PHOTOBOOTH PIX 1960s & 1970s

i love photo booths. i have hundreds of these photo strips of me and/or my friends from the 1960s onward. the strips are like little time capsules. i plan to do a whole gallery of these soon.

doug duffey and raymond battillo 1968

doug duffey- zen 1960s/1970s

doug duffey- 1960s/1970s

doug duffey- bill dunn early 1970s

bill dunn as julie driscoll- 1970s

debbie marsala/vicky goza 1960s/early 1970s

larry adcock 1970s?

[c]2008 doug duffey

doug duffey- city park- new orleans 1990-1991

[c]2008 doug duffey

eatin' watermelon on the porch

while trying to sort my photo files today [on about 4 different external hard drives] i came across this photo of me as a child, eating watermelon on the front porch of our old family home [where i still live]- both i and the house have changed a lot since then!

my mama made this photo and to me it is amazing - it's as good as dorothea lange's or walker evans' best work in capturing a place in time... in this case, Louisiana 1950s. i have a lot of old family photos she made, and she made a lot; some are really remarkable. i still have her old kodak 120 film camera. in a lot of the old family photos mama has the camera hanging around her neck.

mama with camera circa 1950s

[c]2008 doug duffey

jesus wants you to come!

[c]2008 doug duffey

car shots switzerland

boats and a cloud/smoking mountain - by thun

is it freddy mercury's dad? looks like it could be

both fotos shot with my older 2MP casio exilim

[c]2008 doug duffey

michael rasbury x DD- switzerland- may 2008

[c]2008 doug duffey

[c]2008 doug duffey

read today

a shadow self portrait shot last week [downtown Monroe] shot w/an slr on ilford bw film
the graffiti says, "read today; love god; don't give up; be smart; school= job"
on the ground is a bunch of trash someone had thrown there, which included 2 old electric irons

[c]2008 doug duffey

black bayou

shots done this afternoon [easter sunday 2008] at black bayou [north of monroe, louisiana] using polaroid 600 color film; then gray-scaled in photoshop. [the color was also nice... but ...i prefer the B&W]

btw, please click on www.savepolaroid.com and download the action pack and be an art activist!
i cannot imagine life without polaroid!

[c]2008 doug duffey

red filter- polaroid- etc

i've been shooting a lot of fotos- but haven't been posting them. i shot some stuff in chitzen itza, cozumel, new orleans, mississippi, and here in monroe this month. i've been using a variety of cameras: old Polaroid Land 210[B&W peel apart film]- it's my favorite-and another 600 Polaroid [color] i got for 2 bucks at goodwill- the flash was broken off it-but i don't shoot Polaroid at night anyway- so, don't need the flash. i hate flash. it works great- always ready. i've also been using my various toy cameras [35mm and 120- Diana & Flocon], some SLRs, and digital [casio exilim], toy digital [visionquest from wal-mart] etc. i really want an old Barbie 35mm plastic camera, even though i have at least 10-15 plastic 35mm toy cameras.

some of the Polaroids are incredible. scanned at hi-res they are impressive. the B&Ws done at chitzen itza are great. too bad i didn't just use the Polaroid Land 210- and fore go the other 6 or 7 cameras i schlepped around there. the color polaroids are not as good as the B&W; but scanned and grayscaled they look better. each camera i used got different results. these fotos below are NOT the best of the lot, but i like the effects. especially the double exposure, which was a happy accident. i processed about 9 rolls of b&w film last week; it took hours; unfortunately i tried using my plastic spools [which are supposed to handle 35mm to 120 film] and the 120 film did not fit. i should've just rolled it back up and waited till i got to my stainless steel spools- but, i threw the roll of film in the cannister and developed it, which ruined a good bit of it all. instead of 3 good BIG negatives of chitzen itza which were on the roll, i got maybe 1 clear one. some older shots from switzerland and elsewhere were on the same roll, and some ruined. c'est la vie. live and learn. patience is indeed a virtue- and one i do not have!

this week began cutting, sleeving, and scanning the negatives which takes even longer than developing them as i scan them between 1200-2400 dpi. some of the stuff was great BUT i've been noticing that a lot of my fotos have been washed out looking- as if the ASA setting, or the f/stops, shutter speeds, were wrong for the shots- not a high enough contrast.

then... i saw a documentary on Ansel Adams on PBS the other night and the nickel [quarter, nowadays] dropped. for one of his most famous shots he used a red filter to get higher contrast/dramatic effect... and always did a lot of dodging and burning, too- to bring out certain areas of the fotos. i always used the red filter [magenta, actually] on my enlarger when printing, to get better B&W contrast, and did indeed do some dodging and burning when printing- but i haven't been printing for the past decade- i've only been scanning negatives and posting fotos online- so i completely forgot about all that... and using filters!

so, i went and dug out some filters i'd bought in brocante/brockenstube in europe- and tried them on two of my better SLRs and Voila! they all fit. i had red, orange and yellow, some clear ones, and also found some dark gray [polarizing] lenses that came with one of the cameras i bought there. i plan to use the filters to finish off the film on those 2 cameras and check the results. why i never thought of this before is beyond me.

i read online that one should always use a yellow filter when shooting outside w/ b&w film. now my curiosity is piqued. on the bus to & from chitzen itza [march 5th] i was sitting by a woman who is some kind of videographer- she had some enormous digital camera w/her. she said when she was in film school she only shot B&W film w/a red filter. "i put a red filter on to shoot everything..." so these 2 different mentions of red filters, were an like an epiphany. i'll post once i have results.

[c]2008 doug duffey

dd with bell-n- howell plastic camera- zermatt

shot in zermatt, switzerland 2008- foto by sebastian niessner

[c]2008 doug duffey

reflections- new orleans- 2006

tonight, i ran across these fotos- i made in new orleans in 2006- of shop windows on royal street and bourbon street in 2006. i like shooting shop windows with interesting things in them, especially when they also reflect interesting things! the top two are from royal street; the bottom two of 'marie laveau's house of voodoo' on bourbon street. i always shoot 'the house of voodoo' window whenever i'm there!
[c]2008 doug duffey

toy camera gallery

ante-bellum home- natchez, mississippi

i have added 50 fotos to my toycamera.com gallery- some of the fotos posted here are in it... but due to the fact that there is a 50 image limit- i am going to do a whole gallery on my website in a few weeks. stay tuned. i added a few shots from switzerland [but have hundreds!] as well as about 30+ of 'the beautiful south' of which i have thousands... all done with 50 cent, plastic 35mm cameras. no batteries, no memory cards, no lenses to focus... totally manual/old school. ya gotta love it!

[c]2008 doug duffey

toy camera redux [2007]

cotton gin; baskin, louisiana

bayou desiard; monroe louisiana

ouachita river; monroe, louisiana

tree and train bridge over the ouachita river; west monroe, louisiana

i shot these with my vivitar panorma- and bell & howell- plastic 35 mm cameras last fall before i went to europe. i just now got the film developed at WM but their scanner was down- so i scanned the 2 rolls of negatives myself [which took all day].

[c]2008 doug duffey

shoot the telelvison-pt 3

shots of TV Slovenia 2- bits from a WW2 war documentary... there seems to be lots of WW2 stuff on tv here all the time. [it's hard to imagine what horrors went on in europe back then]
these were shot with my casio exilim- and my radio shack video camera; i like the fact that it also works as a still image camera... it takes a while to capture a tv image, which usually moves before it takes, but sometimes makes something interesting. the top foto was done w/the exilim before i remembered to turn off the lamps.

i shot some stuff in grenchen today with my polaroid, my casio exilim, and shot a few things with my Visionquest tiny keychain camera]- and finished off 2 rolls that were left in my 2 toy cams. i did some fotos of show windows dressed for fasnacht [some on travel-ology] -then got home and shot the tv.

i bought more 100 ASA Ilford film today to use in the toy cameras, which i plan to use a lot in Luzern this week-end when we play there. carnival will be going on, and even if it wont be as insane/crazy as mardi gras in new orleans [what ever is?] - it will be very interesting- lotsa of crazy costumes- AND a foto op. I also bought a good Minolta point and soot w/zoom & case at a junk store for 8chf- about 4$!- and the battery was still good!- SO, it'll be good for street stuff.

[c]2008 doug duffey

cafe shot

a shot inside the Reblaube; shot with my visionquest keychain digital camera
[c]2007 doug duffey

shoot the television 2008

shooting the tv with my casio exilim- switzerland -january 2008
[c]2007 doug duffey

me & my Leica IIIA

[c]2007 doug duffey

home sweet home

i took these digital shots after the parade, when heading home. the top is a shot of monroe from west monroe. the bridges were open to let a barge pass on the river- so traffic was stopped.

the 2nd foto is of the old rusted railroad bridge, which my mama told me they used to walk across "back in the day".

i drove home via Desiard St. and decided to drive through the old cemetery, which is one of my favorite local landmarks; a little oasis in the run down, ghost town, ghetto which used to be downtown.
[c]2007 doug duffey

holocaust1

a b&w negative that somehow ended up way weird. i scanned and Photoshopped it. it has the look of the Hindenburg exploding.
[c]2007 doug duffey

NEW ORLEANS POST KATRINA

i ran across this particular print in a drawer today. it one i was going to throw away. i'd found an old [REALLY old] enlarger at a junk store, a year or so ago, and tried it out. needless to say it needed a much brighter bulb [it used a light bulb- oh well, so did Weston]. i noticed it had faded and the chemicals on the paper had somehow added a sepia tone to it. it was originally black & white. so... i scanned it just now, and added some contrast in Photoshop, but didn't mess with the colors.

i shot this foto [with a toy camera/ 35 mm b/w film] in New Orleans on Ash Wednesday in 2006 . i found it to be a metaphor for what had happened there during/post Katrina: the American flag hanging in tatters in a wasteland. w/all the political crap going on, the foto still seems relevant today!

[c]2007 doug duffey

kitty on car

a Polaroid i did yesterday. my cat was sitting on the car- but... was a silhouette. i inverted the photo in Photoshop, then outlined the cat [magic wand] and inverted her and worked on her. she's asleep on the bed right now, oblivious that she has gone global as art.
[c]2007 doug duffey

the destruction of progress

i booked my flight and will be going back to Switzerland after Christmas for about 6+ weeks. i have to say i am more than ready. 6+ months would be better!

my friend john brown sent me about 300 packs of Polaroid film [or more... i didn't count it... but there were 3 huge boxes full!] so i plan to shoot a lot of Polaroids before i leave [of the beautiful disappearing south]*** and when i get to CH. i love Polaroid- and always buy up old cameras when i find them. i got one with the flash attachment broken off for 1$, which is great for daytime shots; sometimes the shots come out blurry, which i also like.

i also bought a new Casio digital earlier this year [like my old one, but it's 8MP with zoom] - even though the old one is much quicker to use. i got it because after Prague i decided i needed a zoom. my friend Boris gave me several old Russian cameras, some of which i left in Switzerland to use when i go back; and i bought several SLRs when there last trip. i'm always amazed at how the 2nd hand shops there always have incredible cameras for maybe 10$-20$- i got a great manual Pentacon for about 15$! of course i found a 2nd one shortly afterward w/2 great lenses for 100CHF= maybe 75$, but still... quite a deal. however, the digital cams are easier to blog with; but i prefer real film, and Polaorids- physical backup- especially after almost losing 500+ shots on a "memory card" [joke] in CZ.

***speaking of "lost"- and "the beautiful disappearing south" - yesterday, i drove down the road where i shot a photo of a beautiful huge old wooden barn earlier this year- planning to shoot it again- and it was gone! i felt sick. had i known that was going to happen i would have gone and shot more fotos of it... and begged for the wood. the barn was massive. i could have built several houses with that wood! I'm sure they just demolished and burnt it. the destruction of progress is sickening.

the foto has squigglies all over it because i hadn't cleaned under my scanner glass in a while when i scanned this polaroid in june 07-but 'you get the picture'- this huge 'work of art' ... gone!

[c]2007 doug duffey

FALL POLAROIDS OF LOUISIANA

i shot these Polaroids this week to capture some fall color. the 1st is of blackbirds in the back yard... today the tree is practically bare; the leaves have almost all fallen off. the other two pix are of Bayou Desiard. i like the fall colors... and the reflections of the cypress trees/Spanish moss in the bayou. i also like the way Polaroid film captures/distorts color




[c]2007 doug duffey