Just a single image today – I see this tree almost every day when I go to lunch. Taken with my Rolleiflex on Ilford FP4+, developed in Pyrocat HD.
White Tree, Franklin Square
Category Archives: Medium Format Cameras
DC Street Photography in b/w
I called this one Philip Seymour Hoffman and my Shadow because the guy sitting against the Metro entrance wall just kinda looks like him, in full-on Method acting mode studying for a role.
This was taken around 10pm on the subway on my way home from Chinatown. I suspect these two were heading home after dinner and a long day (perhaps week!) at the office.
This image has me on the horns of a dilemma- would it have been better in color or as it is in black-and-white? I think it has a certain character in black-and-white that it wouldn’t have in color, but the western sky would definitely look different. Comments?
Chinese New Year Parade, Washington DC
All photos taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E and a Metz 45 CL4 for fill-flash. That’s one of the great things about using a camera like a Rolleiflex – you can do fill-flash at any shutter speed so it works even in broad daylight. I’m very pleased with how well it worked – the Metz was new to me and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – in fact, it worked beautifully and gave a very nice quality to the light. Now I just need to come up with a diffuser for the flash to soften it even more, and give a bigger catchlight.
Orchid Show at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum
Here’s a few shots I took at the Latin American Orchid exhibit at the Smithsonian over the weekend.
All shots taken with a Rolleiflex 2.8E with a Rolleinar 2 close-focus adapter, Kodak Portra 400, and hand-held at 1/30th of a second between f2.8 and f4.5. I think I’ll go back another weekend and try again this time with a flash so I can get more depth of field. Don’t know if I’ll take the Metz or something smaller, as the Metz may be TOO powerful.
Mummers Parade, Part 2 – with the Rollei
A few more from the parade, taken with the Rollei. I have about 300 digital files to edit through before I post those – I switched to the Canon 5D after shooting these because the Rollei was rather labor-intensive and the lighting was rather dim, limiting me to slow enough shutter speeds that I was getting motion blur with a lot of images and I didn’t want to waste film. I think what came out best with the Rollei are images I’d classify as portraits. It excels at shooting people filling the frame at relatively close distances. Or maybe that’s just what I’m good at and I’m confusing the camera’s talent for my own.
Mummers Parade, Part 1 – with the Rollei
A major reason for going to Philly for New Years Eve was to avoid the hassle of driving up and back on the same day to attend the Mummers Day Parade on New Years Day. I decided to try and shoot some of the parade with the Rollei. While not as many images were 100% successful as I would have liked, I’ll put some of that down to needing more experience zone focusing, and some of it down to needing a fill-flash which I didn’t have. But I’m not complaining – I did get some good images, and here is a selection. I’ll follow up with more tomorrow when I’m done scanning everything.
Philadelphia, New Year’s Eve
Some more of my night photography. I went to Philadelphia for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day this year. I wanted to see the Mummers’ Day Parade on New Years Day, which is a uniquely Philadelphia tradition. The best way to describe it for those who’ve never been is to say that it’s a bit like a PG-13 Mardi Gras (it gets the PG-13 for the alcohol consumption and the occasional bawdy reference in some signage). I’ll post my photos of the parade later – I still have several rolls of negatives to scan, plus a couple hundred digital images to edit before that’s ready. I went out on New Year’s Eve to have dinner, and dragged the Rollei along with me because I had seen the lights in Franklin Square Park on my cab ride from the train station to my hotel. I also thought about trying to get photos of the fireworks with Independence Hall in the foreground, but the buildings between the Hall and the river where the fireworks launch are too tall and you can’t see them. But I got my good night shot of Independence Hall anyway, so that’s my lead-off photo for this post.
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
This fountain is visible from both above ground and below as it cascades down a series of steps, sliced through in cross-section. The East and West wings of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC are connected via an underground passageway, and in the middle of this passageway is a large cafe and seating area. The wall of the passageway opposite the cafe is floor-to-ceiling glass, looking directly in to this fountain. The odd orange dots in the lower corners of the photo are reflections of the Christmas lights on miniature trees placed in front of the window. I deliberately used a moderately slow (1/30th of a second) shutter speed combined with a fairly wide aperture (f5.6 I think) to keep some blur in the water and render it abstract. Just off camera right in this photo is where the light sculpture I posted earlier is located.
Here is a view of the I.M. Pei designed East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, from the exit of the John Russell Pope designed West Wing. The strange colors are caused by the coatings on the glass to prevent UV transmission and keep the lobby cool in the summer. I waited for some people to go through the doors to add a touch of energy and human engagement to the image. You can see the above-ground portion of the fountain from this photo.
This is the North entrance lobby of the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art. I’m standing at street level by the security guard’s desk, looking up through the oculus at the chandelier. This is another grand space that is under appreciated because most people never look UP when passing through to take in the building design.
All photos were taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E, using Kodak Portra 800.
Gallery Place Metro station, Washington DC
Two shots of the Gallery Place Metro station, looking down on the Red Line platform from the mezzanine. Taken with the Rolleiflex 2.8E, hand-held, with Portra 800. Exposure times were 1/2 second or 1 second @ f2.8.
Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
Here are some views of the Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery. The blue lighting in the nighttime shots of the courtyard was for an after-hours reception being held at the museum. The courtyard used to be a fairly typical Victorian-era affair with a pair of fountains and some scraggly looking shrubbery, open to the air and more importantly, the weather. A few years ago they undertook a multi-million dollar renovation, ripping out the old landscaping and (non-working) fountains and enclosing it with a Norman Foster designed undulating glass roof. At first I found the interior design rather stark. It has grown on me, though, with the modern interpretations of fountains being just a thin sheet of water flowing in a rectangle across the floor. Of course the roof is the masterwork – it bends and twists like a piece of origami paper. The courtyard is now a very pleasant place to sit and just pass the time, reading a book or eating something from the museum cafe.
All photos were taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E, on Kodak Portra 800 film. Also, for the die-hard photo geeks out there, I’ve been using the free light meter app for my iPhone to do the metering. I’d say it works pretty darned well 🙂
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