After attending another Zombie Walk in Asbury Park, I decided to head back to the town made famous by The Boss. I’ve been making photographs of murals lately and Asbury Park has its share. So this past week I drove back. The seventy mile trip takes about an hour and half.

The sun was shining when I pulled into my parking space not far from the boardwalk. Getting out of the car I immediately noticed something I wanted to make a picture of. I opened my camera bag grabbed my camera. And then I looked again. Oh $@%#^$!  I left my light meter home in another camera back #!@$%^(*&^%!!

I’ve never left my meter home. My first thought was put the camera back in its bag and head back. But then I thought I’m not going to do a three hour round trip and come back empty handed!  What to do?  All of a sudden I thought of the so called Sunny 16 Rule that states on a nice day you can set your lens aperture on f/16 and your shutter speed at the inverse of your film box speed. I guess we were about to find out if it was really true about all that Tri-X latitude! With the shutter speed set at 1/500^th of a second, a close enough match to ASA 400, I set out to find some murals.

Would my trip to Asbury Park turn out to be a bust or have a sunny outcome? After a long stroll along the board walk and a number of photos of the murals made I saw what looked like a bridal party in the distance!  My pace quickened until a caught up with the happy couple being photographed against some of the murals by their wedding photographer. Great … I had a camera too! Needless to say I hung out with them for a while.  Good thing I had my Leica … small unobtrusive and quiet!  If the exposures of the murals and the bride and groom were remotely accurate there may be a keeper or two.

But wait, there was more!  As the wedding party finally walked away and I was ready to head back to my car, I spotted yet another man and wife to be with their photographer!!  Needless to say more photographs for me!

I talked to my two kids about my experience that day. Both said pretty much the same thing. According to my son my bridal stalking was semi creepy … my daughter said it was creepy.  Millennials … what can I say? Hey, no one shooed me away, and one of the grooms even waved at me!

Yesterday I developed my Tri-X filled with murals and young love and the negatives didn’t look all that bad.  There may well be a sunny outcome after all to my meterless outing!

Stay well,

Michael

Last time I wrote about Pentax’s exciting announcement and its plans to reintroduce film cameras aimed in part at younger photographers. This is welcome news and would fill an important need, a point that was driven home to me recently when I led a Photo 1 high school class on a photo walk. All of the students owned film cameras including some oldies but goodies like the Nikon FM2 and Canon AE1!!  I asked them why they were taking a photography class and more specifically why they were interested in film. The general response was that they wanted to do something creative and have fun. There you have it … perfect reasons to go out into the world with a film camera!!! As we meandered about I pointed out things they should be looking for and often routinely pass by without a thought and answered questions they had. I had a great time and afterwards hung out with the Photo 2 class as they made black and white prints in Nazareth Area High School’s very well equipped darkroom.

The Pentax announcement and my walkabout experience gives me great hope about the future of analog photography and the young people that are discovering it and helping to keep it alive.  I know digital is here to stay. But the more that people give film and traditional processes a try, the more they will recognize what a beautiful means of artistic expression is at their disposal, as well as an approach to making art in a much more fulfilling way.

Stay well,

Michael

Not sure how I missed this, but last December Pentax announced it is working towards development of one or more film cameras based in part on the growing interest of younger people interested in photography. It’s called the Pentax Film Project. You can check several videos posted here:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu4T6jlKqMfQpvCilj7CgJe9r2eMhscwo

Apparently the Pentax Film Project is not a done deal yet but this is exciting news nevertheless! While Leica continues to make film cameras and recently reintroduced the venerable M6 for a cost of $5,295, it is a luxury the average photographer can’t afford. My sense and hope from Pentax’s announcement videos is that their initial offerings will be affordable and simple to use.  A winning combination for sure!!  How about something like the Pentax SV or Spotmatic? Younger photographers (and even some older ones) would snap them up in a hurry.  Let’s hope it happens!

No matter what the outcome, this wildly exciting news is yet another powerful indicator that film photography is indeed alive and becoming more and more popular!

Go Pentax!

Stay well,

Michael

Ever since my bout with benign vertigo forced me to cancel my trip to eat my way through and photograph the Bloomsburg PA Mac & Cheese Festival I’ve been itching to go there.  So for several months I had the annual the Bloomsburg Fair on my calendar, but as things got closer to my planned travel date we got caught up in a couple of ugly weather systems that threatened to scrub yet another road trip. Even though Bloomsburg is one hundred thirty miles from where I live, the town experienced the same non-stop rain. Then work got in the way for the couple of days that were somewhat dry. Saturday was my last chance and also the last day of the fair! I shook off some mild reactions to the covid and flu shots I got the day before and left at nine.

After a two plus hour drive, I was rewarded with a ten minute traffic jam just to get into the enormous field that served as a parking lot. When I finally found a parking place it seemed I was in another state, but after a long walk I purchased my ticket at the admission gate and strolled into the fairground.  The Bloomsburg Fair is said to be the largest in the state and it sure looked that way! Not only was it packed with cars and people, but there was more! I’ve seen and had my share of kitsch and junk food, but I’ve never experienced so much of it all together in one location!! I mean it was unreal and as far as the food goes there should have been a sign at the entrance gate stating that consuming this stuff, even in small quantities posed a major health risk!

I know, it was probably all pretty lip-smacking good, even the nasty looking stuff. Unbelievably though, I didn’t even purchase a tacky tee shirt or sample any of the fries, various deep fried meats (I’m a vegetarian after all), bake goods, ice cream, waffle cakes, cotton candy, fudge and so on.

I did manage to run through a role of 120 Tri-X before declaring no mas. The people were interesting and I think I might have gotten a keeper or two. And speaking of interesting people, next week follows up with one of my favorite events of the year, the annual Asbury Park Zombie Walk. Once that’s done I’ll develop all of the negatives and make proof sheets.

Life is good … the journey continues!

Stay well,

Michael

Last weekend I photographed at the 14^th Annual Philly Naked Bike Ride. Well, actually not the bike ride part of it. I got to Lemon Hill, the staging and body painting area and hung out for a while, then back home and on to Jersey for my grandson’s birthday party by dinner.

The exact staging location and route is kept Top Secret until 24 hours prior to the event, and because I certainly didn’t “have a need to know” I had to wait like everyone else until the day before to learn where I would be going. Very mysterious if you ask me!

It was an interesting experience to say the least!  The two goals of the event are to promote body positivity and cycling as a major form of fuel alternative transportation. Great … I’m all for both! Milling around and schmoozing I learned about all sorts of things, like a nudist organization in Maryland and where to go for nudist dances in Delaware. And because my Plaubel Makina stuck out like a sore thumb I was asked by several participants to take their pictures, au naturale of course. While most of the naked cyclists had their cell phones, one actually had an a Nikkormat loaded with some type of 100 ASA film. I know this because he told me the meter didn’t work.  No problem, I used my Pentax spot meter and proceeded to make his portrait. I saw one other person using a Rollei TLR, but all of the other non-participants photographing seemed to be standing afar with their DSLRs and LONG lenes.  Lily-ivered voyeurs for sure!!

I have never been at an event like this before, but thankfully I wasn’t nervous at all.  And unlike those with their bazooka lenses I wanted to get up close and make some interesting and non-gratuitous pictures. The Plaubel’s 80mm lens … which is equivalent to a 40mm on a 35mm camera … is perfect for this.

Good for Philadelphia for hosting this and thanks for to the weather that cooperated.  I had a great time and a fascinating experience.  A keeper will be the icing on the cake!

Stay well,

Michael