Some Random Iphonography

When you don't have your "real" camera with you what do you do? Why you resort to using your Iphone of course. 

Still Life 

Pat's Steaks 

The Famous Architect John Berendzen and the Philadelphia City Hall! 

Hanger Deck! 

St. Louis Urban Images in Black and White - And some in color!

I have been out again driving and shooting photos around my fair city of St. Louis for decades. St. Louis has its share of dead and decaying urban buildings. Many impressive buildings left over from a time when St. Louis was a booming metropolis in par with any major city in the nation. Buildings that have lost their luster but still are rich in detail and beauty. In the past few years however I have noticed a depressing trend.  The copper thieves have been decimating buildings that while vacant for many years had weathered their abandonment fairly well. That is until this scourge of copper thievery. The copper thieves will go to great lengths scale walls, climb on roofs and dangle from steeples to rip off gutters, fascia, trims and other details. Building parts that would and did last almost indefinitely when left only to the elements. Once the copper thieves are finished the gaping wounds that are left behind allow the elements to quickly destroy these buildings. For a few dollars gained at the scrap yard beautiful old historic buildings, buildings that have endured long vacancies, are quickly being destroyed. The lengths these people will go for such small amounts in return are amazing. They will risk life and limb. For a hundred bucks in scrap they cause immense damage in the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. I hope you enjoy these photos. Some of these buildings are going to be gone soon. 

Old Church and Buzzard

Smitten and Afflicted!

Steeple

The Green Green Grass of Home 

Green Green Grass in Black and White 

Corner Detail 

Jackson School 

Closed

Bridge and Big Sky

The Orb

Orange With Vent

Closed Color!

Broadway!

Manifold 

Two Images Selected for Sheldon STL 250 Competition

Well I was happily surprised at first when I received an email telling me that one of my submitted photos was selected to be in the show and the book for the Sheldon Gallery STL at 250 photo contest. Then yesterday I received another email. At first I thought it was a mistake or that my first photo had been rejected for some reason. But after looking at the email and following the link a second photo appears to have also made it into the show and the book. I don't yet know how many photos were submitted to the competition but it had to be a lot so having two photos out of three selected seems pretty incredible. Woooo Hoooo! I am really amazed, honored and very pleased as this is the first real formal recognition of my photography work.
 

Bike Racing on the Hill- St. Louis

New wing of the St. Louis Art Museum in the Snow- St. Louis

Some Recent New Images from St. Louis

Here are some recent new images from around the St. Louis area. These images did not make the cut for a recent photo competition/exhibit at the Sheldon Gallery celebrating the cities 250 year anniversary.
 

Stan Musial Veteran's Memorial Bridge

Railroad Trestles

Library

Roberts Tower 1

Roberts Tower 2

Giro 1

Giro 2

Giro 3

In Formation

5 Arches

Modern Art in Snow

Lunchtime In the Rain

Today's post includes  photos from Carondolet Park in South St. Louis and images from a classical public library in South St. Louis the Carondolet Branch of the St. Louis Public Library at 6800 Michigan Ave. Hope you enjoy. Please leave me comments if you like or dislike my work. I am working on slowing things down an making compositions. These images have had minimum post shoot processing. I willl adjust the contrast, crop, do some aligment. I have recently been removing the camera distortion much the way you might with a large format view camera that has shift and tile. I am planning on working with the Graflex Super Graphic that I have now very soon. I am interseted to see how I can manipulate selective focus with the view/press camera. Thanks!

Footbridge

Tall Pine

Footbridge and Ducks

Classical

Public Cornice Black and White

Public Cornice Color

Column Capital

Still Waiting for New Instant Film

When will the New 55 project actually have a product? When I began to dabble in analog film photography again after a long 20 year break I quickly realized that the world had changed. In the old days commercial photographers would use instant film to verify that their composition, exposure and camera where as expected. This would give them a high degree of predictability insurance against the human goofs that can and do occur during a photo shoot. Using the "Polaroid test shot" was the way I learned to prep for a shot which could sometimes take hours to compose, focus, light and adjust. As the saying goes time is money and while not the least expensive thing in the world Polaroid film was far cheaper then taking everything down, going home, waiting a couple of days for the lab and then finding out that your shot isn't any good. While I was not shooting for profit or gain this helped prevent the inevitable disappointment from having a lot of bad sheets of film. The products and materials that simply were no longer available in the market became a real obstacle.

So I have been following with some interest the development of "New 55". It is a skunk works project that has been attempting to develop not just a replacement for Polaroid 55 black and while instant 4x5 film but an improved product. One that would produce not only a good posative but also a good working negative. With Fuji leaving the 4x5 instant filme market what choice do we have but hope that some other creative entrepreneur is successful at bringing new and improved products. Unfortunately while they seem to be making good technical progress they are finding funding and capital to launch the actaul production of the new product very difficult. This means that what looked to be just around the corner a few months ago is pushed out even further. I will post a link to their blog here, look to the end and also place it in the resources section so that if you like you can read the actual post by the developers themselves. We can only hope that as the economy improves someone with capital will find this a viable investment. New 55 Instant Film Blog

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed.

Photgraphing Lacrosse Clayton LAX JV vs LIndbergh

D pole doing his job!

This post is a link to photos from the March 19, 2013 Clayton JV Team vs. Lindbergh JV team. This away game took place on the field behind South County Technical High School. It was a cold gray evening and the light was fading fast. Clayton lost this game 3-1 with the only Clayton score being a fourth quarter score by Clayton defensive player Ian Reim player #16.  After knocking the ball lose from the opposing player in his end he picked up the ground ball and took it all the way to the opposing teams end shot and scored!!! A bright spot in game marked by dropped passes and missed ground balls. The field was both rough and muddy. Photos only of the first half as it got too dark to shoot.

Picasa Link: 2013 Clayton LAX JV vs. Lindbergh Web Album

Images from the Southwest

Spire in the Canyon

South Rim at Sunset  

Canyon Wall Color

Canyon Wall Black and White

Clouds at Sunset

Big Horn in Zion

Tree on a Hill- Bryce Canyon

Valley Floor- Bryce Canyon

For Once - If only by a day I trumped NPR Marketplace

NPR Marketplace - The photo wars back then

The above image is from the Robert Burley's Book - The Disappearance of Darkness. It is about the amazingly fast decline of film photography and the decline of analog photography. Something that has been on my mind a lot lately. In fact I blogged about this book only the day before this Marketplace. All this while I contemplate the purchase of a more lightweight 4x5 camera which might be easier to use than my Sinar F. I know all the debate's that have gone on about this. But I just don't see how film becomes anything other then the media of artists. Not that their is anything wrong with that! It just will not be the tool used by common folks for recording their daily lives or the commercial sector. It however has been an amazingly fast transition.  The link will take you to the Kai Ryssdal's Marketplace interview with Mr. Burley.

Amazon Link- To purchase the "Analog" Book

Disappearance of Darkness - Book Trailer

The decline of analog photograpy- The Dissapearance of Darkness

As many of you know I have had an interest in photography since I was a kid. I had my first darkroom in the basement of my parents house when I was in 7th or 8th grade and continued to do film photography well through architecture school. Along with another prized possession, my Bach Stradivarius trumpet, my Nikon F and a bunch of lenses I had accumulated were stolen from my first house and for at least a time put an end to my photography hobby. Photography in the intervening years transformed and shortly after we started Oculus Inc., the architecture firm I own with my wife Lisa in 1994, digital camera's such as the Sony Mavica came onto the scene. For pure practicality and utility digital imaging was the way to go as we could immediately share and use the images for work. Photography for me had become both utilitarian and snapshots. Quick captures of project information or kids, family and events. Not seriously working to capture crafted artistic images. While I had been given a replacement film camera it was already pragmatically obsolete as it was much easier to use, even the sluggish, point and shoot digitals for taking work and family photographs. In the intervening decade film sales plummeted. Mirroring the decline of their analog devices/techniques such as hand drafting, typewriting, vinyl records and such, the analog photo industry almost evaporated over night. The speed of its transformation/decline has really been unprecedented in the history of technology. Today while there are very likely more images than ever being taken/captured film for most part is technically obsolete. Yesterday I downloaded and App on my Iphone which is Kodak's limp attempt to promote its very few remaining of analog film products. What was so immediately apparent was just how irrelevant to the society and economy this product has become. The last significant "volume" of film use/manufacture is for the movie industry which will likely be essentially film free for commercial purposes by 2015. Certainly there are a hand full of users who will continue to use film as their chosen media. Film is still capable of creating some of the best, most powerful images. It for the most part has not changed, unless it is no longer manufactured, but the world, technology and the society around it has. I have been seriously considering purchasing a Graflex "Speed Graphic" as a more convenient large format 4x5 camera to my Sinar F. I find the Sinar very difficult to use in the field where most of my artistic photography takes place. In the course of researching the Speed Graphic camera it has become even more apparent that film is still declining. I was researching less expensive black and white films to  use for example and I discovered that Photokemika or Efke had recently, August 2012, stopped production. I had assumed, wrongly it appears, that smaller offbeat companies like this would be able to remain alive serving a boutique market. It appears there is not enough profit for them to repair ancient film coating equipment and it was easier to just close up shop. With both movies and medicine making their last moves away from silver based analog film will there be enough product manufactured available for the dedicated art photographers to continue to practice their art form?

Today I came upon a serious photographer/writer who has been working on a project for that last few years regarding the decline of analog film photography industry. His name is Walter Burley. He has just had a book published about the project "The Disappearance of Darkness". I hope anyone who reads this does not think I am trying to predict the end of film or that I am supporting it. Quite the contrary. I am saddened by this the way I would be saddened by hearing of the passing of an old friend. But my sadness can't change reality. I am wondering however if I should make a continued effort to pursue film as a viable media. Should I invest more in one more camera that I may not use or which film may not be available for? I have a bunch of gear based around the use of film which would all become moot should the materials become too limiting. Already my preferred film choice E100G has been discontinued by Kodak and Fuji will base the continued manufacture of product on financial/commercial viability. We might be artists but they are a company who's purpose is to make money not art.

 

In any case look at Mr. Burley's site and his book. It is serious work about a subject that I value very much. Walter Burley - The Dissapearance of Darkness

JEAN-CLAUDE BERENS

Urban Visions Web Site



In my many searches for inspiration I came across this site. These are meticulously crafted HDR images of urban decay, architecture and landscapes. He is a self taught European photographer who lives in Luxembourg. Amazing stuff.


http://www.urbanvisions.lu/