Holga Tintype

In working on my Holga tintype series, I had a couple extra tins left over from my first batch, and I wanted to try some double exposures.   What is printed on the tintype is not the same thing I see in the viewfinder.  The distances are different between the two as the viewfinder on these camera are off to a side and you're not seeing what's being shot.  So as I take more images, I will be better able to estimate where I want to place different items and get exactly what I want in the shot.

I'm also experimenting with shooting urbanscapes and different themes.  It's an interesting process to me to see what works and what doesn't.

Now and Then.

My partner, Joe, and I recently celebrated 37 years of being together, and I wanted to put together something that reflected the passage of time from when I was 21 to the present.

I have always liked to go through my family's photo albums and look at pictures taken of my parents, grandparents and others when they were children or young adults.  It's always given me a different impression of who they are.  I think many of us have the same curiosity about other people.

One of the projects I have been working on is a series about the LBGT community over 50 years old.  I know anyone in that age category probably has similar feelings.  However, in this youth-and-beauty-oriented gay community, there is an ever-increasing aging population that has now become invisible to the community at large.  With the series, I'm trying to find a way of presenting older LBGT to the younger generations in a way that we are not seen as a forgotten segment, but are just as vital as we once were.

So with this in mind, I've just started to work on presenting portraits of my subjects along with some image from their past which is important to them.

 Holga tintype.

So my Southern California weather is not cooperating with my project!  The last several months the weather here has been great:  sunny skies with little cloud interference.  Now that I'm starting to work on this series, our "June gloom" is setting in.  In June we end up with a marine layer setting in most of the day, which leaves our days mostly overcast.  This does not work well with my tintype project.

I find with the emulsion I'm using to coat my tins, the emulsion has been estimated at approximately ISO 50, which means it has a very low sensitivity to light and needs more light in order to expose an image correctly.  I have to set my Holga to "B," which stands for "bulb," meaning that the shutter will stay open as long as I have the shutter release button depressed.  Any faster shutter speed doesn't allow enough light into the camera to expose the tin.  So my images also have to be taken while the camera is secured on a tripod to minimize movement.

So when I go to shoot any image -- landscape/portrait/whatever -- I have to estimate the amount of time I hold the shutter release button down.  Too little time and the image turns out way underexposed; too much time and the image ends up way too light.  This actually is the reverse from regular photography because of the nature of the emulsion.

But this is all new territory for me, and I'm enjoying the trial-and-error process that is necessary in order to make this work.

Holga tintype series.

One of the interesting things I find about this tintype business is that all your images are reversed so that if you have some writing in the photo, it will appear backwards.  This is true of all the images; so when I look at a street scene I shot, everything is in reverse.

I'm trying this project out on people as well.  Because of the low ISO of the emulsion (how sensitive it is to light), I have to keep the shutter open longer than is normally possible for a crisp, focused image.  It's hard not to shake a bit, or the subject will move just a little.  But with this first portrait attempt, I'm realizing what I need to do to make it a stronger image:  first is to put the camera back on the tripod, and second I need to expose the image just a little longer.  When this tintype process, the longer the plate is exposed to light, the lighter the image becomes, which is completely reversed from normal darkroom work.

But I'm liking the ethereal quality of the image as a first try.  I will be working with more people, I can tell.

My partner, Joe, is such an inspiration to me!  Having retired from years of practicing as an attorney, he decided that sitting around does not do much for him at all.  When he was thinking about the next chapter in his life, he thought back to his earlier years before he went to law school, and he remembered his dream was to become part of the entertainment industry.  However, life (and his mother) had different plans for him, and law school was the road he was to travel. 

Now at a time when he has the option of doing whatever he wants, he has been training to become a voice actor.  He comes to life behind the microphone, and it's amazing to see what a range he's developing.  His passion is infecting, and I can feed off his enthusiasm. 

Joe

I never tire of working with Joe as a model.  After all these years together and with all the changes we've both gone through, I love to see him in new ways, and my photography has allowed me to keep exploring him.

Joe, 68, my partner.  To me he hasn't changed since we first got together 35 years ago.

Images of Joe and me.  Everywhere you look, you see pictures of young, beautiful couples; but the relationship between two people only gets stronger, more intimate as time goes on.  After 35 years, we should be pretty close then.

Joe is the major part of a big project that I am currently putting together.  I am really enjoying this process because it makes me interact with Joe in a completely different way than I ever have.  In creating different moments with him, I get a chance to see him through the artist's eye; and I find that with each shoot I see things about him that I haven't seen before or that I just forgot to see with the passage of time.  With each image I find myself remembering why I fell for him in the beginning so many years ago.

Joe.  I'm working on a new series about my partner, Joe, and our life -- still a work in the early phases of development.  I'm just shooting him and things that mean something to us both, and I'm seeing where the project ends up.  I started to really enjoy working with environmental portraiture using available lighting.  And I have a built-in model -- as long as I don't forget about my honey-do list.

 

Joe is an incredible cook, as is shown by my every expanding waistline.  Most of the recipes he has are from his mother.  He is the only one in his family to have all her old recipes and to be able to cook the Italian dishes that the family remembers from years ago.  One of his favorite recipes is his mom's recipe for homemade pizza.  This recipe her mother brought with her from the old country.  One time before she passed away, his mom tasted Joe's pizza and exclaimed, "The student is better than the teacher."  Joe's always cherished that moment.

Keeping my eyes open for those little moments that I normally would not pay attention to.

A portrait of Joe.  With this image I wanted to explore lighting to accentuate the beauty and richness of a face as it ages.

This was one of my most favorite shots to put together.  I used Joe as my model, and took six different photographs in order to incorporate them into the final image.