I’ve been getting home late (i.e., around 10 pm) from work on those workdays I don’t have physical therapy. PT sessions are twice a week at 5:30pm, and I have exercises to do several times a day. Sometimes it’s tough to find time between meetings. I’ve had days where I failed completely. My therapist says I'm making good progress overall, though.

This weekend my entire family is in town, visiting from California. We’re having dinner tonight at a Chinese restaurant on the eastside. Tomorrow I don’t yet know what the plans are other than a large memorial service and meal in the afternoon. (EDIT: This is a general memorial service for all those in my family who have passed on, not a service for a recent individual loss.) Sunday all my relatives in the Portland area are having an annual picnic. However, I’ll see if I can bug out, as I have project work due Monday, and it’s not ready, so I’ll need to work Sunday.

Monday my close relatives are gathering for the afternoon and evening on the eastside. I have some project meetings I can’t get out of so won’t be able to attend until late in the afternoon. The project I’m on is pretty demanding. I’ve been spending time on other job-related stuff also.

I haven’t had any free time to take pictures with any camera, so my carrying a film and a digital camera everywhere I go is an exercise in, well, exercise. I have been asked to bring all my gear on Saturday for family photos. The Phottix wireless remote is going to come in very handy.

The house is incrementally better – but still trashed. I haven’t been home enough to do any more sorting and cleaning. My chances don’t look good for this weekend, either.

I’m not sleeping enough. Finances are a bit spotty. And, in general, I’m just in a grumpy mood, although friends at work and around the city have been very helpful in moderating the darkness. I’m very lucky in that regard.

I didn’t buy the Kodak Retina IIIc because it was the best 35mm rangefinder for the price. I bought it for sentimental value. The camera has its quirks, but that’s what I grew up with. I don’t even know how other rangefinder cameras operate.

When I was doing research on the camera, I came across CameraQuest Rangefinder Profiles and read the profile of the Kodak Retina IIIC, which is a slightly newer, improved version of my camera. Stephen Gandy doesn’t think much of the Retina, particularly its complicated controls. (And I think he needs to get over his beef about the big and slow 35mm optional lens – most people stick with the compact 50mm f/2 lens that comes with the camera.)

He dislikes the metering system on the Retina and its use of Exposure Value numbers. I don’t mind the numbers. Stephen Gandy also doesn’t like the clip that keeps the shutter speed ring and the aperture ring in sync, but I find the whole system very handy. I meter once, transfer the EV value to the sync clip, then I can adjust either shutter speed or aperture without worrying about keeping the other parameter in sync. It actually behaves like all my automatic SLRs.

Yeah, the camera might have odd controls... but once you’re used to them, the camera seems to work fairly efficiently.

Yesterday evening around 8 pm I was driving home and stopped at the grade school in my neighborhood. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and I thought I might be able to get a few photographs using the Retina. At the school I took about a half-dozen pictures, each shot being carefully metered, focused, and exposed. It’s a slow process – sort of a good thing, as a change. This works fine for static scenes, but I’m still mentally planning how I’ll streamline the process amidst people on the streets of Portland. That will be an interesting experiment.

After I had taken photos I wanted to go home to see how they turned out. I’m spoiled to digital. But I’ll have to wait for a week or two. By the time I do see the photos, I’ll probably have forgotten some of the things I was thinking and checking when I took each picture. As it is, I could barely remember to write down the shutter speeds and apertures. This is a drawback.

I was pretty sure from my childhood experiences with the Retina that the top/front portion of the leather case was detachable. The manual is pretty thorough but doesn’t talk about the case. I had to study the fasteners quite closely to figure out the mechanism but did finally get that piece detached without breaking anything. The camera is easier to carry and use now.

***

We are hoping for f2.8 – but will likely end up with a disappointing f/4... Nikon’s Long-rumored pro Coolpix compact camera with APS sensor might make its appearance on September 3, prior to Photokina 2008. Street photographers everywhere are keeping their fingers crossed. Six weeks of waiting!

After a long, long hiatus, I’ve moved the Programming Ruby book to the top of my reading stack. It’s been so long that I’ve had to start over. o.O Using a 30% discount coupon last weekend I bought The Ruby Way. However, I’m digesting only one thick book at a time. I'm a bit lucky in that I have a personal copy of Programming Ruby at home and a work-provided copy in my office.

I have a silly little personal project that I had thought to use Perl for -- but remembered that Ruby is a descendant of Perl. Ruby is overkill, but I need to start playing with the language. Shaking off programmer rust is a good thing.

This blog has evolved into an odd critter. It’s still my personal journal, of course – a mix of my everyday activities, passions, and thoughts. My LJ is not a photography blog even though it might look like it’s trying to be one – as photography now seems to be the dominant topic (to the chagrin of friends who could care less about cameras, I’m sure). Anime has faded (to the delight of friends who could care less about Japanese animation) but hasn’t disappeared completely. Even the Apple / Macintosh fangirl raves have become less frequent.

I intentionally do not talk about my workplace except under friends-lock. Discussion about trans issues is all but non-existent. Sometimes I’ll talk about my community work at my church or at SMYRC. This is an eclectic mix, to be sure. The randomness of subject matter and wildly varying depth is probably a reasonable reflection of my personality.

For me, the blog is a good place to vent some thoughts and exercise my writing skills. I like to write (when I have the time). I can’t quite figure out the appeal of Twitter, but I guess I’m of the wrong generation for that. I’m enjoying making pictures to post, also. That has been totally unexpected. I originally thought this blog would be pretty much all text.

Anyway, I’m simply looking sideways at my blog for a moment. This puppy turns five next month. It’s not even house-trained yet.

There are only three photography stores within a reasonable radius of my house: Ritz/Wolf/Kits Camera (a chain), Shutterbug (another chain), and Pro Photo Supply. The problem with Wolf Camera is that although it’s along my commute to work, the store is typically closed during my morning and evening commutes. Shutterbug, in Washington Square, is open later – 9:00 pm which is normally good enough, but there are evenings when even that isn’t late enough. I stopped at the store and asked if they had any Ilford FP4 Plus film. Nope. They had recently received a small batch of Ilford HP5 – but no FP4.

One of the film boxes I bought

That meant I had an excuse to visit Pro Photo Supply in Portland this morning. I’d never bought film there before – and had to ask for it. I was directed to The Film Room – the walk-in, refrigerated film storage room, which I’d never noticed in the store before.

It’s pretty amusing what kind of conversations one can have when several people hang around in the film room. Film talk. ^_^ (And I received an unsolicited opinion about the boxes in my hand: "Ah. FP4. That's a really good film!")

Even in the well-stocked film room, Pro Photo didn’t have any 24-exposure rolls of FP4. I had to buy 36-exposure rolls. I’m so used to 24-exposure rolls of film that I had even set the frame counter on the Retina to 24 and took four pictures before I realized my mistake and reset the counter to 32. In a way, the film room was a little barren as a number of films (such as Kodachrome) were no longer available. The times, they are a changin’.

I forgot to order a copy of The Third, Volume 5 DVD last week when it was half-price at The Right Stuf. Hopefully I’ll catch it next time around. I haven’t watched my copy of Volume 4 yet.

I’m still not progressing very quickly on Ghost In The Shell S.A.C. 2nd GIG. I’ve finished episode 14 (out of 26). Between long work days and trying to put the house back together, I haven’t had time to watch anime.

Last week I did finish reading Skip Beat, Volume 13. Good stuff, as always; the addiction continues. And there are Rumors of a Skip Beat Anime in the works.

Just an odd sort of morning... and having woken up at 4:30 am then for good at 5:20 am on my day off after having gone to bed at midnight... I’m going back to bed for a nap. I’ve been averaging 5.5 hours of sleep per night this week, and I think I need to catch up a little.

I checked out a number of websites I read on a daily basis and was a little surprised that a significant number hadn’t been updated (yet) today. I had to check the date a few times (and figure out what date today is). I wonder what kind of story can be created around a day where nothing gets posted or updated on the Internet?

Once I finished with the roll of film, I looked inside the camera and learned that the rear lens assembly does have the same serial number as the front lens assembly. Only the shutter module in-between has a different number.

Halfway through the roll I felt like the metering had been off. The numbers seemed wrong. I started using the D300 to meter alongside, and the variance was inconsistent. Compared to the D300, the Retina meter would seem to propose a slight underexposure up to 2.5 stops underexposure. Anything other than bright sunlight appeared to cause metering problems. By the end of the roll I had little confidence in the metering.

This morning I finished the roll of film and took it to Costco for 1-hour processing. ($3.99!) I mentioned Earlier:

I think I’m either going to be pleasantly surprised – or greatly disappointed.

Given the metering issues, I lowered my expectations even more. Then I got pictures. Wow. Way, way better than I’d expected. Sharp images and rich color. Very cool!

Kodak Retina Test Photos

Neither the picture of the photos nor scans of the photos really show the clarity and depth of the pictures.

( Scans of A Few of the Photos )

SoFoBoMo got mentioned in The Online Photographer today.

Robert Holmgren takes better pictures with his $25 Holga than I do with a fancy dSLR. (See his Toy Camera photos in his Gallery.)

My favorite wedding photographer, charlottegeary, has published online the Photo Album of her own wedding from 2005, with photography by Jenni Le Roux. A sweet slideshow!

Nikon Rumors and Thom Hogan think that Nikon will be releasing some f/1.4 prime lenses prior to Photokina (September). They’re likely to be darned expensive.

“Black Canary or Batgirl? Batgirl or Black Canary? Aw, heck... I want both!”

DC Comics Superheroine Barbie Dolls

I got home late from work – after 10 pm – and had the impulse to pick through the 90 post-processed OCF photos and do some widescreen cropping. There were only two unpublished photos that seemed to benefit from an aspect ratio change. But that was enough to satisfy my urge to edit.

Waiting for the Shuttle Bus

I ended up adding four photos (two uncropped) to the OCF 2008 Photo Gallery.

OCF 2008. Fun. Hot. Crowded. Zany. The usual scene. Debbie and I had a grand day!

Red Wings

As far as photography goes, it was a day of compromise, balancing between stalking photo ops and enjoying the fair alongside Debbie. I came to realize one cannot do both at the same time and concluded that the best way to visit the fair is to buy a three-day pass: Spend Friday without camera walking the fair with a friend. Spend Saturday without a friend and roam the fair with a camera. Spend Sunday hanging out with artist friends at their booths. It’s a nice idea that probably won’t ever happen.

( The Road, The Fair, And Photography )

I seem to have only three personal ID numbers committed to memory... my social security number... my Oregon drivers license number... and... wait for it... my REI membership number.

I have no idea why that number is stuck in my head. I did use it a lot back in the 70s and 80s IIRC. And it’s only six digits, so the membership number is pretty easy to remember.

Nowadays I go to REI once maybe twice a year, so it was fun to do a little browsing tonight – I saw a few things that would be handy and that I’d had a long search for – but that’s a story for another time. The Bag that I had checked out online was in stock, and I bought it (after reciting my membership number from memory, of course). Not only that, the cashier noted that I had an unspent dividend in my account. So she took that off of the already reduced price; I didn't even have to bring in my dividend check. Very convenient. I love REI!

The bag is great! Among its many storage compartments are separate pockets for two water bottles, my cell phone, my sunglasses case, my travel wallet, and a pen. It currently is stocked with sunscreen, a washcloth, a spare battery and memory card, and a Nikkor AF 35mm f/2D lens stuffed in a sock – very low tech. This is much more streamlined than what I took to Veneta last year.

Kodak Retina IIIc detail

When you’re a kid using a camera, you have all the time in the world to take light readings, set aperture and shutter speed, compose, and focus. As an adult, the process seems very slow. One of the exercises given to digital photographers is to slow down, deliberate, and take one picture. The Retina forces this slowdown. It’s a different way of being in the moment.

One can learn to quick-set the camera manually and be a catch-the-moment street photographer. I’ve got a long ways to go before I could do that – and I’m not sure I need to go down that route. I’m firmly invested in the digital photography realm.

Even just fingering the shutter release button without looking is going to take some self-conditioning as I’m spoiled to the good ergonomics of my dSLRs.

The sun has been bright, and the ASA 400 film is too sensitive, so the test photos so far have been small aperture, high shutter speed shots – not a good test. I’ll have to wait for the sun to get low in the sky. Can’t really do indoor photography as I’m under fluorescent lights – and this is daylight film. Can’t just change the white balance like I can in the dSLR. And I meant to write down the aperture and shutter speed of each photo. Forgot. I need to get a little notebook for this. Everything is manual.

It’s all slow – but fun. Focusing is a bit of a struggle, but the quiet shutter operation and the manual film wind are a delight. It’s kind of a strange feeling to have taken a number of photos and to have absolutely no idea what they’ll look like. No Chimping here. I think I’m either going to be pleasantly surprised – or greatly disappointed.

Helping at Her Parents’ Booth

In advance of tomorrow’s trip to the Oregon Country Fair, I took the opportunity to review the Photos I Took Last Year. I probably won’t be doing any wide-angle / environment shots this year.

I don’t know how much success I’ll have with candid portraits this year. It’s best to set my expectations low. I won’t be able to take the time to experiment a lot or patiently wait for something to unfold since I’m traveling with a friend, and I don’t want her to spend the day waiting for me. I'll simply accept what comes my way.

Somewhat related: 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits and 10 More Ways.

Long, long days not my own... packed days at work... so this week I have done a grand total of two test shots with the newly calibrated D300 - 85mm f/1.4 combo, in spite of my hauling the camera with me everywhere. I guess on Saturday I’m going to Veneta simply hoping that there are no issues with the AF fine tune.

I did discover an issue with the Retina. The front and rear lens assemblies have different serial numbers. This is a big no-no. Standard advice is to not buy a Retina with this mismatch, as this can often cause image problems. Most photographers say this is a major problem, but Dante Stella indicates otherwise:

The problem that interchangeability injects is that you may end up with a IIc (or IIIc for that matter) with the front of one 50mm lens and the rear of another. This is not a huge problem, but you will need to have the lens recollimated. The way you can check for danger is to match the lens serial number on the front lens element to the one on the shutter to the one on the back ring inside. Some people make it out to be the end of the world if all three don't match. It's not. Retina guru George Mrus (RIP) was very good at recollimating these lenses. I would recommend skipping a camera where these rings do not match, unless you can test it.

I’m going to run a test roll of color film to see what kind of problems the lens has. Ultimately, my goal is to use Tri-X (black & white), but for initial lens checking I’ll use color as I can get that processed locally, cheaply and quickly. If I need to have the lens recollimated, Advance Camera is highly recommended, although I'll have to plan for a three-week wait.

At Target I had to buy a three-pack of color film (Kodak Ultra Max 400) even though I need only a single roll. Maybe I’ll use one of the other rolls to test my F100 – later.

Reading the Retina manual reminded me that 35mm film used to come in only 36 and 20 exposure rolls. I’d forgotten about that. I’ll have to be careful setting the counter for a 24-exposure roll of film.

Another way-too-hot day... and another long evening working in an office which is much cooler (temperaturewise) than my home.

Tomorrow will be another long day with an early start, but I’m looking forward to a mid-day activity. I’m taking a long lunch and driving to SMYRC, where I’ll be meeting with three M2F trans youth -- full of questions, I’m told. Amy the counselor is organizing the session. (When I’m working my shift at SMYRC we typically have a staff Amy, volunteer Amy, and youth Amy in the building at the same time. Gets confusing.) Small groups are a lot of fun – more intimate than when I speak to university classes.

How it started: Last week The Online Photographer announced a fun little activity, the The T.O.P. Befriend-A-Forgotten-Camera Challenge. This motivated me to follow through on something I’d been thinking about for some time.

So I did my research and bought myself a used Kodak Retina IIIc on eBay. Yesterday it arrived, and I’m pleased that the camera appears to be in very good condition (for a 50-year-old camera).

Amy’s Kodak Retina IIIc

When I was growing up, my parents owned this model of the Retina series. They allowed me to use the expensive device, so a wave of nostalgia washes over me when I handle this camera. I’m looking forward to trying out a roll of film. The film advance and light meter work, and the leaf shutter operates with a very silky *snik*. (There are more photos in the gallery.)

The camera came with the original leather protective case but no manual. I have a manual in transit, plus I was able to download a scanned copy from a specialty Yahoo! Group. Because the manual is a series of JPEG files instead of a single PDF, I discovered that Mac OS X Leopard’s Cover Flow view in the finder works great for reading the manual.

Kodak Retina IIIc Manual / Cover Flow

Now all I have to do is take some pictures for the Challenge. Stay tuned!

It’s way too hot today. Again. *ugh* So I’m content to stay in my air-conditioned office until the sun goes down... which means I’ll get home around 10 pm. I have a very important (personal) task that I’ve been trying to finish for two weeks now, and I’m serious on getting it done tonight. More on that later.

On the way to my doctor’s appointment in Tualatin early this morning I made a wide detour to the post office in Aloha to pick up what I bought on eBay last week. The key to my sekrit projekt.

I patiently ignored the box in my office all day. I tried to wait until I finished my aforementioned task but after eating dinner I finally broke down and opened the parcel. Oh. My. Gosh. It’s marvelous. Just like I remembered. I limited my play to a few minutes and then returned the treasure to its shipping box.

The first time that I picked it up
I had a big surprise
Cause right on the bottom were two big buttons
That looked like big green eyes
I first pushed one and then the other,
Then I twisted its lid
And when I set it down again, here is what it did:

Refrain:
It went zip when it moved and pop when it stopped,
Whirrr when it stood still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.

The Marvelous Toy

There will be pictures... if I ever get this task finished.

(UPDATE: 10:00 pm. Finally finished the task (first draft). I'll wrap things up tomorrow morning at home. I get to go home now!)