Digital Diminishment: A Year (and Decades) In Review

B.B. King once sang "The Thrill is Gone."  Though this song was penned long before commercial digital photography was a reality, the tag line from this song resonates a bit with me as 2015 draws to a close. It wasn't always this way.

Like so many, I made the switch from film to digital around the turn of the millennium.  At the time, it was such an easy choice to make.  A seeming one-time budget outlay meant the end of a constantly recurring stream of film developing expenses while providing instant gratification and the ability to review or retake one's photos on the fly.  By the end of 2002, my Canon Elan IIe was relegated to sitting idly while my Casio QV3000EX enabled me to take photos of my favorite subjects as well as to take photos of countless other subjects that I'd overlooked before due to the expenses of film developing.  It seemed there was no coming back.

2002, rendered by the Casio QV-3000

Classic Kodachrome Monday #70

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: At the Foot of the Mountain.

Following in My Father's Footsteps: The 828 Kodak Bantam Special.

It was among the first cameras to enter my hands that would rekindle an interest in shooting with film again.  And yet I am only now writing about it.  

Why you might ask? Let's just say the best laid plans do not always come to fruition.

It was quite possibly the most novel and quirky idea for this blog that I'd ever summoned up. It was going to be epic and a little bit amazing.  And it stalled.

In a nutshell, while going through items my mother had passed onto us, I encountered a remarkably small little camera of my father's that caught my eye.  After a little bit of investigation, I discovered it was none other than a Kodak Bantam camera that uses 828 film, a format discontinued in the mid-1980's that is slightly larger than 35mm.  Soon after, I found a batch of Kodachrome slides from the 1940's and 1950's that were clearly taken with this same camera, as evidenced by the larger transparency size.  Eventually a magnificent idea began to gel.

What if I took this camera and literally "followed in my father's footsteps" to retake the images from these perspectives today?  It seemed like the perfect "then and now" photo montage but with an interesting twist.  I'd not seen where anyone had done then an now images taken over 50 years apart with the exact same camera.  It was a flash of brilliance! 

Classic Anscochrome Monday #69

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: Holiday Adornment

Film Fun Folio #16 - Super Ikonta 531 and Rollei Retro 80S

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #16:

Camera: ca. 1946 Zeiss Super Ikonta 531 with 105mm/f3.5 Tessar Lens.

Film: Rollei Retro 80S

Locale: Central Maryland.

It's a camera that took a little while to impress me, before finally showing its capabilities when I took it as a late addition to a March trip to Portland.  Despite this, the Super Ikonta had been sitting idly for months, as I lacked the time to shoot film in a way that rotated through my collection.  Finally, after being smitten by Rollei Retro 80S, I deemed that I'd run my next roll of this film through the 531 and hope I could manage to adhere to it's particularities in carefully cocking the shutter so as to avoid accidentally exposing the frame prior to releasing the shutter.   

1 - Baltimore, MD - f/11, 1/100 - A shot taken on a mild September day shows great sharpness, and some very pleasing tones.  The Super Ikonta is gradually looking a bit more super as I feed more rolls through it. 

Classic Kodachrome Monday #68

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: Small Town, Big City

Film Fun Folio #15 - Franka Solida and Astia 100F

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #15:

Camera: ca. 1951 Unbadged Franka Solida with Schneider 75mm f/2.9 lens.

Film: Fuji Astia 100F (Expired 2013)

Locale: Central Maryland.

It's the camera that, when I'm shooting it, I can't wait to get the roll over with, and when that is done, I can't wait to see the results.  Just after getting back the results from the last roll of Velvia 100F shot on this camera, I elected to give it another go, this time with one of only two rolls of Astia that I had been holding on to, and had no idea what to do with.  I decided to keep it simple in some respects, and keep the stubborn shutter on 1/200 and to adjust the aperture as needed.  Below are the results from this experiment.

1 Lower Marlboro, MD - f/11, 1/200 - My first shot results in a somewhat washed out exposure that I had to contain in post processing by stopping down the exposure a bit.  Overall, not bad, and certainly sharp at this aperture.

Classic Kodachrome Monday #67

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: Posing

The Varied Commute

A few months ago, I made a pretty significant change in my life, moving from my environs in Columbia MD out to Frederick, further to the west.  There are any number of reasons for this, but in doing so, I certainly weighed out the pros and cons.  One of the biggest cons was an increase in my commuting time to work in Washington DC.  However, I fancy myself one who likes exploring, and have always tried to "make lemonade from lemons."  In the process of settling in, I would try a number of different commuting options that involved various combinations of driving, bus riding, commuter trains and the DC Metro.  And each of these new views also brought with it a chance for some new photographic fun that I did not have on my previous commute.  Have a look at some shots taken on the Exakta, of my new and often varied commute.

Believe it or not, this image on Fomapan 200 was actually taken from the MTA commuter bus #515, and depicts a retention pond in the middle of the exit from Interstate 270 to Urbana.