Print: Ringwood Manor

Last weekend my future brother-in-law, Aaron, and I took a drive through the Illinois countryside in search of abandoned houses. After searching for a few hours, we came across this beautiful Victorian house on Ringwood Road, near McHenry, Illinois. We explored the entire property, which included the house, three silos, a barn, and an old well. This is a photograph of the front of the house, which was overgrown by a large amount of brush. I used my Pentax LX with a 35mm F/2 lens and a yellow filter, on Ilford Delta 400 film. The physical print is 10 x 7 inches.

I took plenty of photographs of the interior of the house as well. I'll post those within the next few days.

Thanks for looking!

Roll: Morton Grove 4th of July Carnival

Last Friday, on the 4th of July, Katie and I checked out a carnival that's held annually in the suburb of Morton Grove. There were all sorts of rides, food, and interesting people. I brought along my Pentax LX and a roll of Ilford Delta Pro 3200. I used only the light of the surrounding carnival rides, and was impressed that I could still get hand-holdable shutter speeds.  I had never used a film this fast before (I mainly stick between ISO 100 and 400), so I didn't know what to expect from the results. The final images are not nearly as grainy as I thought they'd be! 

Here are some of my results from our night at the carnival:

Spotlight: Minolta SR-1

Over the weekend I went to Wolff's Flea Market at the Allstate Arena. Among a bunch of cool old stuff to sell on Etsy and Ebay, I came across a Minolta SR-1 for twelve dollars. The SR-1 is historically significant to a degree, as it's the second single lens reflex camera Minolta ever made.

In 1959, Minolta released the SR-1 as a cheaper alternative to their flagship model, the SR-2 (released a year prior in 1958). The only difference between the cameras is that the SR-1 has a slower maximum shutter speed of 1/500th, versus the 1/1000th top speed of the SR-2. The SR-1 and SR-2 were pretty advanced cameras for their time, featuring instant return mirrors and built-in pentagonal prisms.

Top View

The SR-1 went through many revisions (six!) during its twelve year production period. My SR-1 is the first revised model, referred to by collectors as the "SR-1 Model B". The Model B made it so you didn't have to pull up on the shutter-speed dial in order to change the shutter-speed. Later revisions added features such a light meter, fully automatic diaphragm control, and more.

One cool thing about Minolta SLR's is that they used the same "SR" mount from the release of the SR-2 in 1958, all the way up to their crappy plastic auto-focus cameras in 1998. This means you can use any lens ever made for a Minolta SLR on the SR-1. This worked out for me, as the 55mm F/2 Rokkor lens that came with the camera was completely toast. Luckily another vendor at the market had a 45mm F/2 Rokkor they were selling for five bucks. This was the lens I used to test out the camera.

Here are some of my results. I used crappy Fujicolor 200!

Overall, I have to admit that I quite like the Minolta SR-1. It has style (The old Minolta Logo is pretty sexy), and it's well built. I don't really dig that my "Model B" doesn't have a fully automatic diaphragm, meaning that the lens aperture stays stopped down after I fire the shutter, until I cock it again. The focus screen is plain matte as well, and pretty dark. I would have preferred a split image or micro-prism screen. But hey, you can't have everything. It's an extremely solid, all mechanical SLR that's perfect for someone learning 35mm photography.

Thanks for looking!

Roll: Pentax LX Randomness

Last weekend, I bought a pack of Kodak Portra 160 film for a multiple-exposure project I have started to work on (See above photo). I took some time this last week to fool around with the film, since I rarely shoot color, and have never specifically used Porta 160 before. I took my Pentax LX, loaded with the Portra, with me estate sale hunting, hiking through the woods, and for another walk along the old train tracks in Highland Park. I used my SMC 50mm f1.4 and SMC 35mm f2.

Thanks for looking!

Print: Rocket Rider

At the same park where I found the rocket slide, I also found a cool little rocket spring rider. I was annoyed because a group of fat old people was sitting just behind the rocket rider, so I had to position them directly behind the rider in the frame. I used my Pentax LX with my SMC 35mm 1:2 Lens, and Ilford Delta 400 film. I also used a yellow k2 filter for a little boost in contrast. The physical print is 10 x 10 inches.

Print: Atomica

Last weekend, Katie and I took a trip over to St. Charles, Illinois, to celebrate our birthdays. St. Charles is a sleepy little tourist town that sits along the Fox River. It's home to many restaurants and shops, along with being the closest town to the Kane County Flea Market, which we enjoy going to. During our stay in St. Charles, Katie and I found a small playground on the outskirts of the town. In the middle of the playground stood a gigantic four-story rocket-ship slide, straight out of the 1960's. Katie and I took turns climbing to the top of the crooked, rusty, creaking monstrosity, and felt very unsafe.

I photographed the rocket with my Pentax LX and SMC 35mm 1:2 Lens, on Ilford Delta 400 film. The physical print is 13 x 8 1/2 inches. Sure, there's some imperfections in the sky, but I think the photograph accurately captures the grandeur of the aging structure. 

Spotlight: Olympus OM-4

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of buying a bunch of Olympus equipment from a nice guy I met over Craigslist.  Among the plethora of camera gear I bought from him was an Olympus OM-4; the last main entry in the OM camera line (It came out in 1983). The OM-4 is the successor to the OM-2 (both have electronically controlled shutters), and while it might not have the same classical look as the OM-2, the OM-4 has a few much appreciated improvements.

Probably the best improvement over the OM-2 is the fact that the OM-4 actually has a manual shutter speed! Yes! If your batteries run dry, you can still shoot at 1/60th of a second. It's always nice to have a back-up plan. Other improvements include a faster maximum shutter speed (1/2000th vs 1/1000th), light up display, and a non-removable hot-shoe. There is a whole new advanced metering system where you can aim the camera at your brightest point, and your darkest point, and have it calculate the correct exposure, but I didn't mess with that feature.

I mainly shot in aperture priority mode, and switched to manual mode for a few tricky exposures. I took the OM-4 around with me to some estate sales, and also just played around in my backyard with a 50mm 1:3.5 macro and a 24mm 1:2.8 (plus fisheye adapter). Everything was shot on Ilford XP2 400. Here are my results:

Thanks for looking!