on I had my cameras out at the Art Walk, trying to capture some of the bands playing at Baba that afternoon. It was all rather a mess, but I captured a few, and it was my last chance to do so, so I thought I’d share the final one. Portra 160 taken with the F6 and a 70-200 f/2.8 VRII.
Behold:
Nothing else to say right now. I’mma just sticky this on the blog. I have a few other nice shots, I’ll post them later.
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Couldn’t sleep, and it’s super bright out, so here’s the 2023 Super Blue Moon:
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If you want to see higher res, here’s 2000px:
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I took some photos of bands playing at Baba during the art walk in June. A few of them were pretty good, so I thought I’d share. I really like a couple of Cameron, and the shots of Mitch are not bad, though that may be sentimentality speaking.
These were on Portra 160, taken with an F6 and an F3. Lab scans — I really should redo these myself, but I’m too lazy.
I also took some photos of the first band, On The Menu. There was just too much going on, too many people around, and too much in the way to get good framing. But it’s not always about the photos themselves, sometimes it’s about the good people in them. Here are a few of my favorite.
These weren’t at the Art Walk, they were taken another evening. However, they were on the same rolls of film and they’re music, so why the heck not.
This is the Soto Six. Three of them, at least. They play at Baba every Friday and I occasionally decide that it might be fun to try and get some shots with the Baba logo for Rob and Reegan. These shots were taken July 1, 2022. Portra 160 and Tmax100 pushed 1 stop.
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You know, I never bothered to look at the pictures I took a few weeks ago. My digicam is pretty much always in the scanning rig with a macro lens on it, so I very seldom use it in the wild anymore. But a few mornings this spring I did head outside with the long lens to take pictures of the neighborhood hawk, and 3 weeks ago I quick like snapped pictures of my poppies before the gophers ate them, then promptly forgot about it all.
Here are some samples. I’d like to say more to come, but who knows? I may not be interested in digging through old digital files any time soon.
Behold!:
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Red Shouldered, I believe. A pair have been courting recently and they spend a lot of time screeching for each other until the crows come by and try to chase them away. In flight pics are rough — I spun the ISO too high and for some reason didn’t open up the lens to F8 where it’s fast and sharp. At least I was smart enough to do so when he perched on the telephone pole.
Last year I watched them grab claws and spiral to the earth, pulling out just above the trees across the street, on two occasions. Always drama with the raptors. But now when I hear the screeching I head outside hoping to see it again. Alas, it hasn’t happened this year, and never with a camera in my hand. But at least I got a nice portrait before the crows chased him off his perch.
Behold!
Portraits. First 1250px for phones:
And a little bigger for the desktoppers:
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Once a year, for two days, I get the sun between the palms. That was this week. The first shot was Wednesday, and pretty standard. Thursday I got a few frames with green flash, so I’ll share one of them.
Behold!
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2000px for desktop:
on New camera. Well, “new” to me. A Mamiya C330 Twin Lens Reflex. Shoots 6×6 negatives, like a Rollie or a ‘Blad. I’ve been interested in the format, and in something Medium Format that is more portable than the GX680. Mamiyas are pretty cheap, have good reputations for the quality of the glass, and seem to fit the bill. My excuse was that I may never bond with 6×6, and Hasselblad is 3-5x the price for everything. It’s not like you can’t sell a camera for what you paid, easily, but let’s be real. If I bought a ‘Blad I’d be sitting on $3500 worth of gear forever, because we all know I’d never sell it.
I was a little worried about shooting handheld, some people seem to think they’re too large. They weigh over 3 lbs with a lens! But my Brobdingnagian GX680s laugh at your puny little 3 lb TLR and I had no problem getting nice handheld shots. I only blurred one of the 12 on my first roll, all shot with the waist level finder. I think my only issue is that I need practice on the reverse image in the finder as I can get it framed side to side, or perfectly straight up and down, but not both at the same time.
One more thought. The lens is ridiculously sharp, all the way out to the corners. The first roll was Delta 400, which I am beginning to really love. I could have used Delta 100, but I had planned on messing with a red filter and thought the 2 stops would be welcome, but i got too excited and killed the roll before I got around to it.
Most of these are F11 or F16 (no meter with me, so I sunny 16d it) and 1/125 or 1/250. A couple were at F8. Check out the detail on this pinecone, which is cropped from the image posted in the gallery, and realize this is the economy, low resolution scan:
I might have a go at one or two of these negatives with my scanning rig to really see what the resolution is like, but I’m impressed. I think that’s all I have to say. I won’t share the ugly image, but I will show you the rest of the roll. Behold!
And here’s the higher res. Again, these are the cheapie scan, only 2000 pixels total, and they are this sharp.
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I’ve been shooting different black and/or white film stocks, just so see what’s what. Got a day with perfect clouds, to the east, so I just walked around and did some composition studies while burning film. I wish I’d had the Delta100 or Tmax in, but I hadn’t expected the lovely skies that evening. Had to take advantage of it while it was there, so 400 speed it is.
I also think I’d have enjoyed a yellow filter. Something to really pop those clouds, though I have to say that I was surprised at how dark the awning on the liquor store is (blue) and how darkly the green trees were rendered. These aren’t my scans, they’re the bargain scan from my developer. But I like the composition enough on a couple of them I might have at ’em myself, see if I can do a better job.
Behold!
low res (1200px):
Higher Res:
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Went to a show tonight. Took some pictures while I was there. Just need to UL them somewhere to share, so…
Behold!
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And 2200px (Big fuckers, don’t bother on your phone)
on How often do you see lightning here? Never. That’s how often. Well, almost never. So these are a rarity. I only got a very few, and didn’t get to play with settings much, but the fact that I had a chance at all is kind of special.
The first couple with the 24-200 lens, the rest with the 20mm. I tried different apertures and opening times, but this was mostly a wild guess. Hold the shutter open 20 seconds or whatever and then hope the lightning… lightnings.
Behold!
