Writing, Photography, and the life lessons I learned from Street Academy
And now comes the big kahuna of Competition Season. The New York State Fair’s Photography Competition. I’ve participated in this show for 15 years, and my success / failure rate has run the gamut from six entries accepted with five ribbons (and two first place silks), to a stretch of several years where NOTHING made…
Read MoreAfter last year’s debacle where my entries almost missed the entry deadline (thanks a pantload, FedEx), I made sure to ship my entries on the first eligible day. My best-ever effort at Iowa was three accepted, with two winning awards (and one, my lunar eclipse stitch photo, taking a first place silk in its category).…
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…
Read MoreI’m preparing for an upcoming photo project, and as much as I appreciate all my Nikon glass, I need something that’s ultrawide and totally within my budget. I mean, if I had $3,500 to drop on a 58mm f/1.2 Noct lens, I’d do it. But I have this thing called a budget, and I gotta…
Read MoreMy initial plan was to photograph during the Saratoga Race Course “Belmont” weekend (the track is hosting the Belmont Stakes and a few other days of racing while the Belmont track in New York undergoes renovations). I figured I do what I always do when the thoroughbreds race at Saratoga in August – bring my…
Read MoreWhile experimenting with rapid-fire infrared shots in my modified Nikon Df camera, I wanted to see if the camera could capture high-speed images in this format. So I set up the camera at Saratoga Harness and tried to capture a rapid-fire photo burst of the horses as they crossed the grandstand. And here’s the best…
Read MoreWell, it happened. Two years after Fuji ended their Velvia 100 slide film stock, my supply of Fuji Velvia 100 has dried up. All gone. I have one 35mm cartridge left. And after that … all I have are two more 120-size rolls of the product. As for my 35mm stock, the only slide film…
Read MoreI really hadn’t planned on attending the Capital District’s TulipFest this year. I mean, you photograph one batch of tulips, you’ve photographed them all. But on Sunday morning, May 12, I had an idea. What would those tulips look like if I shot them with my new-to-me Nikkor medical 120mm lens? This could be interesting.…
Read MoreI’m developing plenty of comfort with this infrared-modified Nikon Df camera, and when I need it to capture a sweet black-and-white infrared image, it works admirably. But I want this camera to also capture infrared color images. I want that brilliant mix of magenta and turquoise that comes with a perfectly-set pack of Aerochrome 120…
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Chuck The Writer 
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