Wordpress blog and what I have been doing

Since my last blog post ages ago, I bought two Bronicas, an elegant, classic totally mechanical 6x6 square shooter, the Bronica S2a with 75mm f/2.8 lens and a Bronica ETR SI 6x4.5. I could not pass them up, these gorgeous medium format cameras can be had so cheaply these days as folks embrace digital photography en masse. I am looking to add another Bronica S2a if a good one comes along. I absolutely love the look and feel of the 6x6, it gives me such pleasure to shoot with it, not mentioning everyone stops to ask me what kind of camera that is:) No biggie that it is not metered, that is where my vintage Weston IV and a Sekonic zoom meter come in handy.

The last time I wrote, my Wordpress blog was still work in progress. I wanted to let everyone know that is coming along well and below is a snapshot of the blog, love to hear your comments. My Wordpress blog

I have also added a few precious books to my collection:

An Aperture hardcover book on Lola Alvarez Bravo by Elizabeth Ferrer. Lola Alvarez was the first woman photographer in Mexico. When asked how she managed to photograph painful subjects, she replied that she approached them "por el camino de la luz" - through the path of light. Well said indeed.

Vision of a Vanishing Race by Florence Curtis Graybill and Victor Boesen on the pioneering works of Edward Sheriff Curtis who recorded the faces and lifestyles of Native Americans with an unwavering passion and dedication. This book contains 175 pictures of Curtis's greatest works, selected by his daughter Florence Graybill Curtis.

The Hasselblad Manual, second edition, by Ernst Wildi. No doubt the definitive guide to the cult Hasselblad camera. I do not own a Hassy, but this 302 page hardcover book is more than a getting to know your camera manual. It is full of excellent technical information on cameras, lenses, lighting and more, that I found out after I started reading. It is a wonderful book to own and read. This book is ten times more precious than other photography knowledge books I own.

A book that I have ordered and will be arriving soon: Tina Modotti, Photographer and Revolutionary, by Margaret Hooks. Tina Modotti was an Italian actress who lived in Los Angeles who later became a model for Edward Weston and his assistant. She learned her craft from Weston and perfected it. Lola Alvarez and her then photographer husband Manuel Alvarez later acquired Tina Modotti's view camera when Tina Modotti fled Mexico. (and I shall keep you in suspense here)

Two scanned negs from Mamiya 645e

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Two images from the very first roll of Neopan 400 I put through my Mamiya 645e. Shot with 55mm f/2.8N lens, no filter (wish I have bought at least a yellow filter). Developed with the very last bit of Agfa Rodinal B&W developer I bought from Kaufmans Camera in San Mateo 8 months ago. I am sad that I have now used up my Rodinal :( Tried to bid on an old unopened 500ml bottle of Rodinal yesterday but my slow fingers let me down and I was outbid.

The Mamiya 645e performed admirably. It was light enough with the lens that as long as I have plenty of light I could shoot handheld (otherwise tripod and MLU do the trick). Mamiya 645 MF lenses are tack sharp (and inexpensive). Currently I have the 55mm f/2.8N and 150mm f/4 N lenses, figure I like to shoot landscape and street/documentary photography, the 55mm and 150mm should serve me well. Still debating whether I really want to get the 120mm f/4 macro...

"Church, Scottsdale Old Town, Mamiya 645e, 55mm f/2.8N lens, Neopan 400 Acros, Rodinal developer"
"Graffiti door, downtown Phoenix, Mamiya 645e, 55mm f/2.8N lens, Neopan 400 Acros, Rodinal developer"
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I am very glad to have "traded" in the monstrous RB67ProSD for the Mamiya 645e set up. It may sound at first glance that I have traded down. It is just the opposite. The goal here is to increase the "utility value" to me. I am thrilled to be able to take the Mamiya 645e with me on my photography outing now..

Came across photography books on André Kertész (1894-1985) while browsing on eBay for more photography stuffs on my wish list (I am now officially an ebay junkie - only for things related to classic cameras and art stuffs though). I could not resist and finally bought myself a wonderful book - André Kertész: The Polaroids
- a treasure of beautiful Polaroid images taken by the photographer with the Polaroid SX-70 camera, a gift from his friend Nash and wife Susan (of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young). These Polaroid images were taken in his Manhattan apartment "literally" in the late 70s/early 80s. Kertész was already in his 80s and had just lost his beloved wife and companion of four decades......It is a very moving photo book, a story of a highly talented photographer who finally found solace in his art and continued to create these beautiful imagery until his death in 1985

I quote now something from the book,

When mystified viewers, many of whom owned the same model of camera, asked how he got such remarkable results, Kertész explained,"You have to learn the limits of the medium, then learn to work on the edges of those boundaries"

How true!! His work speaks volume of his mastery of composition and the magical light.

A memorable outing to Niles Canyon

It is that time of the year and work has me buried with no time left for photography. As such, I have only been able to run two rolls of 120 films through my new "used" RB67 Pro SD I bought in Feb. This past weekend I finally had the negs scanned by a "pro" lab so I could use them for my blog entry. I have to say I am not entirely happy with the resulting scan, the overall color seems off with a light blue hue to it. Since I won't be able to do any darkroom printing myself for a few more weeks, I will have to contend with using these scanned images for now. The negs do look 200% better on my lightbox.

Below are a few images from the second roll. It was a Neopan 400. What happeded to roll #1? Ah, that is an embarassing story, I messed it up. (and it was a Velvia! uugh!!) How? you ask. Simply, I loaded the film the wrong way, with the paperback facing the camera body. Not until I was removing the exposed film from the cassette did I realise I had made such a blunder! (silly me. It is easy to do though. The way the cassette comes apart for loading can be confusing first time around. Long story short, I learned my lesson and I will never do it again)


"stone statuette of a child playing at the park, entrance to Sunol city park, RB67 Pro SD, 95mm f/3.5, low res digital scan"
Did not have to work that day, sunday March 28th for a change, and I was looking for a new place to visit for photography. A good friend had told me about Niles Canyon a charming town of quaint saloon style storefront....It sounded rather promising and off I went, heading northeast early morning on 680N. Gorgeous oak studded hills and crisp fresh morning breeze greeted me as I drove on Niles Canyon road along Alameda Creek. Unfortunately there was no way I could pull over for photography as the 7 mile long winding country road was also rather narrow. Population of about 900, (I was told), Niles Canyon has one main street of beautifully restored saloon style shops (remember old westerns?), a beautiful church named "the Little Brown Church of Sunol" built in 1885, a small post office, a city park and a historic Sunol train depot (circa 1884). Nestled in the charming hideaway are many private homes, pied-à-terre for some perhaps and homes for others that I would be imagine are so inviting to come home or escape to on weekends.


"A man chatting with the crew of locomotive 2472 before the train set out on its 5 mile excursion. RB67 ProSD, 95mm f/3.5, Fuji Neopan 400, low res digital scan, Lightroom Beta Sepia filter"
As you can see, I got lucky :) The Sunday morning I was there happened to be the weekend of the first of three Golden Gate Railroad Museum excursions of 2010. Organized in partnership with the Pacific Locomotive Association, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum train ride takes families aboard vintage Southern Pacific locomotive No. 2472 through the beautiful canyon hills. Many families came to join the fun and kids got their history lesson. There were photographers from as far as Santa Cruz and it was a real treat for all.

"Crew of locomotive 2472, (a scene one could only find in the movies today perhaps?). RB67 ProSD, 95mm f/3.5 Fuji Neopan 400, low res digital scan, Lightroom Beta Aged Photo filter"

"Southern Pacific locomotive 2472, Canon 10D, Tamron 17-35"

Finally for all you steam engine enthusiasts, here is a link to Golden Gate Railroad Museum, one of the organizers of the March 27-28, 2010 excursions. Be sure to mark your calendar for the next family event.

Livermore Wine Country and Altamont Pass Wind Farm

The weather was wintry, forecaster had called for a partly cloudy day. I wanted to take a drive and get some fresh air away from the city and thought I should venture out to Livermore to see how the grapevines are shaping up thus far. Northern California has had a whole year's worth of rain already - could it wreck havocs to the year's vintage? I wonder...Anyhow, my excuse for driving 50 minutes northeast to the pretty rolling hills countryside despite the menacing rain clouds hovering over my head most of the journey. .
I was not too optimistic about getting decent shots. Well, the sky did clear (long enough for me to take a couple of nice shots of the wind generators towering on the hills along Altamont Pass). I did not really mind the cloudy sky, to me it just added to the mood. The intermittent sun and dark clouds and its shadows falling on the rolling pastures made for beautiful landscape. There is always photo ops I reminded myself. The real reason for my little escape today was that I had acquired a nice (well used) Mamiya RB67 Pro SD with 90mm f/3.5 KL/L lens and a 120 film back last Sat all for a mere $280 and I have been dying to use it. I had a roll of 120 Velvia in hand and thought I should take it out for a "test drive". The RB67 Pro SD is soooo heavy, weighs a good 6+ lbs not counting my tripod :(. I weigh a mere 110 lbs and have a 5 ft frame!! This is going to be fun.....My shoulder will probably hurt tonight but what did they say about chasing your hobby (my passionate pursuit of something called photography). I had just the right backpack for it though....a new backpack I got last Xmas (it even has a touch of champagne pink fabric on the front) See pictures below. It is pretty large but not overly large for me, with straps on both sides so I could strap a tripod on it (barely though) (the main selling point of the backpack). I was able to pack my RB67 ProSD body with the 90mm lens and 120 film back, my Pentax digital spotmeter, Canon 10D with a wide angle lens and even a Holga which I had a couple of frames left that I wanted to finish. I quickly loaded everything in my car, and drove north on 680 and then 84 in the direction of Livermore at 7:30am.



A few comments from the trip:

First of all I love the RB67 ProSD...I am all smitten by it. The waist level viewfinder is so very bright, what a world apart from the viewfinder of 35mm SLR. Second, there are a few safety locks so one will never accidentally click that shutter without cocking the level and winding the film forward. Third, multi exposure on same frame is a breeze, just set it and adjust for stops and shoot away. Fourth, I don't have to rotate the entire camera to change from vertical to horizontal shot or vice versa, just rotate the film back, WOW!! (that is such a brilliant idea). Finally, it is all mechanical, no worries of camera battery dying on me just when that perfect moment presents itself!!

It is HEAVY!!! but it is such a joy to use....The only way for me to use it is to shoot on a tripod (a good habit anyway)

The images posted above were from my Canon 10D, as I need to finish the roll of 120 Velvia and as soon as I have it develop, I will update with some images...can't wait.

Finally, this is the day I decided to leave all my Canon DSLR lenses at home except for the wide angle because it would simply be way too heavy. I wish I had them expecially the 70-210 f/4. Anyhow, I had also inadvertently set the image size on the Canon 10D to small (uugh)!!! I was so grateful I had shot a roll of Velvia on the RB67, I never have to worry about accidentally setting the wrong image size with film camera. I was reminded of how pros used polaroid to do test shots before the advent of digital camera. Well mine sure look like polaroid samples now, good for web use:(. So much for agonizing over whether to leave my other lenses at home. On a good note, I did find a couple of spots that would be awesome for black and white photography and as soon as my films arrive from Adorama this week, I shall head out there to shoot more!!







"my beloved new backpack" It has a rather large top camera compartment where I put the medium format camera and a second bottom compartment for a second camera, seen here in the picture. Here is a link to Amazon's Cuscus Amazon store I can't seem to find the same backpack on their store anymore, I remember reading that it was out of stock. They have some really nice hiking backpacks tho :)
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Looks like dust spots have found their way into my Canon 10D again, time to cough out some money to get the sensor cleaned again!! With film cameras, one never have to worry about sensor dust spots.

A footnote about the wind farm, these towering wind generators do make a constant swirling (humming) noise (sort of like sound of a quiet engine running constantly). It is very audible indeed at the foothills some 400 ft down and I understand now why some farmers in the midwest objected to their neighbors starting a wind farm as a way to subsidize their farm income