Reel Downtown
Reel Downtown showing Republic of Doyle
Last month and for the next several Monday evenings at Solomon’s Lane off Water Street the Nickle Independant Film Festival will be running it’s annual “Reel Downtown” movie showings. They’re pretty neat and it’s a super cool way to spend an evening in this city that hasn’t a drive in theater. :-(
I’d been working on a technique – which some dub “planetary panorama” — specifically to shoot this photo during the first showing of Reel Downtown. I thought it would be a cool trick to show the tallish buildings of downtown combined with the big screen TV and the people watching. Hope you like it!
Reel Downtown Planetary Panorama
Portfolio Post: Water Street
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Where to begin.
For the past, oh I dunno, 6 years or so, I’ve been on-again off-again documenting life and the people who live them in and around the downtown St. John’s area. More specifically, Water Street and it’s sister streets, like Duckworth and Prescott St.
Recently, I kind of decided it’s time to slap it all together as one single project. So for the past several months — in between paying the bills — I’ve been working on a project…
I call it, Water Street: Environs and Denizens and I’d love it if you’d take some time to view it.
Old is New
About two months ago I was doing my regular browsing of r/photography over on reddit.com when I happened up on a post from a fellow redditor who’d just inherited his grandfathers cameras.
From the post on reddit…
My Grandpa is cleaning out his house and invited the whole family over to take what we wanted. I found these camera throughout the house. They’re all very common cameras, but they represent sequentially each camera my Grandpa has had throughout his life.
The models: Brownie Target SIX-20, Brownie Bull’s-Eye, Brownie Holiday Flash, Instamatic X-45, Polaroid OneStep, Canon AF35M
I know they’re nothing special, but it means the world to me that my passion for gadgets and photography came from somewhere. Thanks Grandpa!
He followed that up with…
Honestly, I’d like for someone to have them and use them. I’d probably need some help for shipping, and maybe to shoot me some prints of shots made with them every once in a while.
Immediately I jumped. Free cameras? Quickly I messaged my fellow redditor known as “hornflips” and explained to him that not only do I shoot film but I value the history behind cameras and knowing their story — instead of just buying old cameras off eBay from some random person — means a lot to me. Sizing them up, I knew a couple were still capable of shooting photos.
I asked him if he was serious about letting them go…
They’ve got some serious sentimental value for me and the family, but I’m more interested in them getting actually used than I am in showing them off as “Grandpa’s relics”.
After some quick introductions to prove we were both normal individuals and I wasn’t going to get a bomb in the post, we struck a deal. Derek (aka hornflips) dropped them in the mail and about 10 days later they were in my hands. Admittedly, when they showed up I was so busy I’d just plopped the newly received vintage cameras on my shelf. A quick look over as I unboxed them showed a couple were just unusable without modification of some sort. Another is a Polaroid and each frame costs about $2.00 and the last one was a Canon AF35M Rangefinder.
Fast forward about two months to sometime last week. I’ve been doing research into older rangefinders, specifically for something silent and small that’s both easy to use but versatile. As well, a quick focusing and a quality lens was a must. As I researched for a Rangefinder to purchase, I spun around in my office chair and glanced up my shelf. There it was…
A Rangefinder.
There sat the Canon AF35M, nicknamed “Autoboy” by Canon Japan. Launched in November 1979 the Autoboy was Canon’s first auto focus 35mm lens shutter compact camera. With a f/2.8 38mm lens mounted on a small black body, it’s speed and size matched my demands. After a quick clean, I loaded it up with 400iso film and started snapping. It seemed to work. With no way of knowing if it truly was working, I did the only thing any sane photographer would do, I went out shooting the new to me camera.
And here are the results:
Girl reading in the park at the National War Memorial downtown St. John's
Playing chess on the sidewalk near Hava Java on Water Street
The Other Day
With Christmas, injury and general lack of time over the past couple months I’ve not had much opportunity to shoot for myself. That all changed the other day when I decided to load some 35mm into my Horizon 202 and the ole’ Nikon F. The Horizon is the pano camera, I’m sure you’ll recall and the Nikon is just a regular, albeit one of the first SLR cameras, and on it I’d mounted the speedy 85mm 1.4.
The lack of a meter (the thing which tells you what your settings need to be) in either of these cameras makes life interesting. It makes putting rolls through the developer at the end of the day fun, like gambling! You’re hoping they all come out, but there’s always the chance you got it wrong and you’ll get nothing but over/under exposed negatives. Naturally, I brought along my D3 for when it got too dark for film but I only used it once the lights came on.
Here are the results:
The Portuguese fishing vessel Brites docked in St. John’s Harbour, some of the guys on the deck are speaking to a women on the docks. Shot with the Horizon 202:
Here’s a photo of one of the crewmen, shot with my Nikon D3 a few hours later (it was night time by now).
I then wander up to Water Street where these two visitors (with their dog, his paw is just visible by the man on the right right boot) were begging for change. I didn’t get names, but they one was from Labrador and the other from British Columbia. I bought them a cookie at Hava Java. My last ever purchase at Hava Java’s old location :( This photo above is with the Horizon 202, the one below is from the Nikon F w/85mm 1.4. Don’t remember what the ap/ss was. Sorry. The subtle juxtaposition of young man, begging on the streets as a homeless traveler versus a family walking their little girl out of focus in the background was intentional. I’d initially shot one going the other direction and noticed them behind me so I ran around the other side of my subject and recomposed.
Same set up again, Nikon F, 85mm 1.4
Shoot Harper? Harsh I know, but admit it, we're all thinking it.
From there I made tracks up near City Hall and waited for 20 minutes before someone finally walked up these stairs for scale.
There is nothing particularly special about either of these two photos (above, below) but I like them none the less.
This man had no issue with my taking his picture. He had an excellent ring on, which was most certainly belonging to some institution or group. I’d love to know what it was. Was a square, shape with black/white background halved diagonally and in the top left it seemed to have a B or a D in calligraphy.
Convenience store on Queen's Road
Even the shop clerks have more style these days. When I worked retail, you would of been fired to not wear uniform, wear a hat, wear a scarf. Let alone stop working for a minute to have your picture taken.
Kids these days. (I am of course just joking).
I made my way back downtown to test out some new techniques with the Horizon panoramic camera. This is from atop Atlantic Place parking garage, looking down at Bairds Cove.
That’s it for now. There are a couple more from this days shooting on another roll that isn’t finished yet. So you’ll see those soon!
