cambridge, mass.

two and a half years ago, my family and i moved into a subleased two bedroom apartment just off of western ave. on memorial drive in cambridge, massachusetts. it was our first time venturing out and away from our families.

we immediately fell in love with boston and its surrounding areas. what we found when we arrived was a warmth and richness of life that was almost tangible. we only had 3 months to enjoy it so we made sure that we took advantage of all the time that we had there.

about a week before moving i finally found and purchased a large format camera in my price range. i was ready to take the dive and cambridge was a great place to dive into.

i would pass by this building every day as i walked to the “t”, boston’s subway, to go to work. this poor building looked like it was just plain tired of standing up straight – like it needed something more sturdy to lean on (like the building next to it). i also discovered what happens when you don’t check the corners of the ground glass carefully after raising the lens. the passing car was an unexpected bonus.




not too far away was this building on the corner of river street and pleasant street. i love this building - it's made of that dark red brick that you see so often in boston and the windows are framed by copper that has been streaked by years of green patina.




i only wish that i had more time to explore boston and cambridge with my view camera. i guess that's all the more reason for me to go back some day. i'll put it on the list...

holiday sale and giveaway!

from now up until the clock strikes 12 on new years day, you can get 10% off of your order from my gallery! simply use the super secret coupon code 'holidaypromo' as you check out and the price will be magically reduced!

but that's not all!

as an added bonus (for me and for one lucky winner), marta of the famed 'marta writes' blog has included me in her lineup of holiday giveaways! she is featuring various artists and other crafty people every weekday this week and all through next week. be sure to head on over to her blog on tuesday, december 15th and comment on the giveaway post to be entered.

happy holidays!

happy halloween!

when i look for something to photograph i usually try to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. things that you walk by every day and don't notice but when you actually stop and look at it you find that it is something special, something unique.

this picture was one of those instances but not one that i would have normally seen as an opportunity. i don't usually go for the creepy when it comes to subjects but i had to take advantage of this scene.

just about every day as i walked home from campus i would pass this sign:



i remember thinking just how creepy it was - rusted metal, creepy hand-painted lettering, and especially the "...." at the end. i think if they had had a little more room at the end they would have added "or else!" to top it off, the trees were cold and bare.

for my part to add to the creepiness i knew the picture had to be taken with my holga - out of focus and dark corners, lo-fi reproduction, and a low angle to get that creepy sign looming above the viewer - everything came together nicely on this one to make one creepy image.

the truth

"the camera never lies. the film sometimes does." - rodney smith, from the end.

depending on how you define truth, the camera (or film) rarely tells the truth. photographs are stylized moments in time, made visual. the camera by it's design actually modifies the truth of what it sees depending on various factors - shutter speed, aperture, focal length of the lens, film characteristics, grain, and camera movements (with view cameras), etc.

i've often heard people say that they want to capture exactly what is in front of them - the truth of what's there. but in my opinion it's the way that cameras distort the truth that makes photography so exciting.

despite what i've just said, i've discovered (for myself) an exciting way to show "truth" in photography - by photographing people when they don't expect to be photographed.

what do people (almost inevitably) do when someone's about to take a picture of them?

"smile!"

that's all good and fine but sometimes it's hard to really catch someone's personality if they're always putting their smile mask on when being photographed. sure it takes some guts to snap a picture of someone (even family) when they're not expecting it - but to capture them in that natural setting can be truly rewarding.

- unrehearsed subjects caught in a moment where the truth is subjective.

snapshot sunday!

i hope that even with all of my film-promoting, analog-loving, big camera-praising posts you don't think i'm an anti-digital photo-luddite. i would, in fact, love to get my hands on a nice dslr some day. the problem is that whenever i have some surplus cash in the photo budget it usually goes into buying film, chemicals, or - if i'm feeling ambitious - a new lens for my large format camera. seeing as how my current circumstances leave me without a digital slr, i rely on our digital point and shoot to get shots when i happen to have left my 30+ pounds of photo gear at home. here are a few shots that i've been able to snag with our dear little cyber-shot.

a king crab at the oregon coast aquarium in newport, oregon. dim light, show shutter, thanks for holding still mr. crab!


sam the giant!


sam and the seal.


navy pier, chicago.


flatiron building, nyc.


getting chased through the fall leaves in our yard.


chicago and the chicago river.

inspired

i find myself fascinated and inspired by scenes of ordinary life.

unlike pictures of notable monuments or famous locations, pictures of ordinary scenes usually don't grab your attention immediately - it usually takes some time to let the details soak in. i guess it's the idea of seeing through the mundane and plain and finding the extraordinary in it that really intrigues me.

here are a few of the pictures that i've stumbled upon lately that have inspired me.

stephen shore:

beverly boulevard and la brea avenue, los angeles, california, june 21, 1975

joel meyerowitz:


dairyland, provincetown

george tice:


strand theatre, keyport, n.j. 1973

next photo assignment: find and photograph an ordinary location and make it interesting. i'll report back in a while once i'm finished.

double whammy!

to make up for my lack of posting the last couple of weeks i'll give you a double whammy.

first: let's all give a warm welcome to the shen-hao.

oh yes, this is my new camera and boy is it a joy to behold. it's time to say goodbye to my graflex camera. it has served me well but an upgrade was definitely past due.

the beauty of this camera (aside from its beautiful construction) is that it folds down into a nice "little" box so i can now tote it around with my supplies in a backpack.



yesterday, to christen this camera, i packed up my stuff and headed up the connecticut coast for a one day photo excursion. this leads to the second part of my post...

ever since the third grade when i did a report on rhode island i've wanted to visit that little state. but, despite living in new york for a year and boston for a summer, we have never been there. so, for my trip yesterday, i planned to make newport rhode island my farthest destination before heading home.

here are some of the stops i made:

new haven, ct - home of yale university.

i had expected a lively college town but what i saw when i got there told a very different story. so that's what i shot. i wasn't really there for very long so maybe i didn't get a good representation of what new haven is actually all about.

sperry auto wholesale in new haven - the first picture taken with my new camera. it was a very blank looking warehouse, very worn. it's about to be torn down to make way for yale housing. glad i caught it when i did!

i found an empty plaza on the corner of an intersection in new haven. there were a lot of empty park benches, a lot of cigarette butts and trash on the ground, and plenty of grass growing between the tiles. i knew there was something in store for me there.

then it was off to rhode island.

newport is a beautiful town. it would be a great place to spend a week or so.

i visited the grounds of a couple of the famous rhode island mansions. wow. unlike anything you've ever seen.

i wish i could have spent more time there but i had one more stop to make before i headed home - stonington, connecticut - another place i'd like to spend a week.

i'll get pictures up as soon as i have them. thanks for visiting.

all content, no context

i find that some of my favorite pictures are those of subjects that don't have a pre-formulated meaning in my mind (or others' minds for that matter). they are subjects that when i see them i just think "this is a nice scene, i think i'll try to capture what i'm feeling here". the spontaneity of photographing like this can be exhilarating.



this is looking south from battery park - the southern tip of manhattan. at first i considered framing this picture with the statue of liberty in the background but then decided against it.

if i had done that it would have become a picture of the statue of liberty with a boat in the foreground and once you looked at it you would have labeled it a picture of the statue of liberty and that would have brought up thoughts of what pictures of the statue of liberty should be. by excluding it you are forced to make your own conclusions about what the picture is saying.

here's another example.



this is in the harvard square station of the boston subway. the picture was taken with my holga camera set on the ground with my keys under the lens to point it up slightly.

there's nothing in the picture that says boston or harvard or even subway. it's just a set of stairs and a couple of escalators in some type of concrete structure. without any context you have to look at the content to appreciate the picture - the strong lines, the blurred people moving on the escalators - all the action swirling around the empty stairs.

you're free to see what you see without any preconceived notions about the subject.

sale at jeffreyallenphoto.com!

head on over to jeffreyallenphoto.com for a 10% off deal on prints from 8"x10" up to 16"x24" (excluding canvas prints).

the sale ends monday at noon so head over there, pull up a chair, and stay a while.

sorry paul simon

yesterday must have been a sad day for paul simon. they finally took his kodachrome away.

yes it's true, kodak announced yesterday that they are discontinuing this beloved slide film.

kodachrome was loved for its vibrant and very accurate color reproduction. it was a favorite of photographers since it was first released in 1935. for example, the famous 'afghan girl' on the cover of national geographic was shot using kodachrome.

i can't say i'll miss this film though - i've never actually used it before. still the news that it's being discontinued is sad. it makes me wonder what the future holds for film in general. i don't think it will disappear completely any time soon - there are still too many advantages.

seeing as how i've never used it before i thought i had better give it a try before it's gone completely. i went ahead and shelled out 11 clams to get a roll of it. now that's some pricey slide film - i thought velvia was bad at 6 bucks a roll. i'll see for myself what mr. simon was so excited about back in 1973.

now for those with an extra 18 minutes to spare i've included a video (in 2 parts) that kodak made in 1958 to show how film is made. if you speak dutch you're in luck (don't worry, there are english captions). you can also watch a higher quality version of the video here.

a plug for a blog of a friend of a friend

rodney smith is a clever and interesting photographer. i first heard of him back at school when the museum of fine art held a show of his called 'adam's dream'. in a lot of his work he uses well-dressed models in strange and interesting situations. his black and white photographs have a nostalgic, romantic, and other-worldly feeling.

i just received word today that he has started blogging. i can only imagine that his writing, like his photography, will be whimsical and interesting. if you haven't heard of him yet, check out his site and his blog.

in his own words:

Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues, Associates, Enemies, Fans, Detractors, Etc.

I am very proud to announce my latest endeavor: a blog of biblical proportions that lifts the veil that for too long has shrouded my work in secrecy. Please visit here, where The End is just the beginning. Please link me, add me, and otherwise follow me.

All my best,

Rodney Smith

stop by his site and check out his blog for a minute or two, you'll be sure to enjoy it.

new arrivals in the holga family

i've got some new arrivals in the holga gallery! - san francisco, manhattan, brooklyn, and washington dc. here are a few of them...

once again, the brooklyn bridge:



honestly, can anyone walk over this bridge with camera in hand and not take a few shots? it's such a great location - kind of a photo-cliché but that's ok, right?



love the flatiron building... and the raindrop-covered chair.

i modified my holga so it can focus as close as two feet. it really emphasizes what's in the center of the picture and get you some extra vignetting. the picture above was taken like so.



this is one of my favorite new additions. it just seemed to work out nicely straight from the scan. it's kind of a visual contradiction - everyone is there at the lincoln memorial but no one is looking at him. in fact, they've all got their backs to him. it makes you question the situation.

photographs from holgas have a distinctive style, i.e. lo-fi, (usually) square, optically inferior, etc., etc. it really seems to work well with certain subjects (for me, architecture).

so what scene or location would you want to see in holga form? is there something you feel would fit particularly well into this category? what do you think?

a run-in with the authorities, pt. 2

if you haven't read my post a run-in with the authorities, pt. 1, check it out and then come back.

so here's the photograph that i came away with (luckily i might say).


i'm extremely happy that one of the pictures turned out from that night. i don't think i'll be going back there any time soon.

here's the original photograph by george tice - petit's mobil station - from 1974.

things have changed quite a bit since 1974 when tice was there. the trees have shot up, the water tower has been repainted, and there's a lot more light on the tower. it's kind of lost it's looming qualities but i think it still works. it's one of those ordinary places made more interesting just by noticing it.

the brooklyn bridge

if you were to ask someone to name a bridge in new york city there's a very good chance that they would say "the brooklyn bridge". it has to be one of the most famous bridges in the world. as such it is probably also one of the most photographed bridges in the world. despite its superstar status i figured that i had better not miss an opportunity to photograph it while we're living in new york.

one catch with photographing famous places it that they all have their famous shots - sunset on delicate arch, yosemite valley, the golden gate bridge from the marin headlands - they're the pictures that you see over and over and over. if you visit these places at the right times you can usually see a row of people with their tripods set up to capture that famous shot for themselves.

i'm not against the idea of taking famous photographs for yourself, in fact i think it's a good place to start - just don't end there.

here are two familiar shots of brooklyn bridge that i took in december:



the straight on shot of one of the the towers...



the shot from brooklyn with downtown manhattan in the background...

now here's a shot that i took as i was crossing the brooklyn bridge. i guess it's not really a picture of the brooklyn bridge per se but rather a deeper view into manhattan which includes the brooklyn bridge (as well as the manhattan bridge, the empire state building, and the chrysler building).



the world is full of new ways of seeing things if you just take a little more time to explore and find them.

christmas in florida

the year my wife and i were married we went to florida with her family over christmas vacation. i would definitely recommend doing this to anyone - the crowds were minimal, the weather was great, the water was swimmable, and the opportunities to photograph were new and exciting.

we stayed at ormond beach (near daytona) in a hotel that sat right on the beach. on the other side of the hotel was "a1a - beach front avenue" (think ice ice baby). the thing about the east coast that was new to me was that you can't watch the sun set over the ocean. to get that view you have to be up for sunrise. however, for some reason this wasn't a problem for me. i love to get up early on vacation to go out and explore.

this was one of my first chances to get out with my newly acquired canon ae-1. i think i was shooting on fuji astia slide film.


this is what most of the mornings looked like. as the sun came up the sky glowed a bright orange. it was awesome.



the sky shifted to a beautiful blue gray as the sun rose higher. the gentle slope of the wet beach made a great mirror for the clouds and birds.



just a stone's throw up the beach was this sign warning swimmers of the perils in the water - along with the pelican standing guard. the message of the sign spoke loudly to me as i have a fear of swimming in anything but swimming pools - i don't like not being able to see my toes...

you can read more about the nathan f. cobb here.

as a side note - here's a picture that my brother-in-law took of me from the hotel during the trip. thanks eric!

salt lake city

one of my favorite things to photograph is the urban landscape. i love seeing the way man made things fit into and interact with their surroundings. the urban landscape has many similarities to the natural landscape - a row of buildings is a canyon wall, a bridge is an arch, city lights are stars, streets are rivers, etc.

given enough time in a city an emotional attachment begins to grow. things that would mean absolutely nothing to someone else begin to have sentimental value. i quickly grew to love boston and new york city, and after spending four years in provo at school i grew to love its subtle uniqueness.

i spent a couple off years at the university of utah before i got married. sometimes after classes i would take the train into downtown salt lake city and just walk around with nothing to do but explore and see things. it's an interesting experience to be in the middle of a city with no particular agenda - to be able to just watch everything else happening around you.

a couple of years ago i spent an evening photographing salt lake with a friend. here are a couple of the shots from that night.

there is a time right after sunset but before dark that the sky glows a deep cerulean blue. this is one of the best times to get pictures of buildings - especially well-lit buildings. you can get the lights, the building, and the sky all within a nice range of exposure. this is the main entrance to the open air gateway mall which used to be the union pacific train depot.



this shot of the salt lake temple, the church office building, and the joseph smith memorial building was taken from a parking lot a couple of blocks west of temple square.

back to my roots - oregon

the next big trip my dad and i took was to oregon.

first of all, our family has some history with this area. for the past 12 years we've gone up to the same little house the oregon coast every couple of years. it's beautiful, the back yard is the rocky shore with a little sandy cove. at high tide the waves come crashing up onto the rocks - it's hard to resist the temptation to roll the giant driftwood logs into the water and watch them get tossed around by the waves like they were made of foam. at low tide you can go out and play in the sandy little cove among rocks covered with sea stars and mussels, or you can go search the tide pools for other little sea animals. did i already mention that it's beautiful? oh yeah.

when my dad and i went up we stayed in a hotel in portland - about 30 minutes away from the columbia river gorge. it was april so everything was superbly green. in all we spent a few days there - about half of which was spent in the gorge.

this is elowah falls - we were lucky to find a little path that led down to the river from the trail. we had to scramble a bit but the view was worth it.

once again we had to scramble to get this view - except this time it was up instead of down. it had actually started raining as we were hiking up to this waterfall - wahclella falls. after i took this picture it started raining even harder so we found some shelter under an overhang down by the falls. we weren't really prepared to be shooting in the rain but i was able to get a few more shots closer to the falls.

one day we spent driving down the coast from cannon beach - picture mikey from the goonies matching up the holes in the dubloon with the rocks off the coast - that's where we started. after that we headed down the coast, had lunch in nehalem, then stopped in at the tillamook factory for some awesome cheese and ice cream. our destination for sunset was a beach in the little town of oceanside.


there was a main area of the beach but to get where we wanted to go we had to hike through a wet, dark, roughly hewn tunnel that was cut through a large land mass that juts out into the ocean. the tunnel takes you to the appropriately named tunnel beach and if the tide is low enough you can walk further to agate beach where you can find - you'll never guess - agates! just don't get stuck back there at high tide - you might be in trouble.

if i remember right the picture above was taken from the point between the two beaches. i had climbed up onto some rocks to be able to get a better view of the water with the rocks.

this last picture was taken from the old columbia river highway at sunrise. it looks down over the columbia river with the vista house (a historical rest stop and very stately building) in the bottom right - the bump on the hill right above the 'p' in 'copyright'.

this was one of those mornings where we got up way too early to catch the light that was too beautiful to pass up.

back to my roots - utah

my first adventures in photography were with my dad. we usually went camping and took photographs of where we went. sometimes we would stay up way too late or get up way too early to take pictures. i remember one night that we spent looking up the narrows in zion national park right next to the virgin river. it was one of our first experiments with star trails. it was cold and we probably didn't have enough layers on. but i loved it. i loved the sense of discovery, of the unknown, the solitude, and being with my dad.

that was one of the first (if not the first) of many photographic excursions. southern utah seemed to be the destination of choice in those first years. among other places, we photographed arches national park, bryce canyon, and nine mile canyon - (below).


we spent a good amount of the night here trying different exposure times, different lighting, etc. for this one we left the camera open for about 45 minutes with a coleman propane lantern shining on the petroglyphs for just a couple of minutes.

fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the road that ran right next to this petroglyph panel was taken out and you can't get as close to it anymore. for some reason that makes this picture even more special to me - more unique.

another memorable trip was down to "the wave" in arizona. right between kanab and lake powell there is an expanse of red rock/desert known as the paria canyon-vermilion cliffs wilderness. to see the actual "wave" you have to get a permit (of only 20 offered per day) and hike in using landmarks to guide the way - or a gps. at the end of the hike you find yourself in this wavelike (hence the name) formation of striped sandstone. i was lucky enough to get there and snap a few shots before the sun was hidden by clouds.


to say the least this place is incredible.

thanks dad for getting me into photography and taking me to these amazing places. i'm indebted to you.

a few more pictures... and a theory

here are a few more pictures from my latest batch.


elliot.


kaylinn pulling a face... or her face, i guess.


elliot and sam learning about robots at the m.i.t. museum - thanks eric!


cute taylor ann.


so i have a theory, and here it is...

the more time and effort you put into something the more value it has to you. it may not be a monetary value and it may not hold any value for anyone else but you but it still has value. i think that's one of the reasons i still do film photography. if i had a digital camera i don't think i would value my photographs as much.

when i release the shutter i understand that i am using up a piece of film that i will have to develop, scan, and retouch in photoshop. i believe that because of this i am more careful about what i am doing with my cameras - especially large format where setting up and taking a few pictures can take a half hour! this may not be the most cost-effective or efficient method to do photography but it works for me and i love it.

a little fuzziness is oh so nice

say hello to sam as seen through my old canon ae-1, a 30 or 40 year-old metal body slr.

i've heard people say they want to get away from the "point-and-shoot" look and get a "nice camera" that takes great pictures with "fuzzy backgrounds", etc. i've also heard of people going out and buying an slr hoping to get those great pictures but then being disappointed with the point-and-shoot-like results from their expensive new slr.

so what's the problem? how do you escape the grasp of the point-and-shoot?


their are two solutions to start with - both relatively easy to implement. interestingly enough, the camera actually has little to do with the problem.

the first is the flash. if you just use the default flash settings you'll get a very brightly lit picture just like a point-and-shoot camera will give you. you can usually set the flash to a "fill flash" setting or manually tone it down so it's not so intense. and don't be afraid to bump up the iso setting in low light. but this is all beside the point, i want to talk about the fuzzy backgrounds that are oh so nice.

the fuzziness is caused by shallow depth of field and the two things that effect depth of field are the size of the aperture (bigger = shallower depth of field) and magnification (higher magnification = shallower depth of field). as for the magnification, think about macro photography or telephoto photography - both magnify the subject quite a bit and therefore produce shallow depth of field. this leaves big apertures to do the work when it comes to normal shots of people and such.


back to the problem - most new slr's come with zoom lenses (everybody loves zoom lenses, right?) and most zoom lenses don't have very big maximum apertures so it's a bit more difficult to get the fuzzy effect with these lenses.

solution? sacrifice the zoom capability and get a fixed focal length (non-zoom) "normal" lens. something around a 50mm lens should be good. just make sure the lens has a big maximum aperture - you can find this right in the description of the lens. it will say something like "Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens" - the number 1.8 is the maximum aperture. remember that with apertures the smaller the number is the larger the aperture will be, so an "f/1.8" lens is pretty good.


all the pictures in this post were taken at f/1.8 (wide open) at about 1/60 or 1/125 second on 400 speed kodak tri-x film without a flash.

these lenses are also very inexpensive - usually somewhere around 100 bones. you'll have to zoom with your feet instead of the lens but that's a small price to pay for a big aperture.

a little more pinhole

here are a couple more pinhole photographs for your enjoyment...


this is an old abandoned office next to where i worked during college - it was pretty trashed on the inside and kind of falling apart in some places. for some reason i'm fascinated by old abandoned structures. seeing them is like talking to someone from an older generation - they have stories and experiences that you can't find anywhere else.


this is another picture taken with my panoramic pinhole camera. this is the sun setting over the beach at ocean shores, washington. i took this while on a road trip with a good friend. this was our first stop in washington on our way up to seattle. beautiful place.

this next photograph isn't a pinhole image but rather a picture i took to help demonstrate how images get flipped upside down and backwards when they pass through a pinhole or a lens.


the image is passing through one of my large format lenses and being projected onto the wall.

one more thing - during my last semester of college i had a technical writing class. for my final project i wrote a manual on how to build and use your own pinhole camera. so if you already have a basic knowledge of photography and you'd like to make and use your own here's a link to a pdf version of my manual. look for the box with the link that says "click here to start download".