The Beast

Here's my first photo with the Aero Ektar.  This is what I'll be posting from now on instead of my usual stuff.  And I'll be updating you on non-controversial things, mostly technical updates about the camera, lens, film, chemistry, etc.  It should be fascinating.

I got my camera out of the studio Sunday morning.  I found some old type 59 film in a box that had long been open.  What the hell.  I grabbed my meter and went out the back.  One of the artist's behind me was packing his truck with his work to drive across state for a show.  I shouted to him and asked him to stand for a portrait.  I hefted the bruiser up to my eye and tried to focus through the tiny rangefinder that is attached to the camera's side.  Nothing was easy.  After I had what should have been focus, I looked through the viewfinder and shot.  We waited sixty seconds and peeled.  The film chemistry was all whacked and the image very soft.  I had, however, made my first real exposure with the camera.  Success, of sorts.

The camera scares the hell out of me, of course.  I just paid to have the rangefinder calibrated only to find that it is way off the mark.  I did what I do to the 669 film and brought it home to scan and that is when the lack of focus was evident.  I was able to fudge the colors as I have learned to do in Photoshop, but the rest . . . .

I put the camera on a tripod and tried lugging it around and setting it up and focusing using the ground glass in back.  I'd really rather hand hold it.  Setting up the tripod and getting it level and adjusted to height and then focussing. . . will some stranger stand for that?  I was sweating from working with a tree.  Why did I want this lens?  I must have been nuts.

Tomorrow, I'll take you through some of the technical points in more detail.  We'll think about which tripod and head will work best given the weight of The Beast (let us call it that).  We'll look at different products from several popular companies and consider each.  It will be educational.

And no more naked girls.  No more T&A.  I don't know what I was thinking.  We'll get onto the real stuff now.  Maybe we'll even get academic about technical language as a master narrative and the sociological restrictions and imperatives that result.  Eventually, I'll be able to produce (I hope) some truly value-free images.