She looked at the table towards my Leica M6 and said, “anyone who owns and knows how to handle a Leica should have my father’s camera.”

I’m starting a new photo project, and for this project I have been looking for a medium format camera to shoot some very detailed portraits. I had a Hasselblad for a few weeks, but sold it to finance a much needed computer upgrade.

Last week, at the Marine Corps Ball, the Leica came along for the ride. I set it down on the table with a half-assed intention of making some photos. The wife of a retired Gunnery Sergeant, noticed the camera and began making conversation about how she used to work at a camera store and how her father was a photographer.

In between conversations, a few of us at the table thought it would be fun to share a bottle of wine, so I ran off to find an overpriced bottle of wine to share between three Marines over a steak. When I returned, the Gunny’s wife offered the camera to me, mentioning that she’s had it for years and hasn’t used it. I didn’t know what to say, except, “thank you” over and over. I had been looking for a larger format camera, to cost me between $500 and $800.

The camera, a Mamiya RB67, is a monster. The thing is huge and weighs a ton. RB stands for Rotating Back, and 67 means 6×7. 6×7 is a medium format film size that is 4 1/2 times larger than 35mm. Included with the Mamiya was a 65mm lens (wide angle), a 90mm lens (“normal”), and a 180mm lens (telephoto). Also included were four film backs, 2 for 220 and 2 for 120 film.

One thing about this camera, its HUGE. I mean, the pictures don’t even do it justice and it weighs like 7 pounds. I’m still learning how to properly use it and am finding that a tripod will be necessary in most cases. The downsides are actually upsides though, I was looking for a big camera with a big negative for image quality and a technical requirement for me to slow down and think about the image.

Something I’ve come to realize, a lot of photographers call the Leica their “sketchbook,” after lugging this Mamiya around for two miles on a hike the other day, I can definitely see how a Leica could be considered a “sketchbook” compared to this monster.

Speaking of Leicas, the other thing I’ve known for a while, and keeps being reinforced, is how much I really enjoy shooting with this camera. I think with the setup I have, I could pretty much photograph everything that interests me. Would I miss some photos due to manual and slower focus? Sure. Would I miss some photos due to extreme low light and/or missing ttl? Definitely. In the end though, like I said, everything that’s really interested me in the last year or two could be shot with a Leica, and a 35mm or 50mm lens with Tri-X pulled to 200 or pushed to 1600 ISO.

I <3 my Leica(s)

Last year I decided to stick around the Olympic Peninsula for a while and mostly shun any international photo projects. The trip to Vietnam awakened an understanding that I had been missing. While traveling internationally on all previous trips, I did everything I could to get off the beaten path, the tourist traps. Vietnam took me deep into the Mekong delta to stay with a family in a village that sees perhaps 3 westerners year-round. Being so far off the tourist track, I saw the parallels between rural Vietnamese life and rural western life.

When I returned from Vietnam, I vowed to stay stateside until I better understood my vision. The beginning of my self-discovery began last winter and then was promptly derailed. Finding a balance between my work as a computer programmer with a major side of network security expertise and the creative world of photography and artistic vision is a huge struggle for me. I often feel two distinct personalities, each one developed and fully capable of succeeding with enough nurturing. Programming and security satisfy my monetary and professional needs, photography satisfies my philosophical and spiritual needs.

Finding a better balance recently, I’m getting back on track and have earnestly started working towards a new photo project.

The project is essentially contemporary art of the Makah. I’m hoping to open a window into the world of contemporary art of the Makah in order to challenge common stereotypes, educate my community and provide a “moment in time” of the Makah art tradition for the Makah Cultural Research Center. This project will be done primarily on black & white film using my Leica and a Mamiya RB67 medium format cameras.

Research for the project has led me down several fascinating roads. I recently finished “Voices of a Thousand People,” by Patrica Pierce Erikson, which details the history and “why” of the Makah Cultural Research Center. Voices has answered many questions and given me a good cultural platform to begin with. Just starting this project and nailing down a “what” was daunting as I didn’t want to make assumptions (which I initially did anyway) or be offensive. We “white” guys have a really bad tendency to box Native Americans into quaint little boxes that fit our preconceived ideas. Necessarily throwing away all previous notions left me with a blank slate, but with a blank slate there was no way I could define a project. The first step required feeling out a direction, and for that I turned to Dr. Jeff Mauger, an important anthropologist who worked with the Makah on the Ozette dig. Between Dr. Mauger and Voices, I was able to begin writing a new perception, one grounded in fact and cultural understanding.

Also, “Indian Artists at Work”, by Ulli Steltzer is a beautiful photo book that provides a visual insight into art and craft being performed in western Canada. Many of the photos detail the production of native art and the people who were making it in the 1970′s. “Indian Artists at Work,” also gave me several ideas on what to expect.

I’ve been in contact with Janine Bowechop of the MCRC and have received positive confirmation on the project. I’ve also had several discussions with Dr. Mauger and he’s been and invaluable resource.

This is going to be a long project, but I’m glad for that. I’m hoping that the span of time will allow me to reflect on each session and tweak my direction or vision so that a healthy body of work emerges at the end. Once this body of work emerges, I will share all of it with the MCRC and hope to have gallery presentations. Peninsula College will probably be available for showing and I’m trying to understand how the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center works for submissions. After that, who knows?

Finally developed a few rolls of B&W Arista Premium. These photos are from activities that led up to the march through downtown Victoria. There was a press conference and several staged street performances mocking the Olympics.

The final activity was a Good vs. Evil wrestling match pitting popular Anti-Olympics Activists against members of Canada’s government and the International Olympics Committee.

Last month, Lindsay and I took the family on the Clallam County farm tours. Throughout the day the weather changed dramatically from windy and rainy to warm and sunny. The first farm we visited was the Bekkevar family farm on the east end of Sequim:

The last farm we visited was the Dungeness Valley Creamery: