Pubster Portraits 2022-2024

As many readers will know, I carried around a camera at the Pub for a couple of years. I didn't know what I was doing at first, but I found people's faces and expressions the most interesting subject matter. So I began taking impromptu portraits.

The Camera And Lenses Used

These are not studio portraits. Studio portrait photographers, I don't know how you do it day-in and day-out. I salute you. I didn't want to set up a booth at the Pub, even if I was given permission to do so. I wanted expressive, candid shots of the people I knew. In-situ.

For some of the shots, I had to get really close to my subject because of the wide field-of-view of the lenses that I was using, and shallow depth-of-field resulting from the apeture I was using. I usually shot wide-open. I like something called bokeh. A term in the photographic world used to describe a focused subject against a blurry background. In particular, bright lights become fuzzy ellipses. This behavior on the part of the photographer was jarring to some of my subjects, and caused a variety of reactions, from laughter to sour faces and furrowed brows. I enjoy the results of this setup immensely. In all cases I tried to capture my subjects being their most authentic selves during a candid moment at the Pub. And I think I succeeded at that at least.

If you don't see your photo here, that could mean one of several things: You didn't come to the pub between 2022 and 2024; I didn't take your photo; The photo was not migrated to my current operating-system because I had a computer-crash last year when I was switching internet providers.

By the way, if you don't have Sonic Fiber as your internet provider yet, and it is available in your area, I don't know what to say to you. I switched over from Comcast Xfinity and I must say, there is no comparison. When I saw the Sonic truck on our block, I immediately called them.

Computer Crash And Lost Photos

I lost a lot of photos at that time because when I began the Dropbox backup I didn't know how long it would take and there was no progress meter. I let it run for about six hours and didn't have the energy to double-check that each file was backed up. I thought that six hours would be plenty of time. But Xfinity was so slow uploading that it failed to back everything up. When I opened Darktable on my newly installed operating system, I was horrified to find this out.

What is here represents what I have left of the high-resolution photos.

The Pubsters Photo Albums

I made a total of two photo albums on Shutterfly, Pubsters 2022 and Pubsters 2023. I think I sold twenty-eight copies all-together. They were quite expensive to print, and I was selling them at-cost. I don't have any copies available right now but you can buy them directly using the links above. I don't remember the price exactly, but I think they were around $50 or $60 each to print and ship depending on how many were ordered.

Darktable

The program I use to view and edit the photos is called Darktable, a free, open-source alternative to Adobe's Lightroom. I highly recommend it. It is not as intuitive but if you dig into the forums, there seems to be a consensus in the photography community that it is more powerful and granular than Lightroom.

Why I Didn't Continue The Project

People ask me all the time why I didn't keep going, and it stumps me every time. The simple answer is I don't know. It was largely successful, and the idea of a kind of photographic year-book for the Pub is a novel one. The long answer is that I got involved in other stuff. At the beginning of the pandemic I began to get into music production. Music production, recording multi-track audio and chasing down musicians is a deep-dive and it began to take more and more of my time and energy. That is not to say I will never pick up my camera again. I am simply not a good multi-tasker, and when I get into something I like to do it all the way. I still love photography, but I also love creating music. Music and music production is what I am focused on for now. I have written a 10,000 word personal essay about my love for music, it is called A Pachinko Life, and I would be honored if you read it sometime. But I totally understand if you don't.

The Pub And Pubsters

The Pub has played a very important role in my life. It has slowly turned me into a social creature, from a wild-man. I'm still wild, but I consider my life-decisions and people's safety and comfort more carefully these days. I met Jenny there when she was a patron, and we have been together now for over ten years. Many jobs and opportunities I have had are a direct result of my time at the pub. What can I say? I love the Pub. And I love all of you. Truly. When I think of each of you, you stand out in my mind as amazing, unique, beautiful, talented people. I wanted to capture that as much as possible. I value our friendships and it is the little things that make life interesting.

On to the photos!

The Schmidt Family. Proprietors of Schmidt's Tobacco & Trading. Also known as The Pub.

"Finish your beers, the Pub is now closed."