I always enjoying using different types of cameras and unusual lenses to push myself as a photographer. I own a Holga, a Russian rangefinder called a Zorki 4-K (it took months to arrive from the Ukraine and all $30 of it was protected during shipping by butcher paper and twine), a Minolta 16 subminature camera, and even a Brownie No. 2 Autographic that allowed you to write in the margins of the film as you progressed through the roll. But lately, I’ve been experimenting with pinhole photography. I had an old, very inexpensive rangefinder called a Beauty Super II. I took a hacksaw to the lens and used the bottom of pringles can to replace it. For those of you who don’t know, pinhole cameras use a very, very small hole instead of a lens. Finding my way through this seemingly simple form of photography is actually very challenging. Photojournalism is really all about people, which for the most part involves a lot of faces. Everyday I try to capture emotion in the eyes and expressions of my subjects. But with pinhole photography that comfort zone of storytelling and art is stripped away. Due to the long exposure times, snapping candid shots of moving people (let alone their faces) is basically impossible. I have to rely on form, shape, composition, and line more than I ever have before. Anyway, I’ve included some of my first pinhole images, hopefully I’ll get better…there’s no where to go but up. A couple of fun pinhole facts for you photographers out there: 1) pinhole cameras have infinite depth of field, but that just means that everything is equally out of focus unless the size, shape, and focal length of your pinhole are just perfect. 2) Pinhole cameras can produce very wide angle images, but as long as the film plane is flat everything will remain rectilinear…no wide angle distortion.
A double exposure of the High-Main Bridge in Hamilton.
An old, closed-down shop near our office. I have a feeling this will be a common subject for me when the light gets better this summer.
An exposure of the windshield of my car in the rain…I’m sure pinhole images will pop up here again, so keep an eye out for them.
As many of you may know, the Midwest has been plagued by some serious flooding the this week. Some areas still have rising water. Southwestern Ohio was hit hardest on Wednesday. I spent the day in a town called New Miami which lies near the Great Miami River about 5 miles north of Hamilton. The first two photos are from there. Obviously, there were some differing attitudes toward the weather. The last photo is from Hamilton, which the National Weather Service said was protected from flooding until the river level was over 81 feet. I thought that was pretty amazing.
I recently took a trip to Gaitlinburg, Tennessee to watch my brother, Jason, get married. I took the opportunity to bust out my brand-new (to me) Nikon F3HP. I had one of these cameras in high school and halfway through college, but sold it… because I’m dumb. Anyway, tax refund time and I decided to take the plunge. Anyway, these pictures are of my nieces. Cadence, my brother’s daughter, and Lauren, my new sister-in-law’s daughter. They are both well-spoken, intelligent girls…and they can melt your heart and get absolutely anything they want. Just look for yourself.
This is Cadence. Told ya.
And this is Lauren. Admit it, you’d give them both your car keys.
IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings store, opens in West Chester today at 9 a.m. Below, in the first photo, is Kem Moorer who was first in line…….MONDAY morning. By the time she enters the store she will have been in line for 52 hours. People love this store, it’s crazy. Below her photo is the third person in line, Kelly Covey (seen in her tent), brought her Australian terrier Jack with her. The first hundred people in line get a free chair, and the chance to meet all the other people that love IKEA as much as they do.
03/10/08 – A Child Returns
This is my first attempt at blogging, so I should introduce what I plan on doing here. I am a daily shooter, meaning I shoot for a daily newspaper and produce many images a week that will never make it into my portfolio. Many of my assignments are fun or have good stories behind them or might just make me laugh. I’ll be refraining from to much opinion here since many of these stories are running in papers across Butler County, Ohio. Anyway, here’s the first installment. A few weeks ago, our paper found out about a girl who had spent the last few months at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. She had brain tumor removed, and although the operation went well, complications with pneumonia and a collapsed lung kept her there longer than expected. When she returned home over a hundred of her friends and classmates lined the streets of her neighborhood to meet her. Here are the photos:
