January Twenty-Seventh

Instead of going straight to work this morning, I took the bus to a stop near the National Mall and walked through the "March for Life," an annual gathering and demonstration in opposition to abortion. I took a few photos with my Leica M5 and you'll see those whenever I develop that film. Until then, here are two shots I took with my Fuji digital camera. I converted them to greyscale and edited them with VSCO for iPad.

I said this on Twitter, but for as much as I like black and white photography, digital conversions don't touch the look of analog black and white, whether scanned negatives or actual prints. There's just a certain something to film that's missing in digital.

With that said, I'm still happy to share these. Let me know what you think.

A young girl in a "Make America Great Again" hat.

A group of friars crosses the street on the way to the march.

Graves

We spent one day in Sonoma while up in Northern California, exploring the town and drinking (a lot of) wine. There's an old cemetery not far from downtown Sonoma, and we walked through just as the sun was setting. Many of the graves date back to the town's founding, and at least one veteran of the Revolutionary War is buried there.

Goat Rock Beach

Goat Rock Beach is part of Sonoma Coast State Park, which was just 30 minutes from where we were staying. We went there twice. Once, on our first full day in the area, and again on Christmas morning, to see a particularly large rock that sat in the middle of a field, about a mile from the beach itself. The first set of photos is from that first day. It was a little cooler, a little misty, and very gray outside. Driving in, there were scenic places to park, and so I took a few "establishing" shots, just to provide a general picture of the area. It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that, even in the bright afternoon light, it was beautiful.

And our second visit, again, was to see this rock. It sounds silly, but it was a pretty impressive rock! So I'm glad we spent the time to see it (and enjoy the sunrise on the coast).

January Twenty-Fifth

I have color film in my Leica at the moment, so for grayscale photos, I had to rely on my digital camera, which I also keep in my daily bag. I took two photos today, one while waiting for the train, the other while walking home from work. Both were edited in VSCO for iOS. Let me know what you think.

On the platform at the NoMa-Gallaudet station.  

One of the stone sculptures on the Carnegie Institute building.  

Duncan's Landing

The second part of Christmas morning was driving down from Goat Rock Beach to Duncan's Landing, where you can see more of the coast. Other people had the same idea, so a few of the photos are of the people (and dogs) who joined us on the beach. My favorite shot out of this batch is just of the rock that sits on the beach. It's dramatic, but not in an overbearing way.

Vineyards

For Christmas break, my wife and I went out to the Russian River Valley in Northern California to drink wine and enjoy the scenery. The area, if you're not familiar, isn't far from Napa and Sonoma (just an hour and a half or so) but has a vastly different feel: Rural and low-key. For vacations, I like to take slides, so I brought a box of Fuji Provia 100f and my Fuji GA655 rangefinder, which is like a medium format point and shoot. It's perfect for vacation snapshots, and is a great introduction to medium format if you're willing to live with a fixed-lens (40mm equivalent).

Anyway.

This first set of photos is from a few of the vineyards we visited. They're basically all a variation on the same kind of photo, but you'll forgive me if that style and composition appeals to my eye. Let me know what you think, as always.

D.C. Miscellany

None of these fall into any particular story, they're just snapshots from the month of December, some in color, some in grayscale. I think I used an Olympus OM-1 for all of these, with Fuji Provia 100f for the color shots and Kodak Tri-X 400 for the black and white.

I'll do the grayscale photos first.

And here are the color photos.

Of this second batch, I am a big fan of the tree photo and of the cat with its shadows. I don't even remember taking that shot, but I like it a lot.

Cars (Again)

I can't resist a photo of a good car. Here are a few of the good cars I saw throughout December. Color photos were shot on Fuji Provia 100f, greyscale on Ilford Delta 400, and all photos with the Olympus OM-1.

Some guy on my block owns at least 6 of these. 

I can't resist a good Beetle. 

Inauguration/Women's March

A ton of people are coming into the city for a political event? Obviously I am taking photos. On Friday and most of Saturday, I wandered through and around the crowds with two cameras, one digital and one film. These shots are from the digital camera, a Fujifilm X100T. I used the 50mm telephoto lens for the first set of photos, taken on inauguration, and the 28mm wide-angle lens for the second set, taking at the Women's March on the National Mall. I used the in-camera monochrome conversion, slightly adjusted for my own aesthetic tastes.

Both days were cloudy and a little damp, and you can tell; where they sky is visible, it's clearly gray, and the overcast eliminates any shadows, evenly diffusing the light from the sun.

I don't know that I had a particular goal with these photos, other than to document when I saw during both days. These first few, as I said earlier, are from inauguration day.

"Fuck this Shit" was the last photo I took on Friday. The remaining photos are from the Women's March. I should say I've become much economical with my digital shooting. Of the roughly 100 photos I took, I used 16, which is a decent ratio given that you have unlimited space to shoot with digital. I also brought a Fuji 6x7 camera, and for that, it took me two days to shoot ten exposures. You'll see those in a few weeks, I think.  Until then, I hope you enjoy the rest of the set.

On Grounds

I spent a chunk of Christmas break in Charlottesville, visiting my in-laws. I walked around UVA a bit, and took a few photos, including this one of my favorite building on Grounds, Brooks Hall. It's a neo-Gothic structure that is completely out of place among the Roman-esque stylings of UVA, which is why I like it. It's different. I actually like this photo enough that I may make a wet print with the negative.

The second photo is of the shadow cast by the statue of Thomas Jefferson outside of the Rotuna, and the last one is just of an advertisement I've always liked. Oh, and in case you're wondering, photos shot with an Olympus OM-1, a 24mm lens, and Ilford Delta 400.