south shore beach

thank goodness for willing friends.

i love taking portraits. i think people are incredibly beautiful in all of their various incarnations, and i like capturing a moment of them.

but i have yet to be able to walk up to a perfect stranger and ask to take their photograph.

even being comfortable asking my friends is only a recent occurrence.

but i hope that the more and more of my friend's portraits i take, the better i'll get.

at capturing a moment of a person.

at asking someone to pose for me.

at just taking pictures in general.

and i know that with confidence i get bolder.

so to my friends and family who let me be truly annoying and stick a camera in your face,

thank you.

i'm not sure why

do you ever have photos that you're just not sure why you like them?

this would be one of them for me.

not focused on anything really, accidentally framed, and taken in the moment as i was trying to photograph friends playing soccer. mostly, just practicing following people with my camera.

and yet this one turns out to be one of my favorite photos of the day.

it is one of things i love about film, and why i try never to delete any digital photos until after i download them.

the surprise.

the imperfect image, that when considered outside the moment, is perfectly beautiful.

skeletal tree

can you tell i like instant film?

guh, rainy day pictures turn out beautifully, but when the only place to dry that polaroid is under a tarp, all kinds of crud gets on there. time to discover a way to wash photos.

old polaroid, new polaroid

self portrait on the sx-70
me with governor perpich and his wife. one of my most treasured possessions as a child. i had great plans to get my picture taken with other politicians, including president reagan, even though i was very clear that i didn't agree with him politically. i was 7.

recent polaroids

tim and the honeycomb pavilion
katie and the backporch
the beach at fullerton. super fun day.
ellen and tim, and the mysterious substance that appeared sometime while the picture was in my bag on the ride home.

the first flush of the impossible project's new color film.

very exciting. still need to try it in low light, but perfect for a day at the beach with wonderful friends.

as per katie's request

the view from our campsite in the BWCA. the first night was rainy and fog clung to the lake in a thin layer just above the water level. it was beautiful.
and just got more beautiful as night continued to fall.
mom fishing. i believe this would be the de-weeding of the fishing line.
olivier over my shoulder in the canoe. if you want to be really nervous, take your expensive new camera into a small boat and try to photograph your brother-in-law who sitting behind you. little bit of a nail biter.
if only i had a stronger zoom lens, you could very clearly see the moose mama and her baby that swam across the lake from us. i swear, she's totally there. the first moose i've seen in person. pretty amazing.

my next vehicle

cousin gordy's barn

on the road trip with my mom, we decided to do a little family research. when we called my grandfather for some info he also sent us to visit his cousin gordy. gordy has 7 40's, i think. pretty giant old farm, with a beautiful old barn.
i'm not sure when the last time they actually used this hay, but it sure made it look like a classic barn.
unfortunately the floor was collapsing into the animal pens below.
this was one of my favorite views, the afternoon sun coming in the slats of the barn siding.

cousin gordy outside the chicken coop. this is also where they milked the goats.

i totally wish i could have been on this farm back in the 50's when it was a working, diversified family farm.

home

chicago home.
duluth home.

both completely awesome in their own ways, but so very different.

uncle tommy herman's farm

the old farm house at my great uncle tommy and aunt dorothy's farm. they built a new house up on the hill, and continued to use this one for sometime after. i believe when their kids visited, for the grandchildren to sleep and play in.

and then all of a sudden it went from being old to being uninhabitable.

the sheds and out buildings were amazing, full of old parts, lots of machines and half assembled farm tools. this particular shed was leaning pretty far to one side, and then wedged up by a huge piece of lumber on the outside.
the kitchen. the entire floor caved in.

eventually i passed off my digital camera to my mom so that i could take some film on my medium format. still waiting to get those developed (fingers crossed that they turn out).

NH wedding polaroids

anna and all the baking supplies. she was wedged in there.
drivin'
ok, seriously. i need to start checking these after i scan them. the scanning is partly for this blog, but is also for archival purposes. these polaroids start breaking down in the humidity, and there's no guarantee that they will stay this awesome.
handsome men poolside

brandyn has trouble standing still right now.

i'm really loving my polaroid film right now. it's temperamental, especially the impossible project sx-70 film, but i love watching it change over time. knowing, and letting go of the fact that it won't be perfect.

just enjoy the moment of its creation.

can you tell that i'm trying to bring that philosophy into my everyday life?

a little bit too little time

i have a backlog of two weeks worth of traveling photos.

uncle tommy and aunt dorothy's old farm house.

fourth of july with my family at the cabin.

drive to the east coast with katie and mike.

baking in a cottage in the woods for a 160 people.

wedding of dear friends.

mountains.

rolls of film to be developed.

polaroids to be scanned.

digital photos to be sorted, and toyed with.

so until all of that happens and i decide what i want to share here,

a taste.

my great uncle tommy and aunt dorothy's old farm house as seen thru the double camera, twin reflex:

glow

little river. he held soooooo still for me, and only 3 yrs old, hence the very serious look.
my little monkey of a cousin, meadow.

all the kids were given glowing wrist bands when we went into the field to shoot off fireworks.

if only i had a tripod, i could have done even more of these, but the light was just too low after full dark settled.

wedding weekend polaroids

how the world looks to doug before the first cup of coffee, blurry and slightly off kilter.

then again that could just be my ability to keep my hand steady and scan correctly