Photography best of 2017

"thejustache" (thejustache) 01/05/2018 at 14:10 • Filed to: Photography

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My personal favorite photographs I took over the last year. I recently learned there is a photography sub-blog on here but as I’m not yet added to it I suppose I’ll be spamming you all. I promise there are a few cars in here though...

It was a pretty good year for me in terms of gaining skills. After getting back into film photography in 2016 I officially got my first “real” digital last year- a Sony a6000 with an adapter for my Pentax K mount lenses. This along with my film camera accompanied me on my honeymoon in April to the west coast of Ireland. It’s hard to take a bad photo over there! I also attended Climb to the Clouds on Mt. Washington and did a lot of street shooting around my town of Saratoga Springs, NY. This was also the first year I started printing, matting, framing, and indeed even selling some of my prints. Towards the end of the year I got some remotes for my flashes and started learning how to work with studio lighting - I’d previously only worked with natural light. I’m still pretty excited about using some of the things I’ve recently learned over this new year!

FILM -mostly Kodak Tri-X pushed to 1600 and developed in coffee and vitamin C. All shots taken on a Pentax K1000 or K2 except for the last 3

My wife playing pool... one of my first shots of 2017

Ice Fishing on Cossayuna Lake, NY. I’ve heard there is ice racing here in the winter, I really need to check that out

Half frozen Lake George in spring. 30 second exposure with a red filter

My Wife using my a6000 at Corcomroe Abbey, Co. Clare Ireland

Alleyway in Ennis, Co. Clare Ireland

Thunderstorm over Saratoga Springs, NY

Alleyway in Saratoga Springs, NY

I love photographing bricks. Saratoga Springs, NY

Alleyway next to 9 Maple Ave jazz club, Saratoga Springs NY

The Sunbeam Rapier of Steven Silverstein at the top of Mt. Washington

The lovely Datsun 510 of Dave Patten crosses the line at the Mt. Washington hillclimb

If you see a curved mirror you have to take a selfie in it. It’s photography law I’ve been told

More Saratoga Springs street photography

The “JB-Rocket” cycle car at the Henry Ford in Michigan. First time in the state (it’s where my wife grew up) but hey they like cars here!

‘32 Ford Roadster at the Henry Ford, MI

Stairs down to Saratoga Lake. Taken with a Yashica Mat 124 medium format TLR

Conor Pass, Co. Kerry Ireland. Taken on Kodak Ektar 100 with a Pentax PC35AF

Sunset surf session on Lahinch Beach, Co. Clare Ireland

DIGITAL - All taken on a Sony a6000 with a focal reducing Pentax K mount adapter

Dunquin Harbor, Co. Kerry Ireland. 30 second exposure

Conor Pass, Co. Kerry Ireland. Notice anything? Car is on the wrong side of the road here...

Slea Head Drive in Dingle Co. Kerry, Ireland

Coumeenoole Beach, Co. Kerry Ireland. 8 second exposure?

The Gallarus Oratory, Co. Kerry Ireland (not far from where some of The Last Jedi was filmed). 2 minute exposure w/ red filter

Experimenting with light painting. “Cinco” looks like Cino but we only had one sparkler. Used a flash to freeze my wife in place

I was super excited to get to photograph a reunion show of Crooked Still, one of my favorite bands. They asked me to do a portrait too!

Abandoned building in Schuylerville, NY. 30 second exposure on a foggy night... I want to do a lot more of this in 2018

Was going to shoot a Christmas card for a friend but they dropped out. Wanted to test my new remote flashes in the snow so selfie time?

Last big photo of 2017 - tried out my flash rig on some dry ice in a studio setting to see what happened. Super fun and took 5 minutes to do!

So that’s it for last year... hoping to keep the momentum going and get even deeper into the photography rabbit hole in 2018. My wife and are in the process of buying our first house, and I’ll have a whole room for a studio and darkroom. Hoping to shoot lots of cars and abandoned scenes in the coming year while continuing to develop studio skills.

OPPOsaurus WRX > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 14:21

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i’m pretty pissed i didn;t make it to climb to the Clouds.

thejustache > OPPOsaurus WRX 01/05/2018 at 14:37

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There’s always 2020! I’ve made the last two and I hope I can always go. The fact that you can hang out in your car at the top of such a cool mountain is already worth the trip, but add in race cars and helicopters overhead and steam trains and rally drivers just chilling around where you can talk to them and it is pretty incredible. I also got to meet Dusty and Raph, although I ran into Raph 3 times and he introduced himself to me each time so I’m pretty sure I didn’t make much of an impression. He’s a big tv star now so I’ll forgive him...

OPPOsaurus WRX > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 14:42

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I got to go in 2014. i ran into Dusty and Raph as well altho I had met them at a previous OPPO meetup from something before that. Dusty organized this thing where a few of us commenters got to spend the day in a rally car and even got some seat time. I dont think he ever wrote the article that was supposed to go with it. and yea, the helicopter guy was nuts.

sonicgabe > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 14:53

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Really, really great shots! Hopefully the powers that be will add you to Photography, unless it happened already? I’m just getting back to film with two old cameras we have. I am going to order a roll or two the Ektar 100 after I do a sample roll on both cameras. The first is done and has been sent off. I just got the battery for the second camera today and literally just cleaned it and made sure everything works. It’ll get a roll fires through it in the coming days, just to make sure all is well and working before I order better film for it.

I don’t know if you saw the post in Photography, but these are the cameras: https://photography.kinja.com/whoa-1821639504

thejustache > OPPOsaurus WRX 01/05/2018 at 15:07

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That’s really cool! I was there in 2014 so I wish I had known about that. It was pretty much a spur of the moment thing for me then - I was single at that time and spending the weekend in VT camping when I realized it was going on a couple hours from me. Drove through the night and got to the base of the mountain in time to drive up for the day Saturday!

thejustache > sonicgabe 01/05/2018 at 15:14

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Thank you! Someone did just add me to Photography so I’ll be lurking around there more now. It was your best of 2017 post that made me realize that was a thing so thanks! I enjoyed your shots a lot too.

I’ve held a Yashica Electro 35 before but never used one. I still miss the Canonet QLIII7 I sold last year so I’m a fan of small rangefinders. Never seen an Exa before though, looking forward to seeing your shots and hearing your thoughts on them! And yes, batteries can be the bane of old film cameras. Thankfully the Pentax SLRs I use mostly run off non-mercury cells, and I have a handheld meter for the other stuff.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 15:20

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Some things here I like:

The woman with the camera is a standout.

Nice car details.

Human subjects are obviously comfortable with the person behind the camera. Some photographers never figure that one out.

Good work.

My current question/challenge is how to take a color digital image and make it look like Tri-X.

thejustache > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/05/2018 at 15:36

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Thanks a lot!

I did experiment with trying to edit digital to look like Tri-X once, and this is what I got

Not perfect, but my takeaway was underexposing by a stop or two seemed to help, then conversion to black & white, increased contrast and finally a hint of artificial grain in Lightroom

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 16:18

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To what you have here, I’d experiment with adding a very slight blur overall in PS, along with one of the PS grain filters. Underexposing before desaturating is not an approach I would have thought of. Thanks for the tip!

thejustache > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/05/2018 at 16:25

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Yeah I agree, needs some blur. Thanks!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 16:27

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Now, whether Gaussian or some other flavor, I’d just have to try and err. I looked at the image you posted, then thought about the young woman playing pool. I believe it’s the crispness that gives away the desaturated digital images. I have an image that I am working on making black and white and I’ll post it to you when I get there.

sonicgabe > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 16:32

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the QLIII was my first camera. it might still be at my mom’s house.

sonicgabe > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 16:59

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This was about as close as I’ve come to having a digital shot look like film. Bad lighting, high ISO, converted to B&W, contrast and all that...

Bonus points and a gold star if you happen to know who this is.

thejustache > sonicgabe 01/05/2018 at 17:04

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Might be worth seeing if you can find it and use it again... the viewfinder is super bright and that lens renders really nicely! I got one for $10 at a flea market and cleaned it up and used it for a while. My only gripe was that the shutter button locked you out if the meter sensed not enough light. I do a lot of shooting in low light and like to push my film over the 800 iso the camera allowed, so I missed a few shots that way. I ended up selling it for $100 on ebay last year as I had a chance to buy a Leica M3 for $700... but ultimately didn’t go through with that so now I have neither!

thejustache > sonicgabe 01/05/2018 at 17:19

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Those last two do look pretty close to pushed film! And I’m afraid I don’t know who that is, although I feel like I have seen them before somehow but I can’t place it

sonicgabe > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 20:33

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I found it in the late 90s, cleaned it up, and started shooting with alongside my Canon AE1 (which I no longer have). If it’s still over there, I’ll find it.

sonicgabe > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 20:35

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Quintron and Miss Pussycat. Google them if you have no idea who they are. I won’t tell you anything about them so all you’ll have to go on is the name and those pictures.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 21:54

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Great stuff!

PyramidHat > thejustache 01/05/2018 at 22:28

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Lessee, you got a Graflex, Yashicamat and a K1000. Are you sure you’re not me? :)

Great pics! Do you recall the exposure and aperture of the pool pic? I’m just starting indoor photography...

Agrajag > thejustache 01/06/2018 at 00:22

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Awesome stuff, dude! Keep it coming.

thejustache > PyramidHat 01/08/2018 at 12:58

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Hmm last I checked I wasn’t you, but now you’ve got me wondering! All 3 are great (and fairly popular these days). I got lucky with the Yashicamat and scored an untested (but in great shape and ultimately all working) example for cheap before their price jumped up on ebay.

The pool pic... I can tell you I almost always leave my 50 f1.4 on my k1000 and almost always shoot it wide open inside so the aperture is probably that. If I remember that overhead light was putting the shutter speed at about 1/125 and I think I ended up going 1/60th because I didn’t trust that it would illuminate the background enough for what I wanted. That might have been a mistake as I sort of overexposed her face and the lighter pool balls a bit and lost some detail, but I still like it. f1.4 can be a pain to focus in a dark room but practice always helps!