2013 Top 20 -- Photo 1

Compared to last year, this year's work definitely tailed off a bit. Understandably as this year I was significantly busier with work and YouTube video commitments, so I didn't have as much time to shoot. Next year, I hope, will see improvement from 2013.

2014 will see some changes to the blog's format. I have some posts planned out but need to carve some time to write them. Hopefully the blog will grow in 2014. And now for some 2013 metrics:

2012 blog views (through December 11): 10,801 -- up from 4,305 in 2012

And my best photo of the year is ... government property. Yup. I can't share it. And on that anticlimactic bombshell, see you in 2014. Wait. It already is 2014.



But wait! Standing in for the best photo of the year is this one:


Somehow I forgot to include this photo in my top 20. Actually, I'm really comfortable with this being the best photo of my 2013 photographic year.

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 2

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 3

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 4

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 5

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 6

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 7

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 8

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 9

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 10

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 11

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 12

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 13

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 14

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 15

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 16

I couldn't decide, so I went with both.

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 17

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 18

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 19

2013 Top 20 -- Photo 20

That's right -- It's time for the year-end photo countdown. This year's photos are much different from last year's. Objectively, I am not as happy this year, though I think that in some areas I had really good work. In general, I'm still very proud of these 20 photos, and choosing a top 20 was another hard task this year. So, without delay, here is photo 20:

Found Photos Friday: 1960s Americana 12

It was interesting, in scanning these slides and watching the 8mm movies, to see the same people but to have their lives compressed so much. In one box the same people ages from children to teenagers to parents themselves. I also felt, so many times, like I could actually know these people's names. Not because I'd ever met them, but because these photos did such a good job at revealing their lives that I thought at any moment that everyone's names would just pop out of a slide. And some people's names did -- on name tags, for instance. But who these Chicagoans-turned-Californians are remains a mystery and I'm okay with that.

Found Photos Friday will return in 2014 with more found photos!

Found Photos Friday: 1960s Americana 11

After this, there will be one more post from these slides. This week, I'll share five slides I liked but didn't have a chance to work into the previous narratives.

Found Photos Friday: 1960s Americana 10

Last week the photos all centered on the guys in the middle. Many of the people in these photos show up into the 1970s, based on cars and dress. And they look older than they did in the photos last week. Not this guy, though, who looks here like an Army recruit headed to Vietnam. Perhaps he's the photographer -- that would be great because he would have had a long life after the war.

To my eyes, this is a really great shot. I love how the dude in the back is winking at the camera, as if to show his friend on the other side  that he knows the guy's really taking the photo of a cute girl.

Found Photos Friday: 1960s Americana 9

The photos in the slides, in general, seem to be of gatherings. And of family or close-friend gatherings in particular. The photographer, by his treatment of the subject, I think must have cared greatly for the people he photographed.

It's maddening that the photographer was capturing the umbrella's reflection and not his own.

Found Photos Friday: 1960s Americana 8

Continuing with the slides we've seen for almost two months now (I know -- it's hard to believe it's been that long,) here are the last of the Tucson (and Canada!) slides. It looks like this road trip, is that's what it was, was basically awesome. And full of amazing shirts!

For the record, also great taste in shorts.

Introducing the Dragon Box

For kicks, I took an old card box I was going to throw out and made it into a pinhole camera. Instead of putting one hole in the middle or the end and calling it a day, I put two holes in and decided to try making a stereoscopic camera. 

Here was my test image, a stereoscopic negative of a building under construction.


And the positive inversion. I printed this as a positive, but made this inversion in Photoshop.


This was the first image that got the camera noticed. I took this onto Zone VI fiber-based paper, so I had to press it after development and drying. I had it pressing under glass and noticed a few people looking at it and commenting on it. It definitely hints at what the Dragon Box (the camera's name) can do.


A Photoshop inversion to show the image's positive.


This negative really did not appear to turn out well at all, so I let it sit without much attention. When I digitized it, though, I decided to invert it. That inversion convinced me that this, the second image I took with the Dragon Box is the first solid sign of what this camera can do.




A double-exposure of a high-tension tower. I exposed the shot and then turned the camera around 180 degrees, capturing the same shot in reverse. Yes, this camera has potential. I'm glad I didn't thrown the box away.


And here's the Dragon Box and an explanation of how to make it.