Rangefinder

FED-3 Russian rangefinder to be exact.

Every camera maker should have as 'colourful' a history as FED. Given this is a family-friendly journal, I won't post it here, but look them up sometime, it's worth the read.

My example is from 1966 and in mint condition. FED made millions of them, but finding one in good condition can be a bit of a task. Fortunately mine, as near as I can tell, was mint. Not surprising really, given they were never sold outside of Russia until recently. Probably made and then stored away since that time.

The lens is fixed (prime) at a useful range of 53mm with a minimum aperture of 2.8, which is very nice. It's also sharp as a tack and gives nice bokeh, as this image demonstrates.

I'm still experimenting with what a rangefinder can offer me over my other gear, if anything, but with the weather getting better all the time, I expect this will be my knockaround camera for the future.

Spring

From Snow and ice to 70 degrees, all in one week. Went to a dog park to practice with animals in a non-studio type setting.

It's a lot harder than it looks. In any case, there were lots of dogs of all sizes (and temperments) but only a few that really stood out. This Husky being one.

Vintage

This image may not look like much, and I will fully admit it was taken during a drab winter day, but if you look at it carefully, you will see the details are pretty sharp, the focus is tight, and the exposure is correct.

Not bad for my Nikon right?

Not from my Nikon though.

Nor from my dSLR

Nor my beloved Yashicas

In point of fact, this image was taken with a 1935 Wirgin Auta. Given the pocket folding camera is nearly 75 years old it's rather impressive it still functions, and gives such sharp images. I look forward to putting colour medium format film through it when spring hits.

Funny thing about the film. It's 120 spec, and in my Yashicas I get 12 images, because the Yashicas have basically a square (6cm x 6cm) exposure frame. The Wirgin is more like 9cm x 6 cm and as such, I only get 8 images per roll of film, forcing me to think more carefully about what I want to capture.

Macro

Little bit of macro photography. Afternoon sun glinting off melting snow. I'm learning to shoot without a tripod, trying to get a more fluid look to my images.

I bought a tripod for several reasons, not least of which is my hands shake slightly when holding heavy things, like lenses and all metal cameras.

But there are ways to minimize this effect and it allows me to be more spontaneous wiht my photography, like here.

Barn

On a work related journey today I chanced across an untouched forest with an older barn in the middle. There was no place to pull over and park the car, so I slowed down and snapped this shot out the window. Thought it turned out rather good. Once again, Black and White film from my newly acquired Nikon.

Riverline

More from the storm, film this time. For reasons I can't fathom, I've misplaced my warm hats. Heck, I've misplaced *all* my hats, warm or not. My guess is they're hanging out with the socks I've lost in the dryer, but it's a guess at best.

So I head out to my local friendly(?) superultrameganew chain store to buy a warm hat. Guess what? They don't have any, in fact, they don't have any winter clothes *at all*, they're too busy selling, get this, swimware. Yeah, that's not a typo, swimware. It's 15 degrees outside, with 8 inches of snow, 20 mph winds, and not a hat in sight...

So I didn't stay as long as I wanted to at the local river park, seeing as how my ears fell off, and have now joined my socks and hats. Somewhere warm probably.

Update

It snowed here for a few days straight, which is highly unusual for this area. Despite the potential for good images, after the Falls area I had visited, I really wasn't able to be inspired to shoot in the city, try as I might.

So this is an image of from behind where I live. I shot some Black and White film from around the city, and that will go up next, as soon as I get them ready (the photo lab scanned them upside down) I'll post the better ones here.