Japanese maple

Japanese Maple in Spring

Taken with my Lubitel 166.

Petzval lens

I recently got a Petzval lens through a Lomography Kickstarter project and this is an example of a film test I ran. I used the lens on my Nikon FE2, a film camera. I originally tried to meter through my camera but wound up with extremely underexposed negs (basically I developed blank film). Finally, I broke out my handheld light meter and was able to get some good exposures. The film I used for this roll expired in 2007 but I guess refrigerating it all those years helped keep it usable. It was one of my last rolls of Agfa 400 (sadly, the film division of Agfa went bankrupt a few years ago so I was forced to find a different film brand to rely on).

This is a photo of a stuffed quail, nicknamed "Papa Quail." A number of years ago, this quail and his brood of adolescent chicks walked through our front door thinking it was part of their habitat. When they tried to fly out the windows, all hell broke loose. By the time we heard the commotion coming from the living room, Papa Quail was in his last death throws. We managed to get all but one of the chicks out of the house before there was more death (they were EVERYWHERE - in baskets, behind the couch, above the closet). We froze Papa until quail hunting season was open (I should state, I would NEVER shoot a quail...I love them too much and shooting them seems to be pretty stupid and wasteful) so we could get a license and get the taxidermist to stuff him. The license was about $125 and then there was the taxidermy costs so it wasn't cheap. The taxidermist did a pretty lousy job. He managed to mess up the top knot on Papa's head so he made some wanker-looking top knot with an extra couple feathers. Oh well, what can you do? At least I can look at Papa and think about the crazy circumstances that brought him to my living room to sit in the same spot on a piece of wood for eternity.

Museum of Glass Pinhole

Museum of Glass - Tacoma

Yesterday, I took advantage of the nice weather to run over to Tacoma to test my pinhole camera. The Zero Image had been scratching my negatives but I was blaming it on the lab that processes my color film (I haven't been shooting a ton of black and white, which I process myself, so I hadn't realized the problem was my camera). (Sorry, lab processor, for thinking you had dirty film spools.) I added a little gaffer's tape to the contact points between the camera and the film and, voilá, problem solved. This means I'm ready for Worldwide Pinhole Day on Sunday. Hurray!

Pinholes and rain

Double sunflowers

Just a reminder that all the rain we've had here in the Pacific NW brings beautiful flowers and that Worldwide Pinhole Day is on April 27, 2014. This pair of photos was taken last summer with my Zero Image pinhole camera. I'm finally getting around to developing a number of exposed rolls of film. This set of pinholes was included in one of the rolls.

Get out and take your pinholes next Sunday!!