A tiny, tiny hole.

April will be here before you know it.

I’ve been using the Wanderlust Pinwide since 2010 and love that little thing, but it has its flaws. The main problem being it’s made from plastic.

The first one I purchased lasted almost a year with careful handling, but then I took the GF1/Pinwide combo with me on a 2-week trip to Italy – along with three other camera/lens combos – and by the time the trip was over the small tabs that hold the cap to the camera had broken off.

I was fortunate that Pinwides were still available for purchase and picked up a couple more. I’m still using one of them, careful to remove it from the GF1 body when not in use. The other still has the cellophane wrapper around the little tin container, unopened. Plus I still have the Slit.

When I saw the Thingyfy Pinhole Pro S11 advertised on a few photography sites I was curious, certainly. Aluminum. Clean design. Reasonably priced. Really cool. Why not?

I ordered it online at their site. Got an immediate email order confirmation saying I’d get an email notification when it shipped. In about 15 days, the email said. Waited for that shipping notice. Never came. Yes, I checked spam. I pinged them via email, Twitter, Facebook. No response whatsoever. Finally got a shipping notice via email and waited another week until it arrived.

Aside from the unimpressive customer service, the S11 is a pretty nifty little gizmo.

The unboxing was Apple-like. Great package design, inside and out. Really nicely done.

They offered a threaded aluminum lens cap for an additional $10, but the S11 came with a plastic clip-style lens cap, which was good enough for me.

I did order the 58mm UV filter, though.

I shot a few hand-held pictures the same day it arrived in the mail, using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1.

The GF1  was next, a few weeks later.

While the 11mm focal length is the same for both the Pinwide and the S11, the hole/aperture in the S11 is slightly larger, 0.14mm to 0.11mm for the Pinwide.

Another cool little gizmo.

Looking forward to this year’s Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day on Sunday April 28, 2019.

 

 

Cars on film.

13 pictures, 9 cameras, 8 different film types.

A little shameless self promotion…

I put together a short essay titled ‘Cars on Film’ about shooting cars using film cameras and the good folks at Film Shooters Collective were kind enough to publish it on their website.

Please > Give it a look, give it a read.

And while you’re there, check out the FSC Journal for a ton of great film photography.

Unequaled.

Levitation

Visual splendor.

I received Keith Carter: Fifty Years today.

I’m slowly flipping the pages, soaking in the beauty of each photograph.

There are so few photographers whose work can put me in a trance. Carter is one of them.

Magic.

Kinda’ cool.

Best of 2018

I’m tickled… my TtV ‘Rusty hearts’ from back in May made JPG Magazine’s Best of 2018.

Exercise is good.

Stretching the creative muscle.

I read about the Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards in the December 10, 2018 Shots Magazine email newsletter.

I love Shots Mag. Such a cool idea. And these assignment cards are a nice touch from publisher Doug Beasley, designed by Outside the Box Designs.

They’re described as “a deck of 36 beautifully designed and printed cards, with a unique photo assignment on the back of each one, housed in an elegant box and all printed on recycled paper.”

Photo Assignments For Personal & Spiritual Growth

The cards are about 3″ x 5″ in size, printed on a thick recycled stock with rounded corners that have a semi-gloss finish. The type used for each card is a serif font at a readable size, and each card is numbered. The front of the cards are dark grey with a series of fine white lines that swirl and overlap. A nice pattern. There’s also a red hanko, Doug’s most likely, centered near the bottom.

It came with a nifty box with four flaps that folds up to enclose the deck. It’s secured with a hook-and-loop closure. Along with the hanko, there’s a great tagline on the main flap that reads “Photo Assignments For Personal & Spiritual Growth.”

This collection of 36 assignments will be my 2019 photographic workout and I’m looking forward to getting started.

The leap.

Worth it.

I’ve been updating my Mac system a bit lately, adding a second monitor, replacing the very old keyboard, and moving up to Apple’s Magic Mouse 2.

The MM2 is awesome. I used the previous model with my work laptop back before I retired and loved it.

The Logitech wired mouse I’ve been using on my personal system the past few years was fine, but that model was discontinued and I had an Apple wired mouse that was just okay.

So, I finally bit the bullet and paid the price for the Magic Mouse 2.

A good investment.

48 sunsets, 2018.

Happy New Year!

I’ve had an annual project going since we relocated to Texas a few years ago, making photos of Texas sunsets.

The view from our back porch every day around sundown is spectacular, even more so when there are clouds in the sky. So much drama!

I’m not gonna give away all my secrets, but I use my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100, set the aperture to ƒ5.6 or smaller, keep the ISO low, and use one of the built-in art filters to achieve the color-pop and vignetting.

Above are 48 sunsets, made 12 per quarter through 2018. Click the image to view large!