CosteaM

<p>Federico, I think what they mean by "soup" is whether you can tell us if you developed the BW yourself or sent the negs to a lab. If you developed yourself, what developer did you use. thanks</p>

<p>Awesome! Great exposure control and beautiful tones out of the PanF. Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>John,<br>

first of all that is a beautiful camera. love your experiments and I think that looking at the window picture it is hard to tell the difference btw film and paper exposure. great way of having fun on a budget. thanks for sharing</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Yes. No cheaper model. Mihai: Sometimes I use a dslr hand held but resting on something and just point at my face. Sometimes I use a large format camera with a long cable release.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Bruce, I fully agree and want to try same. You need to tell me how you do it with a large or medium format camera.<br>

Mark, that is hilarious.</p>

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<p>Is selft-portrait photography a part of your portfoilio?</blockquote><br>

No, it is not. I'm still fighting with the little guy in my head who prevents me from taking portraits. Never thought of taking my own portrait, it will take me a while just to learn how to do it right (do you use a mirror, how do you frame, how do you measure light on your own face...). Don't tell me to use a P&S at arm's length, you know better... Only good portraits I was able to make were of my wife and daughter.</p>

<p>OMG Louis, what a beautiful and so meaningful series of portraits. You made my day. thank you</p>

<p>Great work SG, thanks for sharing. The Pinus picture is definitely worth framing.</p>

<p>Steve, forgot to mention I love Pic #3. Great detail, comnposition and tones.</p>

<p>There are places that stimulate my creativity more than others. I revisit a place that I like looking for different angles or simply for seasonal changes that may trigger a new approach. I combine my outings with indoor sessions (still life or macros). It is amazing how many interesting things you can find close to home, even in your backyard as one said. Most ordinary things have some nice aspect to them some even beautiful. By training your eyes to identify these little gems it can go a long way in your photography.</p>

<p>Beauitiful images, John. Very sharp, nice out-of-focus pattern (bokeh) and great range of tones. What lens do you have on this camera, the Xenar?</p>

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<p>Yes. You know all of those photos where the guy sets up the camera on self timer and doesn't get back in the picture in time? Self-portrait candid.</p>

<p>John, define candid. What you describe is you posing.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If someone else took the photo of one, then yes. ;)<br>

that would a candid portrait not a candid photo of themself (self portrait).<br>

Can a photo a person takes of themself ever be considered "candid?"<br>

yes, if you fell asleep while posing... :-)</p>

<p>Beautiful shots, John. An 8x10 is on my wish list but I have to go through 4x5 first and I'm nowhere close.</p>

<p >You know sometimes when you go out shooting without a plan and you let your gut feeling tell you where to go; These can turn out to be more productive and interesting than most of the planned outages that I’ve done.</p>

<p >It happened to me quite few times and I learned to listen to the little voice in my head. Last Sun my wife went to the hair saloon so I knew I will have at least couple of hours for myself. As I said no plan what so ever, just driving towards downtown (in my little community that is the Main Street, perhaps 1 km long). On the side a big parking lot where they have a Farmers Market every week-end. As I walk towards the Market I notice this old man (I say in his late 70’s early 80’s) with an old RF hanging around his neck. Could not tell what camera it was from the distance so I walked in his path and complimented him with the usual “nice camera”. He smiles and replies something like “the best” so as I get closer I reckon a beautiful Leica M3. In a way it was funny that he used a metal chain as camera strap so I thought what a nice portrait this would make as he was standing there with his white hair glowing in the morning sun.</p>

<p >We start talking and I learn he lives close by in a retirement home; he keeps himself busy indexing thousands of photographs taken throughout many years of photography as a hobby. He invited me to see his pictures. I ask him to let me take his portrait which he accepted so I pull out my Nikon F3 and shoot one frame. I had a bad feeling about the picture but could not tell immediately what it was. We split, I get his address, give him my phone number and promise to visit next week-end to give him a print. I go home straight into my darkroom and load the changing tent with the camera, scissors and the developing tank. My intent was to open the back cut the film and develop the part with the old man portrait right away. What followed was a photographic disaster: as I opened the back I felt the leader of the film floating freely in other words I loaded the film cassette in the camera without testing as I usually do so I wasted about 20 opportunities including my portrait. </p>

<p >Sure it happens, no big deal I didn’t have anything special on that film aside from the portrait which I will re-do (in theory it should not be a problem) but I really felt like an idiot. I will leave you with this story that I had to take off my chest and promise to follow up soon with the portrait. One thing is sure, owning and trying to operate so many different cameras calls for trouble, the photographic sort of trouble. </p>

<p>If he sells this not-so-special lens for over $800 he will damn sure hit the jackpot.<br>

At least he is honest.</p>

<p>Geart job Stuart, love the tree girl.</p>

<p>Damn, Steve what a find!!! a CLA will probabli fix the blanks otherwise you got yourself a great performer. Love your takes.</p>

<p>throughout my learning process I moved from sunny 16 to always use my hand held spotmeter. Both work for me but I feel more in control using the hand held meter specially for close up and low light situations. So the answer is 100% of the time.</p>

<p>Not clear who is the photographer or is this a self portrait.</p>

<p>What a delight learning about a new to me classic camera and looking at your awesome pictures. The first portrait is just perfect; you can frame it. Thanks for sharing your work, Louis.</p>

<p>very well done, great tones as result of spot on exposure and developing. as some one said you did't lost your touch. welcome back</p>

<p>Chris, Dick these are my feelings too. I coulnd't have said it better.</p>

<p>I went through the same problem with my Yashica D and only a good CLA fixed that. Mark Hamma is a reputable Yashica technician if you decide to go for CLA (<a href="http://markhama.home.comcast.net/~markhama/index.html">http://markhama.home.comcast.net/~markhama/index.html</a>). This camera is a great performer that is worth the money to keep it going.</p>

<p>Pentax Spotmatic was the first camera in my collection. My love relationship with Pentax goes back to 1986 when I bought the ME-Super which mesmerized me. I had to sell it but 20 years later when I returned to photography I got myself the Spotmatic Sp with the 50/ 1.4, 24/ 3.5 and 135/ 2.8. What a powerful kit. I also posted few times if you check the archives. Enjoy your Spotty. </p>

<p>Great shots, David. Your exposure is spot on, your highlights have beautiful details. Nice compositions too. Enjoy your Rollei. Planar and Plus-X - deadly combination - :-)</p>