late night at the rotunda

I was wide awake one night and very bored, so I went down to the university and did a little large format photography. I took a few photos, but these are the ones I kept. I especially like the figures in front of the Rotunda, who had stopped to admire the building just long enough to be captured in the exposure. The second photo is of “The Corner,” the a block of businesses and restaurants that cater to students. I used a 125mm Fuji lens and Kodak T-MAX 100 film. I’m still not entirely sure whether I like the way black and white looks in these conditions, but this is pretty much the only time I have to shoot 4x5 these days, so I’ll have to live with it, I guess.

in an instant

I’ve been stuck in a photographic rut, and my solution has been to shoot photos in a way that sharply limits my ability to manipulate. The idea is that I can spark some creativity by imposing limits on what I can do. It’s why, for the last few weeks, I’ve only been shooting with an Instax Wide camera. I like the large photos—more than twice the size of Instax Mini—and the camera itself has just a few settings. I can focus on something close or something distant, I can lighten or darken the image, and there’s a close-up attachment. That’s it.

I’ve been having fun, and I think the results have been pretty decent. To make this feel more like real photography, I’ve also been scanning the photos and doing some light editing: removing borders, bumping up exposure, and deepening the blacks to create a little more contrast. I thought about removing dust from the photos, but I think it gives them a certain character.

Anyway, here’s what I have from this week, mostly taken in my new neighborhood. The black and white exposures were taken with actual black and white instant film, and then adjusted to remove the color cast that comes from scanning. Let me know what you think.

i chased waterfalls

We went to Asheville, North Carolina for a weeklong vacation this spring, part of which involved hiking to and admiring the waterfalls in the area. I brought my large format setup to take a few pictures, and after months of procrastination, I finally got them developed and scanned. They aren’t technically perfect, and at least one is a little under-exposed, but I like them all the same. I could not tell you which waterfalls are which, but I can tell you that I used Kodak Ektar 100 for the photos.

Leave a comment if you’re interested in a print of anything.

my favorite building in richmond

I went to Richmond for a work trip last week, which gave me a chance to photograph one of my favorite buildings in the city, and possibly in the entire state—the Model Tobacco Building.

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A little background, via Wikipedia.

Built from 1938-40, the Art Deco style Model Tobacco Building is the primary six-story building of a six building collection of buildings comprising a former tobacco factory. Located at 1100 Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Route 1), in Richmond, Virginia, the building was designed by the Chicago architecture firm of Schmidt, Garden and Erikson and is known for the 9' tall Moderne MODEL TOBACCO letters which dominate the north end of the building.

some seattle snaps

I did a couple things recently. First, I bought a (new-to-me) Ricoh GR II since they are much cheaper with the recent release of the Ricoh GR III. Second, I went to Seattle to moderate a panel and do a public interview. It was good fun. While I was there I did a little walking around and took a few snaps with the Ricoh. (I also shot a roll of film but that won’t be developed for some time). There were a lot of photos, but these were the only ones that spoke to me. Let me know what you think.