Wednesday Window to the World #2

Here's a good way to keep the rust off! 

Since I'm spotlighting collected historical color photos each Monday, it seemed only fitting to complement this feature with a present day color photo of my own each Thursday.  Just as with the collected photos, I'll detail the Who/What/When/Where/Why and technical How from each image:

This Week:

What: Restaurant entrance at Twilight.

Classic Kodachrome Monday #4

Every Monday, I'll be spotlighting a different classic Kodachrome slide that I've picked up, and trying where I can to detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how (much) of the image:

This Week:

What: Sidewalk Art Dealer.

Vetting Vintage Views: The Seven Things That Will Make Me "Bid Now"

I like collecting vintage color slides.  

That much is pretty well established in some of my previous posts. And admittedly, the best place to find these old original slides is from the auction site ebay. 

However, a search on this site on just the term "vintage slide" yields over 5500 results in the Photographic images category at the time of this writing. Certainly I fan through the mass of pages and just pick shots at random, right?  Not so much.

Sometimes, I'll take a chance and buy a collection of slides or a bulk lot, but I've found that the best way to get specifically the images you want is to bid on listings for single slides, or small lots of under half a dozen.  When searching, I am likely to use somewhat more specific terms such as "1951 Kodachrome" or "Los Angeles Slide," but even then, there are often a number of options, some of which are better than others.  

Wednesday Window to the World #1

Here's a good way to keep the rust off! 

Since I'm spotlighting collected historical color photos each Monday, it seemed only fitting to complement this feature with a present day color photo of my own each Thursday.  Just as with the collected photos, I'll detail the Who/What/When/Where/Why and technical How from each image:

This Week:

What: Sulphur Butterfly.

Classic Kodachrome Monday #3

Every Monday, I'll be spotlighting a different classic Kodachrome slide that I've picked up, and trying where I can to detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how(much) of the image:

This Week:

What: Just a typical slice of life photo not all too common from the late 1950's, with some great eye candy for automobile buffs!  Likely a 12ASA Kodachrome image.

Phriday Photo Ramble

This is titled "A quirky guy and his camera," right?

As I sputter to get going, it has at times felt more like "A quirky guy and his scanner." 

As it was going, I was finding less and less time to actually TAKE photos, and so photo taking related posts were few and far between.  Today, I was very glad to be able to have an enjoyable ramble that allowed me to focus upon taking some photos instead of scanning photos taken by others decades earlier.    Below are results of this "ramble."

I started off with a brief stopover in the Folly Quarter area to take a starter shot to be featured in a future post, then off to Ellicott City I went.  In my arsenal was my Olympus E-PM2 as well as the following lenses:

Classic Kodachrome Monday #2

Every Monday, I'll be spotlighting a different classic Kodachrome slide that I've picked up, and trying where I can to detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how(much) of the image:

This Week:

What: The ship USS Constellation with some submarines making a tour stop.

Christmas in July: A Kodachrome Lot Unboxing

Seasons Greetings from Columbia, MD, where it is a frosty 90 degrees!

Remember that "Kid on Christmas" feeling of unwrapping a new and largely unknown toy present?  It seems that no one told us that feeling pretty much eludes as adults.  By and large, our gift giving consists of practical items and assorted knick knacks that don't quite carry with them the thrill of unveiling a Star Wars action figure, the anticipation of getting a set of Matchbox cars, and the disappointment of getting a pack of socks wrapped up.

Every once in a while, however, one may be fortunate enough to replicate this feeling in some way or form.  I was just so lucky this past week, when I stumbled upon an ebay listing that I discovered upon trying a roundabout search for "slide case" (in hopes someone would be selling a case WITH the old slides included) that I was able to determine was likely to include slides taken locally.  Carefully reading the writing on the slide listing, I could make out "Timonium Spring '58" "Lutherville May Day '59" and "Mondawmin" among others. Though the listing made no mention that the slides included would directly correspond to the listing in the lid, it seemed like a worthwhile risk, considering that the entire set of about 200 slides and case were going for just over $22 including shipping.  At the typical rate of about $5 per good individual slide, I'd only really need to find 4 or 5 keepers in the batch to consider it a worthy purchase!

So when the package arrived from nearby Ellicott City, it really was like Christmas in July for me.  Once I had a chance to open and look through this unique "present," I'd feel somewhere between thrilled and dismayed.  I only hoped that there were at least a few photos that were more than simply family snapshots, as I really did not want to feel like nothing more than a creepy voyeur into a family I had never known personally.

My "Christmas present" in July.

May-December Romance: Mirrorless Cameras with Legacy Lenses

A logic puzzle:

I am the proud owner of a pair of Olympus PEN mirrorless Cameras using the Micro 4/3 Lens Mounts. 

I have used over a dozen different lenses on these cameras.

I currently only own TWO Micro 4/3 lenses.  

Did I sell the rest off?  Did I borrow or rent lenses?

Nope, instead I have taken advantage of a clever method of fusing manual focus lenses of decades past with my mirrorless modern day camera body by means of some various lens-mount to camera adapters to make this possible.  Call it my blossoming "May-December equipment Romance" of the photographic world.

Interestingly, I stumbled onto this practice as an alternative to buying native mount lenses only AFTER I purchased the camera kit, and haven't looked back since. As a result, I have acquired a pretty nice collection of numerous various lenses for only somewhat more than the cost of a single Autofocus Micro 4/3 Lens!

Classic Kodachrome Monday #1

Every Monday, I'll be spotlighting a different classic Kodachrome slide that I've picked up, and trying where I can to detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how(much) of the image:

This Week:

What: Appears to be a Cowgirl parade of some sort, film is likely Kodachrome 12ASA

For the Love of Kodachrome.

I've had a resurgence of love for Kodachrome Slide film lately.

I've had a fondness for this now (sadly) discontinued emulsion for more than 20 years, but it has really surged lately in a new way.  I am missing my Kodachrome.  

I came across some slides taken by my Grandfather.  Many of these were from the 1970's and 1980's, but among these, there were a handful of much older ones, mounted in grey sleeves with red borders.  I scanned a few of them, and they were absolutely stunning with vividness.  A sample: