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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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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And Now for Something Very Abstract

I have been into meditation for quite a while now. It helps me to keep my mind clear. On a trip to California earlier this year, I visited this labyrinth in an urban garden and did a little walking meditation, camera (Lumix GX7 and 20mm f1.7 lens) in hand.

Berkeley Labyrinth, by Reed A. George

 

I decided to capture some long exposures of the labyrinth markings as I walked twisting and turning through them. I attached a 3-stop neutral density (ND) filter, and shot several images at 1/4 second and f16.

 

Then I manipulated the images in Snapseed on my iPad. Here are the results:

 

 

 

Quite abstract, I know. I feel that they do say something about the state of mind I was in during the walk.

 

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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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Asian Archery - Japan and Korea

Japanese Kyudo Practitioner, by Reed A. George

Panasonic DMC-G1, Pana-Leica 45mm f2.8 Macro-Elmarit Lens

iso 400, f2.8, 1/50 sec.

 

Japanese archery, known as kyudo, has been practiced in Japan since prehistory. It first shows up in art a few hundred years B.C. No longer a part of military weaponry, kyudo in Japan is a contemplative art form, as well as a sport.

 

I found a related post on Walter Ulreich's blog, in his case writing about archery in Korea.

 

(Click Here) to see images of Korean archery, both today, and in some photojournalist's photos Walter found from 1961. Very cool.

 

Ulreich's blog reports the following:

 

"In the year 1894 bows were excluded from military use, but Emperor Gojong gave command to use archery for the cultivation of mind and body of the Korean people. As a result of that command, the Hwanghakjeoung pavilion was built in the Royal Palace and opened to the public. It is said, that Emperor Gojong personally enjoyed archery and often visited Hwanghakjeoung."

So, it seems that archery has made a similar transition from warfare into mental and physical concentration exercise in Korea, as it did in Japan.

 

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Mamiya Universal Current Users? Not Many That I Can Find...

Yesterday I posted a picture of my new Mamiya Universal Press kit. One of the several fun things about the camera is using it with a Polaroid back. Here's an image I made recently on a meditation retreat:

Forest Monk and Followers, by Reed A. George

Mamiya Universal Press Camera, 50mm f6.3 Wide Angle Lens

Fujifilm FP3000B Instant Film, Scanned on Epson V750

Edited in Snapseed

 

Now, the Universal was probably never meant to be really, well, universal. It's hard to imagine the designers at Mamiya thinking "Let's make a camera that's perfect for everyone, truly universal." and coming up with this design. It's big, heavy, all manual. But, it does have capabilities that are difficult or impossible to find in other systems. It will never be near universal for me, but is definitely a favorite nonetheless.

 

I've been searching for others who are still actively using the Mamiya Universal Press (MUP) in 2014. I have not found many. I did find the "Simply Oxford Photoblog," which does have a few fairly recent posts using the MUP.

 

(Click Here) to see a post of lovely model shots made with the MUP on Simply Oxford.

 

I'm going to keep exploring this camera for a while, and find exactly where it best fits into my interests.

 

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Fisheye Image - Zen Heart - Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 and Bower 7.5mm Fisheye Lens

As I write this, I'm on the final day of a trip to New Mexico. I've had precious little free time, which means the meeting I'm attending is actually pretty good.

 

I decided to make this a "Micro 4/3 only" trip, in an attempt to bond with my new GX7. I must say it's working. The image quality from this camera is stunning. I'm still not completely sold on how it feels in my hand, actually preferring the feel of either the earlier DMC-GX1 (which is also along for the trip), or one of the more SLR-shaped Lumix cameras (which I've now sold off).

 

Here's a shot I made at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe:

 

Zen Heart, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, Bower 7.5mm f3.5 Fisheye lens

 

I visited the Center for an early morning meditation session (7:00 am). It was really worth the drive up from Albuquerque, where I'm staying. I was back in time for my meeting.

 

(Click Here) to read about Upaya Zen Center. They host a no-charge meditation session every morning.

 

This silver heart pendant (about 2" in size) was attached to the fence around Upaya's community garden. My lens was about 4" away from it, which is one of the cool features of the fisheye. You can get very close focus. In the background, you can see the Center and the base of their windmill (on left) and prayer flags on the back fence (on right). I like how this single image has the focal point of the heart, but also includes a lot of information about the place.

 

I really am impressed by the image quality of the GX7. Now if I can just get comfortable with it in my hand.

 

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