Mamiya 6 Film Camera Photo

I hope all are doing well. I scanned this photo in yesterday, and have spent a little time working on it today. It was taken at a cemetery in Savannah, GA with my old Mamiya 6 medium format film camera. The camera is probably from the 1950s, and is pretty unpredictable. However, it takes some really neat photos. I thought it would be the perfect camera for the cemetery!

I love the texture and color in this photo. What a beautiful grave marker.

In other news, I saw the Phantom of the Opera with my wife last night at the Hobby Center downtown. It was awesome! I highly recommend going to see it if you can--I think the last show is coming up this Sunday, August 2nd.

This beautiful grave marker is over 100 years old. It marks the spot where Gracie Watson was put to rest. To read about her life, click here.

Sorry for the late post about our trip to Savannah. It has been crazy in the office since I got home.

What an awesome trip we had! Savannah, Georgia is one of the most beautiful cities that I've visited, and I really enjoyed being surrounded by such rich and interesting history. It was a quick trip to Savannah--we only spent 3 nights there (the first night we arrived and went straight to bed after the 17 hour drive!). However, I cannot wait to return to get a more complete idea of the city.

We traveled around the historic area of Savannah, and it was really special to hear my mother-in-law talk about growing up in the city, and the places she visited as a child and young adult. We also got to sail on a 44 foot sailboat for the day, which was very nice and relaxing. We ended that day boiling crabs on the dock and watching fireworks...an incredible way to celebrate the 4th of July.

We left Georgia to meet more family on St. George's Island off the Florida coast. We had a lot of rain, but we enjoyed what good weather came our way. Regan and I traveled into the small town of Apalachicola, Florida, walked around, and visited with a local photographer, Richard Bickel, whose work is beautiful. He has been documenting the locals and their rich culture since he moved to Apalachicola in 1994.

I'll be scanning some of the film from the trip soon, and will post those if I like any of them. I photographed several rolls with my old Mamiya 6 Rangefinder, a camera that is probably close to 50 or 60 years old.

I've packed my bags, I'm ready to go...Sort of...

(The photo above is an abstract photo that I took a couple years ago, while on another road trip)

Well, I've got my cameras all packed up. I'm heading to Savannah, Georgia, and then to St. George's Island, Florida, with my wife, mother-in-law and Georgia, our dog. We're hitting the road early tomorrow!

I loaded some 4X5 film today, got the large format camera, the Mamiya 6X6 Rangefinder and the digital with lenses. I hope to get some good photos, and will share when I get back (I'll hopefully be able to post a couple while we are gone). We are going to visit, among other places, an old, famous cemetery while we are there--I believe the cemetery was in the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (which we will be watching on the way!). I'm looking forward to photographing this cemetery, as Regan tells me it is beautiful.

Anyways, we will be returning next week. If you are trying to reach me while I am gone, I will be receiving email, and any voice messages that are left at my office will be emailed to me. I will return emails and phone calls as soon as I can.

Have a wonderful week!

Pamela and Will

I enjoyed spending some time photographing Pamela and Will this weekend. We photographed at a new location for me, which is always fun. The location was the meeting place for the River Oaks Garden Club, and the gardens were beautiful. Thank you to the ROGC for letting us photograph there.

Hope you enjoy!

I'm trying to decide which cameras to take on our trip to Georgia...

An ongoing project

I finally got my film scanner working. I have an older Imacon Precision II virtual drum scanner, and it makes beautiful scans of my 4X5 film. However, it is from the computer days of long ago, and uses a SCSI chord. Remember those? Anyways, I have a converter so it will work with my computer, but the converter stopped working with the new Mac software. I finally got it to work with my laptop, which has the older Mac software (Tiger) on it. And so I got to scan some new work for one of my ongoing personal projects!

The first picture is the church picture I mentioned the other day. It was taken near Baytown, TX, east of Houston. It is the latest of a series of images that I've taken for a project I began about a year and a half ago. The other two images I've printed so far for this series are of a blue Mustang and construction barrels on the side of the freeway outside of La Grange (the other two photos shown above). I took a photo in Galveston last summer before Hurricane Ike hit. It is a landscape photo of the beach, with an orange Jeep Wrangler parked facing the water. In the distance is a mother and daughter playing along the water's edge.

I'm still not exactly sure what the project is about. These scenes all strike me in a curious and odd way, and I'm compelled to photograph them. They all seem to be tied together somehow. There is something subtly bizarre about them all. And yet they are very beautiful to me. I anticipate that the photograph from Galveston will fit together with the other three, however, I haven't seen it yet. I still have to scan it! I'll try and get to that next week.

My wife, Regan, my mother-in-law, and I are traveling to Savannah, Georgia next week, where we will spend a couple of days before heading to Florida. Almost all of Regan's family is from Savannah, and I've heard so much about it. I'm looking forward to the trip, and will be taking several cameras. I'll try and make a couple of posts with some photos while we are gone, if I can find internet.

A quick note about my main website--I'm having some trouble with resolution on some of the images that are displayed throughout the slideshows. I apologize about this, and am trying to get it fixed so that all of the images look as clear and sharp as they really are! My web designer is in Europe right now, but will be coming back in early July. When he returns we're going to find the solution.

I'll try and post once more before we leave to Georgia. I'm taking some engagement portraits this weekend in the River Oaks Garden Club Forum gardens. New locations are always fun, and these gardens are supposed to be very beautiful.