Vintage SLR to Broken Vintage SLR in Two Hours
I always check Goodwill and William Temple House (a local Portland thrift store) when I’m in the area, just in case they happen to have any old film SLRs for me to mess around with. They rarely do, and when they do, they are either A: in terrible condition, B: way overpriced, or C: in terrible condition and way overpriced. I was surprised then today to find a Pentax H1a at Temple House for six dollars. The lens (Takumar 55mm f/1.8) was dirty but scratch-free, its various rings all glided smoothly and I fiddled with all the mechanical pieces on the camera to see if they seemed to work, which they did. I left it at first, but looked the camera up online when I got home and decided even if it didn’t work, it sure would look cool on a shelf. I went back to the store a while later and picked it up.
This particular model was manufactured from 1957 to (I think) 1962, and I saw online that later models used orange paint in the “R” on the film rewind knob. The paint in mine is green, so though I don’t exactly know how old this camera is, it seems to be an earlier model (late 50s, I’m guessing). I was also confused by the number of brand names on the camera. I knew the name Pentax, of course, but the only Asahi I know is a Japanese beer and the only Honeywell I know makes burglar alarms. I learned later Asahi was the manufacturer, they called the camera the Pentax, the company later changed its name to Pentax, and until the late 70s, their products were distributed in America by Honeywell. Therefore, the front of my camera says “Honeywell Pentax” and the back says “Asahi Pentax.” Shinfo, I know.
I came home and did a little research on camera cleaning, and the body cleaned up very nicely. There’s some rust and a couple scuffs that could probably be taken care of with a little more work, but for the most part the camera looks good for being 60 years old. I was learning how to clean the lens and mirror, fired off the shutter a couple more times, and the damn thing jammed. Bad. I dug around a bit more online on camera restoration forums and stuff — I might be able to mess with it later, but I need jeweler’s screwdrivers to get inside. I was really looking forward to shooting some of this film I have laying around, especially on a camera that doesn’t meter.
EDIT: Later: Yeah, I got it open and it looks like the ribbon on the first shutter curtain is torn, which requires a complete shutter replacement. But have you ever SEEN the inside of even a simple mechanical camera? When disassembled, just the lever that advances the film is — not fucking kidding you — FORTY INDIVIDUAL PARTS. No hyperbole.
This thing will look cool on a shelf.
What?
A guy on the street handed this to me the other day. I guess I don’t understand what Nicholas Cage has to do with scaring people into being Christians? Is he the woman at whom I am looking with lust in my heart?
Booty Retouching
I’ve been all but ignoring Photoshop since Lightroom came out, which is probably good, since my photos tend to look more natural that way, but it’s made me forget how much fun Photoshop is. I’ve lately gotten back into retouching, and Nina has been a good sport about the fact that for most of at least the last week, the computer screen has been filled closeups of her pores.
I don’t have a hell of a lot of time before I have to head off to work, but here’re some quick samples.
1: My first heavy skin retouch. I didn’t touch the eyes. 2: What people actually look like (top), what magazines think people look like (bottom). At this magnification, the eye retouch looks a little cheesy, but zoomed out for the full image, they really pop and look natural. 3: The layers on an eye retouch and halfway through a skin retouch that I abandoned.
I’m getting laid off in a week, so I’ll be back to shooting then.
Seaside Photos
So here’s a quick gallery I threw together after sifting through all the photos from Seaside. The only really fun thing photography-wise was when we first arrived, we decided to check out this kitschy aquarium on the beach front. Typically when people go to this sort of exhibit and get photos, they’ll produce one of two outcomes: They either go in thinking “It’s dark in here, I should turn my flash on” (or their camera decides that for them) and they get a bunch of photos of flash reflections, or they decide “It’s dark in here, I’m going to crank the ISO” (again, the camera might decide this for them) and they come home with a bunch of really grainy shots. I opted for cranking my ISO, since the larger sensor handles the grain quite a bit better than a point and shoot. Most of the time we were in there, I shot wide open, high ISO stuff. Then I realized I had a flash in my bag with me.
Okay, so with on-camera flash, you can’t shoot things behind glass. But if you can get it off your camera, you can get the flash right up against the glass and place the camera’s lens elsewhere, eliminating the glare problem. I started pressing my flash up against the glass and either bouncing the light off the back wall of the aquariums or off the underside of the surface of the water to illuminate whatever was inside. I didn’t get to shoot long with this technique, because everybody was pretty bored with the aquarium by the time I figured it out, but I got a couple kinda neat shots, especially considering they were taken behind scratched, fingerprinted, dirty glass that’s probably been there for 50 years.
From left to right: 1: The aquarium’s poster. It felt very carnival freak show to me. I liked it. 2: A wolf eel (high ISO). 3: A sea anemone (flash). 4: Another ugly fish (flash). 5: One of the many stores I didn’t go into. 6: A cheap place to get your animal cut/plugged, apparently. 7: Nina playing Dreamcast-era arcade games. 8: Life guard thing. 9: Seagull. 10: Blahblah.
Seaside
I went to the ocean today. It’s a bit of a landmark in a couple ways, one of which being that I haven’t seen the ocean in almost exactly two years, the second being that it’s the first time I’ve actually left the Portland metro area since I moved here. Nina and I have been dumping some money into some maintenance and repairs on my car and it’s beginning to earn my trust again as a vehicle capable of making trips longer than “across town” (where it was also beginning to lose my trust). I took some photos and things that I’ve dumped off my memory cards and started to sift through and “develop,” but I honestly don’t know why I’m up right now. I might find time to post some stuff tomorrow.
Shinfo: Even though it took me just over two years to reach my first 10,000 shots on my camera, it’s taken me only 100 days since then to hit 15,000. This means, if my math isn’t wonky, that I’ve increased average photos per day from 13 to 50 in the last 3 months. Unlike my 10,000th photo, which I uploaded even though it was awful, my 15,000th photo must have REALLY sucked, because I deleted it off the camera. I can tell you it was either a sea anemone or some kind of fish. Why am I still up? More tomorrow. Maybe.
RIP Analog Broadcast
Today was the last day of analog broadcast television. I’m always for progress (like when is the government going to step in and force cable companies to upgrade infrastructure so we can get some decent internet in this country?), so when I heard about the forced upgrade however many years ago I thought “good fucking riddance.” I mean, who watches TV with an antenna anymore? Well, I’m also currently working for the company responsible for sending out all those $40 vouchers for the converter boxes. I’ve learned that a lot of people still watch TV with an antenna. And that I am a dick.
The vast majority of applicants tend to be either very old, very poor, or both, and though you only need to fill out a simple application and mail it off to this company, you’d be surprised how many people can barely handle that, let alone figuring out how the conversion will work. On at least 50 occasions, the “form” I’ve received isn’t the mail-in form, but the Internet application, which people have printed off and filled out by hand (no, not a downloadable form, a screenshot of the web page). One person had even written out the CAPTCHA at the bottom of the screen and circled the “Submit” button. In many, many more instances, I get written letters which, more often than not, contain entirely too much information. I mean, we basically need a name and address and we mail you the coupon, but people feel the need to explain why they need the coupon, and it helps to make my already boring workday just a little more depressing. You tend to get a mental image of the customer from these letters, which then becomes a caricature for EVERY form you complete. It really starts to get to you. I’ve started taking pictures of a couple of the letters with my phone for transcribing purposes. Here are a few.
Dear Sir/Madam
Please I am asking if you can give me a copon for the TV converter box, I am 62 years of age I am not working because of Debetic my hand and foot heart. I dont have money I rent one room, and food stamps I get from the government I get $308 from Social Security. but I cant afford to by the box, if you can give me one I would be most gratefull.
Yours truly,
Norma
Phone XXX-XXX-XXXX it is a metro phone I cannot afford a house phone.
God Bless & Keep You
Sir
I am writing about TV converter box coupon program. We don’t have no money to buy a TV converter box. Can you send us a coupon. I wish we could get one free. We are having so much problems. We are struggling. Please let us know about the box I wrote about. We live on a fix income so it is hard for us.
Carole
Please send coupon for converter I am 89 years old my TV is my life I need so bad.
In one letter the guy wrote something like “I am very old and poor, my TV is over 30 years old, I would like a coupon so I can experience HDTV in my home.” I don’t know if he was confusing terms and meant DTV or if this guy is actually expecting a high-def picture on his 30 year old TV from his local news station, but it was completely moot as he had neglected to add his address to the letter and did not fill out a return address on the envelope. This happens from time to time and I feel horrible because I have no way of contacting these people to say, “You form didn’t get processed! Quick, give me your address and I’ll send you a coupon!” Now, with the transition complete, all I can imagine is this 90 year old guy in some dumpy studio apartment in Detroit checking his mail every day for his converter box coupon that will never come.
Maybe it’s really not as bad as all that. Maybe I just have entirely too much time to sit and overthink these things, but it’s really started to put my gung-ho PROGRESS PROGRESS PROGRESS stance into perspective. “Who uses landlines anymore? Get rid of all the telephone poles!” “Who reads newspapers anymore? Let em die!” It’s these people that still use these services; the guy whose only pleasure left in life is watching his local TV station alone in his apartment. Sometimes we just forget they exist.
National Workplace Disappointment Day
Comic I drew at work today with the world’s shittiest pen.
A Little Local News
I don’t “do” a lot of news. I think it’s because last election cycle I completely overdid it. A year ago I was media engorged — a fat, bloated, quivering sack of election coverage — and then almost literally as soon as I saw the announcement that Obama had been elected, I was over it. Since then it’s been a bit like that revulsion you experience after, for the sake of example, a bad whiskey night, when for weeks or even months afterward, the smell of whiskey stirs up horrible memories of that night you spent face-down, crying in the shower til 9AM. People start discussing current events and I’m just irritated. I just really have no desire to keep up right now. I pick up bit and pieces of news from things like The Daily Show and, more recently, The Phil Hendrie Show, but it’s really in one ear and out the other. I know, I know, I’m heading back towards the apathy of my younger years, but goddammit I need a break. Forming an opinion and getting emotionally involved in every single story that comes off the wire is psychologically taxing.
So yeah, all of that was really a buildup to “I don’t even know what’s going on locally and apparently the other day a woman tried to steal another woman’s baby while she was still pregnant with it.” Sometimes the only opinion you can have on a piece of news is “…what?” Oh, and get a load of that mugshot. This happened right out by where I work.
State T-Shirts
Yesterday at work I came up with a brilliant idea for a line of t-shirts. Basically, you take a bunch of standard “state” shirts and mix and match the pictures and text.
Example.
A picture of a sunset at the Grand Canyon. The shirt says “Florida.”
A picture of a hula dancer in front of a beach littered with palm trees. The shirt says “Kansas.”
A picture of Mt. Rushmore. The shirt says “Colorado.” etc etc.
Yes, it’s brilliant.
Kyle Jowling
During our shoot today, another guy showed up and distracted Ben for an hour or two by talking about the comic industry or something, so Kyle and I were trying to brainstorm new things to shoot. He came up with several creative ideas, but then I volunteered: “What if you just wailed your head around really hard and I took photos of that?” We got to work immediately.
These are all pretty self-explanatory (trust me, there were wayyy more than just these six), but the one that kills me the most is the third one, because he looks UNCANNILY like Gary Busey.
