Week 5 - Pinhole Blender Mini 120 (CotW)

Well, week 5 of Camera of the Week got off to a bad start. After days and days of dark grey skies and snow, I finally took the Blender out for some fun. I also decided to shoot with a zone plate instead of the pinhole. Unfortunately, with the roll of film inside (ISO 400) and the aperture of f/64, the exposures were less than 1 second. That is quite difficult when your shutter is a piece of gaffer tape! There were light leaks on most of the roll caused by opening up the can and... OOPS ...finding a roll of film in there. The color on the roll wasn't very colorful, so I changed it to black and white... I definitely will take this out again in the spring!



This week's camera is the Golden Half Chelsea Maika edition. Stay tuned...

Week 1 - P-Sharan (Camera of the Week)

The week of January 10-16 was the first week of my "Camera of the Week" challenge. Of course, it would happen that the P-Sharan was the first out of the bag (literally). That has been the camera that I've been using almost exclusively since I got her. Ah well, that was the chosen camera. Not too much exciting to talk about, except when I got that roll of film back, pressed it against the window of the van to see it better, my breath was taken away.... I am amazed EVERY time I unroll that film. Everything looks lovely through that pinhole...



I'm using the Agfa Clack this week... Stay tuned!

And So It Goes...

I am still working steadily on the book, "Impressions through a Pinhole". I've also installed BookSmart from Blurb, where I'll be publishing the book. I've started playing with the layout of the images and have found that many fit so well as a double page spread. I am thinking that I will single out my favorites or the strongest images on a spread of their own.

I am going to have these professionally scanned so I can make decent size prints of them (the negative is smaller than 35mm) and hopefully find a venue for a solo show once the book is done.

I have just recently gone through another roll from the P-Sharan and got 5 images out of the 16, so this has really gotten my excitement going again. I have nearly 25 images to choose from now. And now for another sneak preview...

No Mo SoFoMoBo

As my faithful readers know, I signed up for SoFoMoBo way back when with the full intention of completing a photo book of 30 images in just 31 days. Well, I'm just 6 days to the end of my "month" and I have 15 images that I just absolutely LOVE and 15 images that I haven't even seen, yet. So, what to do? Well, I have decided that I will not be finishing the SoFoMoBo book. It is not because I am Giving Up. It is simply because I do not want to make a book filled with images that are just "OK" to me. But, SoFoMoBo has been an incredible jumping off point for what I am going to be doing. With these 15 images that I have already (all from the P-Sharan, of course), I will be completing a book by the end of the summer. It will be the book I wanted to make for SoFoMoBo, but with the time, effort, and creativity needed for the quality book I will be proud of. So, keep watching the blog for previews of the images for "Impressions Through a Pinhole".

I love my P-Sharan pinhole

I know, I've gone on about this camera before. But, this camera is just giving me dead on exposures every time (and I mostly use the helpful little suggestions printed on the back). And that ghostly quality of them, is just to die for. ;) But, I mentioned in an earlier post about participating in SoFoBoMo 2009 and I've been thinking about how I was going to accomplish this task. I think I've decided to dedicate the whole project to the pinhole images I make with the P-Sharan. The most obvious obstacle, and biggest, of course, is the time it will take between making the images and waiting for the processing. Maybe this will get me back down in the darkroom for home processing. At least, I won't be waiting 2-3 days... This will put a crunch on at the end of the month, I suspect. But, seriously, how could I shoot with anything else???

SoFoBoMo 2009

I was reading Matt Allen's Photo blog this afternoon and he mentioned an event for photographers SoFoBoMo similar to the NaNoWriMo event for writers. So, in a nutshell, you have 31 days to make 35 images and create a PDF book of them. So, since I have been wondering about my project for the year and finding some sort of idea recently, I am going to take this opportunity to create something tangible that may actually turn into an actual paper book! We'll see. Thanks, Matt, for the info!!

Trees in the Wind...

It's funny to look back at my photography just 7 or so years (postcards) and to see how different I see things now (abstract? or impressionist?). It seems the less discernible things in the photograph, the more I "see" in it. I was enjoying the backyard in this very windy, yet warm, winter day with my dogs and my daughter. I liked all the movement of the trees (while hoping they wouldn't fall on the house!), so I grabbed the D70s with the pinhole body cap and tried to capture the feeling of the afternoon. This one really struck me...

Sifting and Sorting

I'm still going through the negs from last weeks trip to the Fredericksburg Battlefied Cemetery. Seems the P-Sharan was the winner of the day with quite a few images I'm pleased with. The P-Sharan SQ-35 has 4 different photographic "styles" (regular pinhole, "soft focus", regular pinhole w/ vignette, "soft focus" w/ vignette). I was playing around with all of them that day and I'm liking the regular pinhole w/ vignette. I've noticed that the "soft focus" leaves a little ray of circles (like the pattern of the soft focus pinhole) and I'm not too fond of that. Besides, handholding the camera gives everything a soft focus, right?

I've Found It

I've been trying to find a photographic project for myself. And it seems that I've been going about it in all the wrong way. You see, I've been thinking subject, subject, subject. Well, I've found my project and it turns out, I should have been looking for feeling, feeling, feeling. So typical of me.

My inspiration...

Around the Yard

It was an unusually warm day for February. So, Alexis and I spent the afternoon putsing around the yard. We threw the ball for Moose, filled the bird feeders, hung the corn for the squirrels (who've eaten through a bird feeder to get to those seeds), and built a nest in the yard for a very large baby bird (Alexis). All in all, a very productive day. Don't even get me started about the frenzy of dessert making that I did this morning... I took out the Nikon D70s with the digital pinhole bodycap and made some images. Mostly, crap, but fun nonetheless.

I need a project...

Seriously... For this last year, my husband and I have been trying to get a business going and I've really put off any serious projects. My last big project was my solo show back in May 2007. I just cannot imagine another year of a little of this, a little of that, with nothing significant to show at the end. I am a goal oriented person, too. I am really not motivated without one. I cannot just go out and make a coherent portfolio with no "end" result. So, the next few days are going to be used to figure out what that goal is. In the meantime, I'll be shooting with my toys, enjoying flickr, knitting, and taking a metal clay jewelry workshop... See? No direction...

And all this has nothing to do with these two cute critters...

The first roll from the P-Sharan...

I finally had a day to take my new P-Sharan out for a test drive. It was sunny, it was relatively warm (not that cold would have stopped me now), and I was *not* sick in bed, and I had plenty of people to look after my daughter. And I have to say the first roll was a total success. Nearly all the images that I remember taking were exposed relatively well and were just what I'd expect from a pinhole camera.... Blurry! Seriously, I was very happy with the first results. It's loaded with a roll of black and white film now and I'm going to try the cool filters it came with (soft focus & vignetted edges). Expect more from this lovely camera...

Fall...

Well, fall was here and now is nearly over. Our trees in the yard seemed to be quite uninspiring this year. But, as I explored a little further, I noticed this tiny fire red maple in the woody area of our yard.

Driving Rain...

Well, I have arrived home from lovely (and warm) St. Pete Beach, Florida safe and sound. The drive was long and very boring. I am notorious (at least to my family) for my car sickness and my inability to sleep in a car. I am rarely ever a passenger and I NEVER ride in the back seat of any vehicle (unless I have an unobstructed view of the windshield). But, a 13 hour ride does mean down time. So, to entertain myself, I just took long exposures through the rainy windshield of the car. And from about 100 shots, I actually liked one.

Those tall trees...

I was out in this beautiful unusually cool August day (76 degrees!!) making some images with the digital pinhole. Funny, how you go out with an idea and end up coming back with something completely different than you started with. I started playing with panning the camera up while looking at the many pine and tulip trees (two very tall types of trees) in our back yard. I like the vertical-ness (hmm... maybe I should have held the camera vertical!) of the image that wasn't planned...

Back to the Lensbaby

I had a friend out to the country today for a visit with her daughter. She's also a photographer in the Fredericksburg, VA area. So, while she was out here I showed her some of my cool toys, including the Lensbaby 3G. She loved it SO much, she left with the intention of buying one for herself. So, since it was on the camera, I decided to take some shots this evening. I've been taking SO many pictures of pretty flowers, I decided it was time for a change...

Snapped on the Pinhole...

Well, after playing "macro" with my compact point & shoot camera for quite a few days, I decided to snap on the NO DUST digital pinhole bodycap from Pinhole Resource on to my D70s. So, the past few days have been full of blurry flowers and mushrooms instead of crystal clear ones. Ha, ha... I'm having fun and that is all that matters. Here is the blurry picture of the day!!

Ah... The Beauty...

My father has again purchased a Harley Davidson. He's had "quite a few" according to Mom... But, I got to go with him to the dealership to pick it up today and while I was waiting, I snapped a few with my Lensbaby 3G of some of the show bikes. This is one of my favorites and it is when they brought his bike out from the back.

Ok, 1 year anniversary?

Yeah, it's been nearly 1 year since my last post! Yikes? Why is it that this is so hard. Is it because I'm a visual person not a verbal person. Ha, ha. Ask my husband. I think he would disagree about the verbal part. Ah, well. My goal is to maybe write at least once a week? Maybe write about each picture I post to flickr because shit, I'm there all the time? It's late (12:09 am) and I need to be up at 6 am because that's when the girl (daughter) gets up. Here is the pic of the day!