Visit to a Buddhist Temple - With My Rolleiflex 2.8F

Wat Lao Buddhavong, by Reed A. George

Rolleiflex 2.8F, Kodak TMax 400 Film

 

I made a visit to a local Buddhist temple that I'd never been to before - Wat Lao Buddhavong in Catlett, Virginia. Anticipating a festival that never materialized (I guess my information was wrong), I took the opportunity to walk around the grounds. These are a few of the things I saw there.

 

Shooting with TMax 400 in the bright sunlight and with snow still on the ground meant very fast shutter speeds (1/250-1/500) and small apertures. I did use a yellow filter, which reduced the sensitivity by about 1 - 1 1/2 stops, so really, I was shooting at an equivalent of about iso 150.

 

The square composition worked well for me here. The detail that the 2.8F's Carl Zeiss Planar bring out are just amazing.

 

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Some Panoramic Pinhole Images - Buddhist Temple

Here are three 6x17 shots I recently made at my meditation class:

 

These were made with the "Reality So Subtle" panoramic pinhole camera that my wife bought for my on my 50th birthday. It shoots four exposures on a roll of 120 film (TMax 400 in this case, which I developed in Kodak D-76 diluted 1:1 for 13 1/2 minutes). The top and bottom images were made with about ten seconds of exposure; the middle one took one hour.

 

(Click Here) to read more about the camera.

 

(Click Here) to see the images above at full size on my flickr page.

 

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Refuge

Refuge, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor AF-D 50mm f1.4 Lens

iso 2500, f8, 1/30 sec.

 

How it felt at that moment.

 

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Meeting Frank "Tico" Herrara

Last night, I had the good fortune to meet master black and white photographer and printer, Frank "Tico" Herrara. I had shown up way early for the hanging of my images for the exhibit "Coffee and Critique: Exposed" at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. More on that below.

 

Happy to at least find the building open on this cold, windy night, I had to wait for a long while in the dark lobby, until someone showed up and unlocked the gallery and darkroom space where Coffee and Critique is held. Along comes this gentleman, who happens to have a key, and is willing to let me follow him in. When he asks why I'm there, I tell him I'm there for a hanging. He says "Oh, good. I haven't been to a good hanging in so long. I thought they were outlawed nowadays." or something to that effect.

 

Anyway, it turned out that this was none other than Frank "Tico" Herrara, the most senior staff member at Glen Echo Photoworks, winner of a Guggenheim fellowship, and excellent photographer and printer. We sat and chatted for about an hour, which gave me the opportunity to learn about his Guggenheim project, "The West Virginia Crosses," among other things.

 

In this project, Tico used the Guggenheim fellowship to "document clusters of Roman crosses that were being erected all over West Virginia by a millionaire businessman as part of a religious mission called "Cast Thy Bread.""

Image Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiZGouJYA1UUbb2WQ54ZVCSgFdbEaE-NN9YQHUTqfMPSMfAWMEaGb_d66MXvaG1Q-R3oI02LRjI1o2PLPs6brCPyi9UJwwXqUnifU7EeGXfND0NEOuyai_yVnFvmcjqYGiJEt21STQ0HO95Gfo1gomIzZ2XMoDelUepAGEbdiM=s0-d-e1-ft

 

After we'd talked for a while, I screwed up enough courage to ask Tico for input on the pictures I'd come to hang, those of my meditation practice, shot with large format film and old cameras, including a pinhole. I posted a slideshow of those images previously. (Click Here) to see that post.

 

I was pleased to hear that Tico sort of "got it," meaning the idea of what I was trying to communicate with the images. He said they definitely communicated a meditative message. That was really nice to hear.

 

So, all in all, I'm glad that I arrived so early to the exhibition hanging. My reward was to meet and spend some time with a real photographic master, one on one. Tico is a really nice guy, and I hope to get the chance to meet up with him again.

 

If you're interested in seeing my exhibition, along with about fourteen of my colleagues that take part in the Coffee and Critique sessions at Glen Echo Park in Maryland, you can (Click Here) for the details. My work will be up until January 5, 2015.

 

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Meditation Retreat Slideshow

I have been attending a meditation group for a few years now. I am not a religious person, but find the philosophical discussions and meditation practice to be very good for me.

 

Recently, one of my fellow students and her family invited us to their home for a one day retreat. Here's a slideshow from that day.

 

 

In addition to Buddhist meditation, we had a seminar on the seven chakras, or primary energy centers in the body. It was very interesting, and led to some insights for me. Importantly, the chakras are each associated with a different color. I've decided to work on a project to photograph images that I think represent the characteristics of each chakra. This could be a very long project for me, as there's a lot to cover. I've already experimented with images to represent the saccral chakra, which is associated mostly with the color orange. Once I have a few more images, I'll share them here.

 

All of these images were made with my Nikon Df and 24-120 version 1 VR zoom. It is one of the most hatest lenses by Nikon in recent years. It seems I'm on a theme of trying to make good images with the most reviled Nikon lenses. This lens's most attractive feature is ease of use. The zoom range is very useful for shooting an event, even though the f-stop (f3.5-5.6) is pretty slow.

 

I am finding that making slideshows with selected pictures is a very good practice. I learned that from David Alan Harvey at the Magnum workshop I attended last summer.

 

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Lessons from the Forest - My Upcoming Exhibition

I spent some time yesterday printing and preparing for my upcoming photography exhibit, as part of the "Coffee and Critique Exposed: The Exhibit," to be hosted at Glen Echo Park, Maryland, from November 21, 2014 - January 5, 2015.

 

I've been working on a set of photographs related to my meditation practice. I've put together five prints for the show, printed on matte paper. I'm using Epson matte paper at the moment, but may experiment with some other papers before the exhibit hangs on November 13.

 

One thing I learned from the Magnum Days workshop with David Alan Harvey is to make short slideshows of my work, as part of the editing process. Here's one that I made and posted on youtube for this exhibit:

 

 

Lessons from the Forest, by Reed A. George

 

All five images were shot on 4x5 film. The first and final shots were made with a Graflex Speed Graphic, the others with a pinhole camera. I have a lot more to do on this project, but the goal of this series was to share something of the state of mind that I achieve in meditation, and particularly in walking meditation.

 

I hope you find it interesting!

 

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Vicarious Travel, Luoyang City, China

From time to time, I see a forum post that really makes me want to see some place new, a place I've never been. This time, it's thanks to Martin Tai's post on photo.net, about Luoyang, China. He shows us several pictures of a mountainside and caves (Longmen Grottos), literally covered with an estimated 100,000 sculptures of Buddha.

 

(Click Here) to read Martin's post on photo.net.

 

Here's where Luoyang is located (thanks to Google Maps):

 

 

 

Image Source: http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00cYk0

 

I wonder how one gets to the grottos? I've never been to China, at least beyond a short business trip to Hong Kong many years ago. I'm always amazed at the size of the country, and the diversity of regions and people there. I work with many Chinese scientists, from many different regions within the country. I enjoy talking with them about the specifics of their local areas. Languages, religions, food, all vary widely depending on where in China they live.

 

Maybe a China tour is in my future, once I get to the phase of life where I have time for such things.

 

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