That One About...

Snaps

GZ — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:06:23 +0000

Went out the other night for a work happy-hour, which we don’t do often enough. Things have been a bit crazy on the job, and we all needed the chance to decompress and have a drink on the company’s dime. We met at the landmark Cat & Fiddle on Sunset. I used to go all of the time when I had friends living near the place, but I hadn’t been in years. They have a great outdoor patio space, and I like the English pub feel. The service is notoriously slow and somewhat aloof, but the food’s decent enough to wait for when you have interesting company.

I decided to shoot a little with the AE-1, and since I knew the light was going to be subdued, I went with the Ilford HP5+ 400 stock. I think I got a good batch of shots overall, and the results were roundly appreciated. I say again and again that I need to shoot more people – I do enjoy it, but my shyness/propriety gets in the way. It’s easier with this bunch. They’re good humans, and it shows.

It’s funny how folks are surprised that this whole “film thing” still works.

Running Behind

GZ — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:02:18 +0000

Front Stretch

I’ll catch up someday.

Green Commuting (in Black and White)

GZ — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:45:51 +0000

My photo at www.beagreencommuter.com

Be A Green Commuter!, the official UCLA Transportation commuter blog, chose a photo to illustrate a post today. Not huge, but nice to be noticed.

I wish public transportation in and around LA were a better option for more people. I commuted by rail from home to North Hollywood for a number of months, but it ended up being so impractical and expensive (more so than driving) that it didn’t make sense. A transit strike put a halt to my experiment and I never went back.

May Los Angeles keep moving in the right direction, and long live public transit!

New on the Shelves

GZ — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:37:50 +0000

One of the things on my “to do” list has been getting a book together and published through Blurb. I’m not expecting to make any sort of waves with it, but I wanted to see what was possible. I’d done a few little things through Shutterfly, and while the quality was OK, the result wasn’t impressive.

Through attendance at a Blurb event a few months back, I had a coupon code good for at least a decent-sized volume. Before you can attempt to sell anything there, you have to order at least one copy for yourself (a “proof”, ostensibly). Because I was born to procrastinate, and because the coupon was set to expire on May 31, I spent a chunk of Memorial Day organizing photos in Blurb’s BookSmart software. Since I didn’t leave myself enough time to get serious about it, I used their pre-set page templates. While they’re pretty nice, the end-product ended up looking more “stock” than I like. If I do this again, I’ll put the work in to make it my own.

The Blurb software is easy to use, so the process went smoothly. It took a while because of my perfectionism, but I got a book uploaded under the deadline. I’ll continue to pick it apart and second-guess, and I’ll probably work up a second edition, but for now, here it is – 44 pages of black-and-white Los Angeles.

Browse and enjoy.

Los Angeles by Gary Zorko | Make Your Own Book

Same View, Different Window

GZ — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:37:10 +0000

Adam at 10 (on film)

Got my first roll of color 120 — Kodak Portra 160NC — through the Mamiya and processed. Since I’m not at the point where I’m developing my own color film (and I don’t know that I want to, due to the complexity), I took it in to A&I near my office in Hollywood. This is the first time I’ve used a “pro” photo lab, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got friendly service, on-time delivery, nice packaging and presentation, and slightly cheaper than nearby alternatives (but still quite a lot more costly than 35mm at Costco). Color negative film is a wonderful thing, but black and white will continue to dominate my analog output.

I’m always apprehensive trying a new thing or taking a next step with this stuff, but it turned out nicely. My metering with a second camera was close enough, and I’m getting more familiar with the gear. I’ll eventually acquire a dedicated meter, but for now I’m OK and won’t be so intimidated by the arrangement.

This is another shot from the session mentioned in a previous post. Compare and contrast, film and digital — I think this one has a slightly warmer tone. I might get a big print made.

LAist Likes It Again

GZ — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:33:11 +0000

LAist post on "Urban Carnivores in Your Backyard"

The LAist news-and-culture blog chose one of my older photos of a city-fied coyote in LA’s Griffith Park to illustrate a post announcing a presentation on “Urban Carnivores in Your Backyard” today.

Print It Like You Mean It

GZ — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:59:08 +0000

Adam at 10

Almost every year of Adam’s life, we’ve had traditional portraits taken at the typical mall department-store studio for distribution to the family around his birthday. We’ve been pleased enough with the somewhat generic results, but the whole thing is costly and has produced nothing special. Considering circumstances, I should be doing that job now, right? I made a first attempt last year, but I was not happy with the product at all. Pose, light, color – none of it made me feel like it was a worthy annual event.

This year, even though my personal expectations were low (confidence issues), I thought I came up with a much better set of photographs. We found a nice outdoor setting across from the local park, the light was pleasing, I took my time and Adam was relaxed. I have the say the 70-200mm f/2.8 did its part, too. That’s the “smiling” version above, and there’s a secondary “serious” pose to go with it.

Sure that I had a couple of good captures, I thought about getting them out on paper. One of the bigger frustrations last time around was the printing. I have a great wide-format Epson photo printer that usually surprises me with its output, but the images were so “off” that I couldn’t make a decent print no matter what I tried. This year’s photos didn’t have those issues, but I was still worried about producing a professional-looking package.

Thinking I might want to know the options for professional printing, I started investigating options a few months ago. As busy as things have been, I’d only gotten as far as reading reviews. I’d heard White House Custom Colour (WHCC) mentioned on the Photofocus podcast (they’re a sponsor of the show), and the blurb says they offer a no-strings-attached five 8×10 prints for free to listeners of the show. As it turns out, that deal is open to anyone wanting to check them out, regardless how you hear about it. They don’t even ask for a credit card up front, so I went ahead and put through a mix of color and B&W. I have to say, I was impressed – working for free, they hustled and turned around the order in two days. The quality was good, and the prints arrived with a set of paper and texture samples.

After that experience, it made sense to take the next step and work with them on the portrait package. I used their ROES software to do the image upload and configure things, and my order was ready in minutes. I went with the basic lustre paper and a variety of sizes to fit the needs of relatives. Free two-day shipping was the default, and overnight and custom packaging options were available. After a little set-up and the entry of my payment info, my order was on it way.

Since I ordered before mid-afternoon on Sunday, the order arrived via UPS from their facility in Fresno on Tuesday afternoon. The results were great. I didn’t do anything special with color management, but the color and brightness were true and consistent. The order was nicely packaged, with each size in its own sleeve. The wallet-sized prints come 8-up to a sheet, and were individually die-cut with rounded corners.

All in all, a very pleasing transaction. The family loved the photos, and I was proud to give them. I’ll definitely use WHCC again, and recommend them as well.

LAist Likes It

GZ — Mon, 03 May 2010 20:46:59 +0000

Sisters (Adopted)

LAist.com, a Los Angeles news and culture site, chose one of my photos for its weekly “7 Reasons to Love L.A.” photo feature. It’s not a big thing, but it’s nice to be noticed.

Family Things (and Newton Rings)

GZ — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:31:32 +0000

Húsvéti nincs színe

Had a nice, relaxing Easter with the family. Saw in-laws and my sisters, ate a really good meal, colored eggs (well, I didn’t – I never do) and finished a roll of 220.

For once, I came up with a nearly-flawless strip of negatives. Since I started using the Mamiya, every roll has suffered some sort of ruinous problem – scratches or streaks that rendered many frames unusable, and required a lot of healing brush work on the rest. Research and friendly interviews pointed to either bad news happening in the film magazine or drying issues after development.

This time, I made certain that I used a different insert, and I decided to forgo squeegeeing prior to drying, just in case that had some effect. To give the strip a good long hang-space, I suspended it whole from a boom mic stand positioned in the bathtub (very rock & roll, I know).

The combination worked, so I’m sticking with it. Of course, things are never that easy. When it came to scanning, most frames were afflicted with Newton Rings and had to be redone.

I’ll get the hang of it eventually.

Happy Now?

GZ — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:08:20 +0000

Comfortable Despite the Obvious

Because I’m told I don’t post often enough, and because I’m told I need to shoot more color, here – enjoy.

This harbor seal watched us watch him/her from our boat as 80 or so cameras snapped at him/her. A bunch of us were out on a cruise sponsored by the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Lots of fog and no whales, but still plenty of sights and a chance to hang out with friends.