Reading, Ks though a Diana F+

With the birth of my child, I put the camera down for a bit and stepped away. I figured it was time to focus on something more important as my short run at being a photographer had been very slow and no where close to what I wanted out of it. I typically see things in myself when I “work” and that is what had kept me pushing the shutter this long. Many people I hold near and dear have told me that I am negative and cannot say I saw it. I stared to see it more today as I drove through the recently tornado ravaged community of Reading Ks and started to look down on those sightseers that now littered the community. I could not believe people would take time out of their day to bare witness to the pain and displacement of others. Then I realized “What the heck was I doing” I was just the same as those who I had looked down on. Those anonymous faces tucked behind the steering wheels of their cars that had come to gawk only to drive off with out really understanding what it must have been like that night. I parked my car and grabbed a Diana F+, which is one of the simplest cameras I carry in my bag. I needed to see this through a lens, I did not want to think about focal lengths or shutter speeds (this particular camera allows for the use of only one standardized setting) I wanted to just be there. I walked block after block taking in everything this distraught town had to offer. I saw shoes, playing cards, chairs, knick-knacks, and other household belonging strewn throughout what I can only assume used to be alleyways. I could only imaging what this people must me going through. I was quickly reminded of when my family lost our home in 1998 to fire and sifting through the rubble trying to piece our lives back together. I knew these families were doing the same. My mind instantly shifted to my son and hoped he would never have to deal with something as traumatic as that tornado or the fire my family had. Feeling it was time for me to step away and return to the comforts of my home and my life outside of this moment I returned to my car pondered my feelings towards people like me who were fortunate enough to only visit this poor community. I realized it was a great metaphor for my life thus far as a photographer. All this time I had been a spectator trying to feel what those in front of me were feeling but I was only as good as those who where around me. Now is the time I need to step up and step out of my comfort zone and “put up, or shut up,” I am a photographer, hear my shutter fire!

I have been gone, but I shall return!

Sorry, everyone for disappearing for a bit, you may or may not know the reasoning behind my absence. May 24^th my wife and I were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. There was not much opportunity to plan on his arrival, as he was about a month premature. Due to early arrival he has spent the past two weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Topeka, today we were able to bring him home! I am going to be pushing photography to the side for a bit to make sure we get him settled properly. By “to the side” I do not mean I am going to flat out stop just let June be an easy month. Right now, we are looking into moving and I am looking for a job to support my “photography addiction” until my addiction can support my family. Thank you all for your love and support and we’ll see you back in July!   

Retail Therapy

I feel like I left my last blog on rather shaky ground with a lot of uncertainty brewing. I am a regular amongst many photography sites and do frequent many photographer’s Facebooks. Typically I am making my own critique of other’s works and beating myself further down emotionally cause people can produce poor over photoshopped crap literal crap and be verbally and monetarily praised for this work. I find my method works in a circular pattern where I bring myself down and resort to “retail therapy” or G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) which is buying new gear. This totally ignores the old saying about the photographer is the one that makes the photo, not the camera. Therefore, I bought this camera and that camera and a few of those cameras that brought temporary joy but nothing solid and nothing true. The last time I wrote I was ready to throw in the towel and count my losses and I had been defeated. I could not find work and in my mind, I sucked as a photographer and did not deserve to stand amongst my peers, cutting myself back to the soccer moms with their midrange dSLRs set to the big “A.” I figured one last test was in order to reassure myself so I set my mind on going out to shoot with one camera in tow. I did not visualize where I was going to go, what format to shoot or anything that I typically do prior to going out, all I needed was one photograph, one that I felt proud of, one to hold on to not saying anything to anyone about my plans. The next day I had all but forgotten about going out to shoot until I became frustrated with my job disappointed with myself and just needed to step away from it all. In this I do what has become second nature and I grabbed my best friend (in the camera world) my RZ67 and left. This time, no models, no human subjects, no trash (another favorite subject of mine) not a thing I am used to. I took a little drive, no GPS, no phone service, just me. I ended up on the wildlife refuge attempting to avoid mud (from the last rain) as much as I could and happened across a beautiful clearing with some interesting water features. I crawled down the bank with my tripod mounted camera safely and shot. I ended up with these three images.

Where does this leave me with photography? Well, I will tell you this, I am embarking on a new journey this week with the arrival of the rest of my darkroom and a temporary site to set it up (which I am still looking if you know of anything cheap!) As far a business goes I have scheduled a few shoots here and there and I am working on a business plan as we speak.

As for this blog, I know there are readers but I need more followers! Let me know this is time well spent! Tell me what you want to see and hear. I can’t open my lens unless you open your mouth. Tell your friends, coworkers, or heck even your mail carrier, I don’t care just let me know you are out there!

Until Next Time,

Brandon J

Life, Love and FILM

I know it has been a while since my last post but I have a damn good excuse! March 26^th in front of God, family and friends I married my best friend. The following day we left for our honeymoon in Chicago, which was a blast! Returning home, we continued our preparations for the new addition to our family and I geared up for the 8^th Annual Artist Walk. For those of you who do not know Artist Walk is an annual event held by

Emporia Main Street

connecting local artist with local businesses for a day to demonstrate or sell their art. After much debate and a little prodding from friends, I decided to partake in the events. I was paired up with Flint Hills music and I set up to sell a few prints as well as to take the time to make a few portraits. I have realized that an important part of what I do is connecting with those who are on the other side of the lens. Every year it seems like there is one that stands out whether it was the man that had never had his portrait made in his 80 years of life, the woman who met her untimely demise mere days after I photographed her or this year photographing a father and son. I am not sure of their names nor is it relevant but watching the two interact with something I assume was important to the father made me contemplate my art form and my developing child. Will photography be something he or she will enjoy?  Will they take a passion for film as their father has?  What advancements for this art form will they see in their life? Will film live long enough to see their kids? So many questions and so few answers, I was blessed in my family to be given the attitude that I can do what I put my heart into. Although I know photography was never a choice my parents probably wanted me to take seriously as it is pricey and only a few succeed. This is a labor of love and although it will not be paying off the bills anytime soon it allows me to step back and look at life and capture the moments and hold on to those forever. I have reached a crossroad and I know now that I have a choice to make and I know I need to make it soon cause I know once we welcome this new baby into our lives photography will always come second as it should. However, for now do I want this to be my life or just a hobby that I entertain myself with occasionally….  

*** TO BE CONTINUED ***

Teddy Bear Part 2

It may be a bit premature but I have decided to put three 8x10 prints of the Teddy Bear image up for sale at Studio 11 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656?ref=ts) just to kind of size up if the community is receptive of this kind of work or not. These will be black and white silver halide prints and each will be signed by your truly! I have been informed that these will arrive in shipment tomorrow so with any luck they will be available by opening time at the shop if not tomorrow then defiantly by Friday. Also, if you have not been down to see the awesome selection of handcrafted recycled goodies available from all the spectacular artist that sell their work down there you are defiantly missing out!

Do yourself a favor and

Stalk my Blog!

“Like” me on Facebook!  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656?ref=ts#!/pages/machine-washable-photography/123037211066385

“Like” Studio 11 by Whatta Waist on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656?ref=ts#!/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656

And LASTLY go somewhere you haven’t been and shoot some FILM DAMMIT!!!! http://maps.google.com/ *

*PS I have not affiliation with Google just figured a map might help!

Anscoflex II

Call me lazy if you want but the photo above is not my own I got it from http://www.etsy.com/listing/56294419/1950s-ansco-anscoflex-ii-tlr-camera but it does show the camera I am going to be talking about!

The Anscoflex II is the predecessor to the Anscoflex, basically the only difference in the two was the addition of the two filter controls on the front of the camera. They date to the mid `50’s and originally sold for around $30 (which is a typical price on eBay today.) These enameled metal cameras were designed by Raymond Loewy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy) with a fixed f/11 aperture and I am guessing the shutter speed is somewhere around 1/30 – 1/60 of a second. They shoot 12 6x6 images on 620 films (no longer on the market) but you can respool 120 films onto the 620 spools and use these cameras nowadays! Which is exactly what I did and here are the results!

The camera itself was a blast to work with, I had one person assume I was a meter reader because of the “thing” around my neck but it was very lightweight! I found it necessary to keep the leather cover on the camera when shooting as without there tends to be light leaks around the back of the camera. I found the viewfinder to be true to frame on the camera and the camera does prevent multiple exposures. Due to the lack of ability to adjust the shutter speed and aperture, I would classify this as a toy camera but a fun toy at that! I noticed the images were a bit on the contrasty side which is ok by me. On the technical side these images were developed using R09 (Rodinal Formula) at a 1:25 mixture for 6 minutes using Fuji Neopan 100Acros.

TLRs: For Intended Use ONLY

I am constantly searching eBay for cameras that I have not seen nor used with the hopes of winning them and shooting them if they are in working order. Recently I have come across a new acronym: TTV that translates to “Through the Viewfinder.” After some brief research on Google and Flickr I found that this TTV is none other than using TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) cameras as a filter putting it simply. How this works is a person buys a TLR and makes a snoot (a tube) out of black paper or poster board and then mounts a digital camera on top and proceeds to shoot through the viewfinder. So why does this bother me? Well for starters in order to do this you have to remove the pieces that cover and protect the viewfinder (typically done in a destructive way) and secondly this is making it harder and more expensive for people that love film photography to find good working cameras to shoot. Since the new “digital era” film camera production has become almost nonexistent and new TLR cameras other than the Holga is even rarer. I did not form this Blog as a place to rant and rave but this is one of the few times I will speak my mind about the topic of digital vs film…

MY RANT: These days everyone is a “photographer” as if owning a camera is the only rite of passage into this lifestyle. There in lies the problem with some of the photographers today they do not take the time to learn their trade. They do not understand f/ stops, aperture values, ASA (ISO), or dragging the shutter. Set it to Auto, click and wha-la you are a photographer. If you did not get it right in camera then off to Photoshop it goes! Boost the saturation, blur the hell out of the skin tones to almost a plasticy feel, crop the crap out of it and finally run it up in size to where it is almost pixilated and take pride in what you did. Just so your friends can Ohhh and Ahhh over it on social networking sites. Please do not get me wrong I have a digital camera and I use it when I have to but I make the choices, I do not pawn my work off on some computer chip to do the thinking for me. Yes there was a time when I first started out that I would have fallen into this category but I never EVER called myself a pro (and still do not), and would never had charged for my services at that time in my life. I see people today blow off 200-300 shots in under an hour and you ask me why… I will tell you in one word INSECURITY. It is insecurity in themselves, insecurity in their knowledge of their gear and insecurity in their craft as a whole. Why are people scared to shoot film? #1 reason, it cost too much. To me that is a line of crap, a roll of film is $5, processing is anywhere from $1-$15 depending on what you want done and who processes it. I bought an RZ67 with two lenses for a fraction of what I spent on my Canon EOS 1D Mk II body alone. Digital cameras go obsolete yearly if not monthly. My RZ67 is still one of the top cameras in its class and has been for years. In my opinion if you want to be a photographer got back to its roots and try out film, learn where your craft came from, learn, learn, learn!!! My all time favorite quote I feel say it best “EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A ROCKSTAR, BUT NOBODY WANTS TO LEARN THE CHORDS.” I wish I knew whom to credit because it is so true.

~*~*~END OF RANT~*~*~

So what does this rant have to TTV?  Those cameras that people use for TTV give the same effect on film as they do on a digital sensor so why not use them as intended. If not leave the camera on the market for someone that will use it for what it was made for and stick to your filters and plug-ins in Photoshop. If you have already picked up one of these TLR camera put a roll of film in the camera and USE IT AS INTENDED.