I got my new camera today. No, not the Canon 5D MK2 that was promised but I think this one is cooler. It’s an Olympus OM-2, it’s film and very old-school. I’ve mentioned that I’m taking a photography class and while they have cameras that I could check out, I decided that I might want to take another stab at Film Photography and I thought it would be smart to learn now and with a camera that I will own versus renting and then finding that camera.

I bought the OM-2 coupled with a Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens for a little north of $70 some time last week after an intense bidding war with another person who wanted the camera as much as me

So I’ve got the camera and while I haven’t developed anything, I love it. I love it because it’s just so old but it still works to this day. It also got me thinking about how the idea of the SLR or dSLR hasn’t changed much over the past 30 years. There is a shutter and a button. You press the button and the camera raises the shutter and ether exposes the film or the sensor records the information. It’s interesting at the least and I can’t wait to have a better approach to film photography.

As far as the photo itself goes, I took it with my Canon 50mm 1.4 on a Rebel XTi body. I didn’t really expect much and was just playing around but the light from my desk lamp created a really cool effect and so I played around with the aperture and got the photo that I wanted and like.

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Originally uploaded by Corbin Lane

I’m taking this class, right. It’s called photography and I’m really taking it so I can develop film relativity free and expand on the roots of photography even more so I signed up for Photography and in this class the teacher is taking us through the history of photography and one of the assignments is to make our own pinhole camera.

So I make one out of an oatmeal box and I pop a light sensitive paper in there. I go out and take a picture of a football sled. The exposure was 25 seconds and I thought it was going to be a bad shot because I thought I shook the “camera” but after developing and making a positive photo I realized that it is not and is in fact the best shot of the day (for me)

I’m enjoying the class so far and cant wait until we use film cameras because I bought an Olympus OM-2 camera for a little north of 70 dollars on the good ‘ol Bay of e (eBay).

I’m going to try and post more as I will be taking a lot more photos. Follow me on twitter and add me as a friend on flickr.

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Originally uploaded by Corbin Lane

“Music successfully added” – Awesome! I just downloaded some Tycho (Costal Brake for those who must know) and I was going to update my iPod, so I look over and siting next to my ipod was my camera (with 10-22 on it), flash and my 50MM lens. I was originally going to take pictures OF the 50MM lens, not through it! So I start taking pictures OF it and I realize that I can make it so much more interesting. I pop off the lens caps and take off the polarizer and start shooting through it. I take some interesting shots but nothing with true meaning.

This photo however, took many shots (probably around 20) to get framed correctly because I wasn’t working with framing 1 or 2 objects through a lens but I had to get the lamp in good position, I had to get the lens in good position and my hand in good position AND I had to press the shutter button, which when you’ve got a camera with a battery grip and a heavier lens because a harder task.

I snap the photo – NO DAMN CF CARD AGAIN! I forgot it in the reader, luckily this photo wasn’t good so I put in the CF card and take one more picture.
“Yes” I sighed, I got everything framed correctly and how I wanted so I put the card back into it’s reader and imported it into Lightroom. I looked at the exposure and it was blown out so I dropped it down a bit and looked at the black levels and they were… well, black. I lowered that some and bumped up the recovery

I finally have the shot! I upload it to flick using the nifty feature on lightroom and now I’m typing this on flicker and it’ll post on my blog. Fancy how technology works these days. I might continue taking pictures like this, shooting THROUGH the lens and see where I get with it. Please leave your comments here or on the flicker photo page here.

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Originally uploaded by Corbin Lane

*Click* goes the shutter as it captured the picture of the McBaine Oak Tree. I pull the camera away from my face to look at the picture and the picture disappears, I press the playback button and nothing. Not because the batteries died or the camera broke but because I drove 10 miles outside of town on a twisty route road to go take pictures of the sunset. I had my lens, I had my camera and I even had a flash but I’m missing one important thing… hmm… Oh yeah, a CF card. I forgot one of the most important things for a photographer.

It made me kick myself on the way back because as I’m driving back I see tons and tons of good photo opportunities but that’s okay because when  I go back out there on another occasion I’ll know where to look for potentially good photos.

On your right, however is a ICE watch. I got it just yesterday and its a pretty neat little watch. It goes well with my Tommy Bahama and my Ted Baker.

The Lens:

Remember my macbook? The one that got stolen… One would think that bad luck would stop there for a little while because that was a pretty big blow. Except, it doesn’t.

Because I don’t have enough money for a new camera, I decided that a new lens would be the next best thing. I did some thinking about what lens would be ideal for my uses and I concluded that a wide angel lens is the best bet. I did some more research and I figured that it’d be a good idea to stick with Canon wide angel lenses because they are above any other company (Sigma, Tamron, Tonika) in terms of build quality, speed and sacrifice of the overall sharpness and vignette factor that comes with any wide angel lens.

I know I want a Wide-angel Canon lens but I don’t know what one to get… Prime or zoom, those are my options. I looked at the primes because I’m a HUGE fan of prime lenses but one look at the prices and selection quickly made me look the other way partly because it wasn’t going to be beneficial for me in terms of versatility and cost. With primes out of the picture, I took a look at Wide Zooms, more specifically the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM and only because I rented one from Borrow Lenses (I get no money but they’re really cool, check ‘em out!) before and I LOVED it, the shots were amazing, the build was solid, the glass was perfect. I was satisfied with it but the problem was once again the price, I couldn’t handle $1700.00 that easily so I looked at the EF-S 10-22MM USM lens that would fit my camera perfectly and most likely give me the shots that I was hunting for, plus the price was easier to swallow.

I know what lens I want so I do what any reasonable photographer on a budget does… Go to eBay and start looking around! I put a few lenses on my watch list and watch the price go higher and higher to a point where I should just buy retail, UNTIL I come across one that has 6 hours and is only $400.00. I put in a bid for $660.00 knowing that I wouldn’t be at the computer when the auction ended.

$666.00 is how much the lens sold for. 6 dollars above my maximum bid but that’s alright, I have another lens in my watch list for around $500.00 and I watch it carefully over the net few hours until the last half hour, the bidding gets intense. I’m able to put in my last bid before the time runs out so I quickly punch in the numbers and automatically click on the confirm buttons and hope that my bid gets placed in time.

$608.01, I won the auction! I quickly send the money via paypal and the following day I get the tracking number through ebay. At this point, I’m ecstatic. I’ve got a new lens, It’s on its way and I couldn’t be happier. Except, it never does come but that’s not the end of the story. I’ve got recourse this time and that recourse is called paypal. I file a claim after a couple of days of no contact from the seller and the tracking information being idle (not showing departure or anything from any facility what so ever) and I wait, and wait and while I’m waiting, I do some more waiting.

Just as a note, the seller bought the shipping through paypal which gave me the tracking number but never actually dropped the package off to be shipped

I decide to call paypal and while I’m navigating the automated computer system that is really only there to actually make you even more mad, I finally get a hold of a paypal dispute representative. By this point I’ve probably played out every possible conversation that I’m going to have with him or her regarding the matter and me being me, I hope for the best but assume the worst and that’s what I got. The kind woman on the other end of the telephone helped me with my question which was “Are you actually doing anything regarding the dispute” and she quickly answered that and she said she would take a look at it that very moment. I hold for a short time and I hear her again.

“Are you there?”

“Yes…”

“Well, like I said, we usually check the tracking every once and while to see if it’s doing anything and we take action from there. I took a look at it and it’s been idle,” At this point, I have a huge sigh of relief. “So I have reversed the transaction but if the lens should show up please send it back to the seller”.

I have my money back and I’m on the hunt for another lens. I buy the Canon 10-22mm for $639.99 (from another seller) which is about what I paid after the other seller raped me with shipping. I get my tracking number from the seller this time and its coming from FedEx and I couldn’t be happier.

The Life Lesson:

I told myself last time that I need to quit trying to get ahead and this was yet another fine example because when I was bidding on the lens from Seller #1 he had no feedback what-so-ever. I saw this and should have walked away but I tried to get ahead and it bit me in the ass.

The Book:

While I was in this entire mess of scams and fraudulent sellers another photographer that I respect, David DuChemin, recommended that every photographer read The War Of Art. While I haven’t read but 60 pages, It has really helped me out with motivating me to do things. I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone so just go buy it (Amazon for $10)

Oh and there is also a new theme up! I decided that the old one didn’t please my anymore and was a bit slow so I upgraded to something better and more appealing.

I told you that I’d post something on how film taught me to become a better photographer and that post is finally here.

With digital being the new age, its much more economical to use a dSLR rather than a regular SLR so there is no argument there. There is an argument in the respect that digital can’t teach you in the same ways that film can. Film has a certain quality that cannot be matched, it’s much like a Vinyl record and a CD. The quality on a vinyl record is warmer because it doesn’t have a cutoff, whereas a CD is much more harsh because it’s capped at 44.1 hz while I’m not here to tell you that film is old school, you know this no matter what age.

Film taught me in many different ways that I didn’t really think of until recently. Film gives you 36 shots per roll of film so you really have to make each and every shot count. You can’t be wasteful like you can with digital, if you forget to set your exposure to 1/100 rather than 1/400, you ruined a shot on film, with digital, you simply fix the exposure and delete the ruined shot. Do you see what I’m getting at here? Film is a good teacher in that it teaches you to slow down and triple check aperture, exposure, white balance and everything else to make sure that you have the shot Instead of shooting, checking, and adjusting settings like you can on digital until you find the shot.

I was watching a web-seminar on photograph and one of the parts that I was tuned into was about going back and checking old photos because with me, being the photographer, I have the entire story of what happened in a shot and my vision is slewed on what is a good shot and what isn’t. With film, you have a time where you have to send it to get it developed. Yes, many do have their own dark rooms but I was too young to invest in one so I went to walgreens, gave them the rolls and came back a week later. This allowed me to clear my head on what was going on around me and allowed me to pick a shot that is more interesting.

To sum it up, film taught me to slow down and make sure that I have the shot rather than finding the shot I have to create it.

I got tied up in family affairs. Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while. I’ll have something tomorrow and a new, big post next week.