scenes from the boston subway

did you ever see castaway? you know how a friendship grows between tom hanks and wilson, the volleyball? well, while we were in boston i made a friend kind of like wilson; he was hand drawn (with what i think was a light colored lip stick) on a tile wall of the alewife station of the boston subway (the "t"). i would pass this little guy every day when i would get off the subway on my way to work.

i first noticed him because of his simple shape - an arc, a straight line, a squiggle for teeth and two eyes. i thought it was pretty clever. i also liked how it was someone else's addition to the "established art" that already existed on the wall - the painted tiles (which i assume were placed there to break up the monotony of the brownish red tile-covered wall).



i also love how the tiles are all a little uneven - it gives the wall more texture.

i've included this detail from the picture just to give you an idea of how awesome the resolution is on 4x5 film.



there was just something nice about the porter square t station. i loved the big arching wall and the big pipes sticking out on the side. the next best thing about this t stop has got to be the absurdly long escalator. i swear it must go up like 5 stories. don't look down if you have trouble with heights!



edit: i just discovered that the escalator goes about 143 feet from bottom to top. and at an angle somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees that would put it at a total of 60 to 70 feet vertical rise (thanks pythagoras!). so i guess i wasn't too far off when i said it went up 5 stories!

nyc update

i took my long anticipated trip into new york city last tuesday, spent the day there, and hopefully will come out with some nice photographs. i started at the flatiron building, then headed down to battery park, then i walked across the brooklyn bridge taking pictures along the way and then finally ending up at brooklyn bridge park which has a great view of the bridge with downtown manhattan in the background.

i've sent the color pictures in to get developed and i'll develop the black and white stuff in my bathroom/darkroom soon. and as soon as i find a reasonable price to get them scanned i'll post some of them!

by the way, i was never stopped or questioned by anyone - but i'm guessing that was because i was prepared. if i hadn't gotten the permit i probably would have been stopped and told to leave!

a healthy dose of holga

for some reason i feel that the holga lends itself well to architectural photography. maybe it's just my own preference, maybe it's because the holga's plastic lens cuts out sharpness and detail and reduces objects down to forms, maybe it's the square format, who knows. whatever it is there's something unique about the way it captures architecture.

here's a dose of holga architecture photographs...


this is the foot bridge leading to the wells fargo building in salt lake city with one utah center in background. if you've ever seen this building and/or bridge at night it's pretty exciting - it glows this great shade of neon blue - it's not harsh, it's just nice and cool. i tried this same shot at night with the lights on but it just didn't work. the color detracted from the forms of the bridge.


the utah commercial and savings bank building was built in 1888 and has since been squished between the two newer buildings on either side. it makes me feel kind of sorry for it - hang in there little buddy!


looking back at the parking levels of the portland international airport i noticed the soaring framework above - i had to take the picture. i thought it was fitting for an airport to have such a lofty structure.


the southeast tower of the salt lake temple - nice day downtown at a wedding...

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.