Happy to have been selected

Last week I was browsing my Facebook feed and saw that Kodak Professional shared a collection of images, among them one of mine:
https://www.facebook.com/kodakprofessional/posts/3510806662270982
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3510806662270982&id=203851912966490

(Specifically this one, from “It’s growing on me”)

It’s always nice to see my name acknowledged in Kodak’s social media!  Especially since it’s the first time it’s happened.  This is my official entry for the banner competition in the Kodak Film Photographers group.  Small-time I suppose, but I’m grateful for the acknowledgment.

(I’m gonna be showing this off like a proud mom)

I suppose this is a good example of “Your camera doesn’t matter.”  I tried to have this conversation with a high school photography student a couple days ago too, when she was talking about her equipment, but this says it so much better.  Here’s a photo I took on a $3 roll of consumer film I picked up at my local grocery store, shot through a Pentax body that I paid $5 for at a garage sale, mounting a $25 lens from ebay.  So never mind not having the top-of-the-line equipment, use what you have and stop making excuses.  There will be plenty of time down the road for you to grow into something else, if you tell yourself you can’t do anything now because you don’t have the right equipment you’ll never even get started.

Love those trains III: Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge

Cripple Creek is a mere half hour South of where I’m currently living, so you’d think I’d get there more often, but I don’t.  Even that day I didn’t do as much as I wanted and decided that I’d have to go back at some point.

Below is one of my first attempts with 4×5 film, marred by either the film holder or uneven development, possibly both.

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Some film cameras, shot on film

Most of these are old pictures, but I wanted to put them all in one place. There might even be a Vol.2 someday.  So many people use a digital camera to take pictures of their cameras and I’m tired of seeing that so I decided a while ago that I would only shoot film to take pictures of my cameras.  So every few rolls if I think about it, I’ll burn a few exposures on this subject.

With the exception of the picture that features my SPII, these were all taken with my beloved Spotmatic and when I really got serious about it I started using a tripod, long exposures (in the range of 30-90sec), and shooting with my 4/50 S-M-C Macro-Takumar.  Before that it was all with either the 1.4/50 Yellow 50 or the 1.8/55 SMC, and got some good examples of Takumar bokeh.

Photographers: know your rights

With the craziness in the past week and a half this is a good reminder why we have Constitutional limits set on governments.  Hold them accountable.  For people on the ground or thinking about it here are some valuable reminders, courtesy of the ACLU:

https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/photographers-rights

https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/photographers-rights/filming-and-photographing-police

https://www.aclu.org/video/protesters-and-photographers-know-your-rights

My Intro to Photo instructor always used to carry a printout of those in his pocket to hand to police whenever he was harassed, and I think it’s a pretty good idea.  While I was on the ACLU’s site I also saw this article which seemed timely and relevant:

https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/photographers-rights/suppression-photographers-during-civil-rights-movement

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Snow in Garden of the Gods

It’s been a hot week in Colorado, I hiked through the Garden just yesterday at about 80F; that reminded me of the last time I hiked through the Garden in February back when the weather was much colder.

I was scheduled for a tour that day but it got cancelled last minute due to weather.  As I was already on my way down to Colorado Springs, I took the opportunity to do something that I almost never do, take a hike through Garden of the Gods.  I usually see the park only from the road going around the outside.  Also while I was down there I took the opportunity to pick up a certain camera I’d had on layaway at Cameraworks.

As Colorado Springs has around 300 days of sunshine per year I like being able to see the park when it has something different to offer, like fog or snow.

These were taken on Ferrania P30 alpha shot at ASA50 developed in Sprint Standard for 7min at 70F (M) and I experimented with a single agitation every 15 seconds, though I don’t know what that accomplished.  I also shot a few still lifes (like cameras) and I am blown away with how little grain there is in this film, and how sharp it can be when used with my lovely Takumar lenses.  I suppose I could have used the Macro lens for these as well but shooting at ASA50 I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t need to keep the aperture open past f/4.

I also made sure to run a focus test with my Pakon scanner using this film as the template.  My theory is that it’s slightly thicker than other films and the scanner needs to be refocused or else the film won’t be sharp; that and I think the grain being so fine it’s hard to focus on it anyway.