JPG Magazine says goodbye

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Sad news from the folks at JPG Magazine:

JPG Magazine Says Goodbye

Posted by Laura Brunow Miner on 1 January 2009.

Today is a particularly sad day for all of us at JPG and 8020 Media.

We’ve spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we’ve reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but just weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.

The one thing we’ve been the most proud of: your amazing talent. We feel honored and humbled to have been able to share jpgmag.com with such a dynamic, warm, and wonderful community of nearly 200,000 photographers. The images on the website and in the magazine were adored by many, leaving no doubt that this community created work of the highest caliber. The kindness, generosity, and support shared among members made it a community in the truest sense of the word, and one that we have loved being a part of for these past two years.

We wish we could have found a way to leave the site running for the benefit of the amazing folks who have made JPG what it is, and we have spent sleepless nights trying to figure something out, all to no avail. Some things you may want to do before the site closes:

– Download the PDFs of back issues, outtakes, and photo challenge selections. We’ll always have the memories!
– Make note of your favorite photographers. You may want to flip through your favorites list and jot down names and URLs of some of the people you’d like to stay in touch with. You may even want to cut and paste your contacts page into a personal record.
– Catch up with your fellow members. Our roots are in this humble flickr forum and we recommend going back to find fellow members, discuss the situation, or participate in another great photo community.
– Keep in touch. This has always been much more than just a job to each of us, and we’ll miss you guys! We’ll be checking the account jpgletters@gmail.com in our free time going forward. We can’t promise to reply to every email (since we’ll be busy tuning up our resumes) but we’d love to hear from you.
– Stay posted. Although the magazine is ceasing publication, we’ll be updating you on what’s happening with your subscription early next week.

We’re soggy-eyed messes, but it is what it is. At that, JPGers, we bid you goodbye, and good luck in 2009 and the future.

Laura Brunow Miner
Editor in Chief

Photography is for…

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Want to be a renowned photographer? follow these seven steps. (links include “colorful” language, but we all know that color is an important part of photography)

1) Make sure you have a LOT OF F**KING NATURAL LIGHT.

2) Make sure the natural light SOURCE is behind you

3) Make sure the flash on your camera is OFF. If you need a FLASH, it means you don’t have enough NATURAL LIGHT. (step 1)

4) Look through the viewfinder: Make sure that everything in your shot is symmetrical. If a tiny bit of it isn’t, like a bird or a queer walking down the street, that’s OK because it makes the photo “cool.” Go watch every Stanley Kubrick movie ever made if you don’t understand this. (Study Alex’s fake eyelash as the archetypal stylistic symmetry violator)

5) Take pictures of everyday sh*t from stupid angles but make sure it’s all SYMMETRICAL and that it isn’t MOVING.

6) Make sure YOU don’t move or have your fat black fingers in front of the lens when you push the button. (priceless tip: push the button down halfway, wait for a clicky sound, and then push it all the way in – this is the BIG photography secret that professionals don’t want you to know.)

7) Take TONS of photos of the same thing and then only use the good ones where the bird or the queer wasn’t blinking.

You’re done. You’re a f**king photographer. See how easy that is? That’s because it’s for JERKOFFS.

(kottke.org, via avenues)

Woops!

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I’ve used York Photo for my mail order film processing for several years. They’re inexpensive ($2.20/roll, $1.50 shipping, and $1.00 scans), they turn rolls around in a week, and they partner with Snapfish for their online service. They offer perpetual hosting and have great deals on prints.

I got my first rolls back from San Miguel a week ago, and was waiting on two other rolls. One roll showed up online yesterday, and when I got home, found this in my mailbox:

Woops!

Woops!

There was a note from York saying that they received the roll in this condition, damaged beyond repair. I used to send film without film canisters to save space, but I think I’ll send them in film canisters from now on.

Nothing York could have done about it, USPS strikes again.

Special San Francisco PHOTOJOJO shoot this weekend!

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I received this email for a photo shoot this weekend. The mural work in the Mission district makes a wonderful subject for shooting, and the PHOTOJOJO people are a lot of fun.

Hi! Your pals at Photojojo (that’s us) are planning a series of really fun photo events in San Francisco and you’re invited!We call ’em Photo Safaris. The first one is this Saturday. We’ll be exploring some of the beautiful street art in the Mission then heading to a local bar, checking out everyone’s photos, and giving out some great prizes.

Hope you can make it! Feel free to bring some pals, and be sure to sign up for updates on future events.

Details
Mission Murals Safari
– Saturday 11/8 @ 3:30pm
– Meet @ Market St & Brady St
– Host: Heather Champ
– RSVP

Love,
Photojojo

p.s. Help us spread the word about this weekend’s safari by twittering it or RSVPing on Facebook.

p.p.s. Here’s a video from our last event in NYC. Get excited!!

Another toy camera – Meikai EL

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This is a Meikai EL, circa 1963. Bought on eBay, I was the only bidder!

As toy cameras go, this one feels pretty solid. The body is metal and plastic and the leatherette makes it feel like a “real” camera. The film advance is smooth, and there’s an indicator to let you know when the film is properly advanced. The lens looks like it’s made of glass. The door latch is solid.

The fake light meter surrounding the viewfinder give it away as a toy camera, and the fixed focus, fixed shutter speed lens adds to the toy camera gestalt.

meikai-test1

The camera has 3 aperture settings – f/8, f/11 and f/16. If you’re not sure which direction stopping down is, the BRIGHT and DULL labels should help to match the weather conditions to the aperture settings. There’s an Instant and Bulb shutter setting next to the aperture setting.

The Meikai EL has an accessory shoe and a PC socket for flash. The instructions recommend using the Bulb setting for flash shooting – flash bulbs need a a slower sync speed, like 1/15th sec or so.

The Meikai EL only has one lug for attaching a strap, so you’re stuck with a wrist strap. This camera CALLS OUT for a two-lug thin leather tourist-ey neck strap.

The pictures I’ve seen on the net have the simple lens elements, soft focus, toy camera look. I’ve shot a roll of 5-year-old Jessops 200 speed film on my lunch hour and should get it back from York Photo in a week.

Somewhere in my garage I have an old Vivitar 16M flash with a PC cord, I’ll have to dig it up tonight.

 

Meikai Links:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/probablekoz/sets/72157601440327601/

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Meikai_EL

http://westfordcomp.com/classics/meikai/index.html

http://www.merrillphoto.com/MeikaiEL.htm

http://muujuu.multiply.com/photos/album/11/Meikai_EL_Camera

 

 

 

 

Blogs Kurt is reading

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Nic Nichol’s blog: Four Corners Dark: Holga, Lomo, and low-fi photography.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I’m reading my own mind. He’s loving the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera (my own reviews forthcoming), ranting on the ranters who claim you can duplicate low-fi with photoshop, so why bother with plastic, and the lucky bugger has gotten his hands on a BlackBird, Fly 35mm TLR. He even posted an article on Miroslav Tichy when news of his work made the rounds.

Poindexter sez: Check it Out.

Lomographic Society at Photokina 2008

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“The Lomography ‘Future is Analogue’ LomoWall exhibition is revealed at Photokina 2008!”


It’s the 5th time Lomography has been invited to participate in the world’s largest photo-imaging event, so we are going all out in celebration of the unique creative use of film coming from one million+ Lomographers worldwide! The LomoWall forms the focal-piece of our “Future is Analogue” exploration and bursts with over 100,000 amazing film images.

The fantastic LomoWall takes centre-stage in the immtense Lomography Lounge – which will play host to a huge array of analogue talks, events and parties over the next 5 days!

Jazz Jelly camera, revisited

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My fixation with LOMO LC-As and film photography began in 2000. About that time, I started collecting toy film cameras. I like the aesthetic, I like the disconnect from technical frippery that a plastic lensed, single aperture, single shutter speed gives. I like vignetting. I like chromatic aberration. I like soft focus.

One of the cameras I loved was the Jazz Jelly. It looks like a $5 Olympus Stylus, with its dove bar shape, built-in flash and sliding lens cover. The 28mm lens is simply designed – if it has more than 2 elements I would be shocked. It’s light, and it’s disarming. People don’t concern themselves with someone taking their picture with a see-through purple, red, or green camera.

The Jelly has a panorama setting. It crops the top and bottom of the photo, and some film processors can crop that onto a wide print. I think back in the APS days this was more common, but most places will probably print on 4×3 paper and print the borders, like a letterbox DVD.

Since the Lomographic Society has brought the Diana back from the dead and renewed interest in the Holga, I’ve rediscovered toy cameras. 35mm toy cameras are getting hard to find! Cameras like these used to be available at Wal-MART, drug stores, convenience stores and even office supply stores. Cheap film cameras have all but gone from retail, and I’m afraid they were so cheap that they may have all ended up in landfill.

I’ve combed the junk shops hoping to find that Diana in mint condition, but alas, have never been that lucky.

I found a Jelly on Amazon for a reasonable price ($7.99 with a battery and 200 speed film!) and will throw it in my bag, see what I can do with it.

Crank up the contrast in PS and it looks a little LOMO-like!