Flowers at the Botanical Garden

I rented a bike and rode out to the Botanical Garden, where I spent a couple of hours wandering the paths and looking for blooms to photograph. The garden is a series of themed areas, with plants from different parts of the world.

Out in the open beds, the rock purslane impressed me: it looks like a succulent but blooms like a wildflower, colorful cups held tall on wiry stems, still mostly buds that day. There were plenty of poppies nearby; I chose one and spent a frame on it.

In the shadier beds the Polaroid palette shows best, with colorful blooms floating on near-black greens. Two frames picked up chemistry marbling along the bottom edge on their way out of the rollers.

Surf at Lands End

The other stop was Lands End, where the mouth of the Golden Gate meets open ocean. It was starting to drizzle, and the marine layer flattened sky and water into one blue. I started shooting from the top of the cliff and then walked down a path to the rocky shore, with the tide on its way in.

Gulls flew in formation above the silhouette of the Cliff House, and perched on the wave-beaten rock.

The best frame of the day isn’t here. It was a closeup of yellow wildflowers at the edge of the cliff, against that same blue of waves breaking on the rocks below. I dropped it into the surf and never got it back.

Film Stocks and Happy Accidents

I packed a ton of film for this trip. The black and white photos were shot on bulk-loaded Arista Edu on my Olympus XA2, and ended up with several light leaks due to a faulty film loader. I also tried out Revolog Lazer, an experimental pre-exposed film that gives a green light-leak effect – I originally intended to use it redscaled, but that didn’t quite work out (more on that later). Finally, given that it was a Brooklyn Film event, I had to bring my Polaroid SX-70, which ended up being a lot of fun for portraits.

Morning at Samson’s

Our host Samson had turned a former laundromat into something between an apartment and a cabinet of curiosities: vinyl records, thrifted art, a stop sign, a piano, an organ, guitars, mannequins. We couldn’t not shoot it.

Photowalk through Manhattan

We took the Subway from Brooklyn into Manhattan. Walked Chinatown, Times Square, Central Park. The bulk-loaded Arista Edu grain and light leaks came in strong here; perfect for a moody NY vibe.

Brooklyn Film Camera Gathering

The gathering at Wyckoff Windows Studio in Bushwick was pretty packed. Huge line out the door and around the corner, we were lucky to be among the first in. The Revolog Lazer was loaded on my Nikon. I’d originally planned to redscale it for the morning photowalk, thinking the green streaks would contrast against the red shift, but I accidentally ended up flipping the film one too many times (it can happen when you fumble around in a darkbag in the middle of the street).