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{Kit Car} Grainy Mercedes

September 23, 2014 7:23 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Do you know what a kit car is?

A person can buy a kit of components and build themselves a replica vintage car. I know that, because my dad was hired to build a kit car for someone when I was a child.

The kit car referenced in today’s post is a Mercedes – apparently a replica of a 1929 Merecdes Gazelle.

Most of the photos of cars/motorcycles that I post on SWP are taken at the auto auction where my family’s catering business provides meals on auction days every week. This Mercedes kit car was parked in the auction sales floor one of the days I was there to do food prep work. We were the only people on the premises, so I was free to photograph the car to my heart’s delight!

Bronica ETRSi • Zenzanon 75mm/2.8 EII • Lomography Lady Grey 400 film

Unfortunately, this was probably the last roll I put through my Bronica before I “accidentally” sold it to Urban (the man from whom I won the Konica Big Mini that I’ve been enjoying this year.) I say “unfortunately,” because I had some of the worst film EVER loaded in it for (what would turn out to be) the last roll I’d shoot with the Bronica. That Chinese-made film repackaged by Lomography left all the polka dots and numbers you see on the pictures.  It’s a fault with the film’s backing paper (or the ink on it, according to some.) And BOY is this film grainy! Resulting in a grainy Mercedes…

Posted in: film photography ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

Kiev 4AM {Two Rolls In}

September 7, 2014 10:34 am ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

Everybody knows that I have a deep devotion to film photography. But there was something missing from my camera collection: an interchangeable lens rangefinder.

I know some people on Twitter who are well-versed in rangefinders, so I started asking around to see anyone had suggestions for me as I looked to buy one for myself. One of these Twitter folks, in particular, is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about a several rangefinder varieties. He directed me to the Kiev 4AM, a Soviet-era Ukraine-made copy of a Contax rangefinder. And even better, he let me know about a reputable US-based seller of Former Soviet Union (FSU) cameras, so I didn’t have to buy internationally through eBay.  I chose my camera from Fedka, ordered it, and it was here two days later!

(Shout out to Tony for guidance when I wanted to add a rangefinder to my collection! His help greatly simplified the process for me. I think he’s made Kiev users out of a few of us in the Twitter film photography community!)

I cannot stop looking at this camera. I have dubbed it “my most handsome” camera. I swoon over it!

Shooting with the Kiev takes some getting used to, mostly because you actually need to master a a grip known as the “Contax hold.” I’m not going to attempt to photograph myself doing that, but scroll to the bottom of Matt Denton’s review of a different Kiev camera to see the Contax hold in action! One tricky thing about holding the Kiev properly is making sure you don’t block the rangefinder window (you can’t focus if you do that!) With your Contax hold, you also focus the lens via the little wheel atop the camera. It feels awkward at first, but it’s not so bad once you grow accustomed to it!

The top of the Kiev – you see the shutter speed selector wheel, which also contains the shutter button, and works as both the shutter cocking and film advancing mechanism. Next is the film frame counter, which you manually set at the beginning of each roll (that is automatically set by most cameras I have.) In front of the frame counter is the aforementioned lens focusing wheel. Then there’s the flash shoe (it’s a hot one!) and the film rewind  knob. 

That lovely, lovely Helios-103 53mm/1.8 lens that I got with my Kiev from Fedka

Right then. Being busy with photo gigs and other things, my Kiev test rolls were spaced out between June and July.

Roll # 1 was Kodak BW400CN

Tractor texture. First frame of film shot with the Kiev. The Helios lens is excellent!

I’d received the Kiev right before I shot Jennifer and Chris’s wedding rehearsal dinner downtown. That urban setting was a great place to shoot most of my first Kiev roll!

Rubber shoes

Leaves in rain water

Bokeh!!

The attendance board from my Papaw’s church, hanging in my mom’s house. He passed in 2005, so this means a lot o my mom and our family.

Rooster

Frame

Roll #2 was Kodak Gold 200

Roll #2 was shot almost exclusively on various days I was at the auto auction where my family’s business caters meals a day or two a week. I didn’t photograph a wide variety of subjects with Roll #2, and I tend to burn through frames of film at an alarming rate when I set my eyes on some of the beautiful items I see parked in the auto auction’s sales floor!

CorvetteDecorations for the Fourth of July sale auction

My continued series photographing motorcycles on display/for sale at the auction. This Harley was GORGEOUS.

1964 Ford truck, in the auction bay and bathed in warm early morning light

Honda motorcycle

 Conclusion?

I am LOVING this camera, in a way that I wasn’t expecting to. I’m used to being an SLR kind of girl, where the viewfinder gives you a “what you see is what you get” experience and the lenses have closer focusing abilities. I didn’t think I would appreciate the fact that the Kiev has a knob that you turn to advance the film and cock the shutter instead of  lever, but it’s really not an issue. On paper, those characteristics I’ve listed would be a black mark against this camera. But it’s so beautiful and a joy to use – as I said, I’m surprised by how much I enjoy the experience of using my Kiev. Perhaps more important than how much I like the camera body itself, the Helios-103 lens is proving to be an excellent performer!

What is an issue is that my particular Kiev seems to be suffering from a problem where the shutter curtain hangs open when I change from a slow shutter speed (1/10 second or below) to a faster one. It’s sporadic, but you can see its presence on two frames of film I used to photograph the truck during Roll #2. Light fogs a portion of the film frame when the shutter sticks open. I’m currently trying to figure out if there’s something I’m doing incorrectly, or if there is a simple fix that would prevent the shutter from hanging open like that. I don’t foresee myself using those slow shutter speeds extremely often, but I still want to resolve the problem with the shutter. Other than that, I’m looking forward to integrating the Kiev into my arsenal of cameras.

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Canon Sure Shot Sleek {Second Chance at Love}

August 3, 2014 10:04 am ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅

I have been doing this thing lately that I call “Two Rolls In”: I put two rolls of film through a new camera/with a new lens,  do a write-up on my experience with that piece of equipment, and post resulting photos from those two rolls. When I did that with the Canon Sure Shot Sleek a few months ago, I didn’t feel as if I gave that camera a fair shot (yes, I did just make that pun) because I didn’t put two FULL rolls in it before posting the results. I thought I’d give that camera a little extra attention to make up for shortchanging it initially.

Well, actually, I also used this as an opportunity to try something new: recoding a film canister. Automated cameras like the Sure Shot Sleek read the “DX codes” on film cassettes and use that information to expose the film properly for its given ISO (tutorials here and here.)  Most cameras I use require me to set the film speed myself anyway, so I can just tell the camera that the film is 1600 and the camera will be none the wiser that the film is actually 400 ISO. In the case of the Sure Shot, I took a 400 ASA film, looked at a chart on recoding cassettes, and scraped off the appropriate  parts of the DX code to make the camera think I’d put 1600 film in it – that is so I could get more low light or “available light” shots without using the flash or running the risk of getting “camera shake” blur due to long shutter speeds. After I shot the film this way, I then instructed the photo lab to process the film as if it were 1600 (push-processing: we’ve talked about this before. I do it all the time with cameras at that let me set the film speed myself.)

Recoded cassette

With the recoded film loaded in the camera, I set out to take photos in limited light. This is how it went:

On my mom’s mantel – the room was dark and the mantel was lit by track lighting above it

HI!

Under very dim natural light

Teacup candelabra, holding tomatoes

Dining out

This was a bit underexposed but an easy fix in post-processing

Dim lighting in my sister’s dining room

King James has his own Bible AND a custom motorcycle??

I finished up the roll while I was doing a product photo shoot at Muddy’s:

Paper doilies + paper straws

Just so you know, the line forms here!

It’s a tough job picking out what you want to order from the beautiful bakery case

Cute cake stands in Muddy’s merchandise section

Mini disco ball and cloud decorations

Glittery stars hanging from the bakery’s ceiling

Peg board of mismatched coffee mugs and tea cups at Muddy’s coffee and tea station

Fresh flowers at the bakery

A small selection of the gnome collection at Muddy’s

(photos taken with Canon Sure Shot Sleek & Kodak BW400CN, shot at 1600)

Conclusion?

Apparently I recoded the film correctly, because it worked awesomely! But more importantly, I liked how a lot of these pictures turned out. Especially the ones at Muddy’s. Maybe I will be happier with the Sure Shot Sleek than I originally thought!

 

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography, personal, shop talk ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

Konica Big Mini {Unintentional Series}

April 27, 2014 10:36 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I’ve been going through one of those spells where it feels as if all I do is go to work and run errands for work*. I think a lot of people who enjoy photography get into ruts like this from time to time. Besides my freelance photography work, I work part time with my family’s catering company. So my version of the “all I do is go to work” rut is going shopping for food and supplies, doing food prep, and doing food service. I was saying to my mom “I can have a new photo series called ‘Stuff I see in Sam’s parking lot,” because it felt like all the photography I was doing occurred in the parking lot of the Sam’s Club where we do shopping for the catering company.

I’d been carrying the Konica Big Mini in my purse for awhile so as to always have a camera on hand if a photographic opportunity presented itself. Here are the results of having that camera with me for these impromptu “Kodak Moments.”

REALLY awesome Ford Falcon station wagon in Sam’s Club parking lot. I want one!

Cigarette butt and a fallen leaf, rainy day

This may have been at Wal-Mart parking lot, as we sometimes have to shop there too. There were several discarded chicken bones on the ground. Clearly the person had bought the fried chicken in Wal-Mart, eaten it in their car, and then thrown the bones out. No judgement though…

Another day, another vintage car in Sam’s parking lot. This time, a Mustang (and with a doggy in the window!)

The other side to my “stuff I see at work” is that we have a catering gig at an auto auction. I’ve featured motorcycles I’ve photographed there in the past. This white Star motorcycle was GORGEOUS. A true piece of art.

Konica Big Mini • Kodak Gold 200

Technical information: This was also a continued testing of the Konica Big Mini. I did a review of it already, but I can say now that I really like this camera! I still think its exposure system requires the use of the +1.5 exposure compensation a little more than I’d like for it to, but I’m very pleased with the results from my most recent roll in the Big Mini. The closest focusing distance really came in handy. Specifically, when I see a cool vintage car in a parking lot, I usually have to just shoot “detail shots” of the car in order to avoid having the more modern cars in the photo (ruining the atmosphere.) Having a camera that would focus down to under 14″ was very helpful for that! 

 

(*but I’m going somewhere REALLY good soon, so that rut’s about to change!)

Posted in: film photography, personal ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,