Analog Love Letter: Ms. Bell

I took this photo of my friend Melissa during my birthday revelry in 2011. Another photo in my Turn on the Bright Lights series that's inspired by Interpol's first full length album of the same name.

Taken on a Holga, the red color in this photo came by way of a gel filter that's built into the camera's flash unit. It also has other colors like yellow and blue.

This particular photo has more of a heavy red compared to other photos in the series because of the slide film I used. Slide film, or positive film, is more or less a transparent image. In film's heyday, photographic slides were placed in specially made projectors (which were called slide projectors amazingly enough) where a light bulb would shine it's light on any given slide and thusly would be projected onto a screen. The photos were "as is," compared to color negative film which produced film negatives. In terms of film, you've probably seen film negatives more so than you did slides. They were cheaper to buy and develop. I digress, but if you use a flash, slide film will take in and saturate/fill a photograph with highlights more so than color negative film. So if you use an artificial color source over the flash, such as the color red, the resulting photograph will just be full on red, like holding a red, plastic looking...film.

I have so many small projects and series on my plate it's not even funny. I have yet to set a deadline for completion on this project. When I feel I have nothing left to add to it is when it'll be done.

"Bright Lights on Melissa" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: Me & Melissa

This is another photo inspired by Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights album of myself and my friend Melissa. 

I forget who took this photo but it was during my birthday celebration many moons ago at a bar called The Woods which is located in the city of Hollywood. Much of that night ended up being a blur to me. 

It's been awhile since I've seen her face and we've been trying to get together sometime in the near future. Not sure if it'll play out by the time I publish this but I know eventually I'll see her again in the near future.

It was a great night.

"Me and Melissa" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: Casa De Cadillac

When the temperatures get warm enough, I like to venture out into the night and do a bit of night shooting. It's one of my favorite pastimes. Sometimes during the summer, it can get pretty hot in Los Angeles, especially the San Fernando Valley, and I don't even bother going out but during those hot summer nights, the evening temperature can get into the 70s and 80s which is quite lovely.

This time around, I was testing a camera and hit my friend Jasson up to do some night shooting in Van Nuys, Calif. when I took this photo of Casa De Cadillac which is a Cadillac dealership on Ventura Blvd. What I really love about this dealership, other than the caddies they sell (I love cars), is the font they use for the sign. I'm no font nerd but I do know a bit of history to this place. It opened up sometime in the '50s and has been in business ever since. The font reminds me of the "futuristic" styling and outlook of American industry in that era. America had just won World War II and the middle class was on the up and up and everyone was focused on the optimism of tomorrow.

There's a bit of a light leak in this image but it's in a good place where it isn't totally distracting and it gives the photo a bit of character.

"Casa De Cadillac" / 35mm Fuji Provia 400X / July 2014

Analog Love Letter: Turn On The Bright Lights

Interpol is one of my favorite bands of all times (probably second to The Smiths) and their first full length album, Turn On The Bright Lights, had a huge impact in my life. The comparison to Joy Division was there when they first came out but they had a much different sound in my opinion.

I wanted to do start a project that is inspired by TOTBL which is what you see here. I used a Holga CFN to shoot this photo during one of my birthdays many moons ago. A Holga CFN is essentially a Holga but with a flash that had 4 filters built in, the other colors being yellow, blue and clear.

This photo has a strong red cast due to the slide film I used. You wouldn't get this strong of a color cast if you used color negative film. My guess being because slide film is "positive," it'll take the strongest light source more easily and blow out the shadows if you can't control the amount of light being produced. Holga's are simple toy cameras so there's no control over anything on it really which is what I love about lomography.

As with all my other photo projects, this series will be released when I feel like I've finished it so who knows when that'll be.

"Michael pours Guinness" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: Live Art

I love art in all its different forms so it's not odd to see me at a gallery opening or an art walk where this photo was taken. These two graffiti artists were doing live pieces at the Canoga Park art walk and I was losing the light as it was dusk when this was shot. The only thing lighting these two was the flood light that you see in the bottom. The lighting wasn't great and the light meter in my camera doesn't work so I had to guesstimate my shutter settings. I had to push my film 2 stops in order to get an acceptable shutter speed where no motion blur would occur. 

"Dual throw up" / 35mm Fuji Provia 400x / August 2014