Tag: tree

Dry Creek

“Dry Creek” is a landscaping element popular in drought-ridden and dry climes, especially in the area I live. There is a semblance of a creek created with the use of rocks in a form of path or creek bed. It’s really a pleasant landscaping element. Additionally, the use of xeriscape plantings decreases the need for water once the plants are established. This is taken alongside one of the local library’s walls.

Under the Tree

I wandered around the complex – sounds industrial – which contains the teen center, senior center, and public library. Besides the buildings are gardens and a local park, all of which contain native plants and trees. And places for a person to enjoy. Here is one of the many benches under the trees, this one in front of the entrance to the main library. Having read that a good way to determine if a black and white photo will work is to look for strong contrasts . . . I liked the light sparking through the leaves above the bench in particular, as well as the shadows and lines within the frame.

A Touch of Autumn

I just had to put this photo out there today.

I recently acquired a new-to-me Certo 6 camera, It has the legendary Carl Zeiss Tessar 80mm f2.8 lens.  The camera and lens date from around 1953 (give or take).  I shot this at f2.8 to check out the DOF and sharpness of the lens.  I’m amazed.  The Ektar 100 came through, too, with beautiful colors.

The Certo 6 is an odd folder in the sense that it has many features that other folding cameras (bellows cameras) of the same time era do not have.  Also, because current 120 film is thinner than that of the 50s, there is a potential for overlap of images – which I did not experience – and other quirks that need to be worked out.  I really like folders because they force you to slow down and think, as well as consider what you want to see on your film.

Square format is a compositional challenge as well.  As this is part of my first roll through the camera, composition was not of any real importance for me, but using the camera was.  For some reason I got only 9 out of 12 exposures on the film, but that is something I think I have figured out, and will run another roll of play film through the camera to check out my ideas . . . like I said, ya gotta think sometimes!

More to come.

Old Friend

Yesterday I went out around noon.  Bad time, traditionally, to make a picture, but that was the time frame I had.  I had two film cameras with me – an OM-1n with an Orange 21 filter and B&W film, and a new-to-me Certo Six out on its maiden voyage and filled with Ektar 100.

As it was hot, I sat down in the shade along a trail.  And here, a tree I have so many times along my walk, had a brand new perspective.  I think I took it with both cameras, but it was just so beautiful, I took out my cell phone . . . too impatient to wait for film to come back.

How old is this lovely oak?  I know there were some here when the Spanish showed up 300 years ago, and they were old then.  Sometimes, I wish I could see the world through the eye of a tree.