Tag: journal

Photography is for…

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

Want to be a renowned photographer? follow these seven steps. (links include “colorful” language, but we all know that color is an important part of photography)

1) Make sure you have a LOT OF F**KING NATURAL LIGHT.

2) Make sure the natural light SOURCE is behind you

3) Make sure the flash on your camera is OFF. If you need a FLASH, it means you don’t have enough NATURAL LIGHT. (step 1)

4) Look through the viewfinder: Make sure that everything in your shot is symmetrical. If a tiny bit of it isn’t, like a bird or a queer walking down the street, that’s OK because it makes the photo “cool.” Go watch every Stanley Kubrick movie ever made if you don’t understand this. (Study Alex’s fake eyelash as the archetypal stylistic symmetry violator)

5) Take pictures of everyday sh*t from stupid angles but make sure it’s all SYMMETRICAL and that it isn’t MOVING.

6) Make sure YOU don’t move or have your fat black fingers in front of the lens when you push the button. (priceless tip: push the button down halfway, wait for a clicky sound, and then push it all the way in – this is the BIG photography secret that professionals don’t want you to know.)

7) Take TONS of photos of the same thing and then only use the good ones where the bird or the queer wasn’t blinking.

You’re done. You’re a f**king photographer. See how easy that is? That’s because it’s for JERKOFFS.

(kottke.org, via avenues)

Woops!

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I’ve used York Photo for my mail order film processing for several years. They’re inexpensive ($2.20/roll, $1.50 shipping, and $1.00 scans), they turn rolls around in a week, and they partner with Snapfish for their online service. They offer perpetual hosting and have great deals on prints.

I got my first rolls back from San Miguel a week ago, and was waiting on two other rolls. One roll showed up online yesterday, and when I got home, found this in my mailbox:

Woops!

Woops!

There was a note from York saying that they received the roll in this condition, damaged beyond repair. I used to send film without film canisters to save space, but I think I’ll send them in film canisters from now on.

Nothing York could have done about it, USPS strikes again.

Blogs Kurt is reading

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

Nic Nichol’s blog: Four Corners Dark: Holga, Lomo, and low-fi photography.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I’m reading my own mind. He’s loving the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera (my own reviews forthcoming), ranting on the ranters who claim you can duplicate low-fi with photoshop, so why bother with plastic, and the lucky bugger has gotten his hands on a BlackBird, Fly 35mm TLR. He even posted an article on Miroslav Tichy when news of his work made the rounds.

Poindexter sez: Check it Out.

Jazz Jelly camera, revisited

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

My fixation with LOMO LC-As and film photography began in 2000. About that time, I started collecting toy film cameras. I like the aesthetic, I like the disconnect from technical frippery that a plastic lensed, single aperture, single shutter speed gives. I like vignetting. I like chromatic aberration. I like soft focus.

One of the cameras I loved was the Jazz Jelly. It looks like a $5 Olympus Stylus, with its dove bar shape, built-in flash and sliding lens cover. The 28mm lens is simply designed – if it has more than 2 elements I would be shocked. It’s light, and it’s disarming. People don’t concern themselves with someone taking their picture with a see-through purple, red, or green camera.

The Jelly has a panorama setting. It crops the top and bottom of the photo, and some film processors can crop that onto a wide print. I think back in the APS days this was more common, but most places will probably print on 4×3 paper and print the borders, like a letterbox DVD.

Since the Lomographic Society has brought the Diana back from the dead and renewed interest in the Holga, I’ve rediscovered toy cameras. 35mm toy cameras are getting hard to find! Cameras like these used to be available at Wal-MART, drug stores, convenience stores and even office supply stores. Cheap film cameras have all but gone from retail, and I’m afraid they were so cheap that they may have all ended up in landfill.

I’ve combed the junk shops hoping to find that Diana in mint condition, but alas, have never been that lucky.

I found a Jelly on Amazon for a reasonable price ($7.99 with a battery and 200 speed film!) and will throw it in my bag, see what I can do with it.

Crank up the contrast in PS and it looks a little LOMO-like!

Linked networks

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

Ok, so I post to WordPress. WordPress posts an update to Twitter via Twitter tools and to Livejournal. LJ gets the whole post with comments redirected to WordPress. Twitter posts a shortened URL to the blog post. Twitter gets slurped once a day into LoudTwitter, which also posts to LJ. And, Facebook also gets updated by Twitter. Which redirects people to WordPress. I couldn’t get Wordbook to work, but since Twitter already updates Facebook via Loudtwitter, I figure I have it covered.

My head is spinning.