New York August NYC Meet-Up

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Calzone

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I think the Bohemian Beer Garden again. It was pleasant being outside on picnic tables under canvas canopies.

I'll be checking in with Landrew again. Some fresh faces that are "working artist" unlike me who has an unrelated "day-job."

Landrew says he has some more crew that will be coming that could not make this one. Joe and Christian biked it.

Landrew was not kidding that the beer garden is abou two blocks away from the M60 bus stop. The lack of subways from Queens Plaza is no big deal. You walk to 31st Street, make a left, and make another left when you hit 24th Avenue and its right there. The bus stop is the first stop in Queens.

I walked from Spanish Harlem via the 102d Street pedestrian bridge onto Randal's Island and then over the Triborough. On the way I passed the M60 bus stop. I also walked home. This was with a hand truck loaded with photo books to recycle (give away) and my workbook of prints that Landrew says weighs about 40 pounds.

Cal
 
Saturday "Maggie" and I were going to the "Q" train taking a short cut through the Washington Houses, but we were diverted by a local who told us that we could not get through because there was a crime scene and police had secured the area.

We were told that a Latino shot a man of mixed race (moleno).

On Sunday when I walked past these projects I saw continued police presence. Maggie and I took note that there seemed to be a news blackout on this shooting. She did a search and a pretty big list of shootings, stabbings, and killing came up under East Harlem, but nothing about the most recent shooting.

We realized that mucho shootings don't get reported and make it onto the news. Also last week I saw a headline on the Internet that stated "Crime in NYC is down, but shootings are up."

My funny spin on this headline is that the projected attitude is that shootings are no longer a crime. What a way to fudge the numbers. LOL.

Understand that I have a Master's Degree in journalism, and also because I have a boring day job I have about twenty years of data minng experience on the Internet.

So here is the smut. Yesterday, Sunday, another shooting happened in East Harlem, but at another housing project, that involved three men. One is dead. They report that this is somewhat gang related.

Saturday's shooting at the Washington Houses involved the police who shot a man who drew his weapon on the police. He is in serious, but stable condition. There is a report that the police were called because of a disturbance.

So I'm reporting to you that in fact there were two shootings that went unreported that happened a block from my house. The police involvement silenced the one report, and there is no mention of the mixed race man who was shot. The gun used was a 22 cal revolver.

There is irony here: know that the 23rd Precinct is physically located on 102d Street and Third Avenue and basically The Washington Houses are across Third Avenue.

Know that statigically I live on the same block as the 23rd Precinct on a diagonal corner.

"Maggie" and I are considering moving to a safer neighborhood like Crown Heights or Bed Stuy. These neighborhoods have cheap rents and have changed a lot since they built out the Barclay's Center. Pretty much NYC is a tale of two cities.

Cal
 
I find it interesting that the citation on the Internet I found earlier that mentioned the police shooting at the Washington Houses on Saturday July 13th has been removed.

???

Cal

POSTSCRIPT: I found the citation.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYPD-shooting-at-Washington-Houses-259712241.html Please note the date is wrong to be the shooting that was reported to Maggie and me by a local. Only one shooting took place, but so far this shooting goes unreported.
 
Last night went to a VIP preview opening for an art show called "Beyond The Streets." Pretty much was an art show about street art and street culture that was assembled and curated by the designer/philantropist Agnes B.

The event was held on North 12th Street in Williamsburg close to the waterfront. The exhibit was held on two floors of a new building and the scale was of a full blown museum.

Outside I kinda got snubbed by a doorman who opened a door that I though he was opening for me, but he then directed me to use an adjoining revolving door. Evidently the person behind me was a more important VIP. Later "Maggie" would inform me that the woman who "shadowed" me was the actress Susan Sarandon.

There were various "handlers" who engaged with Maggie offering refreshment and such. One person who I would later learn was the head of international public relations for Agnes B. who checked on us frequently. We were told that Agnes herself was present at the event and that she would like to meet us.

Of course as Maggie's ontourage I had the important responsibility to get some shots. Meanwhile from the 5th floor I had some nice panoramic landscape shots of oil tanks, a small inlet off the East River, and Madhattan in the background. I had my SL and 28 Cron.

The show I say is an important show to see. The exhibit was really vast and covered urban culture in a broad net that included hip-hop, the Beasty Boys enphemra, west coast graph-E-T, and a lot of NYC from the 80's and 90's.

At one point the PR "Handler" yet again was engaged with Maggie along with some other Agnes B. staff.

I caught Susan Sarandon hovering around us for about 5-7 minutes with her personal ontourage, while I witnessed other guests engaging with Susan Sarandon and asking permission to photo her. I pretty much left her alone to respect her privacy as she stood nearby.

I wonder if Susan Sarandon was wondering about Maggie and me, because although I was Maggie's ontourage, Maggie was getting mucho attention from the Agnes B. staff.

We ran into Agnes B. a second time and held a conversation. She wore a silk boxing robe. Mighty cool.

About a year ago we were invited to a party held on "The Tara" which is a research boat funded by Agnes B. "Maggie" early on wrote about Agnes B. in her blog, and she never imagined that one day she would get to meet her.

I'm really glad I was able to preview this rather large show. It is kinda important if you are involved with urban culture in your work.

Cal
 
Don't tell anyone, but did you know that Leica has a three lens Leica "S" kit in a wheeled pelican case that they lend out?

I know this because of "Mike the skinny hipster" AKA as "Mike the Wack-Job" (because of his antics on a fixed gear track bike).

Mike lives in my building in the apartment directly above us. One day he gives me a call so I go up. He opens the Pelican case and shows me the entire kit which includes the grip for verticals.

Mike is a bit overwelhmed because he does not shoot Leica (shoots Canon DSLR) and for me the "S" has the same menus as my SL. Pretty much the same.

So Mike goes to an address, knocks on a door and this artist type hands him the Pelican case like some drug deal in the seventies.

Mike got commissioned to do an editorial that would be featured in Leica "S" magazine, and it just came out. On top of that the shots were also published in LFI as a bonus, but here is the bum deal: on the cover are the names of the 5 other featured photographers. Out of the six featured inside the magizine Mike's name was left off the cover. How sloppy is that?

That really sucks. Kinda like when Vogue Italia "lifted" a photo of mine, printed it full page, but no photo credit. BTW how much does a photo credit cost?

Well here's another "hose" story that really sucks: Edward Weston I learned from reading one of Philippe's books was a true master of large format photography, but in real life he lived in poverty.

Diane Arbus was in that breakout show at MOMA that included Lee Freelander and Garry Winnogran, but never was commercially successful within her lifetime. Even a big break only helped a little. Garry Winnogran resorted to teaching, which has been reported that he hated doing.

Anyways what happened to Mike kinda sucks, but still he got his work seen on a great venue.

Cal
 
Oh, I forgot. Yesterday a package got delivered. "Maggie" was sent more clothes. This time a summer dress, a "work" pocketbook, and a t-shirt.

I just got rid of two 70 pound bags of clothing, some never worn.

Here we go again...

Sometimes the swag is crazy. One delivery was a Facebook "Portal" just like the one in the Neil Patrick Harris commercial. According to Joe these self contained video conferencing devices cost a lot and are not cheap.

This Facebook Portal was gifted to a five year old. Guess who took it on a train and delivered it? Like I say the one reason why men have shorter lifespans than women is women. LOL.

There are still clothes to sell at consignment shops... Guess who likely will have to carry those clothes.

Cal
 
Landrew will be coming by my lab tomorrow to pick up 4 gallons of 18 megaohm water. I saved the amber gallon jugs that held research grade alcohols because with three rinses they are easily cleaned. Alcohol leaves no residue.

So these bottles I recycle, and I also found a Amazon "Fresh" padded cooler that I found that I will also recycle by gifting Landrew as a container for the 4 gallons of water. Also have a spare amber bottle if he needs one for developer or fixer.

So I use this chemically pure water that is scrubbed to 18 megaohm resistivity by reverse osmosis. H2O that is so chemically active that it is ideal for mixing developers, dileuting fixer, and as a stop bath. I believe that this water adds benefit to my nice negatives, although I have never performed any controlled experiment to verify my results.

Joe inquired about any wetting agent I might use, and I told hime I use none. I use NYC tap water for my final rinse, and I never get drying marks or spots. I also don't squeegee my films.

My guess is that because I use chemically pure water that I end up with films that innately have low surface tensions. No wetting agent required.

So three things I can say about my negatives: they are very clean; they are very consistent; and they are easy to straight print. Nice negatives are easy to print.

Meanwhile a heat wave is beginning. The air quality is rather poor and breathing requires some labor. Likely some people will die over the next 5 days due to the heat and poor air quality.

Cal
 
I was just walking along minding my own business when I found 8-16 inch ELFA shelf brackets in Platinum that match what I utilize in my studio.

Pretty much I maxed out the space which is suppose to be a bedroom of of a one-bedroom Madhattan apartment (most expensive rents in the U.S. where Brooklyn is rated forth in one study) by going vertical as if I built an indoor highrise.

The 16 inch brackets are a great size because using wire shelving they could be utilized to create a good drying rack, either freestanding or wall mount. I love that this system has "legs" in that it is modular and never a throwaway. Kinda like Lego Blocks for adults.

These brackets cost $8.00 each and pretty much are worth $64.00. It pays to walk around as much as I do. Found them on York Avenue about a block from work.

Also know that I pride myself for owning a Rolex. I tend to be very punk-U-Al, but for work I never earlier than at least 10-15 minutes late, sometimes closer to a half hour. I have my reputation as a lazy slacker to uphold.

Monday "Maggie" has a shoot for some Japanese TV thing. For cutaways they want some footage of me shooting Maggie on the street like we do. I took off Monday.

So Brooklyn is cheaper rent. For the past nine years we have lived in Madhattan. It is mucho cool to walk to work, about 3 miles each way. I save both time and money as taking the bus or subway only saves me 5 minutes.

The commute from Brooklyn will be an hour on the subway I figure. These nine years have been the longest I ever lived in one place, and that includes my childhood.

Another notice from Cyberdoorman yesterday. I don't know what free stuff was delivered to Maggie, but it won't take too long for our apartment to get full again.

Yesterday I got an opportunity to make noise again.

I exchanged pickups in a Tele, installing some underwound bright 1960 vintage pickups. The neck pickup became an open circuit, but I repaired it by dewinding the coil a bit. Now the pickup is about 5% underwound which not only lowers the output, but also brightens the tone.

The body of this guitar is woody, thick, and not so bright, but now with these very bright pickups the guitar kinda growls and is throaty like a sax. The 1960 Fender Brown Super loves this guitar, and it is a match made in heaven.

Tonight is another opportunity to make noise. Here at work I'll be thinking about tonight's science project. I can-A-bowl-ized a pickup from one guitar to pair up with another to do another transplant, and I also have the disassembled guitar to restore that I liberated the pickup from.

Cal
 
No Cyberdoorman notification, but a fancy white shirt arrived for "Maggie." this is the third incoming in 4 days. All free expensive stuff.

Some free swag was an Applewatch, but Maggie dropped hers and cracked the crystal. The cost of repair was $600.00, and the cost for a new one was $700.00, so she bought a new one. Oh-well.

At this point Maggie reminds me that she really does not buy much anymore, which is true. I'm not so sure she exploits this resource fully. All of this stuff is kinda expensive and there must be a way to commodiffy it as a commodity to raise cash. Perhaps a pop-up event.

In the August Meet-Up Landrew and I will be sharing negatives. Both of us are into P30, Panchro 400 and Kodak 5222. We have performed mucho experiments with times and developers. In my case I also have been testing Rollie 400S because it is available in bulk cheap in 70mm.

With a Linhof CINE I can get the cost of shooting an equivilent roll of 120 to under $3.00 a roll like the old days. The 400 ISO though is an exaggeration. I get about 125 ISO. The cool thing about shooting a CINE is that it can hold 15 feet of film, and that allows you to shoot a Linhof like a Leica. About 60 exposures of 6x7.

I somehow found a 645 CINE so if I need 120 shots (645) and the increase in focal length I can blast away.

The bad with Rollie 400S is that it has an IR sensitivity, so you have to deal with the added contrast which could be good or bad. Also this film tends to lightpipe, so you really can't load "in the wild." Also the film base is very thin, which makes it like handling a knife edge.

I have three stainless steel 15 foot reels and a JOBO tank that can hold all three. I even have a Uniroller. There are three gallon Kodak hard rubber tanks I can use as a light safe for loading reels in a darkroom, and I still have to work out the volume I would need.

It may be that I'm heading into the "Calzone" where I just "bunker" down and just shoot 5222 for 135 and Rollie 400S for 120 equiv.

Last night's noise-making session had me revert back to the original configuration. The Pickups I installed were too dark and lacked "chime" in the bright swamp ash carved top Tele.

The pickups will be used in another guitar. I did change the steel bridge saddles for a brass set to add some warmth to the lower output pickups I had in there originally, so some evolution took place.

I did plug in this chambered Tele that has the wonderful compliment of a dark sounding body with underwound very bright pickups. The 1960 brown Fender Super amp loves this guitar and wants to dance all night.

For me I like a guitar that can sound like a piano, a sax and a harmonica all in one. I like a vocal quality, I want the articulation of an acoustic instrument, and the percussive snap and attack of a drum. Pretty much I get all of this with a guitar I call "Woody."

Tone heaven. Also know that this amp continues to open up as the speakers get broken in more. I get more thump and attack that is tight and nasty. The strings also have hair on them. Pretty much I get the sounds without crazy volumes, without effects, and it pretty much the sound comes from just my hands and fingers.

Cal
 
Yeah, the thin base films are a kitty-bitch to load in the darkroom. I once bought 200 feet of Plus-X "Aero" film from Bonafide Novelities in NYC. First time I tried loading it onto a Paterson reel, I gave myself a 1/4 deep cut!
 
DennisM said:
Planning to attend as a NJ representative.
Click to expand...

Dennis,

Many of Landrew's crew are "working artists." Me I have a day-job.

Be aware that the trains are not running from Queens Plaza and there are shuttle buses. Depending if you are into adventure, the easiest way if you are a lazy slacker like me is to take the M60 bus on 125th Street across the Triborough. Get off the first stop in Queens. The Beer Garden is literally two blocks away.

An alternative is take the 6 train and walk from the 103rd Street subway stop. It is a bit longer than an hour walk via the 102d Street pedestrian bridge to Randal's Island and then walking over the Triborough.

I think I will do this again because there is a shot I want to get. On the Triborough there is the opportunity to shoot boat traffic from directly overhead.

I got one shot using a Leica CL with a 23mm for a 35mm FOV of a small boat and its wake. Next time I'll shoot my SL with a 28 Cron and I'll stake out the area waiting hopefully for barge, tug boat or large ship.

If you want to meet me around 10:30 in downtown Spaha (Spanish Harlem) PM me.

Cal
 
MrFujicaman said:
Yeah, the thin base films are a kitty-bitch to load in the darkroom. I once bought 200 feet of Plus-X "Aero" film from Bonafide Novelities in NYC. First time I tried loading it onto a Paterson reel, I gave myself a 1/4 deep cut!
Click to expand...

MFM,

Not so hard to "Gin-Zoo" your finger. I too learned how not to cut myself.

Those Aero films have might thin bases.

Those Paterson reels drag the film like a slicing knife I imagine. For me it is stainless steel reals.

Hopefully I avoid the blood presoak.

Cal
 
I found out that yesterday's video interview is for Japanese Broadcast TV and will air in August. It will also be distributed to other Asian countries. The segment will be a half hour in length.

Instead of just having a "Cam-ME-Oh" appearance I too was interviewed with "Maggie" about our collaboration and how we get our results.

Also yesterday Maggie was contacted by a big broadcast media company, and was invited to be a guest writer for what seems likely to be an online platform. Maggie has past affiliations with this media giant and she will be working with a known big time corespondent that also is a big celeb.

Cal
 
illerucis said:
This thread has been impossible for me to follow 😅


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Sorry. That is not the intent.

The NYC Meet-Up thread has been ongoing for over 9 years. Many people have been involved over the years and an insider familiarity has developed.

Some of the "chatter" is about NYC events and likely is of no interest to many.

Some of my "rants" is whining about NYC policy like ""Vision Zero" which I call "Zero Vision" because it has the unintended result of killing more pedestrians rather than kill less pedestrians. The numbers don't lie. Also Zero Vision has created more smog and congestion.

I can understand why some might not be interested in local public policy.

I share some of my life of having a gal who became a celeb and is a famous digital Influencer/fashion blogger because it is not as it seems, although sometimes photography related.

You have to know some history: Damaso Reyes started the NYC Meet-Up about a decade ago, and after the first few Meet-Ups he left NYC for Barcelona. Somehow unwillingly I was handed the resposibility; and because I promote myself as a "lazy slacker" that I kinda groomed a herd of lazy slackers.

As a result this kinda promotes me to go off topic and be colorful. So even though not many post, many lurk, and some guests that likely never will come to NYC sometimes post and respond to my somewhat off comments.

So anyways that is the culture. Just know that we have regular monthly Meet-Ups and pretty much it is like a support group.

For mucho confusion look at the January or February Meet-Up's where we have our annual Camera Beauty Contest, Pagent, Convention, Circus, Olympics... Pretty much it is a camera parade of sorts with prizes, gifts, and a culture of where we make fun of ourselves and the culture we developed.

So my excuse is that I'm kind of the host, but also the M.C.

Cal
 
August NYC Meet-Up

MrFujicaman said:
Yeah, the thin base films are a kitty-bitch to load in the darkroom. I once bought 200 feet of Plus-X "Aero" film from Bonafide Novelities in NYC. First time I tried loading it onto a Paterson reel, I gave myself a 1/4 deep cut!
Click to expand...



I used to buy bulk rolls of technical pan because they were 150 ft on a typical 100 ft sized reel. I had calculated that per roll it was cheaper than the Kodak/ and Ilford alternatives. I do think I must have spent more on developer.
The base was mylar which was impossible to rip. I found that out one day I forgot to take a scissors into the darkroom. I never cut myself though. I found it loaded onto my Paterson reels as easily regular film.
 
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