The Lower East Side again (with the Ansco Pix Panoramic)

The Ansco Pix Panoramic is a plastic toy camera that's similar in many respects to the Holga, and one of the most basic 35mm point-and-shoots you're likely to come across. What I like about it is partly the challenge of using it. Far from "you push the button, we do the rest," plastic toy cameras really make you do the work. In other words, you have to compensate for their shortcomings. The Ansco Pix isn't a true panoramic, as you can tell--it's a single-frame exposure taken with a built-in fixed wide-angle lens (approximately 22mm) that is basically cropped in the camera, panorama-style (the top and bottom of the frame are masked off). After a little trial and error, I discovered that the exposure settings are: something approximating F8 at something approximating 1/100 of a second. Which makes it basically an outdoor daylight camera. But with the right film and developer combination, it can function in a variety of different lighting conditions. (In this case, I used Tri-X 400, developed using Diafine, which gives Tri-X about a 2-stop push). I'm hoping to try using it in the subway later this month, with TMax 3200, pushing the film 2, maybe 3 stops. We'll see what happens.

This camera seems to have been made for NYC street photography.

Life in New York City is

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade

Here's another old picture, from the Coney Island Mermaid Parade a couple of years ago. To me, it's a very "New York" picture. Which makes sense, considering that it's a very New York event. There are some great reasons to support the parade -- it brings hordes of people there every summer, giving a much-needed boost to the local economy there, and it's also an event dedicated to celebrating the spirit of this unique place in the world. Coney Island can be fun, annoying, crude, sexy and strange, all at once. So, too, the Mermaid Parade.

Anyway, I'm just using that photograph as an excuse to post tonight. What I really want to write about is an incredible blog that is really worth checking out, Martin Fuchs' Journal of a Photographer. I've gained a lot of insight from his blog, not to mention more than my fair share of inspiration. Some of his posts really helped me break out of a rut last year, when I was feeling uninspired and not very motivated, and I've always related a lot to what he writes. Prior to the Journal, he had another blog detailing his experiences in NYC interning at Magnum Photos, which is also where I interned while I was a student at ICP (I worked in the publishing department).

Martin's blog has also led me to other photo blogs, including Magnum photographer Alec Soth's, and his site is a great resource--just check out his Links page, pretty much everything is there. Forgot when the deadline for the Leica-Oskar Barnack award is? Check the events and deadlines calendar on the right. Interested in how Simon Wheatley and Joachim Ladefoged got their start? Download the interview podcasts. Need a quick tutorial in creating multimedia photo-essays using Soundslides? That's there too. I haven't meet Martin yet, although I have a feeling that sooner or later we'll bump into each other (maybe at the upcoming W. Eugene Smith Award Ceremony next week?) But his is probably the only photo blog I look at regularly. He frequently points out websites of photographers that he likes, so I thought that I'd go ahead and bring some attention to his as well.

Jackson Heights

Another old photo