Photography by Naomi Drew
I loaded up my OM-4Ti with film last summer! The intention was to really master the camera. Well, half a year later, not mastered, but so totally love the OM cameras that I wanted to see what I had. This was taken probably around October 2019, through the studio window in the morning as the light was coming through the leaves. So, of course, “before the fall” – season, and leaves.
About a week ago, on a cold, dreary day (sounds like “once upon a time” or “it was a dark and stormy night”!), I went out with my Yashica D and a roll of color negative film, Fuji Pro 400H. Colors everywhere were muted, more so as it was in the latter part of the afternoon. I guestimated all exposures, and found that I had been too conservative in my estimates as many of the pictures were under exposed. Fuji Pro 400H makes for beautiful colors in the sun, but perhaps Ektar would be better suited for a cloudy, dull day. Perhaps, too, colors would have been better rendered with more light? Hard to judge at this point – the more I use film, the more I have to think about beyond exposure!
These are the last of the Mira Sol peppers, waiting until they are ready to be harvested for seeds. I have never seen this pepper before, but we like it a lot, so we figured best to save some seeds for next year’s planting.
More fun with the Mamiya 645 Pro TL! You get to enjoy my messy desk . . . which is fairly tidy today.
I recently bought a Mamiya 645 Pro TL with a lens, grip, viewfinder, and film back. It’s a medium format camera. To test out that all parts were working as advertised, I put a roll of film in it and went to work. I tested the auto-exposure and manual exposure. The film advance in the grip, too. Everything worked. Focus was on the little lamp, leaving the flowers outside the field of focus. In post, I used Negative Lab Pro to process the images, but turned them to black and white in LR. Altogether, I am happy with my purchase. And I managed to get a few pictures that were decent out of all that play!
This summer I had my first really great crop of figs. This is one of the last, a few days before picking. We had some bird or rat problems – not sure which, maybe both. Rats are fair game to kill, but birds are our friends. However, birds are not really the best diners as they peck a little and take off, leaving behind damaged fruit. Netting helps. Hopefully the squirrels haven’t heard about the figs, or they don’t like them . . . No serpents thus far.
While we waited for our food to arrive at a restaurant, they kindly brought out bottles of water. The day was in the 90s (F) and we went through about 4 of them before the meal was over. This restaurant was one of the best Middle Eastern ones we have eaten at – food distinctly flavorful and unique and worth the wait for it to arrive.
Macros of flowers and other things is like a voyage into a hitherto unexplored world.
A fence, and some friends up ahead. Next stop: lunch!
Our trip to Monterey was wonderful, and this is the only souvenir we have probably ever boughten in our lives: a glass paperweight with a turquoise and gold jelly fish.
