Frame-A-Day: Bibi

12. Bibi, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Bibi used to work at the same studio as I do until she moved on to greener pastures in fall 2010. It was a real treat to be able to get together with her and catch up last month.

Bibi's photostream

Frame-A-Day: Mercury

11. Mercury, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Ah, the Saint Louis Science Center, "playground for your head." It's a pretty nifty place- but it is sorely lacking in dinosaurs especially compared to museums such as the Field Museum in Chicago or the American Natural History Museum in New York City.

Saint Louis Science Center

Frame-A-Day 10: Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas., originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Stage one is becoming open to the possibilities of interesting photographic subjects that surround us in everyday life. You need to learn to see what's there all the time in front of you.

That's the easy part,

Stage two is being able to translate that quality which catches your attention into a compelling image. I'm still working on that one.

Frame-A-Day 9: The Awakening

9. The Awakening, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

For the most part, the photos I take for the project will be snapshots made during my normal day-to-day activities. But every now and again, I like to go out of my way to shoot something specifically for my frame.

Case in point: The Awakening, by J. Seward Johnson. 70 feet long, 17 feet high, it really is a massive piece of outdoor art (although the Chesterfield casting is slightly smaller than the one located in Maryland near Washington D.C.)

 J. Seward Johnson's website 

Frame-A-Day 8: Family Get-Together

8. Family Get-Together, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

My family will use any excuse to gather to eat and drink and be merry. Anything from the Super Bowl (regardless of who's playing) to a new couch becomes reason to celebrate together. In particular case, it's a three-way birthday celebration for my dad, sister-in-law and myself.

Technically, the focus is a bit off- I focused to far forward and didn't have enough depth-of-field to reach all the way to the back of the table. This is a result from being a 'ninja' shot- most of my siblings are notoriously camera-shy and it's hard to get them in a picture when they're aware. So, popping out from around a corner, focusing the ae-1 correctly, and getting the shot off without alerting anyone is a feat I have yet to master.

Frame-A-Day: Carving the Turkey

7. Carving the Turkey, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Back to the 24mm lens!

Frame-A-Day #6: Headlight

6. Headlight, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Remember how I had said that I would take one picture a day, every day for this project? Well I broke that rule rather early. There have been days I didn't take any pictures, and days I took several. I think it all balances out in the end, and I am trying to tighten my discipline up a bit more.

The other thing worth noting about this image is that I did not shoot it with the 24mm lens. Rather I used my 100mm lens- the better for getting in tight and picking out the detail.

Frame-A-Day: Scavenger Hunt

5. Scavenger Hunt, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

I mentioned the detailed dioramas at the Botanical Garden's train display yesterday. They also hand out a checklist to kids who then can try to find the various items tucked away throughout the exhibit. One of the items was an ostrich, which as everyone knows, is native to the Appalachian region of the United States.

Frame-A-Day: Christmas Train

4. Christmas Train, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

The Missouri Botanical Gardens puts up a huge display of model train sets every year for the holiday season. It's fantastic- a large room with around a half-dozen extraordinarily detailed dioramas, each with one or two model trains chugging around them.

Their "Gardenland Express" displays run through Jan 2.. It tends to get really crowded as Christmas approaches.

http://www.mobot.org/

Frame-A-Day Tech Notes

Readng to Grandpa, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

I've got a Canon AE-1, loaded with Kodak Tri-X film and equipped with a 24mm lens set aside for this project.

Tri-X is normally rated at ISO 400, but after reading about how far that film can be pushed, I thought I'd give it a whirl myself. So, I'm rating it at 3200 (that's 3 stops underexposed).

I'm developing it in Rodinal, diluted to 1:100, using semi-stand development; that is, pouring the developer into the tank and letting the film sit there for 120 minutes (that's the 'stand' part). I do slowly invert the tank once every 30 minutes, otherwise I tend to get uneven development across the negative (the 'semi-' part).

The negatives come out of the soup looking rather thin, but my scanner can pull a surprising amount of detail out of them.

New Project: Frame-A-Day

11-17-10 Coffee!, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

I've always felt the middle of November was a perfect time of year to start things, so I've started a new project. Basically the idea is that, using one camera and one lens and one type of film, I would photograph one, and only one, photograph each day for as long as I can stand it (typically these sorts of things are also known as 365 projects, because they're supposed to last a full year).

In addition to shooting the photos, I would also, quite naturally, post them online as they were developed and scanned, and then blog about them.

Now, that was my intention. What actually has happened so far has proven a little different.

As it turns out, I'm terrible at both the 'take a photo every day' and the 'only take one photo' aspects of the project. I'm still trying to get my rhythm down as well as developing the discipline needed to make sure I take at least one picture every day.

But projects like this are all about challenging oneself, right?

DAM!

One issue that has always plagued shooters, especially prolific ones, is how to organize the images that you shoot so that you can quickly find a specific photo you may be searching for. In some ways, the digital era has made this task even harder mostly due to the sheer volume of image files a photographer can produce over time.

For someone like myself, who produces both film negatives and digital files, it just gets worse. I think I've settled on a system that can work with  both formats, and allows me to continue to add to my growing archives. I don't have to scan everything I shoot on a given roll (although I usually do if only to have a 'proof print' as it's hard for me to evaluate a color negative otherwise), and importing what scans I do make into lightroom, where they can be tagged and rated accordingly allows them to sit side-by-side with my digital files in the same archive.

I've only adopted my current workflow within the past year so the big trick has been getting previous scans and files lined up to work properly within it (and I've been half-tempted just to throw out all older scans and start fresh, but as satisfying as that might be on some level, I know that's just creating a heck of a lot more work for me).

One of the best books I've read on the subject of 'Digital Assest Management' is The DAM Book, by Peter Krogh (okay, it's the only one that I've read, but I wouldn't be recommending it if I didn't like it). Well worth a read if you're a serious photographer that wants to keep a handle on his or her digital files.

Kodak announces a new film!

You can read the info here:

http://www.photographyblog.com/news/kodak_professional_portra_400/

I never used the portra films this new one is replacing, but I can understand how some people might be a little upset over this news. We photographers get attached to our stuff, especially when we've been working with it for a while and have come to really understand how it will translate our vision into a frozen two-dimensional image. Still, the notion that Kodak is still spending money on R&D for new film stocks is one I am happy to hear. I've only recently begun playing around with their latest film, Ektar 100, and although I feel that the colors are perhaps a bit too much for my work in general (it's fabulous shot through a holga, however), I can really appreciate it's virtues: fine grain and it takes wonderfully to scanning. If this new 400 is comparable to the ektar 100 in those respects, it's well worth giving it a try.   

All that said, if Kodak comes after my 160NC, there's gonna be trouble...

Soulard Community Garden

Soulard Community Garden, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Gardens late in the season can be rather melancholy affairs. They still have much to offer, but it's clear their best days are behind them. On the other hand, the work at maintaining them slows down, and one's thoughts can turn to the hope and promise of a new season next spring.

A Question:

Can anyone think of any reason why I shouldn't have a Holga loaded with Ektar film on my person at all times?

No, me neither.

Back from Disney World!

We all had a great week in the Magic Kingdom. I dropped off my film at the lab yesterday, so hopefully I should have some fun stuff to share later in the week. When deciding what camera I wanted to bring with me, I thought I would want something light, something I could shoot without thinking too hard about the shot, and something that if I lost I wouldn't be terribly heartbroken over. The answer was obvious. I can't wait to see the images.

Montana!

Every year for my wife's birthday in July, I've been taking pictures of our son and giving her some prints for her present. The physical print is an important aspect of photography that often seems to get overlooked these days. There's nothing wrong with having a digital file on one's harddrive, but it doesn't beat having a print you can hold, take with you and share with others.

Why do I still shoot film?

Mostly because I can't afford one of these.

Jeff

More Images from Lafayette Square

Lafayette Square Community Garden

This garden sits near the corner of Park and Truman. The beds in this spacious lot are dominated by a trompe l'oeil painting on the western end.

The Community Gardens Project

I am currently documenting the community gardens which dot the St. Louis area. St. Louis, as a city, is comprised mostly of small neighborhoods. In certain areas, where there is a vacant lot and the will to do something about it, neighbors can come together and transform that lot from a potential eyesore into a beautiful and productive piece of land. This has the benefit not only of beautifying the area, but it gives the neighbors a chance to bond with each other, strengthening the ties that hold the area together.

So far, I have only been to a small handful of gardens in the south St. Louis city area, but each one of them shows a character that is distinct from all the others. Each one is reflective of the community that nourishes it.

Gateway Greening, a local non-profit, can partner with these neighborhood efforts. They can provide supplies, tools, seedlings and seeds as well as education, advice and other support for novice gardeners. Keeping up with one's own garden is sometimes hard enough over the course of a season, but there is added responsibility when you are part of a gardening collective.

In addition to the neighborhood efforts, Gateway Greening also works with schools and local branches of the YMCA to maintain gardens on their sites. 

The current gallery of my garden images may be found here. These photos come from 6 different gardens in the area.

First Post

Well, prevailing wisdom says one needs a blog, so who am I to argue? I can't vouch for my diligence in keeping up with matters here, but this should be fun.

Jeff