Mad About Maneki-Neko

One more set from our recent trip to Tokyo. Welcome to the Gotoku-ji temple, dedicated to the Maneki-neko (what you may recognize as those beckoning cat statues, ubiquitous in most Asian restaurants). Part catlover's wet dream, and part creepy crazy cat lady, this Buddhist temple in the Setagaya district was an interesting and offbeat place to visit and get away from the rush of central Tokyo.

Meow please enjoy the photos... or cringe in horror if you're not a cat person.






























This is the Goddess of Mercy.















Colour photos taken with the Fuji XT1. Black and whites taken with a Rolleiflex TLR on Ilford HP5+ film.

Four cameras but no bear spray

On our scramble up Wasootch Peak, I brought along a Kodak Instamatic 500 film camera that was given to me recently. Between Anita and I, we had two camera-phones, a digital camera, and this film camera, but no bear spray because I couldn't find it in our basement. So while we could shoot a bear with four different cameras, we'd be hooped if it decided to charge us. #hikingfails

For the camera nerds, the Instamatic 500 is a 50+ year old beauty (see photos at the end). It is shiny chrome on black, has full manual controls, and a Schneider-Kreuznach 38mm f/2.8 lens. Designed originally to take 126 film (obsolete), I reloaded a spent cartridge with 35mm film instead and shot some photos of Anita scrambling up the peak. The camera doesn't play nice with the film perforations of 35mm, yielding numerous slightly overlapping exposures. But despite the unpredictable overlaps, the results are still pretty awesome. All shots taken on expired Kodak T-Max 400.








Slightly overlapping exposures.

Dinner at the Mach Household/ Photographing the Pupils - Part XI

While we were preparing dinner last night, Anita whispered '...love you very much.' I smiled, and then turned to give her a kiss, only to discover she was talking about the frozen package of shrimp she was defrosting. I kid you not. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be jealous that she was whispering romantic sweet nothings to a 1 pound frozen block of home-wrecking prawns, while I was clearly within earshot. Sigh... at least I know what to buy her for X-mas now.

Anyways, I taught my last photo class of the year the previous week, and a few of my students volunteered to sit for a set of portraits, shot with the Hasselblad 500CM on Ilford HP5+. It now seems appropriate for me to say that "I love these so much."

And if you're curious to see what the 'love you so much' prawns were used for, scroll to the bottom to see the clam and shrimp paella we feasted on.
















I call this: Home-wrecker Paella.

Family Polaroids for Mariana's B-day

As my niece Mariana gets older, I worry that she'll soon outgrow her interest in hamming it up for my cameras. So taking advantage while she's still game, I shot some rare family photos with her and my folks on her 9th birthday weekend. Although the digital photos below are pretty nice, what I really treasure are the polaroids we shot, on limited edition Third Man Records (Jack White's record company) black frame Impossible Project film. The black and yellow duotone adds a dreamy nostalgic aesthetic, and I love that I still have a chance to show Mariana the magic of instant film photography.


Hipster Kung-fu Masters


The polaroids!
















I love that even mom got in on the Vogue action






I look like a giant in this photo compared to the rest of my family

Digital photos shot with the Fuji X-T1 and 35 f/1.4, polaroids shot with an SX70. The Third Man Records film is 600 speed, so it's actually too fast for an SX-70, but with the exposure wheel cranked all the way down, the photos taken indoors by window light turned out surprisingly nice.