Sad News

Koi
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

One of my personal favorite spots in Lansing suffered tragedy this winter. Over the course of the long cold spell we had, the Koi pond at LCC's Shigematsu Memorial Gardens froze down to unsustainable levels, and all of the beautiful Koi but 3 were killed. The College believes they had an insufficient number of bubblers working to sustain the fish through such a cold snap.

I'm happy that the college plans to implement a better cold-weather solution for next year, including perhaps another bubbler and a heater, and they also plan to restock the pond. But of course it's sad that so many beautiful fish had to die because the pond was poorly designed for this climate. I'm not sure the pond itself is deep enough to overwinter the Koi, so I plan on talking with a fish vet friend to get his opinion.

I still love the place, it's a great place of solitude and wonderful memories for me amidst the din and bustle of downtown, but I'm afraid the waters will always be tinged crimson with Koi blood in my mind from now on.

Introduction to Manual Photography

Afternoon Dog Walker
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

I wanted to do an introduction to Stereo Photography (that's 3-d, folks!), but I figured that would be a little too much too early, and seeing as how I have yet to even touch upon how to use an old camera like the Stereo Realist, I have decided to do a bit of an intro to those who want to use older cameras effectively. There are other sites, this is my favorite, out there to help you get a bit more in depth as far as exposure guesstimation, so if you have the want or need to figure out how to do this like a pro, then by all means do the research and practice a bunch. But if you want to cheat a little bit, just follow these handy tips.

First, the camera. I'm assuming you have an all-manual camera on which you can set A) shutter speed, and B) aperture. If you have an old film camera, like an SLR or rangefinder, you're all set. If you have a dSLR, you're all set there too, but you won't have to wait for lab prints to find out how your exposure guesses went. To do this, set your camera to M mode (manual!), and adjust aperture and shutter speeds accordingly.

Next, film speed. A good all-around film speed, or ISO, to start with is 400. Why? Why not - it will give good results in cloudy to sunny light. If you're using film, use a color negative film, as it has lots of room for error, or latitude if you will. If you're using a dSLR, change the ISO accordingly.

Sunny 16
This is an easy rule to remember, and it works well. If you go outside, and it's bright and sunny, you should set your aperture to f/16, and film speed to the inverse of the ISO. So if you took my advice and loaded up color 400 film, that would make a good sunny day exposure f/16 at about 1/400th of a second. Simple!

It gets complicated when you have to change shutter speed or aperture to get different effects, and if you want to know how to do that, I'd suggest looking into the other sites I mentioned earlier. As it is, when you start out stick with f/16 on sunny days and you'll be a-ok.

I also like to use the rule "cloudy 5.6" to mention you can do this on cloudy days too. If it's really super cloudy out, you need to open aperture up to about f/5.6 at the inverse of ISO, or in our case 1/400. If it's somewhere in between, you can set the aperture at f/8 or f/11, depending on how bright it is. Use your instincts, and practice!

Holga Tips

What does this mean when using a Holga? Well, the Holga is all-manual in a way - its settings are the same all the time, and the only thing you can change is the film speed. Suffice to say, the Holga shoots well in cloudy light with 400 speed film, and really sunny light can do well with 100 speed film. But don't overthink it. Matter of fact, I've shot with primarily 200-speed film in my Holga, and haven't had any real exposure problems.

Some other things...

LFGSS
Originally uploaded by adam_scott

I love photography for so many reasons, and one of my favorite types of photography is the photo-documentary, taking photos of an event and trying to crystallize many varied things into one amazing photo. The picture here is what I think exemplifies that notion.

This was taken at the London FixedGear/SingleSpeed Tweed Run, an event where a bunch of British bikers got together, dressed to the nines, to enjoy a leisurely roll through the streets, and a bit of fun together. I love the whole concept for several reasons, not the least of which is just the beauty of it. If anybody does an affectation right, it's the Brits, and I've come to love these affectations, little things you do for their own sake. Dress Tweeds, vintage steel bikes, pipe smoking, facial hair, and photography with a vintage camera. It's certainly something I can get behind.

I love taking my bike out and having a slow roll through the park, stopping every once in a while to take photos. I think I may start dressing better on these runs, and why not? Hell, get some people together and make a day out of it. If you wan to see more of the Londoner's Tweed Run, you can go here and here. Lots of wonderful photos, take your time looking.

In Other News, the Lansing photographers are going to be having a second meetup this weekend. It will be at Gone Wired Café, which is on Michigan Ave. It will start at 6:30, on Sunday Feb 8th. Should be fun, we're just gonna sit, chat, drink some coffee and get to know each other a bit. If you wanna bring a camera that's A-OK with us, just know it's pretty dark in there. Hope to see you there!

Lansing Flickrmeet

Lansing Flickrmeet
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

Lots of fun at the Lansing photo stroll, despite the extreme cold. Next time, I propose more hanging out and less freezing my ass off. If you're interested in meeting up, check out the Lansing Flickr Group, and I'm sure we'll have something again next month, in February.

Other photos from this photostroll can be seen here, here, and here. Lots of great photos, thanks for coming everybody!

Lansing Photo Walk!

Grand River Avenue Bridge
Originally uploaded by Eridony

Finally, a Lansing photo walk has been scheduled and I'll be making it! Hooray!

Anyway, if you want to come and talk, and shoot some fun photos, meet us at Great Lakes Coffee in the Stadium District at 3pm. We should have quite a turnout, which is exciting. If you're into film especially, I'd love to meet you, but of course I'm not much of a snob so come as you are.

Hopefully this will turn into a semi-regular thing.

Scanning

Ross's old red sweater
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

Catching up on scanning is fun sometimes, much as I hate doing the tedious work. I found some really nice negatives in my folder just waiting to be processed, some from over a year ago. Most are from the Mamiya Press, and certainly have a great quality to them.

On another note, I'm seriously thinking about making 2009 be the year of the Mamiya, and perhaps only using that camera all year. I dunno. It would certainly be a fun experiment.

Scanning Negatives is bad for the Psyche

Hawk Island Park: Bench in Winter
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

Scanning negatives is the only thing holding me back from using my Mamiya Press more or less constantly. I love the heft of the camera, the photos are beautiful, and I work pretty well with it. The negatives are super-detailed from edge to edge, and it suits a photojournalistic style well.

But honestly, you can only understand how much pain scanning can cause when you scan a medium format 6x9 negative on an old flatbed scanner through a USB 1.1 connection onto an old iMac. It's torturous. And when it finally is done scanning, I have to go through the whole photo and retouch all the dust so it doesn't look terrible, crop out the edges, and hope there are no terrible scanning artifacts. Ugh, what a process. I can only get through maybe two photos from start to finish before I have to get up and do something else.

I can see why people praise digital so much. Sure the final image isn't really as good in many ways, but boy you sure don't have to jump through any hoops to get there. Shoot, transfer, process - it's got to be about 10x quicker than scanning medium format film.

I guess I could do better with faster equipment, but that would cost quite a bit, so I'll be torturing myself a while longer yet. It's worth the effort.