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It seems to be working.

Since sometime in September I haven't done much of traditional street photography. Instead I've been focusing on shooting large format environmental portraiture. Photographs influenced by the type of moments I'd be looking for if I were out street shooting, yet with a more controlled hand on the composition.

So far I'm finding this switch to be bliss. I've never been so satisfied with the work I've been creating as I have these last few months, and I've been getting a massive waves of positive feedback on the body of work. Shooting this way also adds a great facet to my photography that rarely appears while shooting candidly — actually connecting with people.

I've been happily using my 4x5 camera to shoot these portraits, but then a perfect storm of photography hit me right in the face.

1) I was given an old Korona 8x10 camera.

2) I found a Jobo CPE-2 at a thrift store for $30.

3) A kind man who I met one night in Minneapolis gave me 15 sheets of expired 8x10 color film he never expected to use.

So I thought to myself. "Hey, I only have $30 invested into this system. I wonder what would happen if I used that old film in that old camera, and see if I can develop them with the Jobo I just got?"

I think I kind of now understand how a largemouth bass feels the moment an angler sets the hook and he is ripped away from the only world he's ever known.

Now, while the photos from the 4x5 look absolutely amazing, the images coming out of the 8x10 are just something else. This is photography with the volume set to 11. The camera is heavy and physically demanding to use. The film is expensive and I can only take a few exposures out with me at a time. But I'll be damned if it doesn't just feel right.

So that is my quick summary of where I am at so far in 2012. Year of the 8x10. Also, the new Alcest album Les Voyages de L'Âme is pretty awesome. Go check it out.

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Going back to my popular 8 Ways to Title a Photograph post from earlier this year, I'm going to put a reverse spin on The Pop Culture Reference method, as inspired by my play list.

The song, O Children by Nick Cave.

And now for some photos loosely tied together through the title.

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Kermit 2010

Meh. Might score well on one of the many photography rating websites where the user base goes jump-off-the-wall crazy for mediocre photos with narrow color palettes. It leaves me empty though.

Kermit 2011

Attach a flash and summon the spirit of Weegee — now we are talking. Almost looks like a crime scene photo, or darker yet, a photograph taken by Kermit's abductor and tormentor as a trophy.

Wonder if I can make it darker yet the next time we cross paths?

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The rest are here.

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Street Photographer food for thought: It can literally pay to not play the invisible photographer game that so many street photography blogs tell you is the one true way to work. I shot this event using a large flash attached to a large Fuji GW690III camera. Discretion? Discretion stayed at home that day.

Since the last marathon update I have received an e-mail which basically said "Hey. I think you were the photographer who took a photo of my friend and I. I will give you money for a copy."

The less discretely I've been working lately, the more people have been taking notice. That in itself feels to be building some sort of actual street cred. That street cred then reverberates into a new level of self-confidence which makes it easier to shoot non-discretely.

Stop hiding and start getting known. It feels good. Here are the photos.

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Time to start the filing, scanning, and editing process.

For this event, I'm going to try something different. 240 frames to edit may not sound like much to a digital photographer. Hell, a good dSLR can probably take that many photos in ten seconds! BUt, when I need to cut them apart, put them into filing pages, do a proof scan, and then a full scan on the potential keepers before they even hit Photoshop, it can take quite a while. Doing this process on three or four rolls of film can take me several hours.

I also know myself well enough that if I try to post process everything before deciding what to share, no one will ever see these image. So what I'm going to do is reach into the box-o-negatives shown above and draw out three rolls at random. I'll then put those three rolls through my post-processing procedure and then share no more than five of the keepers from those three rolls.

Should be a fun experiment on editing.

Picks from the first three rolls

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Blake Andrews was right, twenty-six rolls of 220 film is a lot. In six hours of shooting today I covered twelve miles on foot. In that time I only chewed through twelve of the twenty-six rolls I had hoped to consume. Perhaps I should backpedal and say that I really meant to say twenty-six rolls of 120 film, then claim that I just about made it?

Nah, it was a fairly arbitrary number used to align with the event I was shooting. I'm perfectly happy hot having those extra 224 exposures to scan and edit. I'm sure other street photographers who take interest in The Moving Masses phylum of street photography could have easily slugged out twenty-six rolls of crowd photographs, but that isn't my style.

I think I got a fairly bountiful crop of good images, so all is well. Now here is a duck.

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