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Cooking for the holidays…

Phillip Sumner — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:33:12 +0000

Enjoyed eating and cooking some wonderful things over the Holidays. Hope yours were great! Happy New Year!

Delicious and Refreshing

Phillip Sumner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:59:40 +0000

Phantom sign restored in Sapulpa, OK

More Old Pics…

Phillip Sumner — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:43:18 +0000

I guess the theme of this post is automobiles. Specifically, good old Detroit metal.

1966 Mustang

Taillight of a Ford Ranchero

Front of the Ford Ranchero. This one is taken on film with my old Mamiya 35mm camera.

Some old shots…

Phillip Sumner — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:54:18 +0000

In an effort to update this blog more regularly, I decided to peruse my hard drives and post some old shots. This is the first of these posts. Hope you enjoy!

Portfolio shot of Robin with a motorcycle.

“Rumble Fish” Redux

Phillip Sumner — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:19:54 +0000

There are two things I really love. Movies and photography. Around the time I got my first camera (see me getting film for said camera here) Francis Ford Coppola was shooting a couple of movies in the Tulsa area, from books by the great S.E. Hinton. One of those films, Rumble Fish, featured some key scenes shot right in my home town of Sapulpa. I was 10 years old in the summer of 1982. My friend’s uncle took us down to Dewey Street in Sapulpa to watch a movie being shot. That was the beginning of my love for filmmaking, and the spark of my desire to become a filmmaker. The scene that was being shot that hot summer night involved a conversation on a fire escape between Matt Dillon and Diana Scarwid. We were so far away that we couldn’t really tell what was going on, but I still have a vivid image of that night in my memory.

As a history buff, I have long been intrigued by “then and now” type photographs. I set out to take a few “then and now” pictures from the film Rumble Fish, just to see what’s still around, and how it looks 27 years later. Some of them I tried to match as closely as I could to the film (using screen captures on my Blackberry as a guide). Others I tried from memory. Below are the results of this experiment.

Benny's Pool Hall in the film.

Main Street Productions, 2009. Not much has changed.

The next one was a bit more difficult to find. For years I had wanted to find the location of this shot. It took lots of driving, and looking at satellite images on Google Maps to figure out that this shot was on a stretch of Cincinnati Ave that is no longer a thru street. It is now a dead end street behind a fertility clinic at 15th and Boston Ave.

Rusty James waiting on his girlfriend. 1982

Stretch of Cincinnatti Ave that is no longer a thru street.

After Rusty James meets Patty as she gets off the bus on Cincinnati Ave, they walk down the street towards 15th. For some unexplainable reason there is blowing black and white smoke in this scene. That has never made much sense to me, but who am I to question the genius that is Francis Ford Coppola? This part of the street is now part of the parking lot of the fertility clinic (formerly Luby’s Cafeteria).

Rusty James trying to make up with Patty. She's having none of it. Who would have guessed this would some day be a Luby's parking lot?

15th Street and S. Cincinnati today. Not a perfect match from the picture above, but the best I could do with the layout of the land in 2009.

The next stop in our tour of Rumble Fish’s Tulsa is Parish of Christ The King Church at 16th and Quincy Ave. This was Patty’s school in the film. Matt Dillon, Nicholas Cage (sporting a crazy blow dried pompadour and his natural crooked teeth), and Chris Penn walked right down the middle of 16th St. as school is letting out.

Patty's School.

As seen in 2009. I took this one from memory, so it doesn't line up as well as I would have liked with the original. Almost nothing has changed here in 27 years.

And finally, the scene I saw being filmed that night in Sapulpa. I took this one a few months ago, so I obviously have completely the wrong angle. Some day I will try to get the proper shot. But, since I mentioned this scene, I had to include it.

Rusty James in a discussion with Cassandra

From the other side. The bottom part of the fire escape is now missing. So, unfortunately I couldn't climb up there and do my Matt Dillon impression.

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed the trip around town courtesy of Francis Ford Coppola and S.E. Hinton. Feel free to leave a comment!

Some Home Developed Black and White

Phillip Sumner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:30:21 +0000

It’s been a long time since I developed my own Black and White film. But a couple of months ago I decided to do just that. I took some expired Ilford Pan F Plus film out and shot it in my Pentax P30T. I spent the afternoon in Downtown Tulsa, and some quality time in the backyard with our faithful dog, Kelso. Here are a few of my favorite shots from that roll of expired film.

Cornerstone of the Philcade building in Downtown Tulsa. I like it because my name is in it.

Kelso, trying to avoid being photographed for the billionth time.

Traffic Light in Downtown Tulsa.

My Photo Zine Is Here…

Phillip Sumner — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:20:11 +0000

View of the former Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, TX. Shot with my Lomo Lubitel 166 on expired Ilford Delta 100 Pro film.

I have decided to finally compile some of my photos into a zine. These are some of the photos I have taken over the past 10 years or so. I am really happy with how they turned out. It has 22 pages of color and B&W photos. You can order one right now for the low low price of $15 plus shipping. You can even click below to purchase:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6803400

Lamenting the (all but) Complete Death of Film

Phillip Sumner — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:53:48 +0000

I have been going through an old shoe box of family photos from the 1970’s. There are some great shots in there (and some terrible ones) and they each bring back wonderful memories. But it got me thinking about the future of “family photos” in the digital era.

I don’t know about you, but I rarely print any of my digital photos. I think a lot of people are the same way. I think this makes the traditional family photo album an endangered species. And that is really kind of sad.

Here are a few gems from my past:

My brothers Brett (left) and Gregg seem to be really "jazzed" to be holding the new baby, yours truly.

A photographer is born at age 7. I was on the 'roids. Polaroids that is.

In the pool with mom. I am the one on the left.

It would be a tragedy for these types of photos to be relegated to computer wallpapers, and archive CD-ROMs . But I am afraid that is what will happen to many family photos in the future. I guess I should start printing more pics.

Do you print many of your digital photos? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Forgotten 66

Phillip Sumner — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:14:53 +0000

A few years ago, I started a photo series called Forgotten 66. The idea was to show famous and not so famous landmarks along old US 66. I wanted to show them as they are now, which sadly is not in very good shape. There are many more places I want to visit along the Mother Road, but here are a few photographs from a couple of places in the Tulsa area.

The black and white ones are the Tee-Pee Drive In in my hometown of Sapulpa. It has really fallen on hard times. They were shot on film, with a Bronica SQb. Delta 100 Pro film, if I remember correctly.

The color shots are of the famous Blue Whale of Catoosa. It has been refurbished to look somewhat like it did in it’s heyday. There were even a few tourists visiting while I was there. These shots are from my new Nikon D90.

Pictures from my new Canon G10

Phillip Sumner — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:15:05 +0000

I got a Canon Powershot G10 a couple of weeks ago, and I am loving it! It takes great pictures. It has great manual controls for those of us who like to have total control over aperture and shutter speed. But it also produces great shots in full auto mode.

Here are some samples from the first two weeks with the camera. Some shots from our trip to Santa Monica.