The Humans Are Dead

As discussed in the previous post, an important part of shooting TtV is building a usable contraption. The crucial purpose is simply to block the light (and thus any unwanted glare or reflections) when shooting between top and bottom cameras. There are many fine box or tube style contraptions out there for connecting to unmodified bottom cameras. To put one together you just have to find some kind of tube like material of approximately the right diameter to work with. I scrounged around for a while and came up with the idea to use cardboard postal shipping tubes. After trying out various ways for cutting and notching the tube to fit over my bottom camera I opted to go a completely different route (influenced by what people were doing over at the sPiNoFF! Group). Instead of keeping the bottom camera intact, I decided to remove the glass elements completely from the bottom camera, in this case a Kodak Duaflex IV and build a homebrew cannon style “lens” to hold them.

The idea was to get two different size postal tubes that would fit inside of each other, a 2 1/2″ and a 3″ diameter tube would do the trick. Then cut holes to mount the glass elements from the Duaflex in the plastic end caps that fit the tubes, so I could switch glass as easy as popping in a new end cap. The back element (bubble) pops into an end of the 2 1/2″ tube, the other end of this tube jams snugly into the lens hood that fits the pentax kit lens. Then the front element (objective lens) mounts into the 3″ tube, which slides over the 2 1/2″ tube. There would be a consistent 1/8″ gap between the tubes which I figured I would fill by wrapping black felt around the end of the inner tube to block light and tighten up the telescoping action.

But before we can get to all that, we have to dig the glass out of the Duaflex

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I was clicking around Flicker shortly after I join when I stumbled on the amazing photos of a member known as Dabadoo. The technique used to create these photos is referred to as TtV (Through the Viewfinder) and it turns out there are quite a few people trying out out. The idea is pretty simple. You point an old TLR camera at your subject and then take a shot of it’s viewfinder with your digital. The result will pick up all the scratches and specks on the viewfinder to instantly give the shot a funky aged look.

So yesterday while I was out and about I stopped in at a antique shop to see if I could find a TLR camera to put to use turning out my own TtV photos. I found two!

The first is an Argus 75, and it set me back a whole $2.

The second is a Kodak Duaflex IV. The Duaflex line seems to be a popular choice for shooting TtV, though the Dauflex II is more the preferred model because it lacks a popup shader to get in the way of things. The Duaflex IV set me back $7… yet one more example of how the middle class is being squeezed these day!

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Alicia at the General Motors blogs contacted me yesterday to ask if they could feature my Ice Age Cadillac as their photo of the day. Everyday the GM FYI blog features a photo of the day selected from GM related photos posted to Flickr.

I thought I had better try to get a few more photos added to my set to give anyone coming from the GM blogs something related to look at. So I added a couple older photos taken with the *istDL when I first got it this summer.

So, a big thanks to the GM folks for selecting the photo and for producing the many fine Cadillacs I’ve had the fortune to cruse around in.

I go through a phase where my thoughts converge on painting. It builds up for a while and I eventually start to work. That was happening a few weeks ago… then I got a new camera. So the older paints hang around and wait.

I’ve always had problems trying to photograph my paintings. The colors tend to be super saturated and the surface shines like glass. I dread the day I have a need for slides of these works. So last night I just took photos of them like they any other object.

The moon was up before the sun was down and the sky was full of subtle gradients at dusk today.

re-shoot of some previous night photos of the backyard. Ice in the trees and street lighting made for some amazing colors, and the new K10D captured it all beautifully.

Yesterday the UPS man delivered my early Christmas present to myself, a spanking new Pentax K10D.The decision to upgrade my Pentax *istDL to the new “semi-pro” (whatever that means exactly) K10D resulted from consideration of my normal subject matter, night photography and exploration shoots. For night photography, I’m looking for the benefit of the lower noise of a 100 ISO setting. For exploration, there is the possibility that the Shake Reduction feature may allow me to hand hold more shots in the generally poor lit abandoned spaces, hopefully making me more mobile. I would also assume that the weather proofing of the K10D might be helpful in dusty or damp situations.

The size and comfort of the *istDL was a big part of my decision to buy that camera. For comparison, the K10D is just a bit bigger than the *istDL, but it’s still not as bulky as the Cannon and Nikons I handled.

The only trade off I found so far (I mean besides the $600 some dollar price difference that is) in moving to the K10D from the *istDL is the loss of faster ISO speeds. The K10D ranges from 100 ISO to 1600 ISO. The *istDL, 200 ISO to 3200 ISO. But for what I usually shoot, I’ll trade the high end for a little more low end. I’ve also heard the noise pattern on the K10D is more pleasant. I’ll test that out later on some night shots.

The K10D has eleven selectable focus points to the *istDL’s single center focus. The K10D also sports PRImE (Pentax Real Image Engine) which makes noticeable difference in image quality and color.

So how about some sample picks with the new camera. We just suffered through a massive ice and snow storm so I can’t go snap pics of the same flowers I shot with the old camera. Instead, I’ve got some shots from the backyard on ice!

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I made a brief scouting patrol around town last night and ended up outside of the vacant Pillsbury Mill. This massive facility has been sitting unused for quite a few years. Earlier this year there was some talk from the city about coming up with something to do with the place but I don’t think anything ever came of it. The building has been a fixture of the Northside of town for a long time (all of my life and then some) so hopefully they wont decide to do anything rash like tear it down. I would love to see the inside of the facility, but I need to find somebody with the connections to get me in for a photo shoot.

And I’ll throw in a bonus photo. This one was also taken last night but at a different location.