Lightbox Wednesday #8

In the 1960s and 70s, my father shot lots and lots of Kodachrome of our family. On rainy or snowy days, he'd set up the Argus slide projector and screen in the basement and we'd watch a slide show. We saw those same slides over and over...even the ones that were in backwards or upside down. And it was always fun.

Right now, I'm sort of doing the same thing digitally; going through all of my images I've shot since I've gotten back into film photography. I'm keeping the ones I like and deleting the rest.

In 2013, I was finding my way around a Mamiya 645Pro medium format SLR. I was also living in a little cottage in Freestone, California. Near the back of the property where I lived, some kids had staked their claim to an old shed.

Pirate Fort/Freestone, CA/Mamiya 645Pro with 110mm lens

The Ultimate Spotmatic

I adore mechanical cameras. I don't like fiddly cameras. I had a brief fling with a Barnack Leica. It was a jewel of camera; wonderful to look at and a dream to hold. As a shooter, it was fiddly. So many dials and levers. So much work to take a picture. Eventually, I sold it.

I'm currently having an unlikely romance with the Pentax Spotmatic line. I was wrong in my long time belief that these cameras were clunky and primitive. The Spotmatics are wonderfully simple cameras. Splendid build quality. Quiet. Precise. And they mate with a superb line of Takumar M42 lenses. Asahi Pentax was the first to bring through the lens (TTL) metering to a 35mm SLR and most of the Spotmatics use "stop down" metering. You compose your shot, focus and then slide a little switch on the side of the lens mount to "stop down" the lens to its taking aperture and activate the light meter. You then adjust aperture or shutter speed to center the needle in the viewfinder to give you an accurate exposure and fire the shutter. It sounds more complicated and time consuming writing it here than it actually is in practice. And after a roll or two, it becomes second nature to Spotmatic users, but it is a bit fiddly.

Near the end of the M42 era, Pentax offered several evolutionary open-aperture Spotmatics. These were the Electro-Spotmatic (sold almost exclusively in Japan), the ES and ESII , which also add aperture-priority auto-exposure. There was also a fully manual exposure, open aperture metering Spotmatic: the SPF. A new line of Super Multi-Coated (SMC) Takumars were also introduced with these cameras. The SMC lenses automatically "communicated" lens opening information to the camera's meter so TTL metering could be accomplished with the lens open rather than having to stop down. Yay--less fiddle! The SPF (1973-1976) would be the last of the famous Spotmatic camera line before Pentax rolled out the bayonet mount K-1000 SLR.

After having used the stop down Spotmatics and the ESII, I might have to say that the SPF might just be the ultimate, most refined Spotmatic for screw-mount Takumar lens lovers. By the time the SPF came out, Pentax had gotten this design just about perfect. And by removing the fiddle factor of having to flick that little switch on the side of the camera to meter, they produced an agile photographic tool.

This is photographic minimalism at its best. Being a 100% mechanical camera, the SPF is about as dependable as they come with the PX625A battery powering only the meter. All of the available shutter speeds are independent of battery power. And you don't even have to remember to turn the meter on. It comes to life whenever it senses light over EV2. 

My Spotmatic F is a bit of a rare bird in that it has a split image focus screen. Apparently, this was an upgrade option that was available late in the Spotmatic line and not installed on many cameras. I find that this screen makes the SPF a pure delight to focus over the standard Spotmatic fresnel screen.

I headed down to the beach to get some "first roll" test shots with my SPF. I used Kodak's Portra 400, my favorite color film, and rated it at half the box speed.

I don't think you'll be using a SPF to shoot a fast moving sporting event, but this less fiddly Spotmatic allowed me to catch this horse and rider before she got too far down the beach.

I am embarrassed to think that I had so many preconceived negative notions about Pentax Spotmatic cameras. After using the SP, SPII, ESII and SPF, I can say with confidence that these are splendid cameras for anyone wanting inexpensive entry into 35mm film photography. The bodies are cheap. CLAs are widely available and inexpensive. The battery issue is a non-issue. And Takumar lenses will blow you away! And even though it's fun to work your way through this line of cameras, if you want the least fiddly, easiest to use, most dependable, easiest to fix and most modern Spotmatic--get the SPF.

Lightbox Wednesday #7

85mm is one of my favorite focal lengths. I shot this with my 85mm f/2 Nikkor on a Nikon F2AS body. This is the little surf shop here in town.

Bodega Bay Surf Shack, October 2014

Reunited

I'm always curious about the provenance of the old cameras I acquire. Unfortunately, many of the cameras I buy are 30 or more years old, so their history is mostly unknown.

I know a lot about my Retina rangefinder; it belonged to my father. He bought it in 1952 in the Army PX. He shot it for years and then gave it to me. I even have some of the original packaging.

I'm somewhat sure that there weren't many previous owners of my Leica M2. The Leica shop I bought it from said it came from a collector and when I sent it off to Youxin Ye for CLA, he told me it appeared to have been rarely used. Based on that, I imagine my Leica didn't change hands too many times or if it did, it belonged to collectors and not shooters.

I bought my Nikon F2S and 50mm lens from a camera shop here in town. The owner of the shop told me that the camera was traded in by its original owner. I asked if I could have the name of the owner and was told that they would ask him if it was okay to give me his name. California has pretty strict privacy laws. I haven't thought to ask again. When I sent this camera to Sover Wong for CLA, he told me that the camera had been well taken care of. The F2 was in production for over a decade and during that time, several different metered and un-metered finders were available. Lots of F2 owners swapped out finders, so it's common to find a 1972 body with a 1977 finder. Sover told me he was pretty sure that the camera body and finder on my Nikon came out of the factory together. Additionally, when I checked the serial number on the lens that came with the camera against Nikon's production dates, they were close enough for me to think that the photographer who owned this F2 might have bought the lens around the same time as the body.

Recently, I bought a Pentax Spotmatic F from a very nice man who used to work for Pentax. The camera came from his own collection and with its original soft case and warranty card.

When my purchase arrived, I was delighted with the condition of the camera and in having some original documentation, so I emailed the seller to let him know. In his response, he asked if I might also be interested in a Pentax SMC Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens to go with the camera. That was precisely the lens I wanted to mate with the SPF to allow the open aperture metering to work as designed. His asking price for the 55 was fair and we transacted. Many cameras were sold in the 1970s as part of "kits." You got the camera, standard lens, soft case and strap. The 55mm SMC Takumar f/1.8 was a pretty common kit lens for the SPF. When the lens arrived, I mounted it on the camera and upon closer examination, noticed that the serial number on the lens and the serial number on the warranty card matched! This camera and lens left the Asahi Optical Company factory 42 years ago together! Cool! At least to a camera geek.

Pentax Spotmatic F with SMC Takumar 55mm f/1.8

Camera serial number

Lens serial number

The history of many of the old film cameras I own is lost to the mist of time, but it's still fun to ponder their provenance. I like to think about a time when these cameras were brand new, sitting on the store shelf, an anxious and excited photographer handling the latest state-of-the art photo gear for the first time. Who was this photographer? What type of film was the first to be wound through? What kind of images has this lens seen? Where has this camera been? 

For the most part, I'll never know but it is fun when I can at least connect some of the dots and reunite this old Pentax with its factory lens.

Lightbox Wednesday #6

I was teaching myself the Zone System, using my handheld Pentax Spotmeter and ignoring what the center-weighted TTL meter in my Nikon F2 was telling me when I shot this propeller on a fishing boat at Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay in May, 2014.

Shooting the Canon F-1n

The weather has not been optimal for photography here in Northern California these last few months. In the seven years I have lived here, this Winter has been the wettest. Huge storms, "atmospheric rivers of moisture" the weather people keep calling them, are dumping amazing amounts of rain here in the Bay Area and record snowfalls in the Sierras. Good for a dried out California. Not so good for outdoor hiking or photography.

That all being said, I did get out on a rare sunny day and shoot some Kodak Tmax 100 in my Canon F-1n. I really enjoyed shooting this camera. Big bright viewfinder, intuitive controls, well balanced body and a robust metering system. The Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens impressed me with it's sharpness. I set the F-1n to aperture-priority AE and let the camera do at least some of the thinking in these test shots.

The Canon F-1n closely resembles the Nikon F3 as far as features and performance. They were contemporaries in the pro photography world in the early 80s. Having owned and used both the F3 and this Canon, I would say that the F-1n edges out the F3 in feel and function, at least in my opinion.

Lightbox Wednesday #5

I am attempting an orderly transfer of the photographs I have taken over the past eight years from on old MacBook Air to a new MacBook Pro. In the process, I am gutting many, keeping the ones I like. It's fun to look back. Just like a song, a photograph can put you right back in the moment.

In September, 2013, I was shooting quite a bit of Tri-X film in a Nikon F2S that had just been serviced by Sover Wong. I took the Nikon to San Francisco for the weekend. Since living in the Bay Area, I had been meaning to go see the Painted Ladies, the City's famous row of Victorian houses made famous in the television series Full House.

I am not much of a street photographer, but I seem to be able to get my nerve up a bit more when walking the crowded streets of Chinatown.

Looking through the images I shot that weekend, I remember it was hot for September. I took the trolley down to Fisherman's Wharf, walked around a bit there and then started thinking about getting back to the car which was parked near the Ferry Building. San Francisco is a great city for walking but with the heat that day, I had about enough. I flagged down a bicycle taxi and rode back to the car in comfort. I got this shot of my driver as I neared the parking lot.

I feel like I used to re-visit my work more often in my pre-digital days. If I didn't print a photograph in the darkroom, there would at least be a contact sheet around somewhere. The lightbox always had negatives or slides on it and somewhere in the house; an old shoebox with snapshots. This transfer process has been a good exercise in looking through the pictures I have made since returning to film in 2009. It's helping me learn and grow. If, like me, you've not looked back through your digitally stored images in a while, try it. It's a healthy and fun process.

Lightbox Wednesday #4

Two years ago this month, I shot my first roll of film in a Contax RX camera I bought from B&H Photo in New York. I was a bit nervous taking a new-to-me camera out for a test drive during a weekend trip to San Francisco, but I shouldn't have been. The RX turned out to be a great camera to shoot and the Zeiss lens never fails to satisfy.

Contax RX, 50mm f/1.7 Carl Zeiss Planar with yellow filter, Kodak Tmax 100

Canon New F-1: First Impressions

I've been dabbling in photography since the early 1970s and for as long as I can recall, there's been a Nikon camp and a Canon camp. I've always belonged to the former, never warming much to most Canons I've tried. I had a TL once. It was clunky. And none of the 1990s era plasticy blob-like Canons appeared interesting enough for me to try. A friend of mine, firmly rooted in the Canon camp, loaned me one of his pro-level DSLRs once to try, but its multi-function switches and fiddly menus turned me off. The only exception so far was the Canon P rangefinder, a circa 1960s Leica screw mount jewel that's a minimalist joy to shoot. But that's it; one lone photographic antique from a time when SLRs weren't even a glimmer in Canon's eye.

Until now, maybe. You see, I've been keeping a casual eye out for a Canon F-1 or New F-1 ever since my photo-blogging friend Jim Grey matter-of-factly mentioned this camera to me a year or so ago. Jim knows I lean towards metal, gears, minimalism and great glass.  He was the one who suggested I try Pentax. It was a great suggestion. I've since fallen hard for the Spotmatics. So I trust this guy and when a fine, slightly brassy Canon New F-1 presented itself, I took the plunge.

The original Canon F-1 was to the Canon camp what the Nikon F2 was to Nikon shooters; an overbuilt, heavy, metal, pro-level workhorse. The F-1 came out in 1971, around the same time as Nikon's second F. The F-1 was a manual focus, manual exposure system camera. Canon promised they'd keep the F-1 in production for a decade and they did. As Nikon closed out the F2 era with the introduction of the F3 in 1980, Canon debuted their "new F-1" not longer after, in 1981. The New F-1 offered several finder options including aperture-priority auto-exposure with the AE-FN finder. Mine came with this finder and a very nice Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens.

I've just loaded some Tmax 100 into the camera and here are some thoughts so far...

1.  It's a heavy camera alright, but it is well balanced and easy to handle. Canon seemed to really like putting those big 6V batteries in cameras of this era so, like the AE-1 Program, it has a raised compartment on the front of the camera to accommodate the battery chamber. Unlike the consumer-oriented AE-1 however, the battery chamber on the F-1n fits better, feels nicer and seems to be more part of the camera body rather than an afterthought. This compartment also provides a secure place to grip the camera.

2.  This camera has an unusal dark gray matte finish, similar to what you might find on a gun or rifle. It is very different than the black enamel finish on my Nikons and Spotmatic bodies. The camera I bought is starting to reveal some nice brassing on the top and bottom plates. The more I handle this camera, the more I like the finish. With use, based on how it's wearing now, it should develop a wonderful patina.

3.  The viewfinder is big and bright. Super easy to focus with the standard split image focus screen. In manual mode, the match-needle exposure information appears on the right side of the viewfinder screen. Switch to AE and the manual information disappears and the AE information appears on the bottom of the screen. Nice--you always know what metering mode you are in!

4.  Shutter speeds are from B to 1/2000th. This is a hybrid shutter. Electronics control the slower speeds and the rest are mechanical--good news if that big 6V battery hanging out front dies. 

5.  Shooting in either manual or AE modes is pretty intuitive, even for a visitor from the Nikon camp. The camera controls all feel nice, firm and clicky. The Canon FD lenses, which were phased out after the F-1n, are well built with a nice focus feel.

6.  Ever since I had my laser cataract surgery, I don't need viewfinder diopters any longer, but if you do, this camera will accept screw-in ones like the Nikon F2. There are also a number of different focus screens available.

I'm shooting my test roll in the New F-1 both in manual and AE modes, carefully logging each shot in a little notebook. I bought this camera from a very reputable camera shop down in Marin County and their in-house camera tech checked this camera before I bought it, so the meter should be accurate, but it'll be nice to have good notes when I get the scans back from the lab.

Unlike the Nikon F2, you won't find page after internet page or oodles of YouTube videos gushing praise on the Canon New F-1. Nikon really dominated the pro photography world at this time, so I imagine a lot more F2s were sold than F-1s, meaning lots more survivors. Or the film photographers still shooting their F-1s aren't as vocal a bunch. I'm not sure. What I do know is that this is the first Canon SLR I've really liked right from the start. Thanks Jim!

Lightbox Wednesday #3

I am not sure why I get so much satisfaction from this shot I took two years ago in a little shop in Northern California that sells kitchen/cooking goods, but I do. My Leica MP was loaded with Kodak's wonderful Tmax 100 film. I was using the 35mm f/2 Summicron lens.

Lightbox Wednesday #2

Each Wednesday, I toss an image onto the digital lightbox. This is from November, 2011. Shot with my Nikon FE2 on Kodak's now discontinued BW400CN film. One of the few images I shot with this C-41 process film that satisfied me. 

Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay, CA

New Years Day at the Pt. Reyes National Seashore

It's become somewhat of a tradition to take a New Years Day hike out to the tip of Point Reyes; starting the year with fresh air, exercise and photography. Last year it was Portra 400 in the Nikon FM2n. This year, black and white Tmax 100 in my Pentax Spotmatic SP. I've been shooting with the splendid 55mm f/2 Super Takumar recently, a lens I like a lot. This camera body was recently serviced by Eric Hendrickson.

Pentax Spotmatic SP with 55mm f/2 Super Takumar

I've done this hike in all kinds of weather, so I'm usually layered up for warmth with a water-proof outer shell. New Years Day 2017 was deceptively mild and sunny when I left the house, so it surprised me when I arrived at Pierce Point Ranch to find a fierce and biting cold wind blowing in off the Pacific. A half hour down the Tomales Point trail and the ocean blow was biting right through my North Face jacket. This wasn't fun at all. I decided to turn around and try and get some shots at the more wind-protected ranch and perhaps down at McClure's Beach; a short but steep hike from the ranch site. The trail was muddy and I found the beach full of big tide pools.

McClure's Beach at Pierce Point Ranch, Pt. Reyes National Seashore

Conditions weren't much better ocean side. The wind mixed with the salt spray at the beach. It was cold! I only spent a few minutes there before heading back up the trail to the ranch. 

The house and most of the out buildings at Pierce Point Ranch were built in the 1870s. They are maintained by the Park Service and a Ranger lives on site. The ranch buildings are situated between several bluffs which form a very effective wind break. Making images around the ranch, while still cold that day, was far more comfortable than the trail to the point or the beach.

The ranch house at Pierce Point. 

I've said before that I could wander around the Point Reyes National Seashore with a camera and film for the rest of my days and be quite content. It's a beautiful and inspiring place, even when you're freezing your butt off!

Quite unexpectedly, I am really loving these old Spotmatics and Takumar lenses. Simple cameras and great optics. Stop-down metering is the only hassle with these cameras, so I have a Spotmatic F in Eric Hendrickson's shop now for CLA. The F allows full aperture metering and should be an even more pleasant Spotmatic to shoot.

This warms my heart!

Kodak brings back an iconic film! Ektachrome 100 returns!!

Lightbox Wednesday

Back in the days when I had a darkroom, I would routinely pull out sleeves of old negatives and throw them on my Portra-Trace lightbox. The Portra-Trace is a metal box which contains a cold light source inside and white translucent plexiglass on top. You place negatives or slides on top, the light would shine through them and you could decide which ones you wanted to print. I'd revisit old negatives and print them again or even discover negatives I hadn't printed before and give them a shot.

My lightbox and the darkroom are long gone, but I've been going through a similar process as I migrate my life over to a new MacBook Pro I bought over the holidays. My seven year old MacBook Air began dying a slow death in November, so rather than have a digital catastrophe, I began moving files to a G/Drive in anticipation of an orderly transition to the new laptop. In the process, I've been looking through lots of photographs I've taken sine re-entering film photography and it's reminded me of my darkroom light box days. Looking through these images again has been fun. So, in the spirit of the old analog lightbox days, I am launching a digital version every Wednesday here on the blog, sharing some of the photos I've shot since 2010.

Here's one from 2011 taken not long after I moved to Bodega Bay. I shot this with a Nikon F2 on Kodak Ektar 100 I think. One of the things this lightbox process has taught me is that I need to keep better notes on what camera, lens and film I use when I make photographs.

Miss Hailey, Bodega Bay CA, May 2011

Spa Time

One of my goals in 2016 was to show some love to the cameras in my collection that I enjoy using often. In most cases, this involved a CLA or Clean, Lubricate, Adjust.  With a few cameras, this required some more extensive repair and in one case, a modification.

If you enjoy using classic cameras, there is nothing quite like getting one back from the repair shop operating as close as possible to the way it was designed to. Knowing that you can head out for a day of photography with a  30, 40 or even 50 year old camera and depend on it to work flawlessly is very satisfying.

Modifications allow you to add some modern conveniences to old cameras making them more pleasant to use. And the more you use your cameras, the better it is for the camera and your photography skills.

I've used my trusted sources again this year: Sover Wong for Nikon F2 and Youxin Ye for Leica and Canon LTM. I've also tried three new repair shops and I'll share those experiences with you here on the blog in the New Year (just in case you're needing to send one of your cameras to the spa). Until then, Happy Holidays and all the best for 2017.

Nikon F2 with modified DP-11 finder

The Disregarded Normal f/2

Normal (50-55mm) f/2 prime lenses seem to be the most dismissed and disregarded of all the normal lenses for 35mm film photography. "Fast glass"...f/1.4, f/1.2 and even silly f/.95 lenses are sought after, bragged about and fetch the highest prices. The f/2 and, to a lesser extent, f/1.8 lenses were typically sold as kit lenses with SLR cameras during the film era. Like many gear-obsessed photographers, I have often found myself yearning for the fastest lens in a given focal length even when I rarely find myself in situations where I need to open my lenses all the way up.

When I started exploring Pentax M42 mount cameras and the extraordinary Super Takumar lenses of the Spotmatic era, I naturally opted for the 50mm f/1.4 Super Tak as my first Pentax screw mount lens. Based on my first few meager attempts at using the 1.4 and better yet, looking at what more talented photographers have posted on Flickr shooting this lens, the f/1.4 Super Takumar and Super Multi-Coated Takumar are probably right up there with some of the best lenses ever made for 35mm photography. Even today on digital cameras, these old Super Taks really perform. 

From my research, it seems that the Asahi Optical Company (Pentax) was very obsessed with Leica at this time. More than obsessed, they wanted to beat Leica in the quality of lenses. Well engineered and finely made, it is said that Pentax couldn't charge enough to re-coup their costs on the early Super Takumars. Having shot Lecia Summicron lenses, I will say that these Pentax lenses do have a unique, silky-smooth focus and satisfyingly clicky aperture ring. Why is all of this important? Well, a camera and a lens have to have a certain feel to them to get you to want to pick them up, hold them and shoot them. These Takumars really do!

One of my first Nikon lenses was a pre-Ai 50mm f/2 Nikkor. It's super sharp and it was super cheap. My latest f/2 normal lens is a 55mm Super Takumar that came mounted on a black Spotmatic SPII I bought. Having already acquired the 1.4 version of the 50 and the 1.8 version of the 55mm, I didn't give much thought to the slowest of the normal Super Takumars. The f/2 version of the 55mm lens was created as a less costly lens to bundle with Spotmatic bodies, but the quality-obsessed engineers at Pentax just couldn't find many ways to cut costs. I really think the engineers pulled the wool over the eyes of Pentax management because I can't find any difference between the feel and performance of this lens and the more costly Super Taks.

I took my black Spotmatic, this lens and a roll of soon to expire Portra 400 out for a walk on the Bill Kortum trail along the Sonoma Coast. It was a sunny day with some fog drifting in. Twenty feet down the trail, I came across this bird on a post.

I shoot far more black and white film than I do color and I am rarely satisfied with my color work, but when I got these scans back from the lab, I was very pleased. The colors delivered by the f/2 Super Tak are very pleasing to me and expressed the vision I had when I pressed the shutter.

The Kortum Trail crosses several wetland areas along the coast. In these areas, boardwalks have been created to protect the fragile environment.

I visit this trail often because it is close to my home, often affords nice photo opportunities and is a great place to clear my head. I often see people just standing along the cliffs, staring off into the ocean. Look closely at the photo below and you'll see someone doing just that.

I love the light fog and misty sea spray along the coast, but I've had a hard time capturing it properly on film. The 55mm f/2 Super Takumar is the first lens I have used that did an accurate job of capture.

The sun started getting low in the sky, so I headed back to the car. I spotted this couple posing for what I can only imagine were pre-wedding photographs. I didn't have time to meter, just dialed up what I thought would work and clicked the shutter. Despite the flare, this lens did an amazingly accurate job of capturing the late afternoon light and the scene as I saw it.

Back at the car, I snapped this shot of the Pacific. 

Back in town, I stopped to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. I tool this photo of some boats at the dock. I didn't compose well. Just clicked off the last frame on the 36 exposure roll. I don't even remember metering. When I got the scans back, this was the image that pleased me the most because it is a very good  example of what happens when a fine lens gets everything right. The colors in this shot are nearly perfect: the sun on the canopy of the boat in the foreground, the color of the orange buoys and the blue containers on the dock. The sky. Even the color of the water that day. The 55 f/2 Super Tak got it all right.

I don't know that I would have gone out looking for this lens. I probably never would have given the 55mm f/2 Super Takumar a second look if it didn't come mated to a body I was buying. This is a lens that handles so nicely, it wants you to shoot it. And it delivers images so nice, you certainly will. I love this lens!

Between The Storms

Of the six Autumns I have lived in Northern California, this one, the locals tell me, has been the most normal. I've only known California in drought, so the wet weather that filled the final weeks of October and two November storms are a new experience for me. It's been nice to see the reservoirs fill and the hills turn green. Between the storms, it's given me a chance to meander down to the beach on the weekends and use up film I had loaded in my Olympus OM-4 and Pentax Spotmatic.

Olympus OM-4 with 50mm f/1.8 Zuiko

Olympus OM-4 with 50mm f/1.8 Zuiko

The shots below were taken with my Pentax Spotmatic on Kodak Tmax 100 film. I was flipping back and forth between my 55mm f/1.8 Super Takumar and the 50mm f/1.4 Super Tak. I also just picked up a minty 55mm f/2.0 Super Takumar.

Less daylight means less weekday photography for me. It's dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark when I get home in the evening. Makes these weekend walks so precious.

Five Dollar Fun

When I wrote a while back about my Pentax Spotmatic camera, fellow blogger and photographer Mike Connealy mentioned in the comments section that I might like adding a close up lens to my Takumar lens kit. Doesn't take much more prodding than that to get me onto eBay looking at photo gear and I was quite surprised to find an OEM Asahi Pentax close up lens for five bucks with free shipping!  

Pentax Spotmatic SP II with Close Up Lens and Case

My filter arrived on a rainy day, so I took the opportunity to experiment a bit. The Spotmatic was loaded with Eastman 5222 Double-X black and white film which I was shooting at 200 ASA. My cameras are always a favorite photo subject of mine, so I shot my Nikon F2.

And my Dad's Kodak Retina.

Rain drops on my window...

My JCH film canisters, loaded with film for my trip to New York...

The latch on my porch gate...

And a Pentax lens on my desk...

Eastman 5222 is not the best choice for macro photography, but that is what was in the camera, so I went with it. I'm also a bit handicapped right now as I've been shooting with my left eye while I await cataract surgery on my right (shooting) eye, making focusing more difficult for me. It'll be nice to have that right eye back again.

Mike was right! This inexpensive little close up lens is going to be put to good use this winter as the rainy season envelopes the Sonoma Coast. Best five dollars I have ever spent. Thanks Mike!

Classic Cameras

It's taken me about six years of buying and selling and lots of trial and error to final settle in with a collection of classic film cameras that I enjoy using. When the weekend comes, I feel like the wealthy guy who has a garage full of classic cars--"Let's see, which one will I drive today?" My investment in vintage Nikon, Pentax, Canon and even Leica is modest in comparison to classic car collecting, but the hobby gives me priceless pleasure and satisfaction.

One Sunday a few weeks back, I headed up the Northern California coast a bit to Salmon Creek. Word around town was that a fishing boat had washed ashore on the beach there and I thought it might make a good photographic subject. I went to my "camera garage" and pulled out the Nikon F2A and 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor lens. The 1.8 is probably the most common manual focus normal Nikon lens and the least expensive, but I have always found it to be very sharp. Some of my favorite images have been shot with this lens.

The beached fishing boat was just a short walk from the parking lot at Salmon Creek. The day was nice enough, so I slipped off my sneakers and sunk my feet into the warm sand as I scrambled over the dune to the beach.

I'm used to seeing lots of fishing boats like this one at Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay. It was startling to see the sad Verna A II sunk into the sand, listing to port.

Beached Fishing Boat, Salmon Creek, Sonoma Coast

It was nice day and the beach was crowded. I am sure many of the people who came out to enjoy an early Autumn walk along the coast were surprised to see this boat stuck in the sand. It was hard to get a shot without lots of onlookers in the frame.

The Verna A II, home port Fort Bragg, CA

This was the first roll of film I had run through my Nikon F2A since getting her back from a Sover Wong tune-up. I think the F2A's old meter did a pretty good job helping me with my exposures on this slightly hazy day. The afternoon was perfect--a slight breeze and warm sunshine. I wandered down the beach and clicked off a few more frames of Tmax 100.

I feel that I am in sort of sweet spot now in my film photography hobby. I have a "garage" full of working vintage cameras, most of which have been restored to as designed functionality. It's fun to pick up a camera I haven't used in a while and get to know it again. While not as thrilling as taking a classic Porsche or an old American muscle car for a Sunday spin, my little collection of old cameras has provided hours of fun.

One Little Thing

With all that's going on in the world, it's easy to think that the little things just don't matter. It's a pretty big planet and it's hard to imagine something you or I can do that'll much make a difference anywhere. I think about that sometimes when I stop to separate my trash from the recyclables or make a conscious effort to use less water. At my age, at this point, do these little things really matter?

My thinking on all this got a kick in the butt last weekend as I stood in the drizzle on Scotty's Beach on the Northern California coast and watched volunteers from the Marine Mammal Center release rescued seals and sea lions back into the Pacific Ocean. Each year, scores of local volunteers respond to calls about injured animals. Once the calls come in, the Center responds and evaluates the sick or injured animal. Seals and sea lions that are treatable are transported to facilities in Sausalito where they are cared for and nursed back to health.

Once these treated animals have recovered, they are released back into the wild. During the release I witnessed, two sea lions and a harbor seal scampered happily down the sand and back into the ocean. Anyone who has visited the Northern California coast knows that the Pacific Coast Highway clings for dear life along the cliffs and beaches here. Parking is at a premium, but on this morning a local rancher opened up one of his pastures and volunteers escorted everyone through the cow pies for easy parking on the inland side of the highway. Several folks held taught a heavy rope so those not so sure footed could make a safe decent from the roadside down to the beach. About 50 or so onlookers shared umbrellas as a rare October storm blew through before clearing just a few minutes prior to the release.

Looking north up the Pacific Coast Highway at Scotty's Beach

My motor-driven Nikon F4 with a nice telephoto, loaded with some high speed color film would have been the better choice for this event, but I had no idea what I would be seeing that day and the rainy morning kept me from bringing my more valuable gear. My Pentax Spotmatic was loaded with Eastman 5222 black and white film so I grabbed that thinking I could keep it dry under my windbreaker. Excuse my exposures, messy compositions and flare from shooting into the sun which just broke through as the little harbor seal left his transport and headed home.

We were told to be quiet during the release so as not to distract the seal. Volunteers held wood boards to coax the animal back towards the sea if it ventured into the crowd. Outside of the sound of the surf, all I could hear were the people standing next to me gasping in amazement as the little patient made his way back into the water, finally disappearing into the foam. The crowd applauded and I looked around and watched people wiping tears from their eyes, everyone realizing at once how special what we had just witnessed really was.

Next up, the release of two sea lions which had been transported from Sausalito to Bodega Bay in a special container built by inmates at San Quentin Prison.

The folks from the Center told us that the two sea lions might touch noses, a sign of affection towards each other, as they headed towards the water. To everyone's delight, they did just a moment after I took this photo. No motor-drive...drat!

As they headed home, they would occasionally stop and survey the humans along the barrier ropes. I considered that maybe they were stopping to say "thank you." It's easy for us to try and transpose human thought and emotions on other creatures, but it didn't really matter. As strange as it may sound, for that moment, on that beach, I felt a bond. Mammals helping other mammals. And then, they were gone.

The crowd dispersed slowly, quietly. It was almost as if we had all attended a religious ceremony. It was for me. A representative from the Marine Mammal Center told us that the merchants down in Bodega Bay were donating a percentage of their profits that day to the Center and I saw familiar faces from the release event back in town, shopping and having lunch. I know, in the big scheme of things, returning a seal and two sea lions to the ocean doesn't change much, but it made me realize that people CAN individually and collectively do really good and important things. 

2016 has been a year of startling environmental awareness for me. As I drove into the Southern entrance of Yosemite and saw the effects of California's long drought on mountain vegetation or shot photos of crab fishing boats at Bodega Bay idled because warmer ocean waters grew algae that made the crab toxic, it's become evident to me that we need to take action...now.

All the good little things we do ARE important because they add up to big things.