Urban Texture

For the last four years or so, I've been working in the Photo/Art department at Mills College in Oakland, California. Mills has been in the news due to financial problems and ultimately due to being purchased by Northeastern University. I have no idea how much longer I have a job there. So I thought it might be good to start documenting the beautiful campus while I am there.  So sometimes on breaks or my days off, I'll photograph around campus. Also, it's a good place to test certain gear. Prior to taking the job, I'd done a lot of stitched panoramas. I stopped, in part just because I ran out of bandwith. My job was supposed to be half time, but in reality it took more, which left little time for my other endeavors.  At some point in a discussion I ended up suggesting somebody try stitched panos to increase resolution. And I figured it was time to pull out my trusty old Gigapan. But not to make things too mundane, I thought why not try and combine stitched panos and my

  snapshot of 8x10 negative  At my school darkroom where I work I came in on my day off to play. I've had an idea of something I've wanted to try for a long time. The idea would take a few things I can't easily put together. Patience, time, room to photograph, and room to develop right next door. Yesterday the stars aligned. Here's the deal. Xray film is cheap. It has a unique look due to it's orthochromatic character. Ortho films aren't sensitive to red light. So two factors should be clear: you can develop under a red safelight, kinda like paper. And that any red in your motiv will be rendered dark. I recently bought a beautiful Componon-S factory mounted in a shutter from a friend. Normally lenses of this sort are used for enlarging. But such lenses are also well suited for closeups. This lens has a 49mm filter thread, and I have the adapter to my cheap Vivitar ring flash.  What I ended up doing was setting up two large format cameras: a 4x5 and

 Well the Covid restrictions are dying down here in the US at least. And as such I'm out and about photographing again.  Here are a few photos from my latest foray out and about in Silicon Valley:   Here's a then and now shot: the Uber self driving "garage" in SF was taken in 2016, the Google "garage" in 2021. Both photos were taken just a few feet apart from one another. My suspicion is that Google bought out the Uber location and knocked out the walls. Uber's Self Driving "Garage" in 2016 Google's San Francisco "Garage" right next door in 2021 Some other self driving car observations: Chinese company WeRide self driving vehicle spotted on the Streets of Silicon Valley Hyundai testing at Pony.ai Pony.ai testing Hyundai on the Streets of Silicon Valley Nvidia Testing a Ford Fusion on the Streets of Silicon Valley And lastly, here's a few photos of Apple's Project Titan: Apple's Self Driving Car Testing on the Streets o

 On May 15th I had an appointment to scout out a photo location for a future shoot at San Francisco's Sutro Baths. After that recon mission I planned to head down to Colma - "City of the Dead" planning to shoot some large format shots.  I brought my little digital kit, and also filled the back with an 8x10, and 4x5 Toyo monorail kits which took up most of the room in the back of my "cheese wedge" (Gen II Prius.) Normally 15 April is tax day in the US, but due to the pandemic, this year tax day was shifted a month late to 15 May (or actually the next work day, but forget that since that kills my title of "Death and Taxes".) So that afternoon I spent a lovely day at Colma's Italian cemetery. A few things struck me on my visit. First off, how quiet and peaceful it was. I only encountered one other living soul in the couple hours I was there. The weather was perfect from my point of view- cool and overcast with the sun popping out now and again. I'