Last day in Tokyo

Back in July I spent a week in Tokyo. On my last day, I met up with my buddy Steve who lives near Mt. Fuji. Steve showed me around Shinjuku, Akibahara, and some other neighborhoods. We went to a festival for some fireworks and were rained on. Some rando put their fingers on my 31mm FA Limited's lens on accident. I ate the most incredible street food and octopus I've ever tried.


Before Steve arrived, I had about an hour to ram around Shinjuku and stumble into a Nikon shop. It was pretty great as I'd never seen one of the Canon f0.95 "Dream Lens" lenses before. After Steve arrived, he showed me all the great camera stores in Shunjuku. I wish I had bought some cameras. I wanted to but, for some reason, decided against it. Yes. Worst decision of the trip.


At Shinjuku Station, they had some mascots.


And somewhere in Tokyo this Panda waited for its owner to leave a store.


After some hours, we ended up at a festival. I forget what for, but there were fireworks over the river, too. A good portion of the people dressed in traditional Japanese garments.


Tradition mixed with modernity.


Steve and I were not the only photographers there. This girl from Hong Kong had a Holga.


Steve and I seemed, for a while, to be the only people NOT shooting medium format. I really liked this guy's Bronica. Beautiful camera.


And a giant lantern. I could have easily gone through two more rolls of film at the festival but everyone kept asking me to take their photos. Literally, they left everyone around me alone. Steve, who speaks Japanese, said someone said they thought I was a professional. I guess a lot of people heard that.


After deciding to take photos of things other than other people with their cameras, Steve and I were herded by a cop with a megaphone almost as big as him. It's pretty great.


And we stopped for octopus. Totally worth the 15-minute wait. I wanted more. I want to fly back to Tokyo and walk around until I find this place and have more.


Unfortunately, I don't have any fireworks photos because it rained. Hard. It was all Steve and I could do to keep our gear from getting wet. In the subway, we watched a few trains leave to get shots of how insanely crowded they were.


The cops tolerated us. Mostly.

Softball on Film

For the last game of this year's softball league, I decided to bring my Pentax 6X7, Kodak Brownie Model B Number 3, and my DSLR. I took a single roll of HP5+ (400 ISO) with the 6X7 and a single team photos with the Brownie. I had loaded it the day before with a sheet of 100 ISO Arista 4X5 sheet film. I'd never tried 4X5 film in the Brownie before, and was both nervous about and excited for the results.
Pentax 6X7














Kodak Brownie

To make sure the camera was light-tight, I cut 127 backing paper to fit over the red hole and used mashing tape to hold it on. That large white dot is from when the tape failed overnight, exposing it to a little light from the streetlamp outside my window all night. I also wrapped the junction in backing paper, though in hindsight I think that was silly. In all, I'm really happy with the shot. It proved that the old Model B cameras can use 4X5 film for one-off fill-frame use (respooling any film size onto their paper backing leaves a cropped image.) Also, it showed that, with some care, the camera is lightproof enough to use sheet film. And, it showed that the simple meniscus lens has enough resolving power to provide good photos on modern films.

Making Opalotypes: Part 1 -- The Test Run

For my company's annual employee appreciation party, I was asked to be the volunteer photographer. I accepted and also volunteered to do some alternative process photographs for some raffle winners. I've been looking for a reason to do some alternative photography, so I jumped on this one and decided to make opalotypes.

An opaoltype is a photographic print on milk glass. Over the coming weeks as I make these prints, I'll share the process and results. The first step was to, in a controlled environment, use the camera, lights, and film I would use on the boat for some test shots. Even at 400 ISO, the exposures were very long for pet photography. Think 1/4 second long, even wide open. I used a two-light setup (even though I only had one light on the boat, and at that only for part of the time -- more on that mess when we get to that entry.)

I selected my Rolleiflex Old Standard with Zeiss 3.8 tessar lens. This lens renders exceedingly well. For improved shutter speeds, I decided to push the film (I selected Ilford's HP5+) to 800 ISO, one stop, and reduce my shutter speed slightly.

However, I didn't have any developers that would work for pushing HP5+, so I ordered some Ilfosol-3. I took a test roll with the same lighting and developing conditions as I would use at the real event. MY dogs cooperated very well (they're champs) and let me take their pictures even though they hate being posed for photos. 







Next time: The boat photos.

San Francisco Giants Opening Day

So last Monday I did not get out to take infrared shots with my K-7. In fact, I didn't get out of the office for more than 12 hours at all. So, today's post will be some late shots from the Voigtlander Perkeo outing on April 13th. I didn't finish that roll then, but did last week. Here are some shots, most of which were taken on opening day around AT&T Park.


Willie Mays Statue, but just the foot.


Waiting for a homerun in a hand-made wooden canoe.


A slightly more comfortable way to wait for a homerun.


Two of San Francisco's finest keeping the stadium safe from photographers.


A few days later, a building reflecting off the Infinity Complex.