Last Roll (exposing me)

Four Peaks in the distance

Camera: Nikon FE2 - s/n 2394639
Lens: Nikkor ED IF 300mm f4.5 AIS - Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AIS
Film: Kodak E-100

I’m making progress.

I have 4 film cameras. 

The Nikon F3 is my absolute favorite camera of all time.

This roll is from my FE2, another very cool camera that I enjoy shooting with.

I have two Nikon FG, I use one as an everyday carry. One is black, the other is shiny. I alternate between the two, one acts as a back up. I can also load a different type of film and use both on a project. The FG literally goes with me to work, out to eat, over to a friend’s house. I don’t want the wear of everyday carry on my F3 or FE2.

What’s going on here is a complete roll that I got back from processing just a few hours ago. This roll is my twenty second roll of film that I’ve had processed, the seventh from of the FE2. It took twenty two rolls to get a complete roll that is acceptable. Most of the time, I get about four or five pictures out of a roll of thirty six that I’m happy with, this time only four or five that I’m not.

I’m beginning to see improvement.

I’m an amateur photographer.

I take pictures for fun. I’ve always operated a camera this way yet this time around, I decided to divorce myself from the camera phone. It’s so easy to take good pictures with a camera phone but the pictures are like everything out there.

Everyone uses them, it’s rare to see film, you have to look for it. 

Camera phone images are too real. …and like everyone else’s pictures, they seem to be looking through the same set human eyes because they are, not really but really.

I am me, I am like everyone else yet I am looking to level up my performance in photography. This roll is my latest choices of camera, lens and medium, 35mm film. It’s a nice roll of photos from the surrounding area near my home and I’m at a point where I see gains.

That’s it.

…and who am I writing this to anyway?

Me!

This is my diary.

My photo album. 

My resources all in one spot.

I’m still waiting for my son or wife to take a picture of me laying on the couch, making this home page on my iPad. In the case of this page, on my phone, laying in bed in Flagstaff visiting family. The photos fresh from developing and scanning, I received them in email while I’m on the road.

My site is simple to facilitate, the ease of use was purposeful, the words and pictures are for me, friends or family. Anyway this is the first roll that I know I’m making progress. The roll was shot on two or three days and only a couple of weeks old. The pictures are deliberate, thought out. They were taken NOT during the best time of day, the first or last hour of light. No filter, no post production editing, this is the order, the picture above was the last and the bottom was the first.

I am pleased with my progress after shooting twenty two rolls out of four film cameras, this being the seventh from the Nikon FE2 and a long lens.

…and, I’m working on my black and white photography as well.

F3 | FE2 | FG | D780 | EM | lens | film

One of my favorite houses on the North side of Camelback Mountain, one of the oldest too!

The Praying Monk, iconic to the skyline of the area.

The Copenhaver Castle, another one of my favorites.

One of THE most beautiful homes in Phoenix.

Tough lighting for film, even harder to keep focused but as you can see, the focus is on my name.

If I had to pick a shot to fail, this is it yet I will try it again a little differently.

Near Stanford Road and 32nd street, I’ve enjoyed this vista for years and finally captured it.

My favorite from the roll.

This is what I am seeing, improvement in choices, the changing of aperture.

This is literally a picture of impatience…

..and now I know.