I will update this in the near future with regular posts, but I’ve been using tumblr for a while instead:

http://keatonandrew.tumblr.com

Bliss. Polaroid Land Camera + Fuji FP100c

I’m finally buying a film scanner again. For the third time, I will be shooting mainly film… pretty pumped on that.

I also came across a new (well, different) photographic process. I will blog more about it once I take more images and can scan them as well. In the meantime, here’s one of those images.

Owl City for Myspace Music

Owl City for Myspace Music

Film > Digital

first test of the rebel t2i. 60 fps conformed to 24, first grading attempt in color. Used a Hague stabilizer and 50mm f1.4 prime lens!

And (hopefully) twice, unfortunately.

I have been in a photo contest for what feels like eternity on yobi.tv, it’s for a prize of $10,000 and a trip to NYC. I have now made it to the top three and the final two weeks thanks to the votes of wonderful folk such as yourself. One person gets eliminated per week, so one of the three will be knocked out Sunday night, then votes are reset for the next week (so I need a new vote after Sunday!).

So please, vote for my photograph by going to the following link: http://yobi.tv/yobipics/finalists/view/44

The photograph you are voting for is one I did in the Salt Flats in Utah last summer on my long Warped Tour road trip:

Keaton Andrew Salt Flats

Every time I have a chance to shoot film, it makes me feel alive as a photographer again. This isn’t about the trend, pretentiousness or anything of the sort. It just feels real. It also usually edits better than digital, negative film has a wonderful ability to hold highlight details that digital cameras simply can’t capture.

The color images in this post are shot on a Mamiya 645AF w/ the stock AF 80mm f2.8 lens. The black and white images are shot on Neopan 400 with my new baby, a Canonet QL-17 G-III.

An Horse

An Horse

An Horse

Kelley James

Kelley James

I recently added a new camera to my gear case – Canon’s Canonet QL-17 G-III. Whew, that was a mouthful! The ridiculously long name aside, this camera from 1972 has the ability to create some stunning images in the right hands.

The Canonet QL-17 G-III is a wonderful miniature 35mm rangefinder. You don’t focus through the lens like an SLR, you look through the viewfinder on the top right and line up two images until they’ve merged. There are various Canonet cameras, mine has a 40mm f1.7 lens. It’s pocketable and fast! It’s been referred to as the poor man’s Leica, and I back that statement after using it some. It doesn’t match the build or optical quality of a Leica, but for the cost there’s not much that comes close. It’s surprisingly well-built, the camera feels wonderful to hold. It also one-ups most Leicas by having a leaf shutter rather than a focal plane shutter. This means full flash sync up to 1/500 of a second, even with a wireless system such as a Pocketwizard.

Fast flash sync is important to outdoor strobist photographers since you knock down ambient and freeze motion better at 1/500 than the 1/200th-1/320th of a second common in most current DSLRs. Indoors it doesn’t matter since the strobe’s flash duration is often even faster than that, 1/1000 of a second or shorter.

This camera has awakened the street photographer hidden inside of me that I didn’t know existed. There’s another advantage to the leaf shutter – It’s a mirrorless system. On a SLR, when you take a photograph you hear a big slap and THEN the photo is taken. That’s the mirror moving so that the sensor/film can be exposed. This causes vibration throughout the camera (read: blur) and is quite noisy. When I take a photograph with the Canonet, no one knows it happened! The leaf shutter is so quiet that it normally can’t be heard by anyone but the photographer. The 1/focal length rule for shutter speed also can be modified, I can easily handhold a sharp photograph at 1/8th of a second or longer with this camera. Of course, this doesn’t keep people or objects in the shot from moving, but it’s a great ability to have!

As with all that is great, there are issues that prevent perfection. While the Canonet can sync at 1/500 of a second with lights, that’s as fast as the leaf shutter will allow. A non-buld exposure of longer than 1/4th of a second can’t be made on the Canonet, either. You could have issues outdoors in sunlight if you’re shooting fast film, you can also forget shooting outdoor sunlight at a large aperture without the use of a ND filter. I find it difficult sometimes to focus using the rangefinder, the little yellow patch can be hard to line up sometimes. The rangefinder brightening trick can help with that, though. This camera also takes a now-illegal mercury battery, alkaline replacements have different voltages and cause issues with the meter exposing correctly. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it tried to overexposure by 1-1.5 stops.

A blog post of mine would not be complete without photographs, so enjoy! I’ve only put two rolls of film through the camera so far, but I plan on making extensive use of this camera in all of my future work. I’m looking forward to shooting it with color film and strobes on a sunny day!

An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III

An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III

Never Shout Never - Canonet QL-17 G-III

Canonet QL-17 G-III