Ploafmaster General

I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't tell everybody about my friend Patrick's new Tumblog, tasty hip hop treats. If you're a fan of clever music regardless of the genre, give this a look. Patrick is beginning to curate a fine selection of beats, songs, and collections, much of which is free at least for the listening (and some for the downloading, too).

Look, it's all worth it at least for Dert's Talk Strange.

ISO400 film push-processed to 3200.

Okay, so I've finished working on my first little self-imposed photo project. As you can tell from the post title, I call it "Pretty Maids In a Row." I've posted the set to my Flickr account.

The little photo-shoot consisted of only two rolls of 120 film taken over the course of about an hour in the Scott's Addition district of Richmond. I shot here, as I have in the past, so the austere backdrops would help the beauty of the two women further stand out. I also knew that the neighborhood would be largely vacant on a Saturday after New Year's Day :-)

The color film is Fuji Astia 100F, a stock ideal for portraiture, though I had to color-correct because the bright sun that day washed out the shots a bit. The black and white is Rollei Pan 25. It's only the second roll of this film I've shot, and it's fast charming me. I developed this roll myself, and I had to guess a bit at the developing times for Ilfosol-3. I think it worked out well.

This work is hardly what I'd call "show quality," but it represents, for me, a few new steps in my photography: project work (if only my own projects), and directed photographs. This latter step particularly interest me, and is reflected in several of my other recent uploads. I used to (falsely) assume that candid photographs were superior because of the natural moments captured therein. I've since come to appreciate the small amount of control that comes with posing models and giving direction.

So yeah...at the risk of sounding haughty, I'm really quite happy with how this worked out. I hope you enjoy, too.

I uploaded two portraits of one of my best friends, Jake, to my Flickr stream. I'm working on piecing together the color pics from a short photo shoot I did with Valerie and my sister-in-law this past Saturday, and then I'll start uploading those and the black and white shots. It's a really simple concept, nothing "high art" here, but it's one of my first intentional shoots with a theme that seemed to work out reasonably well. Of course, you can be the judge of that...

I took some portraits at my mom's house a couple of days ago.

Okay, so I know the point of Christmas is a celebration of God's Son coming to us, but I can't help spilling some sweet details of Christmas gift giving between Val and I.

First, Valerie gave me Aperture 2, Apple's professional photo-editing software. I'm only scratching the surface so far, but I plan to learn a lot more over the coming week as time permits.

Second...well, it's not so much what the gift IS that I gave Valerie as how I obtained it. I managed to procure a Wii Fit, but I initially had the hardest time finding one that wasn't jacked up to almost 200% of the retail price. Then I discovered that on Amazon you can enter your cell phone number to receive a text message when the item is available. Sure enough, three weeks ago I received a text message informing me that they had some inventory and I was able to land the item with no markup and Amazon's sweet Super Saving Shipping. Score another point for innovation!

I have two shots up on Flickr from my first roll of Efke 25 - a super low ISO black and white film from Croatia. It's interesting so far, but I think I need to try the second one in more appropriate shooting situations or with a tripod.

Today is the fourth anniversary of my marriage to Valerie, and sure, there will be celebrating, gift giving, et cetera. We're even heading out of town Saturday through Wednesday to get away on a nice little romantic trip.

But now, on this day, I reflect more on the idea that I made a choice before God and man to be with this woman as long as we both shall live. There are still too many days where the gravity of such a choice fails to sink in completely, but even when it does, I'm not frightened. I can say, honestly, that I'd make the same decision over again any time, any place. Here is a woman I trust, desire, and for whom I care more than any other. Here is a woman who treats me better than I deserve, loves me more than I can return, and forgives me more than I understand.

Bachelorhood is overrated :-)

I couldn't let the day pass without seriously congratulating (for the whole world to see...okay, for about five people to see) my brother, Mugs, on landing a full time position with his employer, leaving the uncertain world of "IT Contractor" in the past.

Rock on, bro. CELEBRATE.

As I mentioned last week, this past weekend was a time for celebration as one of my best friends entered marriage. It was also a time for me to burn through a few rolls of Fuji Neopan 1600. Check out some of my favorite results in the usual place...

There are two new pictures of my lovely wife on Flickr. They're the only two out of 12 which were even remotely worth posting, and they're two of the most spontaneous. I indented to shoot a roll of portraits, but a number of factors caused me to rush, resulting in some awkward composition and poor lighting/direction choices.

I'll take this as a lesson in photo-shoot planning.

I never expect to find much humor on Flickr discussion threads, but when Mugs contributes, hilarity ensues.

When I hear Simple Minds' iconic 80's anthem, "Don't You (Forget About Me)," I'm filled with a semi-false nostalgia that tricks me into reminiscing about my mostly crappy high school years...

It was December of my senior year at Central Senior High School in the depressed rural county of Lunenburg, Virginia, and I was preparing for a concert on Saturday, the 19th. I was in this concert, playing bass guitar for a band with Mugs and Lucas called Uprooted, and we were getting ready for a six-band show in the improvised back room club at the Mean Bean coffee shop in Clarksville. We'd drawn the third slot out of a hat and had a 45-minute set to rehearse consisting of songs written almost entirely by Mugs.

Some of the tunes were decent, some of them were crappy (in retrospect), but nearly all of them reflected some romantic angst between Mugs and an unnamed gal from our school, and for whatever reason, the songs enjoyed a growing popularity in our area. By the week before the gig, word had spread around our school of the upcoming show and we were expecting a fair portion of concert attendees in support of our fledgling act.

The night of the show came, and while the two bands before us had disappointingly short sets we were more than ready to take the stage. As we stood on the riser, instruments in hands and stage lights coaxing the sweat to surface before we even started playing, we looked out over a steadily building crowd in this ersatz concert hall and kicked into what would be our last concert together. We played a varied set, sure to include some of our shorter instrumental pieces that grabbed the attention of the small town youth when Uprooted debuted at Autumn Days back in October. The room continued to fill until a girl, the object of Mugs' lyrics, walked through the door. We scrapped our next song and substituted a straight blues rocker, "I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind." My brother wailed the lyrics in a scratchy baritone, all but singing to the unnamed show-goer in the front.

I remember stepping out of the lights with a high I've yet to experience again. I've never sought to draw attention to myself (honest!), but for the better part of an hour we were rock stars in our region. After unplugging our instruments we joined the crowd for the rest of Bean Fest '98 (seriously), receiving many a high-five and compliment as we mingled with the patrons. I remember enjoying the rest of the night, but I don't remember the rest of the bands...

We packed up our gear from the back of the building in the van of our drummer's father, and after the lights went up and concert-goers started to leave, we made our way to the curb in front of the coffee shop to meet up with our ride. Paulie, our step-dad, had pulled up in our '93 Dodge Intrepid with Farmville's WXJK playing over the speakers.

When he stepped out of the car I could hear Simple Minds start to play over the radio, so I rolled down all the windows and cranked up the volume so we could bask in our short-lived teenage glory.

Will you recognise me?
Call my name or walk on by
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down

Okay, so here's some honesty: Memories are notoriously unreliable and murky, so I'm sure some of the events described herein aren't completely accurate. I may have even exaggerated some of it for effect. What I know to be accurate for sure, though, is what I felt. What I still feel. Uprooted didn't last much longer. The drummer and his father - our sort-of manager - wanted to avoid any more free gigs and start playing more clubs further around the state. Mugs wanted to focus on the music and was afraid of being too caught up with the money. We dissolved before Christmas.

We may have only lasted three months, but that band gave me some of the only good time I ever had in high school, capped-off and summed-up in the strains of "Don't You (Forget About Me)."

While at my mother-in-law's house this weekend, she indicated she'd been cleaning out the storage room in her finished basement. She spoke about a few boxes containing some of her late husband's photo gear. This was news to me as I thought Valerie had taken all of it in college and gave it to me as my wedding gift.

Not so, it turned out. In one box I found a meter nearly identical to the one I purchased recently - only better. It's in nearly mint condition, has a nice chain, a hard case, and functions perfectly. It's actually older than the one I purchased, at least based on the inclusion of the DIN number in addition to the ASA film speed, but it's otherwise indistinguishable from the meter I bought. I think I'll resell the purchased item and keep the one I found today.

The second box may as well have been a treasure chest to me. Here were several original boxes for lenses and the metering finder. Inside the box for the 135mm lens was a hard case and a lens hood! There's also a different type of focusing screen for my camera, and the original leather fitted case in nearly mint condition. There was an empty box for a 35mm f2.8 wide-angle lens which makes me hopeful that there may be more photo gear in that storage room buried in the hundreds of boxes.

Then there was this glorious discovery:



This is a Pentacon FM 35mm SLR camera, manufactured in EAST Germany sometime between 1958 and 1961. There are a number of quirks about the operation: M42 screw-mount lens instead of the snap-in bayonet mount we're all used to, no lever for film advance - you turn a knob instead, the aperture and mirror do not return automatically to their starting positions after the shutter (though I don't know if this is simply broken), and several other quirks. I don't yet know if it works, but I plan to run the roll of 100-speed color through it since it's only 12 exposures, just to see if it's usable. I can't see this becoming a camera of any regular use (the advances of the Nikon F alone are huge), but at the least it's nice to have a piece of photographic history.

I'm starting to get the impression that Valerie's father was a serious amateur photographer, or at least somebody who dove head first into his hobbies. His Nikkormat slide projector and a presumably unused film enlarger are still in the garage, and who knows what other gear is stashed in a box somewhere. I have to admit that there's a part of me hoping to discover a medium format camera or at least that missing 35mm lens as my mother-in-law continues to dig through storage.

Big ups to my man Dave for really picking up his photographic game on some of his recent shots.

I have three new shots up on Flickr, and this one was my fave :-)

I'll be starting my photography class this coming Monday, and I fully intend to blog about my assignments, critiques, and results. My photography category is about to get more crowded...

This afternoon Valerie and I hit the road and head north to visit my brother Mugs, his wife, and their awesome son for the long Memorial Day weekend. As much as I'm pumped to see my family, I can't hide the fact that I'm equally excited about the food. Delaware, you understand, is above the Mason-Dixon Line. It's a short-throw from Philly and Jersey. This means REAL bagels. REAL pizza. REAL cheese steaks.

Real heartburn?

Additionally I'll be shooting several rolls of film as I'm sure my nephew will provide several excellent photo-ops. And if we're anywhere near Philly, there should be plenty of neat places to photograph as well.

On Monday night I attended the CD release show for my friend Taylor Barnett's new album, For Someone.

The show was fantastic and included many of the songs from the album, several new pieces, and at least one cover (a Charles Mingus tune I can't remember). This was the second time I've seen Taylor's own ensemble play - the first was his composition recital - but I dare say The Camel on W. Broad St. was a far more comfortable setting for some Jazz than the concert hall at VCU.

I purchased For Someone near the end of the show, and I've been listening to it throughout the week. I'm already a fan of jazz ranging from Duke Ellington to Miles Davis to The Bad Plus (one of my favorites), so while I was supporting my friend on one hand, I was more than happy to get both hands on a recording of his original work. As objectively as I can put this, Taylor's album is awesome.

A stand-out track for me is "What Do You Think Of Me?" which induces a mood of introspective melancholy and showcases some delicious guitar playing from the incredibly talented Trey Pollard. I'm also a huge fan of "Esther's Dance" - a raucous and fun piece that seems fit for dancing indeed. The title track, "For Someone," seems to build perpetually to a resolution that we only experience at the song's close, pulling the listener through to its gentle conclusion. I'm finding the rest of the album to be worth repeated listens as well, with fantastic work on "Bartók Blues", "Cloak and Dagger" and the rest.

Check it out samples of For Someone on DigStation where it's available for purchase as a download (including the cover art from my friend Haley Hollenbach).

One of my best friends, Jacob Kelly, is getting married in September! Congratulations, home slice. I think I owe you a brew. Or several.

The fact that he's asked me to be his best man (a grand honor indeed) means this will be the TWELFTH wedding other than my own where I'm in the wedding party. I'm pretty well practiced at this point :-)

My main homeslice Dave started up a Flickr account, and some of his pictures are really freaking cool, especially when you consider is low-end digital. I'm guessing he's hit his upload limit for the week or else we'd be seeing some of his film shots, but be sure to keep track of him. He's learning the ropes of manual film photography, and he's learning very fast.

Mugs is writing some more. Do check out his site, but especially read, "Why I'm Jealous of My Son."

One of my best friends, Robert, was just accepted into Virginia Tech's PhD program! Congratu-frickin'-lations man!

My dad passed away over night from complications following an otherwise low-risk hernia surgery.

I've always viewed my relationship with my dad as more like a really close uncle, so it's hard for me to know how to deal with this right now. I'm sure the shock will wash over me in the coming days, but for now, I'm just taking some time to clear my head. My posting may be sporadic over the next week or so. I don't really know how to approach that, either. Is it profane for me to seek out and reference the absurd web content that usually fills my site? Or is that therapeutic?

Whatever.

Rest in peace, Thomas Treacy Warshaw Jr.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

So this morning I hopped in the car and started driving up Seminary Ave. on my typical route to work. I was almost to Brookland Park Boulevard when I noticed a tall, lanky fellow standing by his car on the side of the street. A feeling of recognition hit me, and as I started passing by, I realized it was my friend Isaac from when I was in high school! He recognized me, too, so I parked and jumped out.

It turns out that he just purchased a house three blocks up the street from Valerie and myself. So now I have one of my old pals living in the same neighborhood. Rock, rock on.