No.110

These are photographs from the McMillin wedding I attended as a guest this summer. Found them while picking prints to make for our family album.

No. 38

I have Holga shots to share from Elgin. This image appeared on the cover of our GO! section on Halloween.

No. 32

Here’s another installment from the Holga series. Indiana.

No. 30

Indiana on a Holga loaded with expired black & white film.

No. 24

Well, wine and whining go hand in hand. This is from the film archives of my time spent in California. Looking through images made in the past is like scratching freshly healed scabs open. They kind of itch and sting but to know you have the power to heal your own wounds makes it okay to be curious. Some of my most memorable moments on film have been spent with friends talking the world into neat little ideas we could swallow. I say this one makes me think of women I hold dear to my heart.

No. 23

Did you know that the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is one of the last free zoos in the United States? I was strolling one Saturday morning watching the children in awe of the apes and lions and tigers as they ate their grub for the day. The tigers sliced their paws into hunks of dripping bloody raw meat as the apes crunched religiously on their leaves of green shinny lettuce. But what I waited for was a youngster to engage the caged animal, instead I was greeted with the salute of a nose pick. We’re not so different after all now are we?

No. 22

Jim Peterik of survivor sung the rock ballad "Eye of the Tiger" which served as the theme song for the local soccer club in Kalamata when I was a kid, not to mention the theme song for Rocky III! Peterik records and rehearses out of his south suburban home in Chicago with some of the original members of his band. He now performs with the Ides of March.

No. 21

This hair mustache belongs to a vaudvillian show that will be hosted at the Salon Professionals Academy on Monday.

No. 19

I have found the mother load of memories in binders stored away for fall days like these. This time I bring you a California night. One I remember by heart. Like many other nights this one started with a 35mm frame in a film camera. I'll let you imagine the rest.

No. 18

Snake Belt.
I attended a pet blessing today in the parking lot of St. Laurence School in celebration of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. A young boy brought Sheila to the pet blessing I brought my camera. 10/03/08

No. 16

One after the other, we play the staring game too. This image belongs to a collection of portraits I created for a multi-culture project funded by an artist grant I was awarded by the Cultural Arts Commission in Elgin, Illinois. The capture was made with my Mamiya on black & white film in the gym of YWCA down the block on Chicago Street.

No. 15

Well the time has come for someone to stare at me in exchange for all the staring I've done in my small lifetime.

No. 14

Bar dancing is a popular profession.
No man on the street or bar top interview is available.
But if you want my expert opinion, well I don't have one but I love watching women dance.

No. 13

"Don’t think, just shoot"
Film, film, film, film, film...............
............................................I purchased this fun 35mm camera with a built in fish eye lens. It's called the Fisheye 2 and Lomographische AG makes it.

The style of photography is called lomography and it also serves as an intro to the society of "happy accident" shooters. The exposure is very similar to a holga and you need to be close to your subjects if you are using the flash adapter. I just love the opportunity to put down my Nikon D3 and slow down my visual stimuli by examining life through a camera I can hold in the palm of my hand. It's plastic, and light and oh what fun!
Total cost - about $65.00 USD.
Multiple exposures and bulb settings are also available. Be advised that the placement of the flash creates a harsh shadow in the right hand corner of the frame. I just work around it.

http://www.lomography.com/ or for the Greeks at http://lomography.gr/

No. 8

Here's another installment from the Kelly Miler Circus last week. I have been narrowing down the images these past couple of days.

No. 6

Today I’m guessing was a scorcher but I wouldn’t know because my four-cylinder engine and me were stuck on raw black top for the duration of five hours. I live about 35 miles away from where I collect a paycheck and I have turned sour. My brain aches just thinking of being in a rolling sardine can on the congested interstate struggling to see the nearing exit sign. I have picked my nose and combed my fingers through my hair (not one after the other), listened to the repeat of NPR programming, blasted Credence songs while rocking my upper body in short spasms, made large bubbles out of gum, scratched my forearms incessantly, made fun of neighboring drivers and in the end I keep recalling this image I made two summers ago while on assignment. The Buena Vista neighborhood greeted me like no other and I affectionately laugh every time I have a flashback of that moment. At first glance the kid looks like a girl, but as I tried picking her up after falling off the same trike she mounts, he flicked me off and peddled away. I guess I was wrong to assume that pink and purple big wheels screamed GIRL. Lesson learned: Do not judge a book by its cover. So, with no delay I share with you what I often see as mockery. “They’re all gonna laugh at me” and yes hun they do.

No. 3

The small traveling village of the Kelly Miller Circus pitched a Big Top at Vasa Park yesterday.
I must of spent all day pacing in and out of the blue & red tent creating photos for the features section of the newspaper. I whispered a sigh of relief at this self appointed assignment and gladly accelerated my heartbeat to 150mph while watching the performers spew creativity. My irises were on fire as I looked about. I'm sharing this image with you until the full edit is completed.

No. 2

High school volleyball in dimly lit gyms across the western suburbs, I bow to you out of sheer fear. IHSA officials at St. Edwards High School in Elgin refused to allow a photographer to do his/her job thus prohibiting strobes or flashes of any kind to be used during league play tonight. I protest silently and putter my way to an alarming iso of 2400, a 2.8 aperture and a shutter speed of 1/250th on my D3. The results are scary. If I don’t breathe, blink an eyelash or attempt to crank my engine and think, an internal thing I’ve been known to do, I fool myself that I can possibly create something foul enough to pass as usable. I enjoy a shallow depth of field in sports often, but it’s a narrow pass when you introduce low light and action that actually moves fast, faster than I can record with my camera.

No.1

Let us get the ball rolling and drag some shadows out of the archives.

Lloyd Kaufman, president and creator of Troma Studios flew to the midwest to perform a cameo roll in an independant film shot in Carpentersville. Made with b&w 120 film on a mamiya. This was fun!