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Another shot from that first roll for the one camera, one lens challenge.
Not as good as the other I think, and not going to make it in to the judging. Still, nothing to be ashamed of.
I've stopped at a couple of roadside memorials over the last few days and shot most of the next roll. One good shot at least should come from that. Now I need another subject...portrait perhaps?
This shot comes from my first roll for the one lens one camera challenge at rangefinderforum.com.
Technical details are: Balda Baldax 6x6 folding camera. Ilford PanF+ film. R23A red filter. f2.8 at 1/250th.
Three images from my first large format landscape shoot. Considering my level of experience, I'm happy with what I got. I certainly learned a lot.
The 250mm lens was the hardest to make good use of. With the bellows extended for that lens, the camera felt unstable. Any touch at all made the front standard quiver.
With a yellow filter fitted, these exposures were all somewhere near f45, 1/8th-1/15th on Ilford FP4+. Those slow shutter speeds did not inspire confidence. I can see why so many people use faster film. Perhaps I could have gotten away with larger apertures. I need to study the depth of field data more.
All in all, not such a spectacular set of results or an experience to tell me that large format is my definite future. Good enough though that I will keep working and continue to learn.
I'm taking the afternoon off today, to give myself time to hike out in to the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust areas near my work. I've been out there dozens of times with a DSLR. In fact, it used to be my regular lunchtime walk, even through the heat of summer (115 degrees at times).
A few things have changed though and today's experience promises to be very different than all the hikes before. Today, I'll be toting a large format camera, 3 lenses, a tripod and 7 film holders. The old kit consisted of a DSLR, a wide zoom and an extra battery. That's trading 4 lbs of gear with a capacity of hundreds of shots with about 30 lbs of gear and 14 shots. Frankly, I doubt I'll get 14 shots taken. I'm just too new at operating the camera.
At this early stage of my large format career, I have to consider an afternoon like this to be mostly about learning. I have a few set shots I'd like to take, such as the one shown here. That should be a challenge as I imagine I'll actually have to use movements to make it work.
I don't expect to have the good clouds today. They're kind of thin and high making for a muddy sky. Maybe the afternoon heat will form them up near the mountains. In any case, we'll see what a yellow filter does for them.
With luck, I'll run the films over the weekend and have something to show for myself, good or bad, pretty soon.
Mazanita on Mt. Lemmon, near Tucson Arizona.
Homemade pinhole camera, FP4+, 4 minutes at about f214.
Finally fed up with not getting out to shoot, I set up a cliche still life and shot it with the 250mm lens and with a pinhole. Late at night, after everyone had gone to bed, I developed the film...and came up with nothing. Nothing as in, four blank negatives.
I just could not figure out what went wrong. I checked the shutter on the lens, I knew I had the lens caps off (how else could I compose on ground glass?). I was pretty darn certain I'd taken the darkslides out...wait. I remembered. That first dark slide didn't go back in easily. It hung up and when it eventually slipped in, it didn't feel right. In fact, I tossed the images from that film holder because I was unsure of them.
Checking the camera, I found the problem. The first film I tried to run popped out of the film holder and got caught in a perfect blocking position in the bellows. It blocked the light for the next four films.
Why didn't I notice? Well, the first two shots were just bracketed shots of the composure I'd set up before putting the film in. The next two shots were pinhole, so there was nothing I could see at f257 anyway.
I'm loving large format photography, if only for all the interesting new ways I've discovering to screw up!
Instead of still life shots, we have this oddly appropriate shot taken with the Balda 6x6 folder and developed after last night's disappointment.
I made a visit to Ritz Cameras today. Not the mega-chain that recently went in to chapter 11...the Ritz Collectible Cameras privately owned store in Phoenix.
I love dropping by Ritz and rummaging through the bins for bits and pieces. Today, I wanted a couple of filters, a rear lens cap for the 90mm Super Angulon and an old camera wrap. I got all that I wanted and got out for $24. Along the way, I took a look at a fairly rare camera that I'd never seen in person before. I was hoping they had another Olympus Stylus Epic to replace my dearly departed...unfortunately, they were fresh out.
This cute little camera, the Olympus Ecru, caught my eye from the shelf and they were happy to show it to me. The Olympus web site has this to say about the Ecru.
Ecru" is French for "unbleached." The name of this concept camera was chosen to symbolize its intended role as a tool for living an intellectually enhanced life as natural as unbleached cloth. This concept is symbolized in the white body of the camera, which was sold as a limited edition of 10,000 units in Japan and 10,000 overseas.
I'm not sure about the "intellectually enhanced life" bit. Frankly, it looks like it would be most at home around the neck of a Japanese school girl. (Not the one from "Kill Bill," the nice ones.) I don 't know. Maybe it'd be worth it. I could intellectually enhance my life just by buying a camera. Thinking is frankly too damn much work.
In the end, I passed on buying the Ecru. Looks to me to be early Stylus camera guts put in an odd shaped white case. The perfect condition of the Ritz example, along with their relative scarcity, means that'd be a $149 glove box camera. Not what I'm looking for, but fun to look at. If you fancy it yourself, or know a Japanese school girl that'd put it to good use, you can order it from Ritz.
Heck, visit them on line or in person if you can. Lots of great stuff and I've always been treated personably and fairly by the good folks at Ritz.
In my endless pursuit of "something different," and of taking pictures without actually spending any time at it, I've taken drastic measures. Drive By Shootings are a product of that desperation.
The basic method is to hold a camera in my left hand, stick it out of the car window, point and shoot. As you can imagine, this poses a few unique challenges. A suitable camera for this sort of work must be small, inexpensive and have a good wrist strap. Small is important, because you need to be able to hold it in any number of positions and still trip the shutter. Inexpensive is good because accidents happen. The wrist strap is essential unless you want to hit the car behind you with a small inexpensive camera.
My choice for this work is the wonderful Olympus Stylus Epic. The model with the fixed 35mm f2.8 is perfect. The lens is excellent and it really is just about the perfect glove box film camera. Load it with your favorite 400 iso film. (My much loved Hexar AF would do a great job for this application as well, I'm just not willing to risk getting bugs in its grill.)
Although it should not be necessary, I feel I must mention that taking drive by pictures while actually driving carries a bit of risk. You may want to keep at least one hand on the wheel and look at the road every once in a while...what the heck.
If you're careful and practice a bit, drive by shooting may just save your commute from being a total waste of time.
This reminds me...my Stylus Epic died on my a few months ago after years of dedicated service. I need to cruise that auction site and find another bargain example.
