SHARPNESS

Photo from this morning:




Crop from that photo (you can read the frigging "EXIT" sign)

Lots of New Photos (And a New Camera)

In light of my recent work for Interview Magazine, which can be found here, I decided to buy a new camera, the full-frame Nikon D700.

Photos for Interview Magazine (I can only post images older than 60 days, as per my contract.)




Kingdom and Zach, at the Six Scents party on November 16th, 2008




Gareth Pugh, one of the designers at the Six Scents party.


A family friend also mailed me a 28mm f/2.8 Ai-S, which is super sharp, though a bit hard to focus on the digital body. The awesome thing about the D700 is its low noise at high ISOs. To break in the new camera, Angela (the Spec Photo Editor) and I went to the churchyard of St. John the Divine at night. This shot was taken at ISO 6,400!



An old wheelbarrow in cool lighting.


The next day, I took some pictures at my friends' band practice. They're called Chief Haney. (They don't have many songs up.)



Drummer Will Ewing


I finally picked up a roll of color film (Portra 400NC) that I had dropped off at B&H in late November -- they had put my account on hold for non-payment... All the photos on it were taken at Bard College in upstate New York during a weekend visit. I think they came out nicely. (Camera was a Canon TLb with 50mm f/1.8 lens.)



A sculpture on the green.


I took the lens off, turned it around backward, and did a makeshift macro shot of some leaves.



This one's ethereal.


Yesterday, I photographed Brooklyn Artist-Musician Jeff Lewis for the Spectator's weekly Arts magazine, The Eye. He was squirmy and camera-shy, but I got a few good ones.




Out in front of his Brooklyn apartment.




With his extensive Lou Reed record collection.


And today, Veronica and I took a walk around Columbia's campus, which was the first time I had used the telephoto (80-200 f/2.8 AF-S) on my new camera.




Looking sultry.





That's all for now, photo-wise. I'm trying to add photos to my Flickr at least once a week, so keep checking back often.

Notes on the Return of NROTC to Columbia

Today Columbia students will have the chance to vote on the return of NROTC to their campus. I will vote No.

From a pro-NROTC leaflet slipped under my door tonight:

"We strongly oppose DADT, but we believe that boycotts are not the most effective form of protest...Thousands are working from within to make the military a more progressive institution...DADT is a federal law, passed by congress in 1993 and signed by President Clinton, and the military does not have the power to overturn it.

The military is a tool of democracy—it carries out the wishes of the elected representatives and should represent all sectors of society. Excluding the military is an abdication of responsibility. Columbia students should not side on the sidelines, and wait for others to create change."

As for the first paragraph: Isn't it at least a bit contradictory to simultaneously exhort gays and lesbians to change DADT from within the military, and to assert that "the military does not have the power to overturn [DADT]"? If an estimated 65,000 gays and lesbians currently serving in the military, the explicit opinion of 104 retired admirals and generals, and strong popular opposition to DADT are not enough to keep President-elect Obama from delaying his promised repeal, possibly until 2010, what difference will a few thousands LGBT folk make inside the military that they can't make far more strongly outside it? If the authority to overturn DADT lies with Congress, as the leaflet implies, then those seeking its repeal can (and I think, should) find their outlet for influence in the entry points of American democracy—as lawyers, activists, academics, politicians, writers, advisers, and political advisers.

I, for one, think that the upcoming Day Without A Gay protests will send a strong message from LGBT citizens to the incoming Obama administration and the democratic majorities in both the House and Senate: "we voted for you in droves; throw us a fucking bone!" Of course, if a gay or lesbian person on active duty in the military were to "abdicate [her] responsibility" in vocally coming out through an act of civil disobedience, she'd most likely join 12,000 of her ex-colleagues in ["dishonorably"] finding herself out of a job.

With regard to the second paragraph: The American military is indeed a tool of democracy, and it does carry out the wishes of the elected representatives who vote to send it into combat. Likewise, the military is also a highly effective tool of violent, authoritarian regimes the world over, and it often carries out the wishes of a single despot for his own personal gain. In other words, the military's demonstrable utility does not justify service as a universal responsibility, nor does it provide sufficient grounds for killing people. (On the other hand, mandatory, non-violent public service without DADT is fine by me.) Moreover, if the military "should represent all sectors of society," one need not join it to have her voice represented; protesting the DADT and the War in Iraq, and electing to office politicians who promise to end both, are powerful ways of influencing the military's actions and policies without enlisting.

Finally, the last remark, that "Columbia students should not sit on the sidelines, and wait for others to create change," is ludicrous. Whether we interpret "change" here as general improvement in the world or specifically a repeal of DADT, even if we grant that the military is an avenue to these ends (which I doubt), it is by no means the only or best way. The most simple utilitarian thinking shows that opportunities for positive change abound outside the military: in AIDS clinics, in microfinance firms, in not-for-profit organizations, in classrooms, in the Peace Corps, in pharmaceutical laboratories—thousands of opportunities for change exist outside the military, and it would be insulting to describe any of them as "sitting on the sidelines" or an "abdication of duty."

A Summer of Images - Part One

I could chart this summer chronologically, counting the weeks and days as they slip by, or by bizarre changes in climate (does it really rain in July?), or by the cameras that I've been buying, borrowing, and exploring faster than I can keep track of. At the beginning of the summer I borrowed Paul's dad's Rolleiflex 3.5SE, complete with the original yellow filter. Like most of Neil's camera collection, (which also includes the wacky fisheye adapter I borrowed earlier this year), it's in mint condition. The absence of a light meter makes things a bit more challenging, but I just went with the "Sunny f/16 rule" since I was shooting outside. I can't exactly figure out how to get the film counter to work, so I wasted most of the first roll of Kodak C-41 process black and white, but here's one shot from it:







Then there was the Konica Autoreflex T4, which is a small, leatherette coated SLR from the late 70s that had a sweet 40mm f/1.8 pancake lens. The plastic chassis and compact lens made it featherweight and great for carrying around. All in all, I ran around four rolls through it, before selling it a customer at Sarber's Cameras on Solano Avenue, where I'm working this summer.



Shots with the T4:










Next, I picked up a used Nikon D2H, which is Nikon's professional DSLR from 2003—the equivalent of the Cretaceous in digital camera years—also in mint condition. At only 4.1 megapixels, I won't be using it for studio work, but it will be perfect for photojournalism.



Paul and I did a photoshoot at the construction site next door:







Eight frames per second allows for awesome action shots, like this mid-jump capture:






Of course, I've still been using my mom's old Canon TLb a lot:











Finally, I borrowed an Olympus XA rangefinder, the camera my parents used to photograph my birth until an orderly stole it. It looks like something Q would give to James Bond to take covert photos of Soviet missile silos—if Bond would settle for manual focus and aperture priority. The fixed 28mm f/2.8 lens is wide and sharp.



My favorite photo from the XA, so far:







And another:







That's all for now. Enjoy.