MistyCastle

Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

I have managed to blow a number of excellent photo opportunities lately. I spotted a choice astronomical shot a month or so ago when the full moon was rising over the ridge behind our house. The atmosphere was just right for a “moon dog” and I took half a dozen or so shots from a tripod. I was anxious to get them developed but it was the beginning of the roll so I waited. A few weeks ago we had a stray cat wander through the back yard and I let Abby out to chase it away. The cat went into one of those classic “halloween” poses and stood it’s ground. Abby wasn’t too sure about that and we ended up with a standoff. I grabbed the camera and got a number of good shots of the cat with it’s back all arched up and fur all fluffed out. A little earlier I had taken the camera over to Garden of the Gods park when Ronda and I went for a walk and took some very nice shots of the rock formations.

I was glad to have the stray cat come along as it allowed me to finish up the roll. Or so I thought… I first became suspicious that all was not well when I realized the frame counter was reading 28. Then, much to my dismay, when I started rolling the film back it released almost immediately. I’m afraid the pictures will only be in my organic memory book. Apparently, the film did not properly engage the winding mechanism. I’ll have it developed anyway but I think they will all be blank.

Lesson learned… better to waste that first frame to be sure the winder is engaged.

Today I got another opportunity. Ronda spotted a beautiful bird in our backyard tree. I’ve never seen one before, it’s yellow with a red head and black/white wings. Ronda looked it up in our bird book… it’s called a Western Tanager. Apparently, it is only this colorful in the spring during mating season. I managed to take some shots of it but the lighting was marginal and my history of taking “bird shots” is also marginal. But we’ll see…

I hit paydirt awhile back on some camera gear. I had been looking on Ebay for a zoom lens to expand my photographic capabilities but had not seen what I was after (at least not at a reasonable price). Then one day I saw a collection offered up that had the lens I wanted.

There were 8 lenses, the camera body, winder, flash, grip, filters, tripods, etc. One of the lenses was the 85-250mm one I wanted.The starting bid was $1,000.

I had a feeling that it would not sell. So, I emailed the seller that I would be interested in purchasing the one lens if the collection did not sell.

I got an email back stating that the family did not want the set broken up (it was an estate deal). As I suspected it did not get any bids. I got to thinking about it a few days later and decided to shoot them an offer for $800. Figured I could keep the lens I wanted and sell the rest individually on Ebay. It took them a few days but they accepted my offer.

Several weeks later several large boxes arrived via UPS and I was suddenly the owner of a very complete set of Olympus gear. What a treat! It was kinda like Christmas. All of the equipment is in mint condition. It has been quite challenging trying to decide what to keep and what to sell. I was able to get out and take quite a few pictures using some of the different lenses and that helped me decide. Reason prevailed. I only need a few lenses. The winder and flash are staying here though!

I have begun listing them on Ebay. They have sold well so far with some of the buyers as far away as Italy and Germany. By the time I get finished I will have recouped most all of my money and still have the zoom lens I wanted in the first place and several other bonus items to boot!

Wow! I could not believe how much I had forgotten about running a real camera. It’s almost like starting over from scratch. I picked up a nice book published by Kodak at the local used bookstore for a few dollars and began re-educating myself. Mmmm.. let’s see… depth-of-field is greatest when the aperture is smallest.

Ok, I can see this will take some time. The first few rolls have come back and they are a mix of ‘not bad’ and ‘yuck’. I have opted to use Walgreens film and developing services for this learning phase. The film is remarkably inexpensive and the processing has been surprisingly good.

I made a trip up to the Arts & Crafts Shop at the Air Force Academy the other day with Kristina to have a look at the facilities and see what they had to offer. I was pleased to find the manager (John Elford) was an accomplished wildlife photographer, not to mention a very nice guy. I returned a few days later with my equipment and pictures and gleaned some pointers from him.

I have decided to sell my prime lens and go with a pair of high quality zooms. I am also going to pick up a polarizing filter, and a graduated neutral-density filter.

Photography has always intrigued me. The art of capturing a moment in time and preserving it for future generations to marvel at is what it’s all about. At least for me. Anyone can pick up a camera, point it and push the button but that doesn’t make it art. The art part is the tricky stuff. Learning to compose the picture and take into consideration lighting, shadows, etc. is what sets apart a photograph from a snapshot.

I have rejoined a journey begun long ago to master this thing called photography. To begin I needed some equipment. More than the battered Polaroid point-and-shoot had to offer. I deliberated over the digital vs. film issue for all of two or three minutes. Film is the medium to record high quality images. Yes, I know digital has a lot to offer but for the amount of money I wanted to spend on gear I decided on an older manual focus 35mm SLR. Besides, I don’t want a computerized camera that tries to correct everything for me.

I did most of my research on photo.net where I was able to view the opinions of many who have earned the right to be called photographers. I decided on an Olympus OM-2n body. It seemed to have the right mix of features that I was looking for. It took me several weeks of waiting but I located a good one on Ebay. I bought it from Pacific Rim Camera, a company based out of Oregon whom I would heartily recommend. I snagged a 50mm lens, a 135 mm lens, and a camera bag from a fellow up in Alaska, and a Yashica T4 SuperD Point-and-Shoot from someone in Ohio that same day (EBay is a marvelous thing!).

All in all I had invested about $450 which was almost exactly what I had gotten from selling my camcorder which I never used. Not a bad days work.