12:59 p.m. The final minute of the lunch hour. Most nine-to-fivers are heading obediently back to the workplace, after having spent their lunch hour... well, eating lunch. I'm also heading back to the office, but have probably just gotten Wendy's chili to go after spending my lunch hour doing other things.
This photo blog is an outlet for me to share photographs I've taken prowling the streets of downtown Pittsburgh during my lunch hour. You'll see a lot of ill-conceived street photography, but also architecture, cityscapes, urban decay, abstractions, and whatever else strikes me. Of course, I take pictures at other times and in other places, so look for those here too. But as long as I have other things competing for my time, the convenience of lunchtime photography will remain a reality, and the resultant shots a recurring theme here.
I'll make updates every few days or so; naturally they'll appear at 12:59 p.m. Also check out my Flickr profile. Thanks for visiting!
--Brian Y.
My primary DSLR is the Olympus E-520 with Zuiko 14-42mm kit lens (28-84mm in full frame terms). Most days, I use the Sigma DP1; it's a quirky, often stubborn, digital compact, but it has that big, beautiful Foveon sensor and tack sharp wide angle lens. I also have an old Olympus C-7000 Zoom. I don't use it much anymore, but I have a lot of photos from it that might show up here from time to time.
One process that I've experimented with and find to be consistently satisfying is pinhole photography. This is an analog process which entails placing photographic paper (or film) into a light-proof container and exposing it by allowing light to enter through a tiny pinhole. The paper or film is then developed using traditional darkroom methods. When one has this much control over the process, the creative possibilities are endless. Of course, so is the margin of error. When everything works out, however, you end up with an original and truly personal photograph.
My primary pinhole camera is one I made from a Quaker Oats cereal box. It's the classic example, and the curvature makes for some psychedelic distortion. The pinhole is made from a piece of pie tin and has a 0.42mm pinhole (f/226) punctured with a sewing needle and sanded down with 800 grit clear coat sandpaper from an auto parts store. Don't know if I got lucky or just made some good decisions, but I get relatively sharp images. I'm currently using Ilford Grade 2 RC paper and Ilford chemicals.
brian [ampsersat] 1259pm [period] com