Still alive. The 2nd time getting COVID it wasn’t nearly as bad, in fact I originally thought (or just hoped) that I had a cold, there was much runny nose and a bit of a sore throat/loss of voice. But once that fever starts it’s best to isolate. I was off of work for a week but that week had me rethink my plans to travel to my semiannual Ohio State get-together.
COVID Diaries 1
COVID Diaries 2
.
And a little bit of Spring and Fall too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s to not take the people you love for granted–every time could be the last you ever see them. I’m going to try to make more time in the future.
These are just some of my friends and I’m happy to have them in my life.
He got the part! I’d like to think it was all my doing. Horizon starts shooting today in New Mexico and my friend Duane is there at least as an extra. No matter what I might tell him when I’m joking around, I think he has a wonderful face.
The Double-X was perfect for the look I wanted in the headshots, but there are some pretty good portraits in here as well I think, with Tri-X; it gives a good comparison seeing both films shot in the same place with the same lighting. He put me up for a few days after I’d sold my mom’s house and it was just a great experience all-around, we hung out and tried a few things, I had my camera with me the entire time so I definitely got a few more candid things here and there. The first pic is taken with the Minolta and a few more were included here. Duane was also kind enough to hold a camera for me so I could see just what I look like when I’m taking pictures. Originally published here and here but I’ll include it again:
Post #500, I suppose that should be a milestone!
It’s been all black & white film for a while, time to throw a splash of color into the mix. These pictures date back to Fall 2020 but I didn’t get them developed until nearly a year later and then forgot about them til recently, as the aspen trees are changing color once again. I mostly was using the Nikon F shooting Tri-X but brought out the F2A for whatever color film I was using since it was almost always going to be a different ASA and I wanted the meter to do more of my thinking for me. As it turns out I don’t ever trust the meter and ended up overexposing quite a few of my shots. These were the most usable.
I miss Fuji Velvia 100, while I do have a propack or two in my freezer but I may never use them. It’s sad that Fujifilm makes so little film these days though honestly I’m surprised they have any left to sell considering some of my previous predictions. Considering how the price has kept going up (upwards of $30 for one roll of Velvia 50) it’s likely that they’re just wringing as much as they can from their existing stock. It’s possible every roll of Fuji that I shoot from here on out will just bemoan Fuji and their treatment of their film customer base over the last decade or so, but really it all was summed up by the last paragraph of this post. Velvia 100, I miss you.
I was commissioned this year to take headshots for the new drivers at AOW, this was me getting warmed up.
It was a great time hanging out and ended up being the last time I took pictures of one of our number.
Title taken from a previous post. This time around it’s my mother’s house, not my grandparents’.
In order: Kodak BW400CN, Ilford HP5+, Kodak T-Max P3200.
About as current as it gets here at The Resurrected Camera, these date to the middle of May 2022, barely a month ago. My job hired me to capture portraits of the new drivers at the annual pre-season meeting, to be used on the website; these photos amount to the first professional work I’ve seen out in the wild in quite some time, perhaps ever. The meeting was held at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort and I used Cheyenne Mountain as a backdrop, shooting out on the patio in the shade of a building as the sun was setting. I got a few of the not-so-new drivers as well: all in all I made portraits of 15 drivers and include my favorites below:
Besides the cowboys (and cowgirl) themselves, the star of the show was the AI’d Nikkor-PC 105mm f/2.5 portrait lens which was used for all but one of the exposures above. There’s been so much written over the last 70+ years about the 105mm Nikkor so I don’t know what I can add except to say that I picked it up because it was cheap, I wanted to have at least one portrait lens, and it had a good reputation. I’ve used it for a few portrait sessions so far and have been extremely happy with the results, as well as that from my AI Nikkor 85mm f/2 lens (which also makes an appearance here). I would call either of these lenses a must-have for a Nikon manual-focus system, whichever you happen to run across first. If you can, get both.
I suppose this means that I can call myself a professional photographer, right? I’m hoping that this can be springboard me to bigger and better things but we’ll see.
Back in October/November 2021 I was going through my old posts looking at all the different photos I’d taken and deciding which ones I should keep and which I should prune to make sure I don’t run out of storage space. There were entire posts that I deleted to make room for new photos; I think now that I will bring some of those pictures back. A lot of those were family pictures and I have many more since the funeral so it might keep the blog going for a bit longer. As a mini project, it hearkens back to an assignment I did in my Intermediate Photo class, and it will be good to revisit this subject.
So here are more family hangout pictures this time post-memorial with my cousin Chris and his family.
I went back to my Nikon F2A (and good thing, too). This is the first time I used Ilford HP5 (except for large format) and my first impression is that it’s sharp but also that it has some of the same characteristics of XP2 in its look, namely to contrast. I’d say that they look pretty similar to each other, and a noticeably different look from my old Kodak standbys.
My main photographic subject the last 1.5 years.
.
Back in December we had a big weather front and high winds whipping through Colorado and this tree in my mom’s backyard fell over.
Because of the way it splintered and still harboring quite a lot of potential energy this is known as a widowmaker, though thankfully my friends and I were able to cut it down without too much trouble (and no fatalities). No pictures of that, as I was too busy working.
The Resurrected Camera 