Camera doesn't matter

As long as you know what your camera can do and cannot do, a crappy camera from a cell phone cal take great shots. The camera on the iPhone is by no means crappy though.

Boston in Spring

Camera Obscura

Building a Camera Obscura - "Rad Science" Segment from popSiren from popSiren on Vimeo.

Tree top

Taken by Leica MP Summicron 1:2/50mm

The Impossible Project inspires Polaroid to re-launch Instant Cameras

The Polaroid licensee - The Summit Global Group - announced at a press conference on October 13th in Hongkong that they will re-launch some of the most famous Polaroid Instant Cameras.

Therefore they are commissioning The Impossible Project to develop and produce a limited edition of Polaroid branded Instant Films in the middle of 2010.

Large-scale production and worldwide sale of The Impossible Project's new integral film materials under its own brand will already start in the beginning of 2010 - with a brand new and astonishing black and white Instant Film and the first color films to follow in the course of the year.

Random thought

Freddie and her babies

Freddie is a wild turkey who loved to perch in our porch in the last two summers. This year, she came back with two babies. I picked up my camera and adjusted the focus by the distance before I approached the window. I shot out of the window through the bug net. I didn't have time to meter and the exposure was way off.

They were so vigilant as soon as I made one more step toward the screen door, they walked away.

Two days later Freddie only came with one baby. I am afraid the other was eaten by the foxes..

ADOX CHS

I tried this ADOX CHS 100 with my Olypmus 35RC with a dysfunct light meter recently. This film is awesome. It is a black and white film manufactured in Germany. It has an old-school single layer emulsion dated back to the 1950's. As quoted from the manufacturer's website (with some editing):

These films were introduced by ADOX in the 1950's and quickly became the preferrd films for reporters. In those times when lightmeters were inaccurate or very expensive they preferred the wide exposure latitude of the 50 and 100 ASA fims.

The film has an ultra high silver content enabling it to produce rhichest grey scales and many tonal differences between black and white.

If developed in sharp working developers such as ADOX APH 09 the film develops a visible edge effect and very detail depth.

Because of its low diffusion single layer technology the film is ultra sharp compared to modern multilayer films where the light will be diffused when penetrating through the different layers.

Here is one of my shoots. It was scanned by CanoScan 8800F as RGB to give the dark sepia tone.

More on my flickr.

Boston at night

Boston Public Garden

Cherry blossom in Boston

The Holy Grail

The seriously picky Ken Rockwell calls the Olympic 35 RC Photography's Holy Grail!! And I own it before he does!!! Yeah!!!
Link.

Paddling on Ipswich River

Spring is still reluctant to come. But we have to get prepared for the canoe race. It is only 2 weeks away. Dan and I went to Ipswich River and paddled a bit. I needed to practice my steering also.

At one point we came across a couple of nesting ducks. Dan said we would get killed if we ran into their territory. We drifted slowly by them, but the male duck didn't take a chance and flew at us and yelled at us (literally), trying to chase us away.

Dan also spotted beavers twice. Freaking sharp eyes.

I brought my underwater camera Nikonos-V along and took a few photos on the boat. This camera is truly a tank. It also has some funky orange color rubber on its body for practical reason. It is just beautiful.

April 4

I went to a photographic event of the Yankee Photographic Society at Danvers High School. The two talks in the morning were interesting, but the model shooting and high-jinx that came afer were less so. I wandered the campus and sneaked out to Danversport and took more interesting photos with my 58-years-old Rolleiflex.

Someone is still using the first generation iMac.

Danversport Marina

Historic Polar Images

The Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge has made their archive of some historic images of polar explorations in the turn of 20th century public. Shots made on glass plates in 1911 are still as vivid as photos taken today.

Spring snow

It was March 8 and it had been snowing since the day before. I arrived at my lab and dropped my gloves and my hat by the window to let them dry.

Hopefully this snow marks the end of the winter.

Taken by Olympus 35RC

Oishii at Chestnut Hill

Oishii at Chestnut Hill is probably the most authentic and best sushi bar in Boston area. There is only 1 L-shape sushi bar and a small round table. It was a Thursday night and three sushi chefs and 3 waitresses served about 15 people at a time.

The sushi was very good, but it was the toro tatar and the grilled yellowtail that were most impressive. I have never had grilled fish with skin so crispy and flavored and meat so soft and juicy.

March 5, 2009. Oishii sushi bar at Chestnut Hill
Taken by Rolleiflex 3.5 M-X (1951) and Agfa APX400. Developed using Arista D-76, 15 min at 20degC.

7 Sagamore

Somehow I like the number 7.

Taken by Nikon 28Ti using Ilford Delta 400. Developed by Arista D-76 at room temperature for 14 minutes.

My humble goals

I didn't really go after them, but I managed to achieve my goals: going to CU, then to the US and working at this company specifically, and geting a Golf (ended up with a even better GTI). But I still haven't realized my goal of having a home. Maybe it is a goal too recent and it takes time. Anyways, I am also hoping to get the ultimate mechanical camera: the Leica MP (US$4395 - body only!!)

Film is king

Just a random woods at my workplace. I made this shot specifically to test the lens and the film.
Taken by Nikon 28Ti on Fujifilm Velvia 100 (slides). Processed at Hunt's and scanned by George to 4000 dpi. Scaled down to 1200x800 jpeg.