Neighbour Kids - St. John's, Newfoundland photographer

A whack of kids just fooling around. Good Times.

Da by's 

Girlies. 

15 of 31 - A post a day in May

An oldie. I was playing with slow shutter. The other 10 or 12 from this series were great but I could have burned them all once I saw this. I loved it. I still love it. I miss the days when she would let me take her picture.

14 0f 31

Just prior to closing down my last darkroom I had friend/photographer Bojan Furst come by and take a few photos of the action of the darkroom. These photos will find their way to my site where I will use them to reinforce the fact that I use film and I do everything by hand.

It was a great darkroom and was big enough for my computer and office as well although that didn't make it's way into these photos. No computers needed in a darkroom. :) I used this for a little more than a year. I knew I'd be moving on so I didn't fill the walls with test prints like I have done in other darkrooms. It seems plain to me. I'll settle in better in the next one.

My new darkroom is almost ready. Possibly by Monday evening which is the most exciting thing in the world. I have a great craving for the solitude.

Thanks Bojan for these photos!!

11 of 31 - A Post a Day in May

Found film!

I recently moved into a new (to me) house. While packing the old house I found a couple rolls of film among the dust bunnies. I recently started developing the backlog of film since moving (29 rolls at last count) and one of those found rolls was developed. It's so fun to develop found film because while hanging it to dry I am looking at it like a stranger thinking "What IS this?" until the realization rushes over me and I get excited.

In this case we had a roll from last summer. Kids of Steel Triathalon at Bowring Park. I took a bunch of instagram photos but forgot about the few frames of film. It was in the car for over a year and it looks like the heat/cold/freeze/heat of a car interior has had an affect. Extra grain for everyone!

My little guy was 5. He was so far behind that when he finished he was all alone. He thought this meant he was first. He was so excited to win the triathlon that we let him believe it.

10 of 31- A Post a Day in May

My father has a successful welding company and his company, Allan Murphy Welding (no links or other inter web hocus pocus here) is responsible for many of the beautiful railing and fences around town. I used to photograph some of these for him and enlarge them as gifts that he hangs in his office. I hadn't done any in many years and decided it's time to get back to that idea.

My youngest brother is now a welder as well and he was part of the team that installed this one.

This is one I gave my dad for Christmas this year. I waited for the perfect snowfall to act as a contrast to the black iron. 

Bannerman Park, 2012.

9 of 31 - A Post a Day in May

Yesterday I showed off a darkroom print made when I was 15. This leads into the story of how I started to do what I do.

Back in Jr. High our school had no budget for a yearbook. So a group of us decided to do it ourselves. We had a darkroom and a photography club and the reckless determination of 14 year olds.

We took all the photos and did the layout and all the illustrations. Looking at it now it looks like 14 year olds made it but we were so proud. I was part of the group doing the photos. We took sports photos, group photos, candid photos, event photos - we did it all. Then we developed the film and printed the photos in the darkroom. Some combination of us is on every single page, my grown up apologies to those that also went to this school but didn't make into any candid pages of the yearbook.

I think it's fantastic that none of us could figure out the flash sync problem. It's a pretty ironic "Photography Club" photo. ;) It is as washed out and horrible in real life as it appears here. That's me in the front holding the camera. Obviously.

The yearbook committee photo is slightly better. There I am in the front again. Who was running and hitting the button on the camera? I have a memory of it being a delayed shutter type thing. 

Here I am in my grade 9 glory. 

I really loved the darkroom. I loved the smell of it and the red glow and I just thought it was the most fantastic place.

I felt powerful when I had a camera. I was (and am) shy in a group but give me a camera and that shyness goes away.

Once High school came I didn't have access to a darkroom anymore and that love took a back seat to partying - I mean studying. I was 24 years old by the time I built a darkroom in my house and I have had one ever since. I took a refresher class with Shane Kelly and it was after the first class I felt like I remembered at all and all those great feelings came back in a flood.

I can't really explain why I enjoy it so much - I just do.  To me the developing the film and printing the photos myself is all part of making a picture. It's like the love that good cooks put into the food they make. The darkroom is the love.

8 of 31 - A Post a Day in May

Today is Paula's birthday. Who is Paula? She was my bff back in the day and also the subject of this: the oldest darkroom made print that I have in my possession. Printed in the school darkroom where I first fell in love with the smell of fixer. I can't tell you where the other prints from that era might be - maybe Paula has them? We were 15 years old when this was made. She was a firecracker and was duct taped to the wall for reasons long forgotten.

Happy Birthday Paula!

5 of 31 - A Post a Day in May

10th anniversary in the portrait business. A Post a Day in May to celebrate.

Aren't you all dying to know how I became so obsessed with the Holga?

About 10 years ago I had a darkroom and I had cameras and I had young subjects all around me. I was obsessed with the idea of getting a bigger negative but I did not have the funds to buy a high quality medium format camera (back then medium format cameras were still very expensive). Somehow I had read about Holga on some internet forum and knew they took medium format film and could be had for cheap and hey - cheap was good. So a few weeks later my first ever brown paper package with white twine arrived from Hong Kong. I messed up two or three rolls trying to load it but once I figured it out - glorious. That first roll had about 10 useless frames and 2 good ones. The beauty and depth in those two frames sold me on medium format forever. Soon after I acquired a medium format Bronica and have been using Bronica and Holga ever since. I have maybe 25 Holgas and every accessory and just made an order for more. I have dabbled with other "toy" cameras but nothing can lure me away. It's my favourite. I love the challenge in using a camera that has no settings and no focus and a body so bad it leaks light and a lens so bad it has crazy vignetting. (photographers note - It has setting in developing film stage and it has focus in your feet.) Anyone can use a camera that does all the work - it takes some sort of magic to use Holga. (fyi I now have flipped my success ratio - 10 good frames per roll for sure!)

This image was on my first ever roll from my first ever Holga. I enlarged it to 16x16 at the time because I was amazed at the detail in the medium format negative. It had a romantic *feel* to it that blew my mind. It's not the most amazing photograph in the world - but it's amazing to my photography journey.

I'm not a  teacher. If you want to know more about Holga click here: http://microsites.lomography.com/holga/fundamentals.

If you read all that and still have questions please call me - I'd be happy to help if I can. ;)

Nfld Herald - St. John's Newfoundland Photographer

Yesterday at the grocery store I flipped through the Mother's Day edition of the Nfld Herald and noticed they used three of my photos and gave me 1/2 page of text in the Arts and Letters story. Next time you are buying groceries you should check it out. :)

Holga Fisheye fun

Holga + fisheye lens + ringflash = fun!

These are all just around the house.

My girl. Fisheye has a lot of distortion (understatement!!).

My boy. He was very angry and ran away from me (in the living room). I found him in the kitchen in the space between the drawers and the fridge.

My cat named Holga. Holga with Holga!

My boy loves Holgas too!

Then I had two frames left so I took it to a session. I thought it would be a fun way to loosen the kiddos up. As it turns out I was right. Let's face it, this camera is not very intimidating.

This was shot #1 of the session. Fun indeed!  It set us up nicely to have a great time together. I'll have to scan more of this session. It was good one. ;)

Rice is Nice!

This post is a public thanks to Terry Rice ( www.terryrice.com ). He had some darkroom gear that was of no use to him and he asked me if I wanted it. I said yes, figuring that even if it was junk I might get a few bits and bobs of useful darkroom trinkets out of  it.

Well I picked it up yesterday and it is definately not junk!! 2- 4x5 enlargers, 2 Jobo processors with enough tanks and reels to get me through 2020, lightbox, film dryer etc etc. Score! This is a text book definition of *one man's junk is another (wo)mans treasure.* As a digital guy this darkroom gear was just taking up space for Terry. As a film gal this is useful equipment that will be used on a very regular basis. I've actually already used the lightbox to help go through this mornings negatives.I am thrilled.

So if you need a photographer and you don't like me (sob!) or you are getting married etc . . . call Terry!

Thank you Terry. If I ever have any old computer gear I don't need you will be my first call!!

Fun with safe lights

There is a lot of standing around and doing nothing in the darkroom. One minute for this tray, two minutes for that tray. The forced nothingness is my favorite part of the darkroom.

Often I use those spare minutes to write important stuff. Stuff like to-do lists, budgets, meal planning, journaling etc.Sometimes I read tech sheets or photography books or look up stories and rhymes for my other job. Yes I do that under red light, it's fine as long as I don't use a red or orange pen. ;)

Today I did a full day in the dark and during the stand around parts I did nothing important at all. I played with my music, I played with my kids camera. I danced. I sang. It was very stressful.

It energized me. I need to play with photography more. A lot more. I do love it. Even the mistakes. Especially the mistakes.

Hey that's me!

Follow the link to check out my random personal opinions disguised as sage parenting advice.

http://stjohnstoddler.blogspot.com/2010/05/local-mom-donna.html

Panda Birth

So I've been pretty immersed in birth culture and newborn babies lately. I'm looking up this, researching that, photographing all of the above . . . generally all about little babies and their pregnant mothers.

In today's time wasting episode of surfing the web I came across this video of a giant panda in Japan giving birth:

Panda Birth

Apparently it is the first giant panda in Japan to give birth by artificial insemination . . . so it has made an impact on the news.


I have watched humans give birth. I have watched dogs and cats and mice give birth. I have watched videos of numerous other mammals give birth. None of that prepared me for the sight of that new panda!! Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I knew that panda babes were small . . . but this is nuts! I looked it up, and according to The National Zoo "At birth, the cub is helpless, and it takes considerable effort on the mother's part to raise it. A newborn cub weighs three to five ounces and is about the size of a stick of butter. Pink, hairless, and blind, the cub is 1/900th the size of its mother. Except for a marsupial (such as the kangaroo or opossum), a giant panda baby is the smallest mammal newborn relative to its mother's size."

My last babies averaged about 1/12th my size. Seems a little unfair, yes?

Community Gardening

This summer we were part of a community garden. It included 8 families and was a lot of fun. We grew potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatos, beans, herbs, lettuce, cucumber, beets and peppers. Some things did better than others, but I learned so much about growing vegetables that teeny tiny peppers don't bother me in the least! Next summers crop is sure yeild twice as much.

I took a few photos throughout the summer and just put them up in a flickr account to share with my fellow gardeners.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9871391@N02/


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