Home Sweet Home

Golden Gate Park, SF. Hand developed C41 image captured with Petri Color35E.

Maui Rollin

Was in Maui for a day helping a friend trying to find a new place and we found this gem (actually there was two of them) parked out front of one of the apartment complexes we looked at. One day I would love to do a photo story on the real Hawaii - it's not all mai tai's and luaus. Thanks to the perfect weather and the tremendous high cost of living, there is staggering poverty and drug abuse. Here is a great photo story on the tent cities of Waianae.

Out of the Shadows

Captured this one with my handy little Petri 35mm camera, C41 developed by hand. To get the funky print look around the register, I used artists tape to tape the strip of negs to the scanner's glass instead of using the crappy neg carrier that came with the scanner.

Back In Action

Thanks to the loving generosity of a wonderful friend - I am now the proud owner of a very unique camera, the Zeiss-Ikon 510/2 - also called the Bob 510/2. So many things make this camera so special, first it was made in 1936 and for being 72 years old it is in fantastic shape (it was purchased from the original owner in a small coastal Spanish town). It uses 120 (medium format), which is very common and should (fingers crossed) be produced for many years to come.
It came with this cool leather carrying case which is also in fantastic shape for it's age, inside I keep a notebook, pen, and some exposure charts. Because there is no exposure meter built in, the aforementioned exposure charts are pretty crucial, unless you just want to wing the exposure. Each snap of the shutter I write down the shutter speed, f stop, focus distance, and scene details. Definitely not a rapid approach to photography, but certainly a record for a lifetime. As you can see the shutter speed options are quite limited - 1/25, 1/75, Bulb (open as long as shutter is depressed), and Time (first depression opens, second depression closes), so obviously you won't be stopping much motion with this thing. However, it is quite perfect for long exposures using the Time setting, helpful to have a timer around.
To me the best part of the camera is the aspect ratio, which is 6x9! Pretty amazing for such a small camera, later versions went to the traditional square medium format (6x6). Below you can see that the negative from this thing is nearly 4 times the size of a standard 35mm - talk about resolution. However, this only yields 8 images per roll.
So far I have put three rolls of film through, and last night I developed a batch of C41 film by hand. Unfortunately, 2 rolls were damaged - partly to user error and partly because the new Kodak 400NC film stock really is horrible, very flimsy and hard to load, does not help I use a stainless steel 220 reel (always doing things the hard way). The surviving roll yielded an image I would like to share. Made this one on the platform of Civic Center BART - f/22, distance at infiniti, and winged it on the shutter time as the train sped by. As a 'side note,' which is equally exciting and inspiring - I now have a new laptop! Lots of cool shoots and travel are coming up in the near future, so hopefully I will step up the blog posts.
PEACE to you all!

Dear Thief -

To the person who broke into my home and stole my laptop, video camera, medium format camera, cash and my ipod:

"If you stole from me to feed yourself or your family - may you and your family forever be blessed with an abundance of food and never go hungry again.

If you stole to feed an addiction, drugs or Alcohol, then may God (or the Universe, or Shiva, Or Bhudda, or Muhammed - whatever your bag) illumine you with light and knowledge that self realization and enlightenment cannot be obtained through substances."

So, obviously I am pretty out of touch right now with the vast majority of my creative tools having been lifted from my possession. Things here then will be quiet for some time.

PEACE to you all!

JC Wears Shades

Have been working hard the past few weeks preparing for yesterday/lastnight's very special live recording. At the moment not at liberty to discuss the details of the project, but can say it was held at a VERY cool converted Pentacostal church and featured more artists and instruments than I could count on two hands.
The performance space.
JC is too cool.
Remarc makin' deals.
My corner of the world.
PEACE to you all!

Busy busy!

Been locked in the studio lately and have had little time to transmit digitally. Currently producing a VERY rad new artist and also preparing for a very large and unique live CD recording coming up this weekend. Been so busy in the studio, haven't even had time to hook up all the new toys seen below...

Over/Under

Starting to stretch myself pretty thin these days - working on so many projects, there are just so many stories I want to tell. A goal of mine this week is to really prioritize everything I am working on so my creative time is used more efficiently. One thing that is on the top of my priority list is to finish the trailer for documentary I am making about Mother's Kitchen, where I volunteer. Here is a screenshot from the cutting room floor.

5 Questions Trailer

Keep in mind that I am not a videographer, nor a video editor. However, there are a lot of stories I want to tell that cannot be told with still images alone. So, I taught myself how to operate a video camera and final cut in an evening - shot all this yesterday and just put together a trailer. The thought of the project, and who knows how far it will go - is to ask someone on the streets five questions.
Chris is a Haight street regular, and a stand up guy. The music and overall theme of the trailer is upbeat - because Chris is a very positive person. He has been through a lot especially recently, but he just keeps going in the face of adversity. For a while he was running an internet radio station from a laptop during the day and sleeping in the park at night. He had to sell the domain and the radio station to buy food and supplies. His laptop was recently stolen from him while he was sleeping in the park.

5 Questions Trailer, Chris from Ryan Chahanovich on Vimeo.

PEACE to you all!

The Moon, My Love

To achieve the effect on the print below, I used an Anti-Newton Glass 4x5 carrier and used blue artists tape to mask off a custom frame.
Moon, Crouched
Chromogenic Print, 1/2, Hand Developed by the Artist
Not for Sale
PEACE to you all!

Testing 1,2,3

While the love of my life is off traveling half way around the world - I have decided to confine myself to the darkroom for the next month. This is a test strip from a print I ran on Saturday.
PEACE to you all!

Fun

This is why I love film, there are things that can happen that are truly impossible to reproduce. Ultimately, this is a flawed photograph, my reel was a little wet which caused parts of the roll to stick to itself. But, to me it is beauty. This was a roll of Fuji Velvia 50, which I pushed to 100 and cross processed as C41 - developed by hand. Not sure what band this is, although I know that is Dr. Octagon's MC off to the right.
PEACE to you all!

Not Film

Found some materials on the street corner yesterday when I was walking home from the bike shop. The results of the light test with the found items are interesting, I figured since I was shooting digital and it's not really real anyways, that I could push a few settings a bit.
PEACE to you all!

Fresh Batch

Spent about 3 hours on Monday evening developing seven rolls of film, then spent a subsequent 3 hours yesterday morning cutting, sleeving and scanning. I am pretty stoked on the results, but probably won't post to many of them here. Hand developing film makes the connection to the images so very personal to me, and just scanning many of them does not do the images justice. So, over the next few weeks I will be sneaking into the lab to print them by hand.
PEACE to you all!

NYC MOMA

Snapped this strange little image using my old school Petri, which can be hit or miss, on my last visit to NYC. This as en E6 image (notice the E100G registration stripe) that I hand processed with C41 chemistry.
PEACE to you all!

Unseen, Continued

In an earlier post I introduced you to those I called the Unseen during Bay to Breakers. Here are a few more images from that series - a few C41 images that I just developed at home.

PEACE to you all!

Love Is a Battlefield

Last night I developed six rolls of color film at home, and just cut and scanned the results. I have a very cheap scanner, so a lot of the images appear to be color shifted but I am pretty sure that that is the annoyingly horrible automatic exposure correction.
The images below I shot back a few months ago when Israel was bombarding Palestine and a large rally was held in downtown SF. I was shooting with my Petri Color35, an old boutique automatic camera from the late 60's. The film as usual, was far past it's date of expiration.

PEACE to you all!

Screen Snap

Working on a video tutorial on how to develop your own color film at home. My first foray into video and Final Cut Pro has made me realize why I love still images so much :)

PEACE to you all!

Back

Here is an outtake from my time in Austin shooting for the Living Canvas series. Troy's backpiece, which was done by the venerable Chris Trevino, is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
PEACE to you all!

Full Disclosure

A screenshot of my workspace - busy day today, 3 shoots and started working on my first documentary.
PEACE to you all!