Category Archives: Camera Equipment

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

July 25, 2012 7:53 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

I won, ya’ll, I won! 

I have entered many photo-related blog giveaways. Never have I ever won a darn thing. That is, until last month.

A lovely Memphis photographer/designer/blogger/all around awesome lady named Sophorn was given a Lomography La Sardina to try for herself and one to give away to one of her readers. A chance to win a camera? I’m all about that! I crossed my fingers and hoped and prayed that I’d win. As I stated in the comment I left in order to enter the contest, I’d been drooling over this camera for awhile and:

I may or may not have spent a lot of hours this spring looking at a billion photos on Flickr and the Lomography site that were taken with La Sardina cameras…In the name of research, of course.

So imagine my delight when I woke up one Tuesday morning to an email from Sophorn, saying I’d actually been randomly selected as winner of the La Sardina! It seriously made my week! Or month, for that matter. I had my choice of the Mobius or Domino design. While I think the purple and yellow on the Mobius is so pretty, who could resist that striking black and white design on the Domino?? Certainly not I! The camera arrived a week and a half later, just in time to be with me when I was on a mini staycation, a mere half an hour from home. This little getaway yielded some cinematic moments (literally, we went to see a movie at the Orpheum that day!) and what better way to capture those moments than with a pretty little wide angle toy camera??

I think Sophorn did a bang up job of giving the tech specs and history on the camera, so I will point you over to her blog to read about it. That means I can just jump straight into sharing the images from the first few rolls I took with my new La Sardina!

Roll, Numero Uno (the best of the bunch) – Holga brand (actually Foma) black and white film, 400 ASA 

Roll, Numero Dos – expired Fujicolor 200

Roll,  Numero Tres  (oh so cloudy day)- Holga Brand 640 ASA film

 

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Little Bit O’Hassy Lurve

May 3, 2012 8:40 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

This one will be short and sweet. These were the first Hasselblad photos I’d taken in 3 years, and I admit that there was a bit of a re-learning curve to shooting with it. Why’s that? The image you see in a waist-level viewfinder is reversed left-to-right, people! It can be tricky and take some getting used to…

But I digress.

I just love the feel of “homey” pictures taken on medium format film, so shooting in Kat’s home during a recent Muddy’s menu photo session was the perfect opportunity to break out the Hassy. The draping fabric of our photo backdrop and the charming details of the decor in Kat’s house were perfectly suited for what I had in mind for this set of photos!

Hasselblad 500 C/M • Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm/2.8 T* • Fuji Pro 400H

More Hassy photos to come…I’m ’bout to kick it into high gear with this thing!

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Canon Rebel 2000: A Pleasant Surprise

February 19, 2012 10:21 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

I thought it was about time I profiled a camera that I’ve been using for nearly four years and which has become an unexpected favorite in my camera arsenal: the Canon Rebel 2000.

In June 2008, I purchased a Canon Rebel Ti from a charity shop for $25. It didn’t come with a lens, so I had to lay hands on one in order to test the camera. I had a flash of inspiration: My friend Adam used to have a Canon Rebel, and I was pretty sure he said it had stopped working. I hoped he might be up for selling the lens off his Rebel, since he couldn’t get any use out of the camera body at that point. As hoped, Adam agreed to sell the lens to me. Hooray! When I picked up the lens from him, he said, “You can just take the camera, too. I think it might be working again.” I attached said lens to the Rebel Ti body I’d purchased and found that the Ti’s film door was broken. Boo! I put batteries in the 2000, and to my delight, it was working again!

Thanks for the killer camera, Adam!
It’s in good hands, I promise!

Product of my first roll through the Rebel 2000

This was right before I was going to chaperon a church youth group trip to Waco, TX, so I broke the Rebel 2k in by taking it on the road with me. The Rebel was just PERFECT for toting around with me down there. I could use it like an over-grown point-and-shoot if I wanted, or I could have complete control over exposure and focus settings. That trip to Waco with the Rebel had me hooked. It’s been one of those cameras I can throw into my purse and be ready to go at a moment’s notice! I remember one of my photo buddies, Dirk, at Memphis Photo Supply giving me a hard time when he saw me with this camera. He gave me a “you could do better” sideways glance. Then, when complimenting a photo he thought was fantastic and wanting to know which camera I’d used, I’m pretty sure I rocked his world by replying, “My Canon Rebel 2000!” Burn!

Waco, Tx

mewithoutYou in Nashville, July 2008

I did a search for photos in my Flickr photostream that are tagged with “Canon Rebel 2000.” There are about 450 photos there from my Rebel! That number is pretty high, considering how many other cameras I have and divide my film between. I’ve actually featured a lot of Rebel 2000 photos on the blog and in my photo galleries, but here are a sampling of my favorites from over the years.

 

(And, I’ve obviously loved shooting people with the Rebel 2K!)

All photos taken with the Canon Rebel 2000 and the 35-80mm/4-5.6 “kit lens.” Except the photo of the Rebel at the top of this post, which was taken with my Canon Powershot SX230HS.

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Hipster Cam {Volume One}

January 21, 2012 10:40 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Warning: if you or someone you love is a hipster, the contents of this blog may fly all over your delicate, ironic sensibilities. Also, this was written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Hello there!  Today, I present you with (what I call) “the hipster cam” –  also better known as the Holga 135. If you like it when I tell you overly verbose stories about cameras and photos, then this is the blog posting for YOU!

A Holga is a cheap, plastic camera from China that originally came only in models that took medium format film (Holga 120.) I’ve been using medium format Holga cameras since 2000. More recently, however, 35mm Holga models have been on the market. I never really wanted one of the 35mm Holgas. I saw them in person because of the Holga 135 collection at Urban Outfitters – which is (in my opinion) notorious for overpriced merchandise. Fifty dollars for a plastic camera that looks like you spray-painted it in your garage?! I think not!! I was not born yesterday, people!

All of those feelings about Holga 135 cameras were true until I went into Urban Outfitters with a friend last summer. When I saw a purple Holga 135 on clearance for $20, I couldn’t get it out of my head (this happens when I see most any camera for $20 or under.) I mulled it over for a few days and ultimately went against my nature buying a Lomography camera at Urban Outfitters. Yes, Hades had frozen over.

Riddled with guilt that I may have turned into a hipster at this point, I decided the only way to make up for this lapse in my usually unfailing devotion to anti-hipsterdom was to do a photo series with the hipster cam. A series of things hipsters like, more specifically. There are soooo many things which fall into this category, so I have only begun to scratch the surface. But here are a few of the shots from two rolls I put through the Hipster Cam mostly last summer:

Things Hipsters Like , Part One

Banjos


Old typewriters

Pho Hoa Bihn

Waffle House

Farmers Markets*

Sriracha*

Gibson’s Donuts

Craft beers

So, a couple of things:

  1. I LOOOOOVE using the Holga 120 cameras I’ve owned. Having owned the 135 since late June, I have only shot two rolls of film with it. That should tell you something. That something being that I’m not in love with it yet.
  2. After those two rolls of film, the rewind knob’s crank lever fell off. Or broke off. Can’t remember which.  Either way, I finally remembered to ask Lomography about a replacement part and was told I could exchange the camera. I sent it back last week. I didn’t like the purple one, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will return to me as a mint green or blush colored Hipster Cam.
  3. Turns out, I like a lot of the same things I would make fun of hipsters for enjoying. See, we’re not so different after all.

*The accuracy of the viewfinder on this thing. Not so much. I did not actually compose those shots that way.

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