Yesterday on walkies (hiking in the national forest), I looked for a subject. Nothing was grabbing my attention, so I had to dig a little deeper. While this image is not portfolio quality, it still represents a reason I love hiking in the mountains — the sun filtering to the forest floor through the pines. The interplay of light and shadow soothe me, as does the hike with The Girl.
Life is good.
I was busy the last full week of July and the first week of August. As a result, my remainders showed it. I start this entry at the beginning of the week, so I really have no idea where I will end up on the Interwebs during my week. This is a sort of trail or bread crumbs of my searches.
I shot this image a few minutes ago for a daily image. I take a lot of photos of The Girl. She is a ready model, does not mind, and is good looking. She also has so many aspects to her personality that she presents many photo-ops.
I have a Shawn Mullins album playing in the background, Beneath the Velvet Sun. One of the songs, Amy’s Eyes brought a tear to my eye. When I dealt with my depression, so many years ago, this song was a reminder of how Wife saw the world through different eyes than I do. The world just seemed to be a bit brighter for her and I envied that, a little.
In time I got better, but the observation remained — Wife just seemed to see the world a little brighter than I do. Although she died more than a decade ago, her presence is still missed. I especially miss her voice. We talked a lot, much of it inconsequential, but that did not matter.
Now that it is cooling off, I think it is time to hit the rack. The morning will come quickly and there are some things to do tomorrow.
I am grateful. Life is good.
I think Sera knew I needed some interaction late this afternoon. She pawed at my bare feet (Ouch!), head butted my legs, and generally put on a show. I happened to have a camera at hand and made a few captures.
Then we had a big play with the squeaky football until she said “I’m done” and asked for supper. She is such a hoot.
I win. (And I fed her.) I am grateful. Life is good.
The Girl (Sera) and I are walking this trail a lot this summer. At an elevation greater than 7,000 ft the weather is cooler. The Ponderosa Pines provide some shade (and lots of sound when the breeze blows). The terrain is varied enough that I get a pretty good workout in on the climbs. There are tons of chipmunks for The Girl to chase. There is not much foot traffic on the trail, although I remain watchful.
There are lots and lots of images to make on the trail. We will probably be able to hike it for another three months or so. Once the snow begins to accumulate, hiking will be more difficult. I might pick up some snowshoes this winter.
But for now, we continue to hike the trail most days. It has been a great break from the more congested Silver Saddle Ranch trails that we were walking (and still sometimes do). There is also less risk of rattlesnakes. I really do not want another rattlesnake encounter.
The frame captures why I really love the trail.
Another week, how many remainders?
This is another capture from the roll of 35mm Ilford XP2 I finished up on the hills between Carson City and Washoe Valley. The Girl and I drove up the steep trail on the east side of this hill, which gives a lovely view of both Washoe Lake and Carson City. An afternoon pop-up thundershower was brewing to the southeast.
I wanted to finish up the roll in the Nikon F2as and the Bronica, so I spent a half-hour walking the hilltop with Sera (keeping a sharp ear out for snakes) and making some images. This frame looks like I used a red filter to add some contrast to the sky and the exposure seems just about right. I see some detail in the cloud tops and plenty in the valley below.
It was a good day. The breeze atop the hill was a little stiff and gusty, pretty typical for a Nevada afternoon. But it also was cooling so I did not mind.
The rocks were a little rough on The Girl’s feet. So I put her back in the rig.
Life is good. I am grateful.
Five rolls of negatives were returned to me this week. I spent a few minutes looking through them, after reviewing the scans. I came away with a few notes, but need to formalize them.
There are a few good frames in the set. It is probably about my average hit rate. I would like to move that hit rate up, but that is probably another story.
A number of frames were significantly underexposed, both the Pentax 645Nii and the Nikon F2as. These were generally frames that had a lot of sky in them and I think it biased the in-camera meter. I would get a better result if I opened up the aperture a stop or two. (Note taken…)
I missed focus on a few frames. The take away is to be very careful when focusing, particularly the Bronica. I have a bright screen to put in the Bronica and need to get that done before I take it out again. It will help.
I replaced the screen in the Pentax with one that has a split-image/microprism cell in the center of the frame. This is going to improve my ability to focus the camera.
I need a light table and loupe for review of my negatives. I think there is a light table buried in the garage (in a box) somewhere. However, the technology has changed (for the better) since I bought it, so I will buy a new one. The LED lamps are so much better than the micro-fluorescent tubes of my original.
In the meantime, I made the capture with my new-to-me (but very old) Nikon F2as and a Nikkor 35mm f/1.4, probably using a filter (not recorded) and I did not record the exposure. The film was Ilford XP2. It is a good frame.
We were on the hills between Carson City and Washoe Valley. I have a few more good frames from that outing.
It was a good day. Life is good.
Lucas serves as a test subject for many of my lens testing exercises. I have been playing around with my Nikon D800E and a Voigtländer 90mm f/2.8 APO Skopar. I want to see how the lens renders the subject and the out of focus areas. The 90mm does not focus very close, maybe about 2 feet plus (about 0.8 meters). It is quite sharp wide open and the backgrounds look lovely.
It is a very good lens and I need to take it out on walk.
This frame was shot with a Voigtländer 58mm f/1.4 Nokton at f/2.8. It will focus quite a lot closer than the 90mm. It is also quite sharp wide open and has excellent out of focus character. Again, this lens will want to go with me on a walk.
One thing I like about the Voigtländer lenses is that they have a chip that provides data to the camera body. So exposure and distance information is available to the camera and stored in the image file. These lenses will also work on my Nikon film bodies.
This little Lucas the Spider plushie is a favorite test subject for lenses. If I shoot at night, then I have some light sources in the background and I can get a sense for how the out of focus areas are represented by the lens.
I shot this with my Nikon D800E (ancient at this time) and a Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar lens I bought earlier this year. I really prefer legacy glass to modern glass for the older lenses’ character, including their flaws. They often render more interesting images in everything from color, to sharpness (or lack thereof), to background blur (bokeh in photo parlance). Their optical imperfections produce interesting effects that I often like.
The Voigtlander lenses are proving quite interesting and have a modern adaptation. They have a microchip interface to the digital cameras (my Nikons) that enables the camera’s CPU to read the lens settings and incorporate that data into exposure control and fill in the EXIF data in the image file.
I like the Voigtlander lenses enough that I think I will add to my collection of them. I suspect they will become commonly used on my Nikon film bodies.