my photo on flickr, photo made with Nikon Coolpix 5700

I shot some film the other day - did not finish the roll but at least a start back to film.  Not to say I am done with digital.  The camera was a Nikon Photomic with a Nikkor non AI 85mm f1.8 lens and the film was HP5.  The light meter is dead in the Photomic, so I just shot at 2.8 and 1/60 for some indoor shots

 I am also looking to restart using my Cosina Voigtlander Bessa R rangefinder with interchangeable lenses. The lenses I have for the R are (nice sound to that sentence) are the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f1.5, the Voigtlander Classic 35mm F2.5 and a Soviet 85mm f2.0 lens.   It is a fully manual camera with an excellent viewfinder and built in light meter.

Lots and lots of snow, forecasters keep thumbing through their thesauri looking for new terms: flurries, snow squalls, light snow, flurries heavy at times, snow, etc.

I tend not to take the digicam out in such anti-electronic weather - I may take out one of my old film SLRs, a Pentax Spotmatic or maybe a Nikon (FM or FM2) and may go with an extreme wide angle lens (20mm Carl Zeiss Flektagon M42 mount or an old Nikkor 20mm f4 AI'd lens) or maybe 35mm angle of view, hard to beat a Super Takumar 35mm f3.5 lens for quality and the Nikkor AI 35mm f2 is no slouch either.

I will be adding +1 f stop at least in exposure for all the whiteness that has piled up.

I was doing a little housecleaning of the photographic kind on my PC the other day and discovered that I had taken a lot of photos with my two digicams in 2006, 5,797 images according to Picasa 2. There is still time for me to make it to 6,000 before year end.

Part of this plethora of photographic splendour is due to my using from time to time auto bracketing, up to five bracketed exposures. I also set my Nikon 5700 Coolpix to low speed continuous shooting and blaze away. The idea with this is that the first shot is prone to camera motion if the light is low and the shutter speed is slow, but once I hold the shutter down the second and succeeding shots are likely to be steadier.  So duplicates and useless images have accumulated.

I would hate to think what the cost in film processing would have been for the year.

My other digicam is a Canon G2. Problem with it is the two rechargeable batteries have been reused so much since I purchased it that they are now declining to hold a charge. I have asked Santa for a new battery. The G2's 50 ISO setting and f2.0 lens (the 5700 is f2.8) can make for some very nice images. I won't be getting the Canon battery at around $140, but a generic.

Nikon F2 professional level systems camera body was introduced in 1971. "Photomic" refers to the metering viewfinder head which this example is shown with. The Nikkor 85mm lens, perfect length for portraits, is in the old Nikon lens mount, the non-AI mount. While this means it cannot be mounted without damaging almost all more recent Nikon bodies (the FM is one exception that permits non-AI as well as AI mount lenses) it has superb quality and can be bought used for a very reasonable price.

Photography in Malaysia is a website that has a lot of information about Nikon cameras and lenses, the link below will bring you to the page with everything you want to know about the Nikon F2 Photomic.

I first encountered the exceptionally fine photography of Ian MacEacheran over on photo.net. His photos of industrial workers and of New Brunswick life (1960s) as well as other subjects are outstanding. His photos of an asylum are especially moving.

His skill, his attention to composition and in conveying story through his images is second to none. If you want a treat for your eye and soul, check out his work.

MacEacheran was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, in 1942.

He has used Leica rangefinder cameras and the Nikon F SLR. His work is mainly in black and white.

At photo.net, MacEacheran has photos at : http://www.photo.net/photos/iwmac