Casting in Bronze at The California Sculpture Academy; 2016.12.03

The plaster molds had been prepared the week before. Dried and in the kiln heated to a temperature of 1400-1500 degrees F. The molds must be hot enough to accept the liquid bronze which will be at 2200 degrees F.

For todays pouring 120 lbs of bronze are melted in the furnace.

 Academy founder,  Brandon Roy outlines the order of the steps in the procedure.

 Impurities in the liquid are removed by adding salt and piece of glass, this forms a slag which is easily scraped off the top of the molten mass.

 Once the bronze has reached temperature and is in a liquid state, the plaster molds are removed from the kiln,

 Then placed in dry sand, to keep them upright and in place for the pour.

 One of the plaster molds broke while heated in the kiln, the pouring cup had broken off from the mold. Brandon is quickly patching the mold. Since part of the pour was an edition of 5 pieces, it would have meant another several week delay to complete the order.

 The crucible with the liquid bronze is raised from the furnace and put into a special yoke.

 After the metal has set up the molds are pulled out of the sand, left to cool for an hour or so before the plaster is removed.

Special thanks to Brandon Roy, The California Academy of Sculpture, and VetArt.Org.

As always, all images are copyright Peter Politanoff and may not be reproduced without explicit consent. You are more than welcome however to link to this site.

All images shot with Leica cameras & lenses

A Week of Prayer and Meditation - Chua Hue Quang

Last week the Hue Quang Vietnamese Buddhist Temple sponsored a week long prayer and studies retreat for over 100 monks and nuns. The attendees from various temples around the area spent their days chanting, praying and studying. Since I am somewhat a member of this congregation I was invited to observe. I spend about 8 hours over 4 days documenting the event. Here are a few of the images.

The Hue Quang Temple in Little Saigon.

The attendees start to arrive,

Shoes are left outside

The Master leads in prayer.

Another monk continues the session,

then it is passed over to a nun.

Chanting continues for 1 hour straight.

While lunch is prepared outside,

and the communal tables are set.

As the monks and nun have lunch the temple is prepared for the afternoon session.

After lunch the attendees return to the temple with a walking chant.

Once in the temple, the line winds through the rows of cushions. A continual motion in opposite directions until everyone is in their place.

 After the sessions, 3 nuns as they leave the temple.

While one asks me for my business card.

As always, all images are copyright Peter Politanoff and may not be reproduced without explicit consent. You are more than welcome however to link to this site.

All images shot with Leica cameras & lenses/

Ringside With Leica

My current photo exhibit at the Leica Gallery Samy's Fairfax, total 12 images on exhibit Dec 1 2015 through Jan 29 2016. All images shot w/ manual focus Leica Rangefinder cameras, M typ240 & M/M typ246. 

Baking A Clafoutis, 2015.09.13

Time to diverge from the usual boxing. It is 7;30 am on a Sunday morning, with a late night flight looming, I decide to leave my children (young adults really) with a treat. So I decide to bake a clafoutis. For those not familiar; per wiki!

Clafoutis (French pronunciation: ​[klafuti]; Occitan: clafotís [klafuˈtis] or [kʎafuˈtiː]), sometimes in Anglophonic countries spelled clafouti, is a baked French dessert of fruit, traditionally black cherries,^[1] arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. The clafoutis is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm, sometimes with cream.

I start by playing some music, music just given to me by a friend the night before. Sadly she won't benefit from the results. But perhaps next time - when I have returned.

Next I drain 2 cans of cherries (dark & sweet) and place them in a buttered pie dish.

I mix the ingredients that will make the custard. Eggs, butter, milk, sugar & flour.

Pour the mixture over the cherries.

Put the dish in a preheated oven at 400 degrees.

Set the timer for 40 minutes,

And do the dishes!

After 40 minutes the baked custard is a rich dark golden brown.

Aren't my kids lucky!!!

As always all images and text are copyright Peter Politanoff and may not be used without explicit consent. Thanks Reiko for the music!

Shooting Boxing in Tokyo With Leica M Monochrom (typ 246)

I picked up my Leica M Mono typ246 from Samys Camera in Los Angelelas the day before my flight to Tokyo. I packed my M typ240 and M/M typ246, but left my Canons behind. I wasn't planning on shooting any boxing, at least not any fight cards and I wanted to travel light. This trip was purely pleasure and street photography, with maybe a little time in the gyms. A new friend, actually a FB friend, talked me into shooting a 13 bout fight card at Korakuen Hall. Korakuen Hall is apparently the busiest boxing venue in the world with several events a week.

I managed to get a ringside position, I paired my M/Mono 246 with my 50mm Summicron (this would be my main camera) and my M240 with my 90mm Elmarit (rarely time to change cameras, but just in case).

I shot over 90% of the bouts with the M/M 246 and here are some of the images. Keep in mind I follow focus (no preset on focus), only the shutter speed and aperture are preset.

13 bouts, one image from each contest.

Sakuma/*Shiratori

Iyama/*Igarashi

*Ishizawa/Takase 

*Higashi/Kouzu

Aoki/*Hanawa (yes even female fighters)

*Kaneko/Kawa

*Kishi/Onishi

Kanazawa/*Sakata

*Takeda/Ida

*Kuura/Morooka

*Itimura/Yokoyama

Yamazaki/*Ishi

*Ishikawa/Arioka

Manny thanks to Hiro Watanabe for talking me into this, and the staff at Korakuen Hall for being som accommodating!

As always, all images are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage, and may not be reproduced without explicit consent. You are more than welcome however to link to this site.