Tag: Boston

Frugal Film Project Take Two: July Edition

Hello and welcome to another installment of the Frugal Film Project. The internet challenge that tasks you with buying a cheap film camera (for me it’s a Lomography Lubitell 166 Universal from the good ol’ Soviet Union of yesteryear) and pairing it with a cheap-ish film and shooting one roll each month for a year. Seeing as I am a dumbass and a glutton for punishment I am doing two rolls per month this year. Kodak Gold 200 and Kentmere 100.

Both of July’s rolls were shot in Boston. We’ll start in color with Kodak Gold 200. It was July 5th and I was curious to see what was still around following the best 4th of July celebration in the country, the Boston Pops show on the Esplanade. Unlike last month, all 12 photos came out. I started on Boston Common and walked over to the Esplanade in hopes of seeing some stuff worth seeing along the Charles River.

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I am always extra careful to make sure that the image in the viewfinder is level before I click the shutter. Either my viewfinder is out of line or clicking the shutter causes me to dip the camera down to the right because almost every shot I’ve ever taken with this camera is crooked.

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So that’s one roll down for July. I had every intention of shooting the second roll that same day but something came up and I had to end my photowalk early. I went back on July 19th to shoot the roll of Kentmere 100. I retraced a lot of my steps but I managed to visit Acorn Street as well. That is considered to be the most photographed street in Boston. Once again, all 12 shots came out. That’s kinda miraculous to me.

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And that concludes the black and white Kentmere film portion of the project. Two rolls of film, 12 images each. Last year I started this game in May and was successful through August before failing in September. This year I started in May again and I need to last one more month to match last year’s attempt. I think I can do it. Tomorrow is August 1st and I have no clue where I want to go for the next two rolls. Somewhere in Boston, probably, but we’ll see. Until then… go shoot some film!

The Charles

Two weeks ago I took a bag full of cameras to Boston to shoot some film for the Frugal Film Project. I got half way though things and had to leave to go home for something. It was the day after the 4th of July and I wanted to walk along the Charles River by the Esplanade.

Today I went back. I also stopped at Acorn Street and wandered around Arlington and Berkeley Streets near where I used to go to school. I shot a roll of Kentmere 100 in my Lubitel for the Frugal Film thing. I also had most of a roll in my Nikon N90. I loaded it at Sail Boston last week and only shot a few pics before it was too dark for film. Finally, I had a roll in my dad’s Pentax K1000 that I loaded in… April? May? I don’t remember. I finished all three rolls. 

When I got home I took those three rolls and three other rolls that I finished over the last two weeks and sent them off to get developed.

While I was in town I also shot a bunch of stuff with my Digital camera. My Nikon Z5. Here come some highlights.

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Acorn Street
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Acorn Street from the other direction
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I took a ton of pics of the Hancock building
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I also took a ton of pics of the Pru
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I also took a ton of pics of little foot bridges
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I was using the 70–210mm zoom so I could take pics of things that were really far away
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The Longfellow Bridge from a crazy distance
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There is a chance that one of the film pics I took of this fountain has a rainbow in it but I think I missed it
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The view from one of the foot bridges
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Same bridge, other direction
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Bridge
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The Hatch Shell. The Boston Pops are not there anymore
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We love you too, Boston

Sail Boston Pics

Today is Monday. At about 7:30am today the house painters arrived. We booked this months and months ago and in the intervening time we’ve had 100 things go wrong in the house and we just sort of lost track. They have been here for 11 hours. They are scraping the old paint off and prepping for the actual painting. Will that start tomorrow? Who knows.

In the meantime, here are a few more pics from our visit to Sail Boston on Saturday. Talk about your gorgeous day in the best city in the world, am I right? It was spectacular from start to finish. We walked about 400 miles in total. I took about 100 pics with the digital camera and one roll of 35mm film and a handful of shots on a second roll. Someday I will get them developed, but not today.

Here are some digital pics to hold us over until the film is developed, probably before the end of the century.

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Two of my favorite people
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Norway fans. They were sad. The lost 2-1 to England
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I took a bunch of fireworks pics but they are all lame so I am only posting one.

There you have it. Our trip to Sail Boston. I am guessing we saw maybe 5% of the ships, but what we saw was worth it.

Tall Ships

I have been super busy today working on new songs and running errands and I haven’t had a chance to post about yesterday.

My wife and step daughter and I paid a visit to a tiny fraction of Sail Boston. We didn’t see the tall ships parade, but we did see a bunch of them up close. We managed to stay for the fireworks too.

I took a lot of pictures and I hope to post a bunch of them eventually, but for now here are just a few to serve as a teaser for a post that might not ever happen. Aint I a stinker?

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Boats
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Flags
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Fireworks

Recreated

I think it was Father’s Day in 2006. I had a nice little Kodak point and shoot camera and I wanted to use it so I drove into Boston and just walked around. I had an idea to stand at the base of the Hancock building and point the camera straight up. That didn’t quite work the way I had hoped, but when I moved just a little bit I got this:

Hancock Tower in Boston

It might still be my favorite photograph that I have ever taken that doesn’t have Jen or Harry or Bellana or my niece or any of my nephews in it. I like it.

Every time I get a new camera I think, “I’m going to try and recreate that picture” and then it never works out as well. My Nikon D90 gave me a bunch of really good pictures, but nothing close enough to the accidental original. I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.

Ever since the film obsession began a few years ago (when my sister found my father’s Pentax K1000 while cleaning out his dresser and asked if anyone wanted it and I suddenly realized that I really, really, really wanted it) I’ve been wanting to go into Boston and see if I could pull it off on film.

Today I went into Boston to see if I could pull it off. I had the K1000, the Lubitell 166, and my digital Nikon Z5. I was messing with the K1000 when I accidentally figured out what I needed to do. I didn’t move to my left, like I thought I did. I moved to my right. All three cameras tried it out. Obviously we have to wait to get the film developed to know how they did, but the digital I can already see.

Close enough?

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All I need now is the airplane to come back.