Holiday colors

<p>I've always enjoyed night photography. I took advantage of a couple of local area holiday features in the past couple of weeks to break out an A-1, a few fast lenses, the monopod and tripod. I took along the 24mm, 50mm and 85mm L lenses to aid focusing. All exposures were automatic using the A-1's centerweighted averaging meter, using up to -1 stop exposure compensation to accommodate the large expanses of darkness. All were shot wide open or nearly so, so depth of field is minimal. Low shutter speeds were a challenge even with the monopod.</p>

<p>The film is Fujichrome Velvia 100. I actually <em>desaturated</em> the scans a bit. I did not correct for the sodium or incandescent lighting.</p>

<p>So here I offer you a series of holiday color from a local parade and the downtown decorations of a neighboring small town. As many of us prepare to feast in celebration of the holiday, feast your eyes on some festive color, courtesy of our (outmoded, obsolete, low-tech, vintage) FD gear. (I left the EOS 3 and the EF zoom at home.)</p>

<p>Best wishes to everyone in the forum!</p><div></div>

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<p>Wow, very nice!! I liked the theater shot the best.</p>

<p>~Jack</p>

<p>Nice shots Alan. You do pretty good work with that ancient junk!<br /> Looks like any number of Main Streets here in Oklahoma.<br /> Best wishes to you too, Heinrich.</p>

<p>Oh my, what a delight. Great work!</p>

<p>Sensational !!!</p>

 

<p>COOL!</p>

<p>Lovely shots. Something very eerie about the theater shot--could be a still from a David Lynch film!<br>

Happy holidays to all!</p>

<p>Very nice. Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>Very nice, Alan. I've been thinking about doing some low-light or night shooting with my FD gear and this has encouraged me even more to do so. These are very cool shots, every one of them. Thanks for sharing and for the motivation!</p>

<p>Nice work, I like the two last pictures....</p>

<p>Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. And thanks in return for the motivation you guys offer me. Getting older and "tireder," with parent care always on the agenda, I just don't get out much to shoot. I'm glad to see the forum engage in more shooting to go with all the bench racing, though I love to discuss diaphragm blades.</p>

<p>A little off topic, but shooting this roll in a way reconfirmed my appreciation of the FD gear. I've never "gone digital," and I bought my first EOS camera only a few weeks ago because my eyes are so poor. I got the first film back a few days ago, a roll just horsing around with the dogs. Even with AI Servo autofocus, I didn't really get very many acceptable shots. Even more surprising was the overexposure when a black dog, maybe 25% of the frame, met evaluative metering. I could have done just as well in that situation with centerweighted averaging, far better with a handheld incident meter. So it was gratifying to concurrently get better results with FD. I don't think we owe anyone any justification for our gear.</p>

<p>I sort of like the theater the best myself. Robert, I agree about the eerie nature. It seemed that way when we were there. We parked a few blocks away, next to a little hamburger place where a handful of people were eating. Oh my, I've never smelled anything more appetizing! They really stared at the tripod rig over my shoulder. But those people were the only people out, period. The streets were deserted. The theater is the last thing at the end of the renovated, lighted district, and old theaters seem to have an inherent eerieness anyway.</p>

<p>My alma mater had a very old pipe organ beneath the stage in the main auditorium. In those days, one could go in there at night to practice. It was downright creepy to go into the orchestra pit and sit at the console, with the hall utterly dark except for the console lights, and the organ chamber under the stage just blacker than black. I think that has influenced my image of theaters for life.</p>

<p>I'm surprised - and visually pleased - that you took an armful of expensive and hard to replace primes out to a parade, at night! It's not easy trading lenses off of a body at an event while on the go, much less in the dark.<br>

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<p>My daughter and I took my pickup to the parade site right after school, so we got a good parking spot and I could work out of the back of the truck. For the main street walk, I just kept them in the pockets of my parka, and I had the tripod, so it wasn't bad. Amid all the mount debates, I prefer my FDN lenses for ease of mounting. The raised red dot helps in the dark.</p>

<p>I did make one lens change holding two L lenses in my left hand wile swapping the rear cap. Extra prayers went into that one!</p>