Above: my new beard. When I returned to my (real) job after the TN trip, I discovered that several of the first-year associates in my group were sporting some pretty aggressive facial hair. I was promised a certificate and a tote bag if I joined in on the cause. Although I have since discovered the the tote and certificate bribe was a joke, I am still enjoying being barbudo. Reagan appears to be a pretty big  fan, as well. I currently have 3 weeks worth of growth. We’ll see how long it lasts (grows).

Next item: I was flipping through some crap that I wrote a year ago and noticed that I picked up Negrita (my 7d) one year ago yesterday. I also realized that some of my favorite stuff that I have ever shot (to date) was shot with my old 40-D. It kinda makes me miss her. Yet another realization that I had, was that some of my most heartfelt posts didn’t even include an image from my camera. *Sigh* Last November was a pretty freaking good month.

Moving on:  I’m not really sure how this weekend is going to go. I’m lined up to shoot a ton of cool stuff, but only if I can some how squeeze it in with the work from my real job. I didn’t even find out that my real job was going to require my services for the weekend until Thurs. So, yeah. It’s tough to get amped about the weekend. I still hope that everyone else has a stress-free pile of awesome this weekend. Do it, do it.

I know that everyone has seen millions of comical examples of product packaging on products originating from Asian countries. Just the same, I cracked up at this one and couldn’t resist sharing it.

A few weeks ago, I ordered this nifty little LCD protector from Ebay, for the back of the 7D. As you can see below, I was able to install it pretty easily.

I attribute the ease of installation to the carefully worded “Use method” that I read on the back of the package.

Establishment is completion!

Pretty stoked about this new bad boy. My homey Zach, the CEO of V&F Enterprises, pre-ordered two 7Ds (planning to cancel his order on which ever one did not arrive first) that arrived the same day. He was looking for someone to take the superfluous unit off of his hands. I was more than happy to oblige. I will be christening it tomorrow night at an event I’m shooting for SoJones. I’m thinking that this thing should tide me over until the the 5D mkIII comes out (or until I win the lottery [or both]).

Occasionally, Reagan and her friends get together and trade stuff that they have cleaned out of their closets, then donate what’s left over. Reagan brought back the little gem pictured above, from the most recent of these little get-togethers, that took place earlier this week. It is a Kodak Hawk-Eye, patented in 1916. Reagan brought it home because she thought it would look cute sitting on one of her shelves.  I didn’t disagree with her. It is pretty small and cute (about 8 inches at is longest edge). But I was curious to see if it still worked.

When I tested it out, the shutter lever worked. When I opened it up, I saw that it uses the same medium format film that Reagan uses in her Holga. So, I decided to load it up and try it out. So far I have only taken one shot. I’m curious to see the results when I finish off the roll.

Building plastic models of airplanes and cars was one of my favorite hobbies as a young lad. I’m sure that it was for a lot of kids. I was especially stoked, if the model had some sort of functionality. Like if the propeller could turn, on the plane I was building. Or, in the case of cars, if the wheels could turn. Well, this would have been my dream come true. It is a DIY 35mm camera, plastic model style.

Following in the lo-fi analog trend of Holga and Blackbird, this beauty is made by Superheadz. It can be ordered from (dare I say it?) that “urban” store.

This month’s edition of Wired Magazine had  a little blurb about the the camera pictured above. It is called the Blackbird Fly. I took an interest in it, mostly because of Reagan. She purchased a Holga, not to long ago, and after some trial and error, has taken some pretty cool shots. The Fly, is a twin (plastic) lens reflex. In contrast to the Holga, the Fly uses 35mm film (instead of the medium format 120). This makes it much easier to have the film processed domestically. The camera also comes with a series of different masks that can be used, to obtain different aspect ratios on the exposure. There is even a modification that allows the exposure to bleed over onto the sprocket holes on the edge of the film.  If Reagan is really good, maybe she will get one for Christmas.

I’m pretty excited about this purchase that I made this morning. I didn’t end up getting a 50D, like I originally wanted But I think that a 40D will do just fine for now. Thanks everyone who hired me to work on their website, and those who donated to my camera fund. I’m tempted to just take the day off and go shoot! Whoopee!

I’m not really sure when the whole digital v. analog debate began, but it has certainly gone the rounds. Vinyl v. CD/Mp3; tube amp v. solid state; 35mm v. 12mpx; Super8 v. HDvid; and the list goes on forever. Something that I have found interesting is the way that society has clung to the analog format, refusing to let it disappear into obscurity. The fact that one can still purchase LPs and turntables is one example of this. I thought that for sure, after Pioneer first developed the jog-wheel CD player that turntables would go the way of the dinosaur. Then, there was Marshall, bringing back the tube guitar amp. For whatever reason, you just can’t digitally imitate that tube sound with solid state amps. In the last couple of days, I have been reading about a VC group that bought all of the the old film making equipment from Polaroid. They are going to try to develop a new type of instant film, to keep the format alive.

I personally try to enjoy the benefits of both digital and analog. I am a huge fan of vinyl records and tube amps. But I have found myself on the opposite side of the argument when it comes to photography. I have been wanting to get a really good DSLR for a while now, and I think that Adobe Cs3 is pretty much the coolest thing ever invented. Good thing I have Reagan to balance me out. Her birthday is just around the corner. One of the gifts that she has been asking for was a Polaroid camera. I talked her out of it. Then she started asking for a Holga. I didn’t even know what that one was at first. She had to educate me about them. They are cheap plastic Chinese built toy cameras, that produce funky images. I couldn’t wrap my head around why she would want to waste money on such a piece of crap, especially since it requires a weird format of film and you have to go through all of the trouble of getting it developed etc.. After she educated me a bit, I understood why she wanted one. We watched a couple of podcasts last night about the different mods that you can make to them and some of the different effects that they can produce. I got really excited for her to try it out. She ordered it last night.

Despite the diverging opinions that Reagan and I have stylistically, I feel like our personalities complement each other enough, that we will most likely never become bored with life. Hooray for that. Thanks for bringing it back to the roots, Reag.