Bet You Didn’t See These Coming: The Nikon N80 and Canon EOS Elan 7
By May 2019, I was three months into my photography journey. My camera collection consisted of a Maxxum 7000i with a crumbling grip, a Maxxum 5 with a discolored focus screen, 600si, 7xi, 700si, 7, and 7000. It had been maybe a little more than a month since IContinue Reading
Thinking Beyond 50mm, II: Going Long with the Minolta AF 135mm F2.8
Taking only a 135mm lens out for a walk proved to be just as jarring as the 24mm. Taking the 24mm and 135mm out on separate walks has given me a new appreciation for quality zooms. As with the 24mm, I quickly discovered I’m a poor judge ofContinue Reading
Bloom Time!
The first flowers appear with the creeping phlox in March. Next come the catmint, tickseed, and coneflowers, sometime during April. But true bloom season always begins the last two weeks of May. If there’s a lot of rain it may move up a week or so. TheContinue Reading
Album Art
As a child, few things were more sublime than a bowl of cereal eaten leisurely while reading the Sunday comics. My sisters and I would each scheme to be the first to grab the newspaper. Newspaper comics, in color, happened only once a week, and scarcity made them more cherishedContinue Reading
Headaches Using an M1 Mac, MacOS Ventura, Epson V600, and Epson Scan 2 Software
The Epson V600 arrived in 2020 when the pandemic closed everything. My first scanning setup paired the V600 with a 2012 MacBook Pro. Once I got the correct drivers, that combo worked fine. Then, two years ago, without warning, my Mac died, and I got an M1Continue Reading
VMLP 32: The Minolta X-600, a Little Something Extra
For me, the Minolta X-600 was only a little less mythical than the Minolta Sky. I had seen references to the X-600 in passing but had never seen anyone mention one until a member of the Minolta Collector’s group showed pics of his newly-arrived prize. Intrigued, I searched forContinue Reading
The Woes of Using Seven Kinds of Cameras
I have seven types of cameras: AF SLR, Manual SLR, P&S, rangefinder, TLR, folding, and digital. I count the Pentax 645 as a manual SLR. There was a time when I had only AF Minoltas. They all work pretty much the same, with the higher-level models having more features. AsContinue Reading
Atlanta Botanical Gardens—Orchids and Such
Walking into the Fuqua Conservatory, one is met with a wall of humidity and the smell of moist earth. A few steps more, and one enters the Tropical Rotunda, where I spent most of my visit. Home to exotic tropical plants, the rotunda feels like another place, another time. OrchidsContinue Reading
Getting Reacquainted with the Atlanta Botanical Garden
Two years ago, I decided to take a camera to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It was the Earth Goddess display that piqued my interest. She seemed like the perfect subject for an early-morning image. Unfortunately, summer and autumn passed, and the visit was postponed until 2023. Last April, I purchasedContinue Reading
Flash-a-Palooza 2: Setting Up a Studio Flash Using Carl Shipman Guides
User manuals are good for learning controls and basic functions, but using a camera effectively requires more information. Eventually, I discovered the Hove Foto Books and the Magic Lantern Guides, which helped me take better advantage of camera features. Along the way, I came across Carl Shipman’s guides, which coveredContinue Reading
