Tag: film

Camera for a Day

One day in Manhattan. Maybe better described as most of one day in Manhattan.

That’s the plan. Drive to someplace in Connecticut that has rail access to NYC. Stay overnight. Take a train into the city tomorrow morning, early. Stay for most of the day. Sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, take a train back to where we started and then drive home.

That leaves two questions. First, what do we do while we’re there. Second, which cameras do I bring?

To answer the first question, we’ll probably just go where the xmas decorations take us. This trip is an attempt at forcing some holiday spirit onto our grinchy, scroogy selves. To answer the second question… I am not sold on anything yet except that I will not be bringing my new medium format camera. I need to run a roll through it to make sure it works before I bring it anywhere of consequence. I just have to get off my ass and do it. So it’s down to the digital Nikon Z5, and the 35mm Pentax K1000, and Nikon FG-20. Both of the film cameras have partially shot rolls. The K1000 is down to the last handful of shits on a roll of Kentmere 400, which is Black and White, and the FG-20 has most of a roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200.

I think I want to bring the K1000 (my father’s camera) and a couple of rolls of color film. I have a handful of ColorPlus that I could bring. I would only bring one or two. I don’t want to spend all of my time fudging with film. At least… assuming I bring the digital camera too. My thought though… do I want to even bring the digital camera? I mean, I do. I want to bring it literally everywhere I go. On this occasion though? There’s a little part of me that is considering going film-only this time.

I don’t know… I am thinking about it.

Black and White Photo a Day

I decided to make today’s pointless photo a day photo black and white. Why? Because my new 40ish year old eBay camera purchase is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, and the first roll of film I bought to test drive it with is also going to be delivered tomorrow and it’s black and white film.

See how everything ties together? I hope the camera works. I hope I don’t screw up my first roll of 120 film. I hope I don’t find that I hate using a TLR camera. I hope I have a chance to shoot the roll (the camera shoots 120 film in square format which I think means I only get 12 shots per roll. We’re going to need to make these suckers count!) soon so that I can send it out to get it developed and see if the camera actually works. I didn’t pay much for it so if it doesn’t work I will be pissed off but I won’t be pissed off, if you dig where I’m coming from.

Anyway, here is today’s pointlessly black and white pointless photo a day pic.

72/365

Toy Cameras

I really want to try medium format film, but I don’t have a medium format camera and I really don’t want to spend any noteworthy amount of money on one.

Should I get a Holga (a cheap plastic toy camera that just happens to shoot medium format film) just to dip my toes into the water, so to speak? Will that turn me off of the whole thing, or will it send me spiraling down a rabbit hole that my bank account and I will never recover from?

Why can’t I just make a decision?

On an unrelated note, our drive to Vermont to see the kids tomorrow has been postponed for one day. That should not make me sad (we’ll see them Sunday instead of Saturday) but it really makes me sad. I think I might be overtired. Everything is getting to me right now. Go take a nap, Robert.

Post Office

I made it to the Post Office this morning before work. My five rolls of film that are ready to develop are on their way West, heading to the lab. I won’t start feeling all giddy and excited until I get a notification saying the package has arrived. Then I’ll start refreshing my order status all day long, waiting for word that the scans are done.

Nerd boy over here is about to get nerdy.

Here’s the clock from downtown. Heading South toward the post office:

And here’s the clock again, this time heading North toward home:

Finally, today’s photo a day photo submission is this view from behind the post office parking lot. Somewhere I have pictures of this gazebo that aren’t through the trees from a nearby parking lot. Maybe I’ll dig one out and share it. Later.

38/365

Film

All right, red head. It’s time to get off your ass and shoot some film. Enough procrastinating. Enough saying you’re going to do stuff and then don’t. Damn it!

I have four rolls of film ready to develop. Most of it is from our Disney trip back in May/June. There are a couple of shots that are actually from Fathers Day and they are likely the last pictures I will ever have of my dad. It’s time to get the friggin’ things developed.

But…

I have a roll in my Nikon that is nearly finished. I should shoot the rest of that first and then get five rolls developed, right? I also have a roll in my Pentax. I should shoot through that and then get all six developed, right? Right?

Damn it! I am procrastinating around my procrastination! Get off your faux-photographer ass, red head!

Sunrise at the ocean tomorrow is 6:47am and the forecast calls for mostly clear skies. That does it. I’m going pitcher shootin’ tomorrow. Go to the ocean, bang out the roll in the Nikon, take some digitals, come down the coast to the usual places like the Plum Island light house and bang through the roll in the Pentax along with some more digitals. Then if I still have film left, hit a few places in my town and work through the rest of it.

I am working in the office on Monday so I won’t be able to get to the post office. Tuesday I am working at home though, so by Tuesday morning we’ll have an order placed at some photo lab and I’ll drop everything off for shipping before work.

I have spoken. Make it so. This is the way.

In closing, here’s a shot of the Spicket Falls Damn in Methuen that I shot on Kentmere 100 film with my Nikon FG-20. Just because film is cool in a nerdy retro faux artistic bullshit way.

191006760020_###

So Close, Yet So Far

Today has been an okay work day for a last day before a vacation kind of day. I still have one hour and 42 minutes to go before said vacation, but I will get there.

I’m starting to sort of chomp at the bit though.

Today has been busy without being stressful. I have had a lot of things to do but none of them have been high pressure or high profile or anything like that. Just a bunch of administrative type things. The customers have been quiet so I have been able to focus on things that need to get done. I am thankful for that.

The Great Pink Floyd Reverse Order Playlist is now back to Animals from 1977. Great record with some absolutely outstanding guitar playing from David Gilmour.

Endless River – Complete
Division Bell – Complete
A Momentary Lapse of Reason – Complete
The Final Cut – Complete
The Wall – Complete
Animals – Currently playing track two, “Dogs”
Wish You Were Here – Up next
Dark Side of the Moon – On double deck but I probably won’t get to it today.

What else should I mention for the benefit of some future version of me looking back at Friday the 13th of September 2024 out of some sense of boredom or a this-day-in-history kinda thing?

The weather at the ocean for the next week looks excellent, according to the long range forecast I just checked. I think a sunrise photo session is a given. I hope to finish off a couple of rolls of film while I’m at it. I still have three rolls from Disney back in May that I have to get developed. I’d really like to spend a day in Boston if I can, but who knows if that will work out.

I am also going to my Dad’s place tomorrow morning to fill up a few boxes with books to donate to the public library in Tewksbury. They are having a donation drive tomorrow and they can have whatever they want from Dad’s book stash. If there is anything they won’t take (why?) I will bring them to Goodwill or something.

Those things, plus some music, plus spending a ton of time hanging out with the love of my life, plus helping the kids out with something next weekend… I think I have my staycation pretty much planned. 86 minutes to go until it starts.

Another New Film Camera?

I wrote something the other day about the new Pentax 17. The first new Pentax film camera developed since the 1840’s (approximately). I love the idea of it but it’s half frame and zone focusing and more expensive than I was hoping (though just about as expensive as I figured it would be). Also, the camera I took from my father when we cleaned out the house is a Pentax so that seemed fitting somehow.

I won’t be buying one. At least not for a while. I want either an SLR or a point and shoot. They say they are working on both of those, but I’ll just have to wait and see.

Turns out there is another new film camera on the way. It’s a point and shoot with autofocus and it’s not half frame. That sounds awesome! It’s called the Rollei 35AF though I guess it isn’t made by Rollei? Whoever makes it is just licensing the name? I guess. Also it’s going to cost 200-300 more than than Pentax 17 so… yikes. Again, way more than I want to spend, but probably just what I would have expected to spend. This is more like what I would like to invest in, though I would still much rather get a new SLR that would have little side benefits like repairability and warrantees and fun stuff like that.

Still, it’s intriguing. We’ll see.

Stuff

All this talk of the new Pentax half frame camera has me wanting stuff. What kind of stuff? I don’t know, stuff.

I’d like a bunch of new lenses for my mirrorless camera. I’d like a bunch of new lenses for my two film cameras. I’d like to get my hands on a decent medium format camera. Rather than stepping down the resolution with a half frame camera, let’s up the resolution with a great big honkin’ 120 film. Maybe a Pentax 67 or something. I think an old (ancient) folding camera would be cool. Maybe a Zeiss Ikonta. The downside being that these cameras were initially manufactured in Germany prior to World War II which means there may have been slave labor involved. I would have to make sure the manufacture date of any camera I bought would be post-war. Just for my own piece of mind.

I want a new guitar. A Les Paul Junior. A Les Paul Special. A Les Paul Deluxe. A Firebird. An ES-135. An ES-125. An ES-355. I want a new amp. A Marshall 1962. A Marshall Plexi. A Mesa Boogie California Tweed. A tweed 4×10 Fender Bassman. A tweed Fender Deluxe.

I want a new MacBook Pro. I want a new iPhone, but not a 15. I’m willing to wait for the 16.

Forgive the conspicuous consumerism. I am just in a retail therapy kinda mood for some reason. Not honestly though. I’m saving my pennies for not one but two future trips to Disney World. Well… that and getting film developed. There won’t be any money left over after those two things.

Still…

I want. I want. I want.