AE-1 and a Now-demolished Building

I took my AE-1 into a building that was torn down last week. In fact, as I was making my way around the building, the preliminary demolition crews were in there, thankfully just assuming I was supposed to be. So I managed a few photos from inside the building and outside, too, before walking over to Yerba Buena Gardens.

This combination -- with Kodak Plus-X 125 -- is a fabulous combination and this roll returned a great number of good photos. In fact, today's post has TEN photos. I think that ties the most photos for one day with my Nikon F3, the film camera I think of as returning the best and most consistent shot quality.


Firemen up a ladder, photographing the building I had just been inside of. The old warehouse-turned-sweat-shop-turned-pigeon-and-hobo-coop was pulled down last week to make way for a new fire station.


I was unsure how this shot would turn out. I liked the VERY polished fire truck bell. The result is not unpleasing. Kodak's Plus-X is one of the best films ever made. Top five, certainly, along with engineering masterpieces such as Kodachrome and Velvia. Results like this illustrate why -- rich tonal range and an almost tactile quality.


Inside the building, a ladder leading to the roof. I have all the exposure information for these written down, but have lost my notebook.


A different shot of the ladder. The red filter has darkened the sky and made the near-invisible clouds more prominent. A nice effect hinting at foreboding. So I didn't go on the roof.


Looking through a hole in the wall from the second floor to part of the sweat shop area. For photo processing, this was actually composited from two images, one focused on the wall and one focused on what was below.


After leaving the domed building, I walked to nearby Yerba Buena Gardens and grabbed this shot of the nifty reflections on this building. Each pane reflects a different part of the neighborhood. I'm assuming that was an intentional design idea. It works nicely.


Another building near Yerba Buena.


This is the statue I actually set out to photograph last Monday. The Shaking Man.


I'm told this statue represents a business person and the different meanings a handshake can have. You may remember that I've photographed it before with my Nikon F3 on a rainy day. However, those results were not up to par, so I wanted to try again with better weather.


Overall, these shots turned out somewhat better than the go-round from the end of January.