Was at the park this past Friday with my family when I heard this beauty roll into the lot next to the tennis courts. Ran over to grab a handful of snaps, which considering the harsh lighting, came out quite nice all things considered. I didn’t have a flash with me to open up the shadows and even things out, but still – sweet car and a fun random encounter.

From what I saw, it’s a very good show, with a lot of fine work from numerous talented artists. There’s a good mix of media and styles, and from the quick circuit I made I feel there is a very high quality level to be enjoyed by the patrons that will come to see it. With that then, I highly recommend coming out for a look, especially during the opening reception as it’s always a fine event and very enjoyable in its own right.

While I was looking, I took a few snaps of my work to have as a record, so here they are below. You can see a few of the other pieces as well, so they’ll give you a bit of a preview as to what you can expect. And if you do go to the reception, be sure to stop and say hi!

Picked up a minty Pentax Program Plus film SLR a few weeks back after I got my K1000. I was thumbing around on eBay looking for lenses and just happened to come across it by chance. The price couldn’t be beat, so I bought it. When I received it, it really was in pristine shape, but missing the front grip, and needed new seals along with a good viewfinder cleaning. This is typical for a camera this old, so I sent it out for a CLA and just got it back a week or so ago.

I have a particular soft spot for these cameras as I had one for a short while back in the mid-80′s when I was in high school. I bought it at Montgomery Ward’s for about $300, and probably had it for about a month or so I’d say. I eventually returned it because I didn’t like the photos it took and the manual mode worked radically different from what I was used to (match needle like the K1000). Of course, the camera wasn’t the problem, I was, but I was too young to get that and so back it went to eventually be replaced with a Ricoh XR-P, which I kept for near ten years until it got stolen in the early 90′s.

As for image quality, unlike digital cameras where the IQ truly does depend on the body to a great deal, film SLRs like the Program Plus all pretty much have the same IQ – assuming you use the same film and lens between them. That said then, the pictures it takes are identical to the K1000 aside from any metering variances. Metering is quite accurate and reliable it seems so far, and operation is smooth and effortless for the most part. The main advantages over the K1000 for users ends up being the compact size (about 2/3 the size of the K1000), additional exposure modes like Programmed Auto and Aperture Priority, longer shutter times, better flash implementation, a split-prism finder, a self-timer, and the ability to add a motor drive if so inclined. It makes for a reasonable and capable little camera, so definitely worth looking into if that appeals to you.

Below, you’ll find a few samples frames from the first test rolls I ran through it. I’ll post more as I shoot them, but these are a good representation of what kind of images to expect. They’ve had minimal post-processing, so what you see is essentially OOC and it looks good. The first was taken with the Pentax 50mm f2 lens pictured above, and the second was with a Tamron 70-210 zoom I picked up new from KEH for $29 (yup, it’s a real steal I think and the lens will fit a number of manufacturers because of its mount system).

Big update tonight for my ongoing 光 : Hikari project. Lots of images from a fair number of new locations, many with a completely new and unique feel to them from anything else I’ve shot previously. I’m constantly intrigued by the effects the environment has on the photos, and often somewhat surprised as well. It’s a good reason as to why I’m finding this project and its results so enjoyable. Not sure how much longer it’ll be able to sustain itself, but so far I really enjoy what I’ve generated up to this point.

A small batch of photos for your pleasure tonight, some of which are from cameras that I haven’t posted here before with. First up is the Lavec LT-002, which is an SLR look-alike craptastic plastic camera that has none of the image quality, but loads of character. The pic above plus the next two are great examples of what it can produce. Tons of leaks and a lens made from recyclables just give it oodles of lo-fi goodness. Why spend $30 for a Holga when you can find one of these for $5?

Next are a few out of my little 50′s Voigtlander Vito-B. Fairly tiny in size, and using a zone focus system with no meter, it takes wonderful pics with a little bit of effort put in. I used a  Gossen Luna-Pro handheld meter for these, but I’ll post some more later on that were just guesstimated or used the lightmeter app I have on my iPhone. It’s a neat little camera if you have the patience to put up with its very old-school limitations.

And lastly, from the complete opposite side of camera tech, a few shots from my D3 taken recently during an evening outing at the local park.

This year I took a somewhat different tack with the pictures I entered and submitted both documentary and abstract pieces, and it turns out I have one of each style that will be displayed. Of course, I am very happy to be a part of the show, so I hope that you’ll come out and take a look once it’s open for viewing. In the meantime, these are the two photos that will be on display.

“Mr. Cat”

“Stain”

And since seeing is believing, here’s a comparison set for you from some photos I was re-scanning the other day.

Walgreens original scan (1.5MP in size)

Same shot scanned with a Epson V500 scanner (~19MP), unedited

And the slightly edited final version

I’m telling you – buy a scanner, you won’t regret it one bit.

Thought I’d post some more photos from the Pentax K1000 I picked up a few weeks ago. This time from actual use and not just a test roll, as I took it with when we went to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum on President’s Day. Aside from the usual snapshot duties, to stifle boredom I also took some more artistic shots like the one above, which the museum actually provides ample opportunities for. The K1000 is a fairly handy size for these kinds of outings and reasonably compact, if compared to a current DSLR. Sure, there are small DSLR’s, but they still tend to be a bit bulky due to the grip and lens size. AF lenses are just bigger than MF lenses for legitimate reasons, so it’s an unavoidable condition with modern cameras. Only the tiny Olympus E-420 I had felt closest to a film SLR, but that design is pretty much gone at this point.

Film was basic Kodak Gold 200, which is readily available at most Walgreens I’ve found. I like it because it’s a moderately fast film for when you’re bouncing back and forth inside and out, and it’s easy to find. There are many better films out there it could be argued, but it’s good enough for what I do, so that’s enough for me. For this outing, I will say I wish I had 400 speed film instead as the extra stop would have come in handy being that we were indoors the whole time and I was shooting in the ambient light. In that way, digital is really the superior medium as it would have been no problem at all to shoot at a high ISO like 3200 or 6400 if necessary, especially with the D3, and the results would still have been cleaner than the 200 speed negatives that I took instead. And why didn’t I use a flash? Because I didn’t have a Pentax flash at the time, though I just picked one up yesterday for times when there’s no other options. Still, I got some good shots with what I had anyway, and that’s what’s always the most important thing in the end.

Wanted to show you a few recent images from a series I started about a month ago I’m tentatively calling, Patrol. Not 100% entirely sure where it’s going to lead to, but so far these are the images that I like the most from it. I find they have an interesting isolated feel to them that I like very much, so that is the direction that I’m going to aim for with any additional images I’ll shoot.

Technical details are quite simple – they’re shot on Kodak Gold 200 film using a Vivtar PN2011 craptastic plastic camera that I picked up at the Salvation Army for a buck a year or two back. It imparts a somewhat soft, dreamy quality to the photos I find helps with the atmosphere of the scenes. It also fits in my pocket while I’m out working, which is when these are being shot. Each photo is scanned on an Epson V500 Photo scanner, and then any adjustments required are done in Adobe Lightroom, which is what I use for all my photos, both film and digital.

Here’s the rest of the batch. Like my other ongoing projects I’ll update here with more photos as I see fit, so keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the start of this new project.