Bell & Howell /CannonHere is the new addition to my film cameras . 1961 Canon Canonet 19. Hey Everyone! Hope you are doing great today! This week I want to talk about old camera tools that still work today with our newer cameras that have all the technical advantages.  These two tools will help you get your settings right quickly and focus quicker.  These tools were made many years ago, almost 100 years.  The first tool or rule was invented by the Kodak company.  When they first started making consumer cameras, they wanted the everyday man to be able to use the camera without fumbling with settings on the camera. They spent millions of dollars back then on research to figure out this rule.  It's called the "Sunny 16" rule.  It tells you what settings to set your camera on when it's sunny or when it's cloudy, and it works! All of the time it works!  The rule states if it's sunny outside, you set your f stop to f16.  You then set your shutter speed to the same number as your ISO.  So if it's a sunny day and you set your camera to f16 and have an ISO of 400 and set your shutter to 400, your exposure will be correct.  So how does this old rule help you?  If you are in a hurry to shoot something and you're shooting in manual, you can set your camera to the sunny 16 rule and, bang, exposure is set, no thinking.  Then you could adjust from there. If you're riding in a car and come up on some elk, if your _MSP9733 camera is already set, all you have to do is focus and shoot.  There are some rules for when it's slightly overcast: use F11; heavy overcast: F5.6; shadow: f4.  Everything else stays the same.  So you could see back in the day that this was very useful, especially if you didn't have a light meter, which most people didn't.  When else?  How about shooting the moon.  Nothing is more frustrating than trying to shoot the full moon and your shot is overexposed and you can't see any detail on the moon.  But if you use the sunny 16 rule and remember the moon is just a reflection of the sun, you should have perfect exposure.  Pretty neat for a 100-year-old rule or tool.

The next 100-year-old rule will also help you when focusing.  You say, well I have the newest Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji camera, and it focuses super fast. And I would say, yes, it does in good light. But what about poor light?  Say you're shooting a wedding reception or a banquet of some sort, and the lights are turned down.  Your fancy camera (no matter what the make) will hunt and look for something to contrast against and then, depending on your aperture that you probably have set to 2.8, you will have a hard time getting anything in focus.  There is a rule or tool that is called Zone Focusing.  Everyone has seen it used before in photos that are famous by Ansel Adams.   This is where everything in the frame is in focus.  This is well before Photoshop where you can focus stack now and get the same result.  This was done during the time of manual focus lenses.  It deals with two things: depth of field and aperture.  Depth of field is the part of the photograph that is in focus.  Like I mentioned before, you have seen photographs where everything is in focus.  But you have also seen portraits where only the eyes are in focus.  The tip of the nose is out, and the ears and everything else is out of focus.  To do zone focusing, you have to know where that depth of field is. To do that, we must use a depth of field calculator.  They can be found anywhere. Just google "DOF calculator," and you'll get a bunch.  I have one on my phone.  You plug in the focal length of the lens you are using. I picked 35mm the fstop you're using. I picked 8 and it tells you where to set your lens at and then put it in manual. For me it was 5 meters or a little over 15 feet. So if you have an old lens that has all of the markings on it, you could just dial that into 15 feet or 5 meters.  Then everything from 2.5 meters to 162 meters will be in focus. If I don't have an older lens with the markings, I can find something that is about 15ish feet away, focus, and then put the lens in manual and shoot.  Everything 2.5 meters away and beyond will be in focus.  If I needed a fill flash, I could put that on and it would work great.  So if I am on the dance floor at a reception, I just have to make sure that the subject  2.5 meters away.  and shoot, shoot, shoot.  I can do it quickly because my camera will not have to focus.  Now the lens matters also and the size of the sensor.  The depth _MSP9571 of field calculator usually asks for what camera, lens, fstop, and it will tell you the rest. I use the one that comes with PhotoPills App. Changing the aperture will also affect the minimum distance that will be in focus.  A larger fstop number will make the minimum distance closer, and a smaller one will make the minimum distance further.  So I would say, in any event where the light is poor, this will help that big fancy camera take better photos.

So there you are, a couple of old tricks that can help your new camera work better.  So until next week Keep Shooting!

IMG_1114 Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is doing fine this week.  Today I want to get on a soap box a little and  Reminiscing of film days gone by.  I was listening to a podcast that had a National Geographic photographer with almost 40 years experience as a guest.  I really enjoyed listening to him talk and he brought up some differences between now and then.  As a younger teenager when I started photography I dreamed of being a top photographer working for National Geographic or Look or Life magazines.  How glamorous it looked when you look at the works of famous photographers during the depression taking photo's of life in the US back then just to document it.  How their camera's were mechanical wonder machines with precision workings inside. How the black and white photo's they took were sharp and clear and made time stand still.  But some things I had forgot.  How the film had limits to them and you could only do so much with the low ISO or back then ASA film. Like you could only shoot  1/2 hour before sunrise and 1 1/2 hours after and 1 1/2 hours before sunset and 1/2 hour after.  Everything else was useless grainy shots. Not to mention Night time photography.  If you look back at older issues of National Geographic you'll never see anything shot at night because they couldn't. And how the learning curve for a new photographer to really be able to shoot and produce good prints from film.  Because the learning curve was so long.  Think about it.  You had to Bodie Island MilkywayMax Stansell Photography shoot your shot ( in manual of course) then you had to develop your film.  Then you had to enlarge it or at least make a contact sheet and then you could see if your photo was ok.  Its not like now you take a photo and look at the back of your camera and say " oh that was over exposed let me make an adjustment"  Then shoot again and see it.  So now the learning curve is much less than it was back then.  According to the guest it would take one or two years before a young photographer would be good enough to trust to take a shot for a publication.  Now it could take only and couple of months to be as the same level as back then because of the short learning curve. What about quality of work?

Neuse Moon When I look at the national archives photo's from the 20's, through the 60's I am astonished on how good some of these photo's are.  They are crisp and sharp with lush blacks and mid tones.  But then I start to think about it could they stand up to a iPhone 12 today?  The guest of this podcast took some photo's that he had taken in the 70's with a Leica camera and put them up against an iPhone and he said that the iPhone beat the Leica in every way but one that's story telling .   Which is done by the photographer not the camera.  The majority of photographs taken today is with our phones.  We are documenting history and don't even know it because it has become a part of our lives.  We shoot food, our pets, our children, events at church almost every aspect of our daily lives are documented with our phones.  Then we put them on the internet like Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.  When they go on the internet they are there forever.  Just yesterday I was looking for a photo to show a co-worker and I ended up finding it by googling myself and looking at the images on a photo sharing site that I don't even use anymore.  What would we know about our parents if they had iPhones back then?  What would we learn about ourselves that we don't know now because it was something that was lost in time?  Professional photographers in the past had to impress a photo editor of a magazine to get published and make money.  Now a days its "likes" and "followers".  The more you have , the more popular you are ,the more people that look at your post the more valuable you are for companies to get you to talk about their products.  People make a living out of being popular on Instagram alone from sponsorships. 

So what has digital photography done?  It has brought photography to everyone that owns a phone.  Every time you look at a screen , whether its Facebook , Instagram, Amazon, whatever its because of digital photography that its happening.  We all have a powerful tool in our hands every day.  And like in the Spider Man Movie " with power comes great responsibility". Sounds kind of crazy doesn't it.  People use their phones for good every day. From taking a photo of some injustice.  Think about the George Forman incident.  All photographed and documented with phones/digital photography.  Or something as innocent as taking the photo of a lost dog and putting it on Facebook so the owner can find it. Digital photography has changed the way we see the world and the way we live in it. Its debatable whether that is good or bad thing that's for you to decide. But as you see it's pretty powerful if you sit and think about it.

Well that's enough soap boxing for today.  Until next week get outside and shoot!

Mt Mitchell 2022 Hey Everyone! Hope you are doing well so far this New Year! Back in 2020, my photo buddy, Robert, and I went to the coast of North Carolina for a photo of the New Year.  We had a great time and it was a great start to the new year that actually turned out great considering that Covid started.  Speaking of Covid, we didn't do anything in 2021 because of it.  So this year we decided to make a go at it again.  So we went from sea level in 2020 to the highest peak east of the Mississippi in 2022. 

Trip Planning: Trip Planning was pretty easy.  We had 3 or 4 ideas on places ranging from Virginia to South Carolina.  Once we decided on the location, my photo partner in crime booked the nearest hotel.  That was pretty much it.  It was a 4-hour drive, and he volunteered to drive. So I really didn't have anything to do but show up. Which is wesome!

31 December 2021: We left about 10:00 in the morning and started the long drive.  The conversation was lively as it always is.  We talked about Mt. Mitchell Sunrise gear, new photo techniques, politics, almost anything.  I don't think there was a minute of silence the whole way there.  We stopped to get gas and made some sandwiches with stuff we brought with us.  We kept heading to the mountains.  Robert's brother in-law was going to meet us at some point.  He has a little Miata that he was driving and wanted to drive the curvy roads of the mountains.  We finally made it to our hotel in Marion, NC, and realized that we were still an hour away from Mount Mitchell.  So we dropped off a bag, got back into Robert's truck, and headed out.  The road up was very curvy and steep in places.  We finally made it onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and after a few tunnels, we were there.  When we got out it was cold, windy, and looked like it was going to rain.  The bags we dropped off at the hotel had our jackets in them.  Yikes!!!  We bundled up the best we could and headed to the top.  This was a short but steep climb, and we finally make it to the observation tower.  We took photos and scoped out where we were going to Sunrise 2022Mt Mitchell shoot in the morning.  On the way down, we met Robert's brother in-law and we went back up to the top.  We then all headed out to get us something to eat.  Robert attached a GoPro to the Miata for footage of the trip down the mountain.  We found an excellent Mexican Restaurant in Marion and had a feast.  After that we headed to the hotel to get ready for the New Year's shoot.

1 January 2022: We started early and left the hotel at 5:30. For some reason we thought that sunrise was around 7:00, but it wasn't until almost 7:30.  We figured that the drive would take longer because it was dark, and it was.  We arrived at Mount Mitchell at 6:30 and didn't know if the gates were going to be open.  They normally don't open until 7:00, but they were open so we drove to the top parking lot.  It was 6:30, dark, rainy, and cold. The temp was 39 degrees, and the wind was howling.  We were sitting in the truck and it was shaking in the wind.  And we were the only ones there.  After a while, another car Blue Ridge Tree and a truck showed up, but it was still dark and windy.  We saw a lone figure heading up with a hoodie pulled over their head, so we decided to get bundled up and head up.  I ventured not to take my tripod because it was so windy it would just get blown around, but Robert brought his.  When we finally made it up to the top, there were 5 or 6 people there watching the sunrise on the new year. The wind was howling and the clouds were streaming by.  The lone figure we saw was a smallish young lady who was standing on a bench with her cell phone being almost blown off the bench at any given time.  It was a pure pleasure to be with these people watching a new year start. There were these big columns that I sat my camera on to steady and it worked out okay.  Robert wedged his tripod through the rungs of the railings and it kept steady.  We oohed and awed at the scene for about 30 minutes.  I turned around and a young man was on one knee proposing to his gal.  It was an honor to be a witness to this at this place and time.  She said yes.  We got some great photos and video and really enjoyed the new New Year's tradition.  On the Boat House way down, we stopped at a couple of places along the way and got some shots.  We stopped by the hotel and, score, they were still serving breakfast, so we sat down and had a big breakfast before heading home.  Our journey home was much like the one there, filled with conversation on many topics.  But the most important topics were the next adventures we have planned.  Some small and one large adventure planned for the future.  We'll talk about these later.  

So until next week, start making more photo traditions and get outside!