The Stubborn Tripod

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It was December 2007. The weekend of/around the 18th and we were out in lovely San Francisco celebrating my birthday. We were in the surrounding hills passed the Golden Gate bridge in Marin County (I think) and we were just exploring the place and taking photos. Nearing the end of this particular adventure, I wanted to gather up my friends and take a group photo to remember and commemorate the good times we had that weekend. I had lugged around my tripod for the most part to get steady shots. It was so cold that my shaking hands made me cautious of how I approached taking photos so just as a precaution, I had it with me. Well the tripod came in handy for the group photos. We found a bench and the people were in place. I had the camera and tripod positioned, focused the lens, set the timer and hurried back to my spot. When I sat down, we all saw the top of the tripod starting to tilt. I guess the camera was too heavy or the ball joint wasn't tight enough so the weight of the camera made that particular part of the tripod tilt sideways. I got out of my place and hurried back to reset the camera and tighten the joint. I thought I had that joint tightened because I couldn't tighten it no more but after resetting the damn thing, when I sat back down in my place, the darn thing tilted again. By this time, it was nearing sunset, the lovely SF fog was setting in and it was fucking cold and we were all cold and tired and just wanted to get the photo taken so instead of resetting the camera and tripod again, I simply shrugged my shoulders and did the "I give up" body sign and just let the camera shoot and what it shot is what you see here.

I loved that weekend!

Ooops

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So I'm in the process of rescanning all my film negatives and slides right now in an attempt to get better quality images and re-edits to sell as prints and I'm coming up with plenty of good stuff. A good amount to sell but for the most part, just memorable moments in the past that I've forgotten.

I came across this one particular image and I can remember the day and the moments that led up to this image. This photo was a snafu. It was sometime in October of 2007 and me and two other friends decided to take to subway from the Valley into LA and into Olivera St. to hang out and take photos. As we were walking around the flea market type shops in Olivera St., my friend Alex saw this one dude that caught his eye. He, remarked about how well and dapper the guy was dressed and wanted to take a photo of him. If I'm not mistaken, he had his holga? or maybe he didn't have a camera at all that day. Can't really remember but I do remember handing over my camera to him and told him to go ahead and take the photo. So he took my camera and chased down the guy. Flagged him down and took his photo. After he did so, he comes back and hands me back the camera and I asked how it turned out. He was pretty excited about capturing the guy and told me he wanted a copy of the photo once I had the negatives scanned. I neglected to tell him before shooting the guy that I was going to xpro the roll so the colors might shift a bit weird and he was disappointed upon hearing the news but I said, hey you never know. The image might turn out super dope regardless of the color shift. This...awesomely red shifted image is the result of xpro'ing the roll and the guy is now forever red rusted. I really don't think the image is bad really. I rather like it. To be fair and honest though, I wonder what the image would've been like had I developed the roll correctly....

What do you guys think? Obviously the gentleman is quite dapper indeed!

Film used was Fuji's Astia 100 slide film.

P.S.

- Sorry Alex!

Solvang Revisited

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It's been a while since I visited Solvang. On January 31st, me and my friends headed over to Solvang to celebrate my friend's birthday since it was her wish to do so. I remembered Solvang during my childhood years as this bustling, tourist town. There were so many tour busses and tourists by the hundreds were walking around, shopping and doing the sightseeing thing. I think I was 9? I'm not even going to begin to remember which year it was. Anyway, prior to my recent visit, I've been to Solvang a handful of times. All before my teens and I'm 31 now so you do the math as to how long it's been since. I remember vividly the times I went, there was this ice cream/bake shop that had their waffle making machine next to the window and every time me and my family visited, that machine was churning waffle cones like there was no tomorrow. Now, as a young kid, this amazed me. I was always awestruck by the simplicity of the machine and how such a simple machine could produce something so beautiful (to a kid) and oh so delicious at the same time. Not only that, but this machine was constantly making these waffle cones! There was also a tender to the machine. Always vigilant and on guard. Spreading the batter on an empty mold to which a few seconds ago, waffle cone goodness was produced and thoroughly enjoyed by some stranger...delighted in it's sugary goodness. You know what the funny thing is? It's a bit sad but of all the times I was a kid, visiting Solvang, I NEVER had a taste of that waffle cone. Moms and pops were too busy being tourists and each time I asked they said it was bad for me or we'll be eating soon and it'll ruin my appetite etc.

So here I am, 31 now. Haven't been in Solvang in probably 20 years and I'm inside the store. Everything has changed. Not many tourists or people were walking around in that quaint and cute town of Solvang. And as you can see in the photo, the waffle machine sits still and motionless. No batter. No waffle cone making goodness. No one tending to the machine. It was a bittersweet reunion. I'll tell you what though. This time, I had my waffle cone goodness and I had pistachio ice cream with it. It was fucking delicious! It was a long time coming...

Fresh Feeling

A little update blog for you all. As of late, I've been hit with the case of the inspiration bug! I've been thinking of stuff where I can be fresh and imaginative with my photography which you'll be seeing this year and in the years to come. Earlier today I headed out on a mission in the morning to beautiful Downtown LA to take photos. I went through a couple of rolls and to be honest, I won't be putting said rolls through the lab anytime soon. Maybe sometime during the beginning of next month. A whiles away but fear not! I do have two rolls that I will be handing over to my lab this Friday so expect an photo update here @Through My Eyes.

In other news, I created another blog dedicated to my film photography and you can see that page @ http://americananalog.blogspot.com/. Also, my etsy store has been getting alot of attention lately. Made a couple of sales of my prints and it's looking like I'll be working on a couple of more sales.

So as of this time, I feel my photography has been getting better and better as I continue to shoot. Tinkering with new ideas and some projects. Etsy store is doing good. Couple of sales, alot of kind words and compliments! I never thought it would garner the kind of compliments, sales and attention when I started the store. 2010 is looking like a good year for 17thletter Photography. The future is bright.

PS

Visit my store! http://www.etsy.com/shop/PhotographyOfQ

-Q

The result of a shitty day...

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It was Thanksgiving night in 2008. I was out celebrating with friends at a dinner and I was having a good time. Normally on nights, I have to go to Cerritos for work to pickup something to take to the airport so it can go on a flight to San Luis Obispo. I was told by my superiors that I didn't have to do this Thanksgiving eve but on Thanksgiving night which was weird for me because the airport I go to, Burbank/Bob Hope, is usually closed on holidays but I figured they knew what the score was so I took their word as truth.

So there I am at Thanksgiving dinner having a ball. Grubbing on food and having a drink or two like normal people would on Thanksgiving. After the dinner was over, I headed out to Cerritos to pick that stuff up and take to the airport. All good up until I get to the airport to find out that they were closed (as I thought they would be) and would not accept it. I wasn't pissed at all. Didn't even worry about it. I figured I'm still good because my bosses told me to do this. So I went home and thought nothing of it anymore.

I get a call at 7am the next day from my boss telling me what happened to the package because the people in San Luis Obispo never got it and are asking for it. So I tell my boss that I did what you told me to do and I still have it in my car. Apparently my bosses messed up and I was supposed to do this thing on Thanksgiving eve instead of Thanksgiving night. So what happened? I had to drive all the way to San Luis Obispo from LA to drop this stuff off which pissed me off! At this point, there was no helping it and so I had to do the duty and off I went.

I was still rather ticked off while I was driving there until I reached Santa Barbara and saw that it was a lovely day. Blue sky with very little clouds around. So I started to enjoy my ride up there. As I was nearing my destination, I found myself driving through small hills and after I was on the freeway not 5 minutes ago, I was suddenly transported back into time as I was driving on a small road and into various small towns. I thought, "Damn, I wish I could take photos after I'm done with this bullshit". I looked down at the passenger side floor and noticed I had my camera sitting there! That's one thing about being a photographer and into photography. You make it a point to have a camera ready and accessible everywhere you go. I kept driving until I reached my destination and while on the way, there was this old farm with this mailbox just sitting outside by a bit of a stretch of road that caught my eye. "I've got to take a photo of this thing" I thought.

I dropped off the stuff to the guys in SLO and I rushed back to that old farm and that mailbox that caught my eye. I can't tell you exactly why it did, but I had to take a photo of it. I got to the place and parked my trusty Volkswagen Rabbit on the side, grabbed my camera and waited. Waited for the cars passing by to get the hell out of the frame. Waited for the various ravens and 4 legged animals crossing the road to get out of the frame. Just waited. A couple of shots taken and I think I got what I wanted in the end.

So what started off as a really bad day, being awoken at 7am, having to drive all the way to B.F.E., I took it all in stride eventually and gradually had a change of heart midway through my day and trip and came out with something special to me...

Time alone

I should spend some more time alone. This weekend has pretty much been non-eventful for me. I decided to stay home for various reasons and just before the actual weekend arrived, Friday to be exact, I headed off to Office Depot and bought a blank note book to jot down whatever photo ideas that came to mind to keep myself from going insane due to not going out.

Saturday arrives and I put on my headphones and turn on my iPod and start playing every song on there starting with the letter A. Every song that brought on an idea for a photo, I put pen into paper and let my brain be and get creative as it can and I've got to tell you, there were instances where the I could not stop writing. So much so that my hand began to hurt after awhile.

It has only been one day and I've already completed 7 pages, front and back, with various photo ideas inspired mostly by songs that played and some by way of other forms. Whatever was flashed on the TV screen, random objects in my house...

On one hand, I wanted to go out and with that in mind, my weekend was somewhat of a waste but I got a lot accomplished. In the past, my photo ideas would just come randomly and few and far between but by just listening to music all day and coming up with ideas, I was a bit amazed at what my imagination could come up with. End arrogance. But really, never really felt I was really creative until Saturday night. I plan on having more of these hermit nights if it means coming up with more fresh ideas.

Now, to take these ideas and put them in front of my lens...

Untitled

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Finally some new stuff! Empty seats and benches have always attracted me. I always feel like they call out to have someone utilize what they're built for and have a seat and they feel or are left out when unused. I think sometimes people are the same way...

Reworks III







Le sigh. Ok. Tomorrow I promise that I'll go to the lab and turn in a roll or two so I can get to working on adding some new stuff for you guys finally. In the meantime, I've added more reworked versions of past images.

*First image I didn't do much to the file. Just added a bit more contrast to it. Original image is a scanned Kodak 125PX medium format film of one of the domes @ Griffith Park Observatory.

*Second image I also added a bit more contrast to it. Made the sky a little more darker to give it that extra punch. Original image is a scanned Fortepan 200 35mm film.

*Third image I gave the photo a little bit of that vintage feel to it in photoshop. I also added a bit of grain to accentuate a vintage feel. Original image is a scanned AGFA Precisa 100CT that was cross processed.

*Fourth image I boosted the colors 2x and made everything dark 4x. I darkened the image because I think it juxtaposes the beauty of the newly blossoming orchid tree. I think the brooding, ominous look gave this image a subtle warm feel to it. Original image is a scanned Kodak 64T Tungsten film shot from my Holga.

*Fifth image I boosted the color slightly and then gave it a subtle canotype touch and some contrast and grain addition. Original film is a scanned AGFA Precisa 100CT.