Red Filter + Ilford 50 = Bad Idea

Ilford PANF 50 ISO is a particularly contrasty film suited for subtle lighting. Red filters dramatically increase contrast. So these photos result from an already-contrasty film paired with a highly effective red filter that substantially increases image contrast. Let's see some results.


1/125th, f4


1/125th, f4

1/500th, f1.8


1/125th, f4


1/60th, f11


1/250th, f4


1/125th, f2

More than a Mountain

This was the first time I took this K2 out. I picked it up for $30 along with a Pentax-A 28-80 zoom and a Pentax professional flash. All black cameras are still less aesthetically pleasing to me than chrome cameras, but with as good as this, my F3, My K-7, my RT, and my N70 all perform, I'm not opposed to all black cameras from a design stance anymore. However, the chrome is definitely better for heat tolerance on hot or sunny days. When shooting slide film, this is of some importance as slide film begin deteriorating as soon as it reaches room temperature. That said, I wasn't shooting slide film so none of that matters.


1/125th, f8. Either the Hilton or Marriott, I forget which. Gorgeous building -- one of my favorites in San Francisco.


1/60th, f4. A skyscraper reflecting off the Hilton. This shot would be better straight-on, and that something I need to try soon.


1/125th, f4. I recognize that they're disease carriers and pretty filthy animals, but
seagulls are also neat because they eat french fries. Any animal that loves french fries can't be all bad.


1/8th, f4. Black Lotus. Koi stencil. Pink, in reality; white, on film. A bit blurry because this was hand-held at 1/8th of a second.


1/125th, f11. Pedestrian bridge over Mission Street (I think.) This connects the Yerba Buena Gardens to the Muscone Center.


1/60th, f4. Sunset behind AT&T Park. A nice way to end a day and a blog entry.

A New Film Delivers Great Results

Thursday I walked Third Street and Market. I lucked out and caught the SEIU protesting something. I'm not sure what.


Some potatoes, onions, and ginger in the back of a truck.


Man-lifts and shadows.


I used the unsharp mask on this to try and get the guy in focus. He would have been if he hadn't been moving. Then this would have been a superb shot. Such is life.


Skyscraper reflection. I admit that I enjoy photographing buildings, as you will see tomorrow. Unsharp mask to punch out the reflections. But they needed very little work. This film delivers exceptional results.


Unsharp mask here, too, to enhance the reflections and sky a bit.

An EM is Enough.

This is my lightest camera. Yet Nikon designed it to be durable. Based on a metal frame made of copper silumin aluminum alloy, the EM shares the same material base as my F3. But the EM is a very stripped-down camera. Solely an aperture-priority camera, the EM is very easy to use -- set an aperture and click. The EM automatically assigns a shutter speed from one second to 1/1000th. For me, this was not an overly pleasurable camera.

It's light and I used my lightest lens on it, so it almost didn't feel like I had a camera around my neck. And the interface is intuitive and simple. The EM was designed as a beginner-level SLR, probably why I was not a huge fan, and was part of Nikon's "E" series of lenses. The Nikon E lenses were simple lenses with fewer elements and simple design. However, the E lenses are also very good and take great photos. I don't have any E lenses, so instead used the Nikon N70 kit lens.


f4. Flowers in a building's open space. This was a very nice, relaxing space with indirect light an a fountain that looked much like a flan.


1/60th, f4. I can't in any way fault this camera for image quality. It meters images well and returns good results. However, my copy of the EM has a couple holes in the light seals, the results of which you'll see in a few images.


1/125th, f11. Light reflecting from a building onto another.


1/125th, f11. A building reflecting off itself and its neighbor.


1/125th, f11. San Francisco south of Market Street.


1/500th, f5.6. I had to bburn in a great deal of the image's details down the center. You can see the muddyness in it. That's from the camera's light leak.


1/125th, f16. Again you can see dodging artifacts along the left side. Very frustrating.


1/30th, f16. You can again see two light leak dodging areas on this image.

Saturday Night Special

Last week I got a long walk around downtown San Francisco. I brought my K-7 and an autofocus 35-80mm lens. I didn't want to muss about with manual focusing. Since you can check the exif data if you're so inclined to see the photo info, I'll dispense with it. I'm also going to skip the post-processing details. In short, the buildings received perspective corrections. And now, a string of photos from San Francisco and their titles, when applicable.


Thoughtful in Union Square


Reflecting on San Francisco




Tea Time




Drum solo






And... let's end big. Monkey, play us out.

Classical Guitar Jukebox Monkey

Lost in SOMA

On 5 January I had the chance to walk around Market Street and the Embarcadero with my K1000 and Sigma 35-80mm lens. This is a combination that has presented challenges, but also many very good results. The Sigma lens is superb and, when coupled with my Pentax K-7, yields consistent and superb results. From the roll, three shots turned out worthy of posting. About six shots of various nighttime scenes returned unusable results, despite exposure times of a full second. I should have set the camera in bulb and tried some exposures longer than one second to achieve usable results. All that said, here are a few shots and notes on how I achieved them. This outfit also included a Nikkor red filter and I used Foma 400 ISO film.


Trolleys are an amazing aspect of life in San Francisco. All cities should have them. Seriously. All cities should. They simplify transit around the city with their regular schedule and reduce city pollution because they're all electric. This shot was taken with no filter, at f8 and 1/60th of a second. Focal distance: 35mm. (My girlfriend got me a notepad for Christmas so I could take notes on my shots. I'm working on getting in that habit, but did well Thursday and Friday.)


This is a view of Oakland through a marina dock. Either 1/60th and f5.6 or 1/30th and f6.3, not sure which. I think the second, though. Focal distance: 35mm.


This last shot is a moored ship and a penguin sticker. I don't agree with graffiti, even when people call it 'street art,' which it isn't -- it's vandalism. But, stickers don't bother me as much. They can be removed without permanent damage and, after a few good rains, disintegrate on their own anyway. So they're ephemeral and a shot with sticker art may never be taken again. This was 1/125th at f4, focal distance of 80mm.

Last Thursday had a lot of atmospheric haze, not ultraviolet light refraction but actual particulate haze. It's a downside of living in a valley. But, the lens and camera combination performed well despite the reduced available light and fuzziness of distant objects. With luck, this combo will have a better chance with different film later in the season.