The 52 Project, Week 38: March NYC Trip Part I

Fanning through an inbox one late January evening, I opened up an email from none other than the host of the Film Photography Podcast, Michael Raso. Apparently, fan reception from the first two recorded episodes had gone well enough that another month of podcasts was in my future. At the same time, Lauren was looking for any excuse to make her way out to NYC for some interviews and portfolio reviews with some BIG name publishers. A match made in heaven? I certainly thought so. ^__^

Portra 400 beasts that grain, even @ ISO 3200!!

 Some fumbling around with schedules and running around like headless chickens later, Lauren and I found ourselves spending a long weekend in New Jersey, with a few days blocked off for NYC.

Our first day there, we got into our hotel pretty quickly, considering the 9 hour drive, checked in, and headed straight off for Manhattan for a night on the town. After seeing all the sites we could from 7pm onward, we stopped off in Times Square for some fun and slightly more than planned out portraits. This was serious business, so a test Polaroid was even taken to make sure the horrendously underexposed film was at least metered correctly.

The results aren't anything to shrug off either. Click either of the two Lauren portraits to view a larger size, but the images stay pretty clear with relatively pleasing grain throughout.

A tad more grain, but still great!Enough film banter, this was quite a long trip with many interesting things going on, so I'll cut right back to the story.

Later on that night/early the next morning, continuous rains in New Jersey along Rt. 23 had gotten bad enough that we were woken up ~4am to evacuate our hotel. Normally, Lauren and I both being chill people, we wouldn't have minded the temporary discomfort, but this Friday morning was VERY different from others. Less than six hours from our evacuation time, Lauren had to be well rested, cleaned up, in NYC, and ready for her big, BIG interview with Harper Collins Publishers (they're HUGE, Google them). Anywho, we made it through with minimal sleep, and pressed on through another busy morning in Manhattan. 

Easily the coolest guy in NYC!After an incredibly successful interview and celebratory mega-burritos at Chipotle, Lauren and I continued our quest in NYC south-bound towards The Impossible Project NYC Space. Lauren didn't really take much convincing to go, but just in case she did, I'd previously setup a meeting with my Film Photography Podcast Print Exchange buddy, Antonio Alvarez. An awesome photographer and all around great guy, Antonio was kind enough to not only spend some time with us at impossible, but give us a guided mini-tour around Soho, treat us to some Two Boots Pizza, and even give us some of his awesome Polaroid Spectra prints!

This film loves purples and blues! On the last leg of our trip out and about with Antonio, we started passing by all of these great little nook-and-cranny shops that you just don't see in little-'ol Findlay, OH. Compelled as I was, I managed to snag a few candids of some NYC barber shops in full swing late Friday night.

Sadly, since this post is already looking pretty lengthy, I'm going to sum it up here. Thursday and Friday were the mere tip of the iceberg of awesome that was our long weekend trip to NYC. More from the FPP side of the experience next week.

Something Good: Portra 400, shot @ 3200, pushed to only 800, prints and scans beautifully!

Something Bad: Lots of fluorescent lighting and/or overcast haze can cause excessive fogging-type grain in photos at such a high sensitivity. I haven't seen grain strcuture like this since shooting Fuji Pro 800Z in direct overcast cloudy haze.

Something Learned: New Portra 400 is luck freakin' duct tape, more on this later.

Next Week: One of the best weekends ever, minus the whole driving in Jersey thing.

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!