Wow, what a crazy time we’re living in. The last few weeks with the election and politics have been crazier than anyone could ever have imagined. Courtney and I certainly watch and see what’s going on, hoping for calm to win-out soon, while holding substantially to the positivity of our relationships across the full spectrum of our lives. I (Justin) have recently returned to photography, and imagining the world through the lens of a single still image captured and processed. In contrast to the hyper-active world we’re living in right now, 2-dimensional and static images just seem grounding.
While having a little baby provides photographic opportunities at every turn, landscape/nature and street photography are also happening. I’ve dug out some of my film cameras and film (most of my “new” film expired in 2012; and yes, I have a lot of cameras). The cameras include a couple medium format and my favorite, a Canon F-1 New that I can quietly lug around. The other film camera I’ve been using is a 60s era Mamiya C33 my uncle Marvin Gleicher used when his career was shooting bands and who-knows-what-else. Think view-finder camera here, slow as hell to use (for me, at least).
The camera has been on a shelf since he gave it to me before moving from Chicago to Florida a few years ago, and included a free roll of film (to be developed still). This camera is a LOT of fun to use. A few rolls of film have gone through it, and in the next few weeks I’m planning to send them off to see how the camera has performed. Interestingly enough, my other medium format camera is also a Mamiya, but from the 90’s. Fortunately film never really changed sizes, so they take the same film (120). It’s not as much fun to use, although the shutter and aperture I know are accurate on it.

I should have some digital photos processed shortly. I’ve forced myself to move away from my very old and clunky Lightroom based workflow into an Open Source paradigm (mainly a program called DarkTable and maybe dikiKam for organizing everything), letting me develop digital photos on my native desktop (Ubuntu Linux). As such, it’s taking me longer to get through my current stash of photos. Here are some previews, if you promise to not do anything with them (fully “developed” versions will be available soon, these have some color/exposure/quality issues I need to smooth out still). Film photos are definitely a few weeks/a month out still.




I wanted to take some time to reflect, and this seemed like such a great place to do it. So to close out, I wanted to let everyone know that we’re doing fantastic. We’re finding joy in even the most unexpected places, Courtney and I are finding our way as parents, and we’re all cherishing the experience as Julian continues to grow. We’re looking forward to seeing so many of our friends and family later this year.
-Justin