matchbox pinhole

last week i made a small pinhole camera out of a matchbox. i love anything experimental. its exciting and messy, but always contained in a little rectangle. also, it looks pretty ghetto, which i obviously love. it is basically a one-use camera, since you have to completely take it apart to get the exposed roll of film out, so i plan on making another one soon. this was my first trial, but i will post how-to steps to build one on my next attempt...

there is no way to know how far youre winding the film, so i think i overwound it between images, yielding only about 20 frames with a lot of blank film space, and totaled only about 9 images. it was all a trial-and-error so i can make adjustments for next time. here is one of my favorite results below and here are the rest

inspiration

a while ago i went to the SFMOMA for the Richard Avedon exhibit. his ability to capture so much of someone in a single still photograph is amazing. i decided then that i wanted to start doing portraits of my friends. i think it is cliche to talk about 'capturing someone's personality in a picture' because, duh, thats usually what you try to accomplish with a portrait, but the photograph should be able to stand on its own and speak for itself, and i think thats something more than just 'capturing personality,' rather you should be overwhelmed by a feeling...

white elephant sale

some shots from the hip at the white elephant sale, which was like one huge dirty garage sale. i bought a sweet old polaroid camera for $3. too bad the film costs 10 times as much. i'll probably break down and buy some sooner or later, though.

darkroom!

After a random meeting with an old man at a huge warehouse/garage sale in oakland, i found out some of the best news ever...there is a community darkroom three blocks from my house!

i went to an orientation today, and it is amazing. it was just re-done, and the darkroom has THIRTY-SEVEN enlargers, its humongous to say the least. they also have a portrait studio, a finishing room, and an exhibition room, which i will be aiming to have a show in sometime this summer.

i just ordered photo paper and developing chemicals from adorama, which has pretty good prices on photo/darkroom equipment.

Images on Getty

WoooOOOOOoOOOOoO! Getty decided to license some of my images for their flickr collection. Hopefully more to come...

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/97560212

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/97558467

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/97558420

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/97558418

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/97560534

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/97558421

plans

so i've been thinking about beginning my plans for the booth. only i've come to find its really overwhelming when you have complete free reign, and you can do absolutely anything. i began thinking in terms of a standard looking photo booth, but soon realized i have sooooo many options. time to start sketching some plans...

showing progress

i just realized that its really hard for me to keep a blog because i love secrets so much. i never like to reveal what im working on until the end. i dont like for people to see the messy process, only the perfect product. but i guess there is something to showing your progress that makes the hard work more apparent. ill work on it.

fallen

i dont know why, but the simple action of photographing helps ease my mind. from this i have concluded that sometimes random is not a coincidence.

i love weird stuff

like this:

http://www.aniceideaeveryday.com/projects/noodles/

...things that are so random that no one has probably ever thought of before, and if they have, probably still never executed. i think thats what makes things interesting; newness mixed with weird.