Tag: California

A Place for Birdsong

a-place-for-birdsong

I thought I had left my Werra in Paris when I flew there a few weeks ago for lunch, but I didn’t.  Lucky me!  I found it this afternoon, and that inspired a hunt through the archives for some images I took last year when it first arrived in my hot little hands, all fresh and shiny from Holland.  I currently have it loaded with Fuji Natura 1600, for night work (maybe I will try it for the super moon on the 13th or 14th).

This is one lovely little camera, and a very, very odd one.  It’s a rangefinder, with all controls on the lens, including cocking the shutter and advancing the film.  The lens is a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm, f2.8, and as you can see, it renders wonderfully sharp images.  I’ve got a bunch of colored lens filters, for b&w work, so once the current film is used up, I’m going to try some Acros 100 or Delta 100.

on-the-hillside

Autumn Morning

Autumn Morning

The other morning – the first of the time change – I headed out with my Nikon V3 (which took this picture), my 6×9 Voigtlander Bessa, and Olympus XA4.  I used the Nikon to consider exposure, as well as to catch a few for here.  The film will go in to the lab for processing later this week.

It was an incredible morning.  The Chumash Trail is a trail along a corridor of native oak trees, which overarch the entire trail, spots and splotches of sunshine breaking through.  The trees are hundreds of years old.  In some trees, small flocks of black and white birds would land, and all of a sudden it was as if it were raining acorns.  It was quite odd, but restful, like rain pattering on leaves.

Blues

blues

Sunday morning we had weather! Like clouds in a normally cloudless sky. Rain. Chilly weather at 72F. And it was heaven.

So, loaded with film and with digital, I walked along the creek, about 50 feet above it on the Moonrise trail. For me, this is a bit of a sketchy trail because it’s a bit treacherous here and there, so always best with a friend. I shot a lot of panos that morning, and took a roll of film, too, with my Canonet QL17. Here is one of the panos of that exquisite morning sky. Click on it a couple of times to see it larger.

Enjoy!