His Mind Is Not For Rent

I am looking to start a photography-centric blog, so I, naturally, went out and bought as much film as Meijer had in stock last night.


Today, I took off work for a bit and went for a walk in Central Park, and along a couple of nice places in Carmel, IN.  I had 3 cameras and 3 36 exposure rolls of Fuji 200 speed film.


I did a roll in my Nikon Nikkormat FS, Minolta SRT-101 and SRT-102.  I DID NOT, however, have my Nikon D40x digital camera with me so that I could set up the lenses correctly to account for the dreary, foggy day so I was literally eyeballing it with 3 cameras operating in completely mechanical mode. The Nikon doesn't have anything electrical in it at all, and the Minoltas use a battery exclusively for the light meter.  But said battery is mercury-based, so no longer available and I don't have anything else in the slot to sort of work with.


So, with that in mind, these pictures may or may not come out super great at all.  I haven't bought film for a very long time, and the last time I sent any off to be developed was August of 2017.  I have maybe 10 rolls of who knows what sitting around the house that I shot mostly in October of 2017. Also, the SRT-101 may have had a light leak...The back was not fully closed.  I'll find out next week, I guess.


Anyway, I realized something about my style today. With the digital camera I'm basically all over the place. Most of what I take comes out looking pretty good, with the occasional bit of junk.  I feel like I experience the adventure almost exclusively through the viewfinder.  Today with the 35mm cameras I was actually more engaged in my adventure even though it was for the sole purpose of using a roll of film in each camera.  Yes, I was taking pictures left, right, up and down (literally!), but I was focusing on my surroundings (pun was unintentional for once) and trying to get a feel for the world that I was trying to take photos of.  Those +/- 108 exposures took me longer to get through than any 108 exposures I have taken in any of the years since I got my D40x.  That is no bad thing!  I've gotten too swept up in the digital photography mindset.


In some ways my skills have improved, in some ways I have gotten lazy.  I've known that for years, but today was the first time I actually took note of it in any sort of meaningful way.


Anyway, I sent off the film today for processing.  I will patiently wait for the day it returns in it's developed form so I can scan it and start my series of "A roll with..." posts on both here and wherever my next blog ends up!

Finally It's Christmas

Several years ago I bought a Minolta SRT-101 35mm camera on craigslist for a very small number of dollars (probably not more than $25, but I cannot find the email to confirm).

It was my first "real" camera.  "Real" translates to SLR camera with interchangeable lenses and etc.  Honestly, I love this camera. It is criminal that I only took a handful of pictures of the actual camera and that I used a terrible cell phone camera to do it!  I will rectify that here though.

The Minolta SR-T 101 is a 35mm manual focus SLR camera with Through-The-Lens exposure metering - TTL for short, that was launched in 1966 by Minolta Camera Co. It stayed in production for ten years with only minor changes.

Based on what I can tell, my camera is a second generation model that came with the awesome MC Rokkor-PF 1:1.4 f=58mm lens.  There is not a whole I can write about it that would make an awful lot of sense to anyone, but I can say that the thing is durable!

I tripped while walking one day and the lens took the brunt of the fall.  The damage was cosmetic, and it will no longer accept any screw on filters (boo!) but it still takes great images!

Anyway, here is the camera now (dented lens and all)...Eight years after I bought it!  I haven't used it very much for the last several years, I'm thinking I'll go get a couple of packs of film and rectify that soon though!

Rollin’ Down The Road Tryin’ To Loosen My Load

So I am mentally composing an entry about my beloved Minolta SRT-101, and there will be talk about the awesome lens that came with it.

Through the magic of a Minolta to Nikon adapter, I was able to take some pictures using the lens on a more modern digital camera, so here is the setup:

The Rokkor lens is attached to my Nikon D40x via a 3rd party adapter from eBay.

The results are, honestly, great in my opinion:

The day was pretty crummy and poorly lit due to it basically being winter, dreary, overcast and snowing.  The lens is still pretty clear and works nice and smoothly.  Disregard the dings on the edge of the lens. I tripped over someone and myself and the SRT went down onto some concrete.  The lens got a little dinged up, but it still works great!  Biggest downside is that it no longer accepts any filters or anything.

It's 3am I Must Be Lonely

So this is  a thing now.  Too bad I am sleeping just at the moment, so you get a scheduled post.

Hooray!

 

We Won't Get Fooled Again

Spam Spam Spam Spam

Today's adventures in Spam arrived via fax!

Sometimes Until Four

Went to the mall to get my watch fixed this evening...It was kind of a failure.  The guy got the broken pin most of the way out, but not all the way.  After I got home, I got it the rest of the way out.  Huzzah!

It is whole again after so many years!

Mamma Don’t Take My Kodachrome

Among all of the cameras that I own, my absolute favorite is a Nikon Nikkormat FS.  I picked it up at Goodwill for $10 because it had an awesome lens on it.  It may have been my first Nikon, I’m a little fuzzy on that point.
Anyway, I bought the thing in the spring or summer of 2011, and used it pretty frequently.  It was, for a long time, the backup for the Minolta SRT-101 that I already owned.  It had a longer lens, and was completely mechanical, so it was a lot more reliable than my Olympus OM-10 that I picked up at a flea market.
I learned so much with those three cameras that summer!
Anyway, when I got it the thing had a light leak due to a rotted out seal. Said light leak is apparent in some of the photos on the linked page.  They are the ones with the bar of overexposure down the right side of the photos.
I cut a piece of weatherstripping off the door of the non-functioning Party Van at work, dug out the rotted out seal and glued the new rubber in it’s place…Problem solved!
Anyway, I never really posted any pictures of the actual camera, so here it is:

I really should take this thing to Robert’s and see if they can clean it out and get it calibrated to the point of like new again.
(From the Wikipedia) The Nikkormat FS, manufactured from 1965 to 1971, was an FT stripped of the built-in light meter with its exposure information system and the mirror lockup feature. The FS was unpopular when new because of the lack of a built-in meter, but this makes it rarer and more valuable than the FTs to collectors today.

As The Sun Burns The Ground

I was thinking today.

I feel like I have lost a large part of myself in the last ten or twelve years.

I don't read anymore.  I listen to audiobooks, but I don't seek out anything new.  The last thing I listened to that was new to me were the Game of Thrones books, but the more I got into them the less I found myself caring about them.

I decided to rectify that today.  I snagged Astrophysics for Busy People, Quantum Physics for Dummies and Astronomy for Dummies from the library.  That should help me feel a little smarter about myself, right?

Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!

This week in "Adventures With Spam!"

You can visit the police station but nobody can help you. I dont live in your country. It means they can not catch me even for 8 months. Your system was infected by my malware. I recorded you through your web-cam, when you visited porn-site. Now I have the record of you, touching your intimate parts. During remote desktop connection we copied all your contacts and if you ask me to stay silent you have to pay 450 $ in bitcoin. Use this bitcoin address to pay ( 15BwDDkfPzybLFkNSna46EhF4uQ4Y9spWU ) (something like a credit card number) I give you 28 hours after clicking on this letter for making the transaction. There is no need to write me that you have sent money to me. This address is given only to you, my system will remove everything automatically after payment verification. You can get 48 h only reply on this letter with +. Good luck. Dont forget about the shame.

Thank you Rodrigo Corpuz (probably not your real name, but that of a stolen email identity) for today's little bit of fun, but I say, this doesn't work due to the fact that there is no web-cam attached to any of the computers here!

The Ringwraiths Dressed In Black

Came across this interesting article earlier:

How the Battle for 'Lord of the Rings' Nearly Broke a Director

It was a very interesting read.

Wine And Those Women

Today I spent about an hour and a half sitting in a Starbucks working on my blog.

Consolidating my digital footprint onto one platform is a nightmare!

Anyway, I was listening to the people at the other end of the table.  The girl was being talked to about her performance as a store manager at some fast food chain.  Her biggest problem was that she doesn't understand cash handling.

It made me miss my Arby's days.

Here I Am, Stuck In The Middle With You

To those middle school and high school age guys out there who think learning to sew is a waste of time...Think on this for a minute:
One day you will likely be a father. You will, inevitably, have a young, devastated child come running to you with their best stuffed friend who has sustained some injury and ask you to make their friend better.
You are the one that child will come to when something breaks and needs to be fixed. Saying "We will buy you another just like it and it will be okay." Usually is not good enough.

It is a completely worthwhile skill to have, and your child won't mind a scar, it just gives your child and their best stuffed friend something to bond over.
Blue Bear needed a wire transplant. Guess what...I had to reattach the switch to his paw somehow!
So glad I was able!
Seeing the joy in my son's eyes when he gets his bear back tomorrow will make the last 2 1/2 hours worth it.

So Sad It Had To Come To This

I love that Douglas Adams is now in the same category as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Cervantes and Ray Bradbury! Thank you Southport Library for making my day!

Because I Know What's Ailing Me

Is it bad that I spent ten dollars on Doctor Who Series 4 DVD today just to get the mini episode "Time Crash?"

Well, I'm Running Down The Road, Trying To Loosen My Load

Today I came across a very nicely written (and surprisingly accurate!) description of the automotive engine I have come to love so much.

I will share it with you here:

Posted By: Wellington P Funk

Join Date: 09-12-2005

I've said it before, but the Jeep 4.0L engine is the toughest, least maintenance-demanding engine I have ever had personal experience with. Folks on the internet know that the Jeep 4.0L is durable, but they know little of its history.

The original Jeep 4.0L inline-six was hewn from a solid block of granite by lightning bolts. Its cylinders were bored by the Imperial Winds and its rotating assembly was balanced by the Scales of Justice. The Ancient Egyptians used Jeep 4.0L engines to move the blocks which built the Pyramids, only switching to slave labor when it was found to be cheaper than the olive oil used to fuel the engines. Scientists have ranked the Jeep 4.0L engine as one of the strongest forces of nature, racking right up there with tectonic plate shifts for its low-end torque, and being surpassed by hurricanes only for its comparatively low redline. Mechanics have found imprints of fossilized dinosaur bones in block castings, and serial numbers in Roman numerals are a common sight. The design of the 4.0L's fuel injection system has been traced to the archives of Leonardo DaVinci, and early manuscripts of Shakespeare plays have been used as head gaskets for this engine (which, incidentally, explains the gaps in Shakespeare's collected works as well as the 4.0L's tendancy [sic] to leak oil). The engine's ancient roots also explain its ability to run on some very non-conventional fuels (original translations of the Rosetta Stone include evidence of Jeep 4.0L engines running on ox blood) as well as lubrications (during the Middle Ages, Jeep 4.0L crankcases were often filled with barley, with no detrimental effect on power output). Historians maintain that the fall of the Roman Empire hinged on their inability to design a superior engine, and had the Titanic been powered by a 4.0L Jeep engine, 1912 might have been a much happier year. Yes, had early-20th-century naval engineers had a touch more foresight, the Jeep 4.0L may have saved mankind from ever having to endure Leonardo DiCaprio and Celene [sic] Dion in the same sitting.

The only weakness in this otherwise unstoppable force of nature? Emissions. Yes, the engine's design may have come from the hand of Zeus, and its exhaust note at full throttle may have reverberated along the rock formations of Arizona to forge the Grand Canyon, but by the year 2007 its crude emissions control (originally consisting of papyrus strips soaked in the tears of the young Tutankhaman [sic]) had become outmoded, and the legendary, nay Biblical force of the Jeep 4.0L was put to rest.

She Don’t Mind

Decided to post a Ticket to Ride game result, because it is not political.

When The Leaders That You Choose Really Don't Fit The Shoes

Happy Election Day!  Here is the last (hopefully, but unlikely) of the political posts for the season.  This does, however, make the end of the stuff out of America: The Book.

It's Really A Ok To Have A Revolution

Okay kids, time to review what we have learned about elections!

 

It Says Right There In The Constitution

Part two of the elections chapter from America: The Book: