Writing, Photography, and the life lessons I learned from Street Academy
This was a complicated confluence. But somehow, some way … I still achieved great things from it. Let me explain. I adore astrophotography – Milky way, meteors, eclipses, star trails, all of that. And the original plan was to travel to Brown Tract Pond in Raquette Lake, New York – New York’s darkest night sky…
Read MoreToday’s headline is the first lyric of singer-songwriter Cris Williamson’s song Waterfall, from her legendary album The Changer and the Changed. Fifty years later, it still holds up today. And it’s kind of an inspiration for today’s blog, as I get back into making my cameras work for me. I need to make sure all…
Read MoreThe harness horse known as Pay Me To Knight, also known around his stables as Junior, has won me a fair chunk of change over the years. He’s a decorated trotter at Saratoga Harness, and I’ve been known to put $20 on his nose every time I know he’s on the track. Hey, you’ve got…
Read MoreIn modern photography, the “Petzval Mod” is a camera lens hack that will turn a dull, run-of-the-mill Soviet camera lens into a dreamy, kaleidoscopic master shooter. The modification will provide a surreal, swirly background field, or bokeh, that envelops the center subject. To put it in basic terms, you need a HELIOS 44-2 common 35mm…
Read MoreIt’s the early morning hours of March 14, 2025. And if I’m going to pull this off, I must prepare like crazy. Clear, cloudless night. Or as cloudless as I can achieve. Equipment at the ready. I’ve got a pack of Kodak Tri-X 400 black and white film packed into my Pentacon Six TL camera,…
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After I had it tuned and cleaned and buffed and waxed by my camera tech Allan at CameraWorks in Waterford, my new-to-me Pentacon Six TL – which at this moment does NOT have a nickname – is ready for its first roll of post-tune-up film. And for this test run, I’ve packed a spool of…
Read MoreIt’s a chilly Sunday morning, and I really need to clean my living space. I’ve got boxes of old things here and there, and I really should neaten up. Projects that I started and never finished … into the trash you go. Old clothes I never wear – there’s the Goodwill bag. Old cameras I…
Read MoreI’ve used Revolog’s boutique textured film in the past. It’s a fun film to work with, as you can combine your photography skills with a little chance and a little luck – to get incredible images. Revolog pre-treats their film with everything from little spots to electrical fractals to textures, and those get transferred onto…
Read MoreSo how does one celebrate Juneteenth on what is arguably the hottest day of the year? Simple. I grabbed my Rolleiflex Automat MX camera, packed my camera bag with four rolls of Fuji Provia 100F, and drove to Bennington County, Vermont. I’ve blogged about this before; Vermont has more wooden covered bridges than any other…
Read MoreLast year, I installed a Solarcan pinhole camera in my girlfriend’s back yard. See? Blog post to prove it. But if you’re not feeling like reading an old blog post, I’ll give you the TL/DR. A Solarcan is a specially-prepared camera. It’s a beer can that contains a sheet of photographic paper inside. A tiny…
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Chuck The Writer 
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