Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. Me? So, So. I've been dealing with Kidney Stones. UGGH! But today so far a good day. The other day Robert (my photo wingman) and I were going to the Virginia International Raceway to shoot a car festival. But on the way to Virginia the Pain from my Kidney stones got so bad that we had to turn around before we got there and come home. We'll make it to VIR in the future. But we had a good 4 hours worth of driving and lots of good talk and of course if your talking to me lately film will come up. I know film is old science compared to all of the new digital cameras but there is just something about it that I like. Anyway he said that he had some cameras that someone had gifted him and he had never shot film before so I told him I would have a look at it and run a roll of film through it to see if it worked or not. He brought me the camera and it was a Canon AE-1 Program. Now I have heard about the Canon AE-1 before and what I didn't know is that there are a few versions of the basic AE-1. The AE in the name of the camera stands for Automatic Exposure. The original came out in 1976 and can shoot in Shutter Priority and Manual and is very solid camera and became a favorite among photographers. In 1981 the Canon AE-1 Program came out and its about the same as the AE-1 but can also shoot in program mode where the camera basically becomes a point and shoot and all you have to do is focus. It will also shoot in shutter priority and Manual.  Then there was the Canon A-1 which will shoot in shutter , aperture and program mode and manual. Does it all but is a little different design from the AE-1 and AE-1 Program.  Confused yet? LOL I was too I had to do a lot of research to figure out these camera's. So from what I could deduce from online is that the AE-1 and the AE-1Program were the more popular camera's and the A-1 although it can do more wasn't. The Canon AE-1 series of camera's was very popular for Canon and in 1984 the olympic were coming to the US and Canon even had Olympic versions of the cameras. This copy isn't that it was built after the Olympics in 1984.

So I got this camera to test out and first things first I had to figure out what kind of battery does it use and how to get it installed. This camera must have a battery to operate not like most of my camera's that only need a battery to work the meter. So I googled and figured out that the battery compartment is on the front of the camera and found that it uses a 6 volt battery 4LR44 just like that my medium format  camera uses so I had some batteries. I loaded it with a new battery and looked through the viewfinder and the meter was functioning (I'll check accuracy later) which was a plus.  I cocked the shutter and pressed the shutter button and it made an awful squeak when it fired. Which made me concerned that it may need to be sent off to have it CLA'ed (Cleaned, Lubricated and Adjusted) I cleaned it up the best that I could It has been sitting on a shelf with lots of dust bunnies on it. I stuck a roll of  Kodak Portra 400 in it and went around the house just shooting all kinds of stupid stuff just to see if it worked. I did check the meter against 2 different meters I have and it was about one third off in the overexposed range which is fine by me. It squealed and made all kinds of noise but seemed to work great. The viewfinder was brighter than any other of my 35mm cameras which I like having old eyes .  I shot on shutter priority mostly and one or two on manual and one or two on just program mode. When I developed the roll they all came out great no exposure problems at all. Which means all of the shutter speeds seem to work well and the electronics in the camera work well. The only problem was that horrible squeak. I got on Youtube and saw a few videos on how to lube the squeaky part to make it quit. So I tried .  I may have put more oil than I was suppose too but I did get it to stop squeaking and it sounds correct. I gave Robert my results of what I did to the camera and all of the research that I had done. He told me to keep the camera that is was better for this camera to be used than to sit on a shelf collecting dust.  I am very grateful and glad to add this camera to my film collection.  This camera will replace my Pentax MX that I have been using for a lot of my film project work. Now with a new camera system I will need some goodies. It has the 50mm f1.8 kit lens that it came with and I have just ordered a 28mm lens. Thats a great combo for what I'm going to use it for mainly street/photowalk  type stuff. People ask me when they find out I'm a photographer what kind of camera do I use and I say I shoot Sony. But this will make my 5th Canon that I own. Three film and a point and shoot and one that had been converted to IR. So maybe I'm a closet Canon Shooter. But don't tell anyone! LOL 

Now I'm the only one that I know that actively shoots film. I know a couple of other folks that can and have shot film but don't mess with it too much now. I'm one of the few people that have the time to do all of the developing scanning and now worry about how sharp the images turn out. I love the look of film. So Robert and I are planning to do a film only photoshoot. He has never shot film before. So it will be fun to see him learn how to operate, and load film into the camera and how it may change the way he shoots. I don't think that he will convert to film because it's quite a process from the time you click the shutter from the time you see the image. He's used to instantly seeing the image after clicking the shutter. Well that's it for this week . I'll let you know how the film photoshoot works out. So until next week Get out and shoot!

PS. Hey Ya'll! I wanted to share an experience with you that I just had. As you probably know I've been into film camera's this year and a good source for equipment is Ebay. We've all heard the horror stories of bad deals and people not getting what hey ordered. I have just aquired and nice little Canon AE-1 Program that came with a 50mm lens but I wanted a 28mm to go with it. So I got on Ebay found one for 60 bucks and ordered it. When I got it , It was not what I ordered it was a Canon 2X converter for the AE-1 Canon. I quickly sent a nasty gram to the seller and to my surprise she refunded my money overnighted the lens to me and let me keep the 2X converter. This was the only camera stuff that she had in her online store and think she didn't know much about it and was glad to get rid of it. Anyway I ended up with a free lens and a 2x converter for free. I can honestly say that I've never had a bad experience on Ebay (but I know they happen). Cheers! 
 

Hey Ya'll!  How's everything going? Me? Well that's what this blog is about. I've had to have a minor surgery that has kept me in the house for a couple of weeks. (don't worry nothing serious ) Couldn't have picked a worse time for this to happen. I've got two photo projects I'm working on and the weather has been great and I'm tied to the house for a couple of weeks. So what have I been doing with my time? I'm trying to do as much photography stuff that I can to keep me in touch with the art that I love so much. Even writing this blog is one of the things that is keeping me busy and in touch with Photography. So in this blog I will give some advice if you end up like me all raring to go but can't .  So here I go with some suggestions.

-Go back in your catalog of photos and re-process them. Go find a photo you like from 5 or 10 years ago and process it like you do now. With all of the advancements in Lightroom and Photoshop I bet you can do all sorts of things that you couldn't do then and really make some of those old photo's really pop. This will give you something to do that will improve your skills and bring back to life old photos.

-Go through all of your equipment and make sure it's spotless and clean and ready to go. This will get the camera back in your hands and while you're going through your gear you might find that you need some gadget that you can order online and they will bring it right to your doorstep. Someone recently gave me an old film camera so I cleaned it and ran some test film through it to make sure everything worked fine. And of course I ordered some stuff like a new lens off of eBay to make this camera into a Kit. 

-Listen to photography related podcast. They are great and you can learn lots of stuff from them. Some of my favorites are "The Digital Story", "PetaPixel", "This week in Photo" , "Picture this" and " The Future of Photography" and there are many more.

-Do some indoor Photography. Set up a table and start photographing things from still-life  to water drops. There are all kinds of things. You can go on Youtube and look up a specific shot and see how they did it. Look up Photography ideas and there will be all kinds of neat stuff that you can find to shoot.  I took my medium format film camera and figured how to hook it up to modern strobes. You could also do some sort of macro photography indoors. Table top photography has endless possibilities. 

-I can't believe I'm going to say this but you can read a photography book. I have several (don't tell anyone Im a Nerd) They are pretty cool and you can learn a lot. Looking at a photo in print is much different than on a screen. You can study the greats without leaving your couch.

-Go on to YouTube and search for the type of photography that you like. There will be all kinds of tutorials on how to do stuff and short videos of trips if your into street and travel like I am . I can spend hours going through YouTube watching the how to's and the where they went.

-Do some online learning with Kelby One or Creative Live. Lots of learning from some of the best in their fields there may be some cost but its well worth it. You can learn things from iPhone photography to Astro or even using your iPhone to do Astro photography. Everything from editing to portrait lighting can be learned through these online courses.

These are just a few of the things that you can do that are photography related if you get stuck in the house for a while like I have or in the winter when its too cold to go outside. In Photography there is so much to learn and do that you could and I have almost spend a life time learning. And these days it's as easy as typing on your computer. I'm sure you have some ideas that I haven't even thought about please share. So until next week Get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Not too bad. This week I want to talk about the most familiar focal length that you're not shooting. Now we've always been told that the 50mm focal length is the closest to the human eye can see. I would even broaden that out a bit to 40-60mm somewhere in there is the sweet spot of the human eye. I think that back in the film days that 50 mm was the most familiar focal length and that was the lens that you always got with your new camera was the nifty fifty. But I think that in modern times that the familiar focal length has changed. In this modern age of photography everyone has a camera on them (Smart Phone)  and most of the normal lenses are set to 28mm range give or take a few millimeters. Everyone has a camera and they are used to seeing the world through that 28mm focal range. We take selfies, photo's of family and friends, events, landscapes almost everything is taken with our phones and we've got used to the focal length. The look of it. How it frames a scene. It's fairly wide compared to the 50mm and distorts the face of someone a little but we've got used to it. We like the look. Why don't you have a 28mm lens for your camera then? Well to tell you the truth there aren't that many to choose from. 

Now I really didn't notice the 28mm range until I started shooting film again. My film cameras I either had a fixed 40 or 45mm lens or had on interchangeable lens camera's had a 50 on them. But when I started shooting them they seemed tight. Too close and I was always backing up. Back in the film days I din't do that, the nifty fifty was just right. The reason is the smart phone camera that I have with me all the time taking shots of all kinds of stuff my eye had readjusted from the 50 to the 28mm of the phone. I had a 28mm for my Pentax but didn't use it too much I decided one day just to shoot the 28mm and I loved it!. It stayed on my camera almost all of the time. I would only pull the 50 out to shoot something across the street long distance for my street and travel stuff. Otherwise the 28mm was just right to my eye.  I loved this combination so much (28 and 50) I even got a 28 for my digital cameras and have a 28 and a 50 that I take with me when I'm shooting digital street to emulate the film set up that I have with the same focal lengths. I just love the combination of the 28mm (the new familiar) with the 50mm (my old familiar) when I'm shooting street or travel type photowalks. I just got a "new to me"  film camera system and the first thing I did was order a 28mm for my new system. Even in my medium format system set up I have a 30mm equivalent and a 50 equivalent focal length which matches my 35mm film and full frame digital cameras set up closely.

The new familiar ,28mm, has that look and is very versatile. It's great when shooting environmental portraits. It's wide enough without distorting the scene. It's great for landscapes rural or urban wide enough to get all of the scene in. Its great for taking a photo of someone your having lunch with or something close up like in street photography. This is a great lens for family photos during holidays. There are lots of advantages of the new familiar 28mm.  The 28mm is small and lightweight and great for carrying with you when you're on the go. The prices aren't much different than the nifty fifty maybe a little more but well worth it. I bought one used for a couple of hundred for my digital and even less than a hundred for my film cameras. There is not much bad to say about this little lens. For me it has become one of my favorite lenses and focal lengths. If you haven't shot with one I highly recommend getting one and trying it out. Until next week get out and shoot! Maybe the new Familiar.