Best Camera

By now it is little  more than a tired cliché, but, as the saying goes, 'the best camera is the one you have with you'. The best camera I had with me on this particular day a couple of years ago was an IR converted Canon 5D that I picked up for about $200. One of my pandemic experiments. The only lens I owned for it was a Lensbaby of some sort. So, when I came across this old church, I pulled over and made some photographs with the best camera and lens combo in my possession. They are actually reasonable shots I suppose, but if I'm honest, I've soured some on the blurred out look. And through the process, I learned something else about myself: I ain't in love IR photography either. So, not too long after this shot was made, I sold the camera on. The church was torn down, too, and townhomes erected in its place. So it goes...

It is raining heavily at the moment, buthHere's too good light this weekend, fellow traveler.
 

Beyond The Pale, Close To The Edge

Several months ago, a firmware update was issued for one of my cameras that enabled a photographer to combine nine individual photographs of a given subject taken in rapid succession into one extremely high resolution image. Several hundred megapixels of resolution... For things to work out well, of course, it is critical that the camera and subject not move at all during the data acquisition process. So, naturally, I wanted to find out what would happen if I intentionally moved the camera during the taking of the multi-image sequence. I think it is interesting to see what happens at the edges of the envelope, beyond the pale, near the thin ice, so to speak. Experiments. Sometimes useful. Always fun.    

Hump Day Experiment: Multiple Exposure

The first exposure was of the orchids and the second was an out of focus image of specular highlights. It is fun to create these multiple exposures in camera, but two images can be combined in software, too. These images were captured in monochrome, so color was added in post, just as a further experiment. 

Otherworldly Landscapes

Over the course of the past decade, I've accumulated a quite a stash of film, some of which is now going expired, some of which doesn't appeal to my tastes anymore. The question is what to do with it all? It would be a shame to just toss it into the bin. So, I've decided to do some experimentation with development, fixing -- chemistry in other words. Today's image is a hand colored negative, just the part of the film leader that is exposed as you are loading the camera. It looks like a landscape image of some sort. Who knows, this line of inquiry might lead to something interesting at some point. Better than binning the out of date hipster film stock though. Experimentation is just part of the process...

  

The Value of Experimentation

Sometimes when I feel stuck, I grab me a camera, a good ole macro lens, and I go outside and take a bunch of photographs. Without thinking about it too much. And then, when I get back into the studio, I stretch the images to within an inch of their lives in post production. If its film, perhaps I'll boil the roll in salt water or bury it in the earth for a few days, who knows. Usually the experiments fail, sometimes partly, often completely, and I end up with nuttin' much. But that's just the nature of things, y'all. The key is to learn something from the experiment, get an idea of a new direction and head out again as soon as possible. 

Have a productive hump day. That's what my old man used to call Wednesday. 

Menu Diving to Discover Unuseless Camera Features

Most of the time, I reach for a camera that just gets out of my way and lets me take photographs already. Luckily, I've got a few that do that pretty well, including many of my film cameras. On the other hand, there are days when I don't really mind getting lost in the technology, and I dive into the menus with reckless abandon. On those kinds of days, one of the features I like to experiment with most is Multiple Exposures. Quite a few cameras don't bother implementing this capability anymore it seems, while others allow you to do some crazy stuff indeed. My Pentax KP, for example, allows for up to 999 exposures to be combined in-camera. I did try that once, but more often than not, a few dozen exposures is more than enough for some good fun to be had. And some interesting images to be made. The abstract image above was made using the Pentax KP while I was watching a television program about color theory, and is comprised of three exposures combined by the KP's chip. I was using the very old and inexpensive manual focus Pentax 150 mm f/3.5 lens. It is a compact little optic with more than 'good enough' image quality and would qualify as under appreciated, I think. 

Tasting notes: Pentax KP digital camera, Pentax 150 mm f/3.5 lens.

Tuning the radio

It can be quite informative to watch another photographer work on their images. I mean an established, practicing artist -- someone further along on the journey than you are. You might have to part with some of your hard earned shekels to gain this level of access. But, you might be pleasantly surprised at what you discover about your own way of working. 

One of the most important lessons I learned from watching other artists is how willing they are to 'turn the volume up to eleven'. Just to see what happens to the image. Naturally, you can back off from the extremes later if you decide it does not work. But if you never see the image break, or come close to failing, how do you know you have not missed something?

To me its like tuning an analog radio, when you're driving through west Texas and want to listen to some music. You roll the dial back and forth through the frequencies until you find an interesting channel, and when you have, you go back and forth to find the spot with the strongest signal and a tolerable amount of static. 

New year, new discoveries

Last year, we had multiple trees die due to drought conditions in our area. It was the largest number of trees we ever lost at one time. We cut up the felled trees and saved the best pieces for our son, who likes to work with wood. While waiting for the wood to season, our sausage-like cat seems to enjoy jumping between these two logs -- it is his main workout for the day.

The photograph of the tree rings was made using the Rolleiflex SL66 and the 80 mm lens on a chunk of Kodak Tri-X film. Conventional silver halide based photography, in other words.