pketh | Toronto: Photos

7 August 08 "Well, I just Provia Fucked Myself"

I don’t remember if I mentioned this here, so I probably haven’t. I’ve bought my third new Ricoh GR1 film camera! Well, I had to return the first two to ebay because of focusing errors (the first one) and an LCD electronics malfunction (the second), which officially makes me retarded for doing it again. But I really love this camera, the way it feels, the very physical but also well chosen controls, the simple and succinct viewfinder and it’s fancy wide lens. I’ve even grown attached to the stupid whirry noises it makes. So I guess it’s love then.

Lesson #1 of love: Love is expensive. Because Agfa (makes of my favorite Ultra Color 100iso film) is now dead I’ve got to find a new favorite film. So after a lot of flickr browsing, I decided on giving Fuji Provia 100F some love, so I won an ebay auction for 20 just expired rolls (which I’ll keep in a fridge for freshness) at about 3.50$ each, which is actually pretty sweet considering the stuff costs like 14$ a roll in a local Toronto shop.

Where it starts to get painful is when we remember that Provia is slide film and as such costs extra to develop and scan. Normally I’d get my films done at Pacific Mall for like 5$, but lately the quality has been sucking (weird scratches and white dandruffy dots on underexposed areas) and they don’t do slides anyways. The cheapest local place I could find (Downtown Camera), does slide developing and scanning for like 14$ a roll. Multiply that by 20 rolls and … Yeah, wow that was sure stupid of me.

I guess on the bright side those 20 rolls aren’t going to be done anytime soon (I shoot pretty slow) so the cost is spread out. And who knows, if my provia shots turn out even half as good as some of the ones on flickr I’ll be really happy still.

This all reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time by the founder of Rolls royce who supposedly said “Quality is remembered, long after price is forgotten” or something like that. I suppose in retrospect it’s a pretty funny way to justify spending half a million or more on a car, but I think the man was absolutely right. Sometimes pissing some money away for something (or maybe someone) you love for no real rational reason is all the reason you need.

Especially in these, so called, tough economic times I hope people don’t forget that.

Thinking out loud // Comments

15 March 08 cityshrinker

If you’ve never seen photos taken by Tilt-Shift lenses you’ll really enjoy the “CityShrinker website”:http://www.cityshrinker.com/. I don’t really feel like explaining the specifics of “how TS lenses work”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_shift (nor do I really know), but they really have a cool effect on photography – particularly the long range kind. One day, when I’m rich maybe, I’ll really enjoy one of these myself, they certainly do seem like a lot of fun.

(one of my favorites from “CityShrinker”:http://www.cityshrinker.com/)

Something else.. // Comments

8 February 08 Snow is pretty

It’s something that has taken me surprisingly long to realize. These days I’m trying to gain new kinds of perspectives on things, nothing truly philosophic I guess, simple clarity is enough. To liven things up, these photos were taken a month or so ago during the first snowstorm of the winter, one of many. Not that that’s a bad thing at all.

The out of focus-y look isn’t bokeh or some fancy pshop, it’s just condensation because of the cold; I really like the effect. Hoping you do too.

(the whole set is on my flickr)

Photos // Comments

11 January 08 My Best Photo?

I’ve spent almost forever deciding how I’d represent a (basic) proficiency in photography in my Architecture portfolio. I used Flickr’s ‘interestingness’ meter to see which shots people fav’ed the most, but wasn’t satisfied with them for use in Print or to fit in with the rest of the portfolio style. I was playing around with putting multiple photos on the page, arranging them like little slides with one kind of blowing away, and it all seemed to work well. In my head. The problem is, I’m not very used to print, and the size of things as well as the resolution seems to matter a lot more.

Finally, over 1000s of other stuff, I ended up on this one from my rainy day love affair with the Ricoh GR1 Film Camera (man, I really should buy another…). It’s got Architecture, it’s got organic shapes, it considers perspective and, most importantly, I really like it.

Works // Comments

23 July 07 Ricoh fun photo times

So I ended up buying another Ricoh GR1. Something about these damn cameras, I just keep getting drawn back to it after looking at the pictures I take.

I could go on and on about how and why I love this camera and the pictures it makes, but instead I’ll quip something quick and cool like: if good design really is timeless, the GR1 will be seeing out the end of the universe.

That is if the electronics don’t fuck up from being splashed, knocked or blown on by a gentle wind like the last two I had. The first one had both a faulty LCD film counter, the AF was weird, and the viewfinder focus guide wouldn’t light up. The one I just had wasn’t nearly that bad, with only the film counter not displaying. Not a huge deal, but it could’ve been the start of something worse.

Anyways, the pictures/memories are the most important thing and I had a chance to use my new Agfa (Ultra 100) film too.