The real deal.

A grey (and blue) morning @ ISO 400.

It’s been a while since I’ve shot film – I don’t mean Polaroid, Fuji peel-apart, or even Instax instant stuff. I’m talkin’ real-deal film. You know, 35mm or 120 – so it felt pretty good to get some shots earlier this month to post this week for the Shitty Camera Challenge.

As mentioned in a previous post, Battleground 1863 was a pretty nifty event and I had a great time wandering around the camp. The weather was semi-cooperative, with temps in the low 50s accompanied by a misty fog. Great for ISO 400 film.

That little Argus 520 did an admirable job, all things considered. Plus it was a great conversation starter with the guys dressed in uniform for the reenactment and many of them shared stories about old cameras and camera collections.

Here are nine shots from that 24 exposure roll of XP2 Super that I’m kinda’ partial to…

 

Battleground 1863 – 9

Battleground 1863 – 6

Battleground 1863 – 3

Battleground 1863 – 7

Battleground 1863 – 2

Battleground 1863 – 4

Battleground 1863 – 8

Battleground 1863 – 5

Battleground 1863 – 1

Spring.

Has sprung.

Happy Spring!

The color activity in the raised beds is heatin’ up! The ranunculus tubers are the latest to reveal their beauty, starting with this gorgeous red flower.

In Texas, Spring goes by incredibly fast, but it’ll be awesome to work in the yards again.

Up early, with a twist.

GTX Photo Fest.

6 a.m. is when I usually get up, but my normal routine includes downing a travel mug of coffee and computer time until 8-ish.

Not so today. I had to be out the door by 7:30 a.m.

Today was the 1st (and hopefully annual) Georgetown Photo Festival.

But let me back up a minute.

I decided to take only my TtV rig with me today.

It’d been a while since I shot Through the Viewfinder and I thought this event would be a perfect fit. Last night I spent a good two hours getting my gear ready – charging batteries, checking camera settings, clearing and formatting the CF card in the ol’ Pentax *ist D – so it’d be a grab-and-go kind of thing after morning coffee and such.

I was ready. And everything worked out perfectly. Wake up. Coffee. Shower. Go.

Georgetown, TX is up the road about 17 minutes, if the traffic signal gods are on my side.

I got to the town square about 10 minutes early and could see folks gathering on the east side of the courthouse. A photostroll was planned for 8-10 a.m.

The morning air was around 46º with a slight breeze out of the north. Brrr. I wore a hoody sweatshirt. Seemed enough. Really wasn’t.

I mingled with people I know from PhotwalksATX, said hello to David Valdez (one of the event organizers), then joined in as everyone congregated on the courthouse steps for a group shot.

I started walking around, and promptly lost the folks partaking in the photostroll. I kept moving and in the span of an hour I’d made about 60 TtV shots. That’s when the 4 AA batteries in the *ist D decided to go dead. Bummer.

I went back to the Escape, looking for the other set of batteries I’d packed. Sadly, they weren’t in the bag. So, I put the TtV rig back in the camera bag and locked up the truck. Then I pulled out my iPhone and headed back into the fray using the Blackie app.

After another half-hour of walking around it was getting close to 10 a.m. and my toes were cold. So I headed back to the truck and drove home.

Yup. You know where this is going… maybe I *should’ve* brought another camera. Lesson learned. Next time bring a back-up camera. Maybe two.

I got around 2 dozen decent shots in all. Here are a few of my faves…

Cruisers

T-Bird taillight

Edsel hoody

Super 88

Jebediah

Old Ford

Shelby

Gull wings

mach 1

WILCO Courthouse

Overland

David

Meats

NSX

Small wonder.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is one of the smaller cameras in my collection, but its size doesn’t mean it’s a slouch.

A cool little shooter, I’ve been using the LX5 since April 2011.

It has a Leica Vario-Summicron lens, ƒ2.0, a max shutter speed of 1/4000 second, with 24-90mm zoom. At 10 megapixels, and an ISO range of 80-12800, the camera does well in low light.

The camera has a rubber grip on the right-hand side, with just enough of a presence to make holding the LX5 easy and comfortable. Looks nice, too.

At the top of the lens barrel there’s an aspect selector for 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9. On the side of the lens barrel is a switch for auto, macro and manual focus.

The zoom is a lever incorporated into the shutter, with the camera mode dial slightly behind and to the left. There’s a small chrome switch for powering on-off far right on the top of the LX5.

I’m a big fan of the Panny menu system. It’s clean, simple, and easy to use.

The rear display is a roomy 2″ x 3″, but I added the external DMW-LVF1 viewfinder and, even though the LVF1 display is smallish, it works nicely. I especially like that it can be flipped up for low-angle shots. Along with a diopter adjustment, there’s a small, yet convenient button located on the side of the LVF1 for manually switching between the rear display and the external viewfinder.

The control ring and function buttons on the back of the camera are arranged neatly on the right side of the body. There’s a thumb wheel just above them. Handy for changing aperture size and exposure compensation with a simple press or rotate.

The LX5 has a pop-up flash, activated by a small switch, on the left side of the top of the body.

I’m a big fan of the Panny menu system. It’s clean, simple, and easy to use.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is a nice, tight little package that’s a joy to use.

A few samples.

Red Rule

Wet Red Gerber Daisy

58

Pale pink rose

3 shutters

Hairy

Gerber Daisy

Green leaf

Skull

Handles

Purslane

Little Red Flower

Flower ball

Evening sky

Boom.

Battlefield 1863.

I had a great time yesterday at Camp Mabry for Battleground 1863. I arrived early enough to wander over to the ‘camp’ and mingle with the soldiers before their 1 p.m. performance.

A friendly bunch, not a one of these guys were camera shy.

I stayed until around 1:45 p.m. and got to see and hear most of the presentation. Lots of blank gun fire and smoke, but I left before they started firing off the cannons.

Along with shooting up that roll of black and white 35mm film in the Argus, I managed to make a few digital shots, here are nine faves…

Troops

Drummer

Rifles

Marching

Black hat

Rifle barrel

Tent

Tassle

Red

Shitty.

Play. Play. Play.

This’ll be my first #ShittyCameraChallenge and I’m using the Argus 520 Focus Free 28mm camera – eBay $9.99 – loaded with a roll of Ilford 35mm XP2 Super 400/24 exposures that expired in February 2009.

I’m heading into Austin tomorrow morning for Battleground 1863 at Camp Mabry… perfect for this challenge.