I finally got around today to scanning the last of NYC'09 images. They can be seen here. Over 500 pretty good images in a week seems pretty good to me. Out of this loosely edited group, what, perhaps 50 or so are real keepers; I hope. I actually haven't looked that closely yet.

I'm off in a few weeks to Germany and Italy for the holidays. Most of my time will be spent in the Sächsische Schweiz, but I will also spend a week in Venice! This is what I'm really looking forward to! I've never been to Venice in winter so I'm curious how this will be. I'm expecting grey damp weather so I'm bring lots of B&W film and my trusty Mamiya 6.

My final full day in New York. As I awoke to light rain I didn't expect much from the day; I figured I just wander around a bit and enjoy the day. Well, before I knew it I was reloading my Mamiya 6, and again, and again. I ended up shooting all the film I had brought in my bag (14 rolls) and had to switch to digital for the rest of the day. I started off in the lower section of Chinatown and slowly worked my way up to Canal and then over to Broadway and SoHo, and finally up to Union Square. Much of the morning I was shooting at 1/125th of a second but they mid-afternoon I was up to f11 @1/500th.

I'm in NYC almost a week now but sadly must go home in a few days. I'm here doing street photography. I'm shooting mostly in black and white, using my Mamiya 6. What a great camera! It is simply the perfect street camera, even better than a Leica M. Why? bigger negative for one but I like the square format as well. When I do use my Leicas for street photography I'm often frustrated when I must shoot a vertical image; it just throws my rhythm and timing all off. If you're holding a Leica in the vertical position, even if it's not up to your face, it's pretty clear your taking or going to take a photo. My Mamiya allows me to be more discreet.

This image was not taken with my Mamiya though. By this time in the day I had run out of film, and was heading back to my room for more. I had to use my Nikon D700 and 35mm lens.

Photo: Chinatown, NYC

There's a new member in the family; my camera family that is.

A pretty nice Leica M4. It's not collectible nice but it's still pretty clean and very usable; which is the point of owning it. Yes I own a Leica MP but I had a M4 back while going to Brooks in Santa Barbara and sold it to buy a Nikon F3. I have always regretted selling that M4, but money was tight then and I couldn't have two camera systems at the time. So, I've been watching the Ebay listings.

Modern digital cameras, with the exception of perhaps the M8, just can't compare to film cameras of the past. Take a look at any of the classic cameras from the late '60s through early '80s, such as the Pentax Spotmatic, Nikon F2. These cameras would be cost prohibitive to make now days. I doubt any digital camera can truly become the friend a well made film camera can be.

Went to Whidbey Island this last weekend. This was the view from the beach at Keystone. I really like the Keystone beach (my name for the beach just south of the Keystone ferry terminal). It is covered in a wonderful variety of stones, that make a great rushing sound as waves receed and the shore is just packed with driftwood.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: 70-200 f2.8 vr & 105 Micro

I've been busy developing my recent black and white street photography from Paris. I still have many many rolls to develop and scan but I have a few up on Flickr. I've also been busy shooting stock.

Camera: Mamiya 6, 50mm, Fujipan 400 film

Since Thursday I am the proud owner of a Nikon D700. Yes, I just bought a D300 in December but I just couldn't resist getting back to a full frame SLR. I never did like the tiny viewfinders of my Fuji S2, D70s, D200, D300, always hated the 1.5 conversion factor. It's so nice to use a 50mm lens as a 50mm lens, et cetera.

I am still getting to know my new friend but I can tell you Nikon's new FX sensor is simply amazing. Images shot at ISO 3200 are brilliant. I simply love the feel and sound of the shutter. It has a smoother feel and more precise sound about it (compared to the D300). With the added high speed sensitivity I am now using the auto-ISO feature. I simply set the camera in aperture mode, the lens at f8, low shutter speed at 1/60th, and high ISO at 3,200. This is a great walk-around configuration.

So, my D300 is gone, as are my couple of DX lenses. I have numerous film lenses I can now put back to use but I expect to buy a 70-200 f2.8; once new replacement appears.

Photo: Stolben, Germany
Camera: Nikon D300

Just back from a month in Europe. My first stop was Paris, for a week of street photography, the rest of my time was spent in Germany, part in the Bodensee area and part in the Dresden area; with a few days in Frankfurt.

I flew the new, this year, Lufthansa Seattle-Frankfurt route, and it was very nice. Nice new plane, friendly staff, and they even provide metal silverware with the meals. Also, their inter-Europe flights offer free beverages (like beer and wine!).

Most of my images were taken with my Precious Mamiya 6 and it's wonderful 50m lens; using Fujipan 400 black and white film. I will start processing the 75+ rolls of film after my upcoming art show . I also shot color and used my Nikon D300.

I will be displaying oil paintings at the August 16th and 17th "Fresh Paint" art show. Until then I"m pretty busy getting my work ready for display. This will be my first art show and I'm looking forward to the experience. If all goes well I expect to start attending shows across the west coast.

Photos: Paris, taken with a Nikon D300

Went to see the Dali Lama today. I have no photos as we weren't allow to bring cameras into the stadium. We sat in the group right behind him so he was right in sight but ironically I found myself looking a lot at the giant monitor.

It was a blazingly hot day. After sitting for over 3 hours I was feeling quite toasted.

I spent last week in Portland, mainly to visit the North American Handmade Bike Show. We took Amtrak down and rode our bikes all over Portland. The show was over-whelming, too many people too many $5,000 frames, but Portland was wonderful. We had surprisingly warm weather(considering that the weekend before Portland had snow) and we rode late into the night exploring the city.

I especially liked the Hawthorne neighborhood. Portland has much to offer, so many small shops, still so many gritty areas to explore; I really need to go back and shoot black and white there. I'm not so sure I could live there though. I don't think I could live in a river town, I think I need the salt air of a port town.

Happy New Year! I am just back from a stay in Vancouver. We had a great time, I took some decent street photos, brought my bike along, saw a wonderful performance of the Nutcracker, by the Moscow Classical Ballet but sadly in the incredibly ugly "Queen Elizabeth Theatre".

I often hear people praising Vancouver as better than Seattle, more European, more urban. Well, if you consider tearing down all the old buildings of the past century and replacing them with glass and concrete high rise apartments to be a good idea and more European then yes Vancouver is all that.

Don't get me wrong, I like Vancouver, I could live there, it's a lively city in a beautiful natural setting but I wouldn't consider it better, certainly not safer, just different than Seattle. It's sort of a mix of Hong Kong meets Oakland. There are lovely parts of Vancouver (The West end!) but also many parts you wouldn't want to walk in; even in the daytime. A drive east from downtown along Hastings street provides miles and miles of urban decay, and hundreds of transients (Vancouver is the warmest city in Canada so VanCan tends to attract Canada's drifters). There are also many dreary concrete high rise apartment "villages" connected by the Skytrain where people stay before returning to work (hello, Burnaby?). Anke thought Vancouver had a Czech-look about it. I'm not so sure the fine Czechs would appreciate that remark.

We stayed at the Georgian Court Hotel, which was quite nice, but they didn't think we should walk the 10 blocks to Chinatown, at the very least, they said, don't go past Hastings street or turn left anywhere along the way.

Speaking of Chinatown, I had what had to be the worse Chinese food in my life there. We left most of it on the table. Strange because half of the former Hong Kong population now lives in Vancouver. I guess the good cooks stayed put. We did have some wonderful meals, including Japanese and Lebanese.

Photo: Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver
Camera: Nikon D300

Well, it's official, I have just published my first photo book. It's available for sale HERE. It's a small book but hey it's a start. It's a retrospective collection of my street photos of people from the start, 1989, through my most recent trip to NYC in September. Please consider buying one!

I just submitted this image to JPG magazine. If you have a free moment you could go there and vote for my image!

JPG is a very interesting magazine. Please vote!

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Leica MP

I'm still working on developing my NYC film but I do have many roll scanned and some images up on my web site . I got worried with the first batch of film I developed as I had almost an entire roll of film that was slightly forward focused, in other words soft. But, so far I am averaging 50% or better of usable images per roll; so I'm happy.

Many people have asked me why I haven't switched to digital for my black and white work (where auto focus might help). It might help although autofocus cameras are hardly foolproof. The biggest problem with digital, to date, is only a dSLR has the quality I want (and the lack of lag delay), but they are all too noisy for my way of photographing (3 to 5 feet away from the subject). Even my Mamiya 6 is a bit too noisy, I try to time the exposure with a street noise, or in the case of subway shots I took while in NYC, the noise of the brakes or doors opening.

I love this picture of the woman and her son. He was looking at me most of the time, the woman didn't notice me (I was 3 feet way) but a woman a few seats down did (which I noticed once I had the shot), and she gave me the evil eye and changed seats. That was fine, she wasn't worth a frame any ways.

I sometimes feel like one of the angles in "wings of Desire", as most kids pick up on what I'm doing (taking photos of them) but the adults are for the most part clueless. Which is a good thing.


Photos: NYC
Camera: Mamiya 6, 50mm lens, Tri-X film

Still haven't finished developing my NYC film, I'll get around to it soon. I'm off to Winthrop for a mini vacation with the family then later next week I'll get back to developing film.

Speaking of film, I had a guy in NYC come up to me and ask to buy film from me. It was the week of Sukkot and the main photo shops were closed, and even though he only wanted 35mm b&w film he was having problems. I couldn't help him because I was shooting 120 film.

Photo: Paris'07
Camera: Mamiya 6

I still have lots of darkroom work but I hate being in the darkroom during the day, especially when the weather is nice and sunny as it is in Seattle this Fall. So, I did a little scanning this afternoon, but not before a nice long fall bike ride this morning. Here's an example from Paris this summer; more coming and already on my web site.

Early this week I tried upgrading my scanner software from Vuescan to Silverfast. What a mistake that was! After testing the demo version and deciding it was better I paid the bucks and got the serial number. Problem is the serial number doesn't "stick" and I still have watermarks on the scanned images. Silverfast, I found out, has terrible customer service. They only do it by email and I'm still waiting for a response from Tuesday!!! So, it was back to Vuescan, which is a bit buggy but workable.

Photo: Paris
Camera: Mamiya 6, 50mm lens, tri-x film

In these days of the ever new digital improvement I find it rather amazing that I'm still shooting film; and quite a bit of it at that. I haven't shot color film in years but I shot a lot of black and white film, although my beloved Leica MP gets very little use even for B&W. I am, however, shooting a lot of medium format B&W film through my also beloved Mamiya 6.

Two nights ago I finally finished developing my film from Dresden, Frankfurt, and Paris projects from the summer and tonight I will start developing the 50+ rolls of tri-x from my most recent NYC trip.

I think NYC must be the best city in the world to shoot street photography. As much as I love Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, et cetera, they just can't compete with New York as a location jam packed full of interesting people. It's also an amazingly safe city to walk about with a camera dangling about one's neck. I never felt concerned in New York, not downtown, uptown, LEV, Brooklyn, Queen. True, I didn't go this trip to The Bronx but the current NYC is nothing compared to my first NYC visit in 1984. Then, even with my M4 hidden under my coat I was fearful, I poked into shops to look at my map, I was told not to walk more than halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge, I avoided the subway when possible. Now, well, now New York is wonderful, simply the best. I think I would move there, at least for a year, if I could talk my wife into it. Well, at least I have my yearly photo trip, and perhaps with time I can increase that to twice a year.

Getting ready now for my annual fall trip to New York City. Film ordered, ironically from NYC, flight booked, and lodging, I hope will be actually there. I normally stay at a mid-town hotel but this trip I'm staying in an apartment I found on Craigslist. I do hope it is for real. As usual, I don't really have plans other than wandering the streets hoping to come across images. In NYC this doesn't seem to be a problem, such a densely packed city with such an amazing variety of people.

Photo: Los Angeles, Ca

No photo today. I have something like 50+ rolls of 120 B&W film to develop. My European adventures were great: Frankfurt, Paris, Schwäbisch Hall, Dresden, Spreewald, I got lots of photos and had some great times and although I've been back in the states for weeks now I still haven't made it into my darkroom to develop film.

This week end is the Seattle Hempfest, one of my favorite local events to photograph. I was there today, luckily while the sun was out, and I should have a hundred or more decent photos. I am in favor of most of the things the event want to promote but most of the people attending and most of the speakers don't help their cause. Clearly Pot can have an effect on the mind. It all makes for great photo taking though.

I'm planning my next photo trip, a week to New York City. I have my plane ticket, I'm working on my lodging. Where I take photos is still a work in progress; but I expect to do as last year; and simply just walk the city with my Mamiya 6 around my neck. Ready for the decisive moment.

Took photos of people today at Gas Works Park (as they waited for the fireworks to start). but I won't have time to develop them until the end of August. I simply won't have time to get into the darkroom before then.

I'm packing my bags, and bike, tonight for my trip to Europe. I'll be heading first to Frankfurt, then to Paris for street photography, then back to Germany and some bike riding around Schwäbisch Hall, and finally to Dresden to relax in the Sächsische Schweiz (great bike riding too). Rather than take my S&S-equipped road bike I'll be taking my Dahon folding city bike. Once I get to Dresden I can use my old Canondale road bike I keep there.

I seem to be too busy to make any blog entries, but I simply must! Went to the annual Solstice parade in the Fremont district of Seattle last Saturday. Here are some photos. It's always a great time, lots of naked bike riders (although now days they are pretty much dipped in paint (hardly naked). Still a great time and good photo chances.

I rode my first century (100 miles) of the year Thursday. I realized on Tuesday it would be my last chance to ride a century before I turned half a century old; which I did yesterday.

I rode my new bike, a Rivendell Romulus Cantilever. This frame was made in a small batch a few years ago and I found a new old stock in my size (61cm) at a Minneapolis bike shop. I received the frame a week ago yesterday and had the bike built up by Tuesday; so this was also a shake-down run.

I didn't have the idea for this ride until Tuesday and did little more than put air in the tires and buy some food. Other than a flat tire, a constant headwind, and some light rain I had no problems and made the ride in an acceptable 6 hours. Not as good as I had hoped for, but considering I rode every day of the week (I should have rested at least Wednesday), didn't have the greatest selection of food along (too much sugary stuff), and was riding alone, I feel happy with the results. The bike was perfect and already feels like an good friend!

The clan members met me 10 miles from my destination, the Olympic Club in Centralia (an amazing place). There we ate, drank, watched a movie, played some pool, and stayed the night. We came back to Seattle today to celebrate my birthday with friends. A nice start to the second half of my century.

Photo 1: The 'Romy' at a snack break
Photo 2: Meeting the clan members (aka: Louise & Lucas) just before my final destination
Photo 3: The Olympic Club
Photo 4: The 'Romy' at rest in our room at the Olympic Club Hotel

camera: Leica D Lux 3

Yes, it's another photo of me; sorry. But I just had to show off my newest berets. These are really big and floppy, they will make you feel like you've just stepped off the Ponte Vecchio in Renaissance days, perhaps heading to have an espresso with Michelangelo. Well, that couldn't be as the espresso machine wasn't invented yet but at any rate it's a great beret, or Boina as the Basque say. I've got them for sale Here

Had some free time last night and so I went down the street to the Sunset Tavern, in old Ballard, and saw Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised by a well balanced (sound wise) hypnotic sound. I especially liked the Cello player.

Up Date: I'm still crazy about this band. I've bought the CD and now have bought a cello! Am I over the top? I don't think so. I always have liked the cello.

I highly suggest you order this cd straight away!

Camera: Leica D Lux 3

Have you ever thought of wearing a beret? One of the world's greatst head covering inventions ever. I own several berets: french, english, spainish. I love them.It is rare to see someone in France wearing a beret, they have been out of fashion there for the past 20 plus years; with the exception of the American tourist. So where is the beret still worn, or Boina as the Spainish call them, why the Spanish Basque region of course.

Which brings me to the finest beret made; which I just happen to import. I'm not getting rich importing berets, I guess it's my hobby, but sell them off my web site: HERE , and on ebay from time to time. I just received a new order and I haven't raised the price, even though they cost me more than the last order (and the dollar has fallen once again). So, splurge a bit and order one. They also make a great present as there is only one size (the headband can be stretched to fit any head).

A few months ago I made the terrible terrible mistake of pulling my 35mm Leica lens off the counter with my MP's neck strap. The lens looked fine but the focus was froze! I took it to a local German camera repair guy who, after months of dinking around says there are no new parts to be had and all the used parts he has ordered a not good enough.

So now what? A new 35mm Leica lens is over $2,100!!! My other choice is a $1,000 Japanese-made Zeiss or $300 Voightlander lens. mmm. what to do? In the mean time I'm having fun with my new little pocket camera, the Leica D Lux 3. Still back-ordered most places I've been shooting away for over a month. It's not up to 35mm standards, which means the photos I take can only be for fun, or painting ideas.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Leica D Lux 3

Well tonight's Ballard art walk was a big success. It was unusually cold in Seattle (32 degrees f) so I was surprised to see how many people ventured out. Of course it didn't hurt that we had birthday cake on hand; not to mention beer, wine, champagne, german wieners.

I showed a more extensive display of my most recent New York City photos, as well as a few new oil paintings.

Photo: Studio Boina, Ballard
Camera: Leica D Lux 3

The New Year gets started and I have several goals: more and longer bike rides, shoot more street photography, paint more, write more.

I'm planning to head to San Fransico next month to see the start of the Tour of California, I'll also do some street photography while there. I also need to get a trip back to NYC but I'm uncertain if it will be spring or fall. Summer I'm off to Europe. I expect to fly to Brussels, visit the Eddy Merckx Bicycle works, stop off in my old haunts Paris before heading to Germany and finally Vienna and Venice.

This Saturday will be the first Ballard ArtWalk for the year and I will be open.

Well the Christmas season is over, thank goodness, and I just need to get past the New Year to get started fresh! I always feel anxious for this time of year to be over. It seems all forms of life (business, creative juices, et cetera) come a halt in December.

During these slow December/Christmas days I've been giving thought to the next year: new goals, wishes, dreams, expectations and one of those was to get back into music.

So a Christmas present to myself was this nice new shiny double French Horn, or Horn as the pros like to call it. I played the horn for over 8 years and sadly sold it when I headed off to photography school. I always did want a silver horn and also always thought the detachable bell design was a good one, so when I saw this pop up on ebay I couldn't resist. Nice German (Geyer) designed wrap. I've already bought a music book of Puccini pieces, still need to find a nice book of Mozart. I also need a nice backpack style bag so I can carry my horn on my bike!

Photo: Ballard
Camera: Leica D Lux 3

I think I'm in holiday mode now. No, I don't have the holiday spirit I'm just sort of waiting for it to be over! All seems to be "on hold" for the holidays. I've done a bit of painting, printed a few photos, but other than that I'm just kind of hanging out, waiting for the new year, new projects, new adventures, new ideas.

I did buy a new pocket camera, a Leica D Lux 3 It's by far the nicest looking of the pocket digital cameras but more than just a pretty face it has a useful lens range(one of the few that goes to 28mm) and it produces quite nice images, although the sensor size is too limiting; but so are all the pocket digital. I'm waiting, waiting for a full sized sensor pocket camera!

Photo: Madera, Ca
Camera: Mamiya 6

I've been taking things pretty slowly the last week or so but I'm now thinking of the next Ballard Art Walk and what I will present. My last show was limited due to the fact that the frames I ordered for my NYC show was shipped short. I now have those frames and need to print off images for them.

Photo: Dresden
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Back from a week on the Oregon coast, where we had surprisingly nice, but very changable, weather. I didn't take many photos but I got several nice bike rides along the coast in during our time there.

Photo: San Francisco
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

I've been going through my negatives from Tokyo, looking for images I missed the first time through and found quite a few good ones. My tokyo trip was some of the last street photography I did with my Hasselblad 500cm. I have since switched to a Mamiya 6 rangefinder camera (and I now find myself eyeing the new Leica M8 as a possible digital street camera option).

Tokyo was a difficult city to do street photography in as I was often the only non-asian in the area and people quickly noticed me. They also seemed to figure out what I was up to, unlike most places I've attempted my style of photography. Tokyo is a great city which I hope to get back to before long.

Location: Tokyo (Ikebukuro), Japan
Camera: 500cm

Good thing I got some bike miles in during our sunny yesterday as another tropical storm blew through town today. Ah yeah, if it's fall it must be "pineapple express" season. In other words, a storm from the south pacific blows through town providing warmth and rain, then we get a sun break of a day or two, then another storm passes through. It beats snow, hurricanes, hail, fires, earthquakes, but I'm already tired of it and am already thinking of migrating to Palm Springs!

Tomorrow is my new NYC gallery opening but the company I ordered frames from shorted my order! My walls will be a bit thin tomorrow but there's little I can do about it.

Photo: NYC
Camera: Nikon D200

I received an email invitation this morning to open a Saatchi artist's gallery page. Sure, why not. Received my inkjet paper this morning and got busy printing my November exhibit. Only one problem, I ran out of frames.

I sure love my new printer. Without doing more than clicking a few buttons this printer prints out prints exactly as they looked on my monitor. I guess I have Apple and HP to think for this simplicity.

Image: a hotel room in southern France
Material: Oil on Canvas

My new frames arrived today and tomorrow I will start printing my new exibition that opens Saturday. This will be my first exibit based on inkjet prints. I guess it would sound more impressive if I called them glicée prints but I'm not French so I'm sticking with the english term inkjet. I could at least call them pigment-based inkjet prints eh.


Photo: Berlin
Camera: Nikon D70s

Last week I took my paintings off my studio's grey wall and now today I rehung them very tightly on my dark red wall. So, I now have a wall pretty much solid with my paintings all the way to the ceiling 18 above. I'm now waiting for the frames and paper I've ordered to arrive and I will start printing black and white images for my new exibit that will hang on the grey wall. Exibit opens November 12th in my studio, hours that day (during the Ballard Art Walk) are 6-9pm and other times by appointment.

Photo: Berlin, 1992
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

I redid my painting gallery again, added some paintings that haven't been shown before and I am now offering 5x7 inch archival prints on a nice "moab" art paper; signed for just $15. I can also do larger sizes upon request.

Painting: oil on canvas
Location: Krackow, Poland

Updated my painting gallery today and added the option of ordering an archival 5x7" inkjet print. I'm am also getting ready for the November Ballard Art Walk, redoing my walls with black and white prints from my recent NYC trip.

Painting: Taos Mission, New Mexico

I received my new printer this week. I have been holding off on buying a photo printer for some years years, as I couldn't see offering prints that might fade in a matter of months. Well now, with the introduction of the HP b9180 pigment-based printer I feel I can finally start offering prints I feel won't fade. The claim is 100-200 years. I'm not sure I believe that, I'm testing a print in my west-facing studio window now, but I am hopeful.

So, I have added a new link to my images offering 5x7 inch and 8x10 inch injet prints at what I believe are very reasonable prices; signed even. I will continue to offer hand-printed "wet" prints as well.

Photo: Tacoma, USA
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

I need to do a little venting, make a little rant. I was at the grocery store tonight and the woman in front of me, she was in her 70s I suppose, took about 5 minutes to write a check. Hello, it's the 21st century!!! Writing a check at the grocery? That is really really old school! There we are waiting for her to find her check book, find her pen, fill out every-single-space not before the bill is totaled but after of course. She also filled in the register part before handing the check to the clerk. Oh!

I'm not one for trendy gizmos, like text-messenging, or mobile phone email but gees when you can get cash back by using a credit card, and pay just one bill per month, why not! This isn't 1978 where the clerk has to phone in each CC transaction to get approval, a present day CC transaction is actually quicker than cash in most sitations.

Get with it lady, get a debit card or credit card, or carry cash. Thank you.


Photo: NYC
Camera: Mamiya 6

Developed more film this weekend and will continue scanning in the morning. I'm getting down to the last rolls and I would be happy to head back to NYC to shoot some more. Well, I don't think I can get away with that so I'll have to settle for downtown Seattle for a while.

This woman was at the SE corner of Central Park at a book seller. She had a great way of way about her, which didn't come across in my photo very well. Very expressive body.

Photo: NYC: Central Park
Camera: Mamiya 6

It is a beautiful fall day and here I sit in front of a computer! Well I mean to do something about that right now. I'm off in a moment for a nice bike ride down along Lake Washington then up to Capitol Hill to pick up my Beans and then back to the grind; or not.

Photo: NYC: Soho
Camera: Mamiya 6

Added a few more images from NYC but I need to now get back in the darkroom and develop more of my film. The woman in this image is singing opera. It was beautiful, just what this noisy metro station needed.

Photo: NYC
Camera: Mamiya 6

Still the same old story, scanning images from my NYC trip. This will be my story for a few weeks here I think. Just got news my new printer shipped and should be here by the end of the week. It's a month late but I still hope to have an exibition up before Thanksgivings. I will also start offering a cheaper, injet version of my work. This new printer, the HP B9180 claims to have a 200 year print life so I finally feel comfortable offering injet prints (or giclee as some people like to say (French for inkjet)).

I'm already missing NYC and would gladly go back anytime. I still don't think I want to live there but I could imagine at least a yearly trip if not biyearly visits. I don't think I have ever been in a city that offered so many chances for street photography. I lived a year in Paris, and while I hadn't discovered street photography at that point in time I don't think it's the same, there isn't the variety of subjects like NYC, same with London, Berlin, Tokyo. Big cities, yes, but for interesting faces I think NYC wins easily.

Photo: NYC, manhattan subway
Camera: Mamiya 6

I got a few more images from NYC scanned and uploaded today. You can see them here. For most of my street photography I take the photo by pre-setting the focus and it appears I did a pretty good job of estimating focus this trip. I've only developed 8 of the 30 rolls of film I took but so far I'm able to use about half of each roll. That's quite good. This image from taken in Soho at a book and record street sale. Light level was quite low, so I was shooting down at 1/60th of a second and f5.6 or so, so there wasn't much room for focus error.

Location: NYC, Soho
Camera: Mamiya 6

Developed 8 rolls of film last night and had time to scan a few images today. They can be seen here. Tomorrow I should have more time for scanning and over the weekend more time to develop film.

Photo: NYC, Soho
Camera: Mamiya 6

I posted some color images from my recent NYC trip. Didn't get around to developing film last night, perhaps tonight once all is quiet in the house.

Image: NYC: mid-town east
Camera: Nikon D200

Back from the big city to the little village named Seattle. I know I will miss the constant photo opportunities NYC offers but I also appreciate the nice salt air here, and finally, after a week, having a really good Latte was pure bliss. New York was great and I'm thinking I need to make a yearly pilgrimage there, but I doubt I could actually live there (I would like to spend 6 months to a year there at some point). Not being able to see the horizon, lack of mountains, and a few other points I fear would get to me with time. It's a very nice place to visit.

Busy today catching up with business, and adding my new images to my Mac Pro. Tonight I'll start developing my 30+ rolls of B&W film. Could be a week before I start adding any black & white images but I should have color gallery up within a few days.

Photo: NYC:Soho
Camera: Nikon D200

Today was just the opposite of yesterday. Today started off bright and sunny and ended up with rain. Rode the subway out to Coney Island, ate a Nathan's hot dog, of course. I should have some good B&W photos from the shopping street of Brighton Beach. Came back to Prince Street and got several rolls of images at a book and record flea market. I can hardly wait to develop my film and see what I have from this very productive week!

In the evening I went back to Soho for dinner and stopped at a place that claims they introduced the cappucino to America. Well, I hate to keep complaining about coffee but if I was blindfolded and was just handed this drink I doubt I would have associated coffee with it. It was mostly milk! No wonder there are so many Starbucks here; but I refuse to drink there (even if they are from Seattle). There are man bumper stickers in Seattle that read "friends don't let friends drink at Starbucks". I agree.

location: NYC:Soho
Camera: Nikon D200

The day started off looking very grey and rain prone. It looked like a museum day. Instead I Wandered the West Village and hoped for the weather to change; and it did. I finally found a few coffee houses, the one I tried made a pretty decent Latte although the extraction time was too long and the coffee was a bit bitter. I think I like the villages the best; both east and west . Smaller streets and pace, good photo opportunities, and many nice shops. Found a nice place for with beer and cheap food, the Soho Park (at 62 Prince St).

Went to Union square last night to watch the critical Mass but it was quite a let down. There weren't more than two dozen bikes. Too bad. I guess they've been cracking down on the bikers here and most are staying away now.

Photo: NYC:Lower Eastside
Camera: Nikon D200

Yesterday the weather was great in the big apple but this morning it has been raining and is now very grey. Might be a good day to see a museum.

I'm beginning to form some opinions about New York, for one all the talk I hear that "Seattle ain't got no delis". I never knew what that meant as we have plenty of delis to buy a sandwich at. I now think they mean "I can't or don't have time to cook so I need a big spread of prepared foods on display to scoop into a plastic container to take home.". I am also realizing some of the claims are just plain over-blown, like the pizza being so great or the beagles not to compare. Yes, they're good but not that amazing. Seattle has some great Greek pizza places for instance. Coffee, now there is a subject that Seattle clearly wins; no question about it. I have yet to find a decent coffee! I have had to leave two cups on the table, they were so bad, and now yesterday in Little Italy, surly a place to find a good coffee, I had to stop my order and walk out after seeing the woman start to make my cappucchino using pre-made espresso!!! All I see here are Starbucks, no coffee carts, no little coffee houses. Oh, how I need a Vivacé espresso!

I'm not seeing many bike riders here either. More than L.A. but far fewer than Seattle or San Francisco. That's strange considering the terrible traffic, how flat it is here and how NY has millions more citizens than either Seattle or S.F. I notice every bike is secured with a giant hardened chain, and most are wrapped with tape; to look bad. Nice.

People? There is no doubt NYC wins in having the biggest selection and quantity of people. No doubt about that. People people everywhere, and they are all in a big big hurry. Breakfast, Fast!, Walking, Fast! Subway, Jammed-in! Yes for a photographer this place is great, there is never a shortage of people. I would love to live here for 6 months, maybe a year, but for life? I think I would quickly tire of never seeing more than buildings. Because it's so flat one never sees the horizon. Seattle, S.F. you can almost always get a view to the water (plus mountains in Seattle). Yes I think I would miss the hills and views the most.

Location: East Village
Camera: Nikon D200

The weather is turning for the worse here, quite grey today and rain expected tomorrow. In Seattle? Oh beautiful sunny weather all week; of course. So with the grey dark day today I had to pick and choose my subjects carefully and hence I took fewer photos than previous days.

Photo: Central Park, NYC
Camera: Nikon D200

Greetings from New York City. No, I didn't bring my bike, although I wish I had, it would be great to have a bike here but then I would be busy riding not walking and getting all the people pictures I am.

Second day here and I have already shot over 150 black and white photos of people and hundreds of digital color photos as well. I have been to NYC a few times but this is my first real chance to focus on my own photo projects. It is indeed a treasure chest of photo opportunities. The variety of people is amazing and the density is like nothing I've seen other than Tokyo. Even Paris and London don't seem as packed with people.

At the same time the areas down around Greenwich Village are, well village-like.

Photo: Times Square, NYC
Camera: Nikon D200

I didn't scan a single negative today, instead I was busy getting ready for my Sunday departure for NYC.

I have been totally focused on scanning black and white negatives for pretty much the entire summer it seems. I may regret I wasn't out taking new photos (more), I don't know, but I felt the need to get my old and current negatives into my computer. My new printer should be here by the time I return from NYC and then I will start working on creating an exhibit in time for the holidays. I also expect to start painting again once winter sets in.

Photo: Kunming, China
Camera: Nikon F3

Uh oh, didn't I just rant about people thinking it rains here all the time? Well it rained a bit in the morning and threatened to rain the rest of the day; but the rest of the week should be sunny.

Any way, I did more scanning today, after attending my son's school birthday party. Had two, yes 2 flat tires over the course of 22 miles today. Man oh man, I guess it's time for new tires.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Leica MP

Rant. Ok, I already made a post today but after getting off the phone with LLBean I just had to rant a little. So I call them to place an order for new flannel sheets for my VW Camper. The first thing out of the woman's mouth, once she hears I'm calling from Seattle is, "is it raining there?". Uh, no, it's not raining, in fact it hasn't rain but a few drips for months and months; I would venture to say we had, as usual, one of the nicest summers in the U.S. here in the NW. No need for A/C, no bugs to mention, just nice mild sunny days. No doubt Maine has triple the rain Seattle did during the summer, and no doubt New England had as much rain last June, when things were floating away up there, as Seattle had in the last 12 months.

This Cliché that it always rains in Seattle drives me crazy! NYC (47"), Cleveland (36"), Washington D.C. (40"), (not to mention it's cold and snowy in winter in these places) and a dozen other cities in the US, not to mention many major world cities, like Paris, Berlin, London, Amersterdam,get more rain than Seattle. Seattle only gets about 32-36 inches per year, and only a few days per year below freezing. Los Angeles had 35 inches of rain last year!!! I think even S.F. had more rain this last year than Seattle.

Truth is we have great weather. Yes it's grey much of the winter, as is Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhaagen, etc., but it's very mild as well. Not many places in the U.S., outside of California, can claim one can bicycle every day of the year (and even there it's often too hot to ride a bike). I guess my response should have been "is it snowing up in Maine?". Well, any way, no, it's not raining in Seattle, it's a nice mild fall day, and here's another photo from San Francisco. Thank You.

Camera: Leica MP

What camera to take? That question has been on my mind for the last week. What camera to take to NYC next week: the Leica, 500cm, or my beloved Mamiya 6. I worry about losing my Mamiya (a difficult camera to replace), the 500cm is heavier but actually quite good for street photography (with the mirror pre-released) and easily replaced (in the current digital world used Hasselblads are pretty cheap), and while I love my Leica I'm not that crazy about 35mm negatives; they're simply too small. Well, now the Leica is off the list any ways, as my 35mm lens got knocked off the shelve it was on (off the camera both caps on) and now the barrel is stuck!!! So it is off to the lens doctor leaving me with the choice of just two.

Photo: San Francisco
Camera: Leica MP

Photo: New Bedford, MA
Camera: 500cm

Made more minor adjustments to my new black and white page, scanned a few more images, got in a 21 mile bike ride. The days are really too short though. I can never do as much as I need to do. I have piles of black and white images to scan, old color transparencies to scan, digital images for stock agencies to upload and annotate. I guess it's a good thing, the day going by fast. I know it can also go by really really slow if one is doing something boring; so I won't complain.

Photo: Santa Barbara
Camera: 500cm

Alright then, I got all the new links working, I think, and add a few more galleries. I still want to make a few changes, like the "flash" images need redoing and expand my painting tab. At least it all works.

I took this photo at the Folklife fest some years back and have had several people come in claming to know this guy. Then one day HE came in! Just wanted to see his photo I guess. He looked for a bit, at himself, and then left.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: 500cm

So late this afternoon I started the switch on my website www.RonGreer.com creating black and white tab, combinning architectural with commercial, and my artwork will have it's own tab as well. Yes there are some bad links on the renamed "artwork" tab. It was a perfect sunny afternoon so I had to leave early for a bike ride, and I needed to pick up beans at Vicacé as well. Tomorrow, I'll work on those bad links, and redo the "artwork" page. That will pressure me to start painting again! Not that I don't want to or don't have ideas for paintings it's just that I've been so bent on scanning my old black & white images I haven't had time. But fall and winter are coming which is typically when I do my painting any way.

I am getting ready to re-organize my web site, combining Architectural and Commercial into one tab (and correct that spelling error that been bugging me for over a year) and separating my personal photography from my art work (paintings). First I don't like the tab called "fine art". I have a problem with term like that. I also don't like it when people call themselves an 'artist'. I believe you can claim to be a photographer, painter, potter, etc. and that it is up to those that look at your work to decide if you're an artist or not. But I 'm getting off course here.

While getting ready to rearrange things I realized having my people galleries by time period only makes sense to me, that most people would want to see images by location. So I'm working on building new galleries by location, and I realize that my trip to Lisbon brought quite the bounty of images. Here's another image from that trip and I have still more to scan.



Photo: Lisbon
Camera: 500cm

Back to hot weather; today it's 80 degrees! But I got a nice 45 mile bike ride at lunch time, did a bit more scanning this morning, and am doing some research for my up coming NYC trip in a few weeks this afternoon.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Nikon D200

Photo: St.Louis
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Still scannng even though I should be downtown, or somewhere, making new photos. I know once winter hits I will be wishing for nice weather; like we're having right now! But I can't help myself, I must scan! I need to scan.

Photo: London
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Took a few days off and climbed some mountain passes with my bicycle. 30 miles up to Chinook Pass and then over and up to Sunrise on Mount Rainier. Beautiful late summer weather, did some blueberry picking ontop of Chinook Pass even.

Today it was back to the studio and more scanning. The time always flies past there and before I know it I have to leave to go home. I'm starting to plan my next trip, to New York City, at the end of September. I've driven through NYC and taken photos ( I have some of those photos online but not many) but to go by foot will be a new experience.

Photo: Lisbon
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

As I scanned this photo I had to laugh. You see, I'm married to a German and every time we go for a visit to Germany it never fails that people we meet have these crazy ideas (stated as fact) about America that I get to listen to. There are only Mcdonald's for restaurants, all people are fat, we drive everywhere (that may actually be true for parts of the U.S (like San Fernando Valley.), and crazy questions like "can one walk in big cities (or just drive)?". These statements are, of course, made by "experts" who have never been to America. Here is proof it's not only Americans that can get fat. As for Mcdonald's, I think Dresden, a city 1/3rd as big as Seattle, has as many if not more Mcdonald's outlets.

Photo: Kassel (Germany)
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

A world record was set today. I scanned something like 32 images (all can be seen at my site, www.rongreer.com). I've never scanned even half that many in a day! I keep this up I will be caught up and need to get busy and shoot more.

I heard my new computer laughing at me today; it's true. As I was scanning in Photoshop, building a html gallery in Iview, and uploading in Dreamweaver, all at the same time, I heard my computer laughing "is that all you can throw at me?". All that number-crunching only slightly slowed down this beast; a tiny bit! I couldn't be happier with my new computer (in case you can't tell).

Ok, time to run, need to get ready for the Critical Mass bike ride tonight, and I'll be stopping off at the Pike Street Market for a King Salmon to BBQ later. Oh boy.

Photo: Puyallup
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

I've said it already but I'll say it again, wow, wow! is my new computer fast! Fast and powerful in fact. It just plows through scans, sharpening, html gallery builiding all seemingly without effort. One reason I was in a hurry to divide my galleries into year periods was to cut the processing time each time I added images to a gallery. it simply isn't an issue any more. Even a 100 image gallery takes less than 8 minutes.

Photo: Seattle Hempfest
Camera: Mamiya 6

Spent the morning getting my new computer operational, like adding Dreamweaver, Photoshop CR2, Iview Mediapro, Quickbooks, and all my files. Had to download a new plug-in before PS would recognize my Minolta scanner but here are the first scans using my new Mac Pro.

Wow, is it ever fast. Before, with my old G3 PowerBook, while waiting for an image to, say, sharpen I could go down and make a Latte. Not any more! It will sharpen a 68mb file in under 10 seconds!!! It will make a html gallery in Iview in under 8 minutes, something that use to take almost an hour. nice. So, how much quicker will photoshop be once it is running native? too fast? is that possible. I may need to hire a barista!

Photos: Seattle Hempfest, taken on Saturday
Camera: Mamiya 6

So! It's here! My shiny new Mac Pro: 2.66ghz, 3 gb memory, 1.25 terabyes of storage. I had just ridden a very fast 10 miles so I don't look the freshest in the photo but doesn't my new baby look great! It looks beautiful inside too, like a work of art. The interior is amazingly clean and well thought out. I added two 500gb additional hard drives and 2 additional Gbs of memory in about 5 minutes. Now for the task of creating the RAID1 configuration and loading all my software and files. Then the fun begins.

Took the day off and drove down to my favorite Bar, The Olympic Club, in logger-chic Centrailia. A "must stop" for anyone driving between Portland and Seattle. Wonderfully preserved 1902 interior, a dozen pools table, big big big pot belly stove, good food, and of course good beer. Kids welcome!

Photo: Hollywood, Ca
Camera: D200

So! I placed my order today for the just released Mac Pro 2.66ghz dual processor computer! It should ship this coming Friday. This ought to be one powerful computer, to help me speed through scans and processng of my images. I can hardly wait. Yes, photoshop won't be native until, I'm told, the beginning of the new year but until then I don't think it will be slower than my 1ghz powerbook G4 I'm using now. First addition will be a pair of 500gb hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration as the main storage; then more ram.

Photo: New Jersey
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

The universal Trabant, or Trabbi. In its time one had to wait upward of 10 years and fork over a years pay (and prove one had a garage to keep it in). In 1992 I bought one for $110 and drove it three times to Paris and thousands of miles through Germany and the Czech Republic. It's air cooled 2 cylinder 2 stroke engine put out something like 30 horsepower and had a top speed of about 70 mph (at that speed one needed nerves of steel and a steady hand on the wheel or you would find the "car" on its roof!). The body was made of a formica-like material. Sadly most of them ended up like this one and it is now quite rare to see one of the road.

Photo: Dresden
Camera: 500cm

Had a productive day of scanning and a very nice BBQ of wild Sockeye salmon this evening. While most of the nation bakes in record temperatures while the NW temperatues were perfect. Soft defused light during breakfast this morning, just right sun in the afternoon and a rosy sunset over the Olympics this evening.

This is one of my images I scanned today, taken in Prague in 1992.
Camera: 500cm

This photo is from my 2002 Lisbon trip. I spent a week walking around Lisbon. I didn't think so at the time but I realize now that I came back with many great photos. I spent 8 to 9 hours per day walking the narrow winding hilly streets searching for images to be had. I spent about an hour every morning at this intersecion, hanging around with the locals who didn't seem to mind or notice that a guy with a Hasselblad on his shoulder was standing 1 meter away.

The weather has cooled off quite a bit. I'm thinking once again of making photos rather than just wanting to go to the beach; which I've done every night this week. Luckily Seattle has dozens of fresh and saltwater beaches to choose from.

Photo: Lisbon
Camera: 500cm

rgb0428

rgb0428
Originally uploaded by Ron Greer.

At this time my three year old G4 Mac laptop is doing all my scanning and processing of my images and it clearly struggles to crunch all the numbers.. I can hardly wait for the new Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro to be announced on August 7th. I need an upgrade and that will be it !!!! I also expect to buy the new HP B9180 printer when it is delivered in September. It is claimed the prints will have a 200 year life. If true that easily surpasses all other types of color photo prints. Not that I want to do much color printing but it should also be great for black and white prints.

Photo: Italy
Camera: 500cm

oh man is it ever hot here in Seattle! At 10:30pm it's still 85f. That's even hotter than L.A. We Northwesterner's like our summers between 66 and 77 degrees; otherwise we complain. Do I dare say Seattle has the best summers in the USA? I think we do. Name another major city were it is more pleasant in the summer. Seattle gets lots of laughs for rain but I think we have the best weather in the nation. I can bicycle year round, need not worry about fires, floods, bugs, my roof blowing away, my car pounded by hail (happened to me in Texas), no need for A/C (well today it might be nice but we're talking one week per year). I was in Santa Barbara last winter, where it was raining day and night the entire stay (a week). One needed to jump from the curb with all their might in hopes of missing the river of water flowing down the "street". A local had the nerve to say "oh, you must be use to weather like this". Uh, no, I'm not! Only San Francisco has a climate that is as pleasant year round as Seattle.

I had big plans to take photos downtown today but I was a bit too agressive with my bike riding and ended up with road rash;oops, that pretty much dampened my photo plans. Spent the morning scanning more old negatives, like this one.

Photo: Aberdeen, Wa
Camera; 500cm

Photo: Barcelona
Camera: 500cm

Photo: Dresden
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Still scanning, got a few new images up on my People2005 link, like this one from the 4th of July. I took this photo around noon meaning these people were going to be sitting/laying in the sun for another 10 hours before the 20 minutes of fireworks. I brought my children along to draw attention away from me and my camera. The chatterbox twins did great!

Location: Seattle
Camera: Mamiya 6

Finally got my people series broke into four year periods. I am just starting on the 1995-1999 year period and only had time to scan a few images today (I had to leave time for a 26 mile ride as the weather was perfect). I didn't do a lot of people photos in '95 as that was the start of my "Amerikana" series; which I have now broke into east and west.

Photo: Dresden
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Walked around Gasworks Park on the 4th and got a few photos. Lots of people waiting in the sun for hours and hours (like 10) for a few moments of fireworks.

Photo: Seattle
Camera; Mamiya 6

Back from camping at Deception Pass. Didn't do too much photography, a little color, a couple of B&W, and a few bike rides. Back to Seattle, chores, and a few new scans. This is from the FolkLife Fest last month.

ah, the temperature has dropped 10 degrees since our heat wave of the last two days; back to normal thank goodness. Still haven't made it downtown to take photos but I did get a few nice bike rides in during the last couple of days. Riding was one of the few ways to keep cool. I got a few new scans done too. Rode my bike over to Alki Beach for Lunch with a friend up from Tacoma today; great ride. I averaged just under 20 mph over the course of 25 miles! Tomorrow I head off with the family for a few days of camping.
Photo: Seattle Folk Life Fest
Camera: Mamiya 6

It's 81 degrees in the shade here in Seattle. Too hot! Didn't make it downtown yesterday but I did get a few new scans done and also broke my "Amerikana" series into East and West of the Mississippi.
Photo: Gordes, France
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

rgb0350

rgb0350
Originally uploaded by Ron Greer.

wow it's hot here in Seattle. We locals start complaining once it creaps above about 73 degress and today it was certainly over 85!!! We're not use to that big fireball in the sky. When will it ever rain? It's enough to make one nervous!

Too many family commitments to make photos this weekend but I hope to get downtown tomorrow with my Mamiya 6.

Photo: Prague, CR
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

rgb0071tif

rgb0071tif
Originally uploaded by Ron Greer.

Good news about my favorite film developer. I'm not sure if it's "new old stock" or a new batch but Freestyle Photo, in L.A., has Agfa Rodinal again! I got two big bottles a week ago, plus a couple bottle of Fomapan R09 (to compare). Here's a image taken not more than 5 miles from downtown Seattle. Hard to believe but true.

Photo: Seattle (Georgetown)
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Here's a photo from my 1990 files, my first real year of shooting street photography. At the time I felt I was onto something really new. Little did I know there were a few photographers before me, like Cartier-Bresson and Winogrand. This was shot with my Plaubel Makina W67. A very compact camera that developed a film loading problem and was a bit too loud for my close-up work. I also didn't care for the 6x7 format. I sold it and started using my 500cm, which is much quieter (when the mirror is pre-released).
Photo: Firenze, Italy
Camera: Plaubel W67

I've been trying to scan a few negatives every day and am now to the point where I'm breaking my black & white peolple series, on my web site, into blocks of years. At some point I hope to have a gallery for every year. I've been over-looking this image for years and must say it's currently one of my favorites. Cute girl, no doubt the reason I took the photo.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Plaubel Makina W67

RGS0065

RGS0065
Originally uploaded by RonGreer.Com.

My, then, fiancé, now wife, Anke, in front of our apartment in Dresden; 1994. That's our Trabby there. I bought that in 1992 for 200dm, or about $110. Ran great, took me/us to Paris twice and to Kassel several dozen times.
Photo: Dresden, Germany
Camera: Nikon F3

a>
Back from a week long road trip to the beautiful city of Los Angeles. L.A. takes a lot of flak but it's really quite an amazing city. Sure there's a lot of traffic but it is the 2nd largest city in the USA; what do you expect! I avoided most of that traffic by taking my bike with me and doing all my L.A. journeys pedaling. Amazingly, for a city that is quite flat, and has perfect weather, there are almost NO bicycles on the road! In my four days in L.A. I didn't see more than 100 bikes. I see that many on my daily 14 mile commute here in Seattle!

I had pretty good luck with photos but I really thought I would find more things of interests: more old signage, more old buildings, more weird stuff in general. Of course in 4 days it is difficult to see much of a city as large as L.A.!

I'm just finishing up a 4 night stay in Los Angeles where I have been riding all over central L.A., about 30 miles per day, and have been shooting only color. I have my Mamiya 6 along, and used it quite a bit on the drive down, but for around L.A., on a bike, I packed very light; just took my D200, and a 24-85 and 12-24 zooms. I focused on color for the most part, and also architectural details. It's been great but it has also taken a lot of looking (and pedaling) to find what I got. I passed up on many images because I didn't feel comfortable bringing my camera out.

Riding in L.A. hasn't been that tough although one must have pretty good nerves as people aren't use to bicycles. The worse part is having a parked car door open just as you pass by. This seemed to happened to me about once per mile, and of course at the same time some big jeep-car passes me within inches on the left. The big cracks and pot holes were also a problem. Yeah, one needs to be comfortable with city bike riding but still very doable and not much slower than a car. I've ridden bikes in many big cities: London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, S.F, and of course Seattle (doesn't really count though as there are so many bike riders here the cars pretty much accept us) and L.A. is certainly easier than London or Paris, not as nice as Berlin (also a big bike city).

I am still working on scanning my images from my last trip, to Germany, and am already getting ready for my next journey; to Los Angeles. Plan on staying in mid-Wilshire area and will bring along my bike, focusing on the areas between Hollywood and downtown. Camera choice is a tough one. I want to keep my eq to a minimun, considering that I will be mostly on my bike. I need my dslr for sure, for stock, but I really like my Mamiya 6 for my personal work. I came across a photographer, Juan Buhler, www.jbuhler.com, who is using his dslr for all his work. I'm thinking of leaning that way too, at least for this trip, or at least for the L.A. part of the trip. Maybe I will take the Mamiya along for the road trip and then consider using just my dslr in L.A.

Spent the holidays near Dresden, Germany. Took my Mamiya 6 with the normal and 50mm lens. Spent several days in Berlin, taking photos in the Christmas markets, and a day in Prague taking photos but the weather was less than great. Berlin was wet, windy, and cold; not to mention dark. Anyone that says Americans commercialize Christmas too much have never spent time in Germany, where the Christmas markets are like a carnival. Blasting music, amusement rides, beer, spiced wine plates of sausages, mushrooms. One can buy pretty much anything at these markets, from socks to sausages to a "rauchermann".

The weather was better in Prague but full of tourist that I didn't want to photograph and they got in the way of the wonderful buildings Prague has to offer. Prague is amazing but the bargin days are long gone. On my first visit, in 1990, I was eating good for about $4 per day (including several beers). Now the beer is that much and one must be careful to not be charged for the bottle of catsup sitting (unused) on the table).

I made the mistake of taking film other than my usual fujipan/HP5 and I fear my work will be wasted on cheap film. When will I ever learn to stick with the known and leave the bargins to others?

Came back home to a shock. No more Agfa! Agfa Rodinal, my developer of choice for the last 1/4 century is gone! So I hear Photographer's Formulary will be releasing a liquid form soon; I hope so, otherwise I will be making my own I guess.

Photo: France, Leica M6

Photo: Hasselblad 500cm, Mystic, Conn.