Like Paradise

I searched to find out the story behind the artwork that adorns all four outer walls of this building.

I searched for the story behind the artwork adorning the outer walls of the old Asbury Lanes building on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Here's what I learned.

American pop artist Shepard Fairey is known for his guerrilla “Obey” sticker campaign, which melded contemporary street art and guerrilla marketing into a phenomenon that put him on the artistic map. Shepard is also an activist and founder of OBEY Clothing. I also learned that Fairey designed the Barack Obama "Hope" poster for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Sunday 24 April 2022 · Minolta XD-11 · MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 · ISO 100

According to Wikipedia.

His "Obey" Campaign is from the John Carpenter movie They Live which starred pro wrestler, Roddy Piper, taking a number of its slogans, including the "Obey" slogan, as well as the "This Is Your God" slogan. Fairey has spun off the OBEY clothing line from the original sticker campaign.

Obey · Sunday 24 April 2022 · Minolta XD-11 · MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 · ISO 100

Fairey’s art, some of which are from album covers, is on display outside the old Asbury Lanes building on the Asbury Park boardwalk. The art installation was part of the music and art festival organised by All Tomorrow’s Parties. The festival collaborated with the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, which commissioned Fairey to create these murals. In September 2011, he unveiled several murals and a gallery show called “Revolutions”.

All Tomorrow's Parties is a London-based organisation that has promoted festivals in the U.K., the United States and Australia since 1999. All Tomorrow's Parties is also the name of a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released on the group's 1967 debut studio album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. I don’t know if there is a connection.

Sunday 24 April 2022 · Minolta XD-11 · MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 · ISO 100

On the day I exposed these frames of Kodak Pro Image 100, the long side of the building facing the ocean was boarded up. I’m unsure why, but I suspect it protected the art. I remembered that I had photographed some of the artwork on my first and later visits to the Asbury Park Boardwalk. As it turns out, my first visit to Asbury Park was in November 2011, a few weeks after the Revolutions festival.

people walking on boardwalk, Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Lanes | Sunday 13 November 2011 | Nikon D40 | AF-S DX Nikkor 35 mm f/1.8

All images (except for the Nikon) were scanned from Kodak Pro Image 100 35mm film negatives using an Epson Perfection V600 scanner, VueScan software and the Negative Lab Pro plugin for Adobe Lightroom.

Sunday 24 April 2022 · Minolta XD-11 · MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 · ISO 100

North Eats

The 35mm negatives from the roll of Kodak Pro Image I exposed last month in Asbury Park at the boardwalk were sent back. I digitised them using my 35mm scanning workflow.

One challenging "feature" of exposing 35mm film is that I often forget why I took a photograph by the time I get the film developed and the negatives scanned.

North Eats is the summertime food truck court on the northern end of the boardwalk near Seventh Avenue. Food trucks have become ubiquitous in New Jersey. The North Eats food truck court was trendy. But then we suffered a global pandemic, the permit to operate the food court expired, and it's been gone for a while.

I like Asbury Park's solution to providing an outdoor boardwalk dining experience. I hope it comes back soon.

Away

Monday

I am so tired this morning. I was up late last night throwing up my dinner. I think I had food poisoning from one of the sausages I ate last night. The sausages had either gone "off" or were undercooked. I put them in the garbage.


Hamish Gill shares his thoughts on the ongoing retro camera design trend, specifically the design of Nikon's Z Fc.

I personally prefer a dial that allows me to see at a glance where I am within the settings, but this, I believe, is just a simple user experience preference. In fact, I find the same with analogue clocks. I can read a digital clock just fine, just as I can use a digital camera with a jog dial and digital readout just fine too. But somehow, when I look at an analogue clock dial, I get more of a direct and instant appreciation for the time. I have the same with a camera with dials. I’m not going to attempt to explain this in great detail, I don’t feel I need to, it’s just my preference, and I don’t think it needs to be anything more complicated than that.

Wednesday

The photographs from the 36 exposure roll of Kodak Pro Image 100 that I exposed a few weeks ago during our visit to Brick Farm Tavern and East Broad Street have finally been developed and scanned. The Dark Room sent me a link earlier this week.

This is my second time shooting Kodak Pro Image 100. I used Kodak Pro Image 100 last fall, mostly while attending an outdoor beer garden hosted by Flounder Brewing Co. At that time, I was using the Minolta X-700. My Minolta XD-11 and MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2 lens exposed this roll.

I tried capturing the same images I exposed on my Fuji X-T2 that day. Swapping back and forth between the two cameras was challenging, so I enlisted Bhavna's help. I would hand her one camera, and she would return the other. This is one of the few times I have exposed an entire roll of 35mm film in one weekend. Out of a 36-exposure cartridge, I got back about 32 usable images. My only regret is that I didn't get better-quality scans or make some prints. I could send the negatives back to The Dark Room to get prints or scan the negatives using my Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner.

Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Hopewell Pharmacy · Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Bhavna · Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Sourland Mountain Spirits · Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Bhavna · Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Dog Run Bar · Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2
Saturday 3 July 2021 · Minolta XD-11 · MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2

Thursday | Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #157: Getting Away

After two years of physical health challenges from 2018 through 2019 that kept Bhavana and me close to home, unable to travel, we had looked forward to 2020 and the travelling. But, then … COVID-19.

During most of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Bhavna and I looked for safe places to be that we felt was safe. Places to be among people without being "with" those people. That place was the Brick Farm Tavern.

We noted that the owners at the Brick Farm Tavern and the staff who worked there cared about creating a safe space. At first, the owner put out picnic tables space about ten feet or more apart to make the social distance. The staff all wore masks, and we were ourselves required to wear masks when servers came to the table. They opened an outdoor bar in a shed near the bocci court, further reducing risk. It wasn't the same as being inside, but they made it work. Each week from June of 2020 until January 2021, we dined at the Brick Farm Tavern until it became too cold to sit outside. It was our once-weekly getaway.

We're out to dinner at Brick Farm Tavern. Again. This time we brought some family to enjoy our home away from home.

Thursday 22 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 3200
Thursday 22 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1550 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 400
Thursday 22 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1150 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 400
Thursday 22 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 400
Thursday 22 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1160 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 400

Friday

We were always regulars at Flounder Brewing, but now we are regular regulars.

Friday 23 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 5000
Friday 23 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 1250

Saturday

Matt and Jeff were playing at Hopewell Valley Vineyard. We got a bottle of white in a bucket of ice, ordered a pizza with onions and a side salad, and sat back to relax and listen to classic rock and pop.

Hopewell Valley Vineyard Pinot Grigio
Saturday 24 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1/2500 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 400
Saturday 24 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1/1800 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 400
Saturday 24 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/4 | ISO 8000
Saturday 24 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 640
Saturday 24 July, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7 | 1125 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 10000