A Year in Photos: Bowling

A Year in Photos

Photography, fiction, and personal essays form my three primary creative outlets. For this blog's first 18 months, I used it primarily for photography. As I've returned to creative writing, I'll use this blog for fiction, too. Sometimes, when reality needs to be discussed more than truth, I write personal essays.

This blog will continue to showcase as many above-average photos as I can muster. Hopefully my written work will be as good or better than the visual. Whichever drew you here -- photographs or fiction, I hope you enjoy both.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Bowling with Film

At the end of the previous bowling league, I decided to shoot the last night with my Pentax K2, a 50mm Pentax SMC-A 1:2 that I'd been wanting to try, my FA Limited 31mm 1:1.8, and a pocket full of Ilford P4 Surveillance Film. The bowling alley, like all bowling alleys, is dark. Pushing the film to 1600 (two stops) yielded some good results when I shot wide open.

Pushing expired film by two stops really puts the pressure on it to perform well. These images have a unique, moody, and somewhat noir-ish look about them. Even with about 30 seconds of extra processing time, they look a bit underexposed.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Bowling

Today I won't have a narrative to share, just photos from the company bowling team's outing a few weeks ago. These were low-light, high-ISO shots -- a combination I'm not a fan of. I admit I've warmed to it since last year, but I don't think that the Pentax K-7 is capable of suitable shots north of ISO 1,000. Beyond ISO 400 it becomes hard to tell if I missed focus or if the image is just soft from the ISO compensation algorithm.

Shooting high ISO is not for all situations. In fact, it should be avoided on digital sensors unless no other option exists. But for a slightly soft, grainy look, it can deliver acceptable results. Converting a high-ISO image to monochrome, though, never yields good results.

I've never liked photographing people. Why that is should be another story for another day (preferably, actually, not another day ever.) But working with people with whom I'm comfortable -- friends -- and who are comfortable around me has yielded some very nice photos.