the home stretch

well, my solo show opens up on friday evening, so i guess this is the home stretch!

i still have a decent amount of work to do, but i'm armed with glue, some great pieces of salvaged plywood, and the biggest stack of polaroids i have ever seen in one plce!

i spent some downtime today with my copy of Walker Evans' 'Polaroids' book- a posthumous collection of works that he created in the very last year of his creative career. i hadn't picked up the book in a long time, and it was really fascinating to see the similarities between his work and my own. all of these images- 2,650 of them- we taken when the SX-70 camera was just a couple of years old. his subject matter wasn't "new" or "daring" - but he found ways to highlight the mundane and really make it exciting. if you've never had the chance to see Walker Evans' work, do try to find it.



here's a digital version of the flier for the show. i picked up a stack of postcards, today, and they look great. had i had more time to think, lately, i would have made up some postcards with more of my images, on them. no time for that, now, but it's definitely something that will happen as part of a larger project for postmarks, my long-distance Polaroid exchange project that i've been a part of since 2002.

well, back to my Polaroids and glue. for now, i'll leave you with a little joy.

new things + news

today marks the official launch of my new photography website, typewright.org. i've been sitting on this domain for a while, and i haven't had much time to do anything with it. the gallery is still a little sparse, but i will be adding more images over the next few weeks- some new work, in addition to old favorites.



click here to visit typewright.org.

also, a date has been set for my solo show at *doe*, in san francisco. please join us on august 3rd, from 7 - 10 pm, for an opening reception. i was the guest blogger today on the *doe* blog, giving everyone a sneak peek into the show:



click here to read the doe blog.

upcoming art exhibition

at the end of this month, i'll be showing my photographs - mostly polaroids - at *doe* boutique in san francisco. there isn't a date set for the opening reception, yet, so stay tuned for more information about that.

in preparation for the show, i've been going out and taking a ton of polaroids. it's really nice to step away from work for a while and remember that i live in a really wonderful and amazingly photogenic part of the world.



i snapped this shot while hiking through the woods in Mill Valley, a few weeks back.



this photo was taken in yountville, also a few weeks ago.

through the rest of the month, i'll be sharing some more of the images that will be on display at *doe*. but first, i need to spend some quality time with my scanner!

it's raining lens(es)

so, this past week was a good week, for cameras.

i recently had the opportunity to 'foster' a nikon d70 digital slr, for a few months. it was a wonderful machine, with a great lens, and a great opportunity to get to know a wonderful camera. i worked hard, saved my pennies and finally picked up a digital slr of my own- the d70's big brother, the nikon d80. it's got a fantastic lens on it- an 18-135 zoom- with lots of creative room to move. and it's really, really fun to shoot with.



(i snapped these poppies up in the berkeley hills, on grizzly peak. being a california native poppies are, of course, my favorite.)

my only complaint about the d80, thus far, is that it just isn't heavy enough, which gives me trouble in the image stabilization department. i guess that's one of the great things about the old bricks that we shoot film with!

speaking of film, i also picked up a second canon a1- it was a great deal on ebay and, well, i simply can't find my other one! it came with two lenses- a 50 mm and a 20-85 zoom. i haven't shot a test roll yet, but so far the camera looks to be in perfect shape. i'll report back once i've developed some film!

in the meantime, here's a snap i took with my (original) canon a1 this past september, on my trip to chicago:


(click to view large)

on fruit and film cameras

so last night, despite my stay-home tendencies, i dragged my better half's roommate out to T-Rex to meet up with said better half, and another friend. we don't go to T-Rex much, even though the boys all qualify for a 25% discount there. but, you know, sometimes you just need a good order of mac n' cheese with house smoked pork.
i wasn't really in a drinking mood, so the bartender whipped up her current favorite non-alcoholic beverage. i'm not sure if it had a name, but it was basically fresh grapefruit juice, fresh grated ginger, sugar and tonic water. it was simple, unassuming, refreshing and really freakin' tasty.

ginger and grapefruit was not a combination that i had really thought of before, but it certainly sits well with me. i've been eager to do some baking- or at least eager to think about doing some baking- so i started looking up some recipes to work with. a search for "ginger" turned up this recipe for ginger + grapefruit cheesecake.. um, yes please? i'll have to give it a go, and report back.

of course, i'd be doing this baking in my new kitchen, since i moved recently. another great thing about moving? losing stuff! well, maybe not so great. i cannot, for the life of me, seem to find my beloved Canon A1, a gift from the college photo lab, years ago. i mean, it has to be somewhere, right? but i have no idea where. a quick peek at eBay turned up a great deal on an A1 in excellent condition, from an estate. two lenses, original manual, strap, et al. so, i went for it.

another camera may the last thing that i needed, but i do love the A1, and it's a good piece of equipment. i'll be sure to put it to good use.

new adventures in film

so with the idea of a solo art show looming in the distance, i knew that i had to hunt down some film for my baby- my Polaroid Sonar One Step camera. silver with black leather details, folds, looks good on my arm- you know the drill. the catch being, Polaroid stopped making the film, last year. i had heard about this elusive "SX-70 Blend" film, but had not yet tried to track it down (still had a pack of Time Zero in the breadbox, but i used that up around the time of my last move.)

well, after sitting on the idea of ordering $200+ worth of film from unsaleable, i finally discovered that there is a gem of a vendor, based in new york, who is the exclusive US distributor for the film. bingo!

i placed my order, got my film a few days later and started shooting. and i'm more than pleased with the results.



the film has great color tones and good contrast. no overwhelming blue tones- unless, of course, you wanted them. in which case, just snap your pic, and toss it in the freezer:


(click image for details on the process, and a non-freezer comparison shot.)

all-in-all, i am thrilled that Polaroid caved into the needs of us art geeks, and gave us something to play with. i'm almost done with my second pack, and i can't wait to scan 'em all, to share.

caught me in the spotlight.

so, i'm still working on the initial design for typewright.org, but i realized that i needed to find my footing on the blog front, once again. so here we are. ever-embarking on web adventures.

typewright.org will, indeed, be a mix of traditional, digital and toy camera photography. reminiscent of the late grassfire.nu and maybe not quite as interactive as uglygeek.com. but it will (hopefully) be a beautiful gallery of images. and hell, if nothing else, i'm eager to get back to the "shoot, shoot, shoot" attitude of my early 20's.

well, on with the images!