Where should I bring the film cameras tomorrow? I was thinking of downtown Lowell, or downtown Andover, or any other place that I mentioned 20 times in blog posts over the last week.
But… what about Boston? Early on a Sunday morning before anyone gets up or anyone who isn’t insane drives into town. Do I dare?
Here’s a pic from Disney World because I think my film only blog is dead now that reblogging was screwed up by a WordPress.com code change that no one asked for. Or at least one that I didn’t ask for.
I thought this morning was going to be a bust. I got up to Hampton Beach in plenty of time to catch the sunrise, but there were clouds covering the horizon. Lots of them. I thought I had wasted a morning. I didn’t though. Gravitational lensing and all that? Could be.
I took a few shots before the appointed sunrise time, just because I was there and the ocean was there and we were there together and why not, right?
The waves were super wimpy, but the sky was just spectacular. I set up the tripod and put the digital camera on it for some long exposures. I’m not sure why, but none of them came out. I used shutter priority and set the time to 30 seconds. I didn’t try anything shorter than that so it’s my fault, but at least I can blame the… shit… I forgot to drop the ISO down to 100. I keep it set at 800 when I am at home. Okay. I can’t blame shutter priority, it was all my fault. Sorry about that, folks.
Anyway, I took out the ebay Nikon with Dad’s zoom lens and I was putzing around with that when suddenly I noticed the freakin’ sun was visible, popping out of the water. I guess I didn’t waste the morning after all!
Success! Two sunrise shoots in less than one week. I think I am set for sunrise at the ocean pics for a while then. Excellent.
One thing that’s fun at this spot on Hampton Beach is catching the sun reflecting off the windows across the street. It was less impressive than other visits but it was okay. I was missing my old zoom lens at this point, but I had a zoom on the film camera so I may get a good view when I get the film developed at some point in the vastly distant future.
I took a bunch of sun and water shots with the film camera. I expect they will all suck, mostly because the light meter on the Nikon FG-20 is a bitch to read. Manually focusing with that camera is also a bitch, but everything I was looking at was at infinity so that made it easier. Hopefully everything will come out okay, but we’ll have to wait and see.
I had planned to make a second stop on this morning’s photography adventure. I was going to go to downtown Lowell and walk around with one of the film cameras. Unfortunately for my plans my bladder was kinda full. I changed plans to stop at a spot in Andover where you can get up close to a railroad track, but I needed to change from route 495 South to route 93 South and I accidentally got on route 93 North, which is the way to get home. I was kind of on autopilot because I was listening to the live tracks on the deluxe edition of Rush Permanent Waves because today is Geddy Lee’s birthday and I guess I just distracted myself.
I decided I would go home, pee, and then go out for some car music. When I got home, Jen suggested I go back to bed because it was only 6:30am or so and I was going to need a nap at some point, so I went back to bed for a couple of hours and then did car music.
ADDENDUM: Yup, this is my last reblog. Now the question is, does the film blog die a slow death as the main blog starts getting all the film posts? That seems likely. Thanks for nothing, wordpress.com.
Addendum: WordPress.com seems to have changed the reblog editor. Doesn’t this just suck? Next time I’ll put the image first and see how that goes, but if it’s not going to display the image in the reblog snippet, I am not going to cross post anymore. The image is the whole point. Shit.
I tried to take this photo using my ebay Nikon with my father’s zoom lens. After I took it, I set my Z5 with the same settings and took a digital version. The differences are image stabilization and auto focus, both of which the digital camera and lens have but the film camera and lens do not have. This looks okay, focus-wise. The film shot? It’s going to be a shaky, messy, waste of a shot.
Oh well.
I did the same thing with this shot of Lily, and the results are going to be the same. Okay on digital, horrid disaster on film. Bank on it.
Two things to note. First, we’re going back to Disney World in September. It’ll be just for a few days and I haven’t decided if I am bringing a film camera again. Second, I sent two rolls of film to the lab! New film shots coming soon, I hope!
I went back to Plum Island today to take a film shot or two of the lighthouse. I took some digital pics as well because why not? I walked over to the river this time because the lighthouse itself is boring and uninteresting. I saw some chartered fishing boats loading up. It was cool. The Merrimack River is HUGE here, right near the point where it empties into the ocean.
I used Dad’s camera and finished off the roll that I originally loaded up around Christmas. I might send it off to a lab today. I think I have one other roll that’s ready to go as well. Maybe a trip to the post office is time well spent on my last day off this month.
There you have it though, the highlights from this morning’s photo excursion. When will I do another? Not tomorrow, as it is a work from the office day. After that? Who knows.
Success! The cloud cover was non-existent and the weather came through for me! This is Salisbury Beach in Salisbury, Massachusetts. Sunrise was at 5:27am. The first few were before the sun came up. The waves were pretty high for this spot. The tide was pretty high too. I was hoping to be able to go over to the other side of the pier, but I didn’t bother.
To quote Jimi Hendrix, the first rays of the new rising sun
There were film shots too but it could be decades before I get them developed. I used my ebay Nikon with Dad’s zoom lens. That lens really is a piece of shit, but I kinda want to have one full roll shot with it. We’ll see if anything comes out recognizable as sunrise at the ocean pics. I definitely got to get myself a new lens for that camera.
Right then, I have finally done a photo-trip this summer! There were two more quick stops, but you’ll see those in the next post. You might say I have the bug again. There will be more morning photo-jaunts before the weather goes bad. I promise. Sunlight be damned, I am doing more of this!
I’m back from my beach photo stop. I took my first long exposures with my new camera and lens! They are all 30 seconds, and they are all the same view as I didn’t bother moving the tripod much. Enjoy!
Inside the Red Head's Head 