Alec took dis. (Sumas, WA)

hello, welcome. it's been a while since i've posted either here or on dusty shutter, so it's catch up time! my life is really changing a lot right now, which, while vastly more fulfilling than stasis, means my updates will be sporadic at best. what changes? you might ask. well besides the whole marriage thing, we just moved again and happily inhabit an east van basement with a grumpy cat and life is good. but busy: i'm working full time making coffee and cookies and i might have a rare opportunity to further my filmmaking career in the direction that i was training for. stay tuned.

anyway, i don't want to talk about that now. i want to talk about some photos that i took a while ago and didn't scan until moments ago. these were all taken with kodak 400 BW film-- the kind that uses the standard C41 process. they were taken over a period of several months on either the Olympus Trip 35 or my Zeiss Ikon Contessamat SE rangefinder.

i took these photos in east van after Al and i went to a friend's show (Rape Revenge!!!). except i left before they played because we were getting severely hated on by the majority of the crowd there-- some vancouver punks are extremely judgmental, i've found, of anyone encroaching on their scene who doesn't look like them. it was unfortunate because the friends we were going to see are the least judgmental and most inclusive people i've ever met. also a weird experience because it's so different from the punk scene i grew up with in Edmonton, which had elements of exclusivity but generally everyone was welcome at shows unless they were neo-nazis.

so i left and went for a walk with my contessamat. i should add that what i've read about this camera on forums and such isn't that warm toward it. basically a lot of people suggest that it is pretty crappy for a zeiss. that being said, the more i use it, the more i'm impressed with it. its performance with this BW film was especially good. since my meter doesn't seem that reliable i did all these using the sunny f16 rule. and i found approximately 6 cats in the neighbourhood.

when my parents visited in april for UBC big year-end film festival, POV, we went on an epic walk around the city. this was a lot of fun because it was a chance for me and my dad to shoot together, which we haven't done since before i moved away. my mom was a good sport, and she posed for me in her white hoody. it wasn't intentional but i quite like these photos of her. she looks like a wandering stranger, and it really pops in black and white. again, this was with the contessamat, and again, i was pleasantly surprised by the results.

finally, two successful portraits:

left: experimenting with side lighting and automatic exposure (Olympus Trip 35, Hope, BC)

right: experimenting with framing (in camera vs. final product) and shallow focus (Zeiss Ikon Contessamat SE, Edmonton, AB)