Friends and the apartment

Cozbi was in town a few weeks back and I took the opportunity to shoot her in the (tiny) apartment. Then Pei came over, and I grabbed a few of her too. :) All on 400H (a film I haven't used in forever!) and Contax 645.

Had to finish the roll, so here are some gratuitous photos of the apartment and an Avedon cameo.

Happy weekend!

Rhode Island

I spent the weekend in Rhode Island with some of my favorite people in the world. It was a short and sweet trip filled with the ocean, rocks, M's mom's addictive spicy sauce, tons of seafood, and tons of Cards Against Humanity (what was life before this game??). I took a few photos on the x100 (below) and one of my favorite iPhone photos to date here.

P + C

I was excited to hear that these two fellow photo geeks (1, 2) will be moving to NYC! These photos of Pei and Chris were taken about a month ago on one of their visits here from SF.


This last shot was a behind the scenes look of how she got this pic. :) Looking forward to more photo meetups in the future, and expanding the geekosphere.

Coffee with nicole

Took advantage of the gorgeous day to check out the new Blue Bottle in Chelsea. Nicole was around so we met up for a bit. The decor is very minimalist and the space downstairs is pretty tiny. What's really exciting is the upstairs siphon bar/nel drip station. Very serious stuff up there. I do want to return for that - what's crazy is that I already have both a siphon and nel drip at home so maybe I should set up a little brewing bar myself. :P

We were steps away from the High Line so I grabbed these portraits up there. I love the different colors of hair in her braid.

Minna

Film snaps of the lovely Minna in Union Square from the other day when it was 60 degrees out. Warm enough for a caramel frappuccino! Minna and I go way back to freshman year and have shared some hilarious and amazing memories since. We both attempted a 365 day self-portrait project at some point in college (she may be a familiar face to some of y'all) and both never finished...

I am enjoying how the colors came out - hard to believe this is the same roll as the shots below (Red Hook entry)! Wish I could make Pro 400H produce these soft and pretty pastel colors every time.

Some fun in red hook

A few weeks ago, Jen, Justin and I roamed around Red Hook in hopes of finding some cool shooting spots. As it happened, that week most things were closed or closed super early and we weren't able to explore as much as we'd liked. I was especially bummed that Saipua was closed that day, as it is quite a trek to get out there without a car. We ended the day at Ikea with meatballs, chicken tenders, and $1 cinnamon rolls. Can't complain about that.

I took the Minolta x370s (with Fuji Pro 400H) out for a spin that day. Messed up a ton of shots due to focus. Whoops, I thought I was past that!

For the love of grunginess.

Our day with the giant balloon

On a mild day in December, Jen, Justin and I got together to have a little photo fun with Jen's idea to get a little crafty. See her little blurb on it here! I finally got my film scans back from that day and am happy to share these. The shots of me are taken by Jen. All Contax 645 + Portra 400.

Needless to say, we got tons of stares, and at least a dozen strangers took pictures of Jen and her giant balloon. SO FUN. I am looking for any excuse to get myself one of those balloons...

On an unrelated note, I am trying to move away from posting a giant collage as one photo, and instead posting each shot as its own for easier pinning... Not that I'm assuming you'll want to pin my photos, but in case you do, this makes it a lot more agreeable. (Thanks of course to J for showing me the code to get the spacing perfect between the shots. :P)

Friends on film

Sometimes I have a pesky bit of film left over on client shoot rolls and end up begging my friends to pose for me. Nicole was in my hood once when I desperately wanted to finish off some film, and she graciously came over and let me shoot her. The last shot is from a jewelry lookbook shoot I recently did for a very talented friend who will hopefully launch her line soon. :)


All Portra 400.

Fun in the upper west

Some recent fun times with Ashley and Brian in their neighborhood. I had a blast shooting them! It's always a wee bit intimidating when another photographer trusts you to take her portraits. I love the variety of her many expressions. :)

I just can't get enough of this girl. Some film shots from the session to come soon hopefully!

Happy friday

Celebrating this gal's birthday tonight. She so pretty. :D

Taken last night at Barolo. Four of us got together for drinks and nibbles and it was a great time. I finally met Ilenia after much online interaction, and she is such a sweetheart. She's also the photo assistant for the illustrious Jamie Beck - what a dream job, eh?

Well I see lots of bubbly in my future (i.e., tonight). And my calendar looks BLANK for the weekend. I can't remember the last time it's been like that, and I'm pretty thrilled.

Fun with jen and the 50mm f1.2

Some good times with the always adorable and very talented Jen Sosa in Williamsburg today. She let me use her 50mm f1.2 and I was instantly smitten. I will be running to buy this lens. Everyone knows the 50mm f1.4 has some finicky focusing. Mine has been really rebellious lately, and in dark restaurants, it never wants to autofocus anymore. Clearly it's time for an upgrade...

All of these were shot wide open.

Thanks to Jen for this last shot. I was playing with the 45mm TS-E on her camera. Yet another lens that is creeping to the top of my "must-have" list. Ooh boy. And here I was thinking I had all the equipment I really "needed" for this business.

Fries in my salad

A few Fridays ago, Linda, Ashley, Amanda, and I dined at Westville East for some laid-back affordable good eats. It was a surprisingly nice evening, so we opted to eat outside. I had also just picked up the 35mm f1.4 lens that I rented for the weekend, so I was eager to give it a test run. I must say, while I DID like the lens a lot and how fast it focused, I'm not sure the 35mm focal length is all that useful to me. Maybe this is because I already own the 24-70mm and can use that just fine in f2.8 conditions. Or maybe I just don't know how useful it could be without using it in some more situations. (Forgive me Jackie, but I didn't quite fall in love with it the way I had expected to. I suppose my wallet can sigh some relief for now. :P)

We all shared a platter of sides (definitely the way to go here) and then each had a salad*. Portions are sizable here.

Aw, they so cute.

*Hey, it's summer, OK? And mine happened to contain fried shrimp and fries. Surely you'd expect nothing less from me.

The rest of the afternoon

Before Linda and I left Brooklyn yesterday, we satiated ourselves with a cookie from the Prime Meats Delicat-essen & Provisions store. After making it back on familiar ground, we walked a bit through the West Village (hey Ashley, recognize those steps? :P).

In the next few hours, iced coffee was had, along with a taco from Calexico and my favorite frozen yogurt from an unexpected cafe (the forty carrots at Bloomingdales). I was glad to have a buddy to help me take one of these "small" cups down. Not that I usually have any problem with that.

That saucy aussie

I had the pleasure of spending the day with Linda, who has already made her rounds in SF, and now we get her fun and spunk in NYC. We had plans of hitting up the Brooklyn Bridge before the light got too harsh, but we just couldn't beat the sun. Linda, I commend you for getting me up at 6:45 AM this morning! I will seriously have to try this early rising thing more often. :P

After walking across the bridge, we made our way to Carroll Gardens, a neighborhood that I hadn't explored yet (let's face it - the only place in Brooklyn I know how to get to without getting lost is Blue Bottle). Very cute eateries here (including our first stop at Smith Canteen). Definitely filing this area under places I'd want to live outside of Manhattan.

Part one of our adventures below.

The light in Prime Meats was to die for. Thanks to Cindy for the rec! The best part about getting an early start was that it was barely noon by the time we finished lunch. The rest of our day was spent eating more and window shopping. Pictures to come.

Ashley part deux

If this pretty redhead looks familiar, it's because I blogged a little portrait session a few weeks ago featuring some film shots of her. I finally got around to processing some of the digital shots from that day. Now this isn't quiite a direct film vs. digital post, but it's still pretty obvious where the differences are. I honestly like both versions (or maybe I just like the photogenic subject). Digital will always be tack sharp and my beloved Connie can't quite compete in that area. I think these digital shots are more dramatic and contrasty whereas the film versions were (as expected) more romantic and soft.

Movie star smile, hello!

And p.s. thanks for the well wishes about my health. It was probably a virus but I'm getting better. I finally had a hot meal today. I was so sick of crackers!

One last round

Here's a final round of SF pictures! It's hard to believe this took place just a little over a week ago. It feels like months already. It was funny that among the seven of us, no one had brought a 35mm film camera. It was all full-frame digital and medium format film. I guess we don't mess around. :P

Now that I've finally gotten the Full House theme song out of my head, I was able to handle these pictures from Alamo Square without too much issue.

It's too bad the sky was so drab by the evening!

All in all (geez, don't think I've used that phrase since writing conclusion paragraphs in middle school!), San Francisco is probably the prettiest city I have visited so far. That may not be saying much given my lackluster travel résumé, but nonetheless... The landscape is stunning and I love the hills (they remind me of what I'd imagine the Grecian coast to look like) and the bay views. Add in the Victorian architecture and it's a city with great charm and history too. I'd be back in a heartbeat for sure.

Chez cindy & seth

It's no secret that Cindy and Seth's apartment in San Francisco has some seriously sexy light. Her pictures (especially these from a set dedicated to "the window") certainly depict it. Their apartment is a photographer's dream. After being cooped up in tiny NYC apartments where it is not all that uncommon for people to take rooms with NO windows, I was just floored by how much light was available to theirs.

I was pretty thrilled to have the privilege of seeing the window in real life after admiring it on screen for so long. :P I only wish I could find the equivalent in Manhattan without selling an organ to fund it (hey, I don't need two kidneys, right?).

This first set of pictures was from the morning visit and all were taken on the lovely Fuji Provia 400x. I friggin' love this film, mostly for its realistic colors and slight punchiness. The contrast is perfect. Plus I was happy it handled potentially really blown-out highlights really well.

This set below is from a late afternoon visit and was shot on Portra 400. I still have a love-hate relationship with this film. Sometimes, it's great and I don't even have to fix colors in-scanner at all, and other times it's super flat or really yellow or green.

The three kittehs are sure lucky to be able to bask in this! I didn't get a clear shot of Yashi, but she sure is beautiful. Well, all of them are!

Thank you to Cindy and Seth for letting us admire your lovely home. :)

Us crazy photographers in SF

The last time I titled a post like that was when Seth and Cindy were visiting NYC in the fall. This time around, Jimmy and I were super lucky to have them show us around the cool areas of SF while avoiding tourist traps. I always have a kickin' good time on these flickr meetups and this time was no exception. It was so wonderful to meet Jackie, Pei, and Chris in person. What a fun gang.

While I am waiting on a few rolls of film to come back (my "real" SF shots) and still waiting to finish half a roll still in the Contax (damn hate when that happens!), I thought I'd share some amusing behind the scenes of the day (many courtesy of Jimmy) and group shots. Please see Jackie's version and Cindy's here!

Oh yeah, please excuse the messy handwriting. I got a little carried away with my Wacom Bamboo pen. I thought it was fitting for the silly-ness of some of these pictures. Back to clean text soon for sure, unless I can improve my chicken-scratch handwriting.

Hehe, I do love this last shot. After two excellent cafe visits, we headed to brunch at Foreign Cinemas, where the light, as Cindy noted, "is divine" and "you can almost just dine on the light itself." So true.

After ice cream at Bi-Rite, we headed to Alamo Square because I wanted to see the Painted Ladies. From there, we went to a "secret" spot to see the Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory. The fog was perfect.

She is a beaut.