Coffee did this...

Sorry, I'll do a double post tonight just to clear out some of the photographs I've been wanting to share with ya'll.

I inherited my Dad's Canon T70 35mm camera many years ago and decided to take it with me on a visit to Lake Mead with my Mom when I visited a few years ago. I took the following shot on black and white film having NO IDEA the shot would turn out like it did.



When I reviewed the negatives, I felt this image had an ethereal quality about it. As if the fish were just hanging in full suspension, waiting to tell you which way the rabbit with the pocket watch went. It was images like this that made me go nuts about photography. The awesome part about burning film was the absolute surprise when seeing something like this.




This was taken a little while back as well. The cat, recently passed, was named Faith by my old friend and lesbotronic associate Cameo. Faith was an adorable kitten and grew up into a well adjusted cat, surprisingly. Like any photographer at home, pictures of pets and children fill the drives and I am not immune...especially having a daughter gallivanting throughout the home.

It took a lot of patience to shoot film. Since I switched to a digital format a few years ago, I find my patience has been dwindling and my desire to shoot film falling down that same path. I wish time allowed me to continue, but all I can hope is to keep my skills fresh until retirement and then I can finally build that stellar dark room and get to printing. I enjoy working with my hands to the point where I could throw Photoshop into a trashcan and get to cracking on an enlarger without feeling bad about spending a CRAP TON on software. Lucky for me, I don't know how to use Photoshop, so it makes my eye a little more discerning when I decide to shoot.

I feel I'm tooting again, time to stop for tonight. More later.

-JDL

It's been a year and then some!

Hey all.

I know I've taken quite a break from all of this, but I figured I should step back under the hood and make something of this.

A while back, Suzanne, River and I traveled to Bonnie Springs where they had a petting zoo chock full of all kinds of animals. One of my favorite shots from the trip was this:



This picture may seem like no extraordinary feat but let me explain how it was captured.

I was using my new Olympus E-P1 which had a Canon FD 50mm F1.4 manual focus lens mounted via an adapter. There is no viewfinder, just a large LCD screen. I hate to toot my own horn (especially being a former trumpet player) but damn this was a tough shot to pull off. Not only was the peacock moving towards me, I was manually trying to get a solid focus on that eye. I managed to make a decisive click and captured the above image.

I was impressed with the image, and I generally break my work down into major criticisms of myself, but none came with this one. I did not fire off a ton of shots either, it was more or less steady aim and a solid shot. Keep in mind, the aperture was wide open which only gave me about six inches or less of depth of field to work with.

One of the things I pride the most with my years as a film burner was the quick hand I developed while focusing a lens. The quick hands also translated well into my medical work. It's one of those things were you're working on an acute patient and your hands just "do". Some of you may know what I mean.

Anyways, TOOT TOOT TOOT. That's all I have to say for this. More to come later.

-JDL