So getting used to this new schedule is freaking me out a little. I'm so very used to posting every day.

Recently I took my first 8x10 photos. My [OLD and shitty] scanner will only do up to 4x5 transparencies so as of now I'm left without a decent way to reproduce / scan the images I made (and will make). The office Rob and I have been working on is now done, as is the darkroom he and Bob had been working on...so soon I will have plausible access to making contact sheets of these admittedly massive negatives. The first real image of these is posted above. Real really isn't the proper word. This is a digital photo of the negative sitting on top of Bryan's light box. Really, really bad.

Nerdery:

I actually under exposed this shot by around two stops, as well. I normally shoot HP5 in my 4x5 which is ISO 400 and the 8x10 I ordered is student grade (which, at 8x10, for me, is pretty unimportant) but it is ALSO only ISO 100. By habit I metered at 400 and out pops a grey masterpiece. There is a sheet I haven't run yet of Bob that I THOUGHT I totally blew out, but I think it'll end up being the closest to properly exposed in the end. So in the future, nerd noters, you'll likely see 8x10 contact sheets printed on VC paper (so I can filter them) and then scanned in their massive format glory.

Anyone wanna buy me an Epson v750? Please? I'll shoot a ton of stuff for you for free! I promise!

Imagine that, David again.

I'm a bit sick or perhaps I'd write more.

This week on Whiskerino it is "your own theme" week and David's theme is "things I built with my bare hands". While on a location for his shots, I took this ridiculously wide angle photo.

So here's Bill, the groom of a wedding I shot in DC back in December. 4x5 in slightly directional open shade during a snow storm. Wedding should post tomorrow. Lots of Lecia, little bit of 4x5.

Steph's dad is doing whiskerino with us, just in an unofficial capacity. It is pretty brilliant.

I figure with a different format, I'll change up the title as well. No more "Day" this nor "Day" that.

Above are Stephanie's parents attempting to give a performance as awkward as their two daughters, below.

(me, totally looking super hard into the future. to the max)

Holy crap.

Two years of this photo blog are done.

TWO YEARS.

I'm sitting at my desk and really have no clue where to start in terms of talking about how I feel about 2009 or where I hope to go with 2010. I guess I'll just dig in...see what happens.

First, WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE. We can now say Twenty-ten, et cetera. Kevin will be sure to encourage you to call them the Twenty-tweens until we get to 2013, by the way.

But seriously. I'm 30 years old, live in a world filled with insane (and relatively nascent) technology, have information at my fingertips very literally at all times. We are steadily moving forward in gaining understanding of the universe and can take a gagillion megapixel image with our BRAIN*. And yet, despite these advancements and the state of digital photography, I continue to find my voice and vision with older and older cameras. It's pretty awesome actually. I really enjoy the fact that, in a world grasping desperately at anything to reach terminal velocity, I'm yanking on the emergency brake. Going slower on purpose. Taking time to try to make photographs instead of 48,000,000,000 digital snaps in 12 minutes and then sort through them all later only to realize none of them MEANT anything. I'd rather take one photo in 12 minutes and it have it convey a sense of meaning or emotion. Call me old fashioned.

*so not true.

In that light, I think I'm going to make some changes to how I approach things.

• Element one: Format change. After two years and over 700 photographs posted more or less every day, I think I'm going to shift to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting regiment. I don't actually expect anyone to notice, but then I may underestimate the give-a-shit percentage of the 12 readers I have. Actually, it is weird to think about it like that as this blog started as a semi-covert persona project that turned into a place for people I know to see stuff I'm doing if they so desire. For a long time my name wasn't listed anywhere, even. Which leads to...
• Element two: An eventual change of venue. Somewhere along the way I realized how much posting a billion images could be as a means of keeping people I want to WORK for up to date with what I'm SHOOTING. I am in the process of creating a new site for my photographs that will FINALLY be geared towards me pursuing work. It amazes me, truly, that for almost a decade I have worked as a photographer with no work really coming from any sort of advertising. So a new site is on the way and it will, when launched, host whatever Electric Lion becomes. For now, it'll stay here, but in the future, it'll have a new home, likley at carynorton.com.
• Element three: So with giving myself a bit of break with the posting of the images, I'm hoping to do a few things
  • Slow down my photography a bit. Take time to Really craft something I can be proud of.
  • Market myself, for fucks sake.
  • Emerse myself further into large format photograph. Specifically, 8x10. Hoping to borrow Jason's to some degree in order to get this ball rolling.
  • Live life a bit more. Read. Write. Spend time with Stephanie. Continue to lose weight. Et cetera.
• Element four: And finally a change I'm pretty excited about. PHYSICAL RELOCATION OF MY OFFICE! My friend and fellow photographer Rob Culpepper and I are taking an office on the south side of town and I couldn't be more excited to remove myself from my home specifically to work nor to share space with a human being (A PHOTOGRAPHER EVEN!) again. We've now finished sanding the floors and apply polyurethane soon, and then we can paint and move in. I'll still be living downtown but will have a place to go to work. It has been a while since I've had either a destination or a cohort. 2010 is going to kick ass.

So yeah. Not so much goals as much as how things are going to change. I'm excited about trying to shoot 8x10. If I get REALLY ambitious, I also have a process camera that will expose up to 14x18 which actually sort of blows my mind. Gonna have to figure out how to hack that into something I can use.

As for photographs: Here are, in no real order, some of my favorite photographs I took this year, and why.

Just a wonderful moment. I was glad I could do Allison and the light some justice.

Pretty recent addition to EL but I like it because I feel like it was a triumph of sorts. I used lights, made a good photo (if tame) out of a semi-bad situation.

Went with my gut and like the outcome

HOLY SHIT IT'S DAMIEN JURADO. This was fun and now I have a new friend.

It was also nice to meet and shoot Denison Witmer. In particular, I like this one because it was after daylight dropped and was lit very poorly but I was able to get a good shot...thanks to his ability to stay still DESPITE getting bit by a mosquito at the time of the image.

Yeah. Pretty people. Costa Rican rain forrest. Yeah.

Also speaks for itself.

One of my first tight, 4x5 portraits I was REALLY happy with.

A true darkhorse. It is an honest moment while shooting a family (the shot was for Bham Magazine and was 4x5. This was a digital outtake)

Granddad!

Uganda!

Stephanie!

Alan!

Winslow!

I loved a lot more..but I've got to go to bed.

Happy new year, everyone.

So. 2009 is done. 2010 is here.

This is Taylor Shaw and I'm ready for his new year!

2010 post to come.

god my numbers are all sorts of messed up. Taylor again. Looking happy!

Taylor came by yesterday and I took some shots. My sis got me a new toy that shoots Instax film (credit card sized polaroids, sort of) and this is one where I was trying to figure out where I needed to do the exposures.

Not a great scan..hence the dust spots.

I recently had a wedding in Washington DC (see a couple of posts ago for a couple of images from that wedding) and crashed with my buddy Richard. This is he.

Granddad loading firewood.

Shot a wedding a while ago in DC. First wedding with the new-to-me (1958) Leica. Love this shot.