"Cooter in the Corn with Horn"

I found this photo on the back of a Readers Digest someone donated to the jail library. Before this find I was unfamiliar with Jack Spencer and his photography. I have already filled out Library Loan Requests for a couple of his books and I am eagerly anticipating their arrival.

This image captivates me on several levels.

First, I played the same horn in band. The Baritone is a beautiful horn with the rich sound of a French Horn and the range of a trombone. Speaking of trombones, Jackson has just started playing trombone in the elementry band. Looking at this picture I can almost hear Cooter playing his horn. I wish I could hear Cooter play because you know it would be amazing.

Secondly, I love this photo because it is shot in black and white and in the square format. I am not sure there is a more perfect combination than black and white square format images. The image on the Readers Digest is actually B&W and the image I found online is actually sepia toned. I am really divided between which on looks better, but I posted the sepia print so I guess I like it the best.

Lastly, I love this photo because of Cooters outfit. I love the hat and tie and coat. I wish I liked to wear ties and that I could look as good as Cooter in a hat. I feel like the only accessory I wear is a camera bag. I'm not complaining about that but camera bags just don't look as cool as Cooter does in that hat. I thought these Rugged Wear Domke bags were beautiful the very first time I saw them. All the women in my family have all commented on this bag asking me where I got it and how cute it is. I don't know if I have a girlie camera bag or if my other camera bags were just really ugly. I hope someday me and my Domke Rugged Wear Bag look as good and are as good of friends as Cooter and his Horn.

Blackbird, Fly 35mm TLR Camera

The Blackbird Fly 35mm TLR is a Toy camera. The most popular Toy Camera is the Holga. Toy cameras are low tech cameras that are made to be fun and to make images but they are more about creativity than technical mastery. The camera has one shutter speed (1/125th) and 2 apertures ( F 7 and F 11) and a focus scale that you guess the distance of the focus. The idea is to use it to see and explore your vision not worry about all the details of the exposure. The Blackbird uses 35mm film. Most TLRs use 120 Roll Film. The Blackbird can shoot in three formats: 24X24mm, 24x36mm which is the regular full frame 35mm film size, and it also shoots in 36X36mm which actually shoots the image over the sprocket holes.

I think Twin Lens Reflex cameras are cool. They are called twin lens because the top lens is used for composing the image while the bottom lens actually takes the photo. The advantage is that the image never blacks out when you take the photo so you could see the flash fire and see if the subject blinked. I love the idea of shooting in the square format with B&W film.I really wish I had had the chance to do real work with a TLR. I came along in the 35mm slr world. I own a couple of TLRs. I have a Yashica 124G that I bought one year for my birthday for $100. I also have a Mamiya C330 with a 65mm, 80mm, and a 135mm lens. I did use this camera for shooting weddings for a few years. I quit when I started shooting digital cameras for weddings. I don't consider the wedding work as real work since I used a prism finder. The real classic TLR is the Rolleiflex. I have blogged before about the Rollei MiniDigi 5AF. I have always held a romantic notion about the square format. You never have to turn the camera which is a great bonus when shooting weddings with a flash. There are several 120 square format cameras but the best known is the Hasselblad. That was the camera when I was growing up. I borrowed one from a professor at school and shot with it but I never could afford to buy it, the TLRs were way cheaper. I always thought that the Mamiya 6 rangefinder would be a fun camera to shoot, kinda like a Leica on steroids. One of the great things about shooting medium format is that the bigger negatives give way better results when enlarging. I really enjoy shooting B&W in my TLRs, Tri X and Ilford Delta 3200 were both great films.

Other Blackbird Links

B&H Photo

Doobybrain.com

BOREALNZ PHOTO BLOG

www.superheadz.com

New Rolleiflex MiniDigi

Today during lunch I was flipping through the latest edition of Rangefinder Magazine and I saw this cool little camera. This is the second version to come out, the first version was really low resolution and had fixed focus. This new version has AF from 10cm to infinity, an interpolated resolution of 5MP and the ability to set your color balance. I wish B&W was an option on this camera. One of the cool factors is that it really shoots in the square format like real Twin Lens Reflex cameras do. I have a couple of different TLRs. I bought a YashicaMat 124G many years ago and then I bought Mamiya 330 to shoot weddings with. The Mamiya was a huge camera that would change lenses and it had bellows focusing so it could focus very closely. I also had a prism finder so the image of the viewfinder was shown correctly. When shooting with the waist level finder ( the one you look down into with both eyes) the image is reversed left to right. That is something I never got comfortable with because I never got to use it enough. I hardly ever use my TLRs anymore. I do love shooting B&W in them. You get 12 shots on 120 film or 24 shots on 220 film. The best known square format cameras are the Rolleiflex TLRs and Hasselblads. I Googled for Sq Format Shooting Techniques and found a couple of discussion boards. One post was by a guy who hated square format and thought it was difficult to frame anything meaningful in a square. Well that broke open the flood gates of the square format lovers. The best quote was from a guy who said "if you think square format composition is hard you should mask your camera viewfinder in a triangle shape and try to compose with that." I also shoot square format sometimes with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye that uses 620 film which is the same as 120 film just on a different spool.

Here is a link to photos from the New Rolleiflex MiniDigi.

Here is a link to the the Rolleiflex DigiMini on The Online Photographer blog.

Here is Popular Photography post about the MiniDigi.

Here is the blog for the New Rolleiflex Digimini.