img244, originally uploaded by viridari.

I’m all caught up on my backlog of medium format film that needs to be developed now. Initially I was pretty disappointed with the quality of the images that were being scanned from the negatives on my Epson V500 flatbed. The images on my HP5+ made Raleigh look more like London with the dingy gray fog hanging over everything.

But based on a little bit of Googling, I found many suggestions to try Vuescan. I messed around with it for about an hour and then happily plunked down the $40 to improve my situation.

The archival scans I’m getting of my negatives out of this combination of hardware and software is really making me giddy. And I’m the last person to be obsessed with megapixel count, but I just have to say it once: it’s kind of cool to have a 198 megapixel camera.

My primary camera these days is a Mamiya C330 Professional with the Mamiya-Sekor 80mm lens. This is a twin lens reflex camera and unlike most other TLR’s, you can change the lens boards on this one. I’d like to have a wider lens for architectural work and some model shoots but otherwise I really have been enjoying the 80mm lens.

This is the life, originally uploaded by viridari.

Seeing how it’s 3:15AM, I’m not terribly with it right now. I just got finished developing my backlog of 120 roll film. There were some nice candids hiding in there, including this gentleman enjoying a gorgeous day at Lake Shelley in north Raleigh.

Yes, I’ve been getting more and more into film lately. Call me a masochist, but I really like the look of it and how the process forces me to slow down.

“Does that really work?”, originally uploaded by viridari.

I’m wondering if any other photographers get this question very often.

The photograph accompanying this blog entry was taken after these two young men stopped in the street, curious about the very unusual (to them) camera that I had slung around my neck. It was a Mamiya C330 Professional TLR, which looks nothing like what most people would consider a camera today, but isn’t particularly unusual among film photographers.

They looked at it, laughed, and asked if that was a camera or something. I chatted with them a bit, always happy to try to give street photographers a better public image, and they asked if it really worked.

So I took their photograph.

Would these guys have stopped and allowed me to photograph them had I been carrying a more conventional looking camera? I very much doubt it. Nobody seems to be very interested if I’m carrying an SLR. In fact, many seem to get defensive. But with the TLR, many people get downright friendly and eager to have their photographs taken.