Trip to New York and Finland

I have been shooting quite a bit in the last week with my Speedy. We are traveling in New York and Finland and last week we took a nice walk through Tribeca in Manhattan. It's cool how people stop by when I'm setting the camera up. Many people stopped by asking questions and talked about photography and the history if the area. Few stopped to welcome me to Tribeca which was very nice. I had first issue with my old wooden film holders while in Imatra in Finland. When I slid the exposure guard back in, it slipped on the wrong side of the film and once I took the holder out of the camera the shot was ruined. I don't know exactly how that happened or how I could prevent that from happening again. I'm excited to get the rest of the negatives developed though!

Shots from Bodega Bay

These photos were shot at Bodega Bay in December 2011.

Therapy shooting session

I had a great weekend and it included a drive to one of my favorite locations around the Bay Area, Point Reyes. This time we didn't go to the lighthouse, but I finally managed to get some shots of the stranded old fishing boat. I hipe the shots turn out good. We also went to the elk reserve, but it was super foggy there and I didn't manage to get any shots of the elks. I did take plates of Pierce Point Ranch. Today I took the films out of the holders and re-loaded all that I have shot recently. Now I have full stack of film ready in case inspiration hits.

Getting back to LF

It's been quite a while since I shot with my Graflex the last time. Well, I still haven't but I was about to. Then I noticed that I didn't have any film loaded and had to go with the Mamiya. My plan is to shoot more Large Format and Medium Format this year. Let's see it it happens also.

Mamiya C220

More good old rules

Keeping it SAAF

SAAF is a little acronym that you should learn as well, this stands for Shutter/Ambient – Aperture/Flash. What this helps you to remember is that shutter speed will control the ambient light and aperture will control light from the flash. If you need more ambient light, slow down the shutter speed. If you need more light from your flash, use a larger aperture (smaller f-stop number). Being able to use your aperture to control the light from the flash also allows you the ability to fine-tune the light to get exactly what you want.

New found respect for Ansel Adams

I have been spending this weekend in a cabin at Bodega Bay. Mostly the time has gone by eating and chatting with good friends. We naturally also watched Hitchcock's Birds that was shot in near here.

I also lugged my speedy up here and thought of strolling the beach and meadows taking beautiful pictures all weekend long. I took one walk with the camera and tripod. I walked only about 2 miles on the beach and back on the road and realized how heavy the gear is. I can't imagine hiking up the mountains carrying even bigger camera and more film holder. Props to Ansel for that! Now we have to look who wins the better picture competition.

Farm

Farm, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

Old abandoned farmhouse near Bolinas, CA.

Unfortunately the white walls were a bit overexposed and now look slightly murky.