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.