More 35mm 1.4 tests

More...of the Hobbit yard

35MM 1.4 Tests

I rented a 35mm 1.4 lens to use during a wedding I'm shooting on Saturday. I just got it back tonight and will have it until Monday. For anyone in Portland, if you rent a lens from Pro Photo Supply for Friday you get it all weekend, return on Monday for a 1 day price. That includes picking it up on Thursday after 3 pm. that is 3 solid days, 4 with 2 1/2's combined for the price of 1 day.

Anyways, here are the samples I took just now to study the extreme f1.4 depth of field and image quality this lens is capable of. I especially like the guitar string example because it also shows the optical fallout horizontally as the depth of field diminishes.

Asian Reporter Banquet

Been quite some time since I did a banquet/awards type of job. With 3 photographers, it was nice to be able to just roam and shoot what I thought was interesting. Every year the Asian Reporter hosts a banquet to honor both scholarship winners within the Asian community, but also honor elders in the community that had some exceptional story or community aspect to their lives. Incredible what people can endure and then what they become. Hard to imagine some of these folks were born well before most American's even knew where Indonesia or the Philippines were.

Asian Reporter Banquet

Melvins at Midnight

Thanks to Steve Davis at Evergreen, I was able to swing by and scan Melvins images. I did these while Steve's intern at Evergreen. I've been trying to reel in all the film I can think of around the place as part of the EVER AND ONGOING NIGHTMARE OF ARCHIVING THIS SHIT.

Check it out:

MELVINS

Epson 3880 Printer - Printing Services

I recently invested in an Epson 3880 ink jet printer. For the last few years, I would normally print anything here in town, but after producing the last 3 shows I've done the cost to print was getting astronomical. Now that I have this piece of equipment, I'm going to be offering my printing services to other photographers and artists needed museum quality prints done by myself. Without much of the overhead that a traditional digital repro house would have I can offer these prints at roughly 50% of the cost of printing them.

A little background on my printing 'chops':

Started processing and printing B/W in 9th grade
Purchased 1st darkroom kit in 1984
Color and C print training at Evergreen State College
Worked professionally as an expert printer, The Film Lab, Portland Oregon. During this, I assisted in printing 24x36" B/W fiber prints for the University of Texas' retrospective of David Hume Kennelry's work
3 years commercial print production and color matching / print ripping
Years of general graphics and photography experience

I've set up an email address for information.

printservices@pea2.com

2011 PDX Swap Meet

Meet

Best Baguette show done

Hong and I finished hanging the images Saturday morning at Best Baguette. I was a bit hesitant to do it again during business hours but this morning was much more mellow that last evening. All in all, the 13 look good and level. I could have spaced them out a bit better across the overall dimension of the wall - they seem a bit cramped on the wall with 7. The morning crowd on Saturday at Best Baguette is mainly Vietnamese. The pastries are fresh and the crowd that was there were interested in the work. I must have touched an emotional chord with some people; many people were talking about the locations, remembering Saigon, etc. The sky line at night was of particular interest to many people. Often, Vietnamese here haven't been back for some time. I spoke with an ex special forces soldier from the central highlands who had never been back in 39 years. We spoke for a good 10 minutes - he told me he was transcribing Trinh Cong Son's music from Vietnamese to Flamenco and Latin and he used to be a school hood friend of Trinh Cong Son. Trinh Cong Son is Vietnam's Bob Dylan and someone I personally had met a few times before. We spoke about the images and before leaving he mentioned it was his dream when he retired to return to Vietnam to photograph the countryside.

I hope he does.