david_wharton

I just got back from 4 weeks in Thailand and made thousands of exposures with the CP8400, which is pretty similar in terms of handling to the 8800. I'm very pleased with the results. I was shooting TIFFS so had to learn to take the slow writing speeds into account. Several times I saw a better image come along while I was waiting for the previous one to write. Sometimes I even trashed the one that was writing in hopes of getting the one I saw coming. JPEGs write and recycle a lot faster, and they don't take up as much disc space. I shot TIFFs anyway. A couple of other observations you may or may not find helpful: have lots of batteries with you and recharge them every night. I brought 4 and on a couple of occasions wished I had another. I also had 4 1-megabyte cards and several times wished I had more. I wsa getting 42 full-size TIFFs to a card. Allow yourself time to edit and download every night. I didn't want to lug a laptop around, so I took a Nikon Coolwalker with me to store images. It has a 30G hard drive, but even so, by the end of the trip I was having to trash images from earlier in the trip to accomodate later ones I thought better. Maybe the "extra fine" JPEGs would have been a better way to go. Hope that helps - enjoy your trip.

Does anyone have any specific suggestions for where to purchase 35mm

black-and-white film (preferably TMax 400) in Bangkok. I'll only be

there for a day before traveling north so won't have a lot of time to

look.

Hmmm...let's try that again.<div></div>

seen on Bourbon Street...

I recently inherited an M4 from my wife's uncle (#1271xxx). It's

pretty beat up but probably hasn't been used in 10 years or more. I

put a roll of film through it, and the fast shutter speeds seem

okay. The slow speeds (1/30 & slower) are very erratic, though. Any

recommendations for where (in the US) to send it to for adjustment?

How much should I expect to pay? Thanks.

Pot Luck Supper, McDade, Texas<div></div>

I agree with Preston (and with much of what Andrew says) about this. Documentary photography requires a commitment of time and energy that street photography does not. Documentary photography is a deeper, broader undertaking that no single image, or mere handful of images, can succeed at. It's the investment of time, energy, and perhaps (probably) photographic failure early on in a project, that eventually allow one to succeed. I made the attached image after more than a year's involvement with a pair of Primitive Baptist churches in Mississippi. Although I was no more talented a photographer when I made it than I was at the start of the project, I could not have made this image at the start, because I hadn't yet developed the familiarity that allowed me to be there or learned, as part of the process, the right way to act while there. The notion of documentary photography as process is essential, I think.<div></div>

One more time...<div></div>

Mother, daughter, and cat.<div></div>

Fresh corn.<div></div>

Hmmm...let's try that again...<div></div>

I like this free-form, associative way of posting images.<div></div>

I've been using Fujica 6x9s since about 1985, before I had Leicas. They're a bit clunky, but the lenses are sharp, and they're they're a breeze to use (as long as you're OK with using an external, or no, meter). Not very useful in low light, though. I still use them for landscapes and portraits, and continue to be delighted with the results. (The images I don't like aren't camera's fault!)

Now I'm scared witless. I've just recently (within the past couple of weeks) put my SF-20 away in favor of my old Vivitar 285 (on M6 TTL), because of the extra power and bounce capability, and I like the results a lot better. Now I read that I may have damaged the M6's electronics. I too had looked over the SF-20 manual pretty thoroughly and didn't see any warnings about such damage. What I want to know is, is there anybody out there who's experienced such damage? And, more specifically, what are the effects of the damage? I haven't used the SF-20 since going back to the Vivitar, so don't know if it's failing to synch, or give proper exposures, or whatever. Please advise

<div></div>

The woman doesn't look very happy about being photographed. Is that the case? Does it matter?

Oh yes, the King is alive and well in Memphis -- at least around the middle of August every year.

I took this at Graceland during Memphis' "Elvis Week," held annually

in August. Since 2002 marked the 25th anniversary of Elvis' death,

it was an especially large event.

 

Any and all comments on the photo are welcome.<div></div>

I've been shooting Tri-X 120 for a long time. About a year ago, I noticed that an occasional roll would come out of the camera with the adhesive tape caught underneath the paper, making it so I can't secure the roll tightly. In the last month or so, though, almost every roll is doing this. I've taken to carry rubber bands with me, which works OK, but it's pretty awkward at times. Anyone else having this problem? Anybody got any ideas? (This is happening with three different cameras--all Fujica 6x9s, one of them brand new--so I don't think the problem is mechanical.) Any and all suggestions welcome.

 

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David Wharton