Film is Fear.

I figured it out. I hate chaos and conflict. It's poison. But, on some level I crave it. I crave small doses of fear and trepidation (although I DO tend to shy away from "terror" whenever I can so I'm OK Darwin-wise for now). Film brings out that fear.

Each and every shot is a tiny little commitment of time, money and esteem. "Snick" goes the shutter and the waiting starts. Was the composure right? Should I have changed my angle slightly? Is my exposure off a little bit? Not only do I knot know, I won't know for hours, maybe days! Either way, it just cost me a third of a buck: right or wrong. "Snick"! Another 33 cents down the drain.

I'll take pictures all day long of EVERY THING with my DSLR. What if I do this, change that? Often I'll use it to recon the film exposure that I want to make. It's all kind of haphazard though. I really need to start writing things down with my "modern" cameras the way that I do with my "old" ones. I tent to just burn shots off on my Film EOS cameras too, at least in terms of note taking.

I am DYING to drag this new A-5 out and finish the roll. But with nothing particular that I want to shoot at, it would just be shooting to shoot and on film, that costs money.


So, from all my fretting about dropping 15-20 on buying, shooting and developing a roll of color film, you might take it that I am a non-smoker. You would be right. 

Film is slow.

Too slow. Slower than I expected, that's for sure. The other night I went out and got this shot:

I thought that it would be neat to replicate it for film. I grabbed my trusty Olympus OM-2n (technically my daughters ax: I'm going to start calling "cameras" "axes" now) and headed back to to play another round of "Troll Under The Bridge". I set it up, sighted it in and click.  Nothing. The mirror just sat there in the "up" position for..... I don't know. It was a L.A.T. though. Eventually, I shut the darned thing off to get the mirror to come back down. I tried a few more times to capture this shot an some others and, mostly, the mirror just stayed up. I did get a few blurry hand-held shots off but over all I was pretty sure that I had just shot a roll of crap. I pulled it out and tossed it. I only paid $2.50 for the film. I didn't want to sink another $11 into this project by getting it developed and crap. I'm going o try to find some 800 speed some where (I was shooting 200 speed Kodak at the time) and try again. I think that this shot would be amazing on film.

Manual Exposure

God I love it. The smell of the film, the snick of the back closing. I love the way that you can feel each "click" of the dials when you turn the. I love how bright the image is as I frame it perfectly (they are always framed perfectly in my mind when I take them, it's only after I get them back when I see the flaws) and then that final, decisive "SNICK" as another 33 cents is exposed to the light. Steel is real. No, wait, that the other blog. Film. That's what's real here. Only, the thing is, it is.

Don't get me wrong. I love, love love taking digital images of stuff. I can see what I did right or wrong and make changed or corrections to nearly instantly get the image that I wanted. But it's not the same. An image captured on a negative has a permanence that 16 megapixels of 00011110111 just cant' replicate. Digital images pile up by the thousands on the computer, never to see the light of day. No one is going o see them laying on the coffee table or hanging on the wall. No one is going to idly flip through a book of them while drinking tea on a rainy afternoon. Sure, some one (most likely the person who took them) can pull them up on the screen or project them onto the TV but there is a purpose to that, a sense of frantic that pulling out a packet of 4x6 inch prints just doesn't have. Oh, sure, you can print out your digital images. Have you? I recently printed out a bunch from a  family vacation specifically so that I could put them in an album for my son. Other than that.... not so much.

One of my FAVORITE current uses for my digital camera is to take shots and use the settings that I settle on as "best" to pass over to my Olympus OM-1n. The 2n and 4T do a lot of their own thinking. I like the way the 4T thinks particularly. The 2n is the most "fun" to shoot of them though.

So, I ask you: which is which? Can you tell? Which do you prefer? Which is more pleasing to your eye?

Voightlander Vito CL

Recently I had the chance to pick up a Voightlander Vito CL in what looked like perfect shape. It was cheep. And there was a great back-story to it. Like something out of one of those T.V. Pawn Shop shows. This thing has a solium light meter, that reads off the top of the camera, not in the view finder, and that's it. Focus is done by guessing the distance to your subject and turning a ring. Manual every thing. I really dig it! Sadly, there was a lot of blurry on the edges of the first roll that I put through it. I'm leery about running any more film through this if this is going to be a problem with the lens. After I found the blur I cleaned the lens of as best I could. Truth be told though, it didn't look particularly dirty to begin with. I have five other cameras loaded with 35mm color film right now though, so I have a lot of scenes to frame and developing to pay for before I get back to this camera. Hopefully soon. 

To Live and Die with an FE-310

OK, it's my own fault. After I got my Canon SX150is I relegated my old Olympus FE-310 to the Toddler's Toy category. WOrth nearly nothing and hopelessly outdated, it lagged behind the 150 in every possible way. So, I was more than happy to let my little guy use it to snap pictures with. He's actually got a pretty good eye. Of course, that all ended when, as three year olds inevitably do, he bounced the thing down a flight of stairs by accident. I didn't mourn for the camera itself particularly, but more for the memories that it represented. It had been a gift, initially, and had been there for a number of CHristmases and birthdays ever since and there it lay, in a tiny little heap, in the snow at the bottom of the back stairs. Of course I tried to fix it but with a lack of spare parts, or any real know-how, those efforts were doomed! Sadly, I finally gave in today and put it in the bin.

Then, I had a wonderful idea! E-Bay! I logged on and sure enough, there was a silver FE-310 ending tonight! I bought the damned thing! Sure, it's not the cool Orange color of it's predecessor but, as I understand it, the Silver (and black) ones are made of metal, front and back. I hope that this makes them a little tougher than the plastic orange ones. In any event, I won't be letting the little guy use this one. I picked up a Tough 3000 last week for the wife and youngest kid to use (set on iAuto and auto flash, they can't go wrong and if it gets dropped from toddler height it will be fine). The oldest, my 13 year old daughter, is currently shooting an OM-2n 35mm. I'm SO proud! While it's not going to replace the PAMS equipped SX150 for any reason other than being more compact, the silver FE-310 will carry on the legacy of Mr. Orange and represent to me in the future, the memories that he helped me make in the past. I can't wait for the UPS man!

Walking around Cameras: Which one is right for you?

A long time ago ( about 12 years or so) I inherited my very first “nice” camera. It was an Olympus OM-1n, by chance. It suited me. I used it extensively for about a year and then go ahold of an OM-2n, which, of course, I like even better. Things fell apart when I wanted to jump into the realm of Auto-focus SLRs . My friend, who was a professional photographer, shot Canon. Since Olympus didn’t make an auto-focus SLR I picked up a Canon A2. I never got around to getting the scratch together for a lens better than the 28-80 that came with it, but it took descent pictures and had a little zoom, auto-focus and different auto=picture taking modes, so it got a little bit more use than the more restricted Olympus OMs did. I found that I would drag the bigger, heavier, Canon around with me “in case” I wanted to take a picture and would pack along my lighter, smaller OMs and lenses and flashes and stuff when I set out to “take photographs. I generally kept the OM-2n loaded with color film and the OM-1n with black and white, which, even back then was getting to be a hard format to have processed convienently. Interestingly, I never have been able to break that habit with the OM-1n. TO this day it’s loaded with some T-Max. Taking good pictures was hard though and I found myself taking pictures of my young daughter more than any thing else. A succession of cheep Olympus (Naturally) Point and shoot digital cameras followed. I’m not sure why they sucked, but they did. For the most part, they got the snapshots of the kids and vacations but whenever I tried to Make an Image instead of Take a Picture, they fell flat on their mega-pixels.

So, about four months ago, and after years of prompting from my wife, I broke down and picked up a Digital SLR. For some reason I stuck with Olympus. I did so love my OMs and forgave the POSes for their shortcomings and picked up a second hand E-600. I will write about this camera at length at a later date but, suffice it to say, there are some problems with the camera. I was (again) penny-wise and pound-foolish. I wound up also getting, predictably enough, a Canon DSLR: the 60D. It’s funny that I find the rolls reversed on these two cameras as opposed to the 35mm film cameras. I find that the smaller, lighter E-600 is my preferred carry-around camera and I tend to drag out the 60D only when I plan on taking pictures. It’s bigger and heavier, and the lenses are bigger and heavier (I have collections of lenses for both systems this time. “Fool me once…” and all that jazz) and it’s expensive and brand new too! Of course, sad to say, but the camera of mine that gets the most use, besides the iPhone, is the Canon SX150 IS point and shoot that I picked up to replace my current Olympus turd-burger. I like that SX150 a lot too.

I dream of getting a small, range-finder style camera to replace that SX150 with, like a Fuji X-20. I think I’ll probably forego the X-20 though in favor of some “L” glass for the 5D that I don’t have yet. So, which camera do YOU use for walking around "just in case" you want to take a picture of something?

Nice note.

It's not much and the circumstances surrounding it are suspect (a CVS photo tech who may or may not be an accomplished photographer and who may or may not be saying flattering/supportive things to all her customers to sell more film and developing) but it meant a lot to me and was definitely a small boost to my ego.  She has written similar messages on other envelopes that I have gotten back too. Thank you for the compliments! 

Seventy Bucks is better than Thirteen HUNDRED bucks. Sometimes.

With the recent purchase of my OM-4T, with it's renowned multi-spot metering, I have been focused on the spot meters on my various cameras. The subject of my experimentation was an ornament hanging in the front window of our flat (sorry, watching some BBC). The first shot was taken with the first metering from my Canon Powershot SX150IS. You know, the 150, the old version of the base model. Seventy bucks (on sale).

Next up was my brand spankin' new, eleven HUNDRED dollar Canon 60D. This is the Big Brother to the SX150. If the little point and shoot did that well on the very first go, the 60D should blow it away, right? Nope. It took some tweaking and this is the best of them. 

Then I dug out my Olympus E-600 that I had on hand. I picked it up used for three hundred bucks. The first try:

This is the camera that I want desperately to love. I tried two more times and got this slightly overexposed result:

 Back to the drawing board. I messed with the settings for a fourth and then fifth time and finally go this result.

So, all in all, it took me well over a half a dozen attempts on expensive DSLRs to get the same results spot-metering a subject that I got "spot on" (pun intended) the very first shot on my out-of date, discount point and shoot! Save your pennies kids. You don't need a top-shelf DSLR to get good shots.

We are pleased to introduce to you: Old Tech!

A few days ago I dropped a thousand dollars on a camera. It was a good deal actually, but I didn't really need it. I had a DLSR that I bought used a couple of months ago. For a few reasons it just wasn't "doing it" for me and I wanted to get a model from a different brand. So I did and it was an upgrade but I spent a lot of money and, in the end, it was fixing a mistake that I made in the first place, so the whole experience wasn't really a "win" but a draw.

Today, however, was a totally different story. Today I picked up a pretty cheep, very old camera and I think that it is definitely and in all ways, a resounding "win". Today I brought home a camera that I have been chasing for more than a dozen years: the Olympus OM-4t and she's beautiful!

That's her. Isn't she gorgeous! I paid slightly too much from her and I am kicking myself for that part. The guy who had her thought that she was broken and instead of taking advantage of that (and taking my chances that she actually was broken) I made sure that she worked before I bought her. I lost some bargaining power there. I don't care though. It was a photographical dream come true and the end of an era: The "I Dream About Owning an OM-4t" era. 

She looks brand new. There is nary a mark or scratch on her that I can find. And the color! Champagne is right! I can almost feel the bubbles jumping off of her when I put her up to my face. She feels lighter than her sisters, OM-1n and OM-2n do. Oh, wait: she's Titanium! Like a bionic version, she is lighter, faster and stronger. Sweet. 

Next step; put a roll of film through her. Experiment with her multi-spot metering. Get to know her controls, her nuances. Make some art. I wonder if any one would think it strange if I snuggled with her tonight?

A dream come true!

Way back when, in about 2003 or so, I fell in love with the Olympus OM line of cameras. I inherited an OM-1n and I purchased an OM-2n, both of which I loved to use. Never satisfied with "enough", I yearned for and OM-4t. They were too expensive though and I did, in the end, get a more up to date camera than my old OMs. I got a fully modern Canon A2. I skipped the OM-4t's generation of advanced metering and aperture priority semi-automation manual-focused cameras and went straight to the Green Box. Well this friday, I will finally become the proud owner of an actual Olympus OM-4t, much like this one. I can't wait to get my hands on her and start shooting!

 

Old Olympus Cameras

About ten years ago, or so, I dragged out my father's old 35mm camera. It is an Olympus OM-1n. It's black and it's pristine. It had the factory issued 50mm lens and that was it. I took a bunch of pictures. I bought a zoom lens for it and a 28mm lens. I spent a LOT of mine getting pictures developed. I wanted to take photographs, not simply snap pictures. I wasn't doing a great job at being an artist and I didn't have any outlet for my work. Eventually, my subject matter turned almost entirely to my young daughter.  I wanted to move away from slow, fully manual control to a more responsive, faster, more automatic camera. I got myself a Canon A2 and  took a LOT more bad pictures that I had to pay to develop. I think that I actually took less acceptable pictures that I did when I was shooting full manual. I didn't help any that I steadfastly refused to shoot in the automatic setting.

What was wrong was my shutter speed. I was, and sadly still am, a bit of a bokeh addict. To make sure I got lots of the lovely stuff on each and every shot, I would have my depth of field set so shallow that I would inevitably wind up with out of focus pictures. Alternatively, I would be trying to take indoors shots without a flash and have the shutter speed set so low that I got nothing but fuzz.

I eventually got a digital point and shoot and the Olympus (and the Canon) kind of faded into the background. I did what I could with that for a long time and it did a great job, for what it was. After my second child was born, my wife began to encourage me to get a "nice" camera. What that meant to me meant a SLR: a digital SLR. Being an "Olympus Man" I picked up the first second hand Olympus DSLR kit that cam along. It was an E-600. It was cheep. I took it into my hands and the first thing that I noticed was how small it was. A LOT smaller than my EOS A2. Then again, I had held exactly zero DSLRs in my hands before that. Probably not the best researched purchase that I ever made but the stats were there. In fact, on paper, this was a great camera compared to others of it's era and even when compared to the very last generation of Prosumer offerings from the Big companies. It's just so....small. So much so that, being left eye dominant, I find it difficult to work the controls. There is simply no room there. The grip is too small and I really, really miss that little wheel under my index finger that lets me change my beloved apature settings. So, since I already have a few Canon lenses, I am thinking about ditching my Olympus and switching to a Canon. If I do that I also get a video camera in the deal, since all the new DSLRs shoot video too! The one trouble is that I can't seem to sell the Olympus.

This does bother me greatly, since I AM an Olympus fan-boy. Why can't any one else se beyond the marketing and hype of the Big Two? Oh sure, I understand the hypocrasy of it. Of course in my case it's a physical limitation that's driving my decision. It just bums me out a little. 

New Photographer Checking in.

No stress. No pressure. I have "blogged" before. I have blogged about my sketchy cycling habit and my wanderings in the woods. Those experiences were, for the most part, meant for me alone. They were sort of a diary for myself that I didn't mind sharing with the world, should other people take an interest. In neither instance, however, was I actively soliciting readers commenters of even recognition. This time is different.

After several years of hounding, my wife finally got me to pick up a digital SLR camera. We have a point and shoot digital in the house and some old film cameras, but not a descent, digital camera. Having always been partial to Olympus (I have an OM-1n and an OM-2n that I adore) I jumped on the chance to pick up an E-600 kit that was offered second hand and have been snapping away ever since. Of course, I quickly picked up a "Good" digital point and shoot and am scheming already to up-grade the DSLR. Of course I have dusted off all of the old film cameras and even added new ones to the stable. As long as I can get it processed, I'll be shooting film as well as digital.

What I hope to do here is to talk about my gear and my art. I hope to use this space to attract people to view my work. I hope that you all enjoy it and I hope that you might want me to take photographs for you.