This would have been on it…

Haruomi Hosono – Sportsmen

Get It Right The First Time – Billy Joel

Eric Clapton – It’s In The Way That You Use It

One from my shoebox…..The Central Park Roller Disco in 1989, New York City.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 50mm f1.8, Kodachrome 64.

My son agonises over having his portrait taken and often makes a face when a camera is pointed at him.. maybe he’ll become a photographer one day..

Loaded with my 5Dmk2 a couple of lenses and the Olympus OM-1 film camera (with my ‘new’ 50mm 1.4 lens) , my family headed out for some portraits at the Botanic Park and the city over the weekend…

I found exposures harder to handle while in the gardens, and more often than not ‘spot metered’ for the grass in the shadows to try and get faces properly exposed. (that is I pointed my camera at the ground and adjusted the shutter speed and/or aperture to get correct exposure) The weather was fantastic with decent cloud cover and guest appearances by the sun.. all good for film.. and some high speed sync for the digital (Thanks pocketwizards!!)

The city was great to shoot film in.. I’m so going to make a day trip soon and do some street photography! People are so more inclined to have their photos taken when they see an old film camera than my hulking big 5Dmk2 with grip and 70-200 2.8L IS II.. (love that lens!)

Hats and shadows are a little more complicated, but worth the challenge.. Thanks balloon guy!

The camera seems to work really well in all sorts of lighting situations and I am very impressed with Ilford XP2 black and white film.. very contrasty and allows for some pin sharp detail, not that I am particularly stressed with some slightly soft images.. film is teaching me to enjoy the moments again.. digital is awesome, but I find that I can get too caught up with it’s ease and über sharp images losing track of the reason I love taking portraits..

My last frame for the day was capturing a protest in the mall right where the top image was taken. My kids have never seen a protest before and were a little spooked by it all. The energy isn’t very positive and feels as though something real bad could erupt at any time.. still, a quick frame and we were on our way to the Barun for a well deserved coffee..

Seen this type of portrait before?

I realise that everyone who picks up a camera, will at some stage, have a photo of themselves holding their camera..

However this photo is different for a couple of reasons..

First of all, the photo was taken using this camera.. a fully mechanical Olympus OM-1 35mm film camera.. Everything on it has to be done manually. Focusing, metering, winding of the film, choosing the aperture and shutter speed. A full retro experience.

The second thing that makes the photo unique is that it was taken by my seven year old daughter who manually did all of the above.

After a brief lesson on what to do and what to check, she took a photo of me as I was taking a photo of her.. 

..proud father!

(Post title “Proud Father” by Jonathon Roy)

Today’s Sermon.  Text: Psalm 133.

Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and teachers love it when the children they are looking after are getting on together. It makes life so much easier doesn’t it? When we see children sharing and caring, when they remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when they use their knife and fork rather than shoveling the food into their mouths with their hands (or something they have found in the garden), it makes us happy and realise that all the hard work in trying to bring them up was actually worth it. Of course the reality is that often children are selfish and rude and forget how to behave towards each other and to grown-ups and it can often be very difficult for those who have responsibility for them.

One of the greatest privileges for those who are parents is that the actual experience of bringing up children gives them a deep insight into the relationship we all have with our heavenly Father. When confronted with a stubborn child stamping their foot and shouting ‘NO’, we hopefully realise that we too have done this sort of thing with our heavenly Parent, God! We might not have actually stamped our foot and stuck out our bottom lip, but we have been just as defiant in wanting our way rather than the right way.

As we look at the church, we remember that we are all God’s children and as such we ought to admit that we are not particularly obedient children at that; we are always bickering about this that and the other thing (and that is even within our denomination, let alone between different Christian traditions). Every way that we can let our Heavenly Father down we have and every way we could have hindered Christ’s mission, we have. Have you ever been in the supermarket and seen and heard a child screaming at their poor mother of father? Perhaps the child is lying on the floor, clutching a bag of sweets they are not allowed to have and the red-faced parent is trying in vain to be in charge. In looking at so much of the debate and dissension in the church today, are we not just like that child in the supermarket? We shout out ‘I am right, my way is best’!  Worse still, we mock our brothers and sisters who disagree with us, if not face to face, then in hushed conversation with others in the church car park, or on the pages of the Gazette or on Facebook or Twitter. Sometimes it is just heartbreaking, that whether it be between members of our own church congregation, or between different churches or between clergy there always seems to be some issue that threatens to divide and break up any kind of fellowship that we have. What does God think of all this I wonder? Perhaps our Psalm for today, Psalm 133 will help us:

How very good and pleasant it is to dwell in unity.

When we walk into a house where everyone is at each other, arguing and fighting, we can sense the atmosphere almost immediately. On the other hand, when we walk into a house where the occupants are together and at peace with one another, what a difference it makes! Isn’t it lovely to walk into a peaceful and unified home, a genuine pleasure? The context of today’s Psalm could have originated in a number of different places – perhaps it refers to the relationship between Abram and Lot in Genesis chapter 13:8, where Abram said:

Let there be no strife between you and me … for we are kindred.

Perhaps this verse refers back to tensions between the tribes of Israel or perhaps even between the sons of King David, but I don’t suppose any of that matters to us too much because it is as wonderful today when people live together in unity as it always was.

The next couple of lines are interesting, we read:

It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, Even on Aaron’s beard, running down upon the collar of his clothing.

Interesting it might be, but what on earth is it saying? You may remember the character of Aaron, as Moses’ brother, Israel’s spokesman to Pharaoh and the first high priest in Israel’s history. When Aaron was made priest, special and expensive oil was used to anoint him (and all those after him too). The oil was consecrated, which means dedicated, devoted and set apart for God. A generous amount of oil was used, hence the fact that it ran down over his beard and the collar of his robes. So how then is living together in unity like this oil? The idea is that when God’s people are unified then it is a community of people that are genuinely set apart for Him and carrying out their calling in the world. Unity, like the sacred oil, is a precious thing.

When we as brothers and sisters are living in disunity then we are set apart from God, but when we are together then we are set apart for God.

I think that there are few things that give the devil more pleasure than infighting between God’s children; it is a gift to him and a gift that we should at all costs avoid giving to him! But when we are together, when (as it were) we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, all pulling in the same direction, all playing for the same team, then wow, look at what God can do!

Next in our Psalm we read:

It is like the dew of Hermon running down upon the hills of Zion. For there the Lord has promised his blessing: even life for evermore.

Mount Hermon is a high snow-capped mountain in the north of the land. Today the region is between Syria and Lebanon. We might not think too much of dew in our green and wet climate, but if you are a farmer in an arid climate then the morning dew is crucial for the survival of vegetation during the dry season. The dew ran down the sides of the mountain and gave life to the plants round about. This then is a picture of what unity does amongst God’s people, it brings life and blessing to the church, it brings growth and a harvest. Without the water from the mountain, the plants would wither and die; without unity the church withers and dies and there is no blessing, no harvest and no future.

It is very exciting to see God at work in this Parish; I could not even begin to list the many great things He has done, they are too many to mention here. Someone recently had the idea of writing a book of people’s stories and I think that would be an excellent idea. We must not be complacent though because the enemy is constantly trying to sow seeds of disunity amongst us.  We must fiercely and jealously guard our unity. We need to pray for each other and we need to look out for each other. When someone comes at you with some gossip, ‘Did you know, so-and-so did this, and they didn’t do that,’ remember this: gossip is not harmless fun, it is evil, it destroys. Every time we say an unkind word we destroy a little bit of that person’s character and the devil gets very excited about it.

Sadly I hear a lot of gossip and I have to tell you that I hate it. I have never seen any good come from gossip, it destroys friendships and trust and unity, it is an evil thing that has no place in the life of the church where we are to dwell together in unity. We have to learn to fight each others corner, to stand up for each other, we are family! If someone or something attacks one of us, then we are all attacked, if one of us is gossiped about then all of us are gossiped about – we are one body – does a body fight itself? No! All the parts of one body work together to fight off the common enemy, and that is how we as the body of Christ should be, fighting off all that comes against us with God’s strength, which is there for us when we live together in unity. God loves it when we get on together and He will continue to bless us so long as we are.

Let us pray … Amen.

Balloon

This photograph is taken with an Olympus OM1 at the opening of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark on July 2  (if my memory is correct or thereabout) 2000.  The picture is taken from the Swedish side from Lernacken and among the festivities was balloon riding. The bridge was opened on the 1st of July and this day it was open for people to walk on and another day was for a running contest, Broloppet. I used to let the photo shop scan my films and put them on a cd so I have lots of them as well as planning to scan older photos.

Vintage Weekly

Öresundsbron

This photograph is taken with an Olympus OM1 at the opening of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark on June 11 2000.  The picture is taken from the Swedish side from Lernacken. The bridge was opened on the 1st of July and prior to this day it was open for people to walk on and another day was for a running contest, Broloppet. I used to let the photo shop scan my films and put them on a cd so I have lots of them as well as planning to scan older photos.

Vintage Weekly

The first round of pictures were on St. Patty’s Day [a very sunny day] so with the b&w film some [with too much direct sunlight] are essentially all white or are a little grainy.  I kind of like them though…here are a batch starting near Piney Point lighthouse and ending on St. George’s Island:

I also took a few pictures around the historic ‘downtown’ of Leonardtown on Sunday.  It was an overcast morning so most turned out really clear.  The last pictures down by the water were a little blurry because of the haze:

True story, this is the church my parents were married in almost 25 years ago!!  That’s a long time to be married friends.  A very long time.  Good for them

Naturally, I also had to take a picture of Gracie, just because she’s so cute.  She decided to help us weed the garden by sitting down in the middle of it.  Such a great helper:

I really like the b&w look.  It makes the pictures [especially the slightly fuzzy ones] look vintage and 30 years older than they actually are.  I think my next roll of film is going to be strictly with the macro lens- I haven’t used it yet!  That’ll be interesting…hope you enjoyed the pictures

Statue of St. Patrick in Timoleague, Co. Cork

St. Patrick’s Day Sermon, 17/3/12
Text: John 4:31-38

Of course we don’t know a whole lot about St. Patrick and it can be hard to know sometimes where the facts end and the legend begins, but one thing we do know is that he was passionate about serving his Master. In Patrick we have a man of God and someone who was willing to give up everything in order to follow God’s call upon his life. For Patrick God was everything; he would have wholeheartedly agreed with the Psalmist when he wrote of God:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside you. (Psalm 73:25)

Wouldn’t it be great if we could have this same passion, this same focus and drive and commitment?

In the Gospel reading for today, we see that the Lord Jesus is tired from the long journey that He is making with His disciples, as they walk from Judea to Galilee. He is sat down by Jacob’s well, where he has just had that famous conversation with the Samaritan woman and the disciples come up to him and urge him, saying:

‘Rabbi, eat something.’ (31)

To which Jesus replies:

‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ (32) and
‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work’ (34)

It is as if Jesus is saying to his disciples that doing God’s will is even more important than eating! It is from doing God’s will and God’s work that Jesus gains spiritual strength and sustenance. Yes, we make sure that we are physically fed and nourished but what about spiritual food (in other words doing God’s will for our lives)? Perhaps one of the things that we are reminded of in Lent is that food is just for the physical nourishment of our bodies. Yes, we can enjoy food (and who doesn’t), but let it not preoccupy us so much. Let us spend more time being preoccupied with Spiritual food, doing God’s will, for that is where true nourishment is found.

We see a great and godly example in the life of St. Patrick. In his early twenties he was willing to leave his parents and homeland for the sake of following God’s call. Patrick heeded God’s call to come to Ireland, a land where the Good News of Jesus Christ had been little heard, a land of hardship and warring kings, a land of pagan worship practices and a land of spiritual darkness. But with the eyes that God gave him, what did Patrick see? He saw the same thing as Jesus saw when he said to his disciples:

‘… But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.’ (35)

Patrick saw a land of people who were starving, not for lack of food but for lack of God. In his own words he wrote:

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: “The Voice of the Irish”. As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.

Just as the Lord Jesus, in the land of the Samaritans, saw people who were ready and eager to receive God’s word, so Patrick saw that the Irish were hungry for truth and thirsty for salvation.

For someone without faith, it would have seemed an impossible task; to go to another country, where many of the people were hostile and speak to them of a God of love, a God who gave his Son to die in their stead upon a cross, in a place far away in time and distance from their own and yet Patrick did it anyway. Patrick took the risk, he did not play it safe. He did not try and form a committee or organise a mission conference or plan a direct mailing campaign, he just went.

As I think about that I find it exhilarating, exciting and liberating. We do not need to carry the weight on our shoulders of what we need to do and when and how we need to do it; it is not our work, but God’s. He is leader, we just need to follow.

As we look over Ireland today, in almost every conceivable way it is a very different Ireland from the one whose shores St. Patrick would have landed upon all those centuries ago. In Patrick’s time there were no tarmacadamed roads, no means of instant communication over long distances, no cars, no computers, no shopping centres or multiplex cinemas, none of the ‘stuff’ that occupies so much of the time we always complain we don’t have enough of today. Yes, the landscape might be very different, but the people are not so different really; just like our ancient forbears, we have hopes and dreams, ambitions and fears and we all like they need a Saviour.

The fields are as ripe for harvest today as they ever were. How many of the people thronging the streets of our towns and cities and celebrating this day are lost, lonely and hurting inside? For how many of them does life seem hopeless and bleak with no apparent purpose and meaning? And who are the St. Patrick’s today who will tell them and show them Jesus?

We are.

Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, New York City.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 40mm f2.0, Ilford XP2-400.

Fototriss på tema “Upprepningar”. Besök Fototriss för fler bidrag. /Photo triplet on theme “Repetions”. Visit Fototriss for links to more pictures.

Have no doubt, the term skeuomorphs is generally meant as a pejorative term; as it the crowbarring of modern ideas to fit out moded models that is being questioned.

An every day example of this would be the calendar in your MacBook that both looks like an old desk top calendar and even rips pages off as you use them and also forces you to look at a months passed information as you get to the final days of each month and not the future four weeks.

Some times a skeuomorph can be used to assist consumers to move forward from one level of technology to another – like the kindle reader that behaves like a book with the turning of pages but at other times it is just both silly and anachronistic.

As a case in point I give to you the newly launched Olympus OM-D E-M5.

Anyone over the age of 30 is probably going to tell you this looks funnily like the Olympus OM-1, which was probably one of the most rock and roll SLR’s from the 70′s ever made. Iconic concert pictures seemed to be taken with the OM-1 more than any other SLR at the time and today they remain a great old SLR (current ebay prices seem to be anywhere between US$ 10 and US$ 200 for one with the Zuiko 50/1.8 kit lens) .

They will also tell you that it was the first compact SLR – smaller than the other makers at the time, through completely redesigning the internal layout of the SLR.

This parody above unfortunately is mirrorless with the electronic viewfinder in the pentaprism and the 4/3 set up for the growing number of lenses available for this market. It is sold as being aimed at the photographer who is wishing to look more professional – although that seems a strange statement and may just be badly translated from Japanese…

Fuji, who remain one of my favourite camera and film makers, have continued their use of skeuomorphs through the X100 and now the smaller X10 that look like range finders but are not rangefinders – but appear to be pretty decent cameras.

I understand the need for cameras to look like cameras – as they fit our hands and faces and obviously our minds; but their design has changed over the decades and so foistering cameras to play on nostalgia suggests an over consuming society is being pandered to and at the same time, technological design is taking two steps back to take one forward.

Happy Valentine’s
Olympus OM1 Zuiko 50mm f1.4, Fuji Superia 400

A girl catching some sun while reading at Lincoln Center, New York City.
Olympus OM1 Zuiko 40mm f2, Ilford XP2

Sure, there were some duds, but far fewer than I was expecting.  Lesson learned: unless there is ample light, use a tripod.  Otherwise you will get pictures a little fuzzy like this:

And then there was this one, which I’m still unsure about:

Can I just claim it as “art”??

For the next roll I will definitely be paying more attention to light.  Specifically, direct light.  The picture of my cashew brittle was taken inside with indirect light [and a shutter speed of 60]- something that would have been fine with my digital camera, but not so much with the OM-1.

I want to start playing around with some of my mom’s lenses.  I only used the 50 mm lens for these shots, and I didn’t use any light filters.  I’m hoping to work my way up to the more technical things this baby can do- using what I learned from the last roll of film to the next.  Don’t you love how I make-up assignments for myself?  I should have been a teacher…

Ok, so now for the better pictures.  I haven’t edited these at all so this is just straight from the OM-1 for ya.  Some are a little too dark/fuzzy because I was in the shade [or inside] when I took the picture- note to self: don’t do that anymore.  One thing I noticed the manual camera does better than my digital one is the focused-blur effect.  My Sony will do it, but not to as great an extent as this one can- I’m diggin’ it.

The first few are taken at a wine tasting by Slack Winery, and they were actually really great tasting wines.  I say it that way because Maryland isn’t exactly the best climate for growing good grapes.  This winery uses grapes from Maryland, Virginia, and New Zealand though so there is a bit more to pull from.  The tasting was at a quaint b&b the winery owns on the water.  We were lucky to go on a beautiful day.

The second batch was taken down at St. Mary’s College just last week.  It’s a beautiful campus if you’ve never been there.  Very small, but beautiful.  I ventured out just before this cold front hit and Winter decided to show up in Maryland.

I knew she had an old [1970's] Olympus manual slr [single-lens reflex] and I was interested in learning how to use it in hopes of gaining some basic photography skills along the way.  I figured if I learned the basics of a slr camera – aperture, light, etc – then I would be able to use my dslr more effectively.  In theory.

Long story short, my mom has quite the collection.  I was expecting the camera and maybe one or two lenses.  Instead, she has five lenses including two macro lenses, a tripod, a flash attachment, and light filters…five of them.

As soon as I bought film and scoured St. Mary’s County for the correct battery, I decided to have a few experimentation photography days.  It’s a strange thing to use film- you feel more entitled to make it a great shot.  With digital cameras you can be as picture happy as you want and then delete the duds later.  It was a test of patience- waiting for the perfect shot, the perfect scene, walking around to find the best way to frame the picture.

I dropped the film off at CVS to be developed- this is literally going to be the first time since middle school I’ve had film developed.  Here’s to hoping they don’t turn out blurry/too dark or a combination.  More to come soon.

Untenable Position

I took it out of the frame and scanned it, but the copy wasn’t too hot. I need to dig out the negative and get a new print. So I can post here, but both aunts will have to wait.

Olympus OM-1N, Kodak BW400CN

First sight of the sea, first roll through the Olympus since it came into my hands. The camera travelled across the world, inherited from a sand dune ecologist in Olympia, near the northwest Pacific coast of the USA. Grains of sand clung to the body. I took the camera to the beach for a glimpse of the Southern Ocean. Perhaps it was a homecoming.

The above image was exhibited and sold in Unsensored11.

A Hopper-esque scene at Starbucks Lexington and 85th Street, New York City.
Olympus OM1 Zuiko 24mm f2.8, Fuji Superia 400 film

1. Polaroid SX-70

Thông tin: Máy ảnh này xuất hiện lần đầu vào những năm đầu thập kỷ 70 và là một trong những mẫu máy ảnh chụp lấy liền đầu tiên trên thế giới. Hiện nay, Polaroid SX-70 vẫn được nhiều nhiếp ảnh gia trên thế giới sử dụng.

2. Leica M8.2 Safari Edition

Thông tin: Phiên bản máy ảnh “đặc biệt” này chỉ được sản xuất đúng 500 chiếc trên toàn thế giới.

3. Rolleiflex 3.5

Thông tin: Rolleiflex 3.5 là mẫu máy ảnh phản quang hai ống kính (Twin Lens Reflex), thiết bị này có hình dáng khá vuông vức và lạ mắt trông cứ như là một con “rôbốt”.

4. White Pentax K-m

Thông tin: Với thân hình nhỏ gọn, thiết kế bắt mắt cùng lớp sơn màu trắng của mình, White Pentax K-m thật sự lôi cuốn những ai yêu thích vẻ đẹp bên ngoài.

5. Nikon Coolpix P300

Thông tin: Coolpix P300 có kích thước 103 x 58.3 x 32 mm và trọng lượng 193g rất tiện lợi khi mang theo bên mình. Chưa hết, toàn bộ thân máy đều được làm bằng hợp chất kim loại cho khả năng chịu tác động cao.

6. Olympus OM-1

Thông tin: Tuy được ra đời từ khá lâu, nhưng máy ảnh này có vẻ ngoài rất thời trang, không khác gì những mẫu máy ảnh sang trọng hiện nay.

7. Olympus PEN E-PL1

Thông tin: Sản phẩm này có thiết kế gần giống với “người đồng hương” EP-2 nhưng E-PL1 trông bắt mắt và sang trọng hơn.

8. Pentax 645D Limited Edition

Thông tin: Pentax 645D có khả năng xử lý các file ảnh, kể cả RAW lên tới 50 MB một file trong khi vẫn đảm bảo tốc độ cũng như chất lượng màu sắc và độ tương phản siêu cao. Model này thường được sử dụng trong các studio.

9. Holga 120

Thông tin: Holga 120 được trang bị đến 2 ống kính, 2 đèn flash cho phép chụp cùng lúc 2 ảnh và có thể xem cùng lúc 2 phim với hình ảnh 3D trong một khung đặc biệt.

10. Leica III 

Thông tin: Leica III mang vẻ đẹp của một thiếu nữ thời xưa, là một trong những tuyệt tác nghệ thuật mà hiếm có sản phẩm nào sánh bằng.

Lê Hưng

./.

Autumn colors in The Ramble of Central Park, New York City.
Olympus OM1 Zuiko 24mm f2.8, Fuji Superia 400 film