Sunday, July 24, 2011

One from the vault

This is probably the first picture I took that I was honestly proud of. It's on one of my first rolls of film. I shot it soon after I started down the long, dark path of photography, and around the time I started taking classes (during my very first class, actually, which was Advanced B/W Darkroom--I somehow convinced the photo dept. that I knew what I was doing in the darkroom, based on having read a book on it. And I was actually one of the better students in that class. For better or worse, I'm an autodidact at heart.)

About the photo: it was taken with my trusty Pentax K-1000 that a friend had given me, and a brand new 28mm lens that I bought to replace the 50mm that was already on it (for around $30). I took it at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade--truly a camera convention if there ever was one. A few friends were going, and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to hang with them in one of my favorite places on the planet. I shot a couple of rolls of film while I was there, just so I would have something new to print during class the next week. If I hadn't been taking that class, I doubt if I would have even bothered bringing my camera back then. There's a lesson there somewhere but it's probably almost as cliche as photographing the Mermaid Parade, and I'm way too tired to try and figure it out at the moment.

More from the archives to come...

Friday, July 15, 2011

conference speaker, July 2011