Tag: dad's camera

Record Every Month

I have three songs underway for this month’s Record Every Month challenge. As of this evening two of them are ready for vocals. There may be car music tomorrow.

It’s supposed to be nice and sunny tomorrow morning too so photos are a possibility. It’s going to be cold though. No ocean, but maybe around town? Can I do car music and golden hour pics in the same morning? Maybe we will find out. I have about 18-20 shots left in the roll that’s in Dad’s camera. I’d like to finish that off before I start using the fresh roll that’s in my camera. If I go out with a camera it will be Dad’s with the 50mm lens.

We will have to see what time I get up tomorrow. I’ll let you know.

How Did it Go

So based on the previous post you may know that I went to the beach this morning to shoot the sunrise with Dad’s camera. How did it go? Did I learn anything new?

Last night I checked the weather forecast for Hampton Beach, NH on weather.com. It said the skies would be clear and the sunrise would be at 5:13am. The first part of that was accurate. The second part… not so much. The Dark Skies app said that sunrise in Methuen would be at 5:13. I wonder if somehow the weather.com app got confused and gave me local sunrise time instead of the time for the location I was viewing?

I got out of bed at 4:20 or so, which was 20 minutes later than I planned. I got dressed quick, grabbed my stuff, forgot the bottle of gatorade I put in the fridge last night, and hit the road. Waze was telling me I should get there with a few minutes to spare. It was almost right. There’s a draw bridge just before you enter the Hampton Beach area and the bridge went up just as I was getting to it. That plus the inaccurate sunrise time did it. I was late. The sun was breaking the horizon at about 9:10 or so, and I didn’t get down to the beach until a minute or so later.

It was also high tide, and my usual spot was both under water and crowded with people. In the post Covid world, a crowd of people is three. At least it is to me. I boogied down to the next beach entrance and had a nice spot all to myself. I took a few pics and then attempted some long exposure fun.

The most the camera can do is one second, but it also has a bulb mode where the shutter will stay open as long as you hold the shutter release down. Unfortunately for me, actually holding the thing down means the image will be shaky because my hands will be shaky. That’s why I bought a cheap little shutter release cable. You screw it onto the button on the camera, and then you can control the shutter without actually touching the camera. It also locks itself so you can push it, let go, wait for as long as you need, then release it.

I made one super dumb ass goof in this process. I tried three long exposures. About 30 seconds, about 15 seconds, and a ridiculous three minutes. Unfortunately, with the sound of the ocean a few feet away, the sound of the cable triggering sounds pretty similar to the camera triggering so after the first shot I didn’t notice that I forgot to advance the film. Same thing happened after the second shot. I only noticed the third time because I took the camera off the tripod and tried to use it normally. Sooooo I set it up again (after moving back a few feet, the tide was getting close to me) and did it right.

I finished the roll with some shots of the waves and the sun hitting the wet sand. I will be completely shocked if anything I did today looks decent, but I finished a roll of 24 and unloaded the camera without any problems, and setup a new roll (Kodak ColorPlus 200, 36 exposures) and I am ready for whatever is next. Probably pictures of the cat.

I think I am done with film projects for a while now. I’ve shot three rolls successfully, including the one that was in the camera when I took possession of it, and I haven’t seen a single image yet. Two rolls were dropped off at CVS and the third just went into the desk drawer that I use for photography stuff. This whole lack of instant feedback thing is actually stressing me out a little. If I had a digital camera with me today I’d already be posting the results. Now? Who the hell knows if I’ll ever get anything useable back?

Film man… film.

Bag

Dad’s camera has a bag of its own now.

The main pocket has the camera, the second lens, and a three pack of Fuji film. The front pocket has a little remote shutter cable that I found super cheap on Amazon and the ND filter I use with my Nikon. It doesn’t screw onto either of Dad’s lenses, but it does fit over them all snug like. I think it will be okay to use so long as there are no earthquakes.

The forecast for the coast at sunrise tomorrow calls for clear skies. If it stays that way, I am going. I am going and I am only bringing Dad’s camera. I’ll probably only use the 50mm lens, and I will only take a couple of cracks at long exposure, and I will only use the 24 shot roll that’s in the camera now. I just want to see how things look.

Last night I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on tips for film beginners. They all said don’t use drugstores like CVS to develop your film. I have been trying to get Google to tell me if I have any actual film labs in my area, but I don’t think I do. There is one in Methuen but their website says they no longer process film. I’m going to have to find an online service and ship to them. Or… I can just use CVS. I have two rolls there already (one will hopefully be coming back to me soon) so maybe I am just stuck with them.

I was also hoping to hit the Salvation Army store in Salem to see if they had any cameras on the cheap, but they are closed Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday. I think I will have to punt until next week. I also clearly remember going to a huge Goodwill (I think) store somewhere around here. It might be in Manchester. We donated the kids’ bikes there when we remodeled the garage. I just can’t remember exactly where it was, and Jen doesn’t remember it at all.

Google, my friend, don’t fail me now!

Film

My sister was at my parents house in Tewksbury today cleaning out one of the dressers. She sent a text to me and my brother. She said she found Dad’s old Pentax 35mm camera, do either of us want it?

HELL YES, I WANT IT!

I don’t think it works. I seem to remember it was a pain in the ass to use. I don’t care, I want it.

A film camera. I had a little point and shoot film camera back in 2000 or so. I took it to a Halloween party and one of the people I was with dropped it and broke it. I got it fixed and let my parents take it to Las Vegas with them and one of them dropped it (on top of the Hoover Dam) and broke it again. That was the end of my film camera experience.

Can you still buy rolls of film? Can you still get film developed? Will I have to learn how to do it myself? How much do those funky red lights and stuff cost?

I am willing to bet that if I take this camera home with me, it will never get used. It’s still totally worth it though. I seem to remember Dad letting me use it at Niagara Falls. I think Jen and I will have to go back there so that I can relive that memory.

Say cheese.