Daniel preparing to undertake the Widowmaker shot during one of our Saturday after-work whiskey basketball sessions. Today we played for "F*&#ing Hot" which we broke up into five letters f*#$ - ing - H - O - T. We were down Sean today so it was just me, Faulkner, Kendall and Daniel. I lost to Faulkner in a spirited shoot out that had me put him on the verge of elimination with a shot bounced off the wall, but I couldn't prove the shot after he missed it. In our games when a person is on their last letter and they miss the shot they have the choice of having the original person "prove it" by remaking the shot or they can prove it themselves. But that only goes for the last letter.
The Widowmaker is a shot of Sean's creation which has ended many a game of whiskey basketball. Until the rest of us started practicing it and were finally able to make it with some consistency ourselves. As to the shot itself? Well, you will just have to get a job at Blue Moon Camera and find out for yourself. ;-)
Tags: Blue Moon Camera square basketball HORSE Hasselblad 500C Daniel Klockenkemper co-worker after hours Kodak Tri-X work film Portland b&w Zeb Andrews photography I don't actually drink So for me, whiskey basketball is really just basketball
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Kendall preparing to shoot during one of our many Saturday-evening whiskey basketball sessions. There are few better ways to end a work week.
Tags: whiskey basketball Blue Moon Camera Kodak Tri-X film Kendall basketball hoops hoop dreams
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It is well documented how alcohol not only makes you more attractive to the opposite sex but also increases your intelligence. What is not as readily known is that it also gives you mad basketball skills, as demonstrated here by Kendall as he skies for a finger roll.
It is a Saturday evening tradition for us, that once we close the store up for the week, we all go out back and play a game of HORSE, though we never actually play for HORSE. I think this game's word was the last name of one of our customers who had been causing us some mild frustration (not completely unjustifiably though).
This was taken with an old Leica IIIf red dial (1950s thereabouts) with a modern Voigtlander 12mm super wide. I had the hood on a bit crooked, hence the vignetting.
Tags: whiskey basketball Blue Moon Camera Kodak Tri-X film Kendall basketball hoops hoop dreams Never drink and drive Or drink and dunk for that matter
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A while back we purchased a basketball hoop from Goodwill and mounted it over the backdoor of the store. It has become common practice on Saturday nights to have a quick game of HORSE amongst the staff, though we usually play for NIKON or AGFA or NORITSU instead of HORSE. It is also common for such games to be aided along with small amounts of whiskey. It is a fun time and a great way for all of us to unwind after a busy week. Plus we get some pretty crazy shots going, such as the infamous double-wall bank or "The Oliver" and "Widowmaker" shots that we have invented over the year.
I really wanted to post this image for a couple of other reasons though. One, my last post taken from the ferry in Seattle really got me to thinking about our use of neat little squares and rectangles to frame almost all of our photography. When you really start thinking about it, doesn't it seem kind of ridiculous that we take this organic world (especially when it comes to landscape photography) and we try to put it into a neat little box, and we have done so so much that it has become a mindlessly accepted given in photography now? I am thinking of experimenting a bit more with non-geometric framing, or at least less rigidly shaped framing. We shall see how it goes...
But my main point was to talk a bit about caring for your cameras, mainly those older mechanical ones, but to a certain extent any camera. This is just a piece of practical advice that I get to deal with on a regular basis.
See, cameras are a lot like us. Given periodic exercise, they hold up over the years much better. Maybe they don't develop the spare tire around the mid-section, but unused cameras develop lots of other issues. This is something all you old Canon film slr users ought to take note of, especially if you have a Canon AE-1. Leave that camera on the shelf with no use for two or three years and the next time you pull it down that crisp shutter will most likely be replaced with a nasty squeal. The lubricating oils in the mirror box dry up and the camera does not operate in its usual, smooth and confident fashion. I see this a lot. Half of the AE-1s that come in the store that came out of an estate sale or somebody's attic show this. I can usually ask if the camera has sat for a number of years, and judging from that simple answer know how the camera is going to sound before I even pick it up. So if you own an AE-1 and are not using it, pull it off the shelf every six months and fire through all the shutter speeds several dozen times while watching TV or such.
But the same is true of many other cameras, give them periodic exercise, it helps the shutters and other mechanisms in the camera remain free from gelled oils. The same holds true with lenses. The aperture blades on lenses can collected pooled oil if left sat for years at a time, not to mention fungus can grow on the optics.
The best thing to do with a piece of camera equipment you are not going to use is to sell it or pass it on to someone who will use it. I have seen several cameras over the years that went into the closet in pristine shape, only to come out several years later needing hundreds of dollars in camera repair to be brought back into good shape.
Also, several of these mechanical cameras (Hasselblads, Leicas and such) should not be stored with the shutters in the set position. This puts undue stress on the cocked shutter, slowly ruining its parts.
My best advice though, is that cameras should be used. They benefit from it, and then again so do we. An unused camera, regardless of its retail value, becomes a meaningless paperweight sitting up there in a dark corner of the closet.
Anyway, something I have learned from my experiences in a camera store and just thought I would pass a bit of that along.
Tags: fisheye basketball Blue Moon Camera round circle Kodak Tri-X Canon 7.5mm Sean Faulkner shooting camera care Zeb Andrews Zeb Andrews photography
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I felt like a whiskey basketball photo tonight, so that is what you are going to get. :-)
Daniel having to shoot backwards, over his head, halfway in the doorway... without looking.
Tags: basketball whiskey basketball Daniel co-worker Portland PDX Blue Moon Camera Oregon 35mm film grain Fuji Neopan 1600 toss Nikon FM2 Zeb Andrews photography after work
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