Scattered Thoughts . . .

I 've been wanting to go back to medium format film since the very beginning of the pandemic.  In fact, I restored a 75 year old folding 6x6 medium format camera in January of 2020 when the pandemic first began (pictured below, at left).  Now it is six years later and I still have not shot any film through that camera but I'm still itching to go back to film alongside my digital photography. I do occasionally shoot some instant medium format film through a twin lens reflex camera (shown in photo below, top center) and I have a medium format film printer that prints any of my digital images on medium format instant film.  My Sony a7 images look great on this film. I suppose the main reason I have delayed shooting any film stock in my older film camera is because I have had COVID twice a year, every year, since January of 2020.  Each time I get this virus, it knocks me down for a few months.  By the time I'm feeling well enough to tackle anything, my list of prior...

A fter my previous blog entry where I was complaining about a crappy Olympus camera sensor and sensor format, I decided to shoot a few photos of some of our Christmas ornaments in a much larger sensor format...  645 medium format with a classic medium format manual lens.   These images look great!  I did nothing with these images other than some very mild sharpening before resizing them down to web-sized images in contrast to the images in the previous blog entry that required hours of processing.   Shooting these images was incredibly simple and yet they look great!  

D igital image sensors are manufactured in many sizes ranging from smaller than a pencil eraser to the approximate size of a playing card.  The larger the sensor size, the better the overall image quality so photographers tend to want the largest size they can afford.  Naturally, the larger the sensor, the higher the cost so that is usually the primary limiting factor for photographers.   Also worth considering is the price of lenses.  The larger the sensor, the larger the lens needs to be.  Tiny sensors only need tiny lenses (think cellphones).  A sensor the size of a playing card requires a big lens and the larger the lens, the higher the price, generally speaking (quality is a huge factor in price too).   Each time a photographer moves to a larger sized sensor, the price of equipment jumps significantly.  The same has always held true for film too.  The smaller format of 110 film (same size as 4/3 inch sensors) costs less than th...

As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, I've been trying to recover from two months of illness progressing from a cold, to flu, and with a stomach virus bug developing sometime in the middle of all of this nonsense.  I've also had some issues with recurring headaches and focus issues which, I assume, are due to my mild TBI from this past summer.  The headaches I've had recently were the same as the headaches I experienced from the TBI so...  it is a fairly safe assumption that these headaches were due to lingering TBI problems.  I have had, however, a couple of hours here and there of decent enough health to start working on some small, light projects. One project I keep putting aside and then going back to is restoring a folding medium format film camera I recently picked up.  I did a lot of clean up already and this antique camera looks great but it still needs some work before I can load it with some medium format film and give it a whirl.  Shor...

Between struggling with poor health and trying to keep up with family activities and events, I've ended up in a not-so-surprising funk.  I get bored during extended bouts of poor health and finding interesting things to keep me busy while also keeping my mind occupied and feeling productive becomes a bit of a challenge.  I always find something to accomplish but sometimes the usual things I turn to become rather boring to me.  Lately, I've turned my focus to photography and, unfortunately, I've found that I'm in a bit of a funk when it comes to my photography.   I'm bored.   The things I shoot, I've shot a million times already (perhaps even literally) so it is something I feel I can do in my sleep now.  It is hard finding inspiration in the same old situations over and over again.  It is difficult finding something new, exciting and interesting in all the usual shooting subjects when you find yourself in a rut. I'd really love to spend...