Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Wound up with a somewhat early shoot in the Medical Center the other morning, and since there was nothing on the schedule immediately afterwards, I took the Zen Camera out for a walk in, inevitably, the Japanese Gardens at Hermann Park.

The “Zen Camera” is my name for one of my favorite experimental devices, a 6×12 pinhole camera from ZeroImage. It’s a very pretty camera to look at, beautiful teak and brass, and it positively glows in the light. It’s been an interesting experience to work with it, because unlike every other camera I’ve ever used, it doesn’t actually DO anything. The shutter is that little bit of wood on the front. Slide it open to start the exposure, slide it closed to end it. Film advance involves turning a knob. Viewfinder? Eh. It’s aimed kinda sorta about out there somewheres. I can usually get a reasonably decent take on where the center of the image is, plus or minus about ten degrees. The edges? Not my department.

With slow film in low light, it’s a meditative experience… you open the shutter, and then you and the camera take in the scene together. At some point, you reach up and close the shutter again, advance the film, and either shoot more or move on. But there are no cues at all from the camera that it has in fact recorded an image on film. I ran several rolls before my subconscious became willing to admit that yes, this IS a camera and yes, it DOES make photographs.

The downside is that my scanner doesn’t really handle 120 film very well as it is, especially since I’m working with some very old stock given to me by a colleague who was getting out of 120 entirely. It’s got a tendency to curl and pop, which makes the scans not very sharp. I’m ordering a new film carrier for it, which should help immensely, but it’ll be a few days or weeks before that’s up and running. So for now… it’s Art. It’ll be photography sometime soon.

Scanning more tonight or tomorrow.

Went to the Health Museum yesterday to shoot their newest exhibit for my friendly Chron editors… but I think I went through the wrong door, because I found mysef in the middle of an Irwin Allen-esque nightmare…

And, like a true hero… I stood around and shot pictures.

(The unfortunate victim-to-be there is Jenny, The Bloggess. Or maybe the victim-to-be is a giant Mexican Red-Knee Tarantula. I wasn’t sticking around to find out.)

I think it came out all right; I caught up with her later, trying to feed her erstwhile blogging partner/rival/companion in crime, Ms. Prunella Farquar, to a giant Atlas Beetle.

Of course, turnabout being fair play, Ms. Farquar was trying to feed Jenny to another giant Atlas Beetle as well…

I kinda figured that whoever won, I’d be better off elsewhere. Besides, BOTH the beetles looked hungry and I wasn’t interested in being the next thing on the menu….

Over the weekend I had the privilege of being part of the Grand (Re) Opening of the African American Library at the Gregory School, the newest branch of the Houston Public Library.

I say REopening because the library is located in the completely restored* 1926 Gregory School building in the Freedmen’s Town area of Houston. The reading rooms are on the second floor; the first floor is taken up by historical and art galleries

and a restored classroom with furnishings appropriate to the original building.

The Library has done a sweet job here, and they’re not finished yet.

One of the major focus points for the library is the collection and conservation of historical artifacts and oral history relating to Houston’s African American community.

Much of the history presented here is within living memory — many of the participants at the grand opening spent time in the exhibit halls reminiscing about personal experiences at the school or people they’d known as community elders.

The library features a recording studio accessible to members of the community who wish to contribute, and is making strides towards digitizing and recording documents, photos, and artifacts from that period.

Information about contributions, donations, and so forth is found on the Library’s website.

* I have some shots from the restoration on another computer; I’ll add them into this post later in the week. Come back soon.

Okay, so (a) it’s not yet Friday, and (b) There’s probably not much flying for this guy…

but certainly he’s decorative enough… and although the book says he’s shy and retiring, I don’t think he reads much – he nearly stepped on my foot.