Amuse Bouche in NYC - Year 2 - Part 5 (color)

More color from NYC. Some shots I just left out because they didn't come out well, or were redundant. Or were a time when the shutter fired accidentally while I was walking.

Kodak 160NC

This was supposed to be about the light on the overpass, but I guess it's about the car now.

Amuse Bouche in a park.

Inspired by a photo my dad once took.

This member of Amuse Bouche does not understand the rule: don't look at the camera.

This member understands the rule.

The color on this just didn't come out well; likely due to underexposure.

Tricky artificial lighting.

And trickier.

Street photography from the comfort of indoors.

Hey, a real example of candid street photography! Better is to come.

Apparently she was upset about something...

Detail crop from the above image.

I made a photo of black-and-white balloons across the street, and misfocused. I left that one out; this one was much better.

Amuse Bouche patronized street vendors. In the sense of being patrons, not of being condescending. The guy in the v-neck, while in focus is definitely not in Amuse Bouche.

Amuse Bouche in NYC - Year 2 - Part 4 (color)

Here is some of the color film I shot. This was my first experience with Kodak Ektar 100, a slow-speed (by today's standards) modern film based on motion picture stock, the self-proclaimed finest-grained color negative film available. It seems purplish, which I have corrected for in some cases. I removed a misfired shot that looks like it was of the ground. This is from my M645 with the 80mm 1.9. I mistakenly scanned some of these at low resolution because they looked out of focus since I didn't focus the scanner before previewing. If I get a chance, I'll try and look at an enlargement to judge those grain claims, but at that speed, it's difficult to get decent depth-of-field handheld.

Ektar 100 - 6x4.5 cm

At the apartment in which we stayed.

Outside the same. Most of the group blinked despite my non-use of flash.

Near B&H Photo/Video superstore in Chelsea, NYC. Discrepancy between golden hour highlights and bluish shadows was tricky, I haven't done a very good job. This was just after I bought a lens cap, filter, and lens hood for this camera.

A lens that fast wide open vignettes a *lot*.

With a more detailed scan, you could count those bricks.

This kept being greenish; I can't figure out why.

Social commentary.

Not bad for index-focusing/prefocusing and not looking through the viewfinder.

This is me doing street photography. I can... I just normally choose not to.

And here is photography of a street. With a police cruiser that I didn't see because the mirror was up. The mirror tends to stick up in the cold, which is inconvenient but innocuous.

Beyond this point there was really not enough light.

But I wanted this shot so badly, so I took it anyway.

Not as well the second time, but closer, removing a sign which I cropped out on the above image.

In my excitement to rejoin my group, I apparently failed to focus on them. Focusing a lens that fast in dim light is tricky even with a microprism-spot focusing screen, at least on medium format, and focus-error is not easily forgiven. With a split-image rangefinder maybe, but I'm not a huge fan of those and this camera doesn't have one anyway.

Roll 20

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been working on a special photo project, as well as attending class regularly again now that the semester has started. Back to our story (and its exciting conclusion):

And this was when I realized I was one roll short. Fortunately I had begun another roll, just for the fun of it, and had a good 4 or 5 images on it. I finished it, in remarkable haste. Under the circumstances, it's really not that bad.

ARTS 2110 - Roll 20 - Ilford HP5+ 400

This was in response to a request for a photograph of the Brown College tunnels, which when flooded, reflect the pipes overhead.

Both this photo and the previous photo had 2 takes; I kept the better of both.

This gap is impossible to cross when flooded without: long-jump skills (and ability to land on a slope), parkour skills, getting one's feet wet, or going outside.

This is unforgivably boring.

There used to be a really neat set of electronic lockers in this corner of Newcomb Hall. Then they were out of order. Then they were gone, exposing this miracle of artificial lighting. If you take a lighting design course, you will see light like this.

Pipemotif.

Cliché and cheezy, but pretty well done.

Love this power cable crossing from an outlet to a desk on the top(?) floor of Alderman Library.

Even more love this random box found in the bottom of an Alderman Library stairwell.

This shot is really bad in almost every way. I kept it because it was the last one I shot for the course.

Roll 19

I was done. I thought I was done. I honestly thought this was Roll 20. But it was actually...

ARTS 2110 - Roll 19 - Ilford HP5+

Notice that due to my haste and lack of sleep, this roll is even less evenly developed than others. The left and right sides of the frame are brighter because agitation pushes more developer past the top and bottom of the roll (which happen to be the left and right side of the frame on this camera), resulting in more density. The heavier the agitation (I think) the worse it is. I compensated for this a bit in Photoshop. With 35mm, the problem is much worse, exacerbated by sprocket holes, leaving halos or streaks along the perforations.

A hastily set up portrait of one of my friends who was in a rush (as was I) and no doubt made nervous by the tripod.

Cliché art student photo. Very textural.

Neat buildingless arch near the Dell.

I removed another version of this with the background creek in focus.

The same arch from behind ( or inside?)

There is some kind of secret code on that brick. I removed the alternate version of the shot. This version (and scan) ended up kind of flat, though it was a cloudy day.

I was aiming for 'Kubrick' but got 'boring' instead.

A muddy little creek near tennis courts.

A tree behind some dormitories.

A mysterious drain behind dorms.

Amuse Bouche in NYC - Year 2 - Part 3

The third and final roll of black and white film from New York. I was positive that I had shot a fourth, but as I was rolling it in the darkroom, I noticed that it was unusual... as in backwards. As in I had not shot it at all. At least I don't see how I possibly could've, but it doesn't make sense for it to be sitting around unwrapped but not loaded. Ah well.

Ilford Delta 3200 - same development as the last roll

There was a videographer on one of the lower roofs of this building.

There he is. Blame the grain on the high speed film. Enlargement from preceding frame.

This was a curious overpass (ex railroad track, I believe) from which one can literally look down on vehicular traffic, as opposed to figuratively looking down on it, as environmentalists and pedestrians are wont to do. Featuring several members of Amuse Bouche.

The videographer was set up for ENG (electronic news gathering) with this anchor. They had to call each other to communicate; the cameraman could hear the anchor through the wireless lav mic, but not the other way round.

This window was really grate (sic).

Members of my improv group make these faces all the time.

This photo was taken partially for one of the groups members, partially because it records a New York neighborhood in which we spent a lot of time, and partially because it was almost certainly the inspiration for this song.

Two members of Amuse Bouche are absent from this photo. I am one of them. Taken in a movie theater lobby; we went to see "A Single Man," which was met with mixed reviews. My opinion was that the colorist was hamfisted but the visuals in general were nice. Photo has been cropped to improve framing; I should've gotten closer, but then I would've lost more detail to shallow depth of field. This way I lose detail to film grain by effectively using a smaller format.

This photo was taken for my brother, who has (had?) an interest in costume design and management.

The punchline of the Best Joke of All Time. I tapped people on the shoulder and said, "Hey, watch out: there's a big pile of Pooh over there."

Again outside UCB.

Photo from a Reuben Williams performance (linking to a MySpace profile, I guess for consistency) at UCB. Featuring the coach we hired for a workshop that Friday.

Our conversation with him outside the theatre. But the photo is actually about the fantastic eye-line diagonal between him and one of our alumni, plus those neat out-of-focus highlights. Magical.

This will probably end up being a poster. Just saying. Outside the same alumna's apartment (the one into which nobody else could fit).

And then I got back to Charlottesville and finished the roll at rehearsals for the upcoming play I'm in: Kafka's Dick. Kafka's parents.

The director.