Surreal Imaging

Using image and camera motion, slow shutter speeds, and reflections to create mood and mystery. Another way of viewing our world through the lens.

Holga Photos

The Holga is a plastic toy camera that is made in China, and is the "daughter" of the Diana. It uses 120 roll film, has one plastic lens element, a simple spring shutter and one aperture of about f/8. It easily falls apart and often needs to be held together with tape and various velcro fasteners. Why use such a camera? It is a freeing experience. The photographer does not have to be concerned about exactness, photographic control, or even image perfection. It allows total seeing, and what you see is not always what you get. I obtain my Holgas from Randy Smith www.holgamods.com who reworks the basic Holga, adding refinements. I have one of his that is fitted with a waist level finder. The finder comes from an old box camera. He also makes one in which the lens is replaced with a pin hole: the PinHolga. I also have a basic Holga 120N, in which the Chinese Holga company has 'borrowed" a few of his modifications. They produce images that are reminiscent of images taken in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using a Holga is often a welcome relief from the high tech world of digital photography. The top two photos were taken at a garden and landscape supply yard in Half Moon Bay CA and the three on the bottom are of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose CA. More will be added.

I was a youth minister for 10 years in a church in the 1960s and then taught in the public schools in elementary education for 32 years, and I discovered, in that time, the delightful ways of young children.

We can not force them into our adult mold of expectations. We need to let them explore their world as they see it, and let them learn by experience.

We really need to back-off a bit and let them do what they do. That is how they learn.

Much of my photography involves young children doing what they do best: just being children.

I want to present a few more photos from my "Places of Spirit" project. These include churches, temples, cemeteries, religious icons, natural sites that stimulate spiritual thoughts, and people involved in activities of self-giving, etc. Two of these photos were taken at an old and very unkempt cemetery in San Juan Bautista, California. There are many tiny graves of children with dolls and toys on top, broken crosses, and many fine mausoleums for wealthier families. The photo of the cemetery with the statue and flag is from the Civil War cemetery at the San Francisco Presidio. Many men from California fought in the Civil War. The final photo is of a small "garden Buddha" with a rake in his hands, at the Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California. The San Juan Bautista photos were taken with a digital camera and converted to sepia tone. The Civil War photo was taken with an old Minolta SRT101 camera with film, and the garden Buddha was also taken with film using a Mamiya C220 camera. Nowdays, I usually always carry a small digital pocket camera for color imaging and a Leica M-2 with black and white film so I have some equipment with me when opportunites present themselves for these projects.

For the past few years I have been involved in a personal project I call "Places Of The Spirit." The photographic subjects can include anything that touches the inner person from birth experiences to formal religion to weddings to death.

The attached series of images are taken around churches and cemeteries, and used film cameras with black and white film with some sepia toning for the photos presented.

The photos of "Our lady" and the "Barren Plant" outside the church door were taken with a Holga plastic "Toy" camera which gives a somewhat soft and distorted look in some situations. The photo of the cemetery angel and the church pillars were taken with a Leica IC camera and a 21mm Bessa VC lens. The last photo of the sunburst was taken with a pinhole camera.

I have many more from this series which I will present later.

Here are a few more zoo photos. These are simply pretty pictures of beautiful animals and a couple of people
included. Later I will present some pet portraits, and, over time, I will show some wedding images, portraits, 4x5 B/W landscapes, macro images, and many taken with a variety of camera formats and vintage cameras. These zoo photos were photographed totally with an Olympus E-300 digital camera and an Olympus 40-150mm digital lens.

This is intended to be a "Photo Blog" with as many random photos posted as possible, from many different genra of life, hopefully with some theme for each entry.

This is the first of a collection I photographed at the San Francisco Zoo in 2005, using an Olympus E-300 digital camera.

I spent more than 30 years involved in ecological education to elementary (5th grade) children, so I guess that I have more than a passing interest in animals, plants, and the condition of our planet, such as it is.

Even though these critters are in a zoo, we can bless God that they are still on our planet.

There are more to come, and then, some domestic pets.

I live in a semi-rural area near San Jose, California. There isn't much of an opportunity here to do extensive random street people photography, but, occasionally we have a few events where there's a bit of "action." Once a year, Morgan Hill has it's Mushroom Mardi Gras, and they have a car show at the event. Here are a few samples of these colorful beasts.

1-04-06

The previous B/W photo (1-04-06) of the young boy sleeping was taken with an Olympus E-300 digital camera in color and converted to B/W with some adjustments in Photoshop. It was also cropped. I prefer photographing B/W with film, but sometimes a digital photo works well in B/W converted from color. Above is a photo from the same location, Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy CA, of the sleeping boy's brother. Same camera and cropped. These were taken with an Olympus 40-150mm digital lens. These boys are delightful and I enjoy taken their photos. They are the grandchildren of good friends. I usually don't photograph strangers in a public venue, except if it is at a wedding or social event.

Todd Frederick Photography

1-2-06

I am a retired school teacher who has been seriously involved in nearly all forms of photography using a wide variety of camera equipment, both current and vintage. I started in the mid 1950's primarily with black and white photography, taught numerous courses in creative photography through the adult education programs, and eventually found my way into wedding photography quite by accident.

At the present time I am still doing wedding photography, but also include family portraiture, children's portraiture, pet photography, events and parties, and a variety of commercial ventures in this field. Most of this commercial work is now done with digital imaging.

My current personal interests are still in serious black and white photography, especially using "alternative" and vintage camera systems such as pinhole, Holga, Leica, and 4x5 systems for landscape, urbanscapes, candid portraiture, and macro imaging. I want to start getting out onto the street more to documents what's happening both in urban and rural areas, in a less formal style that I have done in the past.

this is my first venture into a blog, and I'm interested in this concept to keep a personal photo journal, like a "cyber scrapbook!" I encourage others with similar interests to share your thoughts and experiences here.

The photo of the sleeping child was taken at an amusement park in his grandfather's arms.