Chris Orwig - Flipside

merry christmas!

i hope you have a wonderful holiday season and merry christmas! we’re heading off for the next few weeks – first up to northern california and then down to mainland mexico! it’s bound to be a wonderful mix of family, friends, celebration and adventure. i won’t be posting for a while but will be back in action mid-jan. see you then! a big thanks to one of my former students matt chenot for taking the family photos above (matt took the photos for a homework assignment in one of his portrait classes). to see more of his work click here.

happy holidays!

nick dekker

on this cold winter day i am sad, quiet and still.
i just got word that photographer, colleague and friend nick dekker passed away.
he was generous, honest and full of life.
time is relentless.

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below is one of nick’s platino type prints. the photograph was made in
north dakota near his parent’s home. it is titled “forgotten dreams”

sophia

i am completely in love with my little sophia grace.
the photo  above was captured with a wood large format camera using discontinued & expired film.
for me, the degradation of the film makes the image more sentimental and thus more valuable.
it reminds me that photography is savoring both the passage of time and the moments in between.

maky

maky curren is such a warm and wonderful person.  her portrait above was captured with an old hasselblad and ilford bw film. i’ve found that when i shoot with a hasselblad it slows me down. there’s something about loading film, having only 12 shots, manually advancing the film and then the profound sound of the shutter. after pressing the shutter release the what you see goes black. complete darkness and quiet.

tom and maky

a few weeks ago tom and maky curren had a wonderful wedding/anniversary celebration. the above image was captured with a point and shoot film camera (the yashica t4 super), loaded with tmax 400 speed film.

harry / brooks institute

a portrait of one of my teaching colleagues harry liles. this one was captured last week with a wood and brass large format camera and t55 polaroid film (yep i still have a few boxes left!).

jon swift

here’s a photo i took with an old hasselblad of jon swift. he’s an interesting guy, deeper thinker and great musician – click here to learn more.

rincon

last time i went surfing i brought along the blackbird (mentioned in the previous post) and stashed it in the bushes. i took some photos before and after surfing. it was a great way to combine two of my passions. i wasn’t too sure how they’d turn out yet when i got the film back i was pleasantly surprised. here’s one of my favorites from that day.

seagull

i’ve been having some fun with a plastic twin lens reflex film camera called the blackbird fly
(the orange camera pictured to the left) - click here to learn more.

the camera is a bit tricky but there’s something about the limitations that i’ve found refreshing. i’ve set it mine up to expose on the entirety of the film, sprockets and all. the shot above was the last frame of my most recent roll of film.

film

the above image was the result of a happy accident. basically a user error made when scanning some 35mm velvia film. i think the accident is kind of interesting and it lead me to reflecting on my own photographic journey. one of the things i’ve realized is that as my passion and understanding of digital photography has grown, i’ve simultaneously become interested in other types of traditional and analog photographic techniques.

there are a number of reasons why i’ve come to appreciate film. for example here’s one reason…. not too long ago i was over at seal (the musician) and heidi klum’s home in beverly hills. seal is a great photographer and we were talking about photoshop, lightroom and photography. at one point seal said something profound, “…when i shoot with film i embrace the mistake, when i shoot with digital i look for the mistake.” that idea stopped me in my tracks and really got me thinking about how i shoot regardless of the format.

as i’ve mentioned before, i’m not interested in the film versus digital debate. rather i am interested in growing and developing as a photographer. and for me, film happens to be part of that process (among other things). as a result i thought it would be worthwhile to take one week and post an image each day that was recently captured with film. i hope you enjoy these postings, and even more i hope they get you thinking and ultimately spark some new ideas, growth and development of your own. here’s to a week devoted to film – enjoy!

my cowgirl

last night i was in the living room and i heard annika in the kitchen practicing being a cowgirl. all of a sudden she ran in excitedly and said, “dad come here because you have to see this and take a picture! …and you can use the picture in one of your books!”

new waterproof housing – coming soon!

i’ve always been interested in combining my passions and i’m about to get a new tool that will help me do this even better! the tool is an underwater housing for my canon d5 mark ii that is being built by the guys at del mar housing projects. the last three days erik (the craftstman who’s building my housing) has been sending me a daily iphone pics to show me the progress – i can’t wait!! (click on the image for a larger view)

as a side note, i was first turned on to del mar housings from my good friend todd glaser who exclusively uses del mar housings. todd is one of my favorite photographers and he been getting some great recognition – a bunch of cover photos, he won the prestigious surf photo of the year, etc.  - ya todd! check out the photo below that he captured be using one of these housings… epic! to see more of todd’s work click here.