Tripping the Streets Fantastic - Exposure 2014 - Fluevog!

We went to check out the opening gala for Chris Tait and Julie Vincent's Tripping the Streets Fantastic: New York City, at the Peanut Gallery (downstairs, John Fluevog Store on Stephen Ave). A few of you likely know Chris as a former purveyor of photographic plunder at The Camera Store, and possibly as a talented street photographer with a penchant for getting punched (seriously, ask him about that time a peeing elf gave him a good knuckling).

Anyways, you should go check out their exhibition and see the interesting divergence that these two take stylistically as they showcase their street work from a recent trip to New York. Nice work!


Mr. Tait, obligingly posing beside some of his framed 'bathroom turned makeshift darkroom printed' photos.




Cody - Whiskey, Leicas, Guitars, Cigarettes, and general belligerence.










Jessica - Cody's sister. Has 'Kimchee Fried Rice' tattooed on her arm. In Korean. Awesome.




You know you're doing something right when you elicit this reaction.


This isn't what it looks like. Unless of course you think this looks like Cody jabbing his keys into the back of his Leica to unjam the film leader. Cause that's exactly what this is. Insane.ity.ishness.iance.ology. Yep.

And because we all know if I put a link to the website for the exhibition on the Exposure Calgary page, you'll be too lazy to actually click on it, here it is. I saved you the effort.

THE PEANUT GALLERY
Lower level, Fluevog
Tripping the Streets Fantastic:
New York
February 1 to March 30

New York City is the subject of the second year of Julie Vincent and Chris Tait’s five-year project looking at life and moments on the streets of big cities internationally.
Following on their 2013 London exhibition, Julie and Chris travelled to New York City in May, 2013. New York is a decidedly different city from London. The inhabitants of New York echo the bigger-than-life, loud, ebullient culture and history of their city, from its wild highs to its devastating lows, to its in-yourface approach to everything about itself. Join us for a walk through the streets and alleyways of one of the oldest cities in the U.S. New York City is the second in a series of four cities. Two other international cities will be presented in 2015 and 2016, with the artists’ presenting a retrospective of their work in 2017.
207 – 8th Avenue S.W., Calgary
T: 403-265-1970

OPENING: February 8, 5 – 7 p.m.
CLOSES: March 30

Confessions of a Cameraholic 2013

My dad once owned five stand-up oscillating fans. True story. I was visiting my parents one time in Edmonton and when I went downstairs, their basement had five of them stored away. I thought, what's that all about? It's a small townhouse, and there's only the two of them living there. Excessive much?! Fast forward to this October 2013, and I have just added my 36th and 37th cameras to my family. You can't escape your genes. I blame you, dad!

The backstory: I've been agonizing over what photo gear I want to bring with us to Chile. My usual go to travel kit involves a bulky DSLR (D300 and 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom), a medium format SLR (Kiev 88CM and 2 backs), a toy camera (Holga 120N), and at least one other random camera. But unlike many of our previous trips, weight is a consideration this time as we'll be trekking through Patagonia for 5 days where we must carry all our gear whilst hiking. So I wanted to ditch the DSLR and zoom lens, and go with a lighter footprint. I finally settled on this kit: a new to me Nikon FM2n (35mm film SLR), an even newer to me Fuji X100s (rangefinder style digital), to go along with a Rolleiflex 2.8E (medium format TLR). Surprisingly, these all fit in a small messenger bag (or my purse, as my niece called it).









Chile, hide your women and alpacas - I'm coming for them! j/k. I'm only coming for your alpacas.

A Summit To Die For

My three favourite things in life are cameras, mountains, and beer. So the below photo of a tall boy atop the summit of Heart Mountain after an early season tune-up scramble, taken on Fuji Instax Wide film, is the penultimate expression of happiness and joy for me.



But it makes me sad knowing that while I was scrambling this rather puny mountain (elevation gain of ~900m, summit ~ 2135m above sea level) with Anita, Amy, and Mike this past Saturday, folks were dropping dead left, right, and centre at or near the summit of Everest in Nepal. In case you've been living under a rock this past week, check this article out for more info. And while I have no delusions of ever ascending Everest, I've taken risks during scrambles that in retrospect were stupid, just for the sake of bagging one more summit. So I can see the allure that captivates the thousands that have tried to summit this unrelenting monster, and even more so, the reasons why one would take such risks in the face of imminent death above 8000m. Some may criticize you for being stupid to risk life and limb over a mountain top, but the pursuit of a dream is a pretty noble ideal to die for. Just, it's better if you don't die. Just saying.

Lifestyles of the Hip and the Famous

So a couple buddies of mine have re-emerged from a multi-year creative hiatus, and launched a new webcomic celebrating Hipsters (a label which I don't even truly understand given its contrary natures of "valuing independent thinking and rejecting mainstream culture" blended with what essentially boils down to a fashion sense that requires you to "dress like an urban outfitters posterboy (or girl... or androgynous looking boy/girl... with an ironic mullet)."

Anyways, philosophical debate on the scope of the term 'hipsters' aside, I did want to point you to their new comic, Inglorious Hipsters. The strip is only a couple weeks into what I hope will be a long run, so the best is still yet to come. But the art style, writing, and creative direction are distinctly Jeremy and Gregg - who I guess you could very well call hipsters themselves (except they lack ironic haircuts because, frankly, they're both of the receding hairline variety). Maybe they can get ironic brush cuts?

So of course, what better way to promote their hipster work, than to say Go read their strip and their bios! And since I recently read that 'shooting with analog cameras' can be a distinguishing feature of hipsters, I wanted to join in the fun with a series of photos of these two artists I shot with a Nikon FG film SLR (oooh hip!).

Gregg




Jeremy

Polaroid SX-70 Test Shots

Photos from my first pack of 600 film in my recently acquired SX-70. I'm not sure if the film pack is really expired, or if there's something wrong with the camera, but I have a feeling the chemicals in each photo aren't fully mixing/ developing. But it's been said before, there has never in all of recorded history been a 'bad' polaroid picture. And these prove it. Decidely lo-fi, poor contrast, and horribly soft. Polaroid perfection!

Wife on a Bike

When we hit up art museums, Anita and I like to play this sarcastic game of guessing what the title of some old world still life painting will be just by looking at the work... it's usually something extremely creative like 'Still life with fish' or 'Girl sitting in chair'.

And so to pay homage to such brilliantly named works, I present to you my own series entitled Wife on a Bike. You may have to spend a few hours pondering the deep philosophical metaphor behind the title, but I think eventually you'll get it.

All the bike images were taken with my Holga 120N on Ilford XP2 Super Black and White film, while I was riding my bike beside her, with the really blurry/ shakey ones set on bulb. They're all terrible, but I really like how they all turned out.












This last one is obviously NOT part of the Wife on a Bike series, but I thought I'd include it anyways, cause it's awesome.

Anatomy Lesson: Ornithology Part Deux

So by some random stroke of fate, I encountered yet another dead bird while strolling around my workplace today.







This should be my last bird carcass post for a while. Assuming no further ash related disruptions, we fly out on Saturday evening... fingers crossed.

-G

Anatomy Lesson: Ornithology

I apparently have a morbid fascination with dead bird carcasses (see here for a previous photo post)... I spotted this one today during a lunch time walk by the river. It's interesting how clean the bones had been picked off and the fact that the entire neck and spinal column is left intact.



-G

Broken Wing

Spotted on my way to a friend's place after work - one very deceased bird (I think it was a pigeon, but I'm not sure - there was no head left to really examine). Poor thing.








-G

Prague is in sight!

In exactly a month, we will be on our way over to Prague to start a 12 week journey through the heart of Eastern Europe and entering into Russia. The prospect of being on the road for 3 straight months is exciting, daunting, and scary all at once. My biggest headache seems to be how much photo gear can I possibly lug along due to weight considerations, and whether I feel I will be satisfied being only able to shoot with those specifically chosen cameras for 3 months. I'm leaning towards this as my kit:

Digital - Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm f/1.2.
Film - Kiev88 body and Arsat 80mm f/2.8.
Toy Cameras - Holga 120N and Diana Mini.
100 Rolls of film - 60x 120, 40x 135 - combination of slide, print, and black and white.
Manfrotto tripod, closeup filters, polarizers, and all that other jazz like lenspens, etc.

And then of course, Anita will bring along the Leica D-Lux4.

What do you think? Overkill? Keeping in mind I'm going to be shooting for 80 straight days. The D300 is simply too versatile and convenient (it's digital, after all) to NOT bring. The Kiev88 is a metal beast that I think will help me improve my skills - analogue, no meter, all manual, and prime lens. I suppose I could cut down on the amount of film I bring, but I'm worried that I won't be able to track down decently priced rolls of 120 and/ or slide film while in some remote villages. I suppose I could also forego the Diana Mini as I could run 35mm through the Holga if needed, but the Mini is so much fun (and the weight savings of not bringing it would be minimal). Sigh...

I think the solution is to hire a sherpa.

The Fauxlaroid Cafe

The best camera you own is the one you have on you. So while sometimes I wish I had my Holga or my D300 with me everywhere I go, that's just plain not practical. Enter the craptastic iPhone 3G and the Shake It photo app from the app store. Instant Fauxlaroid goodness.

This is a quartet of the Calgary firefighters in action during last week's big Chinatown fire. The blaze started at 4 in the morning, and they were still dousing it by 2 in the afternoon.



Alright, gone skiing for the next two days. Have a great weekend!
-G

Snow Angel Face Plant

So this past weekend was a complete weather gong show - we essentially couldn't get out of our residential neighbourhood due to snow drifts that weren't being cleared. So rather than staying indoors, we made the most of the crappy weather by bundling up, grabbing a couple of cameras, and hunting for some snow banks to plow through...
















This car was abandoned overnight in the left hand lane of this road... the snowdrift blocking it was from just one night.


And it's looking like it'll be more of the same starting tomorrow...