_my inner Kaiju took a Xanax and went for a nap_

It is with great shame and dishonour that I admit, I have not yet seen Pacific Rim. It is true, I do in fact wish to see this cinematic masterpiece. Alas, when I broached the subject with the Missus, it went like this:

Him: *excitedly spitting out the words* I want to see Pacific Rim!!!
Her: Wh...yyyy??? *spoken with that slow drawl of pity, confusion, and slight condescension*

Now folks, you often hear of times when things are said in the heat of a moment that truly test the tensile strength of your marital fabric. Her single worded (but drawn out) response was one of those instances. However, as I replay the expression on her face in my head, I believe she may have actually misheard me say "I want to dress in diapers to mow the lawn." I believe this, because no rational person would question WHY one would be excited about seeing a movie filled with Kaiju (giant monsters) and robots. Duh.

I was tempted to continue down this treacherous trail of conversation with a followup question of which NeoGeo arcade game was most underappreciated - King of the Monsters, or Ninja Combat. Luckily, my inner Kaiju took a Xanax and went for a nap, and I walked away instead of verbally sparring for moral superiority over whose Japanese pop culture tastes were more... morally superior.

Side note- if you actually dared answer the above question and picked Ninja Combat, I'm afraid that you may have also placed irreparable strain on the fabric of our friendship. Giant city destroying monsters duking it out, Street Fighter style ALWAYS wins. ALWAYS.

Okay, enough geeking about the bush for now. On to some photos. These were taken as part of a test roll I ran through my La Sardinia toy camera. It is a crap plastic camera made in tribute to old sardine cans, with a crap plastic wide 22mm lens. Total garbage camera, but makes for some fun pictures. Shot on Holga 'Hi Speed' ISO 640 film, which the 'photolab tech' (pronounce that with a healthy dose of derision) at London Drugs almost refused to process because it didn't say C-41 on the cannister. Photonerds would understand the idiocy behind that. Yet another moment in which my inner Kaiju needed to pop a valium cocktail so as not to smash the PUNY HUUUUUMAN's head.




Woof!


Georgette and her Ricohflex TLR.


The monster movie hating Missus, double exposed against Banker's Hall


Scott and his 1600mm equivalent bazooka lens (400mm with two 2x Teleconverters - widest available aperture of f/600)


A custom modded Polaroid Land Camera (Frankenroid!)

Royal Baby, Regal Student

So... the Royals had a baby boy. Personally, I'm indifferent to the scandal and court intrigues comings and goings of their Royal Them-nessess, but I do find the hoopla surrounding their celebrity status curious. I suppose they are no different than Hollywood celebrities, in that we are fascinated by any glimpse of life behind the veil of those celebrity personas, seeking proof of their regular mundanity, yet also secretly hoping that behind the veil is in fact an even more outlandish Lady Gaga/Liberace flamboyance for us to all gawk at and hate on. Be honest, while we all politely spoke of best wishes for a smooth delivery, you know you pondered a world in which the 3rd-in-line heir to the throne was born a hermaphrodite... or black. Oh man, the fun the tabloids would have had. Anyways...

This photo is NOT of a famous celebrity adored the world over, but rather is a portrait of one of my former students that joined a group of her cohorts for a short photowalk. This is one of my favourites I've taken with the Rolleiflex, despite the distracting bit of white background beside her nose and eye. I particularly like the candidness of the shot, and the way the light was filtering in from the open air patio to the right side.



Rolleiflex 2.8E on Neopan 400. Developed in Ilfosol 3 at 68 deg. F, 1+9 for 6:30.

YYC Street Shooting - Stampede Friday

Totally unrelated to the photos in this post, but I feel like I want to petition MacDonalds to sell a Bacon McFlurry. Don't thank me yet, this doesn't exist.

Anyways, back to the photos. Took my new (to me) Olympus XA rangefinder out for a spin on Friday night with Cody, Megan, and Chris, and ran a couple rolls of B&W film through it. This little cam is awesome - compact sliding case, fully coupled rangefinder, and a nice Zuiko fixed 35mm f/2.8 lens. We are going to have many street ninja adventures together...


This dude was fascinated by my Rollei, so I let him play around with it. Meanwhile, his female friend (I presume signficant other) impatiently stalked off. Gotta love this guy's priorities.


Megan.


Two ladies, fascinated by the large size of Chris'... camera.


Walken's only!










This lady was playing Street Matchmaker. She chatted up some dudes on a patio, then snagged some girls passing by and introduced them to each other.


Chris.


Cody.


Me, doing my best impression of Beaker

Shot on Kodak T-Max 400 and Lomography Lady Grey 400 black and white films. Both pushed to 800 - developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+14 @ 68 deg. F for 14 minutes.

Strangers in the City - Scott

I don't generally take photos of the homeless in our city - they're a vulnerable population, and photographing them to make gritty looking photos seems cheap and overly exploitative. However, as we were walking down 17th ave on a busy night of the 2nd Stampede weekend, we passed by Scott, a man down on his luck who was panhandling for spare change. While I normally would have just left him in peace, he and his friend inquired about our cameras (an assortment of Hasselblad/ Leica/ Rolleiflex film cams). Given their interest in our activities, we stopped to chat with them, and that's how I hypocritically ended up with this shot of a man, who despite struggling financially, was very friendly, cheerful, and gracious.



Shot with the Rolleiflex 2.8E on Ilford HP5+ 400, rated at 800. Developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68 deg F for 13.5 minutes.

Stampede Adventures

Ten days of carnies, crazies, and poor life choices - all battered, chocolate dipped, and deep fried on a stick. Welcome to the Calgary Stampede folks! How does one know the self proclaimed 'Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth' is here? Five tell-tale signs:

1) The flesh parade in the streets is like a fully stocked fresh meat display at Safeway (think a mixture of lean steaks, rump roasts, and far too much jiggly head cheese).

2) Inhibitions are inhibited. In other words, watch for a spike in regret and birth rates 9 months from now.

3) Every man, woman, and dog is now a cowboy. Seriously, Asian cowboys. About as authentic as Chicken Balls and Egg Rolls.

4) The Miracle Shammy man swindles you out of your life savings because you can't say no to a 2-for-1 deal (and so you buy 5 sets - YEEHAW, 10 Shammies!)

5) The hopelessly outmatched 8 year olds get their dreams crushed at Whac-a-mole by yours truly.

Our day at the Stampede begins with a bus full of Asians. Why? Well because it was Free Admission before 9:30am on Sunday, of course! No caucasian would be brave or stupid enough to compete for a spot on the early shuttles to the grounds with a marauding horde of my kinfolk en route. Don't ever stand in the way of us and FREE anything.

We arrive, and load up on carbs (sugared mini-donuts) for energy and optimal mental fortitude to compete at midway games. Anita apparently doesn't understand nutrition (or the concept of blending in), and instead opts for a veggie falafel. I'm surprised they didn't throw us out right then and there. Who goes to the Stampede and orders vegetarian fare? That's like ordering medium rare baby giraffe steaks at a PETA fundraiser.

Next up, Whac-a-mole, wherein a few kids and a lot of adults leave empty handed, as I demonstrate my mad one handed whacking skillz. Wait... er... nevermind. Moving on.

We wander aimlessly for hours, taking in the smells (smoked turkey legs! fresh horse poo!), sights (endless flesh spectacle - a fleshtacle?), and sounds ("Step right up! 5 dollars per game wins your choice of handmade (in a gruelling sweatshop!) stitched plush toy"), before finally tiring and breaking for lunch.

Later in the afternoon, the mother-in-law spots a TD bank giving away FREE bandanas - all you have to do is yell "YAAAAAAHOOOO" into a microphone. While it's bad karma to poke fun at your mother-in-law, I got a good laugh when she attempted, but her lack of English speaking ability made her scream YAAAA WOOOO... Twice. Hilarious. Times 2. But hey, a FREE bandana is a FREE bandana (which she won't ever use). But it was FREE!

Before retiring for the day, I indulge in another healthy snack in the form of a deep fried twinkie on a stick, covered in powered sugar and drizzled with chocolate. Only, it wasn't truly a Twinkie, but tasted like a knockoff. A Twonkie?

Enjoy some photos.








B&W photos shot with a Pentax 6x7, Takumar SMC 105mm/f2.4, on Ilford HP5+. Processed in Ilfosol 3 at 68 deg. C for 6.25 minutes.

Strangers in the City - Aman

Welcome to another episode of Strangers in the City. This is Aman, our awesome waitress at Diner Deluxe yesterday. Aman rocked this perfect combination of timeless classic and elegant chic, even in a diner uniform. And she may have a midwives tale or two about how to determine the sex of your unborn child (no, Anita and I are NOT expecting a child - she was telling the tale to my pregnant cousin)... This portrait is a tad on the soft side, because my focussing skills are lacking, it was shot at 1/15, and I have the shakes at that speed.



For the camera nerds: Shot with a Rolleiflex 2.8 at 1/15s, on expired Fuji Neopan 400, rated at 200. Developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68 deg. F for 5:15. This was my first time shooting with the Rollei, and also my attempt at pulling film, so despite being slightly soft, I'm very pleased this shot turned out at all...

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, and Happy B-day Canada!

Long Weekend Optimism

A bit of positive news heading into the long weekend. My uncle, who is currently recovering from an invasive surgery to remove a tumour, suffered a setback this week with a bout of septicemia (infection that goes into your bloodstream). He was moved into the ICU, but is showing great signs of recovery, and has had his intubation tube removed today. The first words he spoke since getting intubated involved a story of dreaming about eating ice cream and soda pop. How cute. Remember YYC, even in what appear to be the darkest and bleakest moments, hope springs eternal.

And with that, it's the long weekend folks! I'll leave you with these menu offerings...

Strangers in the City

More results from my Strangers in the City project, in which I am approaching random strangers I encounter to take their portraits on medium format film. I've had a couple more polite rejections from some folks, and I also pooched a couple shots of some strangers that agreed to sit (sorry dudes). But overall, the project is going well, and I may start a whole new site dedicated to it. Enjoy, and meet some of your local Calgarians.


Maisy, yard sale hunter extraordinaire. She found a sweet red sequinned hat and ceramic dog from a yard sale just a couple blocks from where I took this portrait (Blonde's Diner).


Lauren, the other half of the yard sale hunter duo. Lauren's hat is what actually caught my attention about this duo, as the hat is exactly the same as one I bought in Ha Long Bay, but failed to bring home cause I didn't want to crush it in my luggage.


Krista, a gal who was minding her business at the bus stop, reading and listening to tunes through her earbuds when I interrrupted to request a portrait. She was more than patient with me, as I first screwed up the shot, and then had to change to a new roll of film before finally getting this shot off.


Kiri was enjoying a coffee outside The Roasterie, when I interrupted to ask for a portrait. When pressed for some personal details, she stated that she was just a girl trying to find herself.


Dionne, budgie owner. Seriously, we passed by her in the Kensington area, where she was sitting with her pet budgie, Icky. You don't see bird owners take them out for walks very often, so this was kind of cool. Other interesting connection, I was wearing a Muse shirt from the concert earlier this year, and she had also gone and bought that same shirt.


Icky the budgie, who probably prefers to think that she was out taking her pet human for a walk.


Scott, analog camera junkie, not a stranger. But I had to finish off my roll before I could develop it. Scott likes cameras. Like, REALLY likes them. Probably moreso than me. That's saying something.


Andrew, also not a stranger. Although we only met today. Appears to own significantly more cameras than me (and I have 35). Was shooting a frankencamera of a Polaroid Land 100, with modded lens and finder. My new hero.


Georgette, Andrew's other half. TLR and SX-70 shooter. What more can you ask for in a girl?


Anita, my better half. Without her, none of the happy stuff in my life exists.

6x6 shots taken with a Kiev 88 on Ilford HP5+. 6x7 shots taken with a Pentax 6x7 on Fuji Neopan 400. Both rolls developed in Ilfosol 3, diluted 1:9.

Hashtag Moron; Hashtag Photonerd

Post 2 of 2 for tonight. This one is less gloom and doom

Tell tale indicators you are a moron.

1) You go to your car, open the passenger door, drop off your stuff, close the door, go to passenger side only to find that you left the keys on the passenger seat and somehow triggered the lock mechanism. And there's a lightning storm all around you. And you have to urinate like there's no tomorrow.

2) You get home, are hungry, and eat a hunk of garlicky Daikon Kimchi. And then, thirsty from this, you drink orange juice. (Fact: these two flavours are a TERRIBLE combination).

3) You buy a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera a year ago, and complain that the film advance counter doesn't work. A year later, someone informs you that you need to feed the film under the rollers to trip the mechanism (something you could have learned by reading the included manual).

Yes folks, it's been that kind of week... But on the subject of Rolleiflexes, I just bought this radtastic piece of currency from the Phillipines that features said twin lens camera on the back. Photonerd much?

Climate update - YYC

Thanks for all the thoughts and well-wishes folks. It's relatively calm up where we are, but rather apocalyptic in the lower lying areas around town. This is post 1 of 2 tonight - felt wrong to not at least acknowledge the grim flooding conditions. Back in a bit with more regular photogeekery.