HA! The Citgo sign. I knew it. It was love at first sight. I’m not sure if this is the same love as the Chrysler Building, but I saw this thing and I knew I would want to photograph it again and again and again.

And I did:

Boston? Yes Boston. Taken with my lovely new long lens.

OK, I got a new lens and it is spring time so I went on a flower photographing spree. There is no philosophy-i-zing here. They are just pretty pictures.

Here we go:

This is kind of seen and heard around the Hill. Its also kind of me learning to use my camera and navigating slides, tungsten and otherwise for the first time. I’ve gotten a lot better with the camera since, but back then it was kind of hit or miss.

My favorite back then was the aforementioned tungsten film. I’d become intrigued with how it made everything blue and changed the mood of an entire photo, so I used it constantly.

It has some interesting properties, like here in bright sunlight. It just goes blue because tungsten, in case you my darling, intelligent reader didn’t know is a film that is calibrated for indoor light, and is ruined by sunlight.

Here goes the first one:

I like it because it isn’t the regular, boring cat photo. The animal looks annoyed and I think it makes it that much better of a photo. It isn’t cute at all. Its kind of weird. That’s why I like it.

The second one was a gas station in Southeast DC. This car was always parked there and I always looked that sort of vintage look it gave. Back then, I just wanted to give the photos the vintage look, but was still trying to figure out how. Love how I figured it out:

Doesn’t it look like one of those photos your parents took in the 1970s? Well, if it is any consolation, the image was made with a Canon AE-1, the height of 1970s camera technology.

Oh and are we ever getting arty now, aren’t we? Oh, black and white, and real black and white, not made up later black and white. Where is this? Well, to give a bit away, this was taken at my college. I was taking an art history class at the time about the first half of Western Art, from cave paintings to the Renaissance. I saw this and thought “arches and rib vaults” which one does not expect for a school built in the 1960s.

I was walking around one day, with my camera, which I always carried and I saw this arch or column or whatever you call this. I snapped this photo quite quickly, I think there was only one and printed it very soon thereafter.

I actually took the photo for the college yearbook, of which I was a staff photographer. I was just learning then and the editor didn’t end up using the photo. I’ve liked it ever since and who knows, it may launch me into international super stardom. Just kidding.

Photo details:
I shot this on Tri-X, eh, eh, eh. I have no love for that film and think in the world of black and white films many surpass it big time. I used an Agfa that really ran circles around it, but we used to bulk load the Tri-X in the photo service office so I had to use it. This was shot on 400 speed at I’d say a 5.6 aperture. How I remember these things is a mystery to me.

If this is all too much inside baseball photography for you, just look at the photo.

This was an extremely fun set of photos to shoot. I have a couple more wandering around in the archives, but this will be it for now. Maybe I will amend the entry for those soon, but I don’t know.

Anyway, this was a stroke of photographic luck scoring these shots. This little girl was with her friends by the Capitol, it was, excuse my language, hotter than a chili pepper in a polar bear’s ass, but I went out to take photos anyway. Raise your hand if you are surprised. Nope, no one, well, on with the show.

This girl was with her friends and I went over to their father and asked if I could take their photo. He said fine as long as I promised to send the pictures, which I did. I photographed the kids and this girl was right in the front, acting the star. There was something joyful and positive about the look on her face.

For the photo nerds out there, this was shot on Kodak 100 Speed extra color slide film, the best stuff around for the most wonderful colors. I also shot this with my trusty Canon AE-1, that has been by the my side through think and thin.

You see how sharp this image is and how good the colors are? Not to mention the fact that it is a double exposure. Yeah, I took this with my XSI, sharpened it, and then worked hard in Photoshop to make the double exposure.

HA!

No way. Oh please, that would be too darn easy. Oh no no no. No, this photo was taken with this ingenious little device called the Lubitel 166, the high of camera technology if you happen to live in Eastern Europe and it happens to be 1964. The Lubitel, for those of you who don’t have tons of time to do research is a medium format camera, one that required a larger film and plenty more skill. The Lubitel, unlike its more expensive cousins doesn’t have a double exposure warning, that is you forward the film yourself in the camera.

It was also shot on medium format slide film, very richly colored.

So in summary, 100% natural, 100% analog, 100% photographic skill. Now someone can tell me all I know how to do is manipulate photos in photoshop.

A lot going on. A LOT.

And you were thinking this had something to do with me? Oh, please. No actually this has to do with my newest venture (shameless plug, shameless plug, shameless plug):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36347533@N05/

As I have mentioned in the last few entries, I am perusing the archives for things and I came upon these. I have to feed the endless flickr monster and of course adjust the colors as I see fit, so here we are. I also kind of love this one:

Yes, I can hear the silent applause for no more boys in cups. I know.

I just happened to be here in Boston for this yearly event called Patriots Day, or Pay-tree-ots Day, as the locals pronounce it. Every Bostonian gets the day off on Pay-tree-ots day, so they can go outside dressed like this:

Oh and the little silver scarf as a fashion accessory? That would indicate that these two young men have completed the marathon, which they had. Let me repeat, these two ran 26.2 miles dressed as cups.

Need a back view? OK:

A little internet sleuthing lead me to find out that these fine young men attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT. Yes, two future engineers, two guys who probably scored perfect on their SATs, are walking Boston, dressed as cups. And you know what I admire these boys because it takes a lot of guts to go out looking like that. Not to mention their website has their interview with some Yankees fans, or people who have gone over to the “dark side” in New York in their interesting garb.

Pay-tree-ots day and the Boston Marathon seems to bring out the interesting in a lot of people:

A friend wanted to know if there was a guy dressed as fries also running, but alas no. Somehow though Elvis made the trip from Memphis and beyond the grave for a leisurely run:

Other people wore things I wasn’t sure were really conducive to a good run:

And other people, well I have no idea what this was about. I am sure this guy wanted to impress the young lady behind the camera:

I did get a couple of regular looking ones. The guy with the flag is I’d say probably one of the few decent shots I got from this whole thing:

Ah, just when you thought the entry was over, I wanted to say a few words about those silver blankets. As most of you likely know, when you finish the grueling 26.2 miles (during which I would be on the ground by mile 2) you get a nice medal and a nifty silver blanket. I loved the various fashion statements people decided to turn theirs into:

Other people wore their silver blankets normally:

And others choose a sort of a skirt approach to their blanket:

OK, now the entry is done. I should have said this ahead of time, but I apologize the photos weren’t up to my usual quality, but these were just for fun. We’ll be back to regular scheduled programming in the next entry.