Around Town

Around Town is an anthology of photographs that I’ve taken over 35 years. Sometimes I like to go for a walk, camera in-hand, just to see what I can find. This takes some photographic discipline because it forces me to see the ordinary, the things I see every day, in photographic terms of shape, texture, and form. Another discipline I sometimes add is lens choice. I don’t bring my whole kit of lenses but pick one, often a prime focal length, and force myself to make photographs with just that lens. This sometimes means that I miss opportunities or just have to leave a scene for another day. The challenges of finding design in ordinary scenes and exploring the possibilities (and limitations) of different lenses keeps my photographic muscles in shape.

These photographs have been taken over a long period of time. I don’t remember my lens choices or camera settings. I do remember than the earliest photographs were taken with Nikon FE on Ilford FP4 film. Those with darkroom knowledge and sharp eyes will notice that some of these images were reticulated during development. Reticulation occurs when there are wide temperature variations at some point during development, often during washing. In this case, I classify the reticulation as a “happy accident” because I feel that the effect adds to the abstract, grainy feel of the photographs.

Portage West Sunset

Portage Avenue Sunset

Portage West Sunset happened during some downtime during a working weekend. I’m a teacher and I do a lot of work for my provincial teachers’ society. The work requires time away from home for multi-day meetings when I stay at nearby Holiday Inn. When arranging my last stay I asked for a west-facing balcony room so that I could experiment with time lapse photography.

Here is my experiment. Portage West Sunset represents three hours of “real time”. I set the time laps to take one photograph every 10 seconds, a rate that worked out pretty well, although going to a 5 second interval would make for smoother transitions.

The contrast between the sky and the city below was significant at the beginning of the video. This meant that setting the exposure for the sky resulted in the city below being underexposed. As the sky darkens you can see the exposure equalizing until the street scene dominates. The transition from sky to street in Portage Avenue Sunset is neat, but I’d still like to open up the exposure a bit next time.

Portage Avenue Sunset is a learning experience, so I hop you don’t mind that I’ve shared it with you. If photography is anything, its a learning journey.

Yellow Cadillac

Yellow Cadillac

What happens when you borrow the most expensive camera in the shop? You naturally walk through some downtown allys looking for photographs! I took this image with a Hassleblad 500CM, hand-held, in a Winnipeg ally close to Don's Photo Shop where I worked at the time. The Hassleblad had a waist-level finder and no built-in light meter, so it forces the photographer to be more deliberate about taking a picture - no point-and-shoot here.

What grabbed my eye was finding the splashy Cadillac Eldorado in such drab surroundings. The drab brick and pavement background stand in very stark contrast to the bright yellow and chrome of the Cadillac. Even when converted to digital, the 6x6cm transparency still provides the added "snap" that medium-format photography is known for.

Hassleblad 500 C/M w. Hassleblad 80 f/2.8; Kodak VPS120