Antique orphan Photographs

I always keep my eye open for interesting antique cameras when visiting flea markets and antique shops. Once in a blue moon I'll come across something interesting picture wise.

Such is the case of these 3 items found in a Cap Cod antique shop this summer. They are glass 5X7 wet plates of a place and time unknown for now. I've posted the original scan and the retouched version after giving it a go in Gimp.

Original

If you know anything about wet plate photography, you know this photographer was hardcore to shoot this in the cold of winter.

Original

I'm guessing City Hall of some place. Branches tell the story of a windy day. This was probably around 25 ISO at best. Depth of field is very shallow and something happened in processing which I cannot figure out yet. UPDATE this is Lynn Massachusetts old city hall. According to some info the plate dates from anywhere between 1868 and 1883.

Original

What's interesting about this one is if you look in the lower left corner, you can actually see the shadow of the photographer.

Feel free to do better and if you know these places and time, do let me know.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Pushing film in Downtown Montreal.

I set myself a challenge to shoot only film for a week, no digital. Last evening I was setting out for a walk downtown with my buddy and realized that this would be a challenge.

I didn't want to use a flash so I decided to use a Kodak 400TX film and push it to 800 ISO. What you do is load with 400 ISO, set the camera to 800 ISO and add 20% more time when processing the film later on. These would be shot in the fashion of Daido Moriyama. I've been wanting to do this for some time after doing it with a digital camera and this was the perfect occasion.

I'm very happy with the result. 15 pictures from a roll of 24 came out to my liking. This was my first time shooting with this Ricoh 35ZF which I got for $5 at a thrift store. Not a bad buy.

Metro Cowboy

In his own universe

Waiting and texting

Place d'Armes Metro station

Chinatown walkers

St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine

Vacuuming after closing time on Ste-Catherine 

Being photographed, twice!

Young Ladies on a night out

McDonald's, "Can I take your order please?"

Shelter from the rain on Ste-Catherine

Walking by the photo exhibit

1970's photo exhibit of Montreal

Sex Shop on Ste-Catherine

Montreal PD on St-Laurent

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Cambridge and Salem Massachusetts in black and white

Here are some shots I took with my Yashica FD-X using Kodak T-Max100 film during my vacation last summer.

Airbrushing with rattle cans in Cambridge

Harvard University

Top down Mercedes in Cambridge

Cambridge Bike Cop giving directions

Phone Cards and Ice Cream on the streets of Cambridge

Being young on Harvard Campus

Tall Ship Friendship in Salem

Sailors in Salem

The Bunghole in Salem

Flower Bike in Salem

Waiting for the trolley bus in Salem

Thanks for watching

Gerry :)

Street Portraits

Street portraits are fun to do when the occasion presents itself. Most of my subjects are unaware that their portrait is being taken since I like the candid moments that I capture. Sometimes I do ask ahead of time and people then have a tendency to pose. Not my favourite situation but it works on occasion.

Gerry

Mount Washington with a Point and Shoot, Canon G12

I haven't had time to write up the next chapter in the series on Point and Shoots since I was on vacation. However, here's a great example of the possibilities using these simple cameras. My recent visit to Mount Washington was an eye opener. The better shots came from my Canon G12, not my DSLR when it came to landscapes. Mind you the G12 is a pretty advanced piece of kit Point and Shoot wise but it is still a fixed lens camera with a pretty wide angle. These same shots could have been taken with an even simpler camera.

Hope you enjoyed.

Gerry :)

How to take great pictures with a point and shoot, chapter 1

All pictures in the post, except this one of course, were taken with this well lived Nikon S8100

Yes it is possible to take great pictures with a point and shoot and I will show you how to in this series. You have decided to take your photography seriously but all you have right now is a point and shoot and no budget for a DSLR? No problem, shooting the crap out of a point and shoot will make you  a better photographer anyway.

Point and shoot cameras are often under estimated but they can pull off some great work when used properly. A brand new one will set you back $150 or you can go with a used one for even less. 3.2 mp and up is fine for 8X10 and try to stick with Canon or Nikon. You can also use whatever you have at hand right now but this article is not about phone "cameras".

To prove my point, I'll be using my very worn Nikon S8100 in this article. I've had this camera for 3 years now and even though it's beaten up with dust behind the lens, it still pumps out some great pictures. It's always in my camera bag and I use a lot for street photography, the point and shoot's best use in my opinion.

This chapter will concentrate on what you need to have and to know, so let's get started:

1- Get a tripod. The only piece of gear you absolutely need to have. Don't need to get a big or expensive one. Remember, you have a small and light camera, basically anything will do.

2- Put it in "P" mode. Program mode is found on most cameras of this type and it will be the setting used throughout this series. Forget the pre-set scenes modes, you won't learn anything.

3- Find the flash control and turn it off. A flash is no good beyond 10 feet and we won't be using it for now anyway.

4- Find the white balance setting, put it on AWB or Auto mode. We'll play with that a lot later.

5- Find the timer and figure out how to make it work.

6-  Find the exposure control. Usually represented by a + and - sign side by side, play with it so you are sure it moves.

7-  Find the ISO setting control. ISO can go from 80 to 1600 or more depending on the camera, make sure it works.


Now that you have all this figured out, let me explain to you the basics of photography. Light is basically captured by a sensor in the camera and the amount of light that hits it determines in great part what your image will look like. 3 factors come in to play and this is the only hard part of photography you need to wrap your brain around, shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

Shutter speed: the speed at which the shutter opens and closes to let the light in. Fast shutter speed = you can freeze movement, slow shutter speed = blurry movement.

Aperture: Like the iris in your eyes, how big the opening is in the lens. The bigger the opening the more light comes in. However, the part of the picture that will be in focus is limited in distance. The smaller the opening, the more things you have in focus but you need a lot of light to do that.

ISO: The sensitivity to light of your sensor. The higher the number, the more sensitive is is to light. However, a higher ISO leaves more "noise" or grain in your image.

The combination of these 3 elements will determine the outcome of your image and this is the basic knowledge of all photography digital or from 150 years ago.

Thankfully, your point and shoot takes care of the first 2 for you, which leaves us with the ISO to figure out and the exposure setting to do some fine tuning with.

Here are some examples of ideal ISO settings:
Bright sunny day, lots of available light: 100 ISO
Sunny day but subject in the shadows, less light: 200 ISO
Cloudy rainy day or evening, light is present but not as intense: 400 ISO
Late evening ambient light with no sun: 800 ISO
City streets at night: 1600 ISO

Now go outside and shoot some pics and play with the ISO setting. Also, use the exposure setting and go from + to - to see the difference. This setting is very practical on very sunny days when the camera has a tendency to overexpose, making your images too bright. Bring it down to -0.7 and see what happens.

That's it for now, the next chapter will be about composition.

Remember, it's not the camera that makes the photographer, the same as a pen and paper doesn't make a writer.

Gerry :)

Shooting with a Graflex Speed Graphic 4X5 Camera

Well I splurged not too long ago and bought what I figure is the ultimate camera for me, a Graflex Speed Graphic Press Camera. I uses 4X5 sheet film in film holders and if I keep my eyes open I might even find a medium format film or instant film back for it.

The camera was in very good shape and fortunately film was available locally here at Photo Service in Montreal on Notre-Dame street.

This 10 pound monster is just amazing. 4 viewfinders, 2 shutters, tilt shift capacity, the ability to swap lenses and a great self defence weapon. Seriously, if some idiot is dumb enough to want to steal out of my hands, I can just whack him with it and send the guy in a coma!

Very first shot taken at 1/200, f/8 on a sunny day. Hand held using the incorporated rangefinder and the wire frame view finder.

Right now I have only 2 film holders, so only 4 shots. I have 2 more on the way but it still makes only an 8 shot camera for now and after that it becomes dead weight. I intend to use this beast for its original purpose, documenting events. This is not going to become a tripod queen. It will be used on a tripod as well for landscapes and long exposures but I want to tap into all that it has to offer. This thing can do it all from pinhole, portrait and action. It just takes longer to prepare and you don't have a thousand shots at hand.

2nd shot, this is my house. Same set-up as in the previous photo. The wire frame viewfinder is very practical since it permits you to keep an eye on your surroundings while framing your shot. This is how I managed to see the cyclist coming and held off until he was in the frame.

I figure this will make an even better photographer with the limited amount of shots and the needed set-up time. The after process is also tedious. Since I don't have a canister for 4X5 negatives, they are processed in trays in total darkness. Quite an experience.

I'll keep you posted on the next shots that I will take with this fantastic camera.

Take care

Gerry :)