Another image from the same lazy Saturday morning, also taken on expired-in-97 Tri-X.

Marina, still mostly asleep, on saturday morning. I took it on a roll of Tri-X that expired way back in ’97. When taking the shots I had no idea what was going to come out, and now I regret that I don’t have any more – the texture of the grain is simply awesome for some of the things I like to do.

Also interesting just how capricious my relationship with my cameras is. The trusty old Bronica that I used here, for example, has been collecting dust for something like a year, all because of a slight crack in its prism, just barely visible in the viewfinder at just the right angle. A little while ago, on a whim, I replaced the prism, and only then realized just how much that really-hard-to-notice crack bothered me all along. Now, the Bronica’s back as one of my favorite cameras to shoot with. Go figure.

Sunday morning
Brings the dawn in
It’s just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It’s just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call
It’s nothing at all

Sunday morning
And I’m falling
I’ve got a feeling I don’t want to know
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It’s all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call
It’s nothing at all

Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Sunday morning

(c) Velvet Underground

Last Sunday morning, Marina and I were taking some pictures of Nastya, a friend of ours. She’s never really had her picture taken before beyond your casual snapshot and came in not knowing what to expect and even somewhat tense. The minute we put her in front of the camera, however, her tension went away and things got easy.

In this particular shot, I wanted to make it dreamy, to create a feeling of being in a pleasant daze. I shot it with my Bronica, covering the lens with a translucent metallic scarf and deliberately catching it with the back-light to create lots of flare.

This weekend Marina and I celebrated our anniversary over at the Harbin Hot Springs resort, swimming in the warm mineral pools under the open sky.

Incidentally, the first ever photo in this blog was taken during our previous anniversary.

Face-paint by my good friend and fairie extraordinaire of Happily Ever Laughter Parties.

A lazy morning with the cats. I haven’t been using my Bronica much over the past few months and this shot in particular made me realize that that really is too bad. I love the glass on this thing – the normal 80mm Bronica lens that can be had on ebay for something like 80 bucks. Hell, you can get the whole kit with a metered prizm for 300 in decent shape if you’re lucky. Not that I ever actually use the metered prizm, but anyways… I have a feeling I’m gonna be spending a lot more time with this very unreddated camera in the near future.

Marina and I showed up to this photo-shoot late, just as Eugene Berman was finishing up. He had a two-light setup going with a black background in a small living room. As I was unpacking my stuff I noticed the absolutely beautiful soft light coming in from the window through a translucent white drapery and never wound up firing a single flash.