Shot From Cars

I have been looking at the works of William Eggleston and Stephen Shore and the thing I see in common is that if you strip away the artifice of "photgraphy", it's stink, the contrivance of perfection, you are left with the shooter's vision. Okay that's bullshit too because there is no true thing like Avedon says, it's all artifice and we, as shooters, are just looking for the best version of that fake/true thing than okay: maybe I can strike a balance. Maybe it's all the same thing. This is crap.

Look. I live in my car so why not shoot from my car. These are all images shot from my car. More tomorrow when I care.

Major fucking update: This is gonna be just a journal like the tag says, a place to lay out my trash and pick through it. Sometimes there'll be a photo or two, the weird scraps of things that fit no where else but thats all. The three shot from cars picks will go on that blog and as I develop more projects I'll develop new blogs.

Maybe not such news.

Shot From Cars, image 1

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Shot From Cars, image 2

What Smena Saw

Three shots I lost yesterday and why:

I saw a bush with with these little yellow flowers whose petals were long and thick and separated like stars. Their centersw were a beautiful orangey orange. The problem was I couldn't get a tight enough cluster of flowers to get that starts in the green sky look I wanted because of the Spectra's, the camera I had on hand, minimum distance. I need a small portable close up camera.

I saw this girl walk passed me. She had these sunk dark eyes and longish staright greasy looking hair. She looked sad and dangerous. I was just afraid to ask her. I need to not be afraid.

I saw this balloon on a very, 30 or 40 foot, tether strung with tiny flags. It was orange. I had one shot left in the Spectra and either the tether moved or I mis-judged the parallax and the baloon, the lonely little baloon that so said how I felt at that moment was not in the frame. I should never be without film.

What Smena Saw

Things I learned while shooting at Disney:
Spanish women are fucking crazy.
Cameras are fucking heavy.

More later.

A Camera List For Visiting The Rat

Here's what I plan on taking to the Rat:

Bella 66 120 untested
Holga 120
Stellar 120

Quad Cam 35mm
Pix Panorama 35mm
XA2 35mm untested

Polaroid Spectra

35mm
For film here's my list:
4 rolls of Fuji Superia 400 color
2 rolls of Fuji NPS 160 color
2 rolls Kodak UC 400 color

120
2 rolls Fuji NPS 160 color
4 rolls Kodak T-Max color (I haven't bought this yet so I might go Fuji depending on the price.)

Polaroid
5 packs Spectra Platinium

I still haven't settled on a bag. The Sidekick is too inefficient, the Gadg-it is too bulky and hangs on my shoulder and the Soul bag is built wrong.

Monday of the next week:

I shot a lot of film, mostly on the first day but I shot a whole crap lot. Taking Scootiepye's advice I pretty much lived with my XA2 in hand but I hot Pola, pano. I even did bulb shots.

No Holga shots taken: no tape to hold the camera closed
One roll of Bella 66
One roll of Stellar120 was hampered by the re-load issue.

I need to shoot 220. More film.

Thirteen rolls of 35mm spread between the XA2 and the Pix Panorama.
Most of it was in color. One roll of B/W shot real fast so I could get back to color

Two packs of Polaroid Spectra 1200
Two packs of Spectra ImageOne pack of standard 600

Two shots on Ana's camera which was 35mm. Maybe the best two of the trip.

Sunday With Typos

This weekend was a big happy cluster fuck. Saturday I worried about about the shoot with Penny and then on hearing that we could postpone, worried about getting a megaphone. That night of course, Fernando told me about the legislature closing the parole commision and the emergancy meeting he was having on Sunday which was the day we needed his pretty old red pick-up which meant calling Penny and cancelling the shoot for Sunday. Oh ya, then I had to watch "What the BLEEP do we know" which is not really that bad but not what I needed Saturday night.

Okay now Sunday rolls around and Pola wants to go to breakfast which takes like two hours because the Village Inn is feeding the whole goddamn city but what the hell, I have some kind of super bad ass fried egg and taters with heaps of meat fried in grease thing served in a pan with pancakes on the side and about two fucking gallons of piss poor, but hell there was a lot of it, coffee. Then she says she wants to give Ana a cell phone as Ana just started a new job and has a piece of shit car which is okay with me, the cell phone not the car which might in fact be made by the Deathtrap compnany, but that takes another two and a half hours and I still haven't hooked up with Denver who's supposed to go to the batting cages with me etc.

Okay now it's like two and Pola splits and Denver never show's which leaves me at some kind of suck hole evil carvinal slash danger fest at the mall of all places shooting crazy, shouldn't be at the mall, fair rides. Okay no one punches me. That was cool. Got some good Polaroids and a few great shots on the Stellar but I also ran a roll of 35mm in the Pix Pano which I thought was my standard Fuji Superia 400 which would have been freaking perfect which turned out to be Ilford 400 black and white which aside from costing a goddamn fortune to develop is also black and white at a godman mother fucking color fest of a carnival.

Okay no sweat, I'm calm. So Ed calls, no Diane, do we wanna go to a picnic? Sure why not. Blah blah blah... It's six o'clock and we're at this park eating sandwiches and chicken etc and I'm shooting away in a camera that I am sure is loaded for bear, again Fuji Superia 400 when I realize that every crank is not moving the wind knob which on the Cosmic Symbol means film is not advancing and I've been taking pictures of nothing as I had two months ago shot some chrome slide film in this bitch, rewound it and then just tossed in the back of my truck so I re-load the camera and go again. Do you see how fucking calm I am? Do ya?

Okay so Mondo is kicking a plastic bag around. He's a sweet bear of a kid and he's whooping it up and I go to shoot him and he runs away. I offer money, I say Mondo how about some cash so I can make some pretty pictures of you kicking that bag around and he say's yes and his dad Ed says yes and Mondo sees the camera and runs away. Needless to say somehow I managed to shoot two rolls of 35mm and maybe just maybe got some good shots.

So we stop at Ana's and give her the phone which she loves which she loves even more when she realizes we're paying for it and let me stress I love Ana. She's like a sister to my wife and my wife needs that but I hang with her.. er.. husband Emilio who I get along with but who is aparently quite a prick so whatever that says about me and anyhow I still have to get Pola home and then get Ed and go see Sin City which is fucking excellant and which finally proves how great a director Robert Rodriguez actually happens to be which might be the point of all this except no, it's just to say that Sunday was a good day and how many of those to we ever get.

Oh yeah, Ed was hammered and couldn't stop singing the theme song to "Mucha Lucha" and the 120 I shot at the carnival was Fuji Provia which slide film and cost like six million dollars to process and print. Happy Fucking Sunday.

What Smena Saw

A few thoughts about doing portraits:
These are a few problems I've seen in my work.

1) I forget that the subject is in front of something and shoot only the subject. The fact is, the background is more of the picture than the subject.

2) Also I need to make sure I get the limbs in the picture. What I mean is: I lost the little bits of Alexis' legs and the bottom half of my Mom's hands.

3) I need to vary positions and locals, actions etc without getting all, "Now let's do the totem pole."

4) I need to shoot both toy and non-toy or at least make sure they understand the inherant flaws in toy photography. When Carmel looked downcast at seeing the blur and vingetting. I was heartbroken.

5) Be grateful for the business but down grovel.

6) I felt kind a icky about the money. I need to seriously get over it. This is a business and the more I think of myself, the more they will and they expect to pay for my services.

7) I like doing it. It isn't like Sears at all. I find them, who they are, in themselves and show them how they look. I show them that everyone is photogenic. I let the world see that split second when their gaurd is down. There is nothing icky about this.

8) I need to be better organized. This shoot was not cheap but the fee I got paid could have been more in my pocket than Fuji's if I just thought it out.