film photography – Fotografia

Found New Orleans Slides (Part 2)

Posted on November 10, 2012November 10, 2012 by Nelson in Uncategorized

I gave a bit of a break between posts of these thrift store slides so I wouldn’t inundate the feeds of those of you who follow me. Here’s another round of them. Incidentally, if anyone knows where in New Orleans this first slide was taken, I’d love to know. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy these!

The location in this first slide is a mystery to me. Any help in naming this building or location in New Orleans would be appreciated!

This next slide was taken, as you might guess, in Cabildo Alley. Notice the Kodak sign outside the shop? How cool is that? If you do a Google Maps search on this location, you’ll find it looks almost the same today as it did decades ago when this slide was taken. Sadly, the Kodak sign is no longer there, but that seems to be the way with Kodak signs as of late. (Keeping the faith, Kodak!)

This next slide was taken at some restaurant in New Orleans, but I have no idea which one. Anyone have a clue?

This next slide, of course, shows Antoine’s Restaurant. According to Wikipedia, this is the oldest family-run restaurant in the United States. It opened in 1840! How about that!

One of the best things about these slides is the automobiles in them. Big land yachts!

I hope you enjoyed installment two of these slides. I wish I could go back in time to be standing with the person who took these images. I’d love to see what camera(s) they used, which film(s) they used, and so on. I’d like to think we’d have a blast. See you next time!

Nikon FA and Portra 160

Posted on October 26, 2012October 26, 2012 by Nelson in Uncategorized

My recent posts have been predominantly black-and white. This post is dedicated to Kodak Portra 160 and my first voyage with my Nikon FA. I am a die-hard fan of Canon SLRs. But having been gifted 4 Nikon SLRs in the past year (all rescued from thrift stores spanning from Georgia to Missouri), I had to start getting busy playing with these beauties. For my trip to Missouri this year, I chose the Nikon FA to be my SLR companion for the trip.

After visiting Lake of the Ozarks late in the summer last year, I was really wanting to get a shot that reflected the “post-season” feeling of the place. Once things have slowed down and there aren’t dozens of boats zipping up and down the lake, there is still a calm beauty present. Even when the boats are covered for the summer, this is still a great place for a week of R and R. I think this image captured that pretty well.

The shot below, admittedly, was a bit of a joke. I got some nice shots of the lake house from the dock, but this one was just begging to have a bit of fun post work done. I did some color and contrast manipulation to give the shot a more surreal “technicolor” feeling.

This shot was taken in front of Skyline Lanes in Clarksville, Tennessee. I took several others, but there was a serious problem with them. I’ll discuss that in a later post. At any rate, my unintentional model was a good sport about being in these photos. If you ever find yourself in Clarksville for any reason, find this bowling alley and go in for a few games. It really is like stepping back in time.

The shot below was one of my favorites from the trip. I did have some glare/reflection issues on the windows, but a polarizer only made them worse. I moved my position as much as I could in order to manipulate the reflections, but it was all for naught. That being said, the reflections serve as a bit of a reality check in what could otherwise be a frozen frame from a dream sequence. The shot has such a sense of peace. Being someone who also collects mid-century pottery, I had to get the stoneware teapots in the photo. This images gives so many things to look at, but they don’t fight one another. I was pretty happy with it.

I have to say that the Nikon FA was by far the most pleasurable SLR experience I think I’ve ever had. I say that at a very low volume as to not upset my dear Canons, but it’s the truth. Ease and sensibility of use in all modes made me an instant fan. I was a bit apprehensive as the FA was a last-minute addition to my camera bag. With no light seals left to speak of, I was worried I’d have a bunch of.. well, “lomo” photos with lots of light leaks and all that. Thankfully, that was not the case. Luckily, I had tested the camera’s light meter against my handheld Gossen Digi-Six and the FA was spot-on in every situation I could test.

At any rate, the camera was great and I have developed a deeper love for Portra film. I hope you enjoy. As always, I welcome comments and critiques.

Saint Francisville (Final)

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Nelson in Uncategorized

This is the third and final post of photos I took on my last trip home. The photos are of a church that I have a bit of a connection to in a third-person sort of way. My father told me years ago that when he was about the age I am now, he helped paint and do roofing work on this church. Considering the fact that this was almost forty years ago, the connection is distant at best. But when I walk past this church, I imagine him much younger and working on this building. Here are the photos. I still marvel that a little point-and-shoot camera could give such great results. I did have to tweak contrast just a tiny bit in post, but it was the smallest amount of adjusting I’ve ever had to do to any images I’ve taken up to this point.

When I go back, I’ll be doing a bit of shooting with my Bronica SQ-A to see what I can do in medium format. I hope you enjoyed these images. My next post will be in color. Portra and the Nikon FA.

Barrow House Inn, Saint Francisville, LA

Posted on October 22, 2012October 22, 2012 by Nelson in Uncategorized

I gave it a good college try when I was looking for some riveting information about this bed and breakfast, but came up with nothing more than the place having been built sometime in the first decade of the 1800s. The inn is located on Royal St. in Saint Francisville, LA. The place is actually quite welcoming from the outside, but this angle gave the place bit of a foreboding mood in my mind. Perhaps I’ve watched too many paranormal television shows. Either way, I was pretty pleased with the shot.

This shot is a detail of the iron work that cradles the inn. As is the way with many local places built in this era, the iron work is what elevates a historic structure to an even greater level of interest and beauty.

This is one of the planters that lines the front area of the inn where the foundation is built up above street level. I’m not really sure if it is the same period as the inn itself, but I lean toward that not being the case. Either way, the lion faces on them were quite captivating.

That’s it for today. I hope you did enjoy the photos.

Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Nelson in Uncategorized

A small town in Southeast Louisiana, St. Francisville was founded in 1809 and is home to a large number of historic buildings and homes that are representative of the time period. There’s a Wiki page that has some general information, but you might have fun clicking on the “Myrtles” Wiki link you see. Ghosts!

Speaking of, I feel like I’ve been a ghost lately. Not posting and just reading and silently admiring life happening through the posts of the WP bloggers I follow. I’ve been a busy guy, but admittedly a bit lazy, too. I hope you like the photos I took during my last trip to St. Francisville. They come from my first attempt at B/W film using a point-and-shoot camera. The Olympus Stylus Epic has blown my mind once again. I took a bunch of photos, and almost all of them turned out beautifully, only needing a small tweak because of the intense midday sunlight I was working with. I will admit the photos are rather touristy, but the deep South is not a place where one walks up to someone’s house taking pictures at their doorstep. The police department, the courthouse and the jail are all a block from where these photos were taken, if you know what I mean.

I’m going to break the photos up into a few posts, so let’s get started with the first post.

This is a house along what is a long street of historic homes. I didn’t have my notebook with me, so I can’t tell you the name of it. Funny thing, though, I met the owner’s son just before I took this photo. The kid was completely oblivious to why people stop to take photos of his house. Poor kid.

This is the garden/backyard of the house in the first photo. I loved the light cutting through the trees down onto the grass. The lawn and the statue did give me a feeling of “Midnight and the Garden of Good and Evil.”

This is a house that tends to be a repeat photo every time I go home to visit. Something about this place makes me want to take rolls of photos. I really do wish I could get closer to this place. The detailing is simply breathtaking. Perhaps next time I go home, I’ll walk up to the door and ask. Hopefully there aren’t any mean guard dogs trotting around.

The combination of the bright sunlight and ASA400 film produced a lot more grain than I wanted in these. I think the next trip will require some Ilford PanF 50. Hope you like these, and look for more tomorrow.

Louisiana Scenes

Posted on February 18, 2012February 18, 2012 by Nelson in Uncategorized

These shots were taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2003. I had owned my first SLR, a Canon AE-1, for all of a few months. I decided to bring the camera with me on this particular trip in 2003. I’m glad I brought it with me, and I’m also glad I picked up a polarizing filter on my way out of town. You can see some rather extreme effect from polarizing in the state capitol photo at the bottom of the post and in the cathedral photo. At any rate, here goes.

This cathedral is located in downtown Baton Rouge. I took this photo from many angles, but couldn’t find anything I liked better than just head-on. Tip: Don’t leave your glasses in the car when you’re using a manual-focus camera. Even though it is a bit out of focus, it’s still a great shot with the gradient sky making the foliage really stand out.

These tug boats have been docked this particular area of the Mississippi River for as long as I can remember. I was glad to finally have a camera with me to capture them. You can definitely tell there’s some haze in the photo, but I don’t think it takes away from the feel of the photo. I’ve since learned that a UV filter is your friend.

I’ve always called this photo “The Mark of Zorro” because of the obvious “Z” formation in the photo. It could possibly have been composed a bit better, but I don’t think it would have achieved its “Zorro” had I changed anything.

This is a shot of the Louisiana State Capitol taken during a part of the day where the proverbial planets seemed to have aligned to give me this great sky. Not a single cloud, and the angle of the sun was absolutely perfect to quite literally black out the skies around the building. I enlarged this one and it’s on my wall.

Not too awful of a series considering I had virtually no clue what I was doing. In a way, I think it was better that way. I couldn’t overthink settings like aperture and shutter speed at the time because I really didn’t have much of a clue about how they affected photos. I do admit these were taken while using the Automatic Exposure setting on the AE-1.

Feel free to drop a comment if you want. Until tomorrow’s post, have a great Saturday!