Recently in art + photography Category

Tues 12.27.11 - Photo of Scruffy McDoglet and Belle le Cane taken yesterday at Dog Beach in Huntington Beach, Calif, with Thomas Bertling's ADOX Golf 63 1950s era vintage bellows range finder medium format camera. I used Fujifilm 120 color film at 200 ISO and got the film developed and printed at Fromex in Long Beach.

I am very pleased at the results as Thomas did not think the camera worked any longer as it was given to him by an aunt who had it since the 1950s and neither of us had a manual or much of an idea how it should work. I took the ADOX to Samy's Camera in Santa Ana yesterday morning to see if the folks at the film counter would be able to help me and they did by determining that 120 film would fit in the canister.

The first few shots on the roll were taken by complete trial and error as I tried to figure out how to advance the film, as well as the settings of the f-stop and the shutter speed in conjunction with the focus ring as all three are interconnected at the end of the bellows on the lens with out much explanation and no light meter. When I got to Dog Beach, I used the Nikon D70s' light meter settings to determine that at 200 ISO, I should shoot at f22 and 1/200th shutter speed, as the light declined and the sun set, I switched it to f11 at 1/50th shutter speed.

The ADOX Golf 63 has the following available settings:
F-stops: 6.3, 8, 11, and 22
Shutter speeds: B, 1/25th, 1/50th, and 1/200th
Focal length: 1 meter to 20 meters and an infinity setting
There is no ability to set ISO.

I am very pleased on how well the photos turned out since I was guest-imating on focus, f-stop, and shutter speed. Why was I guessing on focus? The ADOX is a range finder camera and I don't have a siting attachment for it, so I was looking through the little eye hole that does not change in focus at all as you turn the focal ring.

The first roll from the ADOX Golf 63 is here at Flickr so you can see all 12 photos. I just scanned them and did not do any photo editing. The color is pretty accurate to the printed photos, and any grain is from the photo paper and spots on my scanner, as the actual printed photos are wonderfully clear. The vignetting is a result of the square medium format film and the size of the lens/bellows set up.

All in all the whole experiment is/was so successful that I am taking the ADOX on vacation with me, so expect more photos, printed and scanned.

Wed 12.21.11 - Thomas Shahan, a photographer and printmaker from Oklahoma, has an amazing photography high magnification photography practice with garage sale DIY camera set up and his work has been published in National Geographic.

From today's Flickr blog:

Thomas knowledge about his photographic subjects is paired with gear that helps him achieve the stunning results you see throughout this article: "I'm currently using a Pentax K-x body, a set of extension tubes, and either a vintage 50mm f/1.7, or 28mm prime lens reversed to the end of the tubes. For lighting, I have an old Vivitar Thyristor flash mounted to a flash bracket diffused with a homemade softbox constructed from cardboard, tinfoil, and paper towel. In the past, I've used a Pentax K200D body, and before that - a Pentax *ist DL. I've stood by Pentax as their bodies work with just about any lens they've produced, even back through the film era - meaning as a frugal guy, I could easily attain high quality glass for cheap."

Given that Thomas works a lot with reversed lenses, I was curious if he uses a special filter or other means to protect them. But this isn't a big concern of him: "I'm not the guy to ask about protecting lenses - I'm using 20 dollar lenses that are significantly scratched after years of tumbling around in my backpack without proper caps. I usually keep spare lenses in socks. My 28mm, a garage-sale find, is almost solely mounted backwards and never used as it was intended. I admittedly take very poor care of my equipment."

Asked if he uses any equipment that he would call "out of the norm", "DIY", or "repurposed", Thomas explains that "Reverse-lens macrophotography is a pretty odd way to go - but offers a lot of magnification for cheap."

I love it when I see folks working with whatever photo tool that they have at hand and then pushing the medium to make great photos. Bravo, Mr. Shahan!

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, get your writing fingers and keyboards ready to roar, it that time again... National Blog Posting Month. Wahooo!

For NaBloPoMo 2011, I will be doing my usual mixture of text and photo blog posts with the goal of creating at least one per day if not a combo of both.

Will you be joining in on the NaBloPoMo November blogging?

Explanation here.

Flickr photoset here of images taken by the Space Traveling Nikon D300s.

The Launch video:

Cygnus Launch from Erich Leeth on Vimeo.

Traveling to Space is just not for governments any more...