wading through the red tape

ever since we arrived here in new york i've wanted to do some large format photography in the city. i mean who wouldn't? there's so much to see there.

i soon discovered that this might not be as easy as i had originally thought it would be. a friend of mine told me that you need a permit to use a tripod in the city. so i did a search for permit/photography/new york and discovered that you did actually need to get a permit from the mayor's office of film, television, and broadcasting in order to be able to use a tripod in the city. apparently "handheld" photography has always been okay but if you had any other equipment you needed to get the permit. i believe they now include tripods in the "handheld" group. anyhow, given my recent experiences i figured i had better be prepared. i looked into the matter and found a form that you have to fill out giving your personal info and stating what, when, and where you will be shooting.

i had it all ready and i faxed it in but when they got back to me they said i needed to be more specific about my locations, and also that if i wanted to take pictures on the brooklyn bridge (that was one of my locations) i would need to get permission from the department of transportation. they very kindly gave me the contact information of the person who could give me permission. so after getting permission from the d.o.t. and sending a more detailed description of the locations i finally got my permit!

oh yes, so excited.

he-man, army guys, and ducklings

one of the great things about the holga is that its lens suffers from a bad case of astigmatism (among other optical "defects"). this means that the further away the object is from the center of the image (towards the edges of the frame), the more out of focus it will be in the picture. although most people would find this to be a problem, it actually adds to the aesthetic of the pictures it takes.

one way to take advantage of this feature is to center the subject in the picture. this isolates the subject and makes it stand out more in the picture.

here's fisto from masters of the universe hanging from my rear view mirror with some onlooking army men.

and here are jack, kack, lack, mack, nack, ouack, pack, and quack following their mom, mrs. mallard, on their way to the boston public garden.

fun with fuji in the fall

a very generous photographer friend of mine recently gave me a supply of large format film including some fuji instant color film. it's like polaroid film but this stuff is so much more spectacular.

when you look at a print it feels like you are looking at the scene through a very clean window - like you could reach in and touch it. the colors are bright and clear and since there is no enlargement in the print, the details are as sharp as you could ever imagine.

here are a few pictures taken on the fuji instant film with my large format camera. unfortunately my scanner can't reproduce the quality and detail in the pictures so you'll have to use your imagination.

elliot and sam in our front yard (sam had just thrown some leaves up in the air)



the first test run of the fuji instant film

elliot actually took this picture of me

a run-in with the authorities, pt. 1

we just returned from a trip to washington dc to see some some friends and some sites. we had a great time but on the way down we had a little run-in with the authorities in cherry hill new jersey.

the whole story begins a couple of years a couple of years earlier while i was at byu. i was just getting into large format photography and i discovered a book by george tice called "urban landscapes". he had gone and photographed typical scenes from typical places in new jersey - his home state. one of them in particular caught my eye. it was a photograph of a gas station in cherry hill, new jersey at night with a huge water tower looming in the background - the tower just barely lighter than the dark night sky. it's a beautiful picture.

as we were getting ready to head down to dc i noticed that we would be passing through cherry hill. i thought it would be neat to see the water tower so i found its location - thanks to google maps - and we planned to stop there. it would be dark by the time we would get there so i packed up my large format camera to get some pictures of it 34 years after the original picture was taken.

it used to be a mobil station but now it's a lukoil station with a 7-11 next to it. we pulled into the parking lot, i set up my camera, and started taking some pictures. with large format photography the process is quite involved and so we ended up being there for about 45 minutes while i took the of pictures.

i had noticed a "no loitering" sign when we pulled up but i figured that was probably just meant for local hoodlums, not us. anyhow, as i packed up and got ready to go maryirene mentioned to me that there was a guy in a car in front of us that had been there for quite a while and that occasionally he would turn around and look at us. i thought that was weird but didn't really think much about it. i went inside to use the bathroom and as i walked back out towards our car the man stepped out of his car and said "could you come here please?" and then "could you put your hands on the car, please?"

i was totally and utterly confused but i complied. he started asking me questions like "what are you doing?" and "have you ever been arrested before?". i explained that there was a local photographer that had photographed the water tower in '74 and that i wanted to do the same. his reply was "you want to take a picture of a water tower? at night?" "do you know why this looks suspicious?"

by this time - and quite suddenly - about five more police cars had arrived and there was a cop talking to maryirene. they asked us a ton of background questions - where we were from, what we were doing, and where we were going (maybe to see if our stories matched). luckily i had printed out a copy of the original picture and i had some test shot polaroids that i had made before they showed up. i think this may have helped back up our story.

honestly i never would have thought that taking pictures of a water tower at night would be a problem. apparently when people start taking pictures of infrastructural things in a community those concerned with homeland security get very very worried.

eventually they let us go - after about 45 minutes - and we continued on down to dc.

part two:

i figured that i would have no problem photographing in dc given its popularity... but i was wrong.

my friend and i got up early to photograph the lincoln memorial and the washington monument at sunrise. after a few shots right by the reflecting pool we hiked up to take some pictures from inside the lincoln memorial. once again i was questioned about my photography. "what are you doing?", "what website are you going to post the pictures on?", "you can't have a tripod anywhere on the monument.", "you can't post pictures from inside the monument on the internet.", etc., etc.

so off to the washington monument we went leaving mr. lincoln unphotographed.

i can understand the importance of national security but it made me sad that i was so restricted in my innocent pursuit of pictures.