Robbie Becklund Photography

A couple of weeks ago I lost out on two separate ebay auctions for beautiful Canonets. I took that as a sign and have decided to follow another avenue--the pinhole camera. I still plan to get the Canonet, probably in a couple of months. The Canonet has a 40mm lens which is almost the same wide angle as a holga with the 6x6 format. For a pinhole camera I'm deciding between a pinholga, naturally, or a Zero Image 6x6. The Zero Image is a little more expensive and has a super wide angle--which might just be too wide. The pinholga has a f/215 pinhole, which is substantially smaller than the Zero Image and the equivalent of a 26mm wide angle on a 35mm camera. One of the things that bothers me with the pinhole cameras is getting too blurry of a picture ( I know that probably sounds moronic, but it's true--I have a certain look or image that I want). The f/215 aperture seems pretty cool. The other thing about the pinholga is it's a holga. I've been wanting to order a modified holga from Randy at Holgamods.com for awhile. He's great, he sent me a shutter spring once, when I was having shutter problems, no charge.

If I get the pinholga and I like the pinhole thing, I could get the Zero Image 6x9 camera somewhere down the road. I can see some fun Lake Superior images with that.

Yes, I will still be shooting with the regular holgas, I'm not giving them up, just adding another weapon.

Law Barring Junk E-Mail Allows a Flood Instead -- I was just thinking, at what point does one decide to quit using email if spam keeps increasing the way it is. I'm sure 95% of my email is spam, and I get a lot because I don't use any spam blocking because I don't want to accidently delete a legit email.

Tree and Air conditioners, New York City, 2002 - holga

This is a double exposure, in the sky you can see tiles from the subway wall and faintly you can see my son.


Apartments, New York City, 2002 - holga

Parenting blogs, which generally aren't blogs in the true sense according to Diarist.net, seem like a great way for parents to obsess over the minutia of raising kids.

It's so cool how the internet is a worldwide thing. Obviously I get the vast majority of visitors from the U.S. But it is interesting, I get about the same amount of visitors to my site from Canada as I do China. In the last month here are the countries where people are from that have visited my website.

U.S.: 48 states, including armed forces.
Canada: Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba
South America: Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Trinidad
Europe: United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Czech Rep., Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria, Lithuania, Denmark, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Bosnia Herzegowina, Norway, Iceland, Russia
Asia: China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Israel, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Bahrain, Pakistan, Taiwan, Kuwait, Korea
Australia, New Zealand
Africa: South Africa, Cen. African Rep., Nigeria

It's fun to see what other people's darkrooms look like. Well here's mine...



It's more like a darkroom/office/bedroom. I put the trays on the 50s metal table, notice the green tarp on the floor to keep the chemical spills of the carpet (I want my security deposit back). The table is big enough for 4 12x16 trays. And that's the corner of my bed. I put negatives and photo paper on the bed while printing. I use a metronome and foot switch--no timer. I've got heavy black material over the two windows to keep it fairly light tight.


I do my film in the kitchen sink. I'm careful not to get Pyro in the coffee maker.


Here's my matting/packing area, which is currently a tinkertoy assembly plant. My 16x20 drymount press sits on the floor. You can see the edge of my big paper cutter that was rescued from a garbage pile in front of a school in Manhattan.

Don't be alarmed by the color photos, it's just my cheezy 1999 digital camera that I use for ebay photos.

Here's a 17 y.o. girl from Canada who's usingone of my photos on her blog. Without permission of course, but that's normal, and it's okay.

David Michael Kennedy Photo of a Long horn is real sweet

I added a few new images to my holga photos page.

It's interesting, since I've been shooting so much with the holga, I hardly notice the strange things the holga does to an image--like double images and curved straight lines. It just seems normal.

I was thinking how taking pictures with the holga is kind of like music by John Cage, when he would put things on the piano strings; or when William Burroughs would rip up his manuscripts and randomly put them back together (I'm pretty sure he did this...). Shooting with the holga has that element of randomness and chance.

It's fun and challenging to allow this randomness to make it through the editing process. When I take pictures, I just react and shoot. Sometimes just one shot of a scene, sometimes a whole roll. The challenging part is deciding what pictures I like when looking at the contact sheets and work prints. Believe me, there's a fine like between shots that work and ones that blow. The fun is deciding that yes, this works and going with it, because sometimes it's not too obvious that the photo is working--it's kind of a leap of faith.

The phrase that pays for Photo Friday is "Youth" --here's my submission.

Prospect Park, Brooklyn - Yashicamat

I think I've wrung everything I can out of my existing negatives. I'll process some new film and hope there's something worthwhile on there. I'll be trying Ilford Rapid Fixer for the first time. I usually use TF-4 from Photographer's Formulary but it's expensive to ship since it's not powder and the Ilford fix was five minutes away. I have to use a fix without hardener because the hardener strips the stain from Pyro negatives. I did see that they now have Sprint chemicals (but they were out of fix), which are good for you and the environment and the stop bath is vanilla scented ( I don't know if I could live without the sinus searing acetic acid smell of my Kodak Stop bath). I'd like to give those a try. I use stop for prints, not film. For film I just use water. I have thought about using a new developer than PMK Pyro. The only reason is mixing the powder chemicals. The pyrogallol is so toxic. The powder is easy to spill since it's so light weight. It's just a big drag to mix it. But on the other hand, once it's mixed it lasts a long time and that's what I've been very happily using for the last four years, so maybe I better not mess with a good thing.

PS: I think I've done a pretty good job a trying to keep this a political free zone for awhile. While I still have very strong opinions about stuff, I think it's better to keep it off here.

Burnet, Texas, 2002 - holga



Cactus Field, Burnet, Texas, 2002 - holga

These were both taken at Inks Lake in the Hill Country. It was so hot and so bright. We saw a bunch of lizards and I was so expecting to see a rattlesnake, it just seemed like perfect terrain.

I've come to realize that shooting with a holga in Texas is better than shooting in northern states since the light is brighter (since there is really only one aperture, even though there is a sunny and shady setting, it doesn't really do anything). I rarely lost shots to underexposure in Texas, here in Minnesota it happens regularly. I'm beginning to push the film a stop when I know it's going to be underexposed to see if that will help.

I see I've been lacking in recent photo postings. I'm pondering whether I'm a photoblogger--one who posts photos regularly, preferably daily, or a photographer. I started doing the blog as a way to add something to my website. I would have to say it's been a success since it has become the most popular part of my site. So I have achieved what I set out to do with the blog. In my effort to make this blog more popular I find myself thinking more like a blogger than a photographer. Lately I've been working at trying to be more like a photographer than a blogger, so my posts have been less frequent. In an effort to keep thinking and acting like a photographer I'll just be posting the photos I'm currently working on and not do a lot of posting of things that might be interesting. I also find that the more I search around the web for things to post, I find myself getting confused about my own work. Because, I see other people's photos that are cool and I think it would be cool to take pictures like that. For my own sanity I need to cut back on perusing photo websites. While I like to see what others are doing, it doesn't help my work.

Trees Brush Tower, New Hope, Minnesota, 2004 - Holga



Cattails and Tower, New Hope, Minnesota, 2004 - Holga



Japan, 1999 - Not sure what city.



The American palate reacts to X-Aqua - the Active Change Water, Japan, 1999.

Since I can reasonably print 35mm film now I did a few pictures from when I was in Japan. All the shots are kind of touristy, so here's a couple for fun. (I need a 35mm neg carrier, I'm using a 6x6 size, notice the sprocket flare on the window shot above).

We finally have a winter wonderland. It snowed about six inches--so now it looks and feels like a real winter--finally. Duluth has gotten about 30 inches so far. And in the woods in Grand Marais they've gotten about 4 feet.

I'm posting this picture of deep snow and shadows for Theme Thursday -- the current theme is 'shadow.' Also cause it's finally snowing here. Looks like 4 inches so far.

I just posted this photo of mine Manhattan Skyline to Photo Friday for their weekly photo challenge. These weeks challenge is "crowded."

Oh my! The photo tech nerds will have fun here. Camerapedia.org is a free-content encyclopedia of camera information. The content on Camerapedia is constructed and maintained using Wiki software. What is a Wiki? A Wiki is a web site that allows any user to add or edit content. Wikis are the most democratic of online documentation sites; if you disagree with something then change it. If something is missing then add it. Wikis make content a two way street; you are no longer a passive reader and the more you participate the better the content gets. Wikis are organic, democratic, aggressively open and unstructured.

Here's a blogabout photoblogs, from the photoblog people.

Look! For 195.00 euros you can have an online one person show at ARTROM Gallery. Thousands visit their site a month. I get that now but it's free. Maybe I should start one of these online gallery things or have an art contest.

EBay's Stock Slides as Earnings Miss Expectations -- If they're going to grow on the backs of sellers through higher and higher fees, the least they could do is make their earnings mark.

The Mirror Project -- A community of people who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces.

A good article about photoblogs in Shutterbug magazine - How Photographers Are Making The Internet Work For Them

The New York Times > Photography Reveals Itself Between Covers

I've decided for now to stop selling my photos off my website. My holga photos hardly sell and I took off my Minnesota photos a couple weeks ago. I've run out of matboard--it's been back ordered for 3 weeks... For now I'll post new work to the blog.

Well, we're still enjoying our arctic winter. It's 8 below now and tonight should be 14 below. But Tuesday it will be 30 degrees. I know I'll see someone wearing shorts and a T-shirt--it's spring!

Soldier Humvee, New York City, 2001

This was taken days after 9/11, a few blocks from the Trade Center. The printing of this is kind of a watershed moment for me. It's the first 35mm negative I've printed in almost 20 years. So I guess this means I'm officially shooting with the 35mm now. I didn't know if I'd be able to make prints with my current enlarger because it's setup for medium format. But I can.

I've been steadily moving to this point. I started looking at my old street photos and that really got me excited. So here I am. I've got the Pentax K1000 with a 50mm lens to use for now. I'd like to get a view finder camera. Maybe a Canonet for starters. I want something smaller and without that obnoxious 'thwap' of the mirror slap that you get when pressing the shutter with a single lens reflex. I guess stealthier would be the proper term. I'll still be shooting with the Holga.

Took my son to a birthday party at the Mall of America or MOA like MOMA... Did some shooting with the Pentax and the Holga in the amusement park section of the mall. It's quite freaky to see a roller coaster, log ride, ferris wheel and other assorted big rides indoors. I was wondering if there would be any problems from security with shooting. When I got there I realized there wouldn't because there's so many people shooting with video cameras and every other type of digi, film or phone camera. But I did wonder if there is any monitoring of people who are taking pictures, because I have heard that the Mall of America has been mentioned in terrorist communications.

Notice: I mean no offense to people who choose to use Apple computers. There's an Apple store at MOA. While it is fun to look at all the pretty white and clear computer gear, it has got to be the most pretentious place I've been to in quite some time. You almost get the feeling that the people working their think they're rock stars.
Full Disclosure: I bought into the hype. In 2002 I had a G4 or whatever was the hot shit computer then, with cool clear speakers (which were great). I really didn't like the Apple, it was slower then my old Dell and I hated the keyboard. I sold it and lost a chunk after about 2 months of use. And of course it didn't have drivers I needed for scanner and printer, which I discovered after I bought it.

There's an IKEA across the street from Mall Of America, we went there after the B-day party. Something I always notice when I'm there, it's kind of good and bad. IKEA has a number of pretty good looking photos for sale. These are about 16x20 and framed. It's all done fairly cheap and they cost about $25 or so. It makes me realize that there are a lot of people out there wanting interesting looking photos, but they want them cheap. I always see lots of people getting these. I think the frame really helps sell them. There's no screwing around with a matted print that you at least have to go to Target or Walmart to get a frame. I guess it's just nice to get it and put it up. It makes me think there might be some better and cheaper ways to sell/present photos.

For fun, I did a search on "cool photos" - here's the top listing - CoolPhotos.de pics of sunsets, flowers and farm animals is not my idea of cool.

Here's a good example of someone using one of my photos for their own uses on the web. Deep Space NYC is about dub music (looks cool) and has a forum--they're discussing bridges(?). Someone used my Verazzano bridge picture in their posting. Luckily it's one I put my web address on. I honestly don't care if someone uses my photos for something like this. But how this effects my stats is interesting, because of course people don't copy the image to their server, they copy its current web address (on my server) and put it in their posting. So when someone sees this post, it counts as a session and a hit on my stats. It doesn't count as a page view. For a page view you have to actually view a page on my site. That's why I use page view stats to gauge the traffic I'm getting. I wonder sometimes why my sessions are higher than page views--this is a perfect example why it happens.

Oh and just for fun--my page views for yesterday were 279. There were 64 page views on my main blog page. Things have greatly settled down since I eliminated the xml feeds. Most of the extra traffic I was getting was from bots. It's so weird. Sometimes the internet mildly freaks me out--the way all this stuff works. How I'm posting this for view to most of the world and then how other computers search through everything on the web. Bots are almost like little alien computer creatures.

If you're in San Francisco, check out this site to keep up on their hip art scene - SUPPORTING THE SF AND BAY AREA ART SCENE SINCE 2000

LensCulture Web Log - a blog about photography and shared territories, or photography and the modern age. Some interesting stuff.

It's -16 degrees outside right now--not including wind chill. It looks like it will be like this for a few days. It ain't Alaska, but BRRRRR!

I love Art Part I -- Back to school for binmen who thought modern art was a load of old rubbish

I love Art - Part II--4 Year Old Making Waves in Art World

How ironic, I just mention that I haven't written off selling on ebay, and I get an email detailing their higher listing fees for 2005. As many sellers call them feebay or just $bay. Maybe I have written off ebay.

Here's a pretty good forum discussion on APUG, Of all the stupid things... Most of the discussion is about a holga filter for Photoshop.

It's becoming obvious that the best arts business to be in, is one that makes money off artists. Many working artists are being squeezed by the lame economy and rising fees to show their work. Artists just starting out are overwhelmed by the cost of entry just to get work shown or trying to sell it. A photographer who does art fairs, said it's best to start with $10,000 if you want to get into the art fair business and she's right.

Most competitions and exhibits, charge a fee to enter and if you get accepted they of course get a commission of 35% to 50% on anything that sells. Most likely nothing will sell. If it's not local you have to ship the picture and pay to get it returned.

Art fair fees are totally out of control. They start at $100 for some small show and go over $1,000 for well known shows. I've done the $100 shows--it's not worth it. To really sell to make your booth fee and travel expenses and cover other costs you need to get into good shows that are much more expensive. Besides the outlandish booth fee, you have to pay a jury/application fee that is $25 to $50. For many of the art fairs you have to send in your fees with the application months before the show with no guarantee that you'll get in. If you're not accepted, you get your money back, minus the jury fee, but they hold your money for months. Some artists who have been making a living doing the art fair circuit for many years have to now supplement their income with part-time jobs.

Vanity galleries are another way people make money off artists. I just received an invite to have my own solo show in Montreal. I would only have to pay $1,980. This gallery's website is very nice and they have a full calendar of shows. Obviously it's working. Many vanity galleries around the country operate this way.

For someone like me, who works enough to cover living expenses so I have enough time to work on my photography, this situation seems insurmountable. I can't imagine spending a year working full-time at a stressful office job to save up money so I can market my work properly or have enough money to do 15 good art fairs.

This is why the website and blog are a good thing. I can make a few sales and people can see and hopefully enjoy my work on the website and blog. I only spend $125 per year for the site and url. I've kind of gotten to the point that I may just use the internet to show and sell my work. It's definitely not the best way, but what else is there?

Even though I get frustrated with selling on ebay I haven't written it off. I can sell some work and it's very cheap compared to other venues. And actually the selling prices are just below what I could get at art fairs, with a fraction of the cost and I don't have to leave home. Also, I've managed to sell a number of 11x14 matted prints for $50 - $70 each. So I know people are willing to spend money on what I have to offer. The nice thing about ebay is buyers can get a good deal, because prices don't have to be jacked up to cover high expenses.

So for now it seems the internet is what I'll do indefinitely. It fits my lifestyle perfectly and it's low cost and my work is available to millions. I probably could have come to this realization sooner, but the little voice in my head keeps telling me "this isn't the proper way to show and sell art, you must follow a traditional route."

***This feels real good to write down. It's like I've allowed myself to follow this path--yes the one I'm following. Whatever, I'm a psycho, and I put it on public display.

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If you're looking for an interesting book to read, check out "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn. It's about people who run a carnival and want to create their own freaks, so the wife ingest all sorts of fun stuff during her pregnancies--she has many. The book chronicles the lives of the family after the kids are born--and yes they managed to create their own siamese twins, a flipper boy, a hunchback albino dwarf, a kid with telekinesis, and many unsuccessful offspring that float in jars of formaldehyde It's a wonderful book.

Weee! - I bought film developer, paper and film and managed not to run out of any of it. In a few days I'll be totally stocked up. For some reason this makes me very excited. I guess then I can blast through a bunch more film and develop all the new stuff and backlog. I have been rationing because I'm very low on developer, so I kind of did run out. I've got enough for one more batch.

Today (if I can convince my son...) or tomorrow I think I'll go back on the ice (sounds like the tundra) and take pictures of the icehouses with the holga.

I just deleted the xml/atom/rss feeds from the blog--don't need it.

Two Trailers, Minneapolis, 2004



Cement Dome, Minneapolis, 2004



Coal Yard, Minneapolis, 2004



Pole, Austin, Texas, 2002

Here are a few new images. These were all taken with the Holga. No matter what, I keep coming back to the holga images.

Went on the ice at nearby Medicine Lake and shot with the 35mm yesterday. It was very overcast and kind of sleeting--beautiful weather. Out on the ice when it's like this it's so other worldly. We checked out the ice fishermen and their fishhouses. And watched a car and an ATV spinning around like maniacs on the ice. And drove on the ice for my son's first time.

This is what Wikipedia says about Selling Out and the DIY punk ethic, which I agree with. Maybe the deprogramming won't hold. I haven't had a "real" job since 2001. I've filed my taxes since then as self employed. While it's lame stressing about money, it is so nice not having the usual stress of a 9 to 5 job. Here's what I can remember I've done for money since being self employed: sold my collectibles and stuff on ebay; sold stuff for others on consignment through ebay; sold my photos on my website, ebay, the farmer's market and art shows; sold stuff to an auction house; shoveled snow; mowed lawns; raked leaves; scanned negatives; consulted for businesses; worked for a coffee roaster; and matted prints.

Okay enough about this, I'm going to print tonight, so I got to get to it before I get sleepy...

Wooster Collective : A celebration of Street Art

My Photo Thoughts: Seeing that site with the commercial and personal work combined of some of the best working street/documentary photographers, caused me to realize that it's not a crime to do both (I've known this before, but I just thought about it more). Many, many photogs have done it. See, I went to art school and it is still indoctrinated into me that commercialism in your work is a sin. And being in the bands that I was in--where we knew we'd never make a dime, because if we did it meant we were selling out--didn't help either. I'm trying to break the curse and revel in commercialism--well at least my kind of commercialism.

I'm thinking that over time I'll put everything I've done on this site and pull certain "sellable" things and put them in a section of prints that are for sale. There are two projects/series I did in the 80s that I think have some merit and I'll be putting them on--I first need the lens, and etc., to print 35mm. And yes I'll be putting my Minnesota photos back on.

I've been thinking about getting a real cheap digital (gasp!) camera. I bet ebay is swimming with 'em. Posting photos regularly on a blog is not conducive to traditional b&w photo. Shooting some with a digital camera would be a way to get more eye candy on the screen. In the 80's I did some color work. Sometimes I've thought about doing it again--this would be a way to mess around with it some. These would be fun photos for the blog.

Note: If you've been following this blog and have been kind of paying attention, you know these ideas of mine can change the next day. Because of this, I'll try to title them 'My Photo Thoughts' so you'll know that this is not carved in stone, but merely a hallucination/whim/fancy/brainstorm/something I've already done, but will probably change by the end of the week/daydream, etc.

One of the descriptions for daydream, is "a fanciful notion or plan." That pretty much sums up my thoughts. Maybe I'll title these 'Photo Daydreams.'

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Is it cool or alarming that I can look at my son's Lord of the Rings Nintendo game and immediately know that they are battling at Helms Deep--"Muster the Roheran!"

Stats for this week: 407 page views per day average and 277 sessions average. This is a big jump from last week and last month. We'll see if it holds or just a spike from signing up on blog sites and joining the xml feed world. And it is the xml feed that creates pages for each posting (well that's when it started happening). In the last week there were 371 pages tracked. Way higher than before the feed addition.

Stuff from the intersection of design, culture and technology - Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting. This looks like a blog to keep checking in on - some cool stuff.

Get stencils to decorate your room at Stencil 1.

bill charles represents Larry Fink, Jeff Mermelstein, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Mitch Epstein, among many others. Lots of images by each photographer including personal and commercial work.

In Los Angeles January 20-23, go to PHOTO L.A. 2005.

I just added another xml feed through FeedBurner that is supposed to work with RSS or Atom.

The traffic on my site has really picked up and some of it kind of baffles me--it is early and I'm only on one cup of coffee. My page views yesterday were 769 and it's been that way for a few days. I'm staying above 100 page views on my main blog page. The thing that is strange is now my blog somehow can be viewed by post. I have the monthly archives of course. The one thing I did do was add an xml feed using Atom (this stuff I barely understand and so of course I'll add an RSS feed soon as well). I also added my blog to some blog search engines and Feedster.

So now, where usually there would be around 90 pages tracked, my stats show 200 pages tracked, it's got to be the individual posts.

I guess I should figure this stuff out more.

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On the photo front, I didn't print last night again. Not really too interested in what's left to print--must be the bottom of the barrel. I ordered more PMK Pyro developer and should start doing film in the next few days. I'm sure I'll be out shooting today. I have to, it's another wonderfully bleak day in Minneapolis. Cloudy, 1/2 inch of snow and an inch or two of ice where you walk. At least it's not 5 degrees today--so it's just moderately bleak.

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My son has a few Tony Hawk Nintendo games. There's some great footage of actual people skating. I'd just want to watch that instead of play the game. To me watching a skating video would make you want to go skate, where skating with nintendo just makes you want to play more nintendo.

You know what's really funny a friend of my son's brought his gamecube memory chip over. So my son plays Tony Hawk with his friend's chip so that his friend can get further in the game than what he can actually play and probably get to cooler parts of the game.

Loss of Sight Focuses His Artistic Vision -- Mostly blind, a Studio City photographer has found a new way of seeing the world. -- No Comment.

Okay, I made the plunge with the 35mm. I just took it out with me, on my shoulder, on my errands, and snapped shots along the way. The coolest thing about it is a roll of 35mm is equivalent to 3 rolls of 6x6 120mm film--yippee! I'm real interested to see the resolution/detail. I'm so used to using MF and Holgas, that while I can look at my old 35mm pictures, I'm not really sure what it's getting, which will have some effect on what I'm doing.

And I'm using the 50mm lens which I didn't think I'd like, but I think I might (things aren't so far away as with a wide angle...). I'm using my brother's Pentax K1000 which is in mint condition--but not for long... I snagged my grandmother's 1:1.7 50mm lens from her Pentax ME Super. I've got to get the ME Super looked at and unfrozen since it's small and light.

Not sure where this will lead. I don't think I can print without getting a 50mm lens for my enlarger, so it'll be some time before this stuff sees the light of day.

I am still shooting with the Holga--did some of that this morning too!

Hamburger Eyes! I checked this out once and kind of spaced it out - Capturing the rawness of San Francisco's streets in a journal with an eye for the down and dirty.

About the impending photography ban in NYC subways, discussing the importance of street/documentary photography through history in the subway: Want Shots Like This? Get a Permit. They even got quotes from Bruce Davidson and Helen Levitt.

Here's an article on Saugerties, N.Y.. I'd get my haircut at the barbershop mentioned. I used to sell stuff on ebay for Donnie Malone whose auction house is mentioned. I took pictures at the lighthouse mentioned and the self portrait of me on my website was taken near the lighthouse. I really liked Saugerties, we almost lived there. The first place we checked out was there. We may have stayed if I would have opted for the cheaper place in Suagerties. There's Dallas Hot Weiner's which are chili dogs, but the chili is called gravy--really good and cheap. I'd take my laundry to the laundrymat in town until I realized there was one a couple minutes from my house in Woodstock. They have a huge park with way too many baseball fields. My son went to two skating birthday parties at the indoor rink, which of course wasn't heated... And I took my garbage to the transfer station for $2 a load. By the way the Saugerties transfer station has a wonderful view of the mountains. Saugerties is a real nice place.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog. I'm questioning whether it's really furthering my personal goals for my photography, and that's really why I decided to start it. I started it as a way to get traffic to my site. Well it has succeeded to bring traffic to my site and has gotten more people to see my photos. And the photos that they are seeing is one of the things that concerns me. In an effort to post daily, I'm putting photos on the blog that are test prints and some aren't that great. I make a test print to get a better idea what the photo looks like enlarged, this is where you start after making a contact sheet. In no way are these final prints. There's photos I've posted, which when posted, I thought might be okay, but now I don't like them at all and I'll never print them again.

There are times that, while I might be working hard producing a lot of photos, nothing is making it to a final print stage because I'm not satisfied with it. Kind of like a working dry spell. Or, I'm doing a lot of experimenting and while parts of an image are working, it's not working as a whole, so it's not successful.

Many photographers are happy if they get 20 successful photos a year. I'm probably in this group. Look at my website--there are 27 photos on my holga page. I started seriously shooting with the Holga in 2002. In 2003 I used it some and 2004 I used it more. In about 2 1/2 years of shooting I've got 27 photos I'm happy with.

It's similar with my Minnesota Scenic/North Shore photos. I shot a lot of them in 2003. There's 10 - 15 that I really like. My main problem was I think I needed to be shooting 4x5. Some just didn't work because they needed more detail.

This is a long winded way to say that trying to post photos regularly on my blog might not be right for me. I was thinking it would be a good way to "see the photographer at work" kind of thing. But I doubt many people are getting that. They just see what's posted and that represents my work. I don't think that's what I want. So I am thinking about slowing down my posting for awhile. Heck, knowing me it might just be a passing phase.

Yesterday I got 115 page views on my blog--not earth shattering, but it is the first time I've gotten over 100 page views on my main blog page. I did notice that multiple Inktomi bots spider my sight yesterday. I wonder how much phantom increase in traffic bots, especially googlebots, cause. I suppose I could look at my raw logs but I'm kind of lazy in this regard.

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Didn't print last night, I was feeling like I was getting sick so I got a little extra sleep and I feel fine this A.M. So I'll try the darkroom thing tonight.

Andreas Wokerstorfer has a big list of Holga photographers to check out.

Some fun, interesting holga shots on 35mm film and cross processed - blow-up.blog | HOLGA - give it about a week to load.

Stats for December: 8,678 page views, which averages to 279 per day. The top 3 countries by network location are U.S. (big surprise), Canada, and China. Europe as a whole had more sessions than China.

I added 5 new photos to my holga photos page. It's all stuff I've posted here. I feel pretty good about these five. I didn't print tonight, but I did go through contact sheets, I've got about 20 shots I've been wanting to print and have skipped over them for some reason or another. So I'll get at them tomorrow.

I still have a backlog of 25 rolls, including some recent stuff. I'm almost out of PMK Pyro, so I need to order some more super toxic fixins to mix up a new batch. And, I need another box of Oriental RC paper. I think I really need to order 200 sheets this time, but I don't know if I can swing it $$wise. I've almost gone through 100 sheets in just over 2 weeks. Luckily a 100 sheet box of that paper is only $46 including shipping from B&H Photo. Oh, and I need film! And I just ordered matboard last week. ...what, Ramen again!?!...

Art blogs and photography blogs from the Blog Search Engine, I submitted my blog to this blog search engine. There's a lot of photo and art blogs that look interesting.

The New York Times > Work Begins on Colossal Artwork-in-the-Park -- Christo's The Gates

Empire State Building Observation Deck, NYC, 2002 - Holga

I've got a Pentax 35mm and I'll start shooting with that (on 1/1/05 I said "don't fret over getting a real camera." This doesn't mean a 35mm isn't a real camera. It was shorthand for myself referring to a Mamiya RB67 or 4x5 view camera.).

Blogger seems to have croaked. Here's a bit from my last post that went into never never land when blogger died for a bit.

The New York Times >Head of Goat, Tail of Fish, More Than a Touch of Weirdness

It must be the long, cold winters... Now that I'm a born again Minnesotan, these Mutant Taxidermists are something Minnesotan that I can really get behind. I'm also warming to the T-Wolves a bit.

Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermy

So does this mean I'm one of the People of the Year according to ABC News?

A quote from Houston. It's Worth It. "My favorite thing about Houston is getting into my car in the middle of July after it's been sitting in a mall parking lot for three hours. There's nothing better than that feeling of suffocation. I mean, we're all going to hell anyway, and there's no way that hell is any hotter than Houston, so we're going to be the ones laying around like it's a beach and making fun of those Yankee assholes who won't stop bitching."

I never lived in Houston, but spent some time there, yeah, it's pretty nice.

I was reading about the the dry plate process and making albumen prints. Well, I don't think I'll be going down this road anytime soon. I was looking for something a little easier than wet plate collodion (not that I'm totally serious about doing it but I'm definitely interested). I guess it's easier, you don't have to have a mobile darkroom, but my god it's so time consuming. And the dry plate method highlighted is not the traditional one. I don't like the scale produced using the liquid emulsion that is used in this "recipe."

I cook two to three meals a day and do dishes constantly (or that's what it seems). These processes remind me of the tedium of doing dishes and cooking gumbo. But with these processes the soap and water and ingredients can kill you if not handled properly. I really don't think I have the stomach to struggle with one of these processes. I still could try the barrel lens sometime and see if that gets me closer to what I 'think' I want.

Okay I guess my new year's resolution still stands. Wow, it made it through one day.

Barton Creek, Austin TX, 2002 - holga



Barton Creek, Austin TX, 2002 - holga

You know, the holga gets some of the old barrel lens look at times. The problem with the above pictures (besides being woefully underexposed) is that once you enlarge them to bigger than 8x10 they can really lose detail. I wonder what a 4x5 view camera with an old barrel lens would be like. Then you could enlarge up to 16x20 probably with no problems... interesting...

Okay so here's my thoughts for the new year photowise. I have no personal thoughts. Somehow this quote just popped into my head that one of my great Aunts from Grand Marais, MN said: "You just have to do the best you can with what you've got." Maybe that's my resolution for the new year.

...back to photowise. This is direct from my journal:

1/1/05!

Here is what I'm going to do. Stick w/the Holga - get a flash or flash Holga - push all angles of possibilities w/it.

Get the 6x9 Zero Image pinhole and work that.

Go shoot in different locales - Chicago, N.Shore, S. Dakota, Thunder Bay etc.

Don't fret over getting a real camera. Financially it ain't happening.

Sell on ebay and F.M. (Minneapolis Farmer's Market) if possible to make money to cover photo expenses and maybe more. But don't get hung up on the selling end. Just work hard on my photos and making great images that I love.

Keep up w/ the Blog, try to minimize the negative stuff. Try to show other artists more. And have fun w/it.

The main thing is to work on my work and don't fret about stuff.

Cool, send a vintage postcard via email CardCow.com

This is an excellent op-ed piece by David Brooks - A Time to Mourn, about the magnitude of the disaster in Southeast Asia.

Everything's bigger in Texas: Texas Begins a Huge Highway Project; Not All Are Happy. Private companies build and run the highway so they can charge tolls on this 1/4 mile wide monster and the land will be seized from farmers and ranchers by eminent domain. One company involved is from Spain. I guess no American companies can dream as big as Texans.

Suhprize--did a little painting. Changed a few colors and font size and kept the layout. One day maybe I'll do an unreadable layout--bright purple background with bright red letters, as long as they're complimentary colors (I'll check my color wheel) the vibrations between the two colors will make it impossible to read. Anyway... Hope you like the new look.

Don't forget to eat black eyed peas today for good luck.