Cleaning the Closet

Note: The Pages o’ Peat have moved to http://peat.org/ — please update your bookmarks and references accordingly. Thank you!

I was cleaning my closet today and found a few CDs with photos on them, including this set. I had the pleasure of taking pictures with Juno Reactor 2001, when they came through Portland on their Shango World Tour. Great people, great music, and a hell of a show.

In other news, I miss my Contax 35mm camera and Ilford HP5+ film.

Ignite Photos + Extras

As promised, the set of photos from Ignite Portland 2 — plus a couple extras. Share and enjoy!

Ignite Portland

I’m doing a presentation at the Bagdad Theater on the evening of Tuesday, February 5th. The event, Ignite Portland, is a series of short presentations — just five minutes each — about weird, interesting, and unusual ideas.

The official site can be found here here, and the Oregonian had a write up here.

Pretty cool!

My presentation is about “Beauty in Abandonment” — it’s about photographing abandoned places and things in the Portland area. I’ll also be wandering around, helping people register, find seats, and answering questions about the whole shebang.

Anyhow. Seats are going fast, and it looks like it’ll be a standing room only event (unless, of course, the Super Tuesday primaries thin out the crowd). If you’re coming, or thinking about coming, please RSVP so that we can better anticipate everything that needs to be done to accommodate everyone comfortably:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/390164/

Cheers!

Hello, Fall

Today’s the first day in a long time that I’ve felt totally relaxed.  It was one of those “lounge about the house in your bathrobe, cook something, stroll to the store to buy some basics, cook something, take some pictures of the fall foliage, cook something, catch up on reading, cook something, have a nap with the cats, cook something, and sit back with a nice drink after cooking something”  days.

Ever had one of those?

I highly recommend it.

Say Aaahh ..

This is the most original photo series I’ve seen in a long, long time.  Ever wondered how your tongue sees the world?

http://www.pinholephotography.org/MS1%20%27Enter%27.htm

Street Art in Japan

A few of my graffiti photos from Tokyo have been explained and pulled into a Flickr group for Japanese street art … it’s a big collection.  Worth checking out, if you’re into such things.

Japan – Shi

Hey kids — I’m also uploading images of my Japanese adventures to Flickr.  Check ‘em out if you’re keen.

House Out, Camera In

We sold our first house yesterday, and as a gift to myself I went out and bought my first digital SLR — a Nikon D80.   I’ve been itching to get a digital SLR for about five years, and I think the quality and price have finally reached the point where I won’t feel guilty about plonking down the dough.

I’m still a little grumpy about digital photography, for two reasons.  First, I sit in front of the computer all day, so I’m not exactly thrilled with the prospect of spending more time sitting on my ass and clicking on the mouse.  Second, and I guess it’s kind of related, but I love the “old fashioned” process of printing black and white photographs in a darkroom with chemicals and enlargers and all that.

Never the less, I love taking pictures, and I’m thrilled with how easy it is to share photos and find inspiration on the web.  The D80 is a great camera to build on, and I’m looking forward to spending the next several years with it.

So, expect more photos.  In a couple of days I’m headed up to Alaska on a trip with the extended family, and I’m excited to see what comes of it.

The Gangsta Photo

So, I never would have thought my greatest personal contribution to the Intarweb is this picture.

Five years ago, when I was on my way to New Zealand, I stopped in Los Angeles and took a photo of one of my buddies from high school. We wanted something to show other folks what he was up to, and we decided that dressing him up as a gang banger would be suitably funny (in real life he’s a kick ass character artist and illustrator — check out http://mercilessdesign.com/).

Well, the photo got around. A lot. It was #1 for ‘gangsta’ searches on Google Images for a few years, and Comedy Central used it in one of their commercials (although it was pulled pretty quick). Now it’s all over MySpace, Flickr, forums, and personal photo galleries. Rumor has that there’s a pretty sweet graffiti stencil based on it …

Anyhow. I thought I’d haul it out again in (belated) honor of the 5th anniversary of the fake gangsta photo extravaganza.

Zenit 11

Ahh, a new acquisition — a friend gave me this Zenit 11 in perfect condition. Sure, you can find them on eBay for $20 … but this one has history! It was presented to my friend by a “high ranking” KGB official while he was doing business in the USSR, about a week before the collapse of the Soviet Union. It seems to be in perfect working condition — I’ll wander around Munich today and find out.

In other news, we’ll be back in the United States on Monday!