The blurred woman in the foreground walked into the frame just as I was shooting City Hall in Philadelphia, hence “Accidental.”

A wedding in Central Park as seen from the Boat House. If you use a powerful microscope you can see the bride and groom. :-)

Singer-songwriter Steve Cohen in concert at the Ethical Society in Philadelphia. I was able to sit in the front row and snapped a number of pictures of Steve in action.

I came upon this lonely pedestrian on my way to work, trudging up the hill in the street, because none of the sidewalks had been shoveled yet. The negative was very low contrast, so I kept raising the filter until I could get something black in the print. Grade 3-1/2 was too much, so I backed off to 3.

Delta 400 developed in Xtol 1:1 for 10:00 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 6 x 9 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV satin RC paper with grade 3 filter. Scanned the print.

I was struck by the aggressive brilliance of this parking garage in Manhattan as I walked past it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve the same effect in this print, although the camera shake does give the highlights a nice extra "glow"!

Tri-X 400 developed in Xtol 1:1 for 9:30 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 6 x 9 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV satin RC paper with grade 1 filter. Scanned the print.

None of my PAW pictures to date have been cropped; all have been full frame. I'm not opposed to cropping at all. It's a legitimate part of the editing process, but most of the time I couldn't come up with a crop that made a significant improvement in the composition. This week's picture benefits from a crop in my opinion, however, and I've included the uncropped version as an alternate for those who wish to compare.

This picture was shot on Tri-X rated at 400 and I was thus forced to use a slow shutter speed. The problem I'm having with using 1/8-second is subject motion more than camera shake. You can easily see who was moving... and who wasn't. It's all part of the fun. The print could definitely have benefited from some burning here and there (some of the faces are washed out), but honestly this picture isn't worth taking the trouble with.

Another Turnpike shot, this time a group of trucks during a snowstorm. I actually tried to get the windshield wiper blade in the shot. Did pretty good, didn't I? :-) I think bad weather is good weather, photographically. I like this much better than Week 2.

Kodak Tri-X developed in Xtol 1:1 for 9:00 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 6 x 9 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV satin RC paper with grade 2 filter. Scanned the print

After my "success" (not getting arrested or mugged) shooting on the streets of Philadelphia (three furtive pictures taken at night in 20-degree weather), I hit the streets again for another session while walking to the train. This time I took more pictures and, feeling more confident, even paused to focus. I happened upon a group of people who had just evacuated their building. The sprinkler system had gone off, spraying water all over the lobby and the glass doors, although there was no other sign of fire. I took a couple of pictures as the firefighters entered the building. Their blurred shapes make it look as if they were running, but they were merely walking in. It's just that the shutter speed was so slow.

One thing I've learned about shooting in poor light is not being afraid of slow shutter speeds. No matter how slow the speed, it's still worth taking the picture. Here, I rated Tri-X at 400 and developed normally. The shutter speed was slow enough, however, that the negative had normal density and was easy to print. Of course the firefighters are very blurry, but the rest of the image is reasonably sharp.

Kodak Tri-X developed in Xtol 1:1 for 9:00 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 6 x 9 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV satin RC paper with grade 1¹/₂ filter. Scanned the print.

I finally worked up the nerve to do some street shooting this night while walking through downtown Philadelphia on the way to the train. I admit I was very nervous, but no one seemed to care or even notice. I preset exposure and focus and didn't even check the focus when I went to shoot--I just lifted the camera to my eye to frame the shot and that was it. I wasn't trying to take a great picture; I was just trying to take any picture to break through my fear and shyness.

I spotted the firemen and stopped to take a picture. As you can see, I was comfortably far away from them, although at least still in the same zip code! The person on the left with the salt spreader just walked into the frame as I was composing the picture. Click. It was over.

Ilford Delta 3200 rated at 1600 and developed in Xtol 1:1 for 15:00 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 5 x 7 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV pearl RC paper with 1-1/2 filter. Scanned the print.

I often find that I never have enough time in a given week to take pictures, so I take my camera to work with me in hopes of stumbling on interesting subjects. I even took some pictures through the windshield of my car, of which this is one of the first. There's nothing much to say about this; at least, I can't get excited about it. It's just a picture of a truck. Ideally, a picture a week should be a good picture a week, but it will have to do.

The sky really showcases the grain of Delta 3200. :-) I'm not sure it's evident on the web, but there is a little bit of camera shake visible in the print. I thought that ¹/₂₅₀ would be fast enough, but apparently not.

Ilford Delta 3200 rated at 1600 and developed in Xtol 1:1 for 15:00 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 5 x 7 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV pearl RC paper with 2 filter. Scanned the print.

This shot was taken at the Lotos Club in New York during their annual Twelfth Night Frolic. The very first PAW picture I ever posted was also taken at the Lotos Club at the same party last year. A lot of things have changed in the last year. For one thing, I've learned a little about shooting in low light. Almost all of my shots from last year were too dark to use. This year, all of them were fine, at least in the exposure department. I changed to a more conservative metering technique, but the biggest difference was the film. Last year, I was beginning to use Neopan 1600, but based on my experience, this film's true speed is nowhere near 1600. This year I used Delta 3200, which I rated at 1600, a little faster than its true speed. It did very well, and if you don't push it too hard, the grain stays smooth even if it's a little large.

Of all the pictures I took that night (not that many), this was my favorite. At the time, I was wishing I had something a little wider than my beloved 50mm. I wanted to include both men, but as you can see, I could barely fit them. I had my back up against the wall. Because of the slow shutter speed and wide aperture, I can't say the picture is tack sharp, but it's acceptable. Maybe I should have cropped out the coffee cup. I think it adds a touch of verisimilitude. So does the ice machine in the background. :-)

Ilford Delta 3200 rated at 1600 and developed in Xtol 1:1 for 15:00 at 68 degrees. Printed at about 5 x 7 inches on Ilford Multigrade IV pearl RC paper with 2 filter. Scanned the print.