145,000 Visits, and a Span of Many Centuries

 About a week ago we passed the milestone of 145,000 visits to this blog, but at the time I was too busy to write anything about it.

I'm still very busy, mostly with photography. Occasionally the Muse presents me with a little quatrain or something, or a fragment of Udugi wisdom comes into my head. I feel, though, that the blog is at an inflection point, just as the world is. I'm not sure what direction it will go in.

About a year ago, I was writing a series called Notes on the Zohar. You may have wondered what happened to that: me, too. It may seem like chutzpah to do it at all, but lately I find myself reading the Zohar to calm me down. Could be the new direction, I don't know.

I was reminded recently that I have done some worthwhile work related to Shem-Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, and published it in this blog. There is a lot more to do, I'm sure. I won't, though, be pointing the text. That would, perhaps, be more chutzpah, more temerity, than the other.

Qué será, será. it will be interesting to see what develops.

As usual, thanks to all of you for your loyal readership.

Text and image Copyright © 2022 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

My Return to Film Photography - XX

 

I had promised to do some infrared tests with the new 6-in-1 filter in this instalment of the series, but it was not to be. Since the only roll of IR film I had left in stock was 120, I planned to use the Mamiya C33. At the last minute I discovered that I couldn't mount the new filter onto the C33 (using the "new" 65mm lens), because of a non-standard filter thread on that vintage lens. I could have done it with the 80mm "normal" lens, but it was more important to me to test  the 65mm lens, so here we are.

I ended up shooting a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus, using the "new" (to me) 65mm lens. This lens is slightly wide-angle (equivalent to 39mm on a 35mm camera). It's nice to have a slightly wider lens, but for me the big advantage was that the shutter-release lever operated more easily than that on the "normal" lens, allowing me to use it with both my 40" cable release and my 20 ft. air release. Since a lot of my photography is selfie photography, and the C33 has no self-timer, this was, and is, very important. I intend to use the 65mm as my normal lens for this camera, but I needed to test it first.

As it turned out, the tests came out fine, and most were shot with the 20 ft. air release. This will definitely be my new normal lens. Here are a few sample shots, all rated at ISO 400 and developed normally in D-76 1:1:

 

The author, with his 2006 Pontiac Solstice. Photo by the author. Mamiya C33 with 65mm, f3.5 Mamiya-Sekor lens, at 1/250 sec., f11.

Mamiya C33 (shown in photo), with 65mm lens, EV3, 1/30 sec. at f5.6. This is a small portion of the negative.

Same camera and lens, EV5, 1/60 sec. at f5.6. This is the full, uncropped negative. Lighting provided mostly by two 65-watt quartz-halogen floods and one LED desk lamp with diffuser. Since the C33 has no internal metering, I used the internal CdS metering in one of my Canon AE-1s to arrive at the proper exposure. I have found that my hand-held Gossen Scout 2 (selenium photocell) light meter gives inaccurate readings with modern sources of artificial light. To use the Scout 2 with the C33, I have to set its ASA/ISO to 150 for ISO 400 film, or 50 for ISO 125 film.

With luck, we'll eventually get back to the IR tests. In the meantime, shoot film, if you can!

(to be continued)

Text and images Copyright © 2022 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.