David James and son Seven, atop the Los Feliz Club Apartments with Vermont Ave in the background. The Onyx Cafe was located on the spot (bright-strobe) in the photo behind them. This 'spot' now is occupied by Figaro Cafe.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
did your wife have another baby?
at a time of being "mr. mom" and living in valley village (a block north of studio city on whitsett). it was so convenient for me to just stroll with stefani (nickname "stephanie") up to the nearest rite-aid on whitsett and magnolia, to get my film done. estella, the photo section manager, is so knowledgeable and skilled with photofinishing, that to this day because of this, i still go to her for my 35mil portra stuff. estella is true to her printing profession and i clearly see this when she was so kind enough to share with me the idea of shooting with Kodak's Portra which they actually don't carry but they DO Process. i said to myself she's another "Sherrie". Sherrie knew her stuff. Back in the day when Noritsu machines were so popular, i actually knew some one-- Sherrie who managed a "Fox one hour photo" , would actually let me print my own stuff as long as i help her run her customer's film through the c-41 processor and also print them. fair enough. anything for me having control over the quality of my own stuff. Valley camera and studio which is a stone throw away from rite-aid, sells Portra. i've been shooting this film now a couple of years and having estella process them because she does quality work. you pay a little more for this film but it's worth it. portra by the way is professional film, that not many places have their equipment programmed for this type of film, only for the standard consumer ones. i dropped by to visit estella not to long ago to process this ROLL i found in the side pocket of my domke which had a felt pen marking of "6" and with the film spool leader protruding out of the can. out of curiousity, i quickly loaded up with this uncertain roll on the 105mil mounted F2 and fired up the rest of the film on stefani ' till the advance lever crank stopped. while i was picking up the already done photos, Estella asked me if my wife had another baby, i replied "not that i'm aware of" jokingly and looked at her and asked "why?". she say's there's a photo of a baby from the film she printed that i dropped off.
the comparison of the two photos reveals a 2 year gap. i must have taken the film out of the camera so i can immediately try the Portra film.
so, i widened up the lens opening by 0.40mm and i am getting consistent exposures on a 12 exposure roll of film, both b/w and color rated at 400, indoors and outdoors with the standard (so they say) f/8 opening. i am so ecstatic. "no more wasting film."
my next target was to create "f/11" to correspond to the "sunny" icon, since the "cloudy" is already represented by "f/8". other "holga users" create another opening that rides on the swinging arm
window (which is a logical thing to do), and of course this should be smaller to give a full stop to f/11. while i was snipping my b/w negs. i got the idea of using the base acetate of the film to go onto this arm window instead of trying to create a smaller opening with some other type of material. i measured the film acetate base using a light meter placing the film between a light source and the meter (an old minolta IV with spot), i consequently got a full stop reading.
of course you'll need to take the camera apart to get to this swinging arm window. check this
"holga" user's website http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/projects/holga/holgamod.html for more
modification details. anyway, below are the photo results i got from using this acetate base as my secondary lens opening.
notice on the right photo with the acetate base. you can clearly see that i did get my full stop. and also compare with the left photo with the shadow casted on the driveway, it disappeared. neat-o. now i can start shooting with the holga with confidence knowing what it can or cannot do. btw, my other "toy" is a 1958 zorki fed-2 russian leica copy cat and i am loving it as much as i am loving
the holga as much as i am loving the discontinued russian lubitel 166 universal.
last night i got a call from friend "darrell" and he says that the "tribal cafe" is open and that it was pretty happening and that there were alot of ex- "onyx" regulars hanging and patronizing the place. darrell, (which is not his true name), gave me pure B.S. that when i got there (corner of union and temple. yep, in l.a.'s historic filipino town), there were tables with chairs on them at the corner of the huge room and drop cloth(s) not to mention the smell of paint. joshua jose wasn't around but DAVID ROCKELLO was. david was coordinating the painters on what color/texture blah.blah paint goes up on the wall. let me rephrase. more like artists painting their own murals in segments of the wall. i personally liked them. i thought this cafe is just going to be one of those regular coffee joints where you can have a cup of coffee and donuts then split. NOPE, based on what i've seen of the place, i was wrong. I WONDER IF HE'LL SERVE CAFE BUSTELO?
"I don't care about making photography an art," said Mr. Steichen. "I want to make good photographs. I'd like to know who first got it in his head that dreaminess and mist is art.
Take things as they are; take good photographs and the ART WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF."
the PHOTO GALLERY containing photographs taken at the Onyx Café is work in progress, most of these scanned negatives were recently unearthed. since i've benefitted a great deal from the onyx cafe(free coffee, etc.), it's now payback time to mr. john leech and to every soul i hung out with, with my photographs. enjoy!!!
the Onyx Café was more than just an institutional cafe to most of the regulars and myself. it was a "state of mind" without the aid of any mind altering pill. it was a place where you can actually feel how "timeless" the place was. it was a conglomerated convergence of people from all walks of life. from hollywood celebs to suitcase-geared travelling bohemians introducing themselves, and being welcomed (and not interrupting any intellectual arguments). it was the crossroads to every major city on this planet. it was happening! day and night, into day again. amidst the aroma of the coffee lingering in the air, there was also, all kinds of drama. but we will not go there. you can never complain about the taste of espressos and cappuccinos served here, nor how the architectural facade of the place appeared, nor even how people looked or dressed. people come here for the same one thing that everyone else is seeking --- and it's not just the java. it is.. NIRVANA. yep. and the whole crowd was experiencing it collectively.
