A week ago, I purchased a blooming cornflower plant from a roadside orchard. Not wanting to damage my car’s leather seats (and my car’s trunk was already filled with my New York State Fair artwork and pickups), I placed the plant in a cardboard peach box. Yep, the plant rode shotgun in a peach box.…
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Girlfriend, meet Peaches. Peaches, meet girlfriend.
Yesterday, I drove to Syracuse to pick up my artworks and photos from the New York Stater Fair. The weather wasn’t fantastic – it felt like I drove through one rainstorm and came back through another. On my way home, somewhere around Exit 33, one of my car’s TPMS sensors reported low air. Oh, that’s…
Read More“Tell the race track Johnny Wadd is here.”
Let me explain that blog post headline. My recent acquisition of a Meyer Optik Görlitz Orestegor 500mm f/5.6 telephoto lens has proven successful when paired with my Pentacon Six TL camera. And thanks to my girlfriend (the best girlfriend in the whole wide world), I now have an adapter that will make that Meyer Optik…
Read MoreYeah, I can fix a camera lens. (Rolling up sleeve) (Saying a prayer)
I purchased this old Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 lens nearly 20 years ago. It was the first external camera lens I’ve ever purchased that wasn’t primarily a kit lens, and I purchased it so that I could capture fast indoor action shots, so long as I had the lens open wide (at f/2.8 aperture) and cranked…
Read MoreThe impulse purchase
Let’s see. I’ve got less than a week before my 40th college reunion. And I still want to get some great photos – both at the reunion and afterwards. So I took my Nikon F2S camera (“Nikon Athena”) and attached my newly-acquired Helios 44-2 Russian lens with the Petzval modification to it. In goes a…
Read MoreCan my Pentacon Six TL handle a Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railroad shooting day?
This is the day. Pentacon Six TL “full debut day.” Because on this day, I am going to put this medium format East German camera through its paces. I’ve already run tests and trials … now let’s see if it can act like a camera that’s worthy of staying in my arsenal. I’ve packed several…
Read MoreThe first test shots with my new-to-me Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestegor/Pentacon f/5.6 500mm lens
So the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestegor f/5.6 500mm lens arrived last Monday night. And let me say something about this lens. IT IS BIG. It measures nearly 16 inches from camera to front element. And it’s HEAVY AS ANYTHING. I could do barbell curls with it. And that lens cap? It barely stays in place. I’m…
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