out to Chicago and back

some more

Coney Island Redux

This time on film.

You can't quite make it out here, but the billboards read "The Future Of Coney Island".






This is what you get if you ask about my wooden camera: you get your picture taken. Thank you for inquiring/posing.


It turns out that Jessica is the freak!

debate/circus

There's no people like TV people.

Tunbridge World's Fair

First of all, those who like photos and blogs: check out Blogger's newest feature, Play, which consists of a continuous slide show of whatever images are being uploaded to Blogger at the moment.

Now a couple of 4x5 portraits from the Fair:


This would have been 4x5, but I had a light leak problem. So much for the error-free streak:

The 4x5 negative for this one came back completely unexposed:



Not at the fair; tennis courts near my house:

Also not at the fair; this is actually the loading dock of Color Services Inc., in Needham, MA, where I get my negatives processed. Maybe if I keep linking to their page they'll give me a discount?

seven for seven?

Very pleased with this batch from the view camera; no glaring technical errors on my part, no equipment malfunctions, and the pictures basically look like I hoped they'd look. (I implore you: click, make bigger)

(Note the wacky depth of field in this next one: that's what you get with a front-swing camera movement):






And lest you forget the kind of crazy detail you get with 4x5 inch film, here's a moderately hi-res scan of the warning sign in the last image:

September

I can't figure out a way to satisfactorily make these show up both big and sharp on the main blog page, so I will repeat my invitation: click to make 'em bigger.

catskills: the good, and the bad & ugly

Kettleskill Falls. The two white specks, lower middle of the frame, are Liz and Eric. Dahl.

Dahl's response: "Now listen closely children and let me tell you a cautionary tale. When you graduate college there are a wonderful plethora of choices you can make! You can choose to be the ambitious banker, working long hours into the night so that you can pay for lovely-wonderful delicacies like health insurance and a house! You could also choose to be the diligent grad-student, industriously advancing your education/delaying your immersion into the terrifying real world. Or you can be the studious paralegal, making money and logging the necessary hours to pad your resume, so as to have a shot at Yale, the glorious Xanadu of college graduates. Or, you can choose the lazy artist's life, making money by teaching rich children what they should already know and then frittering that money away on flaccid personal "artistic" projects and cheap beer to keep the demons at bay. IS THAT WHAT YOU FUCKING WANT?! DO NOT AVERT YOUR EYES FROM THIS UNSHAVEN MONSTROSITY!! THIS WILL BE YOU!! REPENT!! REPENT OR DIE!!!"

Busy weekend

The Savannah Theater Project was up here to do a workshop and a couple of performances at Dartmouth, and I let them crash at my place, in return for which they let me take pictures of them. Those of you who are live in or near New York City (readership survey indicates that this number is between 0 and 6, give or take half a dozen) should go see their play, "Freedom! and the Sticky End of Make-Believe", which is happening three times at the Fringe Festival, this weekend, August 10-11-12. Click here for details.

This is what their training looks like:



This is what their show looks like:
This is Hannah sitting in a fortunate shaft of sunlight:

This is Sarah Hughes in the audience:

And this is from a series of headshots and portraits of Sarah:

well, there are a couple ways you could go...

Let's say you live on Loire Ave in Poway, California, outside of San Diego (above). You're trying to get to a house on Charlotte Terrace in Ridgefield, New Jersey (below). When you look at the map to try to figure out how to get there, you wouldn't think it should matter which house on Charlotte Terrace you're trying to get to, but you'd be wrong.

If you're heading for house #1, you'll take a right at the end of your street, and drive through Las Vegas, Denver, and Iowa. To get to house #2, take a left, drive through Phoenix, Albuquerque, and St. Louis.

Both trips will take the same amount of time (1 day and 18 hours), but route #1 is 29 miles longer (2,839 vs 2,810 for route #2).

Next time you get directions from Google Maps, try dragging the blue route line or the start/finish icons; the map will dynamically adjust your route and tell you how long and how far as you drag.