5D

Ok, so yesterday it was kinda comical around here. There was the snow, of course. But as I looked out the window at the photographic possibilities, what hit me was a chaotic combination of opportunity and equipment, to wit:

• I had my Mamiya 645e in working order;
• I had just been reminded what a lovely film Ektar is, but all I had was 35mm, so I couldn’t use it in the Mamiya;
• I hadn’t really had much chance to use the F100 I bought last fall, but the roll of Ektar was shot with that camera, and that reminded me I wanted to use the F100 more often;
• Of course, there is the relatively 5D and all of its possibility.

So, I started hauling everything out. The F100 had a roll of HP5 loaded and half-shot. Thank goodness I had the ‘AA’ batteries for that body charged. I took it outside, took a incident reading (I don’t know the F100′s meter well enough to adjust a reflected reading from it with all the snow and glare) and fired off the remaining frames of HP5 (thinking all the while ‘gads, what a nice film camera the F100 is. Man, how it handles. Hmm, I gotta get a modern auto-focus lens for this baby . . .’ and on and on). With the HP5 finished, I then loaded a roll of Ektar in the F100. Check.

Oh, wait, the Bessa has a roll of HP5 half-shot in it, too. I’ll fire off the rest of those frames (‘ooh, how nice the snow will look with that Zeiss lens, wow . . .’). So with those frames finished as well, I then loaded Ektar in the Bessa. Check.

I grabbed the Mamiya and loaded PanF into it. Just so that I’d have a different POV with that camera, I put the 150mm f/3.5 on it, and went looking for specific mini-images to pull out of the whole with the telephoto. Quickly burned through a roll of PanF, loaded another. Now I’m working three cameras, mind.

Came inside at that point. The sky was still overcast. The kitchen table was strewn with bodies and lenses. Peg says “it looks like you took out every camera we own, dear.” She’s about right.

A couple hours pass, and the sun comes out, with the sky a brilliant blue, and the sun peeking through clouds to the West.

5D & 17-40 Zoom

I go back out with the 5D, the Bessa, and the F100. I shoot a bunch of images, looking for color this time. I go back in, grab the Mamiya, capture a bunch of close-ups of branches in b&w, go back in, take out the exposed roll and load Velvia 50, go back out. Get more images. The contrast between the blue of the sky, the warm late-afternoon sun and the white snow is striking. Expose the roll of Velvia 50 and go back in for the F100 and the Bessa. Grab the FTb, loaded with Tri-X and with the 28mm FD f/2 mounted. Shoot a couple images with that camera, but grab the 5D again for the color. The sky darkens and I go in.

Today comes and I go back out, finish the roll of Ektar in the Bessa and the roll of Ektar in the F100. Shoot the remaining Tri-X of ice cycles near the front door and then get the 5D and Peg’s macro lens, with which I capture the image at the top of this post.

After all that frenzy I realize that I have mis-placed the lens cap from the Mamiya 150 lens and also from the 28mm lens on the FTb.

Peg is laughing all the time. I really enjoyed myself, though, and I wouldn’t trade the chaos for anything in the world. Below is an image of me with the snow blower working my way up the driveway, captured by Peg on her 40D yesterday.

That snow blower is worth its weight in gold, I tell ya