Well the idea that I wasn’t going to buy much went out the window pretty fast. Looks like I’ll have some more cameras to fix and test.
I had a difficult time keeping dry while I snapped a few shots in the nearby community of Mission. I had my Pentax ME super tucked inside my jacket with a SMC 40mm 2.8 lens on it. It was nice to use an SLR instead of a point and shoot or a rangefinder for the ability to preview the image in the viewfinder. I really change cameras too often to be able to get a solid sense of how any one of them will frame a scene from what I am seeing in the viewfinder.
I noticed these trees when I was at the Reach gallery in Abbotsford. I’ve taken my share of blossom pictures in the daylight so I thought I would try some nocturnes. I returned after the gallery opening for the current show. It’s one thing to look at a print in a book but it’s wonderful to actually stand in front of the real thing, I’m speaking in particular about Betty Goodwin’s vest prints. Anyway back to the original point, I returned with my Pentax K-7 and took about 60 images varying focal lengths, exposures and even overlaying multiple images. So here are some of the better results of my experiments.
That’s a mournful declaration. Made all the more melancholy by the method of delivery. I can image someone taking the time to tape together the sign and then writing this. They must believe that the person they miss will read this and feel the same way too, but I doubt it. Tape on a pole seems like a last resort.
The sophomore of images. Week two in my Polaroid a week self imposed challenge. This one is from Bradner BC.
I went to the Bradner flower show today and took some pictures. I thought I would share them sooner that I usually would as it’s still on for one more day. I took a few other pictures in a field on my way back, the home owner next to the field was kind enough to let me park there. The hardest part was stopping, I think I could have taken many more images but I would have run the risk of repeating myself. This is also the same field that I used as a source for an oil painting previously.
Another day another walk. Photography can be a great reason to get out and get some excercise, even just a lunch time walk.
The 35mm focal length was very popular on fixed lens compact cameras so you might be forgiven for thinking they all perform the same. If I’m to be totally honest that’s what I was thinking when I tried this camera. So the 35mm f3.5 Elmar did do a great job with sharp clear images, but what really set this camera apart for me was the accuracy of the center weighted metering, it got all 36 frames right. There are few controls, primarily flash auto,on,off and infinity focus as well as a self timer and that’s it. Simple yet effective. Now for the downside. It’s not that durably built, it has a fair amount of barrel distortion and some vignetting when it uses large apertures.
Most of the images I took on this roll were reference shots for future paintings so I don’t actually have that many images to include.
By the way this is my 200th post, just saying, I don’t need a cake or anything but it’s 200 posts after all.
I wonder if I hadn’t included the shadow of my hand and the phone if it would be clear what was used to make this image. Although this image is really all about the shadow anyway. Cell phone manufacturers seem willing to make improvements to the cameras in phones but I don’t think that there is a real desire to make them equal to actual point and shoot cameras. So just as I don’t make phone calls with my watch I’m destined to carry a separate camera, and that’s just fine by me.
