Object No. 6

This past friday I attempted my weekly object photo but somehow managed to pick the most difficult thing to shoot that I had around. A tiny plastic Buddha. Problem was that it is red, very red. The low contrast and the purity of the color wreaked havoc in the red channel of every photo I tried to take of it. So here we are, a couple days late with plan B.

Those of you following along for a while know that I have a thing for the Canon Canonet G-III QL17. It’s an old rangefinder with a beautiful fixed lens and anytime I am asked what my favorite camera is it’s a tossup between my Hasselblad 501CM and my Canonet. Only problem is that they are all getting a little old at this point seeing as they were manufactured in the 70s but there is no shortage of functioning copies out there for anyone curious. Many cleaned up and refurbished even.

The one photographed here is one of three that I own and has obviously seen better days. A few years back I started to take it apart to try and fix an issue I was having with the shutter but ended up giving up and stripping away most of its outer shell revealing the beautiful exposed machinery hiding inside. Seeing as most cameras on the market today are full of circuit boards and digital sensors I enjoy having this piece of well engineered history on the camera shelf.

When I hear photographers today say they know nothing of film or have no interest, it always makes me at least a little sad to hear but I know there is still a large group of us shooting away frame by precious frame whenever we can. Film has a soul that you can’t ignore once you have shot a few rolls, it’s an aesthetic and a way of life for many photographers. Even today as digital cameras have a life and personality all their own film holds a special place in the world of photography not only because it is the root of the craft but because there is still nothing else like it.

Brothers And Sisters

Damien Jurado has done it again with his new album Brothers And Sisters Of The Eternal Sun. Flying in under the radar with an amazing album that both pushes his songwriting to new levels yet still maintains the charm that makes him such a prolific songwriter. I believe this is his 11th album and it’s one of his more adventurous sonically with hints of psych-rock and other uncharted territory sneaking into the fray. I have always admired his ability to test the waters with new ideas and sounds without going so far off course you don’t recognize the music as his.

Early copies of the LP contain a second 12″ with alternate takes of each song on the record which offer stripped down versions of each song and is well worth seeking out a copy with the bonus content. You essentially get two versions of the same record that suits two different moods. I think the extra content is available digitally as well but this is a perfect example of an album that begs to be played on a record player. Love it.

YWO Index – Book

One year ago I decided to start up a new project called Yesterday Was Only wherein I post at least one photo every day of the year. It quickly became routine for me to carry my camera everywhere and while there were plenty of days where I had to stretch my standards to get a shot in, I am still proud of the work as a whole.

Looking back through the photos on YWO I feel humbled by my own life. These were not taken to impress, nor to gain viewers or be part of some kind of movement. It started as a way to drive myself to stay active with my camera through a busy year. When I look back through these images I notice that, although life seems to move by all too quickly at times, we accomplish a lot more than we think we do in a single year.

As short as a single day feels at times, this project has been a great reminder that I can still sneak in a little creativity during even the most busy of days. Browsing this backlog shows me that despite not having any grand adventures in other countries, I was still able to see and experience so much. There are a lot of forgotten moments hiding in these photographs.

The biggest impact I think it had on me as a photographer was on my post editing which has seen a big shift this year. For a long while I was hooked on overly warm colors and minimal editing to the point of it being almost a fault at times. While I still do as little as possible when editing, after working steadily day in and day out on so many different images I feel I have refined my post editing skill quite a bit over the past year and its really interesting to browse through a year’s worth of images in one place and see that evolution.

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YWO Index v.1 Details:

My reason in writing today is to not only mark the occasion but announce a book to commemorate the projects first year. I am calling it the Yesterday Was Only Index v.1 and it will include every single image posted to the site over the course of the past year, 1,068 images in all.

In researching the best way to do this my original plan was to create a fat, newsprint catalogue with one image on every page. However, my ambition runs deeper than my pockets are able to fund so I am taking a simpler approach. The book will be 5”x5” (127mm) and contain around 180 pages with six 2” (50.8mm) photos on each page. I have chosen a nice uncoated paper for the printing.

It will be Wire Bound with a brown chipboard cover I will stamp by hand with the title which will, in my mind, help it stay within my original concept of it being akin to an appendix for the site, a literal catalogue that is a physical reproduction of the content shared on the site. There will be no words along with the photographs, only the images themselves and a brief introduction.

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Ordering/Edition:

I am not limiting the amount of books sold but this will be the one and only run of the book. If you do not order now there will not be another opportunity to buy it in the future, once these first copies are gone, thats it. I will sign and number each copy based on the amount of them that are ordered when ordering closes.

Each book is $30USD for U.S. readers and $35USD for any orders outside the U.S. (This price includes shipping.)

All orders are Pre-Orders which will be open for three weeks. I will most likely close orders on Feb 24th. Please note, books will be shipped as soon as they arrive in my hands which should be within the first couple weeks of March. If there are not enough orders to at least break even on the cost I will issue a full refund.

On that note, please show your support and help spread the word whether you are buying a copy or not! I would love to see this book get made and I need your help to do it. If enough orders come in I may have a little bonus for you guys as well!

For U.S.residents, click here to order.

Anyone outside of the U.S. please, click here to order.

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This is just the beginning of a lot of fun things to come. I have made a conscious decision to put more time and resources into kicking things up this year. I have planned a few ideas to death but realized the only way anything will ever get done is to just jump in and give it my all. Thanks, as always, for your support!

Object No. 5

While in India there was no shortage of locals suckering tourists into any manner of things. Food, clothing, restaurants, anything and everything, there was always someone willing to show me the best of the best in the area or whatever area I was heading toward.

One quiet afternoon near a lake we were greeted by a boy selling carved stone goods laid out on a blanket on the ground. We approached him like we approached any tout, with a fair degree of skepticism. I quickly noticed a stone off to the side of all his polished sellable product that was meant to show that he was the one that had made all of these intricate carvings but it was clearly just a hacked away at chunk of rock, not even closely resembling the same design of the things he was selling. I could only assume it was just a means to pull in the curiosity of those who may not notice that he was not in fact the artist.

While I often turned down such advances I decided on this day to buy the smallest little Ganesha he was selling which I then ended up carrying around with me for about year before keeping it in a drawer at home which is why it ended up getting so many scars. Still though, seeing it always reminds me of that warm afternoon by a lake in Udaipur so I like having it around.