Month: March 2017

Werra & Fuji Natura 1600

I have an old East German camera from the 1950s or 1960s, a Werra 5.  There is a rather charming light leak in the last batch of film I ran through it.  The lens is a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f2.8, which is a pleasantly sharp lens to use.  The last film I loaded into it was an extravagance as it was Fuji Natura 1600, which ran about $13.00 for a 36-exposure roll.  For nearly a year, the film lived in the camera, too precious to use up, until I got totally tired of it!

There are pros and cons to using Natura 1600.  Like I said, it is expensive.  It is also grainy.  The image quality is a bit different from what I am used to as I generally shoot 100-400 iso.  The colors are also subdued, but therein lies the beauty of the film:  it is subtle, but rich.

I like to guess at exposures, based on the Sunny 16 rule.  Nearly all the pictures I took were in the late afternoon / early evening, or at night, such as last Christmas when I wandered through the neighborhood to test the film out on the lighting displays.  Some results were good, some not so spectacular.  Additionally, there was a lot of clean-up to do – the film came back covered with spots and hairs, which seem to be more exaggerated by the film, but maybe not.

This series of Christmas lights gives an example of the work I had to do to even make a presentable image (IMO).  The images below required the same amount of work.  Despite my complaints, a few were salvageable, and in post, produced some pleasant, if rather grainy, images as the light of day decreased.

So, will I use Natura 1600 again?  The answer is yes, I will give it one more try.  I plan to use it in a more advanced camera, one with a metering system that is reliable.  On first use, it seems to have the quiet colors of Portra, but if such is the case on a second run, chances are I will use Portra rather than Natura because of the price point.

 

Words, Words, Words

Paper is wonderful! Recently, it has been replaced by the computer, which makes a lot of things easier and convenient, but it is not quite, quite the same.  

For the last several days, off and on, I have been working on a story I started last January, using Scrivener as the editor.  My Chrome book is also seeing use.  And finally, paper and pen when I just don’t want to look at another monitor, or just want to go outdoors and enjoy myself.

While I am not going to go into what I am writing, I do want to explore the process of writing.  As the title of this entry suggests, words are very important.  One of the things I find so irritating in an author is a failure to provide a variety of terms.  For instance, I recall a very popular recent author whose use of the same word within a few sentences has driven me to distraction!  What is wrong with finding a synonym?  In prose, variety is important, but in poetry, the repetition of sound creates a very different pattern, and so the usage of a word numerous times may be very appropriate and artistic.

This is where paper and pen can come to the aid of the computer-produced manuscript.  I like to take what I have written and give it double- or triple-spacing.  Then, stapled together, I take it someplace outside or at a coffee bar and sit with a pen to edit.  I circle, I cross out, I re-write.  In short, I edit with a different perspective because I am seeing the writing on paper.

While I love the convenience of computers and such, I also love the feel of a good pen on a piece of paper.  The experience is physical and sensual and intellectual all at once.  And it is a very real experience – just like we are trying to create for our readers.

Against the Sky

 

Today we went out to the California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster, California.  In Los Angeles County, this is in the middle of nowhere, and here is where you see the beauty that was California before Los Angeles and urban sprawl took over.  The rains of the past winter have produced an abundance of flowers – more than in many years.  Here is the first of a series I took today.

It’s funny how weather can change from one place to another.  We drove 70 miles, through canyons and back roads to get here.  From our 71 F city we came into a cold (50 F) and very, very windy environment (30-50 mph winds).  All I had for cold weather was a vest and a short-sleeved T-shirt.  Brrrr!

This is a panorama of about 5 images.