Dark

Dark, a photo by Bruce Garner on Flickr.

I shot this of our friend Lauren the other night when she was over visiting my daughters.  I had gotten stagnant in my portrait shooting and  wanted to do something different from my normal style.  I was tired of the overly posed corporate head shot type photo.  I also wanted more contrast since my recent prints in the darkroom were very grey. I felt that her blonde hair would contrast nicely with a black background.  She gave me exactly the expression I wanted.

Lots going on

This post is going to make it sound like I'm made of money, but I'm not really.  It's just that I have several little projects going on at the same time.  I've been putting back a little cash, plus it's tax return season so it going to look like I'm spending more than I am.

First of all, I've ordered some new developers.  I've been using mostly Kodak HC-110 and a little Kodak D-76.  I had just about given up on the D-76 since I have to mix it up a gallon at a time and it starts going bad as soon as you mix it.  I like the HC-110 because of how easy it is to mix up for single roll use.  Sticking with that same idea I ordered some Adox Adonal, which is the same formula as the old Agfa Rodinal.  It's a very old formula that I've been wanting to try with some stand development.  I also have some Diafine coming.  It's a very interesting developer.  It comes in an A and B solution that is largely usable at any room temperature.  It's a compensating developer and doesn't necessarily develop at box speed.  You need to expose your film with the developer in mind.  Both have something different to offer me in the darkroom and both have very long shelf lives.  I look forward to trying them out.

Speaking of trying out.  I was reading a forum post about someone using some odd film.  It turns out they were talking about Kodak SO-331 High Contrast Pan Intermediate 35mm film.  It's supposed to be used as a motion picture film, but others have been using it in SLRs.  It ships in 1000 foot rolls as opposed to the normal 100 foot rolls I usually buy.  And it was cheap,  $41 after shipping.

1000' roll of film and a bulk loader.

I shot a few test frames to experiment with development in HC-110.  The results were better than I expected, but I don't have the exposure and development times nailed down yet.  I can't wait to try it out with the new developers I have coming.

Speaking of things I have coming.  The legs on the cheap tripod I bought a few years ago finally starting turning to mush.  The ballhead is still is good shape, so I ordered a new set of legs.  I should have a set of Manfrotto 294 legs here on Friday.  I'm also just about ready to order the new (old) film body I've been wanting, a Nikon FM2n.  I'll talk more about that later.

New old lens

A month or so ago, I got a new lens.  New to me at least.  I picked up a Zenzanon 150mm for my ETRS.  Here it is mounted on the body alongside my 75mm.  I'm hoping to pick up a 50mm in the next few months.  I'd really like a 40mm, but I don't think I'm willing to invest that much into it.

Bronica ETRS with 150mm f3.5 (mounted) and 75mm f2.8

Test photo of my daughter taken with the 150mm on my ETRS.  Light is natural from window left and a reflector on the right.

Talking to myself

I don't really expect many folks are reading this.  Outside of a few friends I send links to and a top secret government data mining project, I expect this to go largely unread.  Irregardless, I will type anyway.  BTW, did you know irregardless is not a word?

Since my other blog with all my photo ramblings got eaten by a giant internet worm, it won't do much good to refer to my old posts on this blog.  I'll give a brief description of my photography and see how it goes.

I took a photography class in class in high school.  I think it was my junior year, probably 1983-84.  I enjoyed the class a lot and learned to develop film and make silver prints in the dark room.  I learned a little about photography but didn't really pursue it outside of class assignments and working on the yearbook and school newspaper.  An opportunity wasted.

After a few years of college I took a job as a graphic artist, mostly creating newspaper advertisements.  And while over the years I worked closely with photos, it was some time before I decided to try my hand a expanding my photographic skills beyond taking family snapshots.  It wasn't until after my second daughter asked for an upgrade from the family's digital point-n-shoot to a digital SLR that my interest was rekindled.  We got her a Canon Digital Rebel and she proved to be quite talented with it.  I was jealous of her camera almost immediately, but I fought the bug for a while.  I eventually broke down and bought a Canon 40D a few lenses and a flash.  Then a tripod.  Then my first (and only, so far) L series lens.  Then I bought an Alien Bee monolight.  By this time I was actively reading photo books and blogs.  Then I picked up a cheap EOS 650 on eBay.  I started shooting film again.  Then I was given an enlarger and some other darkroom equipment and picked some more on Craigslist.  All the while I'm trying to learn as much as I can about both the science and art of photography.

Since then, I've expanded my film interest into both medium format and 35mm.   I've scored a Yashica Mat LM, a Bronica ETRS, several 35mm SLRs, and rangefinders. I've love to pick up a 4x5 or *gasp* dare I dream, an 8x10 large format camera.  I've mostly been shooting 35mm on a Minolta XG-7, but I have my eye on a Nikon FM2n.

I do photography because I enjoy it.  I do it for myself, and as tempting as it can be, I resist the urge to try and make money doing it.  Maybe one day, under the right circumstances I will, but for know I will leave shooting for money to the real pros.  I don't want to be another guy with a Facebook photography business that doesn't know an f-stop from a hole in the ground.  In my defense, I know what an f-stop is.  More or less.

iPad repaired.

A while back I dropped my iPad 2 from a height of about 3 feet onto some concrete.  I had a Smart Cover attached, but that was the only "protection" it had.  It landed right on the corner and ended up looking something like this.

I went to the Apple store and they wanted me to pay $319 for them to swap it out for a new one.  With Christmas coming up, I didn't have the extra cash to fix it so I waited a while before looking for other options.  I found several places selling replacement screens and I watched several "how-to" videos about replacing the screen myself.  I was just about ready to tackle fixing it myself when I stumbled upon iRepairNational.com.  Their service looked good so I gave them a shot and sent it off for repair the week before Christmas. Their price was $139.95.  Despite the timing, their turn around time was great.  The Post Office held the shipment longer than I would have liked, but I was very happy with the repair job.

You can seen where they had to reshape the corner to get the glass to fit correctly, which is just fine with me since I didn't want to have to replace the back as well as the front.  Overall I'm very happy with the job they did.

Controls Are In

My X-Arcade Tankstick arrived today and I dropped it into the cabinet.  I had to do a little work to get it to fit, but it's in.  I tested it out with a little Centipede.

I know the hard core cabinet builder will scoff at my addition of the pre-made controls, but it was the best fit for me right now.  I would like to eventually salvage the parts out of it and build my own, but I'll wait until after Christmas to break it.  I'm going to enjoy it with my kids a while first.

If you look closely you can see that I changed the way the marquee is mounted.  I went with aluminum retaining frames rather then the weaker pvc j-moulding I was using.  It's much stronger now and I don't have to worry about it falling apart.

I also installed two rails inside the monitor area to hold the bezel and front glass.

It's really coming together, a few more weekends and it will be basically done*.  I still need to enclose the speaker box area and clean up the keyboard drawer as well.

*I don't think projects like this are ever really done.

Coin Door

Earlier this week I got my coin door from X-Arcade.  Here is how it looks.

 I was impressed by the quality of the door.  It seems to be well made.  The coin return has a red LED that has it's own AC adapter attached.  The coin mech seems to work well, it accepts quarters and rejects other coins.   I haven't tested the microswitch yet, but I expect it to work.

The Tankstick I ordered last weekend is on back-order but I should have it in another week to 10 days.  Then I can wire the coin door into the controls.