Shooting the bridge

Few days ago I managed to haul my gear to Yerba Buena island, a small island between San Francisco and Oakland. The Bay Bridge goes through the island. Well the east span connects the island to Oakland and the west span to San Francisco.

There is a spot on the island where you can get above the roadway as the road comes from the tunnel into the 5 lane two decker bridge. I shot couple of shots and hope they'll turn out good.

Here's a reference shot I took with my 40D.

DIY 4x5 film developing tank

I seem to have inherited a problem from my father. I think it's unnecessary to buy anything you can build yourself - even if becomes more expensive and not as good when building it yourself. This time I think I have dodged the bullet since I don't have a suitable place for developing film, but just wait until I move to a house with a garage and a pitch dark small room.

Anyway, here are instructions on building the film development tank from PVC tubes and accessories.

The design
In action

Disapontment

I was going to print some images today as my wife was working late. I got to the darkroom hungry and tired just after 5PM just to learn that they are closed on Mondays. Well - back to the couch. I still have bunch of negatives without contact prints and few nice shots I would like to print.

A good day

Today has been a good day. I worked a full day (from home though so nobody was in my way), had a light dinner in North Beach, went to take few shots with my Graflex and went to gym. All this done by 9PM.

Today I shot the fog rolling over the city. I climbed on top of Corona Heights park close to Castro and shot towards Castro and Oakland. I got there the fog was just starting to roll over Twin Peaks. I was up there for about 20 minutes and when I left I was surrounded by the fog. It's funny how the fog follows the same pattern every day this time of the year.

Time

I really have to start making time for this hobby also. I have been so busy with moving and other work and non-work related projects that I haven't even seen my camera for a month. Sigh.

About blur and Bokeh

Bokeh is a term referring to quality of out of focus light sources in a photograph.

I found a great article explaining some of the physics behind this and found out that even when the lens does play a big role in Bokeh, there are other factors also. Applies to bigger cameras as well as smaller ones. Naturally when working with black and white medium the color shifts are rendered as shades of gray and are harder to analyze.

User review of Shen-Hao HZX4x5-II

I stumbled upon a unser review of a chinese 4x5 field camera. Not bad for the price. I haven't seen the camera myself so I can't comment on the build quality.