Monthly Archives: November 2015

You are browsing the site archives by month.

“Fall Portraits in the Summer,” Part II

Back in September, I posted a set of photos from a little shoot I did with my niece (and explained my her apparent “sulkiness” in that original post.) When I took those with a digital camera, I was shooting my Fuji GA645i alongside it. I wasn’t sure if it would be redundant to post another set of photos from the same shoot, but I hope you, like I, find some merit in seeing the film versions of photos from that previous post (plus, I got some real smiles from my niece in here 😉 )

Fuji GA645i • Kodak Ektar 100

Holga: Back in the Saddle Again

While I’ve been off trying to conquer Diana the last few years, I’ve left my true toy camera love, Holga, neglected. I decided to change that this summer, starting with loading my trusty Holga 120N for Holga Week. Now, I didn’t get the film developed in time to share it for Holga Week, but better late than never!

 

Roll #1 was Kodak Ektar 100 (Holga Week)

Otherlands Coffee, Memphis

Otherlands Coffee, Memphis

Mom outside Otherlands Coffee, Memphis

Owl mural, which has been shown here a couple of other times

Bike outside Aldo’s Pizza, Memphis

Looking up from my seat on the patio at Aldo’s

Roll #2 was Fuji 64T, expired (expiration date unknown. In fact, these are the craziest film scans I have ever received. I asked the lab to cross process it, but I am not convinced they did. These scans scream, “Underexposed expired tungsten slides” to me…)

The Orpheum on my birthday

Dodge Challenger Hellcat

Spooky double exposure

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford, Mississippi

Roll #2 was Kodak Tri-X

Family friend’s 1957 Chevy station wagon

Dinner at an Italian restaurant we like

Hanging vines at my house

Coldwater, Mississippi

Tattooed mom, Coldwater, Mississippi

Tuxedo rental, Coldwater, Mississippi 

Merican flag, Coldwater, Mississippi

I ONLY included this poorly exposed picture of Dilly because it was the only photo I took on World Toy Camera Day this year 🙂

Conclusion?

I really need to keep shooting with my Holga! Duh!

…Enter the Samsung NX300

I don’t really review or write much about digital cameras, but lemme tell you a story all about how I ended up with another digital camera in my collection (and I didn’t mean to.)

It all starts with two happy years with my Samsung NX1100. I’d been using the little kit lens that came with the camera for those two years, but I finally decided to invest in a nice, prime lens for it. I chose a 30mm f/2 lens. It’s tiny and classified as a “pancake lens” because it’s so compact. The lens arrived, and I gleefully took it outside to quickly test it a little. Here are those test shots:

Such pretty shallow depth of field! I’m in love with this lens! 

Then, I took the camera in to charge the battery fully, as I knew I’d be shooting with it lots in order to have fun with the new lens. Charged the battery for awhile, put it back in the camera, and the camera wouldn’t power on. WAAAAAHHHHH! There was lots of panicking and searching the world wide web for answers to my problem.

What’s a girl to do?? This girl decided to bite the bullet and buy another Samsung camera body which would allow me to use my pretty new 30mm lens. Doing so did not make me a happy camper, but what were the odds that my NX1100 would stop working the very day I finally got a better lens for it? Inconceivable! But I did a little research and decided to buy a slightly upgraded model, a Samsung NX300.

30mm pancake lens…

…vs the 18-55mm kit lens that came with the camera (at it’s shortest)

The NX300 has a lot in common with the NX1100, as far as form and fuction go, but notable differences (in my day-to-day life) are: 1) The NX300 has a touch screen, which you can use to adjust focus points on the fly, access the menus and   2) The NX300 has an articulating screen that rotates 45° for shooting overhead or 90° for shooting lower angles more easily.

Articulated screen folded as flat as it will go

The angle for shooting up high

Shooting low

One of the things I like best about these Samsung cameras is that they have wi-fi built in that allows you to send files straight from the camera to your phone or tablet. That’s one thing that has made it hard to compile this blog: I wanted to save a lot of the shots for writing a blog about the NX300, but I found myself sharing a lot of them to social media while I was waiting to write a blog about the camera! Plus, I have already dedicated a few different blog posts to photos taken with the camera already because I couldn’t hold on to them any longer! (Here, here, here, here.) I tried to mainly use photos here that haven’t been seen elsewhere on my social media, but there are some that my Instagram or Facebook friends would have seen already. I just wanted to show how many different aspects of my life I’ve been capturing with this camera. Okay? Let’s go!

Desserts I made for my family’s catering business

Naturey stuff outside my house

Decor in my sister’s house

Vegan mini cakes I made

More scenes from my “yard” at home (pssst: I live in the woods)

1969 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS at work

1972 Chevrolet Custom 10
(the last two photos of this truck were taken with the Samsung’s 18-55mm kit lens)

#SoSoBrit – the day there were randomly some British Jammie Dodger biscuits in an office at work

My brother’s fiance made candy apples. My niece said they were GOOD!

Previously unseen shots from Muddy’s holiday look book photo shoot

Like to Instagram your food? The Samsung NX300 and 30mm lens do it well!
(Waffle House in Nashville, TN on the way to our family vacation in The Smokies)

Some more photos from the Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies

“Madonna” at the Guinness World Records Museum in Gatlinburg, TN

The newest troublemaker in the family: Arrow, the Mountain Cur who wandered up to my sister’s house

Self-portraits

My brother’s family’s pit bull puppy, Poseidon

My niece, the sulky model

Dilly, at her favorite spot in the house

…And, actually, I brought the NX300 to document my brother’s impromptu wedding!

Honestly, the Samsung NX300 is my favorite digital camera. And that’s saying something, coming from this film photographer!