_valerian

Did you know that when confronted with a camera, the average junior high school student in Japan will show a peace sign? You heard it here first.

These pictures were taken with the help of my Pentax. “Help” as in, I used the viewfinder and lens, but not the shutter mechanism. The redness in some of the photos is the reflection of my keitai that took these photos.

it’s arty

The Camera: Pentax 67

Impression 1 (one minute ago): First glimpse of the negatives.

Holy

Shit

I have thirty frames of 6×7 negatives hanging as three seperate rolls of film (which they are) in my spare room. Words at the moment are pretty much limited to the two-part swear above. This is a mighty fine size and format.

Impression 2: The film

I shot 3 rolls of Neopan Presto 400, since I am down with it, and also 3 rolls of Kodak NC Portra 160, because I like the “real” colors in photography. I am more of an Eggelston kind of guy than a Ninagawa Mika fan. I think I got her last name wrong… Anyways, you can get 10 frames on one roll, which means I have to slow down and think about whats going on. Also, this is not a camera that you slap a roll of film in and go, oh no sir. This is why all those lingere model photographers have like 5 assistants loading film for them while they continue to work the job of which probably the average reader of American Photo wishes they had.

Impression 3(from Today): The Camera

A pentax 67 is pretty much everything that the people on the internet say it is. Ohmygosh I would even say it is like a 35mm SLR.. on…… STERIODS! However everyone else has already beat me to that painfully obvious comparison, still I felt like I needed to say it anyway. It is tradition. The camera handles wonderfully, with a satisfactory KUSHPKerBLACHKKT sort of sound when you pull the trigger, er, press the shutter release.
Araki says that “photography is murder” and knowing that he too uses this camera, I am starting to feel that way too. If folks back in the day thought that the soft click of a brass and wood-constructed view camera’s shutter signaled the partial theft one’s soul, then this beast might have left them feeling that large chunks of their spirits had been blasted far from this realm.
I took a variety of shots handheld all day with it, portraits, “Street” , Temples, etc, and it handled well. On the way to the station I heard the familiar “Aa, John Sensei!” and came upon a kindergarten student and his parents. I quickly fired a round off and people were already saying how cool the camera was, so you can factor that in to the equation too. It makes me look like I know what I am doing, and possibly insinuates that I am being paid to do so…

I wrote about Brett’s page recently, but I wanted to add that I am smitten with these two photographs: Himatsuri, and this baseball one.

Concerning the new Gorillaz album, it took me a while to get into it but now I need to listen to the 4th, 5th and 14th through 16th tracks every day. The others are kind of hit and miss, but the hits (Dirty Harry, Feel Good Inc, Don’t get lost in heaven, Demon Days, and the bonus track) I like.