Film stock preferences: Am I doing it right?

My fridge film stock. Yeah, there's more in the freezer... Last month, word came down that Fujifilm was discontinuing its Pro 400H film. This pro-level color stock had a special "fourth layer", and the difficulty in economically making this layer caused them to shut it down. Word spread fast through the film community. Many photographers...

Olympus 35 RD: Three Months In

Telephone, telephone. N Skidmore St at N Concord Av, 23 Jan 2021. Olympus 35 RD, Kodak Ektar 100. I was gifted an Olympus 35 RD rangefinder camera by my friend GravelDoc at the end of summer. It was inoperable, a victim of "sticky shutter syndrome" synonymous with this model. So I dropped it off for...

The snow week, plus snow photography

Rosemont Bluff Natural Area, 13 Feb 2021. Minolta SR-T 101, MC Rokkor-X PG 50 mm f/1.4 lens, Kodak Ultramax 400. Last time I checked in with you fine folks we had our only true Winter Storm of the season, a few days of snow and ice, followed by freezing rain. The city shut down. Trees...

The final week of the Midnite Bicycle League Challenge starts today

Hello folks! We are counting down to the end of the Midnite Bicycle League Challenge. This is the final week, and if you haven't already you need to complete your two final rides this week. (Of course you should have done the three other rides before now!) I'm now getting the prize packs ready. This...

Getting off the beaten track

Apartments at SE 60th Av at Belmont, 8 Feb 2021. Minolta SR-T 101, PG Rokkor-X f/1.4 50mm lens, Kodak ColorPlus 200. Over the past couple decades I've led bicycle rides in and around Portland. These rides tend to focus on what I call Portlandia Obscuria: The weird and unknown little bits and pieces, often hidden...

Rocky Butte rendezvous, 9 Feb 2021

Camera: Minolta SR-T 101. Lens: MC Rokkor-X PG f/1.4 50mm. Film: Kodak Colorplus 200. Rocky Butte is a prominent promontory in NE Portland, lying just west of I-205. It's part of the Boring Lava Field, a collection of volcanic cinder cones found along the east side. From the height of the hill at 613 ft/187m,...

The Return of the Minolta SRT-101

It took nearly two months, but I finally got my Minolta SRT-101 out of the camera shop. I had purchased my first SLR camera in October, shot some rolls with it, fell in love with it, but the mirror was not returning correctly. The culprit was a broken gear. Advance Camera replaced the gear and...

A Portland Snow Event, 11-15 Feb 2021

Why yes, it was just last week when I was talking about how I enjoy Portland's temperate winters. OnRhodes correctly surmised that I was "jinxing" things by talking about it. And jinx I did: We've had a significant winter weather event over the weekend. While snow in Portland isn't uncommon during winter, most of it...