Posts Tagged: classic
Meta-Photography #1
El Camino (click to view large)
Theo has a video project to interview somebody doing something, and to shoot each step of the process. He decided to interview me about taking photographs. This is a picture we took across the street to illustrate the process. It sort of reminds of a cow for some reason. Maybe I’ll post the video later, when he’s all done with it.
Mustang and Brick
Seen while biking to work. Oakland CA. January, 2012 (click image to enlarge)
I saw a new car while biking to work the other morning. I passed it by at first, and then had second thoughts and turned around. This is a quick first pass at processing.
camino de la memoria
Flower of Casa del Mar
(click images below to view slide show)
Water Tree Inn Palms #2
Water Tree Inn Palms #1- Flower of Casa del Mar
Entry of Casa del Mar
El Camino en Casa del Mar #2
El Camino en Casa del Mar #1
A holiday get-together this evening brought us together with my late cousin’s best friend and his family. I overheard Gina talking about one of the neighborhoods in which she lived as a child. I butted in, and upon further investigation we discovered that we lived near each other and even attended the same elementary school, Del Mar, for a few years until her family moved on. She lived in the apartments right behind the school on Glenn Ave, Casa del Mar. I spent many childhood and teenage years roaming and playing in these streets. A couple of years ago I was in the area and drove by on a whim just to see what it looked like these days, and I took a few quick shots while I was at it. I know it shouldn’t anymore, but that small-world-thing still pleasantly surprises me when it happens.
After Work
Painted Hearse, Oakland CA. April, 2011. (click image to enlarge)
These past few days I’ve been too engrossed in work to make it out to stroll the neighborhood. So I’ve only shot as far as the curb in front of my place of employment on my way back and forth to my own car. But I think there’s plenty of photography to be done right there: churches, hearses, lowriders, chinese hamburger-stirfry-donut shops–you name it.
Old Habits Die Hard
Blue Rambler / © neo serafimidis 2011
I left work just a bit early today in the hope of getting to the computer repair shop across the street from UC Berkeley, Fix That Mac, to pick up my revived laptop with the new hard drive. It went quickly enough that I decided I would try to get to the lighting shop, Metro Lighting, and pickup two pendant lights we ordered for our kitchen. I was guessing that they closed at 5 pm, and it was now 4:48. I could make it if I didn’t dawdle. I was doing well enough until I passed this guy somewhere about Bancroft and Sacramento. I pulled over, jumped out, and took a few fast photos. This was my favorite, which has me relying on the same old formula I’ve been beating like a dead horse for a couple years now. I can’t help it. I try to do something else, but cars just beckon. Then I got back in my car and drove. Yes, I made it just in time.
Corvair Square
I recently changed the route of my bike commute to work. I was simply trying to get away from San Pablo Ave, which, while it is the straightest shot to my workplace, is also very bike-unfriendly. There are lots of cars, obstacles, freeway on/off ramps, and debris.
I decided that I would try to slide over to Hollis Ave through Emeryville, and this took me into west Oakland. The result is a new crop of photos, and some incubating ideas for future series.
Photography Show: Auto Archeology at Chop Salon
Auto Archeology East Bay
The Junked Edsel and the Biodiesel Carnival Bread Truck
The Junked Edsel and the Biodiesel Carnival Bread Truck, originally uploaded by neocles.
Last Friday, May 30, while biking to work, I stopped to take some quick shots of this junked Edsel parked off Murray St. just west of 9th in Berkeley. I rode through the empty lot, which is essentially an old railroad right-of-way, and set my bike down against the curb. This was far enough back to not have it appear in the shots I was taking. Near the bike was a large white pickup truck parked at the curb.
I had taken just a few shots and had my back to my bike taking the shot above. That is when I heard a loud snapping and crunching sound. I turned around to see the big white pickup running over my bike!
The truck, from Berkeley Unified, pulled over, and the driver got out. He looked pretty surprised himself, saying, “Jesus, that scared the hell out of me.” He apologized and was generally nice about the whole thing, as was I. I was too stunned to be angry or to even take a picture of it, if you can believe that.
The driver said, “That’s the problem with these big diesels, you can’t see right down in front of you.” My bike was a ways out in front of him, so I am not quite sure how he missed seeing it. Maybe he did but misjudged the location as pulled away from the curb.
We exchanged numbers and he drove off, leaving me to assess the damage. Fortunately, he only got part of it, mostly the handle bars. Most of what’s up there was crushed to bits: bell, light, gear shift, brake handle The bars, gooseneck (do they still call them that) and the seat are pretty bent up too. Surprisingly, the rest of it was in good enough shape that I could slowly ride it to work and home again. A professional inspection will tell what shape the frame is in.
Hopefully, I will be able to get the issue settled and bike repaired so I can get back to saving fuel, money, and greenhouse gases. And shooting more commute shots from the safety of the sidewalk.
Turning Points
I had decided early in 2007 that I really wanted to get back into photography and that I wanted a decent DSLR for the family trip to Greece. So in spring I got the Nikon D40x and started trying to learn it and get used to seeing my world through the viewfinder.
I got a fair amount of practice in before the trip and took over 700 shots while there. That was a lot of shots to curate and process, so I slowed up on shooting for a couple of weeks. Of course, I threw hundreds away. And there were few that were any good at all.
It didn’t seem like I was getting anywhere very fast trying to improve my photographic skills, at least not insofar as satisfying myself with the results went. But then in October I took some shots around the neighborhood and also landed on a post-processing approach that resulted in a look I really liked a lot. It was a turning point of sorts.
I guess what is going on in these photos is this. Sarah and I have been into vintage “everything” for a long time—deco, 50s, space-age, etc.—ever since our punk/new wave days in the early 80s. My middle-aged nostalgia has ramped this up lately. And obviously I am not alone in this as there is a pretty huge retro scene that has moved from the underground into the mainstream.
And of course, flickr provides a great forum for people interested in documenting the cars, buildings, furniture, signs, graphics, and ephemera of the last century. In terms of photography, I enjoy documenting this disappearing world. I try to photograph it in the wild, as it were. In other words, I don’t seek out shows or conventions where stuff is on display. Rather, I am interested in things in their natural context of use.
This leads to the second part of the turning point, which is the processing of the image to look more like an old photograph of a “new car” than like a pristine digital shot of an “old car”. But not quite. There’s a juxtaposition of old and new together in the image that I can’t quite articulate, but that is part of what I am trying to get to. If I were reading more about art and photography, I would have a ready-made description of the approach I am struggling here to describe.
Another important influence is my co-worker Joe Reifer. Talking with Joe and going out together for a lunchtime stroll to shoot has taught me lots. Joe is a great photographer and has been very generous with his knowledge of photography, on everything from taping up a Holga to the business of selling usage rights for one’s work. I can’t thank him enough. And this shot of Joe and the Travelall was really popular among flickrfolk!
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