Time for a fresh start…

The ‘View from the Carrot Room‘ blog has been going for a while and it’s direction has meandered a fair bit in that time but mostly it has been about reviewing my cameras.

I have kinda come to the end of that and want to go in a different direction; partly because there are a lot of other (better) blogs doing this (Like those by Jim Grey and Mike Eckman) and partly because I want to do more photography with the cameras I have and enjoy.

At the same time, the free storage I have on WordPress is over 87% so I needed to decide on what to do about that; quit, buy more, try to switch to linking images on Flickr or what?

I feel that a fresh start is how I wanted to go; leave what I have done here where it is and start a completely new blog initially in parallel then mothballing ‘View from’ entirely. 

I want to do something that is more about the pictures and not about the gear which will hopefully bring me back to where I want to be as a photographer.  I have decided on a new simple format of posts with just five images that are linked by a single subject matter; be it type of images, location or even gear used.  But just five images and a similar number of paragraphs describing why those image and what my thinking is or what I was doing etc.  

I know I could try to change this blog into that new format but somehow I think starting back at ground zero is a better way and will focus me on the new direction.

So this is me launching that new blog and I hope those of you reading this will come take a look and perhaps if you like what you see (and read) you will follow me there.  Don’t worry the Carrot Room is still open and the new site is called just that ‘the carrot room’ at www.carrotroom.com.  I have already posted a few things on there for you to check out…. so be my guest at my new address.

Thank you for reading my random and varying posts here, I really appreciate your likes, comments and attention.

Happy International Photography Day!

Here’s one I took earlier….

First quick tryout with pixl-latr

What seemed a long while ago, I pledged on Kickstarter a simple device for using your camera to ‘scan’ negatives by Hamish at 35mmc. I have a scanner but it takes time to set up and to scan the images and sometimes (often) I could use a simple and quick method for digitizing negatives and this seemed the ideal solution.

The day has finally arrived when the pixl-latr is here and ready for me to try out and I wanted to do a quick review.

Packaging-wise Hamish has gone for an all cardboard (no polluting plastic) approach which is appreciated and it made it over to the US in good shape; some of the pieces moved around inside but that’s not an issue.

Instructions are simple and clear and the device is pretty instinctive to use anyway.

I didn’t have time on the day it came for a ‘serious’ test but did do a quick setup with the camera handheld, just to try it out

Kilfitt-Makro Kilar E 40mm f3.5 Lens

35mmc just published a short post I did on this lens that I bought fairly recently, after finding it recommended by Mike Eckman on a post he contributed to at Casual Photophile (here).

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote that and I thought I would expand a little on my experience with the lens so far and also some 3D printing.

The post I discovered this on was about favourite lenses and it was an interesting read; especially as people tried to not pick the obvious (perhaps) clichéd choices and avoided the “best” just sticking with the ones they use the most and truly are favourites.  

It was Mike’s recommendation that caught my eye though and it seemed to me that this lens would fit nicely into my small tool-set.  I have been toying with buying a new lens that I could use on my digital and maybe also on a couple of my film cameras too.  This wasn’t quite what I had in mind but it just sounded very useful and might replace an Olympus lens I am thinking of parting with.

A year of photos

It may have been noticed that over the last year my photo output may have dwindled.  There are lots of reasons for this, the majority of which I won’t go into, but the main reason is my daughter who turned one last month.  As is common with new parents (not that I am a new parent as I already have one who just turned 23) you spend a lot of time photographing the baby and capturing those special moments… especially if you are some kind of photographer; and I have been doing just that. 
I don’t usually share pictures of my family here but I though I might share pictures that I guess might be considered a project.  It’s not really a project just a bit of fun my wife and I have been having which hopefully our girl won’t object to too much when she’s older.
To explain the background a little, my wife is bit of a Disney-phile; meaning that she likes all things Disney.  I wouldn’t say she is obsessed, she works for Disney and that was her main ambition when growing up.  As a result we visit the parks quite often and we have quite a bit of Disney merchandise.
So from a photography point of view, after the birth of our daughter we embarked on a schedule of taking pictures once a month each with a different Disney theme.  At the same time we also took a monthly non-Disney photographs as the official monthly anniversaries came along and also marked certain holidays and such (like the featured picture above).  I have not done much (if any) studio photography and I don’t usually do portraiture so this was a bit of a challenge for me and we had to improvise quite a lot especially in terms of lighting and backgrounds.  We worked as a team; my wife the art director and ‘client’ and me the technical side; trying to make it work and capturing the pictures.  Our daughter did her part in posing perfectly for us and smiling as needed.

So here are the twelve ‘Disney’ photos we were able to create

I thought I would love the Pen-F but I don’t

As you may have read, a couple of year’s ago I traded my dSLR for a mirrorless Olympus Pen-F digital and haven’t regretted it one little bit; I simply love it.

(if you haven’t read about it, look here).

This post isn’t about that Pen-F

 

My nineteen favourite images of 2019

Here are my favourite shots from this year in no particular order

Voigtländer Prominent with Ultron 2.0 lens using Fujifilm Pro 400 at the Getty Center

Voigtländer Prominent with Ultron 2.0 lens using Ilford Delta at Union Station

Cameras: Kodak 35 ‘special’

I bought this camera a few months ago from Goodwill and it has sat on my shelf since then; mostly due to the fact that the focusing ring appeared to be seized.  I kept picking it up and considering whether to try to take it apart and see what was wrong but each time ended up just putting it back on the shelf.

Then one day whilst pondering this camera I was thinking of ways to try to get the lens to move by applying the right pressure – I considered pliers (with rubber over the tips) and other means of gripping the front of the lens. I picked up a small rubber disk that was somehow conveniently on my desk at the time and with it in the palm of my hand pushed the front of the lens into it and tried to twist – it moved!  I tried again and moved it more; after a couple of minutes I had managed to release it enough to be able to focus fairly easily.  Now I had no excuses, it was time to try it out.

Mamiya 35 Executive

As well as being roll 22 and 24 of my 36, this is also a review on another new to me camera; the Mamiya 35 Executive.

I am not really sure why I bought this as I have several other 35mm rangefinders two of which are very good and my ‘favourite’ brand.  But Mamiya is also a trusted brand for me and when browsing recently to find a replacement for my soon-to-be-dead Mamiya C330, I stumbled across this.  It wasn’t cheap so I can’t use that to justify my purchase.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I didn’t actually know that Mamiya made 35mm rangefinders and so seeing this, I was intrigued. 

The Thirty Six: Film #14

I shot this roll of FujiPro 400 over a few weeks as I didn’t manage a full photo walk and shoot it in one go.  I used the Vitomatic II for this as my Prominent and Sensorex are both away for a service at the moment and it’s been a while since I used this one anyway (I was also inspired by a few recent posts and comments on 35mmc).

Still like this camera and it remains a favourite especially for travel as it is compact and self contained.

As a result there is a range of subject matter…

The Thirty Six: Film #11 with Petri 2.8

I took this roll during the Beers and Cameras photo walk the same day as the last roll (here) but this time it was 35mm Fomopan 100 and I was using it to test my newly acquired Petri Rangefinder; this post is also a review of that camera.

I have been intrigued by Petri for a few months particularly since readying this post on 35mmc not too long ago.  Then browsing Goodwill I spotted this one and hey presto! for very little investment it was mine.

The Thirty Six: Film #8

Another roll through my Voigtlander Prominent? Well not quite, this is a different Prominent; slightly older than the one used on this post. That one is away for a CLA so using the spare and prepping it for sale once the other comes back.

Film of choice this time was Kodak Portra 160

 

This was the first time using the 100mm Dynaron lens and I had mixed results which I don’t quite understand; some of the shots are perfectly focused others are just waaay off. I’m not sure whether it was operator error, an RF issue or if the lens wasn’t properly mounted –

I love Keld Helmer-Petersen

My new favorite photographer is ‘Keld Helmer-Petersen’.  I don’t think I was aware of him until recently, at least I wasn’t consciously aware, some of the images I have seen in the book that I recently purchased seem strangely familiar.  Maybe I have seen them in other books or in a gallery or perhaps online and not registered the artist.

Last month I responded to a post by Blake Andrews at B  about Erata photography books on offer and went to look on Powell’s site; indeed there were discounted books so took the plunge and bought ‘Keld Helmer Petersen 122 Colour Photographs‘  for under $20.

Until then I had never heard of Errata Books on Books;

Investigating and diagnosing light leaks

After my recent experience with a light leak on a TLR and another leak on a compact 35mm, I realized that there was very little information online about how to go about diagnosing these kinds of issues and thus fixing them. Most of the tutorials online that mention “light leaks” seem just to talk about replacing the foam seals around the door; which is fine for a certain age of camera and if that is where the light is coming in.

With both of my issues this was unhelpful and so I thought perhaps I would share my thought process in tackling these leaks; apologies if this is a case of ‘teaching your grandmother to suck eggs’ and maybe a lot of this is obvious for some of you – please chime in if you have techniques I don’t mention.

So first off, if the foam seals are deteriorating then of course replacing them is a fairly simple and cheap exercise that is worth doing anyway and may well resolve the issue. In my case this was not required for either camera.

let’s begin

The Thirty-six: Films 1-3

I decided to spend much of 2019 shooting the stock of 36 various films I have in stock and hope to shoot all of them before the end of the year.

#1
The first film was already loaded in my Voigtländer Prominent (currently fitted with the Ultron 50mm 2.0 lens) and was the Fuji Pro 400 film.
I decided that as I was heading to the West of LA anyway for an evening get-together with Cameras and Beer, I would spend an hour or two at the Getty Center. They were running an exhibition of Sally Mann that I was keen to visit and also I love the architecture around the Getty.