philly

I put a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 through the Nikon F3 I snatched up from my landlord's photo cabinet (with his permission). I put in 8 AA batteries and gave it a whirl. Running it try, it seemed like everything was working properly so I ran the film through it and everything seemed to meter fine, but who knows I thought. When I got the negatives, proofs and CD back from Photo Lounge (19/Chestnut), I was quite happy to see that it was definitely working properly. I love the graininess of Tri-X 400 film.

I picked up a roll of Ilford XP2 Super 400 (B&W) and Fuji Superia Reala 100 (color). I also have a roll of Kodak Portra 400VC (color) as well. With the weather getting a little warmer now, the color film will come in handier. I've been having a grand old time reading up on film stock and asking friends and colleagues about different film stocks they've used.

I put up a flickr set of the short roll of 24 exposures.

Nikon F3 with MD-4 back; Nikkor 28mm f/2 AIS @ f/2; 1/30s; 0.8m

The Q&A session for the Great Expectations Agenda meeting for the 1st Council District started off with a bang asking the councilmen whether or not they supported spot zoning. The questioner wanted the councilmen to deny all spot zoning requests until a full plan was in place. The 1st District's Councilman Frank DiCicco took to the mic first. He said that he views all zoning requests on a case by case basis and to deny all spot zoning requests between now and the finalization of a zoning plan is too broad a move to make. At-Large Councilman Bill Green said that it would be great to be able to hold everything until a plan was in place, but it's just not feasible. He pointed out to Miami's recent new zoning plan; it took them 3 years to finalize and their city is 1/5 the size of Philadelphia. Green gave a drop dead date of 2011 (the same year as his re-election bid) for a plan to be in place. If a new zoning plan which pleased the majority of Philadelphians were in place before the elections, I foresee a slew of re-elections – zoning is at the top of people's minds all across the city.

Continuing with zoning issues, the next questioner asked whether or not the councilmen would agree to limit 10 year tax abatements strictly to LEED certified projects. DiCicco (at left above) questioned whether limiting the abatements like that were actually legal and deferred to Green, a lawyer, to answer the question. Green said that Philadelphia has had a hard time attracting developers as of late and it has been the 10 year abatements which have slowly started to get developers back into town and willing to build. To limit the abatements to LEED-only projects would slow the stream. He did note that LEED projects could be given extra considerations in the review process. It's been mentioned at previous Great Expectations events that LEED projects could be bumped to the front of the approval line among other things.

The conversation swung to schools and an attendee asked about the role of council for safer schools; expanded after school, non-sports, activities and schools used as a community resource. DiCicco noted how schools are presently closed during the summer. A great resource to the community could be school buildings available for use through the summer months. Green said one possibility to make schools safer would be to place police academy cadets inside schools. In regards to more programming, expanding the existing beacon programs between 3p – 6p would be great, but the money isn't there now. He urged the attendees to vote for a Democrat for president. He said that Clinton and Obama would bring more attention to schools. Green added that he's an Obama supporter to which DiCicco added that he's a Clinton supporter. Green said that if the U.S. were to get out of Iraq, all that money being poured into the military could be used to fortify the public education program. To see how the money going into military spending could further be divvied up, please watch this True Majority animation with Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen using Oreos to visualize the billions in spending.

(more…)

I jumped at the opportunity to attend the Great Expectations Agenda meeting in my own City Council district, the First. This meeting was the biggest of the district meetings to date with about 70 – 75 people in all. This event was at the Daily News – Inquirer Building so there was plenty of space. I was happy to see a bunch of City Year corps members in attendance. Their red Timberland jackets have become a common sight for my eyes during my time in Philly. This was also the first district meeting with Asians (aside from myself) in the audience. There was a good mix of young and old (about 40% – 60%) so I'm sure a good range of opinions and experiences were raised in each group. The Inquirer's Chris Satullo announced that 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco would be there as well as, once again, At-Large City Councilman Bill Green. UPenn's Harris Sokoloff polled the crowd to see how many had been to previous Great Expectations events; about 60% had. He asked how many had been to any of the Penn Praxis events; about 40% had. The people at this event knew what was going on and what the project was trying to accomplish.

I jumped in with Group B for the breakout session. Covered by the dozen in the session were the topics of Crime, Poverty and Transporation. The group had members actively involved in the issues they chose to talk about including Ellen who hasn't owned a car since the 1950s, Aqila, a City Year corps member from DC who was appalled by SEPTA after moving to Philly and Debi and Dick who were active in the homeless community.

Judith, a transplant from Hungary, wondered why Philadelphia seems to have the problems it does while other cities don't. Across the table, Kirk pointed out that it's the notion that Philadelphia is worse off than other cities is often reported in the city's papers more so, perhaps, than in other cities leading to the perception that Philly's worse off. He pointed to Mayor Nutter's remarks during the Citizen's Convention where he asked that the papers report more on the good things that happen in the city as well as the bad. Doing so can give the people hope. Debi was concerned with constantly reinventing the wheel with each administration. She wanted to find out what was working and what could be working better with additional funding instead of scrapping everything and starting all over again. Ellen wanted to know what was going on with the new program for businesses to hire ex-offenders with the benefit of a $10k tax write off from the City. Aqila wanted to see the programs targeting high school aged kids to be introduced at the middle school level. Working in high schools in Philly, she's seen first hand how it's too late for many.

Kirk wanted to reframe the notion of civic service as not being a penance or chore, but rather a way to take ownership. He saw part of the problem as young African-American males not viewing civic service as a sign of masculinity. A remedy could be to have groups of peers working together to prevent the ridicule a single member of a group could receive. Lisa wanted to see how council could help remove the stigma and also, how to find the numerous volunteer opportunities around the city. Kirk added that lots of people commit crime to escape poverty and at the crux of things was the issue of safe transportation throughout the city. Once the issue of safe transportation around the city is addressed, the other issues could fall in line easier.

(more…)

That is all.

On the other hand, I've been getting a semi steady stream of freelance work which is keeping my head above water.

After the breakout sessions, all three groups reconvened in the gym for the Q&A session. Councilman Curtis Jones took a walk over to my group's giant sticky notes which were taped to the wall. He took it all in and turned to say: "They're gonna ask me all these questions?!" to which I replied with a smile, "As many as they can."

The crowd took their seats after grabbing some coffee and cookies from the spread in the back. The Inquirer's Chris Satullo took the time to introduce the newly elected Jones to the crowd and thanked him for coming down into the fray and for the good turnout on that cold night. And then the questions started. Two of the earliest questions were about zoning/development, specifically if Jones would pledge his support to local community groups who have concerns about incoming development. Jones started off by saying that he thinks this district is the hottest in terms of new development and invited the crowd to tell the other council members he said so. He pledged his support for local causes and said that 9 times out of 10, he'd err on the side of the community's wishes instead of those of developers'. He added that he'd propose regional zoning boards.

Jones was asked what he'd do to get single stream recycling in the 4th District. He stated the obvious in that now that, former 4th District Councilman, Mayor Nutter was in office, there would be a bit more attention paid to the district and since Nutter is gung ho about recycling, there would be added impetus. Jones said that the 4th would be next in line to get single stream recycling in the city to a good amount of applause. Satullo followed up with a question regarding the holdup of an expansion of the very effective recycling program in the NW. Jones was aware of the program and the holdup, but unaware of the cause or when the program would be launched city wide.

(more…)

What do you get when you mix a once in 4 years occurrence with two Alien Bees, softboxes, Pocket Wizards and six photogs [and 1 non-camera carrying spouse]? A fun photo session that's what.

Above is a shot of Kev as he prepares to model for Andi. Here's one of the results from that session.

A few of my shots starting here. I got some good shots of Tony as To-NAY and some of And with a little nice attitude.

And a shot by Andi to launch my much anticipated modeling career!

Thank you Andi, Jill, Kev, Steve and Tony for coming over and drinking up the overflow of beer in the house!