Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 2":dltphoto

So as I mentioned I had at least one blank roll.. well darn it I ended up with two! That means that the Voitlander will either undergo surgery or it will have to be retired. Everything seemed to be operational! Alas, that's the biggest loss of frames I have ever had... as I said I am not too cut up, i did shoot most things with a couple of cameras. Its disappointing but I will live.
We opted for not staying at one location this year and headed from Green Lake to a place called Barkerville, another 5 hours from Green lake, up past Quesnel in the Middle of NOWHERE. Currently Its the furthest I have traveled within BC since I have been here... This province is pretty darn big!

Williams Lake Tourist Centre

All of our Rigs...

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 1": dltphoto

So since I have been so amazingly nostalgic since getting the two cameras from the UK, which were my dads, I thought it be fitting that for this holiday I would use the Cameras that my dad would have used for his holiday time. Now, as mentioned before, the film processing and film technology is far superior than back in his time, so the results I am getting maybe far greater than he ever got. Not to mention that I have surpassed my father in the art of photography. For him it was a hobby, the guy who was always relied on to take pics, not that he was a wealthy man who could afford many cameras, in fact quite the opposite. The Turners were a very stereo typical working class family were dessert at dinnertime was a massive luxury. I still see the little house my dad lived in back in Taunton with Uncle Norman and Granddad Sidney and Grandma Daisy, sadly I can only remember growing up seeing Uncle Norman, I have no recollection of my Turner Grandparents.... anyways.. i got off track!
So, I am using his camera's to record our holiday! Again, I am likely to be a little less frugal with the amount of shots during the vacation than he might of been, being that film and other costs would of have been maybe out of his reach.
The two camera's I used are the  Pal M4 and the Voitlander BL. I grabbed some of the oldest film I had in my fridge in the hope that I might add a bit more character to the shots with some fogging and discolouration, but alas that didn't seem to effect anything, also I used a little black and white also...None of the images are edited anyways on the computer, just scanned and saved low enough rez for the blog.

Barkerville BC, Artistic View: dltphoto

As you saw on the previous post a few of my "Promotional" style shots, well here are just some of my more artistic renderings...

Thought I would throw a B&W in here...

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 1: dltphoto

The first of this years camping trip was to one of our favourites, Green Lake. Since I holiday with several different cameras, perhaps about 10, i find I am able to post a few times just using some of the different camera formats. This years I have a full spread of varying digital ( compact and DSLR) and film ( manual and automatic).
  Having so many formats and being able to still use them all makes it all a little bit more fun for me, after all it is my holiday too! In this entry I will be displaying some of the digital compact versions, since I have an awful lot of images I think I will just bore you with a few!

The beach

My Cycling Shadow

green, mytubo :dltphoto

Barkerville, BC: dltphoto

Somewhere way up in the middle of nowhere on the road that takes your hours to get there is this wonderful little town called Barkerville, Established 150 years in a time when Gold was in them there hills....
This is an excellent place where people have restored an old Gold Rush town and have made it into a wonderful destination for  people, willing to do the drive, to mooch around and look at some of the old buildings that made up this Western style town.To make it even more enjoyable they have capped it off with people in full dress for the time period wandering around pretending to be characters from that period, really quite the photographers paradise!
Since I hadn't really read to much up on it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I certainly didn't imagine it being as large as it was. The buildings were wonderfully rustic, not like the good old brick I am used to from good ole England. The Only thing I missed or would have liked was the occasional tumble weed to go rolling down the main street!! that would have made it priceless

Here are some of my favs to give you some character feel to the place

June 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

This months epic was a "straight outta the Fuji" compact shot... I just love the "busy"ness of the shot and its somewhat abstract nature..really since there is no distinguishable scale for size it could be a huge water fall or an incredibly small one??

Barkerville, BC. Instagr.am:dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/M9tYPBK3z0/

Pal M4, Part Two : dltphoto

So since I had so much drama on the first roll and that I fixed it or at least hoped I had fixed it, I thought it fitting to give it another roll. Having seen the results when I got the film back it reminded me of how wonderful film really is, this is a process which has been around for such a long time and to this day is still amazing. It really can stack up against digital. Don't get me wrong, digital is soooo convenient and cost effective and easy to delete and and and... but film has never lost its appeal.
This little Pal M4 is very, very capable, in the right hands of course. I am quite enjoying it! As I mentioned before I have a little wide angle lens with it, here's to show you how little extra the wide angle offers. I have yet to determine exactly "how wide" it is, no literature on it that I can find at this time. I guess its around 35mm wide equivalent from the cameras native 45mm.

Firstly.. you need to FOCUS it... duh!!!

With the wide angle lens on

Without the extra lens (45mm)

 So the scene is fairly different you see more of the cars and more of the poles in the background. Since I am also using the Wide Angle viewer on top of the camera I am sure my alignment is off a tad, I didn't use a tripod like I probably should for this experiment, but really who reads this and does it really matter???? heheheheh

Pal M4: dltphoto

Another treasure that I have recently inherited from the UK is the Pal M4, back in its day it was the worlds smallest full-size 35mm camera. As compared to the the Voitlander it is a little smaller, but with this treasure I have another component.

So as stories go, this one started off well. Having been in my Dads camera box for eons, it has since been given to me. Figuring its not just a shelf piece and everything seemed to fire I decided to put a roll through it to see if it really was all still operational. So we went on a little visit to Seattle and around Abbotsford and I shot the roll though. I sent it off during the vacation with great anticipation to check the roll, when pickup time came the roll was not there... Eeeeek! I waited impatiently for another week but alas all seemed doomed. So I decided to give it one more roll and the camera trigger decide to give up. After some encouragement and a "technical tap" in several directions it freed up and decided to work again. Then by some stroke of fortune I found the missing roll...Joy of all joys...So now I have a working camera and the first roll through it in maybe 20 years.... or maybe more!!

enough now, here are the results.

Yellow, Yellow and yellow

Wedding: June 2012: dltphoto

The nice thing with not being the lead photographer at a wedding is that you can just be yourself, and shoot more random things. You don't have the pressures of being "the man". I quite enjoyed my little assisting time with Mr Jason Beattie the other day!
I even dabbled with different formats, such as my Sigma DP1s, 35mm Film ( Nikon F100) and the Nikon D200..!

Lets start with the Sigma...

APAC: Photoclub Submissions, June 2012:dltphoto

This months submissions caught me a little off balance, since I was enjoying some well earned vacation time with my family and I quickly grabbed three images in the folder of potential images for submission!

First up was the assigned topic, "my Community Landmark".

Since Abbotsford is fairly spread out I thought I would try a landmark which is always a landmark. Every now and again, these little crosses show up in a farmers field for everyone to see. It relates to someone's opinion regarding abortions etc of which I have no opinion, that's not what this post is about!

Anyways, this is a shot right out of Insta.gram (phone App)!!!! even still had the border on it. It scored a 22 which was right in the ball park, at least I chose an image for MY community and not some other community far far away, after all the challenge was "My Community Landmark"

Crossing the Field, (Score 22)

 Next up was an image from my "stigma" from Green Lake last summer. It was one of the few Sunsets I got during that holiday which worked out, the detail was really nice with the "pink wheat" in the foreground. Minimal editing done really, just converted it from the weird Sigma Raw.. This scored a surprising 8, of which being the top score of a Level 1 Rookie, meant I had to speak about it. Nothing to say really.

Sunset at Green Lake, (score 8)

 The final submission which a Fog shot from December I think, this one also happened to be from my Phone, didnt really mean to add another phone shot this time, I just grabbed the image that I saw first. Once again it scored a very pleasing  8 and I gave a quick talk about it, although I didn't mention that it was from my phone... duh!

Powering the Fog, (score 8)

Voitlander Vito BL: dltphoto

So my photography enthusiasm came from somewhere, we all have a story. I originally assumed I walked into it  due to interests in Art etc... at school/college and that my eldest brother bought me my first REAL camera, but alas I have become the person from whom  helped create me. We all have someone important at sometime we lose from our lives, some are lucky enough to have a full life time with them. Others, like my family, aren't quite so fortunate to grow old with and share our successes. I am extremely grateful for all my years with my father. He was my rock, my mentor and apparently my muse.
Today, I am lucky enough to have some of his belongings, things which some people inherit and really have no use for then discard, since they are valueless and useless to them. For me these items are the building block for how my biggest interest began, his cameras!
Since I really share these glory pieces with my brothers they realise the only person whom can really use them is me. An honour which I gladly accept.
Initially I was assuming they would wonder into the camera vault section of my mothers museum back in the UK, but instead they were not scheduled pieces for that. Hoorah for me.
Thanks to a recent visit from eldest brother I now have two of  Dads, more well-used 35mm cameras. Classics!

First up for testing to check that they still work is the Voitlander Vito BL. Originally marketed sometime around the mid 1950's. This particular model did have the benefit of a metering system for more accurate exposure, alas this is no longer functioning but that is a minor issue, since I have other more modern cameras with light meters I can use for reference.
Having had so many years experience with film cameras in different light situations I feel I am fairly confident with judging exposure close enough for the forgivingness ( if that's really a word) of film. Basically un-like an SLR or DSLR, you have to focus by distance only, you can look through the viewfinder but the focus wont change, you have to rely on your sense of distance.... (eeek. no auto focus. hahahah)
Enough with the boring chit chat, how about some images!!!!

Favourite Photo Backlog, March, April and May 2012:dltphoto

Ack... its been a busy few months, honest!
Here are March, April and May's, "my Favourite Photo".

March, 2012

 I just love the busyness of this shot, the snow coming down in March... MARCH, with the tree bloom wanting to sneak though. Nikon D200 w/70-200 2.8vr

April, 2012

 This was from a typical April, sunny and warm for brief periods! Nikon D200 w/70-200 2.8vr

May, 2012

This was from a little photo escapade I went on with Mr Koopmans. We got a decent half days shooting done in and around the Maple Ridge area before it began to rain. This was a little wooden box that caught my eye. I loved the textures! Nikon D200 w/ 60mm 2.8 macro

I'll try not to forget the next  "my favourite shot" of the month post.

Holiday Time= Shooting Time:dltphoto

Cotton, not Snow

Colours

 

Othello Tunnels, BC

Seattle, Downtown

Grey and Blue

Ground view to the Market

Othello Tunnels and Museum Of Anthropology

Discarded, not wanted?:dltphoto

 I have been working on a little side project for a short while now with surprising results. It would appear that in this little town people have a habit of leaving things lying around... why?

APAC: Photoclub Submissions, May 2012: dltphoto

SO... May's submissions were very, very  interesting.
We had been informed that the usual CAPA judge would again be replaced by somebody not trained with the "rules", this Judge was an Artist (painter) and a teacher I believe. Something different!

My first Image up was for the Assigned Category, this months topic was "Junk".

"where beds are laid to rest" (score 20)

It was a junk store I came across last summer on one of our camping trips, Shot with the Nikon D200 and 70-200 2.8VR, I thought it had decent colour and detail.I hoped the bed frame would look obvious and people could distinguish it, it scored ok compared to all the others, it wasnt scored the worst!

Next Up... A shocker!

"skies that surprise" ( score 10)

So, I have shown this image before on my other blogs for Lens and Shutter etc.... So, I am sure other APAC club members had seen it before, but the Judge has not.... SOOOO she gave it a 10... blimey, a 10. The only 10 of the night!
So I had to give a quick spiel about it, Shot with the Olympus Pen E-PL2 with the stock 14-42 lens, right out of the camera using one of the ART Filters called "Dramatic Tone". Basically it then offers the operator , regardless of photo knowledge, the power of well edited images without any of the after shooting non-sense ( a kind of in-camera photoshop).

Then, to top it off I had this image. A little more on the creative edge. I thought since its a Non-Capa judge I might get lucky and I scored an 8... very pleased she recognised it as an interesting composition. She even selected it to critique at the end. Of which she offered it sparked and emotion from her, she was mad at it as she wanted to move the leaf off centre for some reason, but she enjoyed the image.
As for the title I don't think anyone quite understood which is fine, it sparked a reaction... Titled 50/50 due to the fact the leaf was sitting mostly  50% over the blue paint and the road... not 50% of the blue and road which most people assumed what I was suggesting. Also this one was shot with my Phone, this is my highest scoring phone pic...

"50/50" score 8