Slo-Fi

While visiting my family for Christmas my sister returned to my brother a digital camera she borrowed. Sometime in 1998. I don’t know where they fit all the 1.6 megapixels, it’s only the size of a loaf of bread. Okay, okay, a slice of bread. A large slice.

It’s a Fuji MX-700, a very early point & shoot digital camera. It has a dial that you can set to “take a picture two seconds after you press the button” and also “timer”. Aside from a display in a museum of 20th Century technological artifacts, what can you do with such a beast? I had some fun after setting it to B&W and clearing the huge 8MB Smart Media card — it holds about 10 photos at 1024×1280, and my 134-in-1 card reader actually has a slot for it. The camera does an okay job in its own right and squinting through the viewfinder is cute. I can actually see how this would have been a good investment for taking small photos of things for sale on ebay, after faxing a photocopy of your drivers license to confirm your account, tied to your free Juno email address. That was just me? Okay.

I thought I might keep it as my own overwrought version of Instagram for B&W still lifes and vintage clothes. Turns out it has some bad pixels plus that’s a stupid idea. It’s interesting to see how far we’ve come though. Fun fact: this camera was actually rebranded as the Leica Digilux. Almost enough reason to keep it. Almost.

2012 Troy Victorian Stroll

It was overcast. very, very overcast.

Between an early brunch, “caroling” at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall (try to sneak into a box seat), a trip to the Confectionery wine bar, and a late night booze n’ do’s session, it was a long, overcast day.

Sorry these are not terribly victorian-y photos, the costumes tend to be the least interesting part. See more in a Troy NY slideshow. I like that town.

Troy Night Out, 11.28.2012

An old friend of Laura’s, Amanda Rogers, was in town to play at Design It Together for Troy Night Out. Check her music out, but if you catch her live you might hear a bonechilling rendition of Creep. She followed The Midnight Society who are the only folks I’ve seen (yet) to add both kazoo and stylophone to their set. Enough links for you? No? Well turns out Amanda Rogers is also a Star Trek: TNG character too. There goes my mind.

Uncle Sam Garage

I’m realizing that a lot of my photography is moving away from large sets of single subjects in one shoot toward a more “snapshot” approach that fits into a much broader context of long-term bodies of work. I’d still like to show some of that work here though, so this is that sort of experiment.

Lark Fest and Pearlpalooza 2012

Hey! It’s been kind of quiet here lately, hasn’t it? Sorry about that. Hopefully you got to check out some of the stuff that’s been keeping me busy, namely Lark Fest and Pearlpalooza, two of the outdoor music festivals here in Albany. Lark Fest is in fact billed as the largest street festival in New York. Is that possible? That depends on what your definition of “is” is. I miss the ’90s.

Lark Fest’s music lienup this year was, at least on paper, not that exciting. Guess what, this guy up here was excited, so I could be wrong.

Yeah if there was any Dubstep it would have been at the silent disco, but hey, reprazent. See those clouds? I hated those clouds all day.

All Over Albany posted about this tattoo hearse.

There were breakdancers with casually jaunty shadows.

Balloons! Spongebob and Elmo balloons! It wouldn’t be an Albany festival without them.

There’s mere in a short slideshow.

Pearlpalooza was full of WEQX heavy-rotationers including Matt & Kim, local band done good Phantogram, and Robert DeLong who puts on an impressive one-man show even though I’m not positive everything he does on stage has anything to do with music? Still he’s an impressive drummer. Those were just on the main stage though! The local stage had good stuff too including Mirk who also has an excellent drummer. And a saxophone. If only they could fit a giant bottle of Jägermeister into their set.

Speak of the devil, there’s Mirk, and and giant bottle of Jägermeister!

I didn’t find the “Future UFC Stars” tent but apparently someone did.

There was a lack of seating.

Except for the best seat in the house! Let’s hope the United States Postal Service sticks around for at least another year.

Guess what, it rained. A lot. Sort of during the show. I’ll give a shout out here to the Victory Cafe who had the best awning around. Seemed like folks stuck around to enjoy the music even in a torrential downpour. Good for them.

As usual there’s a slideshow here too. Okay, I know, this is not exactly what you expect of concert photography. Well guess what, my buddy James has you covered. I think he did a better job than the press photographers. You tell me.