Santa Cruz Seabright Sirens vs Peninsula Roller Girls

I got part 3 of 3 of an all film derby weekend back from Bay Photo.



The Santa Cruz Boardwalk Seabright Sirens  vs Peninsula Roller Girls at a west-side Santa Cruz warehouse, made of concrete, fluorescent lights, concrete, steel, concrete and plastic-wrapped mattresses.



I shot three rolls of three-year expired 1600 speed color daylight film (A couple of years, ago I panicked with the prospect of this film being discontinued by Fuji and I bought half the world's existing supply from a guy in Israel off ebay).   I also shot two rolls of medium format color film with my “old-fashioned” folder rangefinder… but those rolls were hopelessly underexposed.  Next time, more flash power!



The film was shot. The film was developed and scanned by Bay Photo. I’ve tweaked in software just about every photo here. I added a little bit of micro-contrast (“clarity”) to all of the photos. Many have been cropped. A very few of the photos I’ve left “as shot.”  I converted some to black and white. And I stomped on the level curves of some (both in color and in black and white) to increase the macro contrast. So only a few frames are “authentic” in that they are still color and only minimally tweaked.







One thing I didn’t do (Two things).  I didn’t smooth out the grain, and I didn’t photo-shop out the scratches in the film.  So in that sense, the images are authentically film.





The full flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157631359727652/

Santa Cruz Harbor Hellcats vs High Country Mountain Hellcats

The main event!  Santa Cruz Harbor Hellcats vs High Country Mountain Hellcats !!!!  At the Santa Cruz Derby Girls Stadium!



On Saturday evening’s double header, I shot five rolls of three-year expired 1600 speed color daylight film (A couple of years ago I panicked with the prospect of this film being discontinued by Fuji and I bought half the world's existing supply from a guy in Israel off ebay).   And I shot my last four rolls of recently expired Fuji Natura 1600 speed color film (which, as far as I can tell, is the Asian brand name of the same film).  I bought 15 rolls of the Natura at the bargain price of $6.20 a roll the last time I as in Hong Kong (www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/5080700016/).



I brought three film cameras with me.  My Minolta X-GM with a ridiculous lens attached (www.nocklebeast.blogspot.com/2010/06/ridiculous-lens.html) , and two Leica M-mount rangefinders, a Cosina Voightlander Bessa R3a (which developed a sticky shutter button during the evening, aaaauugh! gawdammit!), and a silver Zeiss Ikon (which has the most dreamy, big bright viewfinder… could it be better than Leica’s? Yup, could be!)






The film was shot. The film was developed and scanned by Bay Photo. I’ve tweaked in software just about every photo here. I added a little bit of micro-contrast (“clarity”) to all of the photos. Many have been cropped. Maybe none of the photos I’ve left “as shot.”  I converted a few to black and white.  But unlike the warehouse with its fluorescent lighting, I kind of like the mixture of flash and tungsten that lights the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium (thank gawd! They left the sodium lamps off!) And I stomped on the level curves of most (both in color and in black and white) to increase the macro contrast. So maybe none of the frames are “authentic.” I’ve processed the scanned jpegs a bunch in software.



One thing I didn’t do (Two things).  I didn’t smooth out the grain, and I didn’t photo-shop out the scratches in the film.  So in that sense, the images are authentically film.


 







the full flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157631345470104/

Santa Cruz Derby Groms: Bumper Scars vs Sugar Skulls!!!! (August 2012)

Saturday evening’s undercard!  Santa Cruz Derby Groms Sugar Skulls vs Bumber Scars!!!!! At the Santa Cruz Derby Girl Stadium!



On Saturday evening’s double header, I shot five rolls of three-year expired 1600 speed color daylight film (A couple of years ago I panicked with the prospect of this film being discontinued by Fuji and I bought half the world's existing supply from a guy in Israel off ebay).   And I shot my last four rolls of recently expired Fuji Natura 1600 speed color film (which, as far as I can tell, is the Asian brand name of the same film).  I bought 15 rolls of the Natura at the bargain price of $6.20 a roll the last time I as in Hong Kong (www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/5080700016/).




I brought three film cameras with me.  My Minolta X-GM with a ridiculous lens attached (www.nocklebeast.blogspot.com/2010/06/ridiculous-lens.html) , and two Leica M-mount rangefinders, a Cosina Voightlander Bessa R3a (which developed a sticky shutter button during the evening, aaaauugh! gawdammit!), and a silver Zeiss Ikon (which has the most dreamy, big bright viewfinder… could it be better than Leica’s? Yup, could be!)



The film was shot. The film was developed and scanned by Bay Photo. I’ve tweaked in software just about every photo here. I added a little bit of micro-contrast (“clarity”) to all of the photos. Many have been cropped. Maybe none of the photos I’ve left “as shot.”  I converted a few to black and white.  But unlike the warehouse with its fluorescent lighting, I kind of like the mixture of flash and tungsten that lights the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium (thank gawd! They left the sodium lamps off!) And I stomped on the level curves of most (both in color and in black and white) to increase the macro contrast. So maybe none of the frames are “authentic.” I’ve processed the scanned jpegs a bunch in software.



One thing I didn’t do (Two things).  I didn’t smooth out the grain, and I didn’t photo-shop out the scratches in the film.  So in that sense, the images are authentically film.















The full flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157631331848794/

Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells vs Houston

I got part 1 of 3 of an all film derby weekend back from Bay Photo.








First up, Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells vs Houston at a WFTDA sanctioned bout at a west-side Santa Cruz warehouse, made of concrete, fluorescent lights, concrete, steel, concrete and plastic-wrapped mattresses.




I shot five rolls of three-year expired 1600 speed color daylight film (A couple of years ago I panicked with the prospect of this film being discontinued by Fuji and I bought half the world's existing supply from a guy in Israel off ebay). 




The film was shot. The film was developed and scanned by Bay Photo. I’ve tweaked in software just about every photo here. I added a little bit of micro-contrast (“clarity”) to all of the photos. Many have been cropped. Some of the photos I’ve left “as shot.”  I converted some to black and white. And I stomped on the level curves of some (both in color and in black and white) to increase the macro contrast. So only a few frames are “authentic” in that they are still color and only minimally tweaked.



One thing I didn’t do (Two things).  I didn’t smooth out the grain, and I didn’t photo-shop out the scratches in the film.  So in that sense, the images are authentically film.



The full flickr set is here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157631315144568/

It's still a ridiculous lens

It's a Arsat 80mm f2.8 lens.  Intended for use with the the Kiev 60, a colossal Russian tank of a camera, a medium format SLR.



It's attached via a Harblei Tilt Adapter to a Minolta X-GM 35mm SLR, a camera popular in the early '80's.



It's bent.

And it's still ridiculous.

Perhaps it's time for a review of photos taken with the ridiculous lens since I last wrote about it in 2010.

But first a little review.  A lens normal (perpendicular) to the film or digital sensor shot wide open isolates focus to a plane a certain distance away from the photographer. 

If you take your camera bowling, then the shot might looks something like this


shot wide open with a f1.2 35mm m-mount Cosina Voightlander Nokton.

 or passing the time before the public is let into the bout venue, then the shot might look like this

  shot wide open with a f1.4 21mm m-mount Leica Summilux

Sure, it's easy enough to shoot wide open if you're taking photos of stationary subjects like flowers, but what if your subject is jumping around? Then the shot might look like this

shot wide open with a f1.2 60mm m-mount Konica Hexanon

But if you're shooting roller derby, the primary subject rolls from out of focus to into focus and back out of focus again (if you're shooting with manual focus lenses like me... which you're probably aren't)

  shot wide open with a f2 90mm m-mount Leica Summicron

But, if you're shooting with a ridiculous lens, then the plane of focus is tilted just like then lens is... which makes it hard to find the subject in focus.







 
































As I said in 2010,

"If however your subject matter requires a bit more nimbleness such as sports photography or "street photography" (taking photos of people you don't know in public places) a tilt lens is probably one of the craziest tools you could use for these subjects. Occasionally, I get interesting photographs, sometimes even a gem, but most of the time it's just crazy."