Today was definitely a working day.

I finished up a couple of small projects, scanned in quite a bit of film, and actually got to spend some time working on some of the images I have been scanning. 

The first batch I scanned is from my trip to the Minnesota State Fair! These pictures might find their place in my project. I never rule anything out. Here are a couple I finished today:

There will be many more photos from this outing coming very soon!

Also, thanks to one of my twitter pals I found this photo website. I love the title so much!!

~Peace~

 

 

This post is marking the end of a very long, busy holiday weekend. The weekend was not without its benefits though.

We drove to Mundelein, Illinois for a 50th wedding anniversary party on Saturday and stayed in Madison, Wisconsin Saturday night. After a photo walk late Saturday night, and a few hours of sleep, we drove home Sunday morning with one photo stop along the way. 

Today I spent a large part of the day hanging out with my family while developing the 10 rolls of black and white film I have accumulated from the last couple of weeks. All of that film is now being scanned, and I must say, I am very excited about how most of it turned out! It makes me very excited for a day I can spend with it to see what it will work itself into. Of course, you will see the results in future posts. It was a very rejuvenating day, and one that was greatly needed. I am still exhausted after all of the weekend events, but it is a happy exhausted now instead of an overwhelming exhaustion.

I am very hopeful about the other images I took over the weekend. Here are a couple of the Polaroids I took during our little road trip. I am enamored with them, and amazed at the clarity in the images, especially in the two taken with the little Polaroid 600 camera I bought at the Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. 

I'm hoping this inspiring photo weekend will jump-start my creativity for the next couple of weeks and that good things will keep coming!

Taken with my Polaroid 600 Spirit camera at Mill Bluff state park in Wisconsin. The park is very close to Volk Field. We took a chance to get out and stretch our legs by walking around the path that wound around these huge rock formations. It would have been even better if there hadn't been so many mosquitos out there! It was a beautiful place to visit though, and I highly recommend it if you are traveling through Wisconsin.

A close up of the rock towers. I was trying to capture a good image of the feathers that were strewn across the rock base. I took this with my Hasselblad 501c/m using a Polaroid back and super yummy awesome Chocolate Polaroid Peel-apart Pack film!

Another close up of the rock towers. They have amazing texture!

This is the Madison State Capital building at night. It was about a 20-30 second exposure, also taken with my Hassey and Chocolate Polaroid film. I was exhausted after our night walk, but it was worth it! I am anxious to see the other film shots!

Here begins another week!!

~Peace~

Somedays all you want to do is slow down, and notice the little things. Sometimes when you feel like that, you actually have the chance to slow down. Other days you don't.

Today, there were many little things I was noticing in some of my images. Very little things, often quite insignificant, but it was enough to draw me to the image.

The images in this post are a mix of images from a few different photo outtings. If you click on the image, it will take you to a page with a description of where I took the image, and what little thing I was noticing about it today. See if you notice any of the same things I did! I'm curious to know if anyone sees these things, or if there are things I'm missing that others see.

Thank you!

 

~Peace~

Today has been packed full, and right now it feels pretty amazing to just be back home.

John and I went to the Minnesota State Fair with a couple of friends today after work. We had an amazing time, ate way too much, walked all over the fair grounds, and took lots and lots of pictures. As I was running out the door this morning after packing up my bags for the day, I realized I was taking 4 cameras with me (all film cameras, no digital this time). It was the first time, in my many years of going to the fair, that I have ever taken pictures of it. We had amazing weather, and I’m excited to get the film developed!

In the mean time, tonight I am posting a few of the polaroids I took that came out pretty decent! My only complaint about them is that the scans came out much redder than the actual polaroids. I did my best to color adjust them for now, and I’m planning on rescanning them soon.

For now, I leave you with this:

These 3 images were taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m using a Polaroid back loaded up with Chocolate pack film from Polapremium (where I spend most of my paychecks!)

The Ferris Wheel

Crazy Thriller – Fighter ride.

Fireworks.

 

~Peace~

Today seemed kind-of scattered. That isn’t necssarily a bad thing, it just means that there is a lot going through my head.

I have figured out that when that happens, the best thing to do is just pick a handful of images that stand out to me for whatever reason and start working with them. Everything needs to be cropped and color corrected before it can be added to whatever part of this project it will fit into.

So here are some of the images that stuck out to me tonight. I’m sure you will see them again somewhere soon.

Most of these were taken in Japan with my Mamiya C330 camera.

A train station in Japan at night.

Train leaving the station.

Narita.

A street on Zamimi Island near Okinawa.

An alley in Osaka.

Tokyo street.

 

This image I took today while I was out for a bike ride. Taken with a Polaroid Spirit instamatic 600 camera using expired 600 film.

 

We’ll see what I find tomorrow.

 

~Peace~

It usually takes me quite awhile to finish a compilation image. One image is very very rarely created and completed in one sitting. Often, I start one, leave it alone for awhile, let it breath, tweak a few things, step away again, and let it tell me where it needs to go.

Of course, they all have to start somewhere.

I had some time tonight to start a new compilation image.

This is just the start of this. It has a long way to go before I consider it finished.

So far, it is made of 3 images:

Winona Train Tracks

Lock and Dam #5

and Flowers.

By the time it is finished, it could be completly different. For now, this is how it exists.

I’m sure you will see it again sometime soon!

~Peace~

It has been a long, but wonderful weekend. Packed full of revelations, and findings. There are not many times you can say that about a weekend.

Friday night John and I went to an art show opening at MCBA. Their current exhibit features work from many many artists, and is leading to a publication that will include those artists plus many more. The deadline for the publication has not passed yet, and I am planning in participating. My entry will be something like this:

Printed on the image with an old iron hand press will be:

He wasn’t stealing information exactly,

He was just borrowing data.

1’s and 0’s from others here

and stringing them together to  make a new person

someone she might open up to.

 

On Sunday we went for a long walk, finding a path we never knew about before, and one that I hadn’t walked for around 10 years or so.

The one I hadn’t walked for 10 years was surprisingly a lot like the way I had left it. It was a place shown to me by a friend a long time ago, and was once-upon-a-time a backdrop for many self portrait projects while I was in college. It is hidden back in St. Paul quite a ways away from most of the places everyone here knows. I can’t even give very good directions to get there. I have tried to find it again a couple of times before, but I was never able to. On Sunday, things fell into place, and for some reason, I was allowed to find it again. The images are a little dark. Both are Polaroids, and, well, these things happen with polaroids sometimes. But I think, that there is also a certain feel to them, and that feeling is reflected in the place. I guess what I’m trying to say is no, they are not my best images, but they captured what I was feeling and what I wanted to take back from that place and sometimes, that is what you are looking for more than a perfect image.

j:Are you still there?

q:That’s a dumb question…

you know i am always here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

j:hello? is anyone here?

q:i am

j:who are you?

q:does it really matter who i am?

j:what are you?

q:that doesn’t really matter either.

j:where are you from?

q:everywhere.

 

It was a good weekend. On to the week.

~Peace~

The city looks so different at night.

I have taken dozens of photos of this building, and this sign. It is a staple of the Minneapolis skyline.

I haven’t thought much of the other images I have taken of this building.

But the one I took tonight came out exactly how I wanted.

I believe it will find it’s way into this project somewhere. For now, it is here.

Sometimes, you just have to look at something a different way, at a different time to find the answer you are looking for. Sometimes that means you have to look up.

 

 

Until Monday~

 

~peace~

Some days, you just need a little inspiration.

One of the things I love doing is taking photos at night (as many of you may have already figured out). Tonight, while looking back through some older images that I will be working with, I found these. They made me smile.

In Minneapolis there is an event called the Luminary Loppet or Tour of Light. It takes place in February. Participants can walk or cross country ski along a course set on the frozen lakes and lined with candles housed in pillars of ice. It was purely an accident that I found this event last year. I will be going back again in 2010.

These photos were most likely taken with my Mamiya C330 (I’m guessing this because it’s a little easier to load film in that one when you have cold fingers, so I probably had that one with me!). Taken with Fuji color slide film.

I am sure you will see these later as a layer in a compliation.

 

~Peace~

There are many photos that I took during our trip to Japan that inspire what I am doing in this project. There are so many places there that fit what is in my mind.

I always knew I would feel this way, even before we decided to go to Japan.

One of the first things that started me on this process was an anime that a friend told me about called Serial Experiments Lain created by Yoshitoshi ABe. It is brilliant! I think about it sometimes when I am working.

On that note, today’s images that I have been thinking about are images from our trip to Japan. There is the theme of the old and new placed together in the first image. The second image reminds me of some of the scenes from Lain.

Until tomorrow

~Peace~