Chad Cheverier Photography

All artists do them, and the one on my website is old, so I decided time for a new self portrait. With the help of my friend Conrad Young, we played with some old film cameras. We took out my almost forgotten 4×5 and shot some very old expired film from the swap meet for one dollar. We also shot with my personal favorite, my Yashica 124g TLR with old film as well that I found in my car. We took some photos in Conrad’s studio. This one is my pic.

these two are honorable mentions 1 2

This blog has been pretty weak lately, I apologize, really, it seems it is because I have not been doing anything interesting lately, or at least worth photographing. THE PORTABLE PHOTOBOOTH has kept me pretty busy, which is fantastic but I have not been shooting much for myself. In attempts to finish a seeming never ending roll, I took pictures of my garden in progress.  I am growing pumpkin, cantaloupe, carrots, cilantro, oregano, sweet potato, green onion, and I am attempting to start several avocado trees. My garden has been a great part of my daily routine and it is wonderful to see progress in something daily. I think I am growing too.

carrots, cilantro, green onion, cantaloupe, more cilantro, oregano

avocado pits

green onion

pumpkin

The need for speed. I have a love for driving fast, specifically, fast acceleration or drag racing. I used to own a pretty fast car, but now it belongs to my father due to negligence. I one day hope to have another vehicle to catapult myself towards a horizon. My father has recently taken interest in fixing my mess for himself and I want my own again. Being on a tight budget and limited space, a motorcycle comes to mind. My friend Brandon Montoya has some toys of his own he tinkers with and mind’s eye starts wandering. It will be some time before I get started, so here are some photos of Brandon and his toys.

Sometimes you need a break from the work week, really, I prefer little work in my break week but I am still figuring out how to do that. Along with an escapee, Tashena Burroughs, we made a pilgrimage to Salvation Mountain for a night of camping in Slab City. Then, after evading border patrol officers, we made it back to San Diego for a dip at Wind an Sea. These photos are from my Yashica TLR with really old Fuji Astia cross processed. A little much, but I think they turned out ok.

I have a confession to make. I am lazy, especially on a computer. I do not like to photoshop anything. Most of the time I like the way film looks as is, then I don’t do anything in the computer. My life is easier and it gives me more time to do nothing. I actually work more when I shoot digital. Almost all of the photos I have shown you from London don’t even have a curves adjustment. I corrected one horizon. Thats just my style. Lazy. I do like to spend a lot of time working on one image at a time in the dark room though and I will work when I have to, but I don’t like to work. I just like to create, get it right in the camera first.

Medium format snapshot of a cab. I actually walked almost everywhere and never took a cab. My legs aren’t lazy.

If you shoot film, you have to deal with security at the airport and hopefully they will hand inspect your film so it doesn’t go through potentially harmful airport x-rays. The USA does this for me every time, everywhere else hates me, and I don’t think its cause I’m an American. Then there is the back up plan, a lead lined x-ray bag. In order for every roll to be in that bag, means there can’t be any in the camera. These shots are the last shots I took while in London and actually some of my favorite.

This is my friend Saul Ashby, he got this electric guitar the day I arrived and he couldn’t put it down. This was his routine every night before bed. My favorite thing to photograph is candid lifestyle photos, basically documentary or journalism type photographs. This is an example of that.

I guess I am supposed to take photos of the monuments that people come to see when they visit somewhere. I figure most of the time postcards capture these places at the right moment in the right light etc. Because of this, I don’t usually bother, but I had to have some of my own right?

Big Ben

The Natural History Museum, I scrambled to catch this when the light showed through, I am not sure what the black is but I didn’t think it took away from the image, so it stayed.

My first hour in London I got pooed on by a bird,

probably not this bird

but I was standing right around here

I LOVE when light shines down a street. This is my absolutely favorite thing about big cities. Here are my two favorite examples of that from my trip.

So, when I travel, I don’t like to bother people except for my friends with photographs. SO I take pictures of buildings, which in turn has given me an interest in architecture. Naturally I love geometry and shapes and line and composition. Thats how my brain is wired. Here are some shapes and lines that I enjoyed.

I really appreciated how there can be so many different buildings right next to each other that are so many years apart.

blow