Anika after applying some makeup at the Children’s Museum
It must be time to clean my office when my six-year-old daughter asks her mom: “Why does daddy like to work in a dark, dirty room?”
Blog
Infrared Jimi at Saturday Market
Jimi Hendrix impersonator Ritchie Rodgers poses for pictures at Portland’s Saturday Market most weekends during the warmer months.
Early last year I had one of my older cameras converted to infrared. Sadly it was stolen. Whoever took it probably threw it away thinking it was broken since it only took weird photos. I really miss it as I was always an avid user of the now discontinued Kodak Highspeed Infrared film. I’ll have to get another one soon. The world looks so different when when you photograph the invisible light.
Before the Burning Man Burned
I once spent a couple of days at the Burning Man Art Festival in Nevada. Taking place on a dry, desert lakebed, more than 50,0000 people congregate to set up a temporary city for about ten days at the end of summer. The largest “leave no trace” event in the world, the playa is returned to its natural state for the the rest of the year. I was there just in time to experience a major white-out. For about six hours huge clouds of dust enveloped Black Rock City. The air became so opaque that you could get lost walking across the street, visibility being reduced to about two yards. In the photograph is the man himself—the one who is burned at the climax of the event. As seen here, he is about to be swallowed by the powdered earth.
Things of Small Consequence
Cameras Make a Difference
Lately I’ve been shooting more with vintage, large-format cameras. It’s interesting to see how the instrument affects the final image. The photograph above was taken with a 1955 Speed Graphic press camera and an Aero Ektar lens from WWII. This particular equipment combo was popularized by the great photojournalist David Burnett who use the set to photograph the 2004 presidential campaign. When used for a close-up portrait as seen here, the lens has a very shallow depth of field. This requires the subject to remain perfectly still while the camera is be being focused. This creates a stillness not seen with the rapid-fire digital SLR approach that has become my main-stay. I’ll have more to say about how the camera changes the photo in the days to come.