Jim and April's Roadtrips

Well, today was the first day of my Combat Camera Reunion in Albuquerque, New Mexico and it amazes me that how easy it is to pickup with old friends that you haven’t seen for over 15 years. Don’t get me wrong because I do keep up with my fellow veterans, mostly though Facebook, but to actually see each other face to face it’s like it’s only been a few weeks and not many years.

Some of the names my many of military friends will recognize that are here are, Ken Hackman, Perry Heimer, Paul Harrington, Joe Coleman, Rob Marshall, Mike Creen and Bob Simons, among others.

We sat around and recalled old war stories from our days of capturing the history of the military with our cameras and when how things have changed in the world of photography from film to digital. It was great, but I finally gave out about 10 pm after a full day of driving and shooting pictures on the way here I was a tired puppy. Tomorrow morning we’re doing a group photo of those gathered here for the reunion before we all head off on a trip to Santa Fe for a day trip. Some are driving and others like sis and I are taking the train! When offered the option, what else was I supposed to do?

Still two more days of catching up, programs and war stories before we wrap things up. I’ll try to get some better images to show the group and what everyone looks like and  has been up to over the next couple of days. – Stay Tuned!

Well, I’m taking a break for getting things together for tomorrow’s roadtrip departure and decided to do a short post for an App I found for the iPhone that makes using my two new Analog Cameras easier to use. Neither of these cameras come with any sort of light metering system and I originally planned to use my D700 to meter the scenes, but on a whim I decided to see if there was an App for that and there is!

“FotometerPro By Kit Da Studio is a light meter for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch and iPad 2. It’s one of the best companions for your Hasselblad, Rolleiflex TLR, Nikon/ Canon SLR… or any old film cameras, Lomo toy cameras and even DIY pinhole cameras! It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G. Requires iOS 4.1 or later” and it only costs 99 cents!

On the iTunes store one customer review by by dontbuyfoliobook says: Works Great! I just purchased this and checked it against my sekonic hand held $400.00 meter. Mostly just checked incident metering. It was dead on accurate in the shade, sunlight and in the house. I also checked it against my canon s95. It produced better readings than that meter both incident and reflective.

After downloading, installing and using the meter on my first two rolls in my pinhole camera I have to agree with him that it does an amazing job. Really easy to use and you can switch easily from reflective (light reflecting from the scene) to incident (light falling on the scene) readings. A large window at the bottom gives you your exposure times ranging from 1/4000 sec to 16 hours! You also have an easy to rotate dials to change your ISO and aperture settings to match your desires. Personally, I don’t think you can go wrong with this App if you’re in the market for a light meter.

Left, Aperture and ISO is easily set by putting your finger on the ring and rotating it and readings show in the window below. You can then click on the timer button and the app will switch automatically to a countdown timer.
Left, slide the star button in lower left to start the timer. You can turn an alarm and vibration on in the settings menu. If you have your phone set to sleep after x number of minutes, don’t worry as the timer will keep working in the background and alert you when it’s time to close the shutter.

Here’s a couple samples from the first shots from my new “Analog Cameras” for our upcoming California and back roadtrip.

 

 

I just bought my first two “Film” cameras in probably over 10 years for my upcoming trip the middle of September. My sister and I will spend three weeks driving to California and back with the longest stops for my Combat Camera Reunion in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to visit friends in California and several days at Moab, Utah to do some shooting at Arches National Park. We will also stop overnight in many other place along the way of course… but I’m off the topic of my first post here, so let me get back to the cameras.

I wanted to do something different for this cross country trip, which I’ve done several times before over the years, mostly following the railroad to photograph trains. I saw a post on Facebook where a photographer had done a really nice series on events around the site of the twin towers in New York using a camera called a Sprocket Rocket. It’s a film camera that allows you to shoot panoramic photos on 35mm film and you can choose to use the sprocket area of the film to record your image on or not. I really liked the idea and purchased one from lomography.com for the upcoming trip. I’m currently working shooting some test shots for my first roll and will post a sample photo soon.

The camera has two settings for shutter speeds, 1/100 and Bulb, with two settings for f/stops which are 10.8 and 16… basically cloudy and sunny. So, it should be a fun camera to play with during my trip.

The other camera I bought from the same place is a Holga 120 Wide Pinhole Camera, It uses 120 film and since it’s a pinhole (f/stop around f/135) the only shutter speed is bulb! It’s also a superwide panoramic camera that shoots a negative/positive of 6x12cm, which is about two standard exposures on 120 film on one piece of film. Since I’ve got a bunch of refrigerated 120 film and still have my traditional darkroom, I’m in the process of shooting my first test roll of TMax 400.

I’m excited about the prospects of shooting with both these cameras for this upcoming and future trips over the years.

Of course I’m not going to be totally analog when it comes to the finished product with these cameras as I also bought film holders for both that will allow me to scan the film in to the computer and use my darkroom of choice these days, Photoshop.

Stay tuned… Jim