Film + Hasselblad = some new portraits

It's been a while since I've posted my own work. It's mostly because I am shooting film for my personal stuff and the whole process takes a lot longer for obvious reasons. Here are two that I scanned last night. I'm thinking of adding the one of Michelle to my site, I did a high res scan as well that I'll do a final retouch on tonight. But for the most part it will look like this. As for the other portrait of my brother, I really like what is going on there, I think its an idea to use for the future. I also have some stuff scanned from this summer shooting up at the beaches, I'm on the fence about posting them yet. It's not that I don't like them, I just think I want to hold off on them to be shown within a larger edit or when I have a more concise idea of what I plan to make them into. I have 3 more rolls to get through tonight. Maybe I'll do another post before the weekend is up.

I also got a 4x5 camera again. This time its not a frankencamera like the last one. This is a real deal Toyofield camera and has been really fun working with. I'm getting some sheets processed this week. I'm really enjoying shooting from a tripod again, which was something I was trying to avoid with that last nightmare of a 4x5 camera I had tested. In college I shot 99% of the time on a tripod and tried to break that habit and loosen up once I was shooting 35mm digi, but lately I am realizing it is a better way to work with how I make my photos these days. I swear its always a push in a new direction that in the end brings back some aspects of my past, especially right now with the 4x5 and tripod.






Michelle Clark on her birthday
Boston, MA 2008






This one of Derek almost takes to an extreme the environmental portrait style I've been doing the past year or so.

Derek Amengual with a glass of milk
Newbury, MA 2008
He's been showing some great landscapes on his blog lately.

The other Amengual Photographer

Some of you know some don't that my younger brother Derek is a photographer as well. He's got about a semester left at my old stomping grounds Mass Art. He's really starting to develop as a photographer, particularly shooting landscapes. He's just started a blog himself, check it out here.

Not so much new in other news. Laptop hard drive failed again, this time for real. God bless apple care 'cause this is my second drive and they also replaced my battery as well. I've also been shooting with that new Hasselblad lens and am dropping off some rolls early next week. Hopefully I'll post some scans then.

I added a few more blogs to my blog link section.

Derek

So here is one of the final sheets I shot with the 4x5 polaroid conversion camera. It's just a quick scan.


Derek, Newbury, MA 2008

North Shore for sure

Man, I love being home. There is something about being near the water up there that chills me out so much. I made a super quick trip to take some pictures for Kate's uncle, Mark Williams. He was a commercial diver for a while and then a lobsterman for 17 years. He's just published a book in the last year or so of stories about growing up in Gloucester, MA and his years catching lobster called, Fishing Vessel Black Sheep. He's now got a new publisher and needed a new cover. Thats where my talents came in. I'll definitely post a link for the book as well as the cover once all is done. Another plan is for Kate and I to do a multimedia piece on him. We basically just drove around for the day, stopping at different spots that related to the book or just favorite's places of Mark's.

So inspiring to be up there, its weird how drawn I am to photographing that area. Can't wait to get the project started in Hampton. I think early June is the reality.





Salt Marsh Grass, Gloucester, MA 2008









Old Pier Stilts, Gloucester, MA 2008







This is where Mark had his first job working for his dad who was a forman there. Great stories from that place which are in his book.

Mark Williams, former Empire Fish Company factory building, Gloucester, MA 2008







Mark took me to several places that he goes to write. This is one of them.

North Shore Salt Marsh, MA 2008





Also got to see my brother Derek. It was great to catch up with him. His new pictures are looking great. I was really impressed.

Derek, Newbury, MA 2008




Shot several sheets of film with my 4x5 camera on this trip. These will be the first sheets since I've got the camera back. I'll post those when I get them back from the lab.
In other tech news I dropped my 85mm lens pretty hard, bounced like a handball down several rocks. Amazingly the glass stayed intact and there was no (heavy) visual damage. The auto focus still works but something is up with the closing of the aperture blades, they won't close down. Lens shoots fine at f1.8 but completely freezes up anywhere beyond there. I'm making a trip to Nippon camera tomorrow for the lens to see the doctor. Hopefully it won't be that much.