Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

The joys of South Dakota

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Saskatchewan is but a stone’s throw from South Dakota but until last week, I had never been.  It’s just far enough to be a nuisance!

However, I was off work last week and decided I wanted a little escape so I went to Rapid City and to Badlands National Park.  The primary purpose was to do some photography.

The drive from Regina takes about 9 1/2 hours, essentially straight south on US 85 (you drive to Weyburn, SK and then south; Saskatchewan Highway 35 turns into US 85 at Fortuna, ND).  Almost all of the highway is undivided blacktop, but it’s not insanely busy so it’s not a big issue.  There is not a lot of scenery, but you do get to pass close to North Dakota\’s highest point.

Rapid City is a pretty enough city, about half the size of Regina by population.  It’s easy to get around and rush hour doesn’t seem to last very long.  Interstate 90 passes right through the city which makes getting in and out pretty easy.

I spent a full day at Badlands National Park and I can highly recommend it.  (Take lots of water – it is very dry there.)  I shot lots of photos and really enjoyed myself.

I also went to Deadwood in the Black Hills.  It’s historic and interesting but I found the highway to nearby Spearfish to be much more interesting.  (It begs for a manual transmission and a well-performing car!)

I brought back some microbrews, something I always like to do when I head stateside.

Overall – good time.  I’ll be back.

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Photography, Travel | No Comments »

Travelling light

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

I find it difficult to decide what to take when I travel.  On Tuesday, I’m heading to Toronto for some meetings and then, the following Tuesday, heading to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island for some rest and relaxation.

Today I was going through my camera equipment trying to decide what to take with me and what to leave behind.  Ideally, I’d like to take everything…!

I decided to take my Nikon F5, F100 and F3HP.  The F5 is my go-to 35mm body.  The F100 has an almost identical user interface, but is lighter and smaller, particularly if I remove the MB-15 vertical grip.  The F3HP is a manual focus professional body from the 1980s, but without a motor drive (which I’m leaving at home) it’s quite small and very quiet.  I took it to Europe a couple of years ago and found that I used it quite frequently.

Having three bodies will be nice.  I can shoot Fuji Velvia in the two AF bodies and black-and-white film in the F3HP.

Now, to decide what fountain pens and inks to take… :)

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Photography, Travel | No Comments »

Film is NOT dead!

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

It seems that every week or two, someone on the Internet is proclaiming photographic film to be dead.  I won’t bother helping the authors’ cause by hyperlinking the articles; it won’t be hard to find them if you really want to find them.

It turns out that they’re wrong.

First:  I’ll unabashedly proclaim my addiction to film photography.  Computers are a terrific hobby of mine, but I learned photography on film and I don’t want to spend my photographic time at a computer.  (That, and I’d need to spend almost three grand to get a digital SLR that can shoot with my wide-angle lenses without turning them into boring normal lenses.)

I’ll cite this as some of the best evidence that film is still alive:  Kodak, only months ago, released its newest colour film Ektar 100.  After a successful introduction in 35mm, Kodak released it in 120 last summer and now has released it in sheet film sizes.  (What?  They still make sheet film cameras?  Yes, and I bought a new one – one of theirs – only two summers ago.)

To be truthful, it’s getting tougher to be a film shooter.  Local stores don’t stock film as much, and lab availability is decreasing.  Why, my local lab’s E6 (slide) lab shut down earlier this year so I’ll have to mail my reversal films for processing (not that that’s a big problem).

But when so many companies still around why not shoot some of their silver products and get back to the basics?  It’s fun!

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Photography | 2 Comments »

Spring

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

The equinox has come and gone and now, for those of us north of the Equator (which includes all of Canada down to the southernmost tip of Point Pelee, Ontario), day now outlasts night.

Although I see some double-digit temperature forecasts for the coming days, we are some time away from spring having arrived in a practical sense.  Still, it’s nice to know that the worst of winter is behind.

Once most of the snow is gone and a person can meander about without requiring hip-length galoshes, it will be time to expose the cameras to some daylight as well.  Let the games begin.

Tags:
Posted in Photography, Random Thoughts | No Comments »

Fountain pens and film photography… kindred spirits

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Last night while having a chat at APUG I had a bit of an epiphany.

I’ve enjoyed film photography since my childhood.  Of course, at that time (the 1970s) film was the only medium available for imaging.  However, as digital imaging developed, while most photographers switched, I never did.  Despite my passion for computers and technology, I never shared the passion for digital imaging.   (To some degree I even resented it, but that’s not germane to this discussion!)

It is occasionally frustrating when people don’t understand why I continue to conduct photography traditionally.  To those who have taken up photography in the past few years, digital was the method that came naturally.  To have chosen to shoot film would have been peculiar.

Fountain pens are much the same.  My chat mate was surprised to learn that not only were fountain pens in active use by many, but that pens and inks continue to be produced and to be sold.  Her perspective on fountain pens gave us both a very interesting perspective on how many others must view our photography.

No one would naturally choose a fountain pen as a tool for writing.  The desire to use such a pen comes from curiosity.  At a point, the curiosity overtakes the natural hesitation that exists and a person makes an effort to acquire a fountain pen and ink.  There is no practicality about it, although there are many practical reasons that one might choose to use fountain pens.  Most writers stumble upon these advantages.

For both hobbies, it must be said that the Internet is a godsend.  There is a wealth of information about both pursuits – and about many scores of pursuits beyond these.  Latent or even unknown curiosity can be nurtured and developed.  Technology may be the ironic saviour of traditional methods.

Tags:,
Posted in Fountain Pens, Photography | No Comments »

Postcards from the edge

Friday, March 19th, 2010

I’ve been using Ilford photographic products since the 1970s – films, chemicals and photographic papers.  Other than some brief dalliances in the colour world (most notably Ilfochrome, formerly known as Cibachrome), Ilford’s feet have been firmly planted in the monochrome photography world, and that suits me fine because its products are exceptional.  In fact, since Kodak’s withdrawal from the black-and-white photographic paper market a few years ago, Ilford is the world’s largest manufacturer of black-and-white photographic paper products.

One of Ilford’s most interesting products is its postcard paper.  It’s normal Ilford Multigrade IV Portfolio paper (Portfolio signifying a thicker paper stock than its normal Deluxe version), but on the back is a postcard-format imprinting.  The sheets are a standard 4×6″ postcard size.

While you can actually put these cards through the mail, it’s fun to use them to make small prints and give them to people.  Recently I made a bunch of prints of a photo I was raffling off, and everyone got a postcard of the print.  One person took home an 11×14″ of the photo, framed.

I’m thinking about putting out an issue of postcard prints every year, as a way of sharing my photography with friends (and giving myself an artificial deadline!).  I think postcard paper is a good way to do it.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Photography | No Comments »

Photographic motivation

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

One of my favourite web forums is the Analog Photography Users\’ Group, which is dedicated to film photography.  (In fact, other than people scanning images to show them on the forums, there is no digital workflow discussed or performed on the site.)  If you’re a member (which requires a small subscription fee), you get to go into the chatroom as well.  (The forums are free but I like to pay to support the site.)

Chatting with fellow film photographers at APUG inspires me to do more photography.  I find myself getting a real itch to be in the field, burning some film.

It doesn’t hurt that I got back nine rolls of Kodachrome slide film from the lab.  I shot them in San Diego in February and they are delicious.  (Sorry, no scans yet.)  I have one roll that got temporary lost (shot in San Diego also but not found again until the other nine were in the mail to the lab).  I’ll send it later in the spring for processing, and that will be Kodachrome’s finale for me.  Sniff.

I have such a hoard of film in the freezer (not Kodachrome alas) that I can go a bit crazy this year and not have to buy any more.  It would be a good thing if I did that, in fact!

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Photography, Travel | No Comments »

Sometimes you get lucky.

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

So this lovely blog software that I’ve set up seemed to be broken.  Images that you posted in the blog didn’t appear.

I had no idea how to fix it, so I plunked around, googled a bit, and sacrificed some pure netbooks to the computer gods.

Turns out (on this Debian installation of WordPress) that I had to make a soft link from the directory where the images were actually stored to a directory in the web server’s folder.  For some reason Debian’s WordPress installation didn’t do that automatically.

Isn’t it nice when a little brainstorm turns out to be correct?

As I like to say, it’s as if I know what I’m doing.

In celebration:  here’s a photo.Muttart Conservatory, Edmonton, Alberta.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Computers, Photography | No Comments »

Eastman 5222

Friday, March 12th, 2010

My photographic habits wax and wane to some degree.  One thing that doesn’t seem to pass is my interest in exploring new directions with materials and equipment.  I suppose that makes me a photogeek.

I’ve always enjoyed tinkering with different films.  I certainly have my favourites (Ilford’s triad of Pan-F Plus, FP4 Plus and HP5 Plus are ones I use a lot).  However, in addition to using Kodak’s films I’ve also played with Fuji, Foma, Efke, Forte, Shanghai, Era, Lucky and Agfa films.

Kodak is certainly the best-known film manufacturer, but not many still photographers are aware of its Eastman arm.  Eastman produces motion picture film – and as it turns, 35mm motion picture film is essentially identical to still film in the same format.  (The first 35mm still cameras used respooled motion picture film, in fact.)  And one film that Eastman makes that you can’t buy in a still-photography cousin’s form is Double-X, or, as it’s better known (by its Eastman product code), Eastman 5222.

Double-X is an ISO 250 black-and-white film that comes in 400′ and 1,000′ cans.  Yes, this is a lot of film.  (Figure on 80 36-exposure rolls, approximately, from the smaller can.)

I’ve shot half a dozen rolls of it so far and I like it.  It has a nice tonality, and really fine grain for its speed (I’ve been shooting it at EI 200 and developing it in Kodak HC-110 Dilution B).  I’ve gotten nice 11x14s out of it.

The big problem is that it’s hard to get.  Apparently you can buy it directly from Kodak.  I got my can from a fellow photographer in Vancouver.  You can also get short ends from places like Film Emporium.

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Photography | 2 Comments »