• Part 1, days 1 to 8 — you’re looking at it
• Part 2, days 9 to 16
• Part 3, days 17 to 24 — will publish on December 25

Over on Mastadon people are using the #ArtAdventCalendar hashtag to share their art, one piece a day, between December 1 and 24. I decided to treat mine as a year in review and share photos taken this year in chronological order. Over here I wanted to discuss the photos shared in a little more detail. In this post I’ll go through the first third of the 24 photos.

1

From February. This one was a chance encounter. I was driving home and spotted this frozen, partially eaten rabbit head propped up on top of a snow bank. Naturally I thought to myself “Well, I have to take a picture of that.” Nothing here is posed. Not long after I took this someone (or something) knocked the head over.

2

Late February. Taken at a small rental cabin in Plainview, MN. Our stay was overseen by a Australian Blue Heeler named Hops who would try to herd us every time we left the cabin. Definitely getting Ansel Adams-y here. This scan is extraordinarily dirty and should probably be redone. I’m still not an expert at scanning, but I was worse at it earlier in the year.

3

March. I bought a Moskva V to have a portable medium-format camera that I could focus more reliably than my Voigtlander Bessa 66. This was the second roll I shot with it and my first roll using the full 6×9 negative. Sadly I forgot to use the 6×9 advance window, so all of my shots became odd double exposures. But I like how this one turned out with the mix of wide shot and graffiti detail.

4

We had some exceptionally nice light on this March morning. And Rumble was a willing model. This one captured him quite well. Though I wish I had gone in a little closer.

5

In April I visited Bogotá, Colombia. I’d read a lot about their street art scene and bought a wide-angle 24mm/3.5 lens so that I could photograph it. A lot of my early shots are just captures of whole murals or throw ups, and I now find those photos to be pretty boring. It’s just a picture of someone else’s art, without any interpretation or transformation. This one, where I just captured the eyes, I quite like. I found this Popho Luminar to be lovely, actually. Need to buy some more of it.

6

Still in Bogotá, shooting with LomoChrome Purple in the Moskva V in a narrow street designed to trap tourists and their cameras. I dunno, I don’t think I’m a fan of the Lomo color stocks. This turned out fine, but others from the roll turned out distractingly purple and otherwise odd. I like the element of chance in photography but I think these films push that element too far. Or I could jut be using them wrong.

7

I’m generally not a car person, nor am I a photographer that likes shooting old cars. But this one in Bogotá struck my fancy. I find Cinestill 400D’s colors a bit washed out for my tastes. I like the richer rendering of a Portra or the Popho Luminar. But the blue here is pretty.

8

Wrapping up the first third of my Advent photos with this, one of my favorite photos of the year. Not only for the photo, but for the memory of taking it. Quoting my other blog post about this shot.

Here’s where photographing humans can really shine. I asked him for a photo, he agreed and continued to go about his very thoughtful reading. He was interested in my camera and I tried to explain, in my rough Spanish, that I liked the Moskva because it forced me to think about what I was photographing. He really liked that response. Either that or he thought my Spanish was hilariously bad. Hard to say! But it felt like a great interaction.

Thanks for reading! This is part of a series if you’d like to read more.

• Part 1, days 1 to 8 — you’re looking at it
• Part 2, days 9 to 16
• Part 3, days 17 to 24 — will publish on December 25

Thanks for reading! You can always keep up to date by adding the site to a RSS reader or follow me over on Mastadon at https://mastodon.art/@ianwhitney. You can also subscribe for email notifications.