Steve Maniscalco Photography

Kent Plantation

We visited Kent Plantation in Alexandria Louisiana several weeks ago.  An interesting and educational experience.  Given time, there would have been many things I would have liked to shoot, but it was a family outing and I'm always rushed with the camera when with the wife and kids.

I loved the whitewashed walls and the wood, metal and brick textures.  Delta 400 served me pretty well here.  I wish I'd had more time for composition.  As it is, these are the only shots that were a little better than snaps.

R3A, Nokton 40mm, Delta 400, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Christopher Creek

Finally got around to these pinhole images taken earlier this Summer.

4x5 Pinhole, fp4, Christopher Creek, AZ

Burial Ground

Cemetery on tribal land.

Iskra, PanF, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Desert Decay

Old broken down stuff makes a good subject for photography. I'm sure that's been a great subject for discussion somewhere.  I'm not sure why I would not find a freshly polished Porche to be an interesting subject, or why this old building would not appeal to me if it had windows and a little garden in front...but the fact is, I like the character of beat up and run down.  I don't think I'm alone on that count.

Yashicamat 124G, PanF, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Yashicamat 124G

Did I mention my brother sent me home from Louisiana with a like new Yashicamat 124G?  Well, he did.  It was given to him and I think he couldn't find where the memory card went, so he gave it to me.

I've shot a little bit of TLR in the past.  I owned a Mamiya C220 for years.  I just never really got to love it.  I don't know if it's just the passing years or the extra small goodness of the Yashicamat when compared to the Mamiya...but this was a very fun camera to shoot.  I'd intended to shoot a roll through it, then put it away and continue to shoot with the Mamiya 7, but ends up I was having such a good time with it that I just reloaded it and kept going.

It worked like a charm.  The built in meter seemed accurate and I'm very happy with the results.

These were taken in and around a small cemetery on tribal land just East of Scottsdale, AZ. 

The first two images were shot with a ND filter held over the lens so I could shoot wide open in the mid-day light. 

PanF, Yashicamat 124G, Thornton's 2-bath developer

At the Museum

R3A, 35mm Nokton f1.7, Porta 800 converted to bw

Cub Scout Attitude

Fujinon 250mm, 4x5, TXP-320, Thornton's 2-bath developer

6x7 Goodness

I snuck in a purchase of a Mamiya 7 and didn't tell you.  I'd been saving my pennies and a good deal came up, so I got it.  So far, I'm loving it.  It's got most of the goodness of my R3A plus the large negative.  I think, once I get a wide angle lens for it, it's going to be my go to camera for most situations.

I'll do 35mm when I need lens speed and large format when I have the time, but for everything else, the Mamiya 7 is going to be my Goldilocks.

Here are a couple shot on my lunch hour.  I'd intended to just go burn the film to test the camera, but I stumbled on a couple of reasonable subjects to shoot instead.

 

 

Mamiya 7, 80mm f4, PanF, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Curves

 

Patterns

One of the fun aspects of walking about and shooting bits of archetecture, is finding repeating patterns and using them to create semi-abstract images.  My previous post was another example of this.

Somtimes, as in the case of the cheese grater hotel in downtown Pheonix, the architect has made it all just too easy.

 

Where's Steve?

My wife is a teacher.  She lives for Summers.  This year, she's living for Summer fix up the house projects.  So, I'm painting and sanding and cleaning and fixing things.  I haven't touched a camera in weeks and I have a couple of rolls of film going neglected.  I'm going to dig in the archives and try to get at least a few things up of general interest.

How about some archetecture? These two detail shots are from the manzanita dorm on the ASU Tempe campus.