More B&W favorites

Here are a few more of my black and white snaps from my grad school photography class. My class at Temple probably taught me more about photography than any other period in my life so far. At first, we bemoaned the photo assignments, but it didn't take me long to learn that it was great fun - coming up with ideas to meet the assignment requirements was tremendously exciting and challenging, and developing our work in the darkroom was the most satisfying of all. Those were the days!

All pictures were taken on a Canon EOS Elan 7E with a Sigma 17-35mm f2.8-4 lens, Ilford Black and White Film (almost all of them with Pan F 50, unless otherwise noted), exposures unrecorded.

We had to turn in a self-portrait, and I had no idea what to do, because normally I dislike having my picture taken. So, I opted for a funny angle. Here I'm holding the Jackass Trophy for our fantasy football league - the person with the worst record got this prize (and no, it wasn't me that year, but I was the commissioner and had the honor of awarding it). Looking over my shoulder are members of my favorite musical group of all time, The Dave Matthews Band.

This is one of my favorite shots taken with my favorite film of all time, Ilford high-speed 3200. My friend Tim puffed on a cigar while I fired away, sometime after midnight outside of our apartment building. I love this film - the possibilities are seemingly endless with what you can do; with a moderately fast lens, you need very little light to get an acceptable image without a tripod, and best of all, with acceptable grain for a film this fast.

One day we shot the Philadelphia Zoo, and one of our assignments was to come back with a father or mother and child photo. This one wasn't planned or staged - I just turned around and saw a father putting his son on his shoulders, and I fired off a quick shot.

I'm a Kutztown University alumnus, so decided to go to the campus to see what pictures I could come up with. The campus and surrounding town have a great deal of charm; just about everything in the borough and the university is photogenic in some way. I noticed some young kids skateboarding on Main Street, and I asked them to skate on by and do some tricks. They didn't take much convincing, and I was delighted to feed their young egos with a roll (or two) of film.

This is my older brother Matt with his middle son, Adam, at my mom's house. Obviously Addy ended up wearing his lunch as much as eating it.

A college guy hanging out on his front porch made for an interesting, albeit reluctant subject. I didn't ask him to look away, but I think that works for this one.

My classmate and friend Heather. We had to try our luck at portraits, and Heather, quite the photogenic one, turned out to be a great choice. This was sickeningly simple to take - a matte black background taped up in the hallway of Annenberg Hall at Temple with a light from down below.

This is another shot from Kelly Drive in Philadelphia. I get tired just from looking at this guy.