Remains

Palm Leaves, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Quick post, a few remaining images from Ojai from a few months back. Took a little while longer then I thought to finish off the roll....and to then get them posted.

    

Holga 120S, expired Kodak Plus-X, processed +1/2 stop, scanned from neg.

B&W Holga

Here are a couple of Holga shots I did sometime between November and Early January. I haven't shot very much B&W with my Holga over the last year, maybe 3-4 rolls. I think it has something to do with living in southern California and always having great warm light (most of the time). I need to load up my 120CFN with some B&W so I can do some longer exposures. I've been keeping the 120CFN loaded with color and using my 120S primarily as a B&W option. Maybe its time to swap and mix things up a bit. I've always had a love for B&W photography, in my college years its what I focused on. Also, when I lived in Vegas, didn't go outside during the day much, had to make due with existing available light. When I lived in Seattle, well, it rained a lot and was grey a lot, so B&W seemed to be a natural choice. Here in L.A., I find it a lot harder to want to shoot B&W film as much as I love it. I've got no problem shooting b&w digital (especially indoors) and plan to do more B&W Polaroids as well (really like the high speed Fuji). The colors, they distract me...in a good way. When I used to shoot film in college, since it was B&W, I did my own processing and printing and that may also be another reason why I don't do as much now. True silver B&W prints look so much better then what the scanner can bring out in my opinion. Trying to push and challenge myself into shooting more B&W again. Need to look at things more monochromatically. I've got 4 or 5 shots of B&W left in my 120S, what to do, what to shoot...

Does anyone else tend towards color or B&W based on where you live in the world or seasonally based on the quality of light?


branches, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Holga 120S, expired Ilford HP5 Plus B&W 120 film. Pushed +1/2. Scanned from negative.

Lamp Still Life

Lamp Still Life, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Polaroid 340 camera, Fuji FP-3000B high speed b&w instant film. Portrait kit attached.

WTO Flashback

I lived in Seattle, WA for about 5 years. Back at the end of 1999 there was a little rumble going on in the streets. WTO - World Trade Organization had come to town. At the time, I didn't really know much about the organization, until I started seeing the masses prepping to protest, realizing this was something pretty big. This was the beginning of my own political awakening. For those of you who remember or have done your own research will find that it was a huge cluster fuck of a protest that became violent. The police handled it poorly to say the least. There were definitely those whose sole intent was to be disruptive/violent. However, police escalated things further and further which brought out more and more people resisting the cracking down on the right to assemble and protest.

The police were charged with maintaining a curfew thereby forcing the protesters out of downtown Seattle...right into the Capitol Hill neighborhoods. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was the 2nd night that the streets were flooded with police and national guard troops. Batons, tear gas and bean bag guns ready to thwart the locals.

After reassuring my wife that I would be ok and not take any unnecessary risks, I went out that night to see what the hell was actually going on, with camera in hand of course. I had never experienced anything like it. It was truly a surreal experience. One of the things I remember clearly was standing on the corner in a crowd of people, most of which were the local residents curious, confused, upset and yelling for the police to leave, then hearing a few voices that seemed to be really trying to antagonize and instigate something, weird vicious circle.

I photographed what I could as fast as I could. There was this thick tension in the air that you could feel increasing by the minute. The more police and guard that showed up, the more people came out. My spidey sense told me it was time to get out of there and fast, I had nothing to protect myself from tear gas or batons. As I started to double back thru the other side of the street I could hear the tear gas canisters being fired off over and over again followed by more yelling and screaming. The air quickly grew heavy with tear gas. When I got back to my apt, one block off Broadway and Denny, behind the Post Office, we could smell and feel the tear gas and we were on the third floor. Looking out the window and watching a line of police/guard marching down our street directly below us with helicopters flying over head pushing protestors further and further was, as I said, really surreal. Clearly there was plenty of blame to go around, people who just didn't give a shit and did what they wanted and took advantage and enabled more chaos whether by breaking store windows or via the cops indiscriminately pepper spraying people for standing and looking. It was like the cops were looking for a fight and there were those who were going to bring it. The Capitol Hill residents were caught in the middle.

The reason I am posting this now is that a Capitol Hill blog was doing some stories and updates since it had been ten years (oh how time flies). They used my images for one of the articles, which apparently some how, there weren't many other photos/videos taken on those nights. Almost like it never happened except for those who were there to see and experience it first hand. Glad that I can share some of my experiences and images about those nights.

Smena 8M Goes to the Laundromat

1. laundry, 2. laundry 2, 3. laundry 3, 4. laundry 4

Smena 8m 35mm, Ilford HP5+ 400 b&w negative film, processed normal, scanned from neg.

Click each link to see the full frame. Decided to try something different with this post.

_

_, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Holga 120S, very expired Iflord HP5+ b&w negative film, processed normal, scanned from neg.

cafe plants

cafe plants, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Took this shot while having my lunch. Hadn't shot any b&w thru my holga in a few months, thought it was time to do some more. Now that I have two holgas, I can load color and b&w and be ready for anything!

Holga 120S, very expired Iflord HP5+ b&w negative film, processed normal, scanned from neg.

holga - self, hallway

holga - self, hallway
Originally uploaded by LeandroF

Holga 120S, very expired Kodak Plus-X 125 120 film, processed normal, scanned from proof print.

holga - sin in the window II

holga - sin in the window II
Originally uploaded by LeandroF

Holga 120S, very expired Kodak Plus-X 125 120 film, processed normal, scanned from proof print.

holga - sin's feet on the stairs

holga - sin's feet on the stairs
Originally uploaded by LeandroF

Holga 120S, very expired Kodak Plus-X 125 120 film, processed normal, scanned from proof print.

Black & White

Tri-X 400 - Processed normal. Scanned from proof prints. I didn't realize it right away, but the shutter was sticking open a bit. Added some interesting effect. WD-40 took care of it.

Back to Basics

When I was a kid, I always had a thing for photography. Close to twenty years later, I've gone from the 110 camera, to my first Minolta 35mm fully manual camera before I was sixteen. Sometime in college I moved up to a Yashica 35mm then eventually a Contax 35mm system. In that time I also had medium format cameras as well. I had a Mamiya twin lens, a 645 system and a Hasselblad system. Always loved film. Studied it in school, worked commercially for awhile and currently I shoot something everyday. Like most, I made the transition (mostly) to digital what seems like a quite a while ago now. I still love it. I have a Nikon dslr and kick ass point and shoot, the now infamous Panasonic DMC-LX3. I literally shoot with it daily. In fact its partly responsible, because the images reminded me of film. Something was nagging at me...