Birthday Cake

Tonight we celebrated my Dad's birthday. My Dad is the greatest Dad in the world - I know a lot of people probably think this about their dads, but they would be wrong, because my Dad is. Anyways - I of course documented this event with one of my cameras - kind of the way that I document every event in my life - by taking photographs with it. My niece decorated the cake - pretty nice job, eh?

Flowers and Bees

This morning I stopped at the Overlook Trail on Sackett Avenue on my way to work - my goal was to catch some morning light with a view. Unfortunately I was a little too late the and the light was already to harsh for what I had in mind. But when I got back to the parking lot I found the real action. The wild flowers planted there were attracting tons of bees - I spent a while doing my best to capture a bee in flight. The above is my favorite. I also snapped some photos of the really pretty flowers - I can't believe I hadn't noticed them before.

Sensia Part 2

Here is more of the roll of Fuji Sensia 100 that I wrote about yesterday. These shot were taken on a hike on the Towpath Trail from the Peninsula Trailhead and at a Farmer's Market in Howe Meadow. I wrote yesterday that Sensia was Fuji's consumer slide film that had been discontinued - today we received the unfortunate news that Fuji's Provia has been discontinued too - one of their "pro" slide films. They also announced the discontinuation of Neopan 400 - a great black and white film that I have shot about 4 rolls of recently. I still believe that film will be with us for a long while but it is a bummer to see the varieties shrinking so much - an understandable bummer though. The cost to make small volumes of film in factories designed for such huge scale production has to be going through the roof - I can see how it only makes sense for the remaining analog companies to cut back on the different varieties and focus on the core "sellers". The only thing that can be done to help film is to keep buying it!

Fujichrome Sensia Part 1

I dug in to my fridge and pulled out another roll of expired slide film - Fujichrome Sensia 100. Before being discontinued Sensia was considered Fuji's consumer slide film - a slightly warm/for all situations film known for exceptional sharpness. Mine came out with some slight color casts do to it being well expired - not nearly as much as the expired Elite Chrome I just shot but fairly similar. They were both expired by the same amount of time but I have no idea how they were stored. Old professionals probably wouldn't like the "effects" or color shifts from expired slide film but I enjoy the randomness of the results. If perfect color rendition is the goal than the digital camera is the choice. I think its strange how people equate film as being more "real life" than digital - digital has made it possible to reproduce colors more accurately than any film ever could - just because some photographers push the saturation and sharpness through the roof with Photoshop doesn't mean it wasn't done with film too - check out my post on Velvia 50 - nothing "real" about that.

Expired Elite Chrome

These photos are from a roll of Kodak Elite Chrome 100 that I shot with my Pentax K1000 - I bought the film at an estate sale and it is 8 years expired. The exposure of the film seemed fine but it had a very purpleish color-cast - having shot fresh Elite Chrome before I assume this is due to its age. I did tone it down a bit in Photoshop though - it was too much. The Pentax worked well for me again - its such a great, simple, SLR. This roll spans a few weeks so enjoy the variety.

Oh Deer!

I snapped these three fellows when the roamed through our backyard and into the neighbor's. I had to shoot into the light so it didn't make for the best quality shot but I thought it was still pretty cool - I just bumped the contrast in Photoshop. We have been using a spray called 'Repels-All' to try and keep the deer from eating our garden - it has worked fairly well - they got some cucumber plants and a few peach tree branches but I would give the spray my recommendation. We would probably have nothing without it.

Pastache!

I made homemade pasta for dinner tonight - and Laura tried it on for size!! 

The light amount of photos I've been posting the last few weeks is due to all the rain and the fact that I've been mostly shooting film - I have a lot of that to get developed and it will be posted early next week... I also started a tumblr last month- which I don't think that I have ever mentioned - so here is the link.(none of the photos on the tumblr appear on this blog)

The Garden Post-Storm

Our little garden weathered  the storm pretty well. A little bit of propping up and pruning here or there but no major damage. We were thankful our resilient little plants continue to hang on! If the forecast holds and we actually get all this sun it should really take off. The above photo is of our cucumbers - the deer tried to get them once but the cucumbers made a comeback and are in bloom. Deer/animal spray is a must here!
I shot all of these photos at ISO 1250 - again showing how great Photoshop has become at converting RAW images.  

The Great Flood of 2013

Or "Saving Laura From the Great Flood of 2013"

Sunless Summer

I think I'm going to burst if I can't get some sunny, dry weather and a trip to the Valley in soon.  This Summer is shaping up to be an endless Spring...
Anyways - editing these photos I shot a few weeks ago with the Pentax K1000 on Kodak UltraMax helped cheer me up. Enjoy!

Miranda at the Ribfest

Here are the promised analog photos from the Akron Ribfest. I shot these with a Miranda D and Kentmere 400 film. It was the first time I had used any of my Miranda's and I found focusing a bit tricky at first - the 'D' is the only SLR I've used so far without split image focusing. I managed to get most of the shots but I definitely missed a few I normally would not have. The Miranda has no internal light meter so I shot these either using the "Sunny 16 Rule" or an old hand-held meter. Most of the exposures were decent but some negatives looked slightly dense. I need to take the time to inspect them a little more to determine whether my exposure was off or my development time. They also didn't look quite as nice as the shots with my Minolta's because I don't have any red 25 filters that fit my Miranda lenses(red filters increase contrast and I almost always use them). I decided to use my Kentmere film primarily to test new cameras - not that there is anything wrong with it - its just the cheapest black and white film I can get my hands on so if something fails in the camera it is only a couple of bucks down the drain.

Hoppin' Frog Tasting Room

Laura and I stopped by the recently opened Hoppin Frog tasting room near the Akron Airdock. It is truly a haven for real beer nerds - a bunch of Hoppin Frog on tap, all their bottles, and some guest rare beers on guest taps too. They were having a holiday cookout and I ordered the Hungarian Sausage and Laura ordered a Hummus Wrap off the normal menu. The food was great and the beer is exactly what you expect from this brewery - amazing(and pricey). The whole staff is just plain cheerful and we even talked to the owner for a bit(who couldn't be nicer). Hoppin Frog is one of the highest rated breweries in the world and it is awesome that they now have a place to drink and eat - and one of our favorite features is that they have a decent patio. It seems that they are trying to keep it interesting with special beer events also - its a place we will definitely get back to - and not to be missed by any beer geek.

Akron Ribfest

Ok, so its actually called "Rib, White and Blue" but I've never heard to it referred as anything but "the ribfest". I had been down to it in years and Laura had never been. We tried out ribs from three different vendors, had some beers at Baxter's and The Lockview, enjoyed some good people watching, and then checked out a U2 cover band at Lock 3. I've said it on the blog before....but its so great to see Downtown jumping. I also shot a whole roll of black and white through a camera I had never used before - those will be posted in a few days - here are some digital shots.

Fourth of July

My brother had some pretty cool fireworks - I tried to capture them with some long-exposures.

Weekly Update #2

I think I'll get better at this eventually...but in the meantime I'm gonna keep doing it anyways.

Abandoned in Peninsula - A Photo Essay

My friend Josh gave me a Pentax K1000 that belonged to his Mom and I finally took it out for a test drive last week with a roll of Kodak UltraMax 400(I knew it was a slight gamble because the light seals looked a bit iffy - but it turned out fine). Again I really like the colors I got with the UltraMax - for being Kodak's regular consumer film I'm always impressed. The Pentax is a fairly simple machine - an all manual, bare-bones camera that only needs the battery to make the light meter work. I shot most of the roll as a photo essay at an abandoned nursery in Peninsula. A strange little place hidden in plain sight - I had that weird feeling that I was doing something wrong by being here - the classic "I'm being watched vibe" but I overcame the creepiness to get some good pictures.

Full Flavor Velvia

Last year I wrote a post about using 35mm Velvia 100 I called "Diet Velvia" - well, here is the full flavor version with all those sugary, sweet calories - 120mm Fuji Velvia 50. I shot this delicious film in the "Beast"(aka the Fuji GSW690III). I photographed at Glendale Cemetery and on South Main Street in Akron. The Fuji has no internal light meter so I used an old hand held meter I have - and got the exposures pretty darn good if I say so myself. I picked up the roll of film today at Akron Commercial Color Lab and when I placed it on the light box I realized I had never seen slides this big - the color and and clarity blew me away. I think my friend at the lab was surprised to see me fawning over the images so... 

I only had one problem which was that the roll didn't wind tight enough and allowed some light leaks - Lomographers and Instagramers probably don't mind this but its not what I was going for. I need to unload my next roll with this camera in the dark...

Leaf on Car Study

When all it does is rain - you might as well take rain-themed photos.