photorama

So I’m here on vacation and I’ve brought like 25 rolls of 120 with me.. I’ve shot 1 roll so far, with 5 days left on vacation. I also brought my Nikon D3 with me, along with two flashes and 3 lenses. The good thing about that is I can practice light balancing and not worry about throwing away a roll of film when I get back to NYC. I’ve come to the conclusion that digital to me is just an accelerator for learning the things I missed years ago, like light balancing… which I think is most important to me given what I see in my mind never coming out like I see on film. It’s also just made me set my white balance on my D3 to either 3200K or 5500K and forget it, because really, that’s how Dad did it, that’s how *I* do it, and it’s working out pretty well so far. What else have I learned? Oh yeah.. I hate sand and sea spray when it comes to camera equipment. Yuck. You turn the focal length adjustment ring and hear the grinding of sand against metal and just cringe at the sound. I guess my point is, digital isn’t bad, I think I’m just cranky that it’s so easy for anyone to pick up a camera and suddenly become a photographer, when it takes so much time and effort to really understand the craft. I think too, the social scene I run in, everyone is always snapping pictures at parties and I think it’s tacky sometimes… granted there are a few people that I respect who do that, but 9 times out of 10, it’s not very interesting.

There is talk of thunderstorms tomorrow so now I’m hoping that we get some good lightning so I can breakout the ol’ RZ for some sweet 6×7 lightning action because let’s face it.. 35mm sucks. I should really just rename this blog to All 120 All the Time.. though I doubt you would actually care.. maybe just think I’m more arrogant than you already do.

Being the only person awake in a big beach house at 1:20 A.M. with the sound of a fan being the only thing you hear aside from the typing is kind of creepy. But soon I shall run off to sleep, only to spend more time in the ocean tomorrow working on my magnificent tan.

If you’re interested in vacation pictures, check out photos.crewcial.org for the Outer Banks Vacation 2008 gallery. I kind of feel guilty talking that up, given that this is supposed to be about film only, but I’ve already broken that rule before. Oh well.

The above photo was taken ground level on the big hill in Bernal Heights. (San Francisco ‘hood) Exposure was a bit miscalculated because I forgot I was shooting ISO 50, and I had metered for ISO 100, on the sky. Doh. 50mm f/4.5 (I need to start keeping a notebook on what I use for each shot), Mamiya RZ67. Fuji Velvia 50. mmm.

Also new is trying to integrate this blog with tumblr and twitter. We’ll see how that goes and if it sucks I’ll yank it.. but it’s kinda tough to get people to read a new blog and keep reading it. Hell, I have to have a bookmarks folder with all the photo-related blogs/sites I read daily. My mind is filled with too much at this point to remember every URL I need to.