The promise of cheap film equipment has been illusory at best. I think it was true maybe 5-10 years ago when people were dumping their film equipment on the market. Then as the used film market started to mature things have sky-rocketed. Certain models more so than others based on what the hipsters are doing. Case in point is the Leica M6. Several years ago I purchased a pristine example for $1500. I chided myself for spending this amount when there were other ones for $1200. Like a fool I sold it some time later. Now if I wanted that same camera I’d have to pay $2500. An increase in $1000 in just 4 or 5 years!! A similar M7 goes for about the same and it’s a better camera in my opinion.
Well I finally purchased the Nirvana camera pictured above. Canon EOS55QD for $48 from Used Photo Pro. They have a bunch just sitting there to be purchased. Yes they’re made of hardened plastic but they have about every bell and whistle there is. I bought one along with a 40/2.8 pancake lens all for about $110. So instead of pining for a used M6 that you can’t afford, go for something that’s a real bargain.
CPACis the Colorado Photographic Arts Center located in downtown Denver. It’s a gallery space, wet and digital darkroom all in one location. They offer classes and once a month they host PhotoVox which is talks, discussion and display members works. Last nite was a very nice, informal show your work nite for 6 fearless photographers.
or is it Old new stock? What it means is that the product has never been opened but it’s from a previous era. The Konica Centuria 80e is not available anymore. Are there ANY film point and shoots of any ability still for sale? Not really. But Safelight Berlin advertised them for less than 100euros so I was in. I shot the film that was included which was out of date 2006. Color film does not age well like wine so there were color shifts that had to be dealt with.
You know how some photographers are immediately identified with a city or region. Like W. Euegene Smith is with Pittsburgh well I seemed to have stumbled upon the Central NY equivalent in Ralph Bull. Having lived in this area for many years the images all ring true. The photo above shows a sunny day but in the winter this is a rarity so I had to use it. While we’re at it here are some other examples:
Decided to get the Fuji Instax Square 10 out and shoot some home pictures. The first one is a proof print of the Hiroshima A Bomb Dome shot on Pixel 3 last October. The next one is our power panel that we decided we would decorate like they do downtown….with stickers.
To give Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom continues to demonstrate how mis-guided Trump is. Good for Romney to step up to the plate. The only thing Limbaugh deserves is:
A very interesting and scary look into how nuclear arms post WWII were handled by the armed forces and the government. Battling between the armed services ended up giving control of all nucs to SAC ( Strategic Air Command) based in Omaha and run by General Curtis LeMay. His idea that there is no ‘little’ war and that we should be all in with EVERY nuc we have at the same time. Well the problem was that there were little wars such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Crisis neither of which really required armed confrontation thanks to the strong wits of JFK.
What the hell were we thinking. Glorifying the atomic bomb!
I have no idea what these half naked women are doing. The second one, Duck and Cover was the best that the US government could come up with to protect it’s citizens in case of a nuclear attack. “Kiss your Ass Goodbye” would be a more appropriate title. The rest are just stupid.
This picture is worth a lot to me but it’s a picture of no consequence. The first picture was taken in the late 60’s - Al was still at home and the picture is hanging in our basement of the Marilyn Rd. house. The next picture is from our spare bedroom . Was just now able to find that this is a Lithography by Tucson artist, Ray Strang (1893-1957) and that it sold at auction in the mid-2000’s for $800 - who knew. But I also saw that another copy sold for as little as $20. It was also used with modifications by Texas country singer Robert Earl Keen on his “Bigger Piece of Sky” album cover. It is officially called “Slow Poke”
Back to Ray Strang:Ray C. Strang (1893 in Sandoval, Illinois, United States – 1957) was an American Western artist and illustrator. He was educated in Centralia, Illinois, and attended the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Students League of New York and New York School of Fine and Applied Arts.
Strang’s education was interrupted by The Great War, in which he was wounded in the Forest of Argonne. During World War II, he took part in the Consair art colony at the Tucson division of the Consolidated Aircraft corporation.
For 17 years Strang was a successful illustrator in New York for such magazines as The Saturday Evening Post, The American Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, Country Home Country Gentleman and Harper’s. He created covers for Dodd, Mead and Company and other publishers.
He then went West to become a well-known painter who specialized in nostalgic depictions of the Wild West and the prairie life. His paintings hung in many galleries, including Grand Central palace in New York, Bender Gallery in Kansas City, Alden Gallery in St. Louis, the Chicago Art Institute and the New York Art Center. His most famous painting was a work called “Slow Poke”, of
which there were many reproductions printed.
Strang was an active member of the Fine Arts Association, Palette and Brush club and belonged to the Salmagundi Club of New York City. He had a ranch near Safford Peak in the Picture Rocks section of the Tucson Mountains, where he died in 1957. Ray Strang did many paintings including “Playmates” which is a canvas painting of two foals.
He married and had a son.
Thought I would insert this random post about this fabulous book store we visited in October, 2019 on our trip to Japan. Obviously heavy on Japanese photographers, but this was what I was interested in. The clerk spoke English and this was a big help. I ended up buying this cute book by Yasuhiro Ishimoto because I wanted a small book as packing for the trip home would be tricky. She helped me find just what I was looking for.
I just got these. Shot on Fuji Natura 1600 film which is no longer produced. I shot it at box speed. Grain is there but it lets you know that its film not digital!
The National Western Stock Show is held every year in Denver during January. It is one of the premiere events for purveyors of livestock, supplies, rodeo gear and all sort of Western Wear. It is the site of the Coors Western Art show which displays some of the finest western artists around. Pictures can typically go for as much as $10,000. When we go we always visit the art show. This year saw some old faces such as Barbara Van Cleve :
Barbara Van Cleve’s heritage is rich with family history and firsthand experience. Her family’s ranch, the Lazy K Bar, was founded in 1880 on the east slopes of the Crazy Mountains near Melville, Montana. Her father, Spike Van Cleve, was a unique combination of writer, poet, Harvard scholar, and expert horseman-and “a pure quill Montanan,” as her father once put it.
As a photographer, she has held a camera since she was 11 years old when her parents gave her a “Brownie” camera and a home developing kit. Her youthful interest in photography soon grew into a lifelong commitment. Ranch work also began early for Barbara. Barely six, she could be found helping at the corrals or sitting astride a horse. Ever since she has been documenting the “true grit” and romantic beauty of her experiences on the ranch and on other ranches in the West.
Along the way, she earned an MA in English Literature at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois; she has been a Dean of Women at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois; and she taught English Literature, and later photography, for over 25 winters at DePaul University, Loyola University and Mundelein College, all in the Chicago area. At the same time photography continued to be a passionate avocation. In her free time, she worked for Rand McNally as a textbook photographer and also established her own stock photography agency. The long summers were usually spent on the family ranch in Montana.
New artists to me were Laura Wilson:
Laura Wilson is a photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ Magazine, English Vogue, London’s Sunday Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Marie Claire and Texas Monthly.
Wilson has done four books. Her latest, Avedon at Work, documents one of the great photographers of the twentieth century. Wilson was Richard Avedon’s assistant for six years and her photographs and journal entries show Avedon’s creative process, working methods, and range of subjects as he worked to complete, In the American West. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center/University of Texas Press October 2003).
Yale University Press published Hutterites of Montana: photographs and text by Laura Wilson (Fall 2000). Winner: Book of the Year, Carr P. Collins Award, Texas Institute of Letters 2001. Winner: Golden Light Book of the Year Award, Maine Photographic Workshops 2001. David McCullough, the historian, said “A book such as this - a book so clearly and genuinely extraordinary comes along rarely and only as a result of exceptional skill and dedication.”
