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My camera has been lying to me. Well, not my camera exactly, but my light meter. This is an image from my vintage Yashica-D of course (of course!) and being that it's a totally manual camera, no light meter is included. I thought it would be odd to buy a modern light meter to use with a camera built in the 60s/70s, so I found one from around the same time frame. Call it the purist (or idiot, I think they rhyme) in me.

In any event, using the light meter outside it worked fine, but when I started to use it indoors, the meter was *way* off (like 4 stops off kind of off.) I thought something was funny about the readings it would give me, but I'm not a pro, so I was trusting in my equipment, not my instincts. Turns out, of couse, the pics were horribly underexposed. It's a credit to the camera (and film, Kodak TMax 100) that it was able to capture as much as it did, giving the incorrect readings.

Needless to say (well I'm saying it anyway) this photo is heavily processed, but I think it came out rather well, given the circumstances. In addition, lesson learned, buy the right equipment for the job.

Glamour

Practicing my 'glamour shots' photography with a friend. I think that people shots can be the most fascinating images possible, but also the most difficult, as most people are naturally camera shy and it takes a special person to "act naturally" in front of the lens.

So, in an effort to polish my skills, I've asked some friends if I can experiment on them (insert evil mad scientist laughter here)

The image turned out rather well from many standpoints, lighting and shadows being two that immediately spring to mind. So in any event I'm sharing with you.

Spiral Dreams

The title comes from a thrash tune from the 80s by a band called Coroner. More bits from the graveyard. Contrast this clean image with one taken in March, of a rusty one.

Fluffy

I was invited back to the motorcycle graveyard that I had photographed back in March of this year.

Back then, the plants had yet to really come into full bloom, and more of the bits and pieces were exposed. Here at the end of summer, however, everything was alive and awake, huge dragonflies and spiders everywhere.

I'm not totally sure what this fluffly thing is, but it made for a nice image

Gecko

Had an occasion to to do a photoshoot with some Crested Geckos. I liked this shot the most, as the gecko appears to be smiling. I like photographing reptiles as they will happily sit still while I get my camera in order. As in the case here.

Classic

It's the classic baseball pose. I went to a baseball game the other day, which happened to be sold out, so I had to sit in the nosebleed section. Fortunately I had taken my catadioptric (aka Reflex) lens with me which allowed some full frame shots.

The game was a slaughter, the home team scoring many more touchdowns, than the other team scored goals. Or something. Anyway, the home team won, which was cause for great celebration for the fans. Apparently the home team doesn't win much.

In any case, I like this pose because of the vagueness of it. In other words, did he just hit a grand slam? Or did he miss the ball entirely and struck out, causing his team to lose when all the bases were loaded? I don't remember, I just like the pose.

Happy

These guys are very happy about something. Maybe it's because they look very odd. I don't know. But don't you agree that they look like some weird human/duck hybrid? Anyway, they're happy, I'm happy.

Ready

This was part of a larger image, but I cut it down to improve the composition. There were about a dozen rafters/kayakers out that morning, and all were kind enough to give me some great shots. I look forward to doing it again with my medium format camera.

Soup

And quackers. Yeah I know, second grade humor. So sue me. The duck isn't fully in the pic, as I was framing something else when he (the duck) started to take off. I snapped off a shot and this is the result.

River

Contrast this with the Black and White image from a few posts down, and you will be able to see the differences a few days rain (and a few feet of water) will make.

Action!

The local river here was nearly depleted from lack of rain. A few days ago, it rained non-stop, and now the river is full to bursting. I was lucky enough to be there when I group of kayakers took on the river.

While hardly true white water rafting, some of the images I think are good enough to post. So, here they are.