U of I Arboretum

University of Illinois Arboretum

I shot a roll of film at the University of Illinois Arboretum last week. I’ll be posting a few pictures over the coming days.

Scanned and toned in Lightroom.

Technorati Tags: photography, film, tmax, 400, kodak, xtol, mamiya, c330, university, illinois, arboretum, urbana, sepia

First Roll of Black And White

I’ve just processed my first roll of black and white film.

Thanks to prophotolife.com for the tutorial video. By far, the hardest part was getting the film onto the reel. I was using a stainless steel Adorama reel, and had practiced before hand but I still had some film touching film at the end of the roll. Fortunately, no pictures were harmed in the development process.

I’ve since purchased a Paterson reel from Calumet. It is significantly easier to get the film onto this reel. Perhaps with more practice I’d have gotten proficient with the stainless steel reel, but I’d rather just process, scan, and learn.

Little did I know that the Paterson reel wouldn’t fit into my stainless steel tank (D’OH!) so I should be getting my Paterson tank today.

I guess you live and learn.

All of the negatives exhibited dust and a few spots. So, I still have to overcome that as well.

Technorati Tags: B&W, black, and, white, film, process, urbana, illinois

Birthday pictures

We finally got in Lucy’s 4th birthday pictures. Lucy is my middle daughter, and she turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. We just got around to getting her pictures. We do a birthday shoot for each of the kids on their birthday (or there abouts) so that we can see how they change as the grow.

It’s been a while since we’ve done one, and I’m now reminded how challenging it can be taking pictures of Lucy. All in all I think that it worked out, but she’s a strong minded person.

My personal favorite (above), except for her foot. We were running and gunning, and I didn’t notice it at the time. Dang! Perhaps with some cropping….

An out-take. Knock-knock jokes work great on Lucy.

My wife’s favorite. She took this one (have to give credit where it’s due).

Ah, the picture that could have been. Lucy just didn’t want to cooperate for this one. This is my “the-one-that-got-away” for this shoot.

Technorati Tags:
illinois, outdoor, photography, portrait, urbana
birthday, kid

Start of a Photo-A-Day, sort of….

This is my start of “A photo-a-day.” In practice, I’ll probably make it “a posted photo a day during the week.” I’ve been following a number of blogs for quite a while, and have admired the daily posting ability of the blog “The Daily Photography of Andreas Manessinger“

So, here’s to it.

My first picture today was taken this week at a local park (Meadowbrook Park in Urbana, IL). It was a tough day shooting. I went out over my lunch break, so I only had a bit of time. Within the first 5 minutes of arriving, I dropped a lens. Nuts! Fortunately, it was my old 135mm lens for my Pentax K1000, as opposed to something newer and more expensive. I’ve got a replacement coming from KEH.com. A used Pentax 135mm f/3.5. It’s supposed to be sharp, but I won’t know until I can shoot it myself. Until then it’s hope and pray.