Oh I’ve been a bad blogger, haven’t I? Almost a month with no posts. I’m pretty sure they talk about this in “how to keep your non-existent blog audience engaged.”
Anyway, here are some more film shots from our NYC trip. Weddings will start to calm down a bit in a few weeks and after that I should have some more time for new personal work.
I’ve known Aaron for 15 years. I remember when we finished school together. I remember when he started dating Floss. I remember attending their wedding.
When I learned that they were expecting their first child my first thought was “shit, we’re getting old.” My second thought was about whether it meant that I wouldn’t see them as much; whether our group of friends would further contract as family commitments snatch them away from us.
Lisa and I visited Aaron, Floss and Matilda yesterday. A few of us went, actually. Conversations were had. Decade-old references were made. Jokes were told. Laughter was contagious.
The group isn’t getting smaller. In fact, we’ve opened for a few junior members.
I love this girl so much. She’s my muse and I’m lucky enough to have her as both my relationship partner and my business partner. I have no idea what I did in my life to be fortunate enough to have her.
Man, I have been trying to get posts up every week but business over at And a Day has been killing me lately. Sorry about that
My Contax is still out for repair. This is…upsetting. I’m beginning to think they probably can’t repair it and are just stalling. I may have to live without 1/4000sec, which is fine, I guess. I just want the camera back at this point. I have so much film in my fridge and it’s taunting me every time I go for a snack.
Back in happier days, Lisa and I hit up the High Line in NYC for a few hours. I won’t complain about the cold again (even though it was cold), but the High Line is pretty dead in Winter. Not that it’s a bad thing – there’s still a novelty in seeing something like the High Line in a place like Manhattan, but I’m guessing it’s far more impressive in the Spring.
I’m still feeling my way around just what to write about here. Do any of you have any thoughts? Would you like to hear more about the photography? More about the story behind the photography? Nothing at all? My thoughts about the potential for Barbershop to make a come back?
Within a few days of arriving in NYC we headed over to B&H and picked up some extra film. If you’ve never been to B&H, I highly recommend going. It’s insane. Little crates flying all around the store on conveyer belts. I could swear I drew something similar while I was bored in maths class about fifteen years ago.
These are a few shots from a variety of locations around Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. I think this was around the time I was getting a little frustrated with the meter on the Contax 645. It would go something like this:
Contax 645: Yeah, you’re all good on exposure there, buddy. Go ahead a release the shutter. Go on, do it. This is going to be perfectly exposed. Go on.
*click*
Contax 645: HAHA JUST KIDDING THREE STOPS OVEREXPOSED
It was annoying, to say the least.
I don’t know what it was doing but I assume it was something to do with using AA’s in the battery grip. Luckily, only one or two of the photos on Velvia (not in this post) really suffered from it.
I snuck in a NYC post early, but now we’re on to the last San Francisco post of the series (before more of NYC!). The more I look back on these photos the more I miss it. I don’t like really tourist-y holidays where you try to cram in as much as you can in the shortest possible time. I like to go to one place, set myself up like it’s home, and just live there for a while.
For ten days we lived out of a little apartment in the Mission District and did three things: walk, eat, and take pictures. I even finally found a vegan burger (hello St. Francis Fountain) that surpassed my memories of times when I actually ate real hamburgers.
The photos below are from our walks around Downtown, amongst other areas. I still can’t get over just how nice the people were in SF. We had so many great interactions with people and zero negative ones. Lisa asked one guy for directions to a cafe and he spent 15 minutes telling us about all of his favourite places. We’ll go back, eventually. You’d have to try pretty hard to keep us away.
I think it was our second day in New York when we decided it would be a good idea to visit Brooklyn. Lisa was going a little mental about Mast Brothers and a few other cafes that we had to experience.
We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, then went around and sat under the Manhattan Bridge. Then, somehow we talked each other into walking to Williamsburg. Now, I don’t know how many of you have walked around Brooklyn before, but it is a hell of a long way from the Manhattan Bridge to Williamsburg. Especially when you’ve already been walking all morning.
Just to further prove our insanity, we then walked back over the Williamsburg Bridge. It really is the best way to experience an unfamiliar location, but goddamn did my feet hurt that night.
The first time we hit up Ocean Beach it was entirely by accident. We were actually going to Outerlands and decided to go for a walk after an awesome breakfast. We hit up the beach entirely unprepared for the super windy and freezing conditions, but there’s something beautiful about beaches in Winter. They’re deserted, overcast, and so quiet.
The second time we went we were a bit more prepared. We rugged up and walked along the tail end of the beach up to Lands End, which is just amazing. I don’t consider myself a landscape photographer, but the whole area is pretty photogenic. Hard to go wrong, really.
Some people claim they like the delay between taking the photo and seeing the image that inevitably comes with film. I am not one of those people. After an entire month of waiting (and jealously watching Lisa look over her own photos), my film was finally returned late last week. I was a wee bit nervous considering the issues I’ve had with the Contax 645′s shutter, but the vast majority turned out just fine.
Anyway, they’re here and I’ll be doing a few posts of various parts over the next few weeks. We’re doing combined posts over at And a Day, but I’ll be putting up more of my own here.
First up is down by Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate.
One day I’m going to do a series and I’m going to call it “Pete’s photos of ceilings.” It’ll be great. Modern art museums everywhere will feature it.
