reviewing old film scans

Abraham. Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh.

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I love shooting on overcast days. The light is almost always sublime and all that I need is a camera, a light meter and a few rolls of 12o film. Today and tomorrow, I’ll be hoping for the same kinda light to show up. So far, so good. Man, do I love shooting on a Hasselblad.

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the careful cautiousness of photography

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I’ve taken a pretty lengthy hiatus from photography. Over the past three years, I’ve spent most of my time working construction again and I’ve loved [almost] every moment of it. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why photography became difficult for me in all aspects. Over time, I simply lost a lot of enjoyment in it save a few shoots. The image above was from a shoot I did for Fine Living Lancaster in the fall of 2010. I scouted and produced the entire shoot. I shot it on B&W film, save the cover photo — which needed to be shot vertically for cropping. The above image is one of my most successful during my photography “exile”. Recently, I began looking at a lot of my older work — from 2002 to 2006 — stuff that I believed was my strongest. I wanted to know what happened and where I went wrong. In early 2007, I bought my first digital SLR and I realized that the quality from thereon severely suffered. I suppose there’s something about how I handle a digital camera that causes me to be less careful and thoughtful about how I am shooting. With film, you gotta get things right because you can’t review it immediately. I tend to shoot slower and more thoughtful when working with film. So, that’s where I am — putting down the dSLR and picking up the hasselblad. I shot two of my last three assignments on the Hasselblad and they were far more successful than any of my recent digital work — minus some of my family photos from last autumn. I’ll be working on some new projects based in Lancaster, PA this week and hopefully in the months to come. I’m excited about the slow process that shooting my Hasselblad forces me to participate in and I’m stoked for the new images to come.

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