i like taking pictures :: nic's pics

Exiting my subway station if it's been raining out can be a precarious situation.  See, the end of the staircase isn't flush with the sidewalk, there's a step-- not unusually tall but tall enough-- that one must descend from onto the sidewalk, which is sloped toward the street at a noticeable angle.  And if it's been raining and windy, and being that it's autumn despite what the temperature might have you believe, there are sure to be leaves.  Leaves that are especially slippery when wet.  And you can imagine how the rest of this story is going to play out: splat! 

I must say, it was a pretty spectacular fall.  I had my huge leather shoulder bag to help break it (it probably saved my elbow & shoulder from a worse fate than bruising) but in breaking my fall, I also cracked part of my camera which was in the bag!  It could be worse; the only thing affected is the flash which is sort of wedged in there and will not budge.  And we all know that on-camera flash is BAD.  Sometimes though, it's necessary to use the camera flash to trigger another off camera.  But the hot shoe still functions and there's always a trusty sync cord for triggering I guess.  I also mildly fucked up the 50mm lens that was attached to it... the focusing ring turns with effort but forget about auto-focus.  That's absolutely out of the question now.  Maybe I should invest in a hard case.  :/

Well I guess August and September pretty much came and went... it was one of the nicest, most temperate Augusts that I can remember while September was colder than I remember from years' past.  I guess I'll take that over sweltering though.  I've been looking forward to the nice, crisp nights we've been having for awhile now.

I guess no matter how old I get, I'll always equate autumn with "back to school".  And so it still is for me-- I'm back at ICP this week tho this time, not just as a student, but as a TA.  Benjamin, my Photo II instructor that I'd remained in touch with after class was over, asked me if I'd be interested in TA'ing his class when he couldn't get a hold of his regular TA.  Aside from being excited, I think I was also a bit nervous.  I mean, I haven't been doing this all that long and now I'll have students deferring to me, if Benjamin isn't available, with questions pertaining to film developing and printing.   I'm sure I have more of a handle on things than I give myself credit for... at least I hope I do!  Time will tell; tonight was just the first class and so far: piece of cake-- setting up chemistry in the darkroom (which we were each responsible for in Photo III anyway), explaining the ins & outs of processing film at ICP & printing outside of class and all that sort of stuff.  For the first half of the course, the students print on RC (resin coated) paper which is great because it's quick-- after they're done printing, I just grab the prints and feed them into a dryer which spits 'em out a minute or so later (think of it as one of those conveyor belt toasters that sandwich chains sometimes use).  However, during the second half, they'll be switching to fibre based paper which, other than the time involved, I love-- it's a heavier, richer looking paper but it's a pain in the ass between the washing and drying (air dry on screens or hanging up).  It will likely take me an hour to wash & begin to dry all their prints.

Anyhoo.  Aside from that, I'm also taking a digital printing class (I'll finally be able to print color, woohoo!) and a Portrait Lighting class taught by someone that Mark-- my Fundamentals of Studio Lighting instructor-- has worked with in the past and believes will be a good teacher.  Excited to be back in the darkroom again, especially since ICP was all but closed since the summer session ended, and to get acquainted with the digital labs.

Since I haven't been able to print anything, I have at least been scanning in film that I've shot between now and then.  I had thought that I would do a series of photos of Williamsburg, my "hometown", as my project for Photo III.  But I soon grew to realize that you can't really encompass an entire neighborhood, especially one I know as intimately as this one, in mere weeks.  This was going to be an ongoing thing.  Just as I'm continuing the project I began in Photo II (the Tori portraits).  So here are some of the Williamsburg photos (color and b&w, some old, some new), some more photos for the Tori portraits and the "shoes" series I wound up printing (as well as some color ones I'll be printing in the coming weeks).

The past few Saturdays, there's been some sort of "artwalk" type thing in my neighborhood where my street is blocked off to traffic for a few blocks and local restaurants put tables outside and the hydrant is fitted with a sprinkler cap and opened up and children can play in the street.  As I was walking to the subway today I saw such a scene and it brought me right back to my own childhood... there were kids and dogs playing in the pump (altho the streets weren't closed off for us back then).

went to the Kanye show at MSG the other nite... boy is he full of himself.  I rushed there after my last lighting class but still missed Lupe & NERD which is sort of upsetting but I suppose I'll live.  So I got there in time to see Kanye with his big head and bad sound (not him, but just the sound in the arena).  he's not performer enough to carry the show all by himself (he doesn't really dance and he doesn't have back up singers or dancers) but I will say some of the effects were really cool.  the seats weren't that great either making taking pictures pretty much impossible until I had an idea: unfocus!

so here's the show broken down into it's basic elements of light, shape and color and a few audience silhouettes.  much more interesting than literal concert shots, I think.

so not only is my lighting class over (sniffle), so is my black & white darkroom class.  I don't know if it's because it was a summer class and only five weeks instead of the usual ten (tho I believe it worked out to more actual hours in the end) but I just don't feel like I accomplished as much as I had in my previous two darkroom classes.  I don't feel like there's any cohesiveness to the work I did which isn't really a reflection on the class or the instructor...  I guess I had a lot more time to think about the project I worked on in the last class so the idea was bounced off various people and refined and tweaked until it was something really specific: portraits of a group of music fanatic friends of mine.  and that's all it was going to be until Benjamin, the teacher of that class, pushed me to show how these people were all linked.  and the primary link is this one particular singer but since she's not on tour right now it took me awhile to think of how else I could do that (and what sucks is that one of my favorite portraits is one I took before I refined the idea and so wasn't able to include it in the end).  so I tried to show visually how music is such a big part of our lives and for the most part, I think I suceeded, it's subtle in some and very obvious in others... below are 4 out of the final 12 (all 35mm Fuji Neopan 1600; scans of final prints).

now with this most recent class, we were asked on Day 1 what we might want to work on as our project and I'd been photographing my neighborhood on and off since I started taking classes at ICP and thought that might be interesting but in retrospect, it's such a broad topic that I think I'd need a tremendous amount of images to do this justice. 

days before the last week of class, I was going through all my old contact sheets and found a recurring theme that would've worked a lot better: shoes and peoples' feet.  mine, friends', strangers'... so somehow in our last day of printing I churned out 4 prints (I usually only got about 2 done)... the only thing is that none of those images were shot during this class so it was sort of cheating.  but we didn't have to present it or anything like I had to do in the last class so I guess it doesn't matter.  and I think I'll continue working on both Williamsburg and the shoes (as I'm still working on the portraits-- in fact, I'm going to shoot 1 or 2 more Tori peeps this weekend)...

We never really did get around to discussing it, but one of our assignments for Lighting class was to take a picture that included a reflection in it... here are some various ones I took throughout the course.

here are a few still lifes from the photoshoot weekend.  I was tired of people by the time Sunday rolled around and Sems has this gorgeous guitar that made the most beautiful subject.

strobe camera right, few feet behind me, shot thru umbrella.

camera settings: ISO 400, 1/125 at F10

here are some pictures taken during the next-to-last lighting class.  it's hard to believe I didn't know some of these poeple only a few weeks ago; we've had so much fun together both in and out of class.

now for the pictures... tho maybe not the most technically astounding, they're fun and funny and I like them.

to round out my photographic education, I try to do some out-of-class, informal blog reading; one of my favorites is photographer Joe McNally's.  I had the pleasure of working with him for a day a few years ago...  I was his subject for the never-made-it-to-fruition Ebay magazine.  I was going to be on the cover, too.  sucks.  oh well, it was still fun and it's funny to think back to that day and remember some of the things we spoke about (for instance, he was using whatever the top of the line digital Nikon was at the time, and I remember asking him how many megapixels it was and I think it was like 10 or 12 which now, is almost standard on entry level point & shoots but back then I was blown away.  it was an astronomical number!  I think I was still using my Canon G2-- 4mp-- at the time).

anyway, so I've been keeping tabs on him via his blog which is written in such a down to earth manner and he not only posts about his successes but his fuck-ups as well, and how he resolves situations.  and he's funny.  so check it out.  he also has a new book out (the cover is cheesy as all hell but the tips inside are good), The Moment It Clicks.

one of the 4 outfits

so another wonderful Amy (aka Miss Fulbright) had a great middle-of-the-nite idea for me (isn't that when all the best ideas come to you?).  since I can see the images in Bridge, use that to convert them to dng files which I know I can open in Photoshop.  brilliant all around!

barring any further complications, there will be new pics on here soon!