Ansco No. 2

I loaded a roll of Kodak TMax 100 in my old Ansco No.2 box camera and took a couple of walks to test it out about a month or two back. I finally developed the film(in HC-110(b) and got it scanned and uploaded last week. I shot with a Lomo, from the hip type attitude. As you can see the camera clearly had some light-leaks and the lens, like many box cameras, is only sharp in the center - which when used right can be pretty cool. Also the camera needs to be held quite still - I'm guessing it must have a shutter around 1/50th. No matter what the outcome I always enjoy shooting a "new" vintage camera from my collection.

Akron Bike Party

Last Friday I participated in my first Akron Bike Party. I had heard about the every-third-Friday-of-the-month event but this was the first time my schedule allowed me to join. I rode down to Lock 3(the starting point) with my friend Woody. The theme this month was "glam" and some people dressed up and wore make-up, colorful boas were passed out, and glam-rock boomed from a speaker on a trailer. The destination was the original Strickland's by the old airdock. The ride was at a more leisurely pace than I'm used to - but that made it easy to make new friends and take in the sites(and some photos). I'll definitely be returning in the future.

Danstravaganza Night #2

The first night of ticket sales for Danstravaganza(previous post) went so well that a second show was added at Musica. This was more of a straight up rock and roll show than overall event. It was the same three bands rocking a smaller venue - and the night was again a blast.

Danstravaganza Night #1

Danstravaganza was a benefit concert at The Tangier - the goal was to build a running track at the school Dan Van Auken taught at before he passed away from cancer last year. Dan was an avid runner and much loved by his students, family and all of his many friends. Three bands that are no longer together reunited to raise money and many items were donated and auctioned off. The event was hosted by Stephen Bishop. It was a great evening to benefit the memory of an amazing man.

Houseguest

On Tuesday evening I shot a few photos of Houseguest. They were getting ready to practice for their first shows in a few years - shows that will raise toward the building of a running track to be enjoyed by future generations of Wadsworth students in honor of friend Dan VanAuken who died of cancer last year. The goal was to have some new photos for the article about the concerts in today's Enjoy section of the Beacon Journal. Unfortunately I guess we missed the deadline - as they used a photo I took of the band 7 years ago(which happened to be one of the first "real" photo shoots I had ever done). Oh well, it was still good to see everyone together again. There are still some tickets available for the show on Sunday at Musica - 'Drummer' and 'The Man I Fell In Love With' are the other two bands - should be awesome. I will be there both nights photographing(I pretty much taught myself how to shoot live concerts at Houseguest shows).

Detroit Part One

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to document the Torchbearers Akron trip to Detroit - I'll have more about that fascinating experience in the next blog. Here I am posting some of the photos I had the chance to take when we had a bit of free time during the action packed trip. We were only there for a couple of days - but you'd find that hard to believe seeing all the pictures I took. I hadn't been to Detroit since 2003 or 04 - and I was so surprised by what I saw. Yes - the famous post-apocalyptic scenes still exist there - but the downtown area has been transformed and is bustling. More commentary later - here are some photos.