Description: Church against a perfect blue winter sky Background: Churches are everywhere, so much so that I rarely pay attention to them. This church is on a residential street but is set back about forty yards from the street. The intervening distance with a grassy, meadow-like lawn that dips down from streetContinue Reading
The XG-M entered my life because it was the last model of the XG series—no romance involved. By the time I bought the first copy, the idea of owning one had been percolating for a while. I wasn’t particularly itching to buy one because I had plenty of other camerasContinue Reading
Mark Hama is a legend in the Yashica TLR world. He actually worked at Yashica assembling TLRs for years. I became aware of Mr. Hama after buying my Yashica Mat 124. It seems that, going back years, every mention of having a Yashica repaired referenced him. His continued provision ofContinue Reading
Life is full of surprises. From the time I decided to take photography seriously, my focus had been on SLRs. They are perfect for photographing flowers, cheap, and easy to find. However, as I have continued my photography journey, I encounter situations where an SLR is not necessarily the idealContinue Reading
Look through enough forum posts (there are very few reviews of Minolta AF lenses), and you will likely come across a favorable mention of the 35-70mm f4. It is a good performer that is widely available and costs very little. When putting together a newbie Maxxum camera kit, having theContinue Reading
Description: A bellflower cluster (Campanula Carpatica) shot in the late afternoon sun Background: I knew almost nothing about bellflowers when I bought this plant. What little I knew had been gleaned from the label on the pot. They made their way to the garden by overwhelming me with their bluish-purple color presentedContinue Reading
Over the last two years, I have seen emulsions disappear and prices skyrocket. For example, two years ago, I bought two rolls of 35mm Kodak Ektar to use for garden shots. Those two rolls sat in my freezer until this July, when I finally used one. Thankfully, many of theContinue Reading
Get a Minolta Maxxum camera, then ask around about what lenses to buy. If you already have a 50mm lens, the next suggestion will nearly always be “get a Beercan.” I ran into this advice on just about every blog and forum I visited, so the 70-210mm f4 was theContinue Reading
Buying old cameras, regardless of source, requires one to test them for functionality before any serious use. So, when I started buying vintage Minoltas in February 2019, I had to create a testing protocol. The first film I used was Fuji Superia Xtra 400 with 36 exposures (all I couldContinue Reading
Dig, if you will, these pictures of a few things purplish. Yellows and magentas surround them—now can you, can you picture this? Purple is the dominant color in my garden. There is actually an assortment of purples, and I have no idea what the correct names are. I’m still notContinue Reading
