Rick Shannon Photography

06/24/2024

One more for the road.

06/09/2024

This is a RB Auto Graflex adapted to use a Ilex electronic shutter in order to provide flash sync at relatively high shutter speeds. The functions that held the shutter open for focus and making the exposure have been out-boarded to two micro switches inside the camera body. One is at the bottom front, where the mirror holds it closed while in focus position.The shutter is now open for reflex viewing. When the shutter release on the camera is used, the switch opens as the mirror begins to rise and the shutter closes. At the end of its upward travel the mirror hits the second switch which fires the now closed shutter and exposes the film. There is a bit of a learning curve to using this, but it works like a charm. The camera was set up this way to provide 4x5 color for a client in Rochester that made single use cameras. Shooting "hand shots" with a long[ish] lens with a view camera was a pain, so I put this together. The B&W picture of the toy dino i did the other day, to see if it still worked. The camera has a standard graphic type ground glass back, using the usual film holders. Another benefit of this shutter are the available speeds of 1/125 sec. down to 4 full seconds.

06/09/2024

Cranberry Lake NY, taken with a early model Kodak Panoram #1 camera. Camera dates from around 1910. Made on 120 rollfilm, scan of negative as I have not yet printed it.

07/14/2023

04/26/2017

Baby Chloe hard at work in the studio.

12/28/2016

Production stills from a shoot at the U of R Laboratory for Laser Energetics, in 1978 . The suits were needed in the clean room, the goggles allowed us to see the otherwise invisible beams from the alignment lasers. Microscopic tritium filled quartz target beads were filmed through a microscope with the Eclair NPR 16mm camera.
Gregg Goodhew recorded sound, Stirlin Harris was Director/Cameraman and co-produced with Victoria Harris.

12/24/2016

Pecan Puffs, a holiday favorite. My Grandmother made these and I continue the tradition. A 1000 foot Kodak 35mm film can holds about 90 of them. If you want to try making them, here is my Grandmother's recipe , from 1935.

11/21/2016

This past election cycle brought back memories of a very contentious local race back in 1979. Sheriff William Lombard had overseen an incredible mess at the Monroe County Sheriff's office, and was up for re-election. Running against him were former Under Sheriff Andrew Meloni, and a private citizen named Robert Sheldon.
Sheldon was a good friend of mine. Along with my former business partner, Ernie DiSalvo, I helped with the campaign. The first order of business was Sheldon's Image. The series of photos here show what we called "the making of the candidate" (Sheldon's own phrase) another shows him, along with his good friend Robert E."Smitty" Smith. Finally, after some time, an official campaign portrait. The position paper is again in Sheldon's own voice and can speak to his stand on he issues. Meloni won the race, but Sheldon did well, with several thousand votes.

11/20/2016

Here is the position paper from the Sheldon for Sheriff campaign of 1979

11/09/2016

The Lume Cube is proving to be more useful than I could have hoped. In a couple of minutes, using a translucent film canister, bit of black tape and a hair scrunchy, I made this effective softener to clip inside a car.
I also used the same light for some small product shots.

06/12/2016

During the late 1970's and early 80's the best music room in town was Scorgie's, on Andrews St. And the best group to see and hear there was King Juke. While scouring my archives of ephemera I came across a piece published in the local newspaper using a promotional photo I had recently done with them. A bit from the glory days of live music in Rochester. I had to post it in two pieces due to file size.