Tag Travel

Shooting in squares…

Chris and Carol Leave a comment

It’s tough to think square again! I’m spoiled (aren’t we all) by the ease of digital photography – nice proportions – wide screen – big images – bold colors – lots of megapixels. Exposures? Shutter speeds? Composition? No worries – the technological gems we hang from our necks will think for us. I’m as guilty as anyone – I love what digital can do and what it can’t.

Now try to think of the world in little squares – 6 x 6 centimeter squares to be exact. It’s hard to do – modern formats are always elongated squares. Who loads square images on their blog? The square format went out with the Instamatic! But if you’re lucky enough to own (or have access to) a medium format (6×6) camera then you too can shoot in squares.

I recently took one of my Yashica TLRs out on a date – threw in some fresh Fujifilm and off I went. I must confess – I love color! Sure I like an occasional fling with some black and white (Neopan 100 Acros) but color gets me going. Not “computer generated color” – the subtle color you see only on film. It’s there (just like in real life) but it doesn’t tackle you to the ground like some overly saturated digital image. Just nice and easy color.

These following images were taken with my Yashica-Mat EM twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera. Exposures were determined (suggested actually) by the EM’s on board exposure meter. Yashica claims that it’s built-in but it’s really just attached to the left side of the body by three screws and a wire. No TTL or coupled metering here… just a bunch of tiny numbers on top of more tiny numbers with an almost invisible pointer pointing at those tiny numbers. I chose Fujifilm’s Fujicolor PRO 400H color negative film because I enjoy shooting with Fujifilm and usually like the results. I will point out that no post production was done on these images. No cropping, no color adjustments – they’re just as they were when developed and scanned by the lab (which was The Darkroom).

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This is actually image 12 on the roll. Taken on day 2 of my travels. Perfect small town America shot. I lost my bright sun from the day before but the Fujicolor 400 made up for the dull sky. Is it properly exposed? Probably not. Off by about 1 stop or so.

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Day 1 – image 7 on the roll. The Fujicolor handled the strong contrast between the sky and building. The Yashica’s meter did a fantastic job. About 1/500 at f/ 16-22.

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Faded Florida – along U.S. Highway 17 in North Florida. High contrast with strong shadows. f/ 16 at 1/500.

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A nice test for the Tomioka 80mm lens. No flare and some nice highlights on the water. 1/250 at around f/ 11-16. I metered to the left of the bridge. Looking south into Florida from Georgia. Highway 17 bridge over the St. Marys River.

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Looking north towards Georgia. The Yashica’s meter did a wonderful job suggesting the proper shutter speed and aperture setting. 1/250 at f/ 16.

Shooting in squares can be fun and challenging. Do I think some of the images would be better in a 6 x 4.5 or 6 x 7 format? Yes – definitely. Can I learn to enjoy squares again? Yes – definitely.

Comments are always appreciated and welcomed. Thanks for your visit!

Chris

 

Forgotten and faded Florida…

Chris and Carol Leave a comment

U.S. Highway 17 was the way to enter Northeast coastal Florida in days past – long before I-95 was even imagined. If you came down from the North in the late 1940s, you entered Florida over a way too narrow bridge over the St. Marys River – the official boundary between Georgia and Florida. The two lane road was well traveled and one of the last cities you would pass through before the bridge was Kingsland, Georgia… just a few miles north of the river. The next city wasn’t until you reached Jacksonville, Florida – a long way south. You can’t really count the in-between hamlets of Yulee and Oceanway – they were home to flashing lights just to make you slow down a bit.

To be the first attraction – or motel – or restaurant – or bar – or whatever along this busy corridor meant something I imagine. Where would the tourists stop to take a picture or pause to, you know, rest? Highway 17 was the bomb – it was the way south. Then I-95 came and it was over in a hurry.

What’s left of the Florida firsts?

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U.S. Highway 17 bridge over the St. Marys River. Looking north into Georgia – this would have been your first step on dry land that was Florida.

After your safe passage over this way too narrow bridge, you would be treated with your first photo op…

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Everybody stops to get their picture taken in Florida! What better place then this sign… and with palm trees too! This is the sign along U.S. 17 a little south of the border.

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Gotta have a plaque to dedicate the sign.

All that’s left of some of the ‘firsts‘…

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‘Souvenirs’ and ‘Whiskey’.

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Nothing left to buy here except more time I suppose.

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More than a few tourists walked through this door… come in please.

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Faded Florida.

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Last one out.

A wonderful place to explore… that first half mile of faded Florida along Highway 17. Many more opportunities to be sure. It was the first motel in now forgotten Florida. The people are elsewhere but the photo ops remain.

Thanks for your visit. As always your comments are appreciated.

You can also visit me at https://www.flickr.com/photos/127540935@N08/

Chris

One last shot – a modern I-95 Florida welcome.

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Hello and Welcome! Update 2.2.2017

Chris and Carol 1 Comment

Welcome to our blog about a very simple camera made by a company in Japan. We (Carol and Chris) are “Yashica Fanatics”, so it was a natural for us to start this blog dedicated to one of Yashica’s least known cameras. Most film camera aficionados might have some basic knowledge of the Pentamatic. They may have seen it in passing… usually fuzzy images on the web with often misleading info to boot. It’s a rather odd looking SLR with just enough quirks to make it interesting (to us at least). It was never a big time seller for Yashica but its true value was as a platform for innovation and invention for the designers at Yashica.

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We fell in love with the Pentamatic’s clean lines and “modern” design. The presentation box was as unique as the camera itself.

Our “goal” here at the ‘Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic’ is to expose as many people as we can to the Pentamatic and to the company that conceived it. Please feel free to add to our knowledge base… if something is incorrect please let us know. If you know something about it or any of the topics we blog about… once again, please share it! We would love to here from you!

Another goal is to share our passion for photography. It’s been a part of our daily lives since we were born. I can’t remember the first picture that I ever shot – it probably was a mess – but I can remember one of the most special pictures I ever took – a picture of my parents.

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My mom Mary and me in of all places, Vegas. We were on a big family vacation from New York to California – Christmas 1960. My dad Paul took this picture. Yep, my first camera – a Kodak for Christmas (notice that I was holding it up to show it off). My mom was holding a freshly taken Polaroid from my dad’s Pathfinder 110 Polaroid. Pictures – cameras – family.

Many many thanks for your visit… Chris and Carol ^.^