fresh off the Epson V700. For future info about the scans, all you have to do is click the photo, and you'll instantly be taken to the shot's Flickr location, where you'll find another brief description, what film the shot was taken on, and what shutter speed and aperture was used to make the photo. If you should find yourself lost in Flickr and wish to make your way back here, each photo description contains a link back to its corresponding article.

Something Good: The senior citizens being photographed were good sports. When shooting more than one or two frames of an interesting subject, I’ll ask the subject. Luckily enough, they agreed, so long as I didn’t interrupt their game. Old folks take shuffle board about as seriously as most men do the Superbowl.

Something Bad: I only got there to capture the last two matches for the day. Also, I forgot to ask them when they were playing next. >__<
Something Learned: I need to learn when to and not to make use of back-lighting. I the above situation, the results were overall okay. Black and white negative film is at the top of the dynamic range scale, so long as your metering is spot on.

Next Week: A sucker-punch of color to the face! I try out the sorta-new Kodak Ektar 100. Believe the hype, and then some!

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. ^__^



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.