a tree on treasure island. it’s an interesting place, for sure. a man-made island that was built for the world fair expo in 1939. today it’s a housing development with interesting abandoned structures left over from the united states navy.

fuji portra 160vc. pentax 6×7 45/4.

a quiet death in a chinatown alleyway, san francisco. i was intrigued by how its wings were folded down perfect. makes you ponder the order of nature.

fuji portra 160vc. pentax 6×7 135/4 macro.

this is some of the mussel-covered rocks below the sutro bath ruins in san francisco. as i was framing up this shot, a small airplane was making its way into my view. when something like that happens, it’s a gift. you just wait until the object is where you want it and click the shutter. thank you, world. i thoughtfully overexposed this by a stop to include the foreground detail, and sure enough, i was able to easily pull it out from the scan.

fuji portra 160vc. shot with a pentax 6×7, smc 45/4.

(2048×1632)

last weekend i went shooting on treasure island, roughly half way between san francisco and oakland. but after that, i went out again to go shooting with some flickr friends at the cliffhouse. we met there, then wandered down the hill to the coast line and sutro baths. along the path is where i took the picture above.

it’s not quite as sharp as i liked, but i was shooting downward at iso 100 on a cloudy day. i flipped the mirror up, paused,and took the picture blind. when i pulled this negative out of the fixer, i could tell it was something i wanted to put online. the first roll of color (160vc) i shot that day has the same shot, so i should see that soon.

i ended up shooting 13 rolls of film that day, roughly half color and half black&white. the second half of shooting was with friends. now that is what i call a good day.

ilford delta 100, rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes. pentax smc 135/4 macro.

mom’s birdhouse, san carlos, california. this is a repost of the image with a better scan and more information. i’ve been slowly rediscovering all the negatives and prints i have tucked away in moving boxes.

i shot this in 2004 on her back patio wiht my shen-hao. it’s a scan of a polaroid 54 print. this is a good example of the magic of a circumstance and of polaroid. i had an idea to try to use two movements to bring the focal plane through a single point in the scene. it’s a technique i want to revisit, now that i’ve dug up this old print.

i just dropped off 7 rolls of kodak portra 160vc at the lab, rolls i shot (in addition to 6 rolls of black and while i’ll develop tomorrow) this past weekend. i’ve been busy, and having a lot of fun.

this week i’m attending rayko‘s 2nd annual plastic camera juried show reception.

I was inspired by david on flickr to post an updated gear photo. Ya, I collect camera gear. I think this year I want to come up with some way to display cameras at home – some way they’ll look nice but I can grab one easily when I’m on my way out the door. ‘Cause, you know, you gotta carry a camera.

Not pictured here are two medium format folders I have at work. And the digital p+s camera that took this pic. I also have two complete enlarger systems (Beseler and Omega) and two Lighting systems (Novatron and Speedotron).

My post of this pic on flickr has a breakdown of gear.

according to this post on photo.net (and this), the pentax 1:4 135mm macro lens is a dynar semi-symmetrical formula. it is a variant of the cooke triplet design. it is extremely close to the f/3.5 “dynar” version of the heliar.

voightlander came up with the dynar (patent 756006) at the turn of the 20th century and it was supposedly a better performer than the incumbent heliars. they later returned to the heliar name in 1925 with the f/3.5 heliar layout, which is very close to the design above.

the heliar is the ancestor  to the 100/3.5 ektar (designed in 1942) and the 105/3.5 color-heliar found on the bessa II rangefinder.

a great reference for the pentax is antiquecameras.net

my recent shot of a ginko tree in the park was shot with a f/4.5 210mm heliar.

in the mission, two of the most lively spots are the bus/bart stations at 16th and 24th street. this shot is from the 24th/mission station, which is one short block and two long blocks from my condo. it’s a great location for peoplewatching.

i still need to practice zone- and hyper-focal focusing. i want to be faster on this camera, spending less time with the rangefinder.

tri-x in rodinal 1+25. canonet g-iii ql.