Ari Takes Pictures

SAM Sculpture Garden Overlook

kap0w — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:29:11 +0000

I might have mentioned it before but I recently found myself with a few new old cameras. It all started with a visit to the camera shop that had me accidentally buying three new old cameras (2 190x Kodaks and a 1950s Kodak Retina folder) for $35. That got me hooked and a few weeks later I’d added 3 different Zeiss Ikon models to my collection. I’m shooting through some really old expired film with them, both to see if they work and to see what happens to film that has been in my fridge for the last 10 years. Turns out, still usable, but it scratches REALLY easily. The shots I’m posting here have all been cleaned up after scanning.

This shot was taken with my Zeiss Ikon Contessa (the non-folding version – there are a lot of variations). I’m a bit unclear but some people seem to think it has a coupled rangefinder. I’ve either got a model without the rangefinder or mine is broken or… I’m very stupid. I’ve got an external light meter so I can get the exposure right without the built-in selenium meter (which works but tells me nothing), but guessing on focus is an interesting endeavor. You can always set to infinity and shoot something far away. Works pretty well here.

SAM Sculpture Garden Overlook is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

The End of the Road

kap0w — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:22:06 +0000

This is the picture that made me come back. On my first photography trip to the Salton Sea, when I got this far, I knew I wanted to see more. Maybe next time I’ll post more of the color shots I took in the same area. This is the edge of Salton City – beachfront property that nobody wants.

The End of the Road is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Two More from the Sundowner Motel

kap0w — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:11:52 +0000

There are different reasons I like certain pictures, but this one just tells the whole story. I like a lot of my Salton Sea pictures, but this sort of sums it up.

These shots are the same motel as the last post, but some different angles. When I was there in 2000, there was one chunk of a building left, which you can see at the right above, but the sign points to where the motel was. Now, just a pile of detritus. If this was a city, they’d at least fence the remains, but this is the Salton Sea. It just is.

What a great sign though. I love the electrical wires protruding from the top of the sign. At some point, someone was up there futzing with things trying to get it all working. It’s like fiddling while Rome burns.

I’ve got a couple more to post but since this is coming from 12-year-old scanned film (Kodak Max 400 for the curious), there are a lot of scratches and spots I have to clean up and it takes a while.

What Remains of the Salton Sea

kap0w — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:05:50 +0000

Southern California doesn’t have the history required to create a lot of ghost towns. The Salton Sea is a sort of natural equivalent though. Formed in a strange accident that saw the Colorado River flooding the Borrego desert for several years, the Salton Sea became a huge tourism mecca before slowly dying a slow death as agricultural runoff polluted the water and the lack of any source of replenishment dried much of the lake away.

Today, not much remains. I’m going to post a series of pictures I took 12 years ago – I can’t speak to the current state of the place but I’m willing to guess it’s no better.

This is the start of a few posts that, for the first time here, are going to be scans of actual film negatives instead of the normal digital stuff. Because of that, the EXIF information will be missing. I do know that most of this was taken with a Canon A-1 or a Canon Eos Elan 2E and a 50mm 1.8. I’ll post more info when I have it.

This is the Sundowner Motel – I have a few more shots of the place as well. It had obviously been closed a long time, but I’ve learned it burned down in 1998, a few years before these pictures were taken.

Sundowner Motel, South West side of Salton Sea, 3.6.2000

What Remains of the Salton Sea is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Suicide Bridge from the Ground

kap0w — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:47:23 +0000

A while back I did a few shots from the top of the Suicide Aurora Bridge – officially the George Washington Memorial Bridge. At the time the suicide fence was going up and I haven’t heard much since. I just looked into it and according to WSDOT, there has been one suicide since – that’s one in a little more than a year – a fraction of the rate before. The view from the top used to be great – it’s still nice. One thing that always got me was that the view from the bottom of the bridge is pretty great too, in an engineery kind of way. They never show these things off.

Camera & Lens	Canon PowerShot S90 (Canon) & 6.0-22.5 mm	Shutter:	1/200 s
Creation Date:	2011:12:27 14:16:39	Aperture:	f/4.0
Artist:	Ari Brown	ISO:	400
Exposure Mode:	N/A	Focal Length:	6 mm

As usual shooting something against the sky and not wanting to lose the detail, I did this one as HDR. I love the sweeping curves of the thing. I don’t even think this picture does justice to just how high the arc of steel sweeps from Fremont over to Queen Anne. The bridge is its own reward.

Suicide Bridge from the Ground is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Seattle and the Atomic Age

kap0w — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:04:23 +0000

Before Seattle was a city that couldn’t get anything done (thanks, NIMBYs!), there was a time when Big Things happened here. Like building a big phallic space tower for the World’s Fair. Now Seattle Center is mostly home to that arena nobody wants and your odd music festival. Tucked into the nooks and crannies are still memories of that big celebration. In the northwest corner are some dilapidated conference rooms. The courtyard outside is illuminated with these.

Camera & Lens	Canon PowerShot S90 (Canon) & 6.0-22.5 mm	Shutter:	1/400 s
Creation Date:	2012:02:07 13:44:32	Aperture:	f/4.9
Artist:	Ari Brown	ISO:	250
Exposure Mode:	N/A	Focal Length:	22.5 mm

Shooting up into the sun at mid-day, I decided to turn it into an HDR to bring out more of the tone in the shadows. I love these lights though – they should put them everywhere.

Seattle and the Atomic Age is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Anatomy of a Snowpocalypse

kap0w — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:57:01 +0000

The entymology of Snowpocalypse is a little hazy but it seems to have started around here back in ’05 or ’06. I think it’s fair to say that any time a couple of inches of snow falls from the sky on the greater Seattle area and actually stays on the ground, it’s a snowpocalypse. I’m not going to get into the justifications or explain why in Seattle that’s a big deal where in other places they just deal with it, but these things do have a sort of rhythm to them.

Camera & Lens	Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF28mm f/1.8 USM	Shutter:	1/60 s
Creation Date:	2012:01:17 16:15:13	Aperture:	f/3.5
Artist:	Ari Brown	ISO:	400
Exposure Mode:	Normal program	Focal Length:	28 mm

It starts with a lot of breathless weather reports, of course. A lot of doubt, and at least one false alarm. Eventually though, it does happen. It can snow in Seattle. At the same time, you usually have to go looking for it, at first.

And then it comes down. The city goes to sleep. Everyone looks around and enjoys themselves as their employers try and figure out how to wrest some productivity from the cold disaster. About this time the local news starts driving around the city in the van they’ve dubbed “Snow King” and crashing into parked cars.

I always forget how quickly a neighborhood of asphalt and dirt and grass and cars can be turned into breathless white. After it all stops, when everything is calm and before the melting starts, there is one moment before the snow turns brown or yellow or other colors you’d rather not think about, when everything is perfectly clean and white.

Snowpocalypse Seattle, 2012 edition. A good time to give thanks for the ability to work from home.

Anatomy of a Snowpocalypse is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Disovery… For Other People

kap0w — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:49:32 +0000

There’s nothing that says “discovery” like a locked gate.

Camera & Lens	Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM	Shutter:	1/80 s
Creation Date:	2011:12:30 14:41:00	Aperture:	f/6.3
Artist:	Ari Brown	ISO:	200
Exposure Mode:	Normal program	Focal Length:	32 mm

I looked it up though. Discovery is the name of the HMCS unit (aka the canadian “military” unit) that is based on Deadman Island off the side of Stanley Park. They sure have a nice building that you’re not allowed to come visit.

Disovery… For Other People is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Happy Holidays, People

kap0w — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:00:26 +0000

Alright everyone – penultimate (I never get to say that) night of Hanukkah. Day after Christmas. Kwanzaa… whenever that is. Hope things are good with you and yours.

Camera & Lens	Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM	Shutter:	1/60 s
Creation Date:	2011:12:26 17:33:54	Aperture:	f/2.8
Artist:	Ari Brown	ISO:	200
Exposure Mode:	Normal program	Focal Length:	100 mm

Happy Holidays, People is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Sorry ’bout that

kap0w — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:09:23 +0000

If you tried to hit the blog last night you might have noticed that it wasn’t resolving. Things have been nice and stable here since I switched hosting providers way back when. This time I kinda knew this was going to happen. I’ve been using Godaddy as my domain registrar for as long as I can remember. They were the upstart kid when register.com was the king of the realm and their service has been fine, but their CEO… is despicable.

A while back I meant to switch when it came out he was a big fan of elephant hunting. Needless to say, that’s not my thing, but I sort of let myself forget about it because I knew it was going to be hassle.

What finally pushed me over the edge is his self-defeating and frankly confusing support for SOPA – the bill that would kill the internet. I’m not sure how much business they’re going to lose over this, but it’s more than none – at very least, it’s mine. If Reddit is to be believed, it’s probably much more. So in any case, I’m now using the services of the lovely people at name.com and if you have a domain that Godaddy still hosts, you can do the right thing and find another provider too. Name.com is even running a promotion and has info on what it takes to make the switch.

Sorry ’bout that is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures