Well, it’s Monday which means that I am back from fishing and into the daily grind of work. Nothing that fun can ever last long, that’s what makes times like that so special. A big thanks to my buddies, Pete, Don, Larry, Chris, and George for the great week. It was hot but the fishing was good. Same time next year, guys. Anyway, as I figured, I had a lot of comments and emails to sort through once I got back home on Saturday. One of the ping-backs caught my eye as something that might be of interest to everyone (a pingback is when someone links to something on one of my blog pages).
As I have previously written, the Georgetown photowalk was a huge success. One of the photographers that walked with us was Bill Lawrence of Hankins-Lawrence Images. Bill gave everyone a bit of a treat from the gear he was toting along the way. You see, along with his digital camera, Bill was also using a Graflex SLR camera from the 1950′s that was loaded with 120 black & white film.
The Graflex looks like a simple box camera but it is an actual Single Lens Reflex camera, complete with a 120 adapter on the back. There is no prism on top so the image has to be composed and focused using the waist-level finder. Bill let me play with it for a little bit and I had forgotten just how difficult it can be to use waist-level (everything is backwards). This is definitely the Thinking Photographer’s camera. You see, not only is it a different method of composing and focusing, but there is no light meter in this camera. That’s right, no P, A, or TV modes here. It’s Manual all the way. Billl was relying on the old Sunny 16 rule for all of his exposures which, from what I can tell, came out pretty well. After processing, Bill scanned his negatives so that he could post some online. Here is a link to four of his images along with a couple from his digital camera. I think you’ll agree, there is still an aesthetic quality to the black & white film image that is lost in digital. Maybe it’s the imperfections that make it so perfect. Check out Bill’s images here and let me know what you think. Way to keep the Old School banner flying high, Bill!
If you would like more information on the camera that Bill used, you can read more here.
Entries (RSS)