H2O-Oh-oh-oh

Life has been pretty crazy lately... mostly work-crazy more than personal-crazy, but it still leaves me feeling exhausted and frazzled at times. The other week when I was home sick, I was thinking about the healing power of water. I am not sure why, but water just seems to nourish the soul. Whether it is taking a hot bath, or floating in a calm lake, or listening to the babble of a stream... the presence of water seems calming to me. This may be one of the reasons why I have so many pictures of water (also because it tends to be so visually interesting).
These are a few photos from our photo adventure way back in January (I haven't been able to actually finish another roll since then!). They are taken with my Pentax K1000.

Jeffrey actually made a comment this day "You really like taking pictures of fountains, don't you?"
I know... I am so predictable.

Water, Wind & Sun (Olympus)

What an amazing combination! When a windstorm blew up on a sunny day at our family cabin in the Okanogan, I just couldn't stop myself from continually running outside to try to catch some shots. The best ones are the ones of the lake when the wind was whipping through the water and the sun was sparkling off the surface. Because of the wind, the pictures have good movement, while the contrast of the light (which was both grey and sunny at the same time) really gives the pictures depth, detail and/or contrast.
I was super impressed with how some of these shots turned out. In order to keep each post from getting too long, I'm posting the Olympus & Pentax shots separately. First up - Olympus Pen F shots.

P.S. I got completely soaked after that last photo (remember my Olympus has no zoom... I was actually that close!)

Splish Splash

As mentioned in my last post, our Kodak Retinette IA is a finicky little camera whose results vary widely. I am still figuring out to which situations it is best suited. However, the stars were clearly aligned in this particular moment with the sun shining directly on this water spout, and sheer luck in me guessing my distance from the spout for focusing purposes. It gives me hope that if I learn to be a better photographer, I can do this little camera some justice.

I love the variation between the very defined and detailed concrete and the blurred movement of the water droplets.

Photos taken with my Kodak Retinette IA and Kodak 100 Ultracolor film.

WAW #7 - Liquid

I am really, really behind on posting. Between a week without internet and a lovely long weekend out of town with the family, I'm afraid that I have been neglecting my blogging duties (but at least I am still posting, which is more than I can say for my fiancée).

So, without further ado: Weekly Assignment #7 - "Liquid". When we first got this assignment I immediately thought of my H2O-Oh-oh-oh post from a little while back. I have noticed in the past that I do have an affinity for taking photos of water - in whatever form I can find it. So, I had to remind myself to use this assignment to teach me something new about either photography in general or about my digital camera, not just to take more pictures of fountains or lakes or ponds.

One thing that I really enjoy about my digital camera (as compared to my film cameras) is the ability to take a ton of shots and just play with all the settings to try things out! This is why my Liquid assignment turned into me sitting in The Wallflower Modern Diner (delicious and totally affordable by the way, you should really go) snapping photo after photo of... wait for it... my water glass! I know I am such a nerd. Which, by the way, is exactly what Jeffrey said to the waitress when she tried to drop off our food but didn't want to interrupt my intense photography session. Luckily, The Wallflower is "nerd-friendly" (her words, not mine) ;) Here are the results:

I also had the chance to play around with my friend Michelle's wide-angle/macro lens and came up with this liquid shot.

And though I didn't take this photo for or submit it to our assignment group, it happened to fulfill two assignments - Liquid & Bokeh! More bubbles to come soon. :)

Next Weekly Assignment - Sports. This one should be tough...

De la Fontaine

I love taking photos of water (as seen here, here, here, here, and here). I got back a roll of film that had pictures which spanned several weeks (it often takes me awhile to get through a roll since I often have more than one going at anytime in each of my cameras, also my Olympus takes 48 frames on a 24 roll film... that's a lot of frames!).
Well when I finally did finish off this roll, I noticed not 1, not 2, not 3... but 4 fountain pictures! Clearly I am a sucker for a sunny day and moving water.

All photos taken with my Olympus Pen F.
~ Melanie

Finch's

Have you ever been to Finch's on West Pender downtown? If not, you need to go! They serve the most amazingly delicious baguette sandwiches wrapped in brown paper and tied with raffia. My favourite is the pear, blue brie and prosciutto. The cafe itself is also incredibly endearing with mismatched tables and chairs, rustic exposed beam walls, a chalkboard menu and "grandma-like" knick-knacks and books cluttering the old shelves. The space is cozy and inviting. It does get quite busy at lunch time, so try to go on off hours.
Over spring break I got the chance to meet my friend Mandy there on her lunch break. Since it was packed, we took our sandwiches to-go and ate them by the water, but while we were waiting I couldn't resist snapping a few shots with my Olympus Pen F.
~ M

Damn it, now I have a craving.

Public Art Perspective

I spent the day at the Burnaby Art Gallery with my grade 6 class, and was inspired by hearing my students talk about meaning in art. As well, they worked on collaborative art using mixed media (including photography!) in small groups which was a wonderful process to observe.
Over the holidays I spent several afternoons wandering around the seawall in the sunshine and came across several pieces of interesting Public Art. I love to photograph public art. It feels like my own little art collaboration in a way. The artist creates interesting pieces, and I get to then come along and look at them from different angles, perspectives, and framing to create something new.
All of these photos were taken with my Olympus Pen F

I have no idea why this near-life size tank model sits in an empty lot next to the Olympic Village, but it's juxtaposition next to the beautiful water and downtown view has a clear message.

These chairs are by a French Canadian artist (I believe). I took a photo of this chair because I love the inscription - "Faire semblant de toujours" or "Make believe to always"... and the cyclical nature of it means that it can be read around and around (you know, like the song that never ends!)

Unfortunately since it was the last frame in the roll, the far edge was cut off (hence the odd shape). 

This giant bird can be found smack dab in the middle of the new Olympic Village. It is so strange to see something that is normally so small and cute, looking so massive and scary. I like the angle on the first picture, but the perspective of the second with the car and real bird flying in the sky.

P.S. Another beautiful day this weekend means that I have 2 new rolls of film waiting to be developed and will be posted soon.
P.P.S. My apologizes to anyone who now has "The Song that Never Ends" stuck in their head.

11 Reasons to shoot film

I recently came across this article on the website I Still Shoot Film (which by the way, has some incredible examples of why film is still awesome). I thought I would re-post it here since I think it completely summarizes my love for film. Thank you "I Still Shoot Film" for posting this.
P.S. #4 and #6 are my favourites

11 REASONS TO SHOOT FILM

1. Film is cool. Seriously. The scientific process of capturing an image on film, developing and then printing it on paper is one of the most awesome thing you can ever see. It’s like magic.

2. Film produces a tangible result. In the modern world, technology has allowed us to do everything digitally… in fact I haven’t seen what my resume actually looks like on printed paper in over 5 years. With digital photographs, you never have one tangible original, from which you can make infinite copies…

3. Photographic paper prints have a longer archival life. Say what you want, but even my most expensive fancy-pants digital prints still get yellowing on the corners after several years… which is why many professional labs still use cibachrome printing even for digital.

4. Film cameras are badass. They are not the light-weight, silent wimpy cameras of today. You can use a quality film camera to take great photographs or defend your life if necessary.

5. Most Photoshop effects applied to digital photos are designed to mimic effects achieved through film. Why not just do it that way in the first place?

6. Using film means that when you take a photograph, a chemical reaction absorbs the moment on a light-sensitized surface. That is somehow more powerful than a computer chip’s interpretation of an image.

7. Learning how to shoot film helps you understand light and shadow, which can also improve your digital photos.

8. Limited exposures means you have to actually think about your shot. Need I say more?

9. Unless you have a $30,000 digital camera, shooting film will always give you a higher resolution if scanned correctly. A 35mm negative has the equivalent of approximately 25.1 megapixels, so imagine a 6x9 negative. We’re talking murals in crisp detail.

10. Black and white. Yes. Removing color from a digital photograph is not the same as shooting in black and white film and it never, ever will be. Ever. The art of black and white film alone is reason enough to keep manufacturing film forever.

11. The darkroom is zen. It has soothing red lights, relaxing running water and the soft click of your timer. Take a deep breath and smell the stop bath. Yum.

Me with my Olympus Pen F - Taken by my fiancée on his Pentax K1000

Kodak Retinette in Review

The Kodak Retinette IA was the first of our new babies that I tried out. It is a very, very pretty looking camera and is quite light and portable. It takes regular 35mm film which is a bonus because it saves on film and developing costs. It also has a lovely brown leather case and strap.
However, the camera is quite limited in what it can do. It does have enough manual settings to allow for adjusting both shutter speed and aperature, but the shutter speed settings only range from 1/30-1/250 of a second. This makes taking photos in various lighting difficult and limited. I may look at playing more with a flash the next time I use this camera.
Also the lens has no zoom, and as far as I can tell, the lens cannot be switched out for another. Now I love the prime lens on my Olympus Pen F, but the focus on the Olympus allows for really nice, detailed close up shots. The lens on the Kodak Retinette IA uses a distance-focusing system in which you need to guesstimate the distance between you and the subject and adjust the focus by this... however because the camera uses a rangefinder, you have no way of seeing whether the photo will be in focus or not. This resulted in several blurry shots on my first trial roll. 

I did get some really nice shots on a sunny day of subjects that were far enough away that I could set the distance-focus as high as it would go so that there really was no room for error.

 

I also managed to get a few really nice shots of this water spout. I think the lighting and sheer fluke on judging the distance was the key.

I took several shots indoors of our friends Jeff & Michelle's puppies and the results left a lot to be desired. It was obviously not bright enough in the room and I had not at all figured out the distance-focusing system yet. I wonder how these would have turned out if I had used a flash?

Blurry, even though I was sitting what seemed like far enough back

I like this one, especially the depth of field. I do wish though that the lighting was a little better.

To the camera's defense, I was also using a 100 speed film (Kodak 100 Ultracolor) which really isn't suited to indoor shots like this anyway. So I think the next roll I use with the Retinette will be a higher speed, possibly playing with a flash, and being more disciplined about effectively judging distance for focus.

I am learning so much from playing with all these different cameras! It is fantastic!

Water, Wind & Sun (Pentax)

The thing I love about my Pentax is the variety that it gives me because of the lens. I can really choose how I want to frame each shot. I also love the contrast between light and dark in these shots. It's interesting how different they turned out from the Olympus photos during the same windstorm... like each person, each camera has it's own personality and perspective.

Frost

A good frost that lasts throughout the day is a rare sight during the Vancouver winters, and although I hate having to scrape it from my car windshield in the morning, I love the way it looks in the sunshine. I get nostalgic thinking about cold, crisp, winter days growing up in the Rocky Mountains.
Frost on the seawall adds a whole new element of interest! Especially when the temperature from one side of an object to another is enough to melt the frost or not; creating a natural line that is visually quite interesting. I also like the natural blue hue the combination of frost and water gave to the shoreline rocks.
All photos taken with my Olympus Pen F, using expired Polaroid ISO 200 film. No digital altering.