Darryl Wattenberg's PhotoBlog

Wordless Wednesday 5

Wordless Wednesday 4

February 12 of 12 (Three Days Later)

My 12 of 12 concept for February 2011 didn't work so well. I used the Fujifilm GA645Zi (a 6x4.5 120 "point and shoot" rangefinder) and Portra 160NC and 800 Saturday for just capturing the day for the 12 of 12. Complications with the minimum focus distance (1 meter) were difficult to work around, but the data recorder didn't get the time as I expected, only the date and exposure information. The other major problem was the take-up spool not rolling tight enough and allowing the edges of the film to be exposed as I changed film. Finally the scanning took much longer than I expected especially with some file issues along the way. Bottom line? I won't be doing it this way again and certainly not with the GA645Zi.

Labels: 12 of 12, Projects

They're Just Different

Film and digital images just look a little different. There are a number of factors that make these two different, but in general I prefer digital. The image at the left was shot on the Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with Kodak Portra 160NC, scanned on the Epson V500.

The image at the right was captured on the Nikon D700. Both have had some tweaks done but were taken more than an hour apart from about the same location. While the one on the left is a better capture and I made it a little warmer, I prefer the quality of the one on the right (click through for the higher resolution versions). Much of it is subjective and does change based on the look I want, but I general prefer digital all around. So far I've not featured a film image for my Wordless Wednesday as I just don't like them as much. Yet I'm really enjoying shooting on film again. What are your preferences in the film versus digital debate?

Labels: Cameras

12 of 12 Tomorrow

Tomorrow is another 12 of 12! This is one of those great little photo projects I enjoy where you aim to capture your day in 12 images. Think of it as basically a photo diary you share with the world. It's been a few months since I last participated but I'll share that one done entirely on the iPhone:

Labels: 12 of 12, Projects

Wordless Wednesday 3

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

Lucky Find: Fostoria Wooden Depot

I love finding things I didn't know exist and had that luck when driving around Fostoria Ohio last weekend. We drove around town after shooting at the former Amtrak stop (at Taft Blvd and South Main Street) looking for other interesting locations to shoot. We found an old wooden depot, completely closed up, boards over the windows, but someone had been cutting down the trees near the building. This great little depot can be found on the northeast corner of East North Street and North Cadwallader Street and seems to have once been a Toledo and Ohio Central stop. Apparently the Fostoria Railroad Preservation Society is working to raise funds to move the building to the coming Fostoria Iron Triangle Railpark. I hope to find time in late spring or early summer to return and grab some photos with the vines greening up. Perhaps I might be able to contact the FRPS about getting a tour of the facility too. The moral of this little story is to look somewhere new when you're out -- perhaps you'll find something cool to shoot.

Labels: Location

Wordless Wednesday 2

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

The Ugly Weather

Many times I simply want to shoot but the weather doesn't offer good images. Usually I use those conditions for close-ups, but other times I'm looking to capture a specific events. This happen a couple weeks ago when I wanted to get some shots of the icebreakers working to keep the frieghters moving through the St. Clair River between Marine City and Algonac. The weather was pretty cold, lightly snowing, and with just awful skies. I shot anyway since this was likely one of the few opportunities I'd have to get shots of action like this. Thanks to the RAW images from the D700 I was able to expand the dynamic range and bump up the colors, but they still don't look good. I posted a few of the photos to my Flickr Photostream as I felt the subject was compelling enough to share. Last week I had an interesting comment posted to one of those photos by Flickr user Ilkka Porttikivi who like the image and felt that it was a great portrayal of shipping in the winter. The bottom line is when shooting digital images I feel it's generally worth at least trying to capture these images since whatever is happening at that moment will never be happening in quite the same way again. It's really about making lemonade from those lemons.