Hi everyone! All new updates are going to be made at marcbrubaker.com, so please update your bookmarks. The site’s not much for content yet, but it’ll be there soon. For now, check the blog for all updates on the 888 Frames project. Or, just point your browser to 888frames.marcbrubaker.com.
So this project I’ve undertaken in attempting to shoot all this Kodachrome is growing. It’s already reached monstrous proportions as far as my hopes for its continuation beyond the end of the year – leaps and bounds past where I had originally imagined it. This has led to a slight delay in my updating everyone [...]
Right now, however, I’ve undertaken a brand new portrait project. Kodak made a wonderful slide film, Kodachrome, for a number of years. They ceased production a couple years ago, and at this point there’s only one lab in the entire country that still processes it, Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas. I’ve got a box filled with this amazing film, and I’ve been saving it for a project that was “worthy” of being shot on this stock.
Unfortunately, I let far too much time slip through my fingers, when I should’ve just been shooting. So now I have some 26 rolls of Kodachrome left in my freezer, a total of 888 frames of film. I say unfortunately because Dwayne’s is about to run their last batches of K-14 process, the chemicals necessary to develop the legendary slide stock, on December 30th, 2010.
I’m determined not to let this film go to waste, and I’m hoping that you’ll help me.
Greetings! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but it’s a fresh new year. I’m quite excited about several things I’ve been working on – including prints, and a brand new Pola-Calendar! The calendar is still in the works, but prints are available now. If you’ve followed my photography at all, you know that one [...]
I’ve been churning through a lot of my back catalog lately – some stuff I set aside and never edited and some things I never uploaded. I’m in the process of shooting an entirely new portfolio, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like some of these shots. You’ll probably see a few posts in the [...]
This weekend local band listenlisten released their new album, Hymns from Rhodesia. They had a big show at Mango’s on Friday night, which I shot for the Houston Press – more photos from that will come soon, and played an in-store set at Cactus Music. Cactus is a fantastic shop that has at least two [...]
On Wednesday I put some shots up from House of Blues that I took whilst The Tontons were busy shooting a video. There was a bit of downtime, fortunately, and I managed to pull them aside for a bit and shoot a few promotional shots during breaks. I set up my new Alien Bees 800 [...]
My brother, who is an amazing fella all around, goes to school at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. A couple days before we drove out there to get him back to school, he asked if I could shoot some quick portraits of him with his wonderful girlfriend, Cynthia. She is a complete sweetheart, as well [...]
Whew! It’s been a bit too long since I updated. A few weeks ago I tagged along while The Tontons were filmed at House of Blues here in Houston. The shoot was an endeavor of The Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau, who hired Zen Film to produce a short that both promoted downtown nightlife [...]
My good friend Walker Walmus [pictured far left] is a fantastic graphic designer, excellent musician, and all around good guy. His newest musical endeavor is a band called Legion of Air, and he literally talked his way into the band. Walker has always been supportive of my creative endeavors, which is tremendously reassuring because I [...]
Hi everyone! All new updates are going to be made at marcbrubaker.com, so please update your bookmarks.
The site’s not much for content yet, but it’ll be there soon. For now, check the blog for all updates on the 888 Frames project. Or, just point your browser to 888frames.marcbrubaker.com.
So this project I’ve undertaken in attempting to shoot all this Kodachrome is growing. It’s already reached monstrous proportions as far as my hopes for its continuation beyond the end of the year – leaps and bounds past where I had originally imagined it.
This has led to a slight delay in my updating everyone on the project, and an additional slight delay in my building a home for the fundraising of this project.
What you ought to know is that I’ve been wanting to relaunch this site [and my portfolio] at www.marcbrubaker.com, and that’s a desire I’ve had for a while. It’ll be a comprehensive home on the web for all of my projects, photographic, literary, and musical endeavors. I see little reason to separate them at this point. The need for this Kodachrome project to have its own home online has made me realize that I’ll need to do this sooner rather than later.
So today/tonight, I’ll be building and retooling this project. I’m working on a comprehensive budget for this initial chapter, the 888 frames of Kodachrome, and will be setting up a narrative and fundraising site this evening. If you’ve expressed your interest in supporting this project, I hope you don’t mind that it’s taken me a tad bit longer than I’d expected. After all, I am still trying to shoot 26 rolls of film before the processing deadline. 
So be on the lookout for an update very, very soon. I promise. And if you’ve sent an e-mail, I’ll be getting back to you momentarily.
Right now, I’m taking my camera out the door and heading off to shoot some portraits.
- Marc
173/888 frames exposed
I’m terrible at maintaining a blog, and one of the reasons for this is that I always feel the need to hold off on updating this, because I have all these ideas of how I want to rework the website. I want to simplify and streamline the portfolio section. I want to move it all to marcbrubaker.com, which currently redirects here. I want to add sections for my writing clips and the music I create. I want more time to do all of this, too, and that doesn’t even come close to brushing the dust off the surface of all the photos in my back catalog that I’d like to get through.
If you don’t know already, I freelance for the Houston Press – both as a writer and a photographer. As such, I get the opportunity to shoot a lot of amazing shows, and cover some interesting and unusual events as well. Due to deadlines, I typically crank out the work the paper needs and toss my photos into a pile of “come back to this catalog & finish it later, when you have some free time.” Hah! Well, I’m going to commit to having hopefully everything done by the end of 2011 – that way when the world ends in 2012, I’ll feel like my work is complete. Just kidding, but it’s a lot of photos and it probably will take me through the end of next year.
Right now, however, I’ve undertaken a brand new portrait project. Kodak made a wonderful slide film, Kodachrome, for a number of years. They ceased production a couple years ago, and at this point there’s only one lab in the entire country that still processes it, Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas. I’ve got a box filled with this amazing film, and I’ve been saving it for a project that was “worthy” of being shot on this stock.
Unfortunately, I let far too much time slip through my fingers, when I should’ve just been shooting. So now I have some 26 rolls of Kodachrome left in my freezer, a total of 888 frames of film. I say unfortunately because Dwayne’s is about to run their last batches of K-14 process, the chemicals necessary to develop the legendary slide stock, on December 30th, 2010.
I’m determined not to let this film go to waste, and I’m hoping that you’ll help me. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be shooting as many portraits as possible, endeavoring to photograph as many different persons as I can in and around Houston. I can’t think of better project – a celebration of this city and the people in it seems a fitting way to use up the rest of this great film.
I’m asking for help, though, because the processing cost of this batch alone will cost me over $250. That doesn’t count shipping the film to Dwayne’s, or any prints I might make.
So, here is my proposition: if you donate any money to this project, I’ll do everything in my power to include you in this portrait series [Greater Houston area residents will obviously be much easier for me to reach], AND I will provide you with a print of your portrait. Donations over $20 will receive a signed print on a premium paper stock, donations of less than $20 will be on standard photo paper. Every donation will be greatly appreciated, be it small or large, so please consider it even if it’s $5 or less. I truly need all the help I can get with this project.
I’m hoping to find a gallery interested in hosting an exhibition of these portraits once the project is complete. If that’s not possible, well, I suppose I’ll just put them on my walls and invite everyone over to my house, and we’ll have a grand old time.
Thanks for joining me on this project, and I hope you’ll spread the word. If you’re interested in donating, please send an email to clickwindrepeat [at] gmail.com, and I’ll send you instructions on how you can help.
Sincerely,
Marc Brubaker
25/888 frames completed
Greetings! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but it’s a fresh new year. I’m quite excited about several things I’ve been working on – including prints, and a brand new Pola-Calendar! The calendar is still in the works, but prints are available now. If you’ve followed my photography at all, you know that one of the things that I love shooting is live music. It’s a thrill everytime – I become obsessed with finding that moment when an artist is most expressive – be it exhiliration, frustration, passion, joy, etc. The act of shooting a concert is a new experience every time.
Sometimes I even get to shoot performances by artists that I truly enjoy. On occasion this is a frustrating conundrum, when I am forced through the Catch-22 of wanting to shoot a show and wanting to simply enjoy a performance. But then I realize that for a few brief moments [usually three songs] I’m going to have exclusive access to an artist AND the ability to create lasting images that will forever be tied to personal memories. One example of this occurred when Jenny Lewis came through town this past summer.
So there I was, not five feet from a woman whom I think is one of the most adorable, sharp-witted and talented songstresses around, giddly snapping away in the photo pit. It’s nice to get paid to cover a show, just as it’s nice to have photos that reflect my own memories – but even more than taking these photos and more than reviewing them, I love sharing the photographs that I’ve captured. People who see me shooting have asked me where they’ll be able to see the pictures I’ve taken, or if they’ll be able to obtain copies in some form. I am happy to announce that I’ll now be selling prints online – so whether you were at the show or just a fan of the artist [or maybe just a fan of my work], you’ll be able to take a piece of the show home with you. First up is this Jenny Lewis concert from July 2009. You can purchase prints here: Jenny Lewis at Warehouse Live. If you place an order by February 5th, you can use the code jlewis20off to get 20% off your order of $25 or more. All prints come directly from professional labs and are hand-checked for quality before delivery. [Note: if you live in Houston, I will hand-deliver your prints!]
You can view a full set from the show on flickr [very handy for viewing the images at larger sizes, especially if you're interested in purchasing a print]. I’ll be adding more concerts constantly, so if there’s a particular show you know I shot, just ask and I’ll try to get to it a bit sooner.
- Marc
I’ve been churning through a lot of my back catalog lately – some stuff I set aside and never edited and some things I never uploaded. I’m in the process of shooting an entirely new portfolio, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like some of these shots. You’ll probably see a few posts in the near future highlighting some of these “old” photos as I’m building in a new direction.
This installment is about a 40th wedding anniversary I got hired to shoot during the summer. I had an open weekend and was helping out a friend who was already booked for a wedding. There was also the sweet bonus of getting a full meal from Brenner’s on the bayou, so it was hard to resist this simple, two hour gig. Here’s a few shots I really enjoyed.
Look at that rocking 40 year old wedding album. I loved the tones immediately.
Their son Eric had set up a party at Brenner’s, with family coming in from as far as New York. The whole shebang was a surprise for Mrs. Kristiansen. I think I caught wind that Mr. Kristiansen wasn’t supposed to know about it either, but somehow he had figured it out during the process.
This is perhaps one of the most insanely heart-crushing cute moments I’ll ever witness. He had tracked down his high school ring, gave it to her, and asked her to go steady. She said yes.
They’re a great example of the relationship I’d like to have after 40 years of marriage. I had fun departing from my normal subjects of shooting and being treated like one of the family for an afternoon.
I’ve got some other posts coming: probably a few live sets of shots from concerts I’ve been covering, as well as some miscellaneous photos from the last year that won’t fit in the new portfolio yet I would still like to share them.
- Marc
This weekend local band listenlisten released their new album, Hymns from Rhodesia. They had a big show at Mango’s on Friday night, which I shot for the Houston Press – more photos from that will come soon, and played an in-store set at Cactus Music. Cactus is a fantastic shop that has at least two bands on the stage each week, usually with free beer courtesy of the local brewery, Saint Arnold. I showed up Saturday, camera in hand, to take some pictures and down a cold one while taking in one of my favorite local acts. Here’s a selection from the afternoon.
I’ve been playing with my Nikkor 16mm on my Canon 40D a lot, if you haven’t noticed, and using the live view function a ton. It’s making me really really really really want a 5D Mark II. There’s a full set from the afternoon here on my flickr. Give the band a listen as well – they make haunting and beautiful music, and you can follow them on Twitter at @listen_listen.
- Marc
P.S. My fellow photographer Mark C. Austin, who does have a 5D II, shot a few videos of the band playing. Here’s one to get you started.
On Wednesday I put some shots up from House of Blues that I took whilst The Tontons were busy shooting a video. There was a bit of downtime, fortunately, and I managed to pull them aside for a bit and shoot a few promotional shots during breaks. I set up my new Alien Bees 800 in the green room [don't get confused - that's a technical term, the room is actually blue], and after a couple test shots I pulled out my Polaroid Miniportrait 202 – a camera that I love shooting, but prefer doing so when I have a very specific purpose. This next shot is really four shutter clicks and two pieces of film, and by and large is one of my favorite photos of the year.
I also did individual portraits of all the members on single pieces of film [Fuji FP-100C, if you are wondering what stock I used]. Adam had my favorite pairing.
The Polaroid shots were taken during breaks in filming the twenty or so takes of Leon the band had to play. At one point they brought in an audience and filmed another pair of takes before the band treated everyone to a brief set and one final performance of the song. After all that, the band finally got a chance to relax. So what did I make them do? I forced them to get back in front of a camera, of course! We were given permission to do a quick set of photos in the exclusive Foundation Room.
Even after all those takes, the band was in pretty good spirits.
Those shots were done in one of the private rooms within the Foundation Room area. I popped my Nikkor 16mm 2.8 on my 40D, and we took a few more that utilized a massive couch in the open lounge area as well.
And I managed to sneak in a couple shots with my lady before all was said and done.
The rest of the photos from the night, including the live shots, can be found in this set on my flickr.
My brother, who is an amazing fella all around, goes to school at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. A couple days before we drove out there to get him back to school, he asked if I could shoot some quick portraits of him with his wonderful girlfriend, Cynthia. She is a complete sweetheart, as well as one of the kindest and most gentle people I have ever come across. I love them both, and they make one hell of a cute couple.
We did this shoot very, very quickly – it may have lasted a grand total of thirty minutes. It probably could have run quite a bit longer, but we arrived at Eleanor Tinsley Park with the light disappearing fast. Armed with my trusty 40D and a 24-70mm 2.8, I got right to shooting. Here’s a few more shots from the evening.
Whew! It’s been a bit too long since I updated. A few weeks ago I tagged along while The Tontons were filmed at House of Blues here in Houston. The shoot was an endeavor of The Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau, who hired Zen Film to produce a short that both promoted downtown nightlife and encouraged people, businesses, etc. to invest in downtown. As the new beau of The Tontons leading lady, the lovely Ms. Asli Omar, I got invited to come shoot some stills during the process.
The Zen Film folks were nothing but class, and despite having no idea that I’d be around, allowed me to move very freely among their crew. The poor band must’ve played the song Leon about twenty times throughout the afternoon, but it was a pretty good day. We were allowed special access to House of Blues’ Foundation Room, a members-only lounge and restaurant area tucked away in the back of the massive space the multi-venue enterprise occupies [more on that in another post]. Here’s a selection of photos from the day.
Moments like this next one are my favorite pieces of watching a band perform together.
I’ll leave you with one last photo, which has turned out to be my favorite from the day. There’s a whole set of photos to be found over at my flickr. Go give The Tontons a listen, and you can find them on Twitter at @thetontons.
My good friend Walker Walmus [pictured far left] is a fantastic graphic designer, excellent musician, and all around good guy. His newest musical endeavor is a band called Legion of Air, and he literally talked his way into the band. Walker has always been supportive of my creative endeavors, which is tremendously reassuring because I know he possesses good taste. So when Legion of Air decided they needed some promotional photos, I became the go-to guy.
When Walker first contacted me about photos we chatted about their music, the overall feel he wanted the photos to have, and the stylistic traits he was looking for in a location. I knew right away where I wanted to do the photo shoot. The band was in town at the end of June, playing back-to-back dates on the fringes of Houston, so one Saturday morning we all climbed into a car and made the relatively short drive down to Galveston, Texas.
The building I selected as our location is Two Moody Plaza, the second tallest building in downtown Galveston, as far as I can tell, and you guessed it – that shot is taken from the roof. If you have ever been down to Galveston you have most likely seen One Moody Plaza before, instantly recognizable as the large building on the island. Two Moody Plaza is, if you haven’t figured it out yet, across the street – that black and white photo of OMP on flickr was actually taken from TMP’s parking lot. It is currently vacant, stuck in what seems to be post-Ike renovation limbo – the interior has been gutted, but no evidence of current construction/demolition was readily evident. The roof is accesible, obviously, as are the massive circuit boards that controlled the elevators, which made excellent backgrounds for some portraits of the band members.
I certainly hope that some sort of salvage plan exists for the building, because I think it happens to be very interesting. The exterior seems to be in fine shape as well. Hopefully some worthy cause will come along to finish the renovations and inhabit the building. Here’s one last pair of photos from the shoot.
Go give Legion of Air a listen, and if you like what you hear then stop by their page on Facebook, or their Twitter and show them some love.
