Christ John Otto

Christ John Otto is an author and the founder of Belonging House.  He contacted me after seeing the work I've done with Ian Ethan Case and we've developed a friendship while preparing to work together.  Christ (rhymes with "wrist") was looking to have some promotional photography created in the form of head shots for his website and upcoming books.  During our session, he let me play around a little bit and diverge away from our head shot session and take a little more freestyle approach.

For the image above, I slapped the Petzval lens on the front of the camera and took Christ into an empty studio next door to mine.  I love this look he is giving me here.  I love how the background gets kind of messy and circular because of the Petzval.  I don't use the Petzval enough and have to remember to put it on the camera more often.

Then I tossed a prism in front of the lens and started picking up reflections and refractions.

I love when a client allows me to play a little bit during our session.  I'm usually very lighthearted during all my sessions, but the people that let me break out a little bit and try this and that hold a special place in my heart.

Christ is currently on a multi-month sabbatical in Scotland right now.  Color me jealous.  He told me before he left that he's already anxious to hire me for another session, which is the best compliment in the world to get.

See you soon, Christ.  Make magic while in Scotland.  See you when you get back.

Dave's Bowler Hat

How can you not love this image?

Dave has been looking for a hat for a while now.  Partly because he wants to find out what kind of hat will fit his head shape, and partly because he's thinking of joining the Cowboy Action Shooting League, and he's working on creating his persona, "Porkchop Chang".

He's been thinking about bowler hats for a while now - because "Oddjob" from the James Bond film had one, and he got to thinking that maybe it would fit his head shape as well.  So when a hat he bought arrived in the mail, I told him to c'mon down to the studio and we'd take some photographs of him wearing it so he could see how it looks on his head.

I did a little post-production on the image to make it feel like it was taken some time ago, back when people wore hats like this out and about.

I think it looks pretty good.  I think the brim of the hat could be a little wider and come out over his ears more, but overall I love the look and shape it gives him.  Plus, I just love hats, so any chance to photograph a friend in a lid is a-ok with me :)

Up at DEDPXL • The Lomography Petzval Lens Review

Y'all know I love this lens.  Here is my official review of the lens up at DEDPXL.  Enjoy!

http://dedpxl.com/the-lomography-x-zenit-new-petzval-lens/

Hana Kahn

I met musician/photographer/blogger Hana Kahn through my friend/photographer Kathleen Frank who recently moved to NH from Florida.  We've been itching to get together and mess around and spend the afternoon making photographs, and, finally one lovely August afternoon we made it happen.

I didn't shoot a whole lot - I enjoyed helping Kathleen out with her images and just enjoying the creative process and the weather.  I brought along my Hasselblad & grabbed a Polaroid (image above) and grabbed a few shots with the Petzval.

My favorite shot from the session, though, would have to be the first image up top (and here it is again:)

This was taken using my tasty little $12 prism I bought off of Amazon.  I love how having the prism in front of the lens, twisted in the right way, gives off that gorgeous, milky out of focus bottom.  It's picking up the light and refracting it through the prism and creates what looks like this gorgeous foreground element that I'm shooting through.  I love her pose and the colors and the background.  It's a very atmospheric portrait.

It was a really fantastic afternoon, and I wish I could have afternoons like that more often.  Thanks to Hana and Kathleen for making it possible. Go visit Kathleen's website and Hana's as well.  Thanks ladies for a fantastic afternoon.

Southern NH Meetup / Petzval Images

I used to frequent local meetups as much as I could in the past but over the years they fell off my radar.  This year they have started to sprout up again locally so I figured it was time to dust off my meetup status and hit one up.  And bring the Petzval along.

We all met at Beaver Brook park, which is where Sara and I had our wedding ceremony.  The thing about meetups is that you never know who is going to actually attend.  We ended up having a large group of photographers but only two models for the afternoon, so I patiently waited my turn.  Usually in meetups you have lots of shooters all trying to shoot at the same time.  This happened during this meetup as well, so I did my best to stand back and wait my turn.  Its rude to the photographer and the model.  The model should be looking at the main photographer but often times they look at all the other shooters (note: if you do this, stand back next time and wait your turn).

I didn't shoot a whole lot.  I was using the Petzval lens without a tripod and strictly went with hand holding it.  It got a little cumbersome.

I’ve got my viewing loupe jammed into my eye.  I'm trying to focus on the subjects eyes with live view zoomed in and trying to focus using the knob on the Petzval.  I'm trying to keep everything steady by gripping the camera and lens tightly while pushing everything into my face to brace it steady even more.  Then, my eye starts fogging up the viewing loupe.

It's a mess.  I'm a mess using this free handed.  Anything for the shot, right?

One of the things you have to be careful with at meetups is what I call "location creep".  I had noticed that during the meetup nobody was shooting the models together.  I waited until the very end of the meetup when everyone said they were done and had their fill, and I asked the two models to follow me over to a location that hadn't been used yet.  I set them up on either side of this interesting sculpture.

After seeing what I was doing, it quickly became a line of people behind me, waiting for me to finish so they could also shoot this image in this location.  Location creep.  I'm not a "secretive" photographer - I don't hide locations in my images from other shooters.  But theres something about lining up to take images from a setup/location that you didn't think about.  Sometimes people ask me if I'd want to do an elaborate setup/shoot at a meetup, and this is why I won't - because of location creeping.  As a photographer, just be mindful of this kind of thing during meetup situations.  It can sometimes leave a bad taste in other photographers mouths.

Thanks to photographer Zack Stone for arranging the meetup and to everyone that came and spent the afternoon hanging out, shooting and having a few laughs.

WETPLATE PHOTOGRAPHY & PORTRAITS

I believe I'm obsessed with wet plate and tin type photography.  I think that is a safe thing to say.  I love it.  LOVE it.  I'm constantly daydreaming about the day when I'll be able to mix my own wet plate chemicals and build a large format camera to use specifically for wet plate and tin type photography.  It's true alchemy.  It's being a Wizard; concocting a magical potion that can freeze moments and do it with such style and clarity and contrast.  Beautiful.

Sara and I had our wedding portraits done as large, 20x24" tin types by Yige Wang.  I love that man.  I love our portraits.  They are amazing.  So when my friend Edith Weiler started concentrating on wet plate photography, I started getting really anxious to watch her.  To help her.  To sit for her.

Edith is working on a body of wet plate portraits that will be part of an exhibition in November.  She asked Sara and I (and Dave Seah) if we would want portraits taken of us by her.

Excuse me?  Abso-freaking-lutely.

Every session we've had with Edith has been fantastic.  She lets me ask any question I have.  She lets me look over her shoulder throughout the entire process.  I've got a pretty good feel for how everything should go just by watching people like Yige Wang, Keith Alan De-Franca and Edith make their wet plates and tin types.  I'll be ready when the day comes.

Here are some shots from our first session with Edith a few months ago:

and

This image looks like it's straight out of a WPA photo book from the 1920's, doesn't it?  I look like someone during the Depression.  This exposure was around 25 seconds, so there is some slight blurring and movement.  I kinda like it though - it adds to the "age" of it.

Images were taken in Edith's backyard, with a simple roll of black backdrop paper gaff taped to the back of her house.  Her camera is in the foreground to the left.

The front of Edith's camera.  She had this really lovely lens cap made from leather.  Since Petzval and other older brass lenses don't have apertures, you need a cover over the front of the lens to prevent light from getting in.  This gorgeous leather cap was custom made for Edith.

For our next visit with Edith I shaved my beard a bit so that I could look a little different.

The exposures were better this time, especially on Dave's face.  I love the tones and the contrast that these images have.  These scans are nothing compared to the real plates themselves.  If you ever get a chance to see a real wet plate or tin type, please do.  They look so much better in real life.

Trying very hard to "look the part" during our shoot.  I think I was meant to live in the 1900's.

Looking a little more dapper this time, complete with a bow-tie.  Look at those tones.  It's gorgeous!  it's me, but a me from 1912.  I love it.

Edith then wanted to get a shot of Sara and I together:

So awesome.

Please visit Edith's website.  She's a treat to work with, and I'm looking forward to working with her in the future.

Wet Plates and Tin Types are amazing.