Maple Whirlybirds Cling To A Tree in the Crisp Fall Air.

A friend of mine who has traveled the world for National Geographic, and spends a lot of his time photographing “stuff” around his neighborhood (and very well I might add), challenges people to open their eyes and see what they can photograph within 500 feet of their home.

It is not an easy task at first, but it makes you open your eyes and really see what is around you. Every morning I walk my Bichon Frise dog, Calvin (who is also my photo assistant). Our best walks are the ones where I don’t say anything, but rather just take in the world and see it for what it is.

Here are a couple of shots from this morning’s walk. I challenge you to photograph the world right around where you live.

Leaves Scattered Across the Wet Street

Many well known artists were also photographers, including Andy Warhol. A beautiful “little” exhibit is on display—a rather important collection of Warhol Polaroids (instant pictures)—in New York’s Danziger Projects gallery.

Can’t make it? Check out this post at the New York Times.

I am delighted to see that Polaroid film is holding up so well after all these decades.

One of my idols, Irving Penn, has passed away. He lived a long life, and it is difficult to imagine all he saw, and everyone he met.

His style was imaginative, elegant, and full of motion. He shot mostly black and white images, and captured the who’s who of show business, fashion, and fame. There is good article about Irving and his life in the NY Times.

Anne Frank on balcony.

Imagine all the images of people and things that have been captured on film, but nobody will ever be able to identify. One such historical figure, Anne Frank, was found on a wedding film. She is seen in the balcony of her house, obviously before the war.

Click here to view.

Time.com has a wonderful link showing Kodachrome color images from the 30s and 40s. As you may know, Kodachrome is a very archival color transparency process that preserves color. So these images look nearly new, and they are very sharp because many were shot on 4×5 inch film–one of the original formats of Kodachrome.

The images are fantastic: http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2009/fsa_color_multimedia/.

Tonight I was transported back fourty years. I took Calvin for a walk around the Deschutes River at dusk. It is a beautiful evening with thunder clouds looming, the haze and smoke from distant fires, and golden colored skies tainting everything around us. As we walked across a newly cut field of hay, I could smell the acrid insence of the musky field.

Last week it was as tall as my chest, now cut down to the ground. Calvin put his wet snoot against my leg, and I knew he wanted up. Up means he rides on my shoulders. It must be a great view for a little dog, but more than that, the feel of his soft fur against my neck and face is a real bonding experience. We both love our time together. You have to have a dog to know what I mean, but we are the best of friends. We trust each other implicitly, and we have a level of communication beyond words.

Tonight a friend of mine wrote of a friend whose dog passed on. I was both reminded that Calvin is an angel on loan to me from God, and simultaneously taken back to the time when I would walk to the fields near my childhood home with my Schnauzer dog and sit on bales of hay and watch the sun go down. The same smell, the same sense of warm summer, the same escape, and the thick air of the dog days of August. So today I give thanks to God for the gift of my best friend, and the memories of my childhood friends. The world is okay tonight, and so am I.

Alder Tree, at Dusk, Near Redmond, Oregon.

The weather has been hot, and the thunderstorms ferocious on the high desert this week. It’s good new for photography, but the heat is starting to get to us. On Sunday, Calvin and I loaded up the car with my typical Hasselblad kit and a 4×5 camera. I was already sweating. I was exhausted, just loading up the equipment.

I had another idea, I took all my equipment back inside and left with a Nikon digital camera and a few lenses in hand. Much better. I don’t shoot with digital much any more, so I was nervous that I would regret not having my large cameras with me.

We drove toward Redmond, Oregon along back roads. We even went off the back roads to the back, back roads. We saw a lot to photograph. I have been wanting to shoot some digital for the sole purpose of maninpulating the image and even combining image to come up with a surreal vision.

I hand held all my images, which is totally against my grain, and felt really awkward. It’s okay though, after fourty years of photographing, I still can’t seem to get my horizons level. Shooting hand held was liberating. I had a conversation with a friend who often travels with me to get away. He said he had another friend who would sit at a location for hours and his images still looked awful. When he was with me, I would have the shot in about five to ten minutes. I had to think about the meaning of this for a moment, and realized I can shoot a lot more images when I’m quick about it. And after doing it this long, I don’t make too many mistakes any more.

Pasture near Redmond, Oregon.

But back to my point: shooting hand held is extremely liberating, but it also allows for a lot more shots. I don’t know if this is a good thing, because with digital, the review and editing process takes a long time. Here are a couple of shots I liked.

In an interesting post on the Nikon Rumors site (http://nikonrumors.com/2009/07/26/nikon-related-newslinks-11.aspx), it was found that the red light cameras used are Nikon D2x’s, a high end camera.

Some wonder why they used such expensive cameras, when the sensors in lesser cameras would be just as effective. The big kicker? Someone has stolen about $88k worth of them.

World Trade Center, Portland. 4x5 Ektachrome. by Michael Axel.

One of the major influences in my photography has passed away. Julius Shulman passed away last week in Los Angeles after a spectacular career as an architectural photographer.  He lived a long life, passing away at 98 (around the same age I plan to kick it). Undoubtedly you saw Julius’ work. It appeared in all kinds of major magazines, and he often captured the bright, upbeat scenes of suburban life.

For me, his work stood out because he incorporated models and superb lighting into his scenes. I realized early on that it was easy to take a picture of a building, but it was much more difficult to give it life. Julius was a master at this. His images told a story of who lived in the house, what it was like to live there, and made us see it through his vision.

My first photo business specialized in architectural and aerial photography. I couldn’t afford the high end Sinar P cameras that Julius would use, nor the lighting. In retrospect, my images did not come to life the way his did, but I appreciated his unique angles. He is an iconic photographer. Ironically, his life story is told through a new film, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, and being circulated around the independent film festivals across the world. If you get a chance to see the film, you really should. To view a trailer, see a bit of his work, and to learn where and when to catch the film, Digital Acoustics, go to http://www.juliusshulmanfilm.com/screenings.

Buzz Aldrin taken with a Hasselblad 500 EL

On this day, the 40th anniversary of the landing of the first men on the moon, I’m proud to say I have a connection to the event, albeit a distant one. Commander Neil Armstrong carried a Hasselblad camera similar to the one I personally use. Three Hasselblad 500 EL’s were carried on Apollo 11. The camera is the predecessor to the Hasselblad 500 EL/M’s that I use. They used a 70mm film (about 10mm wider than the 6×6 film used in modern Hasselblad’s, though I own a 70mm film back). I also worked with the USA distributor of Hasselblad cameras back in my college days.

Because most people don’t know the history of cameras in space, I want to back up and tell you a bit about the interesting history of space cameras. Imagine going into space, but having absolutely no pictures to show what it was like. That would have been the case, had it not been for Astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. The previous two Mercury flights had a stationary 70mm Maurer camera that recorded the activity inside the cockpit for scientific recording, but no images looking outside of the spaceship. The Astronauts were allowed to carry a couple of pounds of personal items, so Glenn got the bright idea to carry a personal camera aboard his Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft. Just days before his

Glenn's highly modified Ansco 35mm camera.

launch, he dropped by a local drug store and bought an Ansco Autoset 35mm camera (made by Minolta as a predecessor to their successful Hi-Matic series camera). It was a simple rangefinder camera using 35mm film and had automatic exposure–not much more than a high end instamatic camera. The Ansco camera was hastily modified for use in space, but the biggest concern at the time, and the reason NASA didn’t want to take cameras into space, was that it might be seen as spying on other countries. The results were so stunning that every NASA flight since has carried cameras. They managed to load a 35mm film cannister with enough Eastman color negative film to record 48 images, and the pictures taken of the ocean and the Northwest African continent  were considered stunning for those days.

On the next flight, Astronaut Scott Carpenter carried aboard the Mercury-Atlas 7 spaceship, a Robot brand 35mm camera and took 155 images of the terrain below. Mercury-Atlas 8 carried the first Hasselblad 500 C camera with a NASA modified 80mm Zeiss lens, and 70mm film. 70mm film magazines had a larger capacity (around 150 exposures at first, then 200 exposures as special film was developed later on, with a thinner emulsion, allowing for more film to be

James Lovell and Hasselblad 500 EL with 60mm lens

loaded). Astronaut Walter Schirra received a 3 hour briefing on operation of the camera, and the film was unusable due to over exposure. Ascochrome transparency film was used on those later Mercury flights, and Kodak Ektachrome used on all Gemini and Apollo flights, though Panatomic-X black and white film (known for fine resolving power) was used as well. Some stories say that the camera was purchased by Schirra at a local camera store, and with such great images, NASA approached Hasselblad about building their space cameras.

The second Gemini mission also carried a Zeiss Contarex 35mm camera that can be seen attached to Ed White’s propulsion unit used during his space walk. It was the first camera to take a picture from the outside of a spacecraft. Gemini IX introduced a new Hasselblad camera, the SW/C (super wide camera). It had a 38mm lens (equivalent to about 18mm on a 35mm camera). Later Gemini flights would carry only the Hasselblad SW/C camera, and not a 500 C model. By the time humans were to go to the moon, a new camera was needed. One that would automate the process of taking images. By now, photography was a vital part of the space mission. Apollo 8 was sent around the back side of the moon, and a new camera was designed for NASA by Hasselblad: The 500 EL (electric) camera, also known as a 500 DC (data collection) camera. It had a built in motor that wound the film after the

Ed White with a relatively un-modified Zeiss Contarex 35mm camera.

shutter was fired, and cocked the shutter again, making it ready for the next shot. Instead of using just a standard 80mm lens, the new 250mm lens was added to the kit, allowing for telephoto views of the moon to be recorded, since that was a primary part of the exploratory missions of Apollo 8 and 10. Seven 150 exposure film magazines were loaded with either a special Panatomic X B&W film (80 ASA film–the normal speed was 25 ASA), two types of

Buzz Aldrin practicing with a Hasselblad camera while Neil Armstrong works on his rock collecting skills.

Ektachrome transparency film, and a super light sensitive 16,000 ASA film. Cameras were now highly modified with extra locking rings and aids to assist astronauts wearing thick gloves. The surfaces were covered with a special metal plate in place of the typical Hasselblad black leatherette. In 1968, NASA worked with Hasselblad to develop a new lens specifically designed for the images taken from the moon: the now legendary 60mm Zeiss lens. Though the original was a Zeiss Biogon design, not the Distagon that we can now buy. Photography in space was becoming serious business.

By the time Apollo 11 reached the moon with three Hasselblad 500 EL cameras, they were fitted with a special glass plate in the camera, called a Reseau plate, with the now infamous cross hair grid marks that were recorded on every image you see from the moon. These marks were precisely aligned within .002 inches, and allowed scientists to calculate distances and heights of the surrounding terrain. As Commander, one of Neil Armstrong’s primary roles was to record images of the moon.

Neil Armstrong with Hasselblad 500 EL attached to his RCU.

Armstrong could not see the counter on the Hasselblad camera, so every time he exposed an image, he had to radio back to ground control in Houston, “I’m taking a photograph now.” Houston would record the image, and let Armstrong know when that magazine was outof film. Three

150 exposure magazines were used on the moon. Armstrong had very simple instructions to take images of anything that looked interesting. Buzz Aldrin did not carry a camera, and most images from the moon were recorded by Armstrong, of Aldrin. Besides a Maurer 16mm motion picture camera, the flight also took a Kodak close up stereo camera to the moon, preset to expose the film at 1/100th of a second at f/22.6, and recorded images at a range of 10″ from the surface. The camera used its own internal flash to ensure proper exposure, and each image was 1″ in size, and recorded an area of just 3″ square.

Up in the command module, astronaut Michael Collins used two Hasselblad images to take spectacular images of the moon and earth, while his colleagues worked below. In all, six missions landed on the moon and a total of 18 rolls of

One of my beloved Hasselblad 500 EL/Ms.

70mm film were recorded using a Hasselblad EL camera. To reduce weight, only the used film magazines were packed and returned to earth, and a total of 12 Hasselblad EL cameras were left on the moon, including one that was either giving Apollo 12 astronauts Conrad and Bean troubles, or that they were having trouble finding a self timer they wanted to attach to it in order to get a picture of both of them in front of the Surveyor craft. After some frustration, Conrad grabbed the Hasselblad with 60mm lens, removed the back, and threw Bean’s camera as far as he could onto the moons surface in the distance.

Since that time, the marvelous images from the Hasselblads have held up and as magnificent to look at today as they were back then. Now we look at them on the web, but back then it was Life Magazine. What an amazing time it was.

All but the last image are courtesy of NASA.