So I know I promised a blog update on some new equipment I have been working with, so here it is. I finally got a camera that I am not constantly wishing I could upgrade. I got my hands on a brand-spanking new Nikon D700
. Its AMAZING. The quality of files coming out of this beast at high isos and in low light it simply mind boggling. I know it doesn’t shoot HD video like the Canon 5D mark II, but hey, when I go video, I’ll see about all of that then.

So I finally got to test out the camera – I went around town with my buddy Mike, attended Chinese New Year in Chinatown with Kelly, and a Superbowl party at Nick’s place.

Massive amounts of photos after the link :

CLICK ME –>

This one is for Rebecca Nolan.

Breakfast in Chinatown!

Superbowl Action:

Hope you enjoy!  More soon.  I can’t stop playing with this camera!!

J

(My mind is completely blown right now)

Did a little “spring” cleaning today – got the “man-cave” all squared away, sorted photography gear, and came upon a treasure chest of goodies.  37 different goodies to be exact.
I
Found
FILM!

Click the link for full story:

I found a Ziploc bag full of old (at least a year) 120 & 35mm film.  23 rolls of sweet, undeveloped medium format goodness, and 14 rolls of sexy, still in the can hotness.  (Enough description words for yaw?)
Now it would have been even cooler to find a new D700 in the mix, but beggars can’t be choosers.

The coolest part of this discovery (besides indulging my slightly obsessive need to categorize, sort and organize photography gear) was the unbelievable, exciting UNKNOWN to it all.  I have no idea what ANY of these rolls of film contains.  4 have “Maine” written on them, so I know that they were taken last summer at The Workshops.  I can’t figure out though, if they are Holga shots, images from my pinhole, or just randomness.  Exciting! Other than that, it points at my obviously need to label film cartridges.It’s an interesting experience – finding a ton of undeveloped film, not having any idea of what it contains.  Exciting, yet stressful all at the same time.

This is due to 2 distinct possibilities.

1) Film is developed, contains wondrous amounts of hidden gems, and exciting-but-forgotten shots.

2) Film is developed, and comes back as messed up rolls, film/camera errors, and other horrible technical difficulties.  That, and it ends up being 37 rolls of grey card film tests, or photos of my ceiling fan.  Lame.  Money/Time (or both) is wasted in large amounts.

Like I said, time to label more.

All in all, I’m going to hope for option #1, and send these to the ATL to get developed. Well, I will when I get some cash, as its going to cost a couple hundred dollars to get it all developed and contact printed. Note: I am not being lazy, but I don’t have the time or energy with my current projects to take time out (a lot of it) to sit in a pitch-black closet hand developing black and white rolls of medium format film. Especially as I don’t know if they will be beneficial to my current projects.  As it is all at least a year old, I doubt it.  So someone else can do it.

Other than that, I am getting pretty happy with the state of my photo library.  I am still working on getting archival boxes for the prints I have made/traded/collected over the past 4 years but the photo book department is currently looking pretty good.  90% of these were purchased at Timothy Whelan’s book store (Rockport, Maine).  His store is like a Mecca for photo geeks.  All photo books, all the time.  Half of the books you pick up are signed by the authors, and aren’t even marked up in price.  Awesome, awesome store.

Other than that, just working on the morocco photos, organizing my catalogs, working on develop settings, and generally just geeking out.

John