Welcome to 1908

You may remember my last adventure with the Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL where all the shots came out very overexposed due to me forgetting a battery for the light meter. Well, readers, I remembered the battery this time. And I think the battery is almost dead. The light meter still did not respond well and the shots were, again, very over exposed. So I had two shots turn out, the two where I ignored the light meter. One of those is below. For the other shots, rather than use my scanner which would add substantial scanner noise to the images, I walked over to the local hardware store and picked up some plumbing supplies. Tomorrow I'll show you what I got and how they're used. For now, I used, in manners not intended in their design, a variety of tools to make a slide carrier. Earlier in the day I had dropped a 72mm UV filter, and it cracked. That filter provided a run I could use to mount the negatives on the camera. I'll explain it all tomorrow. It's a great concept with sub-par implementation.


Here was one of my two photos that turned out well-ish. It's very overexposed. Since I was on a work lunch, I decided not to keep notes. But I think this was 1/30th at f4.

So why did I call this post Welcome to 1908? When I put the thick negatives in the plumbing-bits slide copier, I tried a variety of exposures and setting to see what would yield the best results. And those results are below. And they look like they were taken in 1908 on an old box camera with home-made film. So and interesting artistic thing, but not practical for high-quality reproduction.


Super grainy, super contrasty. Not exactly a resounding success.


This one turned out the best: least grain, fewest image flaws. The white around the border derives from the slide duplicator's design. I masked the front to reduce light intake and flare. This resulted in dark margins on each image that, when reversed appear light.


Not sure what they were fishing for, something small though. Perhaps sardines? The sea gulls were out in force, though, and people with nets were all along one of the docks fishing and pulling in a lot of fish.


And here are those people with their nets.


As I lined up this shot, one of my colleagues thought it would be fun to make hawk noises. The seagulls flipped out and began taking off in huge numbers. Had this shot been properly exposed, it may have been a good shot.

Today's lessons:
1- Homemade stuff does not work to professional grade. It may be fun for some Lomography-type work, but probably isn't good enough for serious work.
2- Buy fresher batteries.

Indoors at Westfield

I took the Super Travenar indoors on Wednesday because the weather was terrible for photography, as noted in yesterday's post. But I also had color film in the K1000, so with the scans worth keeping I had to compensate for the fluorescent tinging in the curves function. I raised the blue (especially the light blues) and dropped the greens. So all of these photos had the same post-processing, some color correction.


1/30th, f2.8. Tea for sale at Lupicia. Smell the teas then bring the cards to the salesperson. The teas provide an olfactory bonanza. Harsh, fruity, wine-scented, the teas provide diversity far beyond expectation. The K1000 did not enjoy metering with the Travenar. Perhaps because it doesn't fit in the Pentax adapter exactly correctly, the meter kept giving me wildly false reading, such as one-second exposures wide-open outside. I need to try yet another new battery in that camera.


12 seconds, f22. I totally guessed at these settings, but seem to have been pretty much spot-on. I tried a number of escalator long-duration exposures but the others were all double exposed. I think I had my finger on the rewind sprocket release while advancing the film. Oops. Well, that's a whole series of photos I can go back and take again when I run out of tea.
I like how the escalator looks like a solid belt, like a moving walkway on a slant. Man would it be fun to have a slanted moving walkway. I want one in my house.


Full-second exposure, f11 or f8, not sure if this was the first or second shot I took of the same subject.


I'm not sure which architect designed this mall, but I love this view. They did well with this open space.

Lessons learned today:
1- Invest in some fluorescent color-correcting filters if I plan to use color film inside ever again.

Brisk Bayside Breeze

Tuesday was a fun photo day. I hopped behind a chain gate and snagged a couple closeup photos of a stuffed dragon and a graffiti sticker. It should be noted that the chain only covered the vehicle drive, a sidewalk went right through where I was shooting. I just like to make it sound like I live a life of danger. Did it work? Great. Let's move on.


I got out twice on Tuesday to take photos -- once over lunch and once after work. I forgot my notebook for the second walk, so many of these photos won't have notes. This was a long exposure, though, at least one second, braced against a lamp post.


Here's a tree. Bark tends to make a good, contrasy subject for monochrome photography. If you're ever out taking pictures and are hard-up for an easy subject, trees don't complain about having their picture taken. Nor do they come after you swinging an umbrella. Just sayin'.


Have I mentioned before that I dislike graffiti but am less disapproving of sticker graffiti? I may have. It's worth repeating. This is a three-piece penguin sticker on a mooring post. I'm impressed that it's three pieces. This picture is super blurry because of the Travenar. There I go again, acting like a Formula One driver and blaming my gear.


Roar.


This image looks very muddy. That's due to the poor lighting. Overcast skies have the advantage of dampening harsh shadows and not making people squint, so they're good for photos with people. But poor light reduces contrast and leads to poor image quality.


1/180th, f4.5. I had to Photoshop this one substantially. The sky was pure white so I used the magic wand to grab a non-contiguous mask and feathered it at, I think, 95. Maybe 65. Dropped the gamma to about .4, flattened the image, and repeated a few times. The last couple were contiguous masks. Ultimately, I recovered it but I shouldn't have let the image be that overexposed in the first place.


1/45th f16. No post-processing here at all. This shot just worked. The RT seems to more accurately meter non-native-mount lenses when they're stopped way down than when they're way open.


1/90th, f6.3. The shadows in this were a bit washed out, so I began post-processing with an overall contrast bump. After that, I used the magic wand to grab the over-exposed areas and feathered them at 65. I copied the layer and pasted it directly in place. I dropped the gamma to .3, maybe .2, and did a transparency at 45% or 55%. That made the highlights a bit less blown-out and added some character to the shadows.

So what are the lessons learned today?
1- Lenses matter. This is common sense, but all cameras function basically the same way. Sure some have more features and bells and whistles to break, but mostly they all do the same job: hold a lens and film. The lens you use will not make you a good photographer, nor will it make your photos turn out well, but it won't hurt your chances, either. Using a bad lens simply sets you up to fail.
2- Weather controls photography. Bad lighting leads to bad photos. Photography is an art form based on light and if you want to create good photos you need to work when the light is good, typically in the morning and evening.

Life in the Digital Age

This is my first post this year with the K-7. This is a masterfully well made camera and demonstrates that Pentax, when they try, are every bit the company of Canon and Nikon. That said, Pentax won't actually get to play with the big boys until they release a full-frame DSLR. Know who will be buying that when it comes out (or within a year, depending on how long I have to save for it)? Yes. Me. Pentax needs to release a full-frame DSLR so I don't have to buy a Nikon one.

Anyway, I got off on a tangent. The K-7 is great and it works well with old M42 lenses. That's one thing Pentax, I think, does better than Canon: Their sensors work better with old glass than I understand Canon's do. My understanding could be wrong, though, since I've never shot a Canon DSLR. Maybe I should borrow the Canon DSLR at work for a week.

Anyway, finally, here are some photos. The Travenar challenge was to take five photos: building, street scene, portrait, landscape, and closeup. With the K-7, I caught all five, though the landscape was awful and should never be viewed. The following nine photos turned out decently well. If you want to pixel peep, you may, but the Travenar does not have great lines-per-pixel rendering abilities and you'll be disappointed. You may be happier to just enjoy the photos as shown. :D


And yes, I know the sensor needs cleaning. I've since done that. That said, I started the day by hopping off BART to grab a quick shot of this Bank of America building. Don't get me wrong, Bank of America and I have a very adversarial relationship, but the vantage of this shot is great. This time, I got on BART before the doors shut. So, that was nice.

Oh a quick note, for this shoot I forgot my notebook. You're welcome to look at each photo's EXIF data if you want to know the shutter speed, but I neglected to record the aperture.


At lunch I hopped on Muni for a quick ride and ended up at AT&T Stadium. I do like the Willie Mays statue a great deal. So this was my backup portrait in case I couldn't get one which was better. I managed, to, though, in the next photos.


This seagull thought it could scare me. The only thing that scares me about birds is when they get a taste for human and start eating people. Don't believe ti can happen? Just you wait. I'll prove it!


Here's a different bird flying away to circle around and come in for a kill shot. Oh yes. These things happen.


Why are birds terrifying? Because of scenes like this. No one leaves a jacket and bag full of groceries behind. Whoever was feeding the birds clearly failed to bring enough seed and, as retribution, the birds ate them. Photographic evidence! Man-eating birds! It's just like Hitchcock predicted. And this qualified as my street scene shot.


While beating a hasty retreat lest the scene also include a digital camera and half-eaten cargo pants, I stopped to grab a closeup shot. This is a decoration on a fence post. All the marina's fence posts have these. It works.


This is a yacht club near the marina. That means I'm not allowed. I once pronounced it "ya-CH-it" and was forever banned from all yacht clubs, events, and am not allowed to wear sailor garb. Those yachting guys are seriously well organized.


After leaving the marina, I headed back for Muni. Having taken now a full three-hour lunch (but only clocking out for one, cha-ching!), I decided to return to work and write some e-mails. But I decided to grab one more closeup on the way and see how this lens renders saturated colors. Result: decently.


After work I hopped off the BART train again to end the day the same way I began it: a long shot of this building. However, the day did not end exactly as it began because this time I didn't get on the train before the doors shut. At least that BART stop has a bathroom.