I knew something was up when I got back from camping in Wisconsin and the comments on one of my photos on Flickr was flooded with comments. My submission to the Blink of an Eye group was one of five photos chosen out of 2,953 submissions to be exhibited in New York. The competition was open to all Flickr members and the idea was for everyone to submit their one best photo. Although there weren’t any prizes, it is still a great honor to be recognized by some great judges. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the show in New York due to my camping trip. That would have been alot of fun. You can see the photo that has gotten all the attention here, or on Flickr.

I don’t generally enter competitions. I enjoy making photos so much more than framing/exhibiting/promoting my work. That is one of the reasons I love Flickr and my photo blog. It allows me to connect with people and show my work easily and to a broad audience. If any of my readers are interested in keeping track of me on Flickr, my screen name is FoundPhotographer and this link will take you to my page. I apologize in advance for being a bad at commenting and keeping up with contacts…

In an attempt to share some love, I wanted to point you at a few great sites that have taken interest in my work lately:

File I was surfing File and was pleasantly surprised to be listed in their resources section! If you haven’t visited File, they consistently feature great images.

Blurfection Through Flickr, I connected with Russ Morris and his Blurfection Flickr group. Thanks, Russ for featuring a couple of my photos on the Blurfection website.

Designers Who Blog Finally, I was featured on Designers Who Blog. For those of you who don’t know, I am a graphic designer by day. Check out Be A Design Group for more about that half of my life.

Thanks to these and all the other sites that have linked to me recently. I really appreciate it!

A couple weeks ago when I was on a photo shoot in the middle of Indiana. The assignment was to document the workers at a corporation there. Aside from the remote location, it was a fun project. The people were genuinely friendly, the project went smoothly, and the camera I was using really performed well. The only snag came with a photo I needed to take of an Amish worker. The Amish craftsmanship and work ethic is a source of great pride to the company, and they wanted that to be represented in the photos. Out of respect for their religion, we asked worker after worker if they would mind being in a picture. One by one they all declined. The Amish don’t like to be photographed because it might cause them to be tempted by pride. Some didn’t mind if they were in the background of the photos, but almost none of them were willing to be the focus of the picture. I respected the wishes of these people and didn’t take their photo.

When I was done with the “official” photo shoot I spent a couple evenings driving around and taking pictures of rural Indiana. At one point I was walking by some Amish people and had a great photo opportunity. I hesitated knowing how they would feel about getting their photo taken. Did I really need these people’s permission before I could take their photo? If you have ever found yourself in a similar situation, you are probably wondering what your legal rights are. Here are some important things to keep in mind…

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Next week I will be traveling to Middlebury, Indiana for a week long photo shoot. In preparation, Today I carefully packed the camera case in preparation for the trip. Here is a peak inside:

1. Telephoto lens (for Canon digital camera – see number 4)
2. Pentax ZX5n (in case I need to take anything in 35mm)
3. Nikon Coolpix 5000 (backup digital camera – empty since this is what I used to take the photo)
4. Canon EOS 5D (We just got this amazing camera for work. This is what I will be using all week. 12.8 megapixels baby! Can’t wait to break it in!)
5. Holga 120 (for fun on the way too and from Indiana)
6. Iskra (in case the opportunity arrises to shoot high quality medium format)
7. Medium format Lego camera (never leave home without it!)
8. Nikon Coolpix 995 with wide angle lens (for timelapse. I am hoping to find a place to leave this for a day or two)
9. Film (Mostly black and white 120, but also some 35mm)
10. Power cords and timelapse equipment
11. Card reader, batteries, and assorted cords

As you can see I am ready for a great week of photography. The job is shooting RVs, and I will be working with Craig Lamson of InFocus.

Ebay is a great place to shop for camera bags. Here’s what is on Ebay right now:

Soft Neoprene Camera Lens Carrying Bag Black with Clip

US $13.72 End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 16:53:55 PST Buy It Now for only: US $13.72 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Lowepro SlingShot 100 AW Camera Bag

US $25.23 (4 Bids) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 16:53:56 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

Tamrac 5769 Camera Bag

US $45.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 16:55:31 PST Buy It Now for only: US $55.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

Brand New Lowepro Digital Camera Bag Rezo 170 AW

US $18.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 16:57:13 PST Buy It Now for only: US $30.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

NIP Crumpler DSLR Camera Bag -- -- Camera pouch

US $22.49 (4 Bids) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 16:57:48 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

CAMERA BAG & TRIPOD for CANON VIXIA HD CAMCORDER

US $18.00 End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 16:59:22 PST Buy It Now for only: US $18.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Kodak Digital Camera Padded Carry Case Bag Sony Canon

US $9.58 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 17:00:41 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

Lowepro EX180 180 Digital Rebel SLR Camera Bag NEW

US $21.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 17:00:42 PST Buy It Now for only: US $24.45 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

Digital Camera Bag, Black, MSRP $14.99

US $7.99 End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 17:04:55 PST Buy It Now for only: US $7.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Tamrac Heavy Duty 2 SLR Camera Bag Excellent

US $26.00 (2 Bids) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 17:07:30 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

I posted some new photos from my Lego pinhole camera today after a pretty long break. I took a couple weeks off, but I should get back on a regular schedule now that my new blog (Adrian3.com) is up and running. I am going to use Adrian3.com as the place where I write about the things that don’t fall under the photography or graphic design umbrellas. So far I have an “about Adrian Hanft” post and one about “life hacks.” I hope that some of the Found Photography readers follow me over there, too!

One other note, I talked about the scanner camera made by Mike Golembewski on the last Be Aware post over at Be A Design group. If you haven’t seen it already, it is pretty amazing. And yes, I have already destroyed one scanner while trying to make my own…

One of my favorite bands is Belle and Sebastian. I have been getting excited about their new album that comes out next month, and in preparation I bought a couple songs from iTunes that I didn’t have already (Books EP – it is excellent by the way). Today I was listening to the EP while looking at some of foundphotography’s web stats. I noticed that I have been getting some traffic from www.belleandsebastian.com. Weird, I thought, especially since I was just on their site yesterday digging for info on their new album. Is this for real, or some weird referrer spam? I looked around the site to see where the traffic was coming from and found that each of the band members has a page of links. At the top of Sarah’s page was a link to Lego cameras! Thanks for the link, Sarah! What an honor to be recognized by my favorite band! And what a crazy coincidence. Wouldn’t it be cool to shoot Belle and Sebastian’s next album cover with the Lego camera?

Be A Design Group is designing the cover of an upcoming issue of STEP magazine. One of the four cover concepts involves collecting photos of “100′s” in honor of their 100 best designs of the year. If you want to submit your photos for consideration on the cover, simply do the following:

1. Sign up for a Flickr account (if you don’t already have one).
2. Join the Be A Design Group…group on flickr.
3. Much like the “BA” photos you see scattered throughout the blog and the flickr group, take as many photos of “100′s” as you can and upload them to the Be A Design Group…group with the tag “step100.” Be creative.
4. Comment on and root for your favorite photos in the flickr group.
5. As our cover develops in the following rounds we will experiment with different ways of presenting the collection of everyone’s “100″ photos.
6. See the best photos on the cover of the STEP 100.

I recently purchased a turntable, and have been attempting to optimize my system so that I can get the best sound possible from my inexpensive setup. I have my turntable connected to my computer and have been experimenting with different ways to convert my vinyl to MP3′s. It struck me that this process is very similar to scanning negatives. It is more than just removing dust, and cleaning up the recording. The process of listening to records and using film photography is very physical and very personal. You manually advance the film, and you manually lift the needle. Light burns into the film, and the needle scrapes accross the vinyl. Light leaks, and vinyl crackles and pops. You carefully protect your negatives and records in sleeves.

While it is pointless to fight the digital reformation, I sense that there is a resurgence in analog. I read on Wired that, “According to the RIAA, vinyl’s percentage of overall sales doubled in 2004, grossing $110 million over 2000′s $72 million. This growth came at a time when overall music sales dropped from $14.4 billion to $12.2 billion.” Although I have no stats to back this up, I would bet that toy cameras and older film cameras have experienced similar growth.

So what is the appeal to this seemingly outdated technology? Audiophiles and filmphiles would argue that analog is superior, but I don’t think that the resurgence has much to do with this type of snobbery. It has everything to do with wanting to physicallly experience music and photography. When I put the record from my childhood on the turntable, I reconnected with the music in a way not possible through my iPod. I couldn’t tell you if the sound quality was better or worse, but I do know it was more real. The same has been true of my recent fondness for antique and toy cameras. I don’t know if my pictures are any better than I could have taken with a digital camera, but I know they are more personal. The results mean more to me because I was actively involved in the process.

I hope the analog revolution continues, but I don’t see it ever replacing digital. I do think that vinyl and film will always exist as a powerful alternative to everything digital.

The 35mm Lego camera made an appearance on Flickr’s blog yesterday. It took me a day to figure out where all the traffic was coming from, but I finally put two and two together. Thanks to the Flickr crew for the recognition! Awesome.

The graphic designer in me likes typography, so it is natural that the photographer in me takes pictures of type that I find. If you like taking pictures of found type, consider joining Be A Design Group on Flickr. The photo pool is intended to showcase the photography of graphic designers. As an added bonus, pictures from the pool will get pulled into the sidebar on Be A Design Group, the graphic design blog. Check it out…