The Way They Made Them

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Our Rose-of-Sharon bush in the back yard is always a good place to start taking pictures, like this one shot with the Mamiya Sekor SX 200mm f/3.5 on my Fuji mirrorless.
Our Rose-of-Sharon bush in the back yard is always a good place to start taking pictures, like this one shot with the Mamiya Sekor SX 200mm f/3.5 on my Fuji mirrorless.

Sometimes when we see an old tractor, a restored antique firearm, or even a beautiful old house, an aphorism that sometimes comes to mind is, “They don’t make them like they used to.”

Such a phrase came to my mind when I opened box from eBay recently to find the Mamiya Sekor SX 200mm f/3.5 I ordered. As soon as I pulled it out of the bubble wrap, I was amazed by its smooth, slow, well-oiled focus mechanism, it’s heavy-checkered focus ring, and the fact that it didn’t make any sound when I shook it.

As soon as I pulled the Mamiya Sekor SX 200mm f/3.5 out of the box from eBay, my wife commented, "It looks brand new." In a way, that's a little sad, because it means this lens was probably stored, not taking pictures, for most of its life.
As soon as I pulled the Mamiya Sekor SX 200mm f/3.5 out of the box from eBay, my wife commented, “It looks brand new.” In a way, that’s a little sad, because it means this lens was probably stored, not taking pictures, for most of its life.

I bought this lens as part of an ongoing effort to open a new avenue of photographic creativity and mastery that started with the purchase of a Fujifilm X-T10 mirrorless camera in July, for the expressed purpose of bringing old lenses back to life using various adaptors.

If you are trying to find a lens that that makes pictures with a retro look, this one does the trick. It’s just a teensy bit soft wide open, and has that slightly-ratty bokeh of a lens designed an built by humans, in this case in Japan.

The mechanics and optics in this lens are good, especially considering I paid so little for it.
The mechanics and optics in this lens are good, especially considering I paid so little for it.

Most of the lenses of this era were mechanically sturdy, heavy, all-metal tools that weren’t as good optically as today’s hardware, which, since the early 2000s, have been getting optically better but mechanically more and more plasticky. This helps hold down cost and weight.

We are, however, seeing a reverse in this trend in the latest lenses coming from Sigma, Sony, Nikon, and Fuji, who have discovered a new market for craftsmanship.

The Mamiya Sekor 200mm f/3.5 is an M42 screw-mount lens, and I use it with a cheap pass-through adaptor to mount it on my Fuji. Focus and exposure are entirely manual. Because the M42 mount isn’t very precise, when the Sekor is mounted, the focus scale and the aperture ring face down, and the aperture pin strikes a rim on the adaptor, locking it to the f/stop you pick before mounting it. This is fine with me, since I don’t use the focus scale much, and I got this lens intending to mostly shoot with it wide open, at f/3.5.

This frame is cropped to show about the maximum amount of sharpness I could coax out of this lens, with the help of our Chihuahua, Summer.
This frame is cropped to show about the maximum amount of sharpness I could coax out of this lens, with the help of our Chihuahua, Summer.

F/3.5 seemed to be a tipping point for lenses made in the 1970s, presumably due to manufacturing limits that resulted in diminishing results with larger apertures, as well as a photographic community that is far less obsessed with selective focus and bokeh as it is today.

Being able to focus a lens is a rarer commodity than it was 25 years ago, but it seems to be making a little bit of a comeback with the retro film scene. I look forward to grabbing this lens for all kinds of creative endeavors.

Testing a manual-focus lens on the neighbor's chickens seems like cheating: they are contrasty and spotted and interesting-looking, all of which makes focusing on them easy.
Testing a manual-focus lens on the neighbor’s chickens seems like cheating: they are contrasty and spotted and interesting-looking, all of which makes focusing on them easy.

 

Pinch, Poke and The Mighty Hound

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The sun setting behind these Rose-of-Sharon flowers creates a beautiful pallet of haze and flare that helps express the light and the moment.
The sun setting behind these Rose-of-Sharon flowers creates a beautiful pallet of haze and flare that helps express the light and the moment.

I worked outside for a while after walking the dogs last night. We had a very wet spring and summer, so I had let some vines and trees in the back yard get thick and out of control.

Our mighty Irish wolfhound Hawken plopped down in the middle of the elm branches and vine clippings. He even tried to eat a Rose-of-Sharon branch. Wow, he is a gorgeous dog.
Our mighty Irish wolfhound Hawken plopped down in the middle of the elm branches and vine clippings. He even tried to eat a Rose-of-Sharon branch. Wow, he is a gorgeous dog.
The Fuji X-T10 is shown with the Pentax 50mm f/1.4.
The Fuji X-T10 is shown with the Pentax 50mm f/1.4.

Lately I’ve been very much enjoying my new/used Fuji X-T10 with an ancient and very well-used Pentax 50mm f/1.4 on it. This camera/lens combination creates a look that reminds me of older color slides made with older lenses.

After lopping branches and playing tug-of-war with some very beautiful but tenacious vines, the light started to mature, and, as I often do, I grabbed a camera.

I took a minute to walk over the the Nipps' house to photograph Mike's chickens.
I took a minute to walk over the the Nipps’ house to photograph Mike’s chickens.
These two big roosters took a keen interest in my presence.
These two big roosters took a keen interest in my presence.
The vines I trimmed had these tiny purple berries on them.
The vines I trimmed had these tiny purple berries on them.
The Pentax 50mm f/1.4 shot wide open gives me a very painterly look, which expresses the light and the mood of the evening well.
The Pentax 50mm f/1.4 shot wide open gives me a very painterly look, which expresses the light and the mood of the evening well.
This image shows what a bit of a jungle I have allowed to grow in the back yard.
This image shows what a bit of a jungle I have allowed to grow in the back yard.

Photographic Doings

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A tiny green spider hunts atop one of my marigolds in the garden.
A tiny green spider hunts atop one of my marigolds in the garden.

I often ask my photographer friends on the phone, “Hey, what are you doing photographically?”

The idea is to trade ideas, think creatively, and to encourage each other in our efforts to bring more to our photographic games.

I come to this party ahead of the curve, since I am a photojournalist my trade, but I am often trying to get out of that box and make different images, which I hope have some element of fine art to them. Here are a couple of items I shot this week around our patch of green in Oklahoma.

A large grasshopper clings to some of my marigolds in the garden.
A large grasshopper clings to some of my marigolds in the garden.
A tall thistle sways in late afternoon light.
A tall thistle sways in late afternoon light.
Condensation clings to the transparent lid of our coffee maker.
Condensation clings to the transparent lid of our coffee maker.
Tangled morning glory vines reach for late afternoon sunshine.
Tangled morning glory vines reach for late afternoon sunshine.
Dusty power cables cast long shadows in the garage at last light.
Dusty power cables cast long shadows in the garage at last light.
Marigold blossoms stretch to reach sunlight.
Marigold blossoms stretch to reach sunlight.
Mimosa branches are silhouettes against the red summer sun at sunset.
Mimosa branches are silhouettes against the red summer sun at sunset.

Large Format is the Wild West of Photography

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My ambitious young photographer friend Mac Crosby came by the office earlier this week, at my invitation, so I could lend her a Minolta X-700 and a couple of lenses, as well as a couple of antique 620 cameras. Readers might recall that Mac wrote a neat piece about my wife Abby and me for class last March (link).

Photographer Mac Crosby looks at some of the thousands of 4x5 negatives on file at my newspaper.
Photographer Mac Crosby looks at some of the thousands of 4×5 negatives on file at my newspaper.

In recent months, Mac has been curating film photography into her body of work as an aspiring photojournalist, and that has included disposable cameras, 35mm film cameras, medium format cameras, and even toy cameras. Photography with toy cameras is sometimes called lomography.

One thing I showed her while she was here at the office is some of the thousands of 4×5-inch black-and-white negatives we have in our files at The Ada News.

4×5 negatives are about 15 times larger than 35mm film frames, so they potentially contain a tremendous amount of detail. In fact, 4×5 negatives are large enough that they can be printed as contact prints, in which the film is laid directly on the printing paper and exposed to light, skipping the step of putting the film in an enlarger.

I lent my friend and fellow photographer Mac Crosby this Minolta X-700, a 35mm film camera from the late 1980s. I hope she dazzles me with the results she gets with it.
I lent my friend and fellow photographer Mac Crosby this Minolta X-700, a 35mm film camera from the late 1980s. I hope she dazzles me with the results she gets with it.

If 35mm film is common and medium format film is exotic, 4×5 film is the Wild West of photography.

I’ve never owned a 4×5 camera. I do have a photographer friend, Robert in Tulsa, who has a Burke and James 4×5 field camera. A field camera differs from a view camera in that it uses a viewfinder instead of a focusing hood or cloth. If you have ever seen the movie Flags of Our Fathers, the character of Joe Rosenthal uses a 4×5 field camera to photograph the raising of the second U.S. flag on Iwo Jima.

As Mac and I talked about film photography, she said she’d like to see what I could do with film, and I pointed out that in the very office in which she sat were literally hundreds of thousands of film frames I made during my career, from when I started at The Ada News in October 1988 until about the middle of 2005, when I had enough digital cameras to get the job done, and when the film scanner of 1998 vintage finally died.

I also told Mac that if she gets a chance to use a darkroom in her travels or education, I’d be glad to tag along and throw in my expertise. I’d also extend that invitation to anyone who wants to learn about how a darkroom works. It’s pretty amazing that I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, but I can tell you exactly how to process a roll of film.

Three children use a water pump in this image made on 4x5 inch sheet film. The film is from an envelope marked, “Oakman Homecoming, Published Oct. 21, 1954, in weekly.” That means that the children in this image are in their 70s now.
Three children use a water pump in this image made on 4×5 inch sheet film. The film is from an envelope marked, “Oakman Homecoming, Published Oct. 21, 1954, in weekly.” That means that the children in this image are in their 70s now.

A Fisheye Surprise

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The Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 Fisheye Lens sits in my home studio recently.
The Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 Fisheye Lens sits in my home studio recently.

Two of the things I write on the dry erase board at the start of every Intro to Digital Photography class are…

  1. You can’t buy mastery. You have to earn it.
  2. What can you do to make your camera take better pictures? Wear it out.
The large front elements of the Altura 8mm fisheye and the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye are shown for comparison.
The large front elements of the Altura 8mm fisheye and the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye are shown for comparison.

I’ve got enough great cameras, lenses, lights, filters, computers and software to make images, both for myself and as a professional news photographer.

It might seem strange, then, that once in a while I buy photo gear out of curiosity. My most recent acquisition is the Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 Fisheye Lens. I had rock-bottom expectations since I never heard of Altura, and it didn’t cost much.

The The Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 fisheye lens and the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye sit in my home studio recently.
The The Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 fisheye lens and the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye sit in my home studio recently.

The Altura was a big surprise.

This Altura 8mm fisheye sits on its lens cap with its hood removed.
This Altura 8mm fisheye sits on its lens cap with its hood removed.

Its build quality is unheard of in modern times. It is constructed of brass and steel. It is heavy. The focus throw is long, smooth and well-damped, reminiscent of lenses made in the 1960s rather than the 2020s. The glass is multi-coated. The aperture ring is smooth and has distinct clicks at whole aperture values.

One reason the Altura is probably so cheap is its totally manual configuration. It has no connection to the camera except being mounted on it. There are no electronics to tell the camera about aperture or focus settings, and there isn’t even an aperture linkage to hold the aperture open during focusing and composing; if you pick a small aperture, the image in the viewfinder is dark.

A good example of how wide a fisheye lens can be is this view of the inside of my Nissan Juke, which is a very small car.
A good example of how wide a fisheye lens can be is this view of the inside of my Nissan Juke, which is a very small car.

Interestingly, picking a large aperture doesn’t seem to be necessary. The lens is sharp at all of its apertures, and depth of field at 8mm is, by it very nature, very deep: everything in front of the lens is in focus.

The large front element of the Altura fisheye lens is quite striking, and could be easily damaged in everyday use. The lens is furnished with a large plastic lens cap.
The large front element of the Altura fisheye lens is quite striking, and could be easily damaged in everyday use. The lens is furnished with a large plastic lens cap.

And there’s a lot in front of this lens. I compared it directly to my 15-year-old Tokina fisheye, which sees 180º corner-to-corner, and found the Altura sees maybe 15º more than the Tokina using a camera with a 15mm x 24mm sensor. Additionally, if you remove the hood, the Altura projects a circular fisheye pattern on cameras with larger 24mm x 36mm sensors.

This is the 180º view of the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye.
This is the 180º view of the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye.
This is the 195º-ish view of the Altura 8mm fisheye.
This is the 195º-ish view of the Altura 8mm fisheye.

The challenge of using a specialized lens like this is putting it to real world use. In the past, my main use for fisheye lenses has been as extreme wide angle lenses, using Photoshop or Lightroom to “unbend” the circular look of the lens. It’s very effective, as you can see in the examples below…

This 2012 view of Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado near Page, Arizona, was made with my widest lens available, the Tokina 12-24mm. Compare it to the next image.
This 2012 view of Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado near Page, Arizona, was made with my widest lens available, the Tokina 12-24mm. Compare it to the next image.
Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado is shown in this April 2015 fisheye view, with the curved line straightened out using Adobe Photoshop.
Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado is shown in this April 2015 fisheye view, with the curved line straightened out using Adobe Photoshop.

I hope to throw this unusual lens into my daily news and sports coverage, and I hope it adds to my narrative in new and different ways.

Most Popular Camera Ever?

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The beautifully-made Canon AE-1 Program camera sits in my home studio recently.
The beautifully-made Canon AE-1 Program camera sits in my home studio recently.

A friend of mine recently asked me to look over an older film camera of his. He told me he had grown up making pictures with it. I I told him I would be happy to look it over, and to drop it by my office. I wasn’t surprised when the that camera showed up the next day was a Canon AE-1 Program, one of the most popular cameras ever made.

The battery for the Canon AE-1 Program sits inside a door on the front of the camera.
The battery for the Canon AE-1 Program sits inside a door on the front of the camera.

Before I go on, let me say that I’m not usually a “they don’t build them like they used to” guy, since technology has swept us away with all kinds of advancement, from the smartphone to the self-diagnosing car engine, but on this occasion, well… they just don’t build them like they used to.

The Canon AE-1 Program came from an era of rapid advancement in camera design, and includes some very advanced technology in it, but it also inherited the build quality, fit, and finish of the handmade and hand-assembled era of camera development.

The shutter speed dial can be set to program which, in combination with setting the aperture ring on the lens to "A" will allow the camera to set both shutter speed and aperture.
The shutter speed dial can be set to program which, in combination with setting the aperture ring on the lens to “A” will allow the camera to set both shutter speed and aperture.

The AE-1 Program followed the AE-1, which was probably the most popular camera ever sold in the film era. The “Program” was a piece of tech that allowed the camera to pick both the shutter speed and the aperture, and was the first of that feature to be introduced.

In-hand, this camera has a big-camera feel. In contrast to almost any digital camera today, it is heavy. The corners and grips of the camera are fairly conventional, and the controls are laid out nicely. I can pick up a camera like this and immediately start using it.

The Canon 50mm f/1.8 is a great lens, but most 50mm lenses are. They are easy and cheap to make, and are capable of making great images.
The Canon 50mm f/1.8 is a great lens, but most 50mm lenses are. They are easy and cheap to make, and are capable of making great images.

I cleaned it up with a soft toothbrush and some canned air. It had a fair amount of back-of-the-closet dust on it. This particular one seemed to run just fine. The shutter and aperture cycled like they should. Focus on the 50mm f/1.8 lens, a fine piece of glass that every Canon owner had during that era, was smooth and accurate. The only thing I could find wrong with it was the light seals – the foam rubber in the slots on the film door – was dry and cracked, which could cause light leaks, especially in bright sunlight.

If my friend is willing to buy film then have it processed and scanned or printed, his Canon AE-1 Program is ready for the job.

The Canon AE-1 Program is shown with its lens removed.
The Canon AE-1 Program is shown with its lens removed.

Experiments Keep Us Moving Forward

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In my last post, I talked about buying a nice used mirrorless camera and some adaptors so I could experiment with older lenses. It got me thinking about some of the very first images, and very first experiments, I tried.

I had a microscope as a kid, and spent a lot of time looking through it at everything from ants to onions. Photographing it with a homemade macro lens yielded very shallow depth of field.
I had a microscope as a kid, and spent a lot of time looking through it at everything from ants to onions. Photographing it with a homemade macro lens yielded very shallow depth of field.

Ignorance is bliss, and some of my most successful early photographic experiments wouldn’t have happened if an expert had told me why they wouldn’t work. One, for example, is one I tried with a garage-sale Exa camera of 1962 vintage. I was drawn to it by it’s beautifully-made all-metal Exacta removable / interchangeable lens. It was the only lens I had for it, but it occured to me as I watched how the focus mechanism moved the lens farther from the film to focus closer that if I could move it ever farther from the film, I could focus even closer.

Using my fingertips to hold the lens on the camera with a piece of cardboard toilet paper core between them required some patience.
Using my fingertips to hold the lens on the camera with a piece of cardboard toilet paper core between them required some patience.

In the world of photographic equipment, this is done with a device called an extension tube, which mounts between the camera and the lens. I didn’t have one, and I was 15, so the only money I had was a few bucks from mowing a few lawns, and my allowance. So I decided to put the cardboard core from a used-up toilet paper roll between the camera and the lens. It worked!

This spring of wheat grass grew in the pasture behind our house in Lawton when I lived there in the 1970s.
This spring of wheat grass grew in the pasture behind our house in Lawton when I lived there in the 1970s.

Most lenses aren’t designed to focus close, and neither was the 1960s-era Exacta. The images I got have a dream-like softness about them, and are loaded with vignetting, which is darkening of the edges of the frame. The vignetting was so dominant that my mother called the images “vignettes.”

Experimenting with the creative aspects of photography goes so far beyond camera and lens reviews and specifications. Sometimes I can get better, more interesting, more compelling images with a broken camera, a toy camera, or an ancient camera.

This tiny statue made of corn husks is a representation of my mother and her sister singing together, which was their favorite thing to do.
This tiny statue made of corn husks is a representation of my mother and her sister singing together, which was their favorite thing to do.

Reflecting on Mirrorless

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My new/used Fujifilm X-T10 sits in my home studio this week.
My new/used Fujifilm X-T10 sits in my home studio this week.
The Fujifilm has an articulating screen on the back for low and high angle shooting. Most of my shooting will be using the electronic viewfinder, which was a must-have when I was shopping for mirrorless.
The Fujifilm has an articulating screen on the back for low and high angle shooting. Most of my shooting will be using the electronic viewfinder, which was a must-have when I was shopping for mirrorless.

Mirrorless digital cameras have matured nicely alongside the rest of digital imaging, and are, today, at the top of the game. There are plenty of great mirrorless camera systems in the photography world today. Sony was one of the first leaders in the field, but the industry has caught up in recent years, and Fujifilm, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and others all have competitive models.

So what exactly is “mirrorless?” For decades the most popular cameras in the industry, both film and digital, were single lens reflex cameras, or SLRs. These cameras use a mirror to reflect light entering the lens into a viewfinder on top of the camera. Mirrorless cameras do away with the mechanically complex system of mirrors and pentaprisms by shining light from the lens directly on the imaging sensor, then showing it to the photographer using a display on the back of the camera or in an electronic viewfinder.

A digital single lens reflex camera and a single lens reflex film camera with their lenses removed how the mirror used to reflect light into the viewfinder.
A digital single lens reflex camera and a single lens reflex film camera with their lenses removed how the mirror used to reflect light into the viewfinder.

Mirrorless matured hand-in-hand with smartphone technology. The same way a phone gives you a live view on-screen, the mirrorless camera does as well. 10 or 15 years ago, this process was too slow for action photography, as the camera took time to process and display the image, causing a lag between the action on front of the camera and what the photographer saw.

The biggest advantage of mirrorless is size and weight. Mirrorless cameras are small and light.

I hesitated to buy mirrorless because I already have a lot of really great cameras, but for my birthday recently, my wife encouraged me to find something I would like in the field. I hunted for a bargain, since I love bargains, and I mostly looked at finding a kindly-used Fuji. One of my first cameras was a Fuji, and my wife and I have matching Fuji travel/all-in-one cameras, and I love their style.

The 2015 Fujifilm X-T10 sits next to the 1978 Fujica ST-605n.
The 2015 Fujifilm X-T10 sits next to the 1978 Fujica ST-605n.
The X-T10 has a pop-up flash, but with the exception of fill flash in broad daylight, this feature produces very poor light.
The X-T10 has a pop-up flash, but with the exception of fill flash in broad daylight, this feature produces very poor light.

I’ve said this many times, but it bears repeating: buying cameras used is the way to go, at least for me. You get powerful, expensive technology for a fraction of the original price because someone decided to “upgrade,” which is industry code language for trying to buy better photography by spending money on hardware.

The camera I found and bought is the Fujifilm X-T10 of 2015 vintage. In 2015, it was at the top of photographic technology, and the introduction of newer cameras since then has no effect on what this camera can do.

The controls on many Fuji mirrorless cameras are throwbacks to the manual-everything days, and are immaculately made and fitted.
The controls on many Fuji mirrorless cameras are throwbacks to the manual-everything days, and are immaculately made and fitted.
Simple converters with no mechanical or electronic connections in them are very cheap, and let me use all manner of lenses on this Fuji mirrorless.
Simple converters with no mechanical or electronic connections in them are very cheap, and let me use all manner of lenses on this Fuji mirrorless.

I didn’t buy any lenses with this camera, because part of the allure of mirrorless is, for me anyway, the fact that with an adaptor, you can put just about any lens on your mirrorless camera. This is possible because the imaging sensor in mirrorless cameras is right behind the lens, not buried behind the mirror box and mechanical shutter of older cameras.

This is my very first image with the Fujifilm X-T10, of a pillbox shaped like a camera my wife gave me years ago. I shot it with the Fujinon 55mm f/2.2 lens wide open, and it is surprisingly sharp.
This is my very first image with the Fujifilm X-T10, of a pillbox shaped like a camera my wife gave me years ago. I shot it with the Fujinon 55mm f/2.2 lens wide open, and it is surprisingly sharp.

The only thing I actively dislike about mirrorless cameras are the name. “Mirrorless” is a lazy, techno-pop-culture fallback name. Saying that a class of cameras is “mirrorless” is like saying most cars are “diesel-less,” which is true, but a lame way of naming them.

I have already made some impressive images with this amazing machine, and hope to keep making more as I explore its potential.

Putting my very first SLR lens, a Fujinon 55mm screw-mount, on my new/used X-T10 is a very satisfying tribute to my photographic history.
Putting my very first SLR lens, a Fujinon 55mm screw-mount, on my new/used X-T10 is a very satisfying tribute to my photographic history.

Olympus Has Fallen

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This is also my “Picture This” column for June 27, 2020

A thunderstorm looms over our Nissan Frontier at a turnout on Interstate 40 in New Mexico in 2016. I shot this with my Olympus FE-5020 because it was in my shirt pocket.
A thunderstorm looms over our Nissan Frontier at a turnout on Interstate 40 in New Mexico in 2016. I shot this with my Olympus FE-5020 because it was in my shirt pocket.

Nobody likes cameras better than I do. I like old ones and new ones. I like film cameras and digital cameras. I like cameras of all sorts and brand names.

I wanted a picture of myself in Zebra Slot Canyon at Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument in April 2015, so I handed my Olympus FE-5020 to a fellow hiker.
I wanted a picture of myself in Zebra Slot Canyon at Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument in April 2015, so I handed my Olympus FE-5020 to a fellow hiker.

So no one was sorrier than I was when I learned this week that Olympus is getting out of the camera business.

Olympus, a Japanese camera maker founded in 1939, made a huge name for themselves by making cameras that were very compact. For years, because of this, my wife Abby and I owned and used several Olympus point-and-shoot cameras, and made some great images with them.

Sadly, for the last three years Olympus hasn’t been able to make their camera division profitable. This is despite their impressive Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras and excellent Zuiko lenses. One Olympus camera I have coveted since the day it was introduced is the TG-Tracker, a super-compact point-of-view/action cam that was not only tiny, it was incredibly great-looking. I never needed one, but I recommended it to several people who hoped to buy an action cam.

Photographer Jim Beckel and I photographed a sunrise at Canyonland National Park, Utah, in the spring of 2013. This image was made with my tiny Olympus FE-5020.
Photographer Jim Beckel and I photographed a sunrise at Canyonland National Park, Utah, in the spring of 2013. This image was made with my tiny Olympus FE-5020.
I still have this point-and-shoot camera, the excellent Olympus FE-5020.
I still have this point-and-shoot camera, the excellent Olympus FE-5020.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to sell cameras in a camera-in-smartphone world. My wife and I are examples of why: our current smartphones rival the images we got from our Olympus point-and-shoot cameras from years ago, so we are seldom motivated to bring a point-and-shoot along.

The photography press says that Olympus is selling their camera division to Japan Industrial Partners, but time will tell if their firm will continue to make cameras, or simply liquidate all the assets. It may be true: Olympus has fallen.

Abby and I handed my Olympus FE-5020 to a fellow hiker to make this picture of us at Canyonlands National Park in October 2010.
Abby and I handed my Olympus FE-5020 to a fellow hiker to make this picture of us at Canyonlands National Park in October 2010.

That Little Dance Called Creativity

/ Richard R. Barron / 1 Comment

The weather and the light has been beautiful the past few days, so I took another crack at the neighbor’s irises. The light on these flowers filters through some trees, so it flashes in and out with the wind and the movement of the sun. The wind also blows the flowers around, so the whole thing is an exercise in patience. Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro.

Irises only stay in bloom for a short time in April and early May, so, like my peach blossom six weeks earlier, I made sure to photograph these several times.
Irises only stay in bloom for a short time in April and early May, so, like my peach blossom six weeks earlier, I made sure to photograph these several times.
When irises finish blooming, this is the result.
When irises finish blooming, this is the result.
You can see the momentary splash of sunlight through the trees in this image.
You can see the momentary splash of sunlight through the trees in this image.
While I was photographing flowers, I came across these kid's bikes being taken back by the weeds.
While I was photographing flowers, I came across these kid’s bikes being taken back by the weeds.

I also wanted to try to make pictures with a photographer friend of mine using a couple of ancient process camera lenses, but ended up making some fairly creative images of them instead of with them. Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro.

Using a tripod in a darkened room, I lighted this with an LED flashlight. 8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.
Using a tripod in a darkened room, I lighted this with an LED flashlight. 8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.
The LED flashlight I used to light this has a red setting, which I used in combination with the white LEDs for this image. 8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.
The LED flashlight I used to light this has a red setting, which I used in combination with the white LEDs for this image. 8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.
The third attempt at photographing this beautiful process lens, which is older than I am, was made with the LED flashlight again, with a different set of movements while the shutter was open. 8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.
The third attempt at photographing this beautiful process lens, which is older than I am, was made with the LED flashlight again, with a different set of movements while the shutter was open. 8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.

Irises at f/2.0

/ Richard R. Barron / Leave a comment

Irises are my favorite flower. Our neighbors to the west have them in their yard, which were originally planted by Dorothy, my wife Abby’s first mother-in-law when she lived there.

The 85mm is my favorite lens. I made these images this evening.

This two-tone purple is one of my favorite irises. 85mm f/1.4 at f/2.0.
This two-tone purple is one of my favorite irises. 85mm f/1.4 at f/2.0.
This is another variety of two-tone purple iris, which was situated in more direct sun. 85mm f/1.4 at f/2.0.
This is another variety of two-tone purple iris, which was situated in more direct sun. 85mm f/1.4 at f/2.0.

The Yard Session

/ Richard R. Barron / 2 Comments
Years after the Nikon D100 digital camera has been retired from my workflow, it's easy to talk about its shortcomings. Despite those, the D100 actually was able to create beautiful images.
Years after the Nikon D100 digital camera has been retired from my workflow, it’s easy to talk about its shortcomings. Despite those, the D100 actually was able to create beautiful images.

My wife Abby and I have made many great photographs of each other over the years, both at our home in the bucolic splendor of Southern Oklahoma, and on our dozens of road trips over the years.

I bought the Nikon Coolpix 885 in the summer of 2002 as a small alternative to the Nikons I was using professionally at the time. By the time Abby and I had been dating a few months, she had made it her own.
I bought the Nikon Coolpix 885 in the summer of 2002 as a small alternative to the Nikons I was using professionally at the time. By the time Abby and I had been dating a few months, she had made it her own.

One session that stands out among them, and always makes me smile to view and remember, is “The Yard Session.” We shot these images on February 26, 2004 (thanks, EXIF data!) It was a warm late afternoon in our friend Michael‘s front yard in Norman, Oklahoma. The light was beautiful, and I’d asked Michael to photograph us with his Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro. His images are great, but the ones that stand out and bring us the fondest reminiscences are the ones we made of each other.

Abby photographed me with our Nikon Coolpix 885, and I photographed her with my Nikon D100 with the manual-focus 85mm f/2.0 lens. Because the D100 lacked an aperture indexing ring, it couldn’t talk to manual-focus lenses, so exposure was based entirely using histogram on the monitor on the back of the camera.

Images like this happen organically, often without  planning or effort, and the result is a very natural, telling, intimate photography session.

Looking back on that moment more than 16 years ago, we were young and in love, engaged to be married, and so very happy. I hope these images show that.

The Walk

/ Richard R. Barron / 2 Comments
A branch of immature cherry blossoms reaches for a cloudy sky yesterday. AF Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 at f/8.
A branch of immature cherry blossoms reaches for a cloudy sky yesterday. AF Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 at f/8.
Hawken Rifle Trail on the trail today. AF Nikkor 75-300mm f/4-5.6 at f/7.1.
Hawken Rifle Trail on the trail today. AF Nikkor 75-300mm f/4-5.6 at f/7.1.

Come rain or come shine, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, quarantined or not, I walk our Irish Wolfhound Hawken and our Chihuahua Summer. Of course, in the current climate of pandemic crisis, walking our dogs in the pastures and the woods away from everyone else is one of the best things I can do. And of course, I always have a camera.

This tiny peach still has pedals on it from its blossom. AF Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 at f/8.
This tiny peach still has pedals on it from its blossom. AF Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 at f/8.

My Screen Saver Is Making Me Yearn

/ Richard R. Barron / 2 Comments
Rebecca Thrailkill, Jayden Janda, and Maria Ruiz-Blanco look at a finished butterfly craft during the Ada Art's Council's Cozy Up with the Arts Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020 at Wintersmith Lodge.
Rebecca Thrailkill, Jayden Janda, and Maria Ruiz-Blanco look at a finished butterfly craft during the Ada Art’s Council’s Cozy Up with the Arts Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020 at Wintersmith Lodge.

On my work laptop, I use recent images from my news, sports, and feature photos as my screen saver.

My Screen Needs to Be Saved?
For you 21st century people who have no idea what a screen saver is, basically it is part of the operating system of a desktop or a laptop computer that activates when the computer is unused, dimming the screen, showing the time and date, making patterns, or, in this case, showing me a slide show of all the photos in my screen saver folder.

The images scroll past, showing years of events I’ve covered, some of it grim, some of it boring, but most of it was absolutely rippingly fun to cover. I hope I never took those events for granted, and I hope we can return to them one day soon.

Latta Homecoming King Rylan Schlup and Queen Cheyenne Adair share a laugh during their crowning at Latta School's 100th anniversary celebration Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 at Latta Panther Fieldhouse.
Latta Homecoming King Rylan Schlup and Queen Cheyenne Adair share a laugh during their crowning at Latta School’s 100th anniversary celebration Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 at Latta Panther Fieldhouse.

In the middle of this, it occurred to me that one of my very favorite things to cover , graduations, won’t be happening at all this spring because of the coronavirus crisis. Nor will proms, spring festivals, sports playoffs, water seminars, pancake frys, quilt shows, wagon rides, land run reenactments, groundbreakings, dedications, food festivals, car shows, arts festivals, parades. Life has ground to a halt.

Ada head basketball coach Christie Jennings and her team cheer as their Lady Cougars fight for a chance to stay alive in regional playoffs last month.
Ada head basketball coach Christie Jennings and her team cheer as their Lady Cougars fight for a chance to stay alive in regional playoffs last month.

Neither my wife nor I, nor anyone close to us, is sick, and I am grateful for that, for every day, for every breath.

I just posted a few images here, but there are literally thousands in my files that have stories to tell. I want to keep telling these stories.

A fortunate combination of building layouts, graduation plans, and time of day result in my finding this spot for Ada High School graduations in the last few years. This is last year, 2019, and it was such a beautiful day, a day we won't get to share this year.
A fortunate combination of building layouts, graduation plans, and time of day result in my finding this spot for Ada High School graduations in the last few years. This is last year, 2019, and it was such a beautiful day, a day we won’t get to share this year.