Ghost in the machine

My Contax T recently decided to act up, exposing only every other frame properly. The rest of the time the shutter would either not open or not close, yielding overexposed shots or frame not exposed at all. (It needs to be sent in for repair, and I found a small company in Germany who will be able to fix it.)

When I put in a roll of that rather expensive Kodak Ektachrome E100G, sometime late October, I wasn’t yet aware of the problem. Only while shooting it I noticed that the sound the shutter made sometimes wasn’t what I was used to hear — only a single “click” instead of two distinct ones. As it turned out — as with the roll of equally expensive Velvia 100 I shot before –, approximately 15 frames were exposed properly, the remaining pictures were either plain transparent or showed a blurred scene due to overexposure.

Magically, though, the ghost that had possessed the camera seems to have been aware of the scenes I was shooting — I can’t explain otherwise why exactly these two pictures turned out so nicely, whereas most other “keepers” are of mostly irrelevant content.

Contax T + Kodak Ektachrome E100G

Contax T + Kodak Ektachrome E100G

I like the first one especially, because the light was simply magical, and the wide open aperture of f/2.8 caused a very pleasing blurring of the background. In the second one, I like the light-hearted and natural expression of both my wife and son.

Two family moments to remember, captured in two pictures that had a less-than-50% chance of coming into being. As if the camera had known what it was doing.

Picture of the day | September 6th, 2011

Wowzers! It’s already September? Well, fitting the rather gray and dull early autumn weather we’re currently experiencing, here’s a recent shot taken on Lucky 100 b&w film.

"Piece o' cake" | Yashica Electro 35 GT + Lucky 100 SHD

Picture of the day | August 5th, 2011

This morning, a helicopter landed right in front of our house, on the lawn of the police station on the opposite side of the street. You can imagine how exciting this was for Emil! :-)

Emil watching the helicopter | Olympus E-P1 + Lumix 20/1.7 @ f/1.7, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200

I also made a video of the helicopter landing, which I will later upload to YouTube.

Out and about with the E-P1 + Cosmicar 25/1.4

As I already mentioned, I’ve slapped the little Cosmicar/Pentax 25mm f/1.4 C-mount lens onto my E-P1 again — and what can I say, I’m as thrilled again by this lens as I was the first, the second, the third and all consecutive times I used it. On the E-P1, it’s simply magical!

There’s something about the colours the way theĀ  lens renders them combined with the way the E-P1 reproduces them that make this special combination so unique. From all the lenses I’ve used on the E-P1, this is the one I enjoy the most — and yes, its optical imperfections have a good deal to do with that!

But before I lose myself in ongoing ravings about this little, inexpensive gem, let pictures speak! :-)

Olympus E-P1 + Cosmicar/Pentax 25/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/100 sec, ISO 250

Continue reading Out and about with the E-P1 + Cosmicar 25/1.4

Picture of the day | July 6th, 2011

Gummy bears. And the joy of a little boy is complete :-)

"Yummy gummy" | Olympus E-P1 + Cosmicar/Pentax 25/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/100 sec, ISO 400