As I had indicated in my last post...due to "stuff" at the Home Front, I have decided to forgo my usual long trip(s) to the North and Southwest. Instead I will try and take several trips here in Texas...I am still trying to decide on what and where I would like go, see, feel, and touch....though I have decided to make Big Bend my first trip out of the gate... probably in a couple weeks, prior to Spring Break, the weather should be just about perfect and with any kind of luck, vegetation will be beginning to bud out.
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| (c)2017 Horst Kelly Photographer |
I am also going to dive into a new approach on my photography....a little different then I have in the past...Back in 2005 or so I had bought a Mamiya m645-1000 medium format camera...I felt it would be a good teacher of photography, slow the process down and help teach me such things as metering, composition, lightening, etc....I bought it used, guessing it was a '70's vintage, got it on ebay at a steal...I worked with it a little bit, but always raced back to the new found format of digital...
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| Mamiya M645-1000 film camera |
I guess I've come full circle now...A couple weeks ago I found that camera and the hand held vintage analog Gossen light meter, along with a couple lens and 10 packs of film that had expired in 2007. I took it apart, cleaned it up and decided to test a roll of film to see if it still functioned, also see if the light seals where still in tact, and if the meter and film could produce something akin to a photograph. The film has 13 exposures on it and I wiped those puppies off in short order....the scene I shot was all the same, only with different exposure settings, etc.. I raced down to my film genius..but much to my dismay Lee doesn't do film processing anymore, nor enlargements etc...We chatted for a while about how the business of photography has evolved in the last 10 years, what he currently is doing in the business, etc...he told me there was only one place in town doing the full range of "film" work....
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| (c)2017 Horst Kelly Photographer |
I went, they took, I received....3 days later it was ready, a set of negatives and a scanned CD..... I was like my Grandson on his recent "first date"..bottom line the camera worked....kinda, sorta, expired film showed something...though very grainy. I am now testing another roll to try and underexpose the film. so I'm thinking all systems are a go......and I have rekindled an "old love".
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| My Light Meter |
With this new love of my (photography) life, some changes are in order. The most important one is how I go about shooting...I will slow down, I no longer will shoot a gazillion shots before the sun even breaks over the horizon....I won't be racing from one location to another before the "magic light" fades away...and then start all over in the evening.
My plan is to scout around, find an interesting "subject", whatever it may be...a mountain, waterfall, cave, building, etc..and spend some time seeing how to make a likable photograph...then come back at a good time and take one exposure of the scene...
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| (c)2017Horst Kelly Photographer |
The bottom line is to enjoy where I am at, find simple images that aren't busy, or a loaded frame with Mountain, lake and fall foliage, etc...rather simple one dimensional scenes.
Don't know how this will work out, but I'm looking forward to using the new/old medium , and hoping at the end of the day I have a smile on my face.... :)) Horst sends
Oh ya...Shot.... from first roll of Mamiya:
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| Foggy Texas morning (c)2017 Horst Kelly Photographer |
