a day in the life

recent work

meredith — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:15 +0000

Hitler meets the Dunkin’ Donuts man

Nothing wrong with a little street prayer

I’ve been a slacker lately, shooting mostly digital. There is, however, a roll of Tri-X that’s almost finished and waiting to be developed, so stay tuned for some more film scans. I need to update this thing more regularly so that I don’t have so many shots to show!

some new stuff

meredith — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:38:00 +0000

All digital, shot with my 20D and new 50mm f/1.4 lens, with which I am in love. Enjoy!

Side note: Can I hire someone to make me a new blog layout and make it a part of my own Web site? I am not so tech-savvy and need a flexible-width layout that doesn’t suck!

We’d seen this man in the same bar we had just left some minutes earlier, and he asked for a glass of “the most alcoholic beer you’ve got”…

When I asked for his portrait, this man told me, “Sure, but I might break your camera!” (Pretty much the oldest excuse in the book! :)

Enjoying a book at the Italian Market

One of the beautiful twins I babysit

Hunter in a nice, subtle light

Amish country during the harvest

Is that a you’re-stealing-my-soul look?

That’s all for now. Thanks for looking!

Brought to you by the letter M. (Can you tell that I’ve been watching a lot of Sesame Street lately?)

alaska

meredith — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:35:32 +0000

(Sorry for reposting the first half of the images, but I had forgotten to resize them to 1,000 pixels wide. I just decided to post the first and second parts together to save me another headache!)

In the beginning of June (yes, it takes me way too long to process and post my photos!), my mom, dad, and uncle invited me to come along with them on a cruise to Alaska after my grandfather cancelled at the last minute. Fortunately, I had no job to speak of and needed a good adventure to come my way! Unfortunately, however, I dropped my camera, lens-down, on my way out of the taxi that dropped us off at the ferry. Weak. It had a filter on it, so the actual glass of the lens wasn’t harmed, but the impact caused the focusing ring to become dislodged and the lens (a 28-200, great for wildlife sightings) now only focuses from 28-45mm. So, for the first part of the trip, when we were in Sitka and at the Hubbard Glacier, I was only able to take wide-angle shots and sadly missed a lot of opportunities to capture whales, sea lions on icebergs, and porpoises. That had me pretty bummed.

Thanks to my poker skills and the ship’s late-night cash game, I was able to win enough money to buy myself a Tamron 75-300mm lens (I know, the quality isn’t great, but I needed a zoom and that was all I could afford) in Juneau. Without that, I wouldn’t have been able to get any bald eagle shots. They make me feel a little better about missing the sea lions on icebergs (but not much!). Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy my photos (all digital… I have yet [surprise, surprise] to scan my film from the trip!) from Alaska.

Mom and Dad waving goodbye to Vancouver

Arriving in Sitka

One of many of Alaska's totems

This is Alice, whose family sold salmonberry jam

St. Peter's Episcopal Church

The view out my stateroom window of Mt. Edgecumbe, Sitka's resident volcano

Failed attempt to bring back part of an iceberg at the Hubbard Glacier

An egret under the pier when we docked in Juneau

Tourists galore at the Mendenhall Glacier

A view from the ship on its way to Ketchikan

Ketchikan

There were so many bald eagles in Ketchikan that I obviously felt compelled to photograph every single one.

Sunset on the way back to Vancouver. A nice way to end the trip!

More photos of the Hubbard Glacier to come, once I scan my film!

nicaragua, final installment

meredith — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:28:40 +0000

I’m going to put the rest of the photos in this entry, because I don’t feel like making any more installments!

Canon EOS 3, Velvia, Leon

View of Leon from the old Samosa fort

Alex and Hunter

We had to take a cab to the fort from Leon on the rockiest, dirtiest dirt road I think I’ve ever seen. At some points, I didn’t think the cab (an old, rickety… I want to say Peugeot?) would make it. It was worth the journey, though, and our cab driver explained some of the history to Alex, who in turn translated it to us. It was like a tour and cab ride all in one!

Evidently, the fort isn’t entirely abandoned.

We’re fairly certain that the shoes in the previous photo belong to that guy.

Portra 160 NC, Bus depot on the way to Nagarote, where Alex and Kaitlyn live.

One of my favorite shots from the trip

En route to Nagarote…

The bus was delayed for a few minutes because it had to wait for this herd of cattle to cross the road. Quite an hilarious scene.

In Nagarote (EOS 3, Portra 160 NC)

Alex in his backyard

Lunch at Dona Elena’s, where Alex and Kaitlyn stayed until they moved into their own house around the corner. She was a very sweet woman and a great cook!

Alex (Hunter and I were in a bike taxi) on the way to the poorer part of town

Another one of my favorites

Velvia, last roll of the trip…

Our motortaxi driver, who said he lived in Raleigh for three years

Well, I hope you got at least a sense of how amazing a country Nicaragua is… hopefully I even intrigued you to want to visit someday!

nicaragua, part three

meredith — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:32:14 +0000

And it continues…

Canon EOS 3, Kodak Portra 160 VC, Granada

At the bus depot on the way to Masaya Market, where you can get everything from food and household items to jewelry and handmade Nicaraguan crafts.

At Masaya

Alex and Kaitlyn

Scary…

Velvia, EOS 3, Bus depot en route to León:

Taken from inside the bus

In León:

The door to our hostel, Lazybones. Like I said, Nicaraguans love their Jesus.

A little relief never hurt anyone… :)

Fuji Superia, EOS 3, León:

Alex, Kaitlyn, Hunter, and Alex and Kaitlyn’s friend from Peace Corps, Shunpei, at a cute little breakfast/lunch place across the street from our hostel

Inside the cathedral, people were working to restore some of the paintings.

View of the city from the bell tower of the cathedral

From the top of the cathedral

Ilford Pan F 50, Canon EOS 3, León (the only black-and-white roll I shot on this trip!)

Bush genocide… enemy of humanity

As you’ve probably noticed, the number of stray dogs here is astronomical.

Stay tuned for part four!

nicaragua, part two

meredith — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:25:24 +0000

Part two of my amazing trip to Nicaragua.

Canon EOS 3, Kodak Portra VC 400 (Granada)

This is the ancient diesel truck that we rode to get to the top of Mombacho, a volcano and cloud forest just outside of Granada. We were driven there by a man who claimed that his birth name was Marlon Brando. :) This tank stalled out a few times on steep inclines… it was quite terrifying!

Our fearless driver…

I took this photo about halfway up the mountain, where we stopped at a coffee farm. The coffee was delicious.

There were a couple of houses along the way up the mountain. It didn’t appear as though they had any cars; I can’t imagine how they trudge up and down that mountain all the time, especially in the brutal heat.

Alex and Kaitlyn, our gracious hosts, who are serving in Peace Corps in Nagarote (of which you’ll see photos in the following entries). They traveled around with us the whole time we were there. Neither Hunter nor I speak Spanish, so we would have been lost without them!

Velvia, EOS 3

Our tour guide, Carlos, when we arrived near the top of the mountain. We decided to do the long hike, which was about three-and-a-half hours long and probably the most strenuous hike I’ve ever done. My legs hurt for three days after that!

The views from the top were absolutely breathtaking.

I can’t remember the name of this flower, but it was related to the pineapple.

Carlos in the back of the truck that took us back down the mountain. Thankfully, we didn’t have to ride in the tank again!

Two more rolls down, eight more to go. Stay tuned… :)

nicaragua, part one

meredith — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:29:59 +0000

Finally, after two months, I’ve finished scanning my photos from my wonderful trip to Nicaragua in the beginning of March. Twelve rolls later, I’m left to decide which ones to show. There are too many for just one entry, so I’ll be posting a few more in the next couple of days. Here are the first two rolls.

Granada: Canon EOS 3, Fuji Velvia

This kid really, really wanted me to take his photo. His pose is pretty hilarious… he definitely thought he was a tough guy.

The light was so strong in Nicaragua that some of the shadows came out too dark. I definitely should have paid more attention to exposing for the shadows.

Portra 160VC (still Granada)

Nicaraguans love their Jesus.

There were kids selling little trinkets and other miscellaneous items everywhere.

the market, et cetera

meredith — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:09:32 +0000

It’s slowly been getting warmer, which is a welcome change. My cameras weren’t really huge fans of the cold. I’m happy to report, however, that my Pentacon Six is in working order, as far as I can tell. The frames were overlapping because of the cold, I guess. The last roll I got back, which was shot on a rare warm day, came back with no overlaps. I’m still going to have to shoot one more roll to test the shutter speeds, though, because they seem a bit slower than they should be. Alas, after all of this frustration, I discovered that my scanner doesn’t scan 120 film. I’ll try to sell it when I return from Nicaragua so that I can buy one that scans medium format.

I’ve been spending a lot more time in South Philly lately. I live just north of Center City, so the walk down to the Italian Market area is a pretty long one (with many things to be photographed on the way!). Here are some shots from the Italian Market and the surrounding area, and then some random ones (as usual).

Pentax k1000, 50mm, tmax400

Immediately after I took this shot, the man pushing the shopping cart started screaming at me, using various words I’d care not to mention. I just ignored him, but I’m not going to say he didn’t intimidate me a bit!

Don’t ask, because I have no idea.

Friends!

Another shooter…

Accidental double-exposure… this has never happened to me before, so I was actually pretty excited. I like how it looks like he’s riding along the row of support beams.

This is what you get to look at while sitting on (hovering above, actually) the toilet of the POPE bar (near my now-favorite record store).

Now leaving South Philly… (still tmax)

Cliche, I know, but I can’t seem to get away from reflections.

A fitting image for these times… a wisp of my hair seems to have gotten in front of the lens.

Same guy, different angle. The light was awesome right there.

Now for some HP5+ (at 400). I don’t think I’ll ever shoot this film at 400 again. I still have a ton in my freezer from buying a batch of it on eBay. Not that it’s so bad, but for the price… Tri-X and Neopan are much prettier.

I think these cops were here for another cop’s memorial. There were at least two hundred of them in total. I have some closeups of the cops lining up, but I hated the way they turned out.

I hate a lot of things about this shot, but somehow sort of like it. I really wish I hadn’t cut off the lefthand woman’s face.

I know… another reflection.

I’ll end with another photo of the adorable girl I babysit. I’m lucky that the table gets such nice light, because she’s always doing her own arts and crafts there!

Cheers!

snowy days and not-so-snowy days

meredith — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:39:52 +0000

As the title indicates, Philadelphia was greeted by eight inches of snow last Wednesday, which was a welcome surprise. I took two walks while it was falling so that I could see the city with fresh snow, as opposed to muddy slush. I got pretty soaked, but my camera, as always, made it through unscathed. Following are some shots from that day and night, as well as some street shots from other not-so-snowy days. Hope you’re all doing well.

Pentax k1000, 50mm, HP5+ pushed to 1600 (as a side note, I’m not usually a huge fan of HP5+ at 400 [I much prefer Tri-X], but wow, was I impressed with the quality of it when pushed two stops!)

Taken from inside of my car

It’s rare that Hunter allows me to photograph him, so I was very pleased when I saw this one, as well as the next shot (though I prefer this one).

Days with less precipitation…

Pretty terrible composition, but had to act quickly.

My friend (her hat, actually) didn’t quite make it out of the frame…

Now some Tri-X and some not-so-snowy days.

Hunter, our friend, Denny, and I were walking to a flea market last Sunday, and I turned the corner by the carriage-horse stables to see this scene waiting for me. Needless to say, I was quite pleased. I think it will make a nice print. (I think it’s a little tilted, though… will have to fix that first.)

Watch your step…

Yes, you’re reading it correctly… his tent actually says “Block Captain”.

Well, that’s all for now. Should have more in about a week. Cheers!

another (mostly) street post

meredith — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:54:37 +0000

Time for a new blog. I’ve been shooting a decent amount lately. The Pentax doesn’t even fail me in the freezing cold. I love that cheap little camera.

Hunter and I purchased two round-trip tickets to Nicaragua. We’re spending the second week in March there. A friend of ours is in Peace Corps in Nagarote. There should be a ton of great photo opportunities there. I’m really excited.

I got back my first two rolls of 120 from the lab and both had overlapped frames. It’s strange, because the first few frames are okay, but then as the roll advances the frames get closer and closer together. I’m not quite sure how to approach this problem. I loaded it as tightly as I could, while rocking the lever back and forth instead of advancing it fully, and I still have overlap. Makes me think it’s an issue with the camera instead of my loading it. Anyway, it’s really frustrating. I’ll have to do some research.

Some 35mm scans, until then. :) I set all the images to large size this time, since they weren’t big enough last time. Let me know if they’re too big now.

First, some Tri-X:
(Pentax k1000, 50mm)

Random Santa hanging from a rusty twisted wire in the middle of a deserted valley. Definitely making prints for next holiday season, dust and all.

Reading Terminal Market.

Some fine, open-minded folks from the Westboro Baptist Church. I’ve never seen them around Philly before. It was nicer that way.

The Perelman Museum of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Philly’s finest.

Shoe-shining service in the train station…

I love this girl!

Now some Pan F 50…

These girls were pissed at first when they saw me taking their photo, but after I told them I just liked the scene, they posed for another shot (which I never took).

I took this at Robin’s Books, Philly’s oldest bookstore, which is closing its doors. A pity.

I was really into shadows that day, since the light was awesome.

Without fail, every roll that I get back from the lab has at least one frame with one of my fingers in front of the lens.

Rittenhouse Square.

Lastly, a few frames of Delta 3200.

Emo kid on cell phone.