Here are a few shots of my favorite model, Sassy who was kind of enough to pose for me in return for a few tasty treats. In reality, these photos were test shots I took to see what the light was like from my flash. The main focus of the shoot was to take some B&W shots with a Holga plastic camera using off camera flash. I hope to have the Holga shots developed in a week or so.

I was also testing my brand new black sheet as a back drop. My wife picked up a sheet set today at Target for $10 so if anyone needs black pillow cases, let me know

I need to dust my cameras.

Taken last weekend at Fort Point, San Francisco, California.

The first place I visited was the Marin Headlands for the classic tourist shot with San Francisco in the background.

I then tried to head higher up into the Headlands but the road was closed for construction. I did take a few photos at the visitor center before heading back over the bridge to Fort Point.

If you have never been to Fort Point, it is highly recommended. It is great for taking the bridge from a viewpoint  that’s a little different from most tourist shots.

The fort itself is also quite interesting inside with exhibitions on the history of the fort and life back when it was in use. And you can climb up to the roof where you can stand right under the bridge.

It will be a while before I get my Mamiya shots developed but when I do I will post some here (if they are any good)

I took this photograph using a Voigtländer Bessa R4A  at the Legion Of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

Today I decided to take some shots of my Olympus 35 RC, a compact fixed lens rangefinder from the 1970s.

To take these shots, I was using a very basic “Strobist” set up with a Canon Speedlite 430 EX flash mounted on a stand firing through an umbrella camera left. I also used some white foam core on the right to reflect back some fill. The flash was fired remotely using an Elinchrom EL Skyport Universal radio trigger.

The camera I used was my trusty Canon 40D with a 24 to 70mm L f/2.8 lens. I metered using a Sekonic L-308s Flashmate meter.

I am still learning flash photography so came upon a few problems. One of those can be seen in this following shot.

Reflected in the lens is the clear outline of the umbrella. I would have preferred for this to not be so obvious. I tried playing with angles and also with the set up you see below but I wasn’t happy with the results. In this set up I am firing the flash through the diffuser part of a Photoflex multi-disk but the reflection was still too noticeable.  Still a lot for me to learn for sure.

For all of the shots I set the camera on manual mode with the shutter speed set at 1/60.  There was daylight coming in from an open door camera right and also through a window behind the subject so I wanted to use some of the ambient light.

Most of the shots were shot using an aperture of either f/8 or f/11 except the photograph above which was shot at f/5.6. I found with apertures less than that the depth of field wasn’t as pleasing to me.  The flash was used in manual mode and the power was set from 1/2 to 1/8 depending on what aperture I was using or the distance of the flash from the subject.

The photograph above shows most of the gear I used today. At the top is an Interfit light stand and Wescott shoot through umbrella. On the next row is a Manfrotto 498RC2 ball head. Next to that is my Canon Speedlite 430 EX flash with a hot shoe to PC adapter connected to the Elinchrom El-Skyport receiver below. Next to the flash is the Canon 40D with the 24 to 70mm L f/2.8 lens and next to that is the flash meter, a Sekonic L-308s.

Below the 40D, is the matching Elinchom trasmitter and some no-name light stand adapter. At the bottom is a Manfrotto 190XPROB Pro Aluminum Tripod.

As I said I am still learning this type of photography so there is a long way to go before I will be truly happy with my images. But it is always a good idea to shoot as often as possible and learn from the experience each time.

Below are the rest of the “keepers” from today.

Last night I developed a roll of Fuji Neopan 1600 that was in my Voigtländer for a while. This photo was taken in San Francisco last month sometime.

One of my favorite 35mm cameras is my Olympus XA. Introduced in 1979, this camera is part of a series of cameras (along with the XA1, XA2, XA3 and XA4) but it is the only one of the series to use a rangefinder focus.

The Lens is a Zuiko 35mm f:2.8 lens and is completely covered by the clamshell when closed which makes this camera easy to slip into a pocket. Also, when the clamshell is closed, the camera is powered off which means the batteries last for a very long time.

With the clamshell open, you gain access to the focus lever which sits below the lens. Focusing is easy and fast since the lever has a very short throw and the rangefinder patch is still quite bright in my camera. Above the focus lever is the film speed setting with a range from 25ASA to 800ASA.

The camera uses aperture priority with the apertures being set by a lever beside the lens. Shutter speeds are rated from 1 second to 1/500 and the current shutter speed is shown using a needle that is visible in the viewfinder. (Note: I have seen other websites that quote 10 seconds as the max shutter speed but I have not tested this on my camera – the viewfinder scale only goes to 1 second).

The shutter is extremely sensitive requiring barely a touch to trigger. This means hand held slow shutter speeds are quite possible. Also, the shutter is practically silent lending itself well to being discrete in situations that warrant it.

These days you can pick up an XA for around $40 to $60 on eBay. If that is too expensive the zone focus XA2 is worth checking out.  A lot of times the XA2 cameras go for less than $30.

To find out more about the XA and other cameras in the XA family, visit the best XA resource on the web, http://www.diaxa.com/

To see more of my XA shots, check out my Flickr stream with the tag Olympus XA.

Yesterday I got a new lens hood for my Voigtländer 35mm F/1.4 Nokton shown here on my Bessa R4A rangefinder. Hopefully this will reduce lens flare and increase contrast in the photographs.