Gardening Update #1

This being Colorado, it is necessary to start veggie seedlings indoor due to the very short growing season.  And so my odyssey this year began in Mid-February:

I started one of my mini domes with Eggplants which tae a while to sprout.

A week or so later I started the cucumbers and tomatoes in a second dome.

The Cucumbers and Tomatoes sprouted first.

And the Cucumber grew very fast.  This is my first attempted a growing them.

Later Cucumbers and Tomato Sprouts.

Finally some were large enough to move to my larger stand habitat.

And just a week ago, both levels had plant guests.

I'm in the middle on my second roll.  I can tell you both levels are full and I am currently trying to sprout some zucchini.

Diana Mini Part II

Most of the images didn't turn out,  But here are the rest that did, from a walk near where I work:

The best image from this series........

Path along an irrigation canal.

Lots of water, so lots of Cottonwood Trees.

Local municipal building with and interesting mural (which you really can't see here).

And an Alternative Educational Option.

Results from the Diana Mini

On March 18th we reviewed some wonderful and weird cameras that I have collected along the way.  Well, I have some results from the Diana Mini 110 film camera.  I had never actually shot 110 before because I considered it a waste of time.  But given this odd little camera and a free roll of film, why not shoot it?

I decided to leave the black edges from the scan.  

And this is by far the best image........

I may actually try to print it.

Our local Book Barn.  Another project I have in mind is to photograph all these little book sharing sites around the neighborhood.

The Geese at Lake Waneka (above) and Boat House (below):

And my neighbor Adam's Ducks & Chickens.

Sources of Power

I may have mentioned a new/current photographic project capturing images of the Boulder Power Plant, whose stacks are visible from many parts of the County:

But there are increasingly Alternative Power Sources appearing around town.  

So we will take a look at those too, and expand the Project to documenting alternative energy.

This particularly striking solar panel installation at Mountain View United Methodist Church, Boulder.  There are lots of solar panel installations going up, many sponsored by local government.  More on that as the Power Plant Project proceeds.

52 Rolls Week #10

52 Rolls Project Week #10 finds us at some old and current government installations.  Traveling the backroads of Boulder County we came upon a NOAA research site:

My February Print Offering

My Silver Print for February is the Cherryvale Barn, Boulder Parks and Open Spaces:

Saturdays Online: Experimental Cameras I Have Known........

Experimental Cameras include the expected offerings from Holga or Lomography.  But I'm also including unusual 'found cameras', any plastic camera and some odd little 35 mm cameras that have passed my way.  Click on the links to see example images from each camera type.

Okay, lets start with the obvious, Holga.  But there are many Holgas, and I have two types:  The standard Holga 120:

and the Holga Panorama Pinhole:

See last Year's Pinhole Day Photo here.

The Lomography Fisheye:

An Old School Plastic Camera, the Kodak Dualflex.  Taking a page out of the TLR family.  I had read about someone finding their grandmother's camera (with film) in a closet and developing it to find a whole new perspective on their grand mother as a young woman.  Great romantic Story, but the results of my experiments were lacking.  Seems like I never posted anything from this camera.  I'll take another look through my files.

The Kalimar Wide-X, a found camera.  Literally found in the trash.  The focussing lens had a crack, and the camera was very hard to load properly:

But it still yielded some results that were good enough to lead us to buy it's modern cousin the Lomo Horizon Swing Lens Panorama.

The Kodak Pocket Camera:

I bought this when I lived in New Orleans (Pre-Katrina).  I was afraid to walk around with a 'nice camera' and this slips neatly into the pocket.  Takes decent photos for a plastic lens camera.

And A silly little "Mini Diana" that shoot 110 ( a format I've never tried before).  It came as a bonus gift when I bought the Horizon.  So what the heck.....I'm testing it now.

The film cartridge actually forms the camera back.  

Sounds like a recipe for light leaks.

Cameras that I own as novelties but have yet to use:

Zero Image Pinhole:

This camera was part of the 3-D printing trend.  We'll try to focus on using it for Pinhole Day 2017.  And the same is true of the Ilford Camera Obscura (below).  Of course there is no reason to wait for Pinhole Day.  So we will try to use it sooner.  It is 4X5 format, probably why I haven't tried it yet.

In future weeks, We'll take a look at some Experimental Methods I have known.

Boulder Creek Part II & 52 Rolls Week #9

And 52 Rolls Week #9..........

At the end of the Pipeline is:

With some recent construction:

And an out of focus view, because that's what auto focus typically does in these situations.....

I was trying to capture the birds roosting on top of the Dome.  You can see them flying away.

We've been near here before at Walden Ponds, but I usually try to avoid showing the 

Water Treatment Plant.

And Yes it is St Patrick's Day.  But I celebrated Last Weekend at the Beer Festival..

A Walk Along Boulder Creek

We've previously viewed color images from this Walk.   But I rarely just shoot one roll of film.  So this is a B&W roll from the same camera test of the Fuji GA645Zi. And you are seeing the post before the 52 Rolls Project.

The Indian Peaks from Walden Ponds.

And the very common Space Ship Clouds.

Next we'll See where this pipeline is going.........

52 Rolls Week #8

Week 8 of the 52 Rolls Project finds us taking up the Barn Project:

The best feature of this site is the Silo.  But Click on the 52 Rolls link above to see the Barn.

One feature you often see is Tress growing in abandoned Silos (above), 

because the foundations help to trap water.

We'll check back in the Spring to see if this tree is alive.

Saturdays Online: My Evolving Camera Family

Always worth revisiting this topic: Rangefinders vs. SLRs.  Read an easy to follow discussion here at The Darkroom. Fair and doesn't take sides.  In the end, your choice depends on what you are shooting and why.  Click on the links below to see example images for each camera type in my Camera Evolution.

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I made the switch from 35 mm to medium format 645 (largely before I started the blog).  I still use 35mm, but over time the Minolta posts have gone down and the Mamiya 645 posts have gone up.  The Mamiya 645, though, is still a single lens reflex camera (SLR), meaning basically that you view, focus and meter through the same lens.

One of my many Minoltas:

And Yes, we have His & Hers Mamiya 645's:

I had a small Canonet 35 mm Rangefinder, but never really took to it:

Then my husband read about the Mamiya 6X6 and wanted one.  So we got one.  Then it sat around for a while because he was more focussed on digital and so I started using it. Of course he then wanted it back!

I'd learned the ins and outs of Rangefinders by then and was ready to take the plunge.  I had observed photographers using the Mamiya 6X7 on workshops and field trips.  And since I prefer the landscape format to the square,  the Mamiya 7 became my rangefinder of choice.

But I found, that although a Canonet Rangefinder might serve well for street photography, the 10-shot per roll M7 didn't quite work.  So in my camera evolution (any by learning a lot about different camera options on the 52 rolls project).  I acquired the Fuji GA645 for medium format street photography.  We've already taken this on out for a spin at recent rally's.  I can't wait for Zombie Crawl 2017!

And yet, I still find uses for my 35 mm cameras, for special projects, as as my easy access ride along camera on road trips.  And now that I know more about Rangefinders, I use the Canonet more.


In a future Saturday Online offering, we'll take a look at some Experimental Cameras I Have Known.........