Rainy Days & Summitar

Today, during my lunch break, I took a drive to a local park. The day was rainy, but I made the best of it by trying out my 1946 Leica Summitar 50/2 lens. Mounted on the ancient 1953 Leica IIIf RD rangefinder camera, this lens still knows how to paint light rather well. Nothing special here, but the donut made the rain a bit easier to handle.

Zoomer turns 10 years old!

Ten years ago today, our little buddy was born into this world. There were eight greyhound puppies in the litter, seven males and one female. Zoomer has experienced quite a bit over this past year, coming back from bone cancer. But today we celebrate his tenth birthday.

Happy Birthday, Zoomer!

Some Native Japanese Film for a Native Haitian

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Chicago, visiting a friend who is a native Haitian. Jeff moved to the United States over 20 years ago, but still has family in Haiti, including 2 uncles, one aunt, and several cousins. Last week, after the horrific earthquake that centered around Port au Prince, Jeff discovered that his uncles and cousins were left homeless, but safe. His Aunt Mona, however, an 80 year-old missionary whose home was right in the middle of the devestation, was unaccounted for. We all prayed.

Yesterday, Jeff received a phone call from one of his cousins. Aunt Mona was found alive and well. Praise God!

These two pictures of Jeff were taken during our visit, and were shot with my Leica MP, Voigtlander Color-Skopar 25/4 lens, and Fuji NATURA 1600 film. This film was only marketed in Japan. I was able to get hold of several rolls last year.

New Eyglasses

I was asked to produce a self-portrait without covering up my eye by the camera. So here's my answer: a self-portrait covering up both eyes. ;)
And unfortunately a poor interpretation of Andreas Feininger's "The Photojournalist".

Camera: 1953 Leica IIIf RD

Lens: 1946 Leitz Summitar 50/f2

Capturing the Christmas Rabbit

The Captain lets out the typical greyhound "roo", announcing the capture of the Christmas rabbit! The world can now sleep soundly, knowing that Captain Z has once again saved the world from another dangerous...uh...rabbit?

Third one's a charm

We just got back from Oconomowoc for Zoomer's 3rd chiropractic and acupuncture treatment. He did well. Got juice hooked up to the needles again. Only instead of the usual 30 minutes, the doc gave him a 45 minute recharge. A couple days ago, I made a little ramp out the front door, so now he's able to walk in and out on his own. This has given my 51 year-old back a nice break. I'm also trying to decrease one of his pain meds a bit, since it's just not very kind to the liver. Here's what Zoomer wore to the docs tonight, the teddy bear jammies I got from a friend when Zoomer was only 1 year-old.

Round 2: Captain Z gets electrified!

This past Monday, Zoomer had his second chiropractic and acupuncture treatment. It was quite an ordeal, in several ways. First of all, it had been snowing for part of the afternoon, and with the clinic almost 40 miles away, we didn't know how safe the roads would be. Fortunately, the roads never got that bad, and we got there just on time.

But as soon as the doctor's assitant saw us, she told us that the doctor was gone. Apparently, her daughter was in an accident earlier in the day, and she had to cancel our appointment. Well, it turns out that they have a client with almost the same name as mine, Mark Ehlert, spelled very close to my name. So they had called the wrong person to cancel the appointment. The funny thing is that Mark Ehlert just said, "Okay.", when he was told of the cancellation. Funny, now the guy probably thinks he's getting dementia!

Well, the assistant called the vet at the hospital where her daughter was being treated and explained the situation. Fortunately, the young lady was not hurt bad at all, and the vet was able to get back to her clinic and give Zoomer his treatment.

When the vet finally arrived, she asked me how Zoomer was doing. I said that I hadn't really seen much, if any, change. Well, upon watching him walk for awhile, she disagreed. She said he was doing noticaby better than he was the last time she saw him only 6 days ago. I then realized that he was now walking with his spine noticably straighter. He still has a long way to go, but it was reassuring to actually see some improvement.

For round 2, Zoomer received 15 needles, but this time they were given a very low current of electricity.

Tea with Lorna

Zoomer gets poked

Yesterday morning, we brought Zoomer in for his first acupuncture and chiropractic treatment. The vet administered a total of 12 needles into his rear leg and along the spine. Here you can see 6 of those needles.

Jack knows Leica

I took this with my 1957 Leica M3, 1958 Elmar 50/2.8, and Kodak Tri-X.
Jack knew exactly what I was using.

Ektar 100

LIFE photographer: John Dominis

I had the chance to attend a talk yesterday with LIFE photographer legend, John Dominis. I had some Tri-X loaded in my MP and was able to grab a few shots. The lighting was terrible, especially since it was hitting from directly from above and blowing out his 88 year-old head of beautiful white hair. 88 years old, and has lived the life that many of us have fantasized about.

Tri-X shot pushed to 800, developed in D-76 for 10:30, with 2 easy inversions every 60 sec. Lens was 50/1.4 lux pre-asph at f/2 and 1/15 shutter speed.

The Color of Creation

More of that free Portra 160VC I got from Kodak a few weeks ago. Shot with a Leica MP. Lenses were the 50/1.4 Summilux (pre-asph) and 35/2 Summilux ASPH.

The Explosion of Autumn

Going Greek Dutch

I've shot digital cameras for over 10 years now. I love the convenience of them. And certain jobs I would choose nothing but a digital SLR to shoot with. But there's a special relationship I've always had with film cameras, especially the manual focus rangefinder. And as much as I tried to get away from the grainy films during my early years of photography, when I returned to film 3 years ago, I found a new love for it...including the grain.

Title: Going Greek Dutch

Keeps on ticking...

1953 Leica IIIf RD with a 1946 Summitar 50.2
This beauty still shoots pictures as good as it did the day it was born.

Autumn in Portra

Timeless

Was it yesterday, or yesteryear?

Kolor me Krazy

Sometimes even an old dyed-in-the-wool black & white film shooter has to accept the fact that we still live in a world of color. Most of what I've been shooting in film these past few years has been B & W. Sure, the Kodachrome project has brought me back to reality. Although that will all be nearly over with by this time next year, as the film has now gone out of production forever, and the last remaining lab to develop this film will halt the service in December of 2010.

Lately, I've been experimenting with a stash of free color film that Kodak sent me last month. Free film is always a great excuse to pull out the half-exposed roll of Tri-X sitting in my Leica M3. And this color film especially, Kodak Portra 160VC, is perfect for this time of year. The autumn leaves have arrived. Here's a few pictures I took yesterday at Brown Deer Park. The afternoon was overcast, even with some light rain showers during my shoot. But these are the conditions that can be a delight to the photographer, bringing nice saturation to an already beautiful time of year.

Color Copies

Another Kodachrome, shot with the Leica M3 and Elmar 50/2.8.