Busy Busy Busy

I started classes 2 weeks ago. Between the day job, the hobby, trying to exercise, and keeping up with classword my life has been like a whirlwind the past couple of weeks. It's only going to get even more hectic over the next couple of months as I try to tackle a couple of things that need attention.

However, since this is a photo blog and not a whiny emotional type blog, let's get to the photography. I started my Photography II course earlier this month. The prophecies given by my Photography I teacher came to pass - we're working in color for this course. This is not a bad thing as I want a better understanding of color where photography is concerned. I won't say at this point whether I like color or black and white better since they both have their pros and cons.

We're not going to be processing the film or developing prints in chemistry. The teacher has directed us to have our film processed by a third party and we will be using a color processor to achieve the prints. Our only interaction will be to expose the paper on the enlarger. I am a little sad that we won't be working with chemistry ourselves as this helps to instill that photography is a process and not a singular event. I know I'll be saving money by not having to purchase chemistry, but I have a feeling that paying a third party to process my film may get a little expensive.

The problem I'm have so far, however, is that I have 5 rolls of film shot (in 2 weeks time) and processed, but I have not yet had a chance to produce any prints! The teacher was there for the first 2 classes but has not been there for 2 of the last 3 meetings (the other meeting, which was the middle of the 2 that the teacher wasn't present, I wasn't able to attend due to a lingering migraine). I know he was sick and I hope everything is well with him... I'm just anxious to get started especially since I paid a lot of money to attend this course.

In the meantime, however, I've been keeping my Flickr page updated. I haven't been trying to ignore this blog. It takes a lot of time to develop the words I write here and I want to make sure that everything is at the very least coherent. I apologize for those who may have been waiting for me to update these pages.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

My mother came down to Houston for 2 weeks to watch my cousins as my uncle (her brother) and his wife took a 20th anniversary vacation to Greece (which, incidently, is where they met and married... ironically neither one is Greek). My wife, my mom, her best friend in New York, and I all went down to Corpus Christi, TX over one weekend to visit my grandmother. Since I'm enrolled in a Photo II course, I took my trusty Pentax 645 along with my Canon DSLR. I shot three rolls of Kodak Portra 160 (1 roll of VC and 2 rolls of NC) and about 7 digital shots. After having the film processed, I've settled on the shots I like the best.

These 2 shots were taken with the Pentax 645. We were on a T-head along the coast looking at the replica of the Nina. Both of these were pointed out to me... my grandmother pointed to the pelican and my wife pointed to the buildings. The pelican was sitting on that post just past the end of a slip. I walked to the end of the slip to get him... he cast a disinterested look toward me, but that was it... he really didn't care that I was there. As for the shot of downtown Corpus Christi - I had already gotten some similar shots from other vantage points on the T-head, but in one particular spot my wife had pointed me in that direction again and somehow I knew that where I was standing would be the best shot of these buildings.


In terms of composition this particular picture is my favorite. The city of Corpus Christi, with its shining beacons, is in the background. In the foreground is a desolate area of rock and dirt. The wide water barrier separates the city from the desolate area. The lone man with his fishing pole seems distraught. Has the water yielded no bounty today? Does he dread his task ahead? Perhaps he longs to be in the city, but cannot get there. Has the city cast him out? Is he an outsider to afraid to go in?

This was actually taken before we had gotten to the T-heads. Shoreline Drive follows the Corpus Christi coast right into the downtown area. Along this road are a number of small municipal parks were families can enjoy the weather. This was taken from one of those parks.


While the lonely fisherman may be my favorite, this one has quickly become a favorite on Flickr. I must admit I am rather proud of how this one turned out as in the original scan the picture was very washed out. The scale that is shown here really gives a sense of the size of an aircrafter carrier - even our old World War II-era vessels. I am anxious to get this one in the lab to see if I can get it to come out the same on paper as I got it using Aperture.




These final 2 pictures were taken with my DSLR at sunset on Padre Island, just off the coast of Texas. We were getting ready to eat dinner at a place called Snoopy's. The patio area of Snoopy's happens to be a pier. I went out their while waiting for my fish and chips to see if I could capture the sunset. Believe it or not, I was able to get these without needing my tripod. I was proud of both of these as this was one of the first times I was able to get an accurate color representation at the time of the shot and was able to keep the post processing to a minimum.

As always, comments are welcome and encourage so I can continue to grow.

Color Film

My Pentax 645 came with a 220 film back. At the time I didn't know the difference between 120 film and 220 film so I really didn't care. Well, when it came time to buy film, I realized there is a difference. The biggest difference between 220 film and 120 film is the number of exposures - 220 gives 30 exposures where 120 gives 15 exposures. What I found is that 220 film is becoming exceedingly difficult to find. My only option in black and white was Kodak Tri-X 320, and honestly I'm not really a fan of Tri-X film.

Off to eBay I go and finally (after getting sniped on 2 other auctions) I got a 120 film back for the reasonable price of $33.00. The seller also threw in 4 rolls of Fuji Reala 100 film. Well, what was I to do? I immediately shot up the 4 rolls of film and had them processed by a third party (I don't know how to process color quite yet). Here are some of the results.

Ok, I admit it - I've always had cameras that automagically read the ISO of the film canister and I've never worked with medium format before. I was shooting Tri-X 320 before I got the film back and film and, you guessed it, I forgot to set the ISO on the camera. This was the result of the film being pushed but not developed as if it were pushed. This shot of my Christmas tree definitely sucks.

This shot was from the same pushed roll. The image itself came out good, but the colors were off. The evidence is the fact that these flowers were red, not pink. I guess the reason the bricks didn't come out funky has something to do with the fact the sun was shining directly on them. This picture, however flawed from its original intent, came out very powerful (at least in my opinion).

After realizing my mistake and setting the proper ISO on my camera, I shot the last 2 rolls of film. This one was properly exposed, but for some reason very washed out. I'm not sure what happened because the images before and after both came out fine. If this had come out, I think it would have been pretty kick ass.

Now these 2 above are my success stories. In both instances the exposure came out perfect and the colors, after a little tweaking in Aperture, were dead on. I've found that my cat is actually a very difficult subject to focus because of her color... but this time I was able to get her and some of her fur detail. The poinsettia is my favorite of the 2 rolls that were shot properly as the detail was something I wasn't expecting.

So, 60 pictures were taken and only 4 usable came out of it. I would say it was a pretty good day. I did find out one thing, though - I have a lot to learn when it comes to color photography in film. Digital pictures are easy to manipulate, but film is a whole different beast. I've been told that we will be working with color film next semester. This should definitely prove to be interesting.

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged so I can get better.

Final Exam Results

I got my final exam portfolio back today. I am proud to say that I received an A+ on it, I guess that means a 100. I hope it wasn't on bell curve because that would mean that my classmates photos really sucked (and I know there were some pretty good photos my classmates took). My overall grade in the class was an A, which keeps my GPA in the high 3's (woohoo!). I'm signed up for Photography II next semester along with a retake of Anatomy and General Psychology. Wish me luck for those in the next semester.

Christmas is upon us. In the previous years I haven't taken much notice of things going on around me, but this year, since the happenings of December 2006, I'm taking better notice. I've been taking a lot of photos this Christmas and I thought I would share of few of them with you.




These 2 are part of my house decorations. They are located on the hearth in my living room. Some would consider the placement of the Nativity and a Santa Claus so close may be blasphemy. I beg to differ. While the birth of Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas, Santa Claus embodies the spirit of Christmas. That spirit being The Father giving the world his Son to save us from our sins.




These were taken at a client's Christmas party this past weekend. I have a lot of candids, but here I wanted to post my artsy shots. Capturing that flame was a pain, though, as for some reason the fire kept throwing off my focus (even on manual).




These are part of privately funded public displays around Houston. The first one is a part of 3 very big nutcracker soldiers in the parking lot of an upscale strip mall near the Galleria. The picture of Santa is part of a much larger display on the front lawn of the AON building, which is located about 2 blocks from where the nutcracker picture was taken. The 'much larger display' was rather difficult to capture.

I've been messing with the shooting styles lately on my DSLR. It has gotten rid of the slight orange tint that's been plaguing my pictures, but now some of the colors are being washed out. I find myself having to do a lot of color correction lately.

At any rate, give me comments because that's how I grow.