John Edward Lenhart, 1927 - 2012

Earlier this morning, I received news today that while incredibly saddening, is a humble reminder of just how strong an impact photography can have. Around 10AM this morning, my grandfather, John Edward Lehnhart (Ned), passed away. For the sake of both my family and myself while writing this, I'm going to spare the details surrounding his death. After all, this post has no meaning being on a photographer's blog being a "woe is me", this post will be about photography, and what it means to be a photographer during sorrowful times. 

About three and a half years ago, I was an eager senior at The University of Findlay waiting, excited to start his first ever Digital Photography class, with professor Jeff Salisbury. Within seconds of the sounding bell to class, Jeff asked the class, "Why do we as humans take pictures?" The flurry of usual answers ensued, "To express ourselves!", "To capture the world around us.", so on and so on. After a few minutes of not hearing the answer he'd wanted to come out, he started to get a little bit teary-eyed and asked the class, "What about because people die?". All fifteen of us students, stunned, had no idea how to respond to that. After a few more seconds of silence, Jeff went on to explain how a young woman he'd taken senior pictures of several years earlier had died in a car accident earlier that morning. He hadn't been taking the news well all day, and explained to us all just how important it is to get any pictures we can of our loved ones, no matter how mundane the portraits may seem at the time.

Today, with a bit of a smirk and a tear in my eye, I can confirm just how right Jeff was.

The technical qualities of a photograph always come second to the fact that you took the time to take it!What I used to think was a questionably executed photograph, an exercise in bad film loading, and a test sheet in a new developer, is now one of the strongest photos I have of my grandfather. Most of my relatives didn't even know this photo existed, until today, and now I'm going to spend the next several days making silver gelatin contacts, per my family's request. A typical snapshot of that loved one today could be one of the only things you have when they are gone.

So the next time you're photographing your boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, crazy uncle, family pet for the ump-teenth time, calm their frustrations by letting them know these shots are for you.

Now get out there and make some great pictures!

Ned & Art at The Toledo Mud Hens John & Rita Lenhart, Maumee, OH

The 52 Project, Week 37: UF Animal Day

Less than one week from the events of Week 36, the University of Findlay hosted its annual, badly advertised "Animal Day". Each year, the day it's held on seems to change, so this week's roll was reactive, to the degree of, "Oh shit, exotic animals! Better get some snaps in."

Chinchillas, so soft they'll make your head explode.

There's not too much to say about cute, cuddly chinchillas that hasn't already been said. Their softness knows no bounds, they're fantastic pets, and within our generation will most likely become extinct in the wild. But millions of fluffy domesticated chinchillas are still ok too, right?

Now we're getting slightly more uncommon...

 Next up, we find the always-ready-for-a-picture-girlfriend, Lauren, carefully holding onto this little sneezing ball of spines we call the hedgehog. This little guy was great for holding one on one, but really starting whining and crying out when he realized there were a lot of other people around him. Not sure how much I like the out of focus background in this picture, it's a little too painterly for me, especially in the tones surrounding the hedgehog. Cute shot, none-the-less.

Everybody loved staring at this guy's sharp teeth.

Not often will you come across a tiny crocodile without some sort of protective band around its mouth. This little guy was being held by a large number of students, with no incidents to boot! Don't be fooled by his happy smile and kind eye, give him a split second of an opening and he'll go for it. Photographically, this also meant catching him with a fast shutter speed. 1/250th of a second can often be too slow for these guys.

Loving the silvery tones on this armored armadillo.

Another high-speed handful in this bunch of visiting animals was this playful little armadillo. When not being calm and protected in ball-form in his cage, he was skitterring about all over the plastic tables he was being "demo'd" on. In this shot, I had to use the close-up filter attachment to the Hasselblad's 80mm f/2.8 T* lens, meaning focusing his high-strungness was a nightmare. This was the "sharpest" shot I ended up with.

Kids, don't try perching a Great Hornbill at home!

If this week's portraits are starting to remind you of last week's Toledo Cat Show, there's a good reason for that! Same nasty lighting situation, same need for high shutter speeds, same film emulsion, same exact processing regimen. The only thing different is that this week, Lauren is holding a 45 year old endangered bird on her jacket. Luckily, this bird was a very docile female, who was a complete attention whore, denoted by it's "smug" look seen to the right. As if Lauren needed another reason to get excited about the upcoming animated feature, "Rio". >__>

Something Good: I've really dialed in how to shoot TMax 400 @ ISO 3200 and get predictable results while pushing in diluted D-76.

Something Bad: The background was a little busy in many of the shots, and also the heavy "bokeh" or out of focus areas really highlight the grain of this 3-stop push.

Something Learned: From now on, I'm always carrying an emergency pro-pack, 5 rolls, of Kodak Tmax 400 with the Hasselblad kit!

Next Week: An epic road trip to NJ and NYC with Lauren.

The 52 Project, Week 36: Toledo Cat Show

By now it's probably becoming quite obvious...if there's an event in the greater Toledo, OH region that has animals, I'm there! Surprisingly enough, I never thought of myself as an animal person, but take all the casual animal pictures out of The 52 Project, and it starts to look pretty empty. Oh well, guess it wouldn't hurt to add a FEW more weeks of animal fun into the "pool". 

Judges carefully examine each contestant.

The weekend just before Valentines Day 2011, I dragged Lauren along with me to the Toledo area cat show titled, "My Stormy Valentine". Typically, this name is in reference to the god-awful weather Toledo experiences this time of year. Thankfully, I don't know a single cat show that doesn't take place indoors.

Personally, I attend the show for the Maine Coons.

If you've never been to a cat show before, it's an interesting time, to say the least. People from all over the region bring their domesticated divas to a large gathering of similarly aged/bred cats to be crowned "Champion" or "Best of Breed". Each breed of cat has its own unique, aesthetically aimed standards that judges coming from all around the country are trained to identify via inspection. The process looks as weird as it sounds, as you can see by the pictures littered throughout this post.

Check out the grain, pushed 400 -> 3200!

 Usually when attending this cat show, I set small goals for myself. In years past, I've set goals such as "photograph owners that look like their pets" or "capture as many different breeds as possible". This year, it didn't really feel like there was any such goal, but as the afternoon progressed, it became evident that I was on candid duty. More than years previous, I concentrated on the interactions between the judges and the judge-ees.

This Maine Coon was not a happy kitty.

 The lighting in this building was horrid, to say the least. Everything you see this week was shot with Kodak TMax 400 @ ISO 3200, pushed in D-76! Cats, like any other small animal, move fast and require the fastest shutter speed you can get away with. Most, if not all, of these shots feature a shutter speed at or above 1/125th of a second. Having already run out of Ilford Delta 3200, TMax 400, another modern "T-grained" emulsion, was my next logical choice.

Something Good: My initial meter readings were spot on! Everything was metered using an old-fashioned, non-electric Sekonic meter.

Something Bad: Given the immense amount of fall-off from the few large light fixtures in this building, I had to choose my shots wisely. There are a few shots from this role, not shown or uploaded to Flickr, that came out incredibly, incredibly thin!

Something Learned: Even in the most basic of film developers, D-76, usable results can be achieved in a push so long as time, temperature, dilution, and agitation are controlled to the "T".

Next Week: Pushing some more TMax 400, for more animals!