Analog

Shooting Analog, and Drinking Wine.

Back in December I bought a 35-year-old Olympus OM2 35mm film camera and a bunch of lenses on eBay. I shot a single roll of film to test out the meter, shutter, and body for typical things like light leaks and exposure accuracy. After shooting my first roll of film in about 15 years, I took it in for developing and promptly forgot about it for 3 months. Today, I was at Crick and remembered to pick up the disc and check out the images I shot back in December. So how’d the camera do? better than I expected, considering there were a number of adult libations consumed while testing it out.

The images below are the result of an evening of good friends, dinner, wine, the holidays, and an impending winter storm.

I’m Lusting ILLOT this Friday Afternoon.

I have a thing for retro styled digital cameras. Its one of the things that attracted me to the Olympus EP and OMD series cameras. I don’t have a thing for film anymore. I have moved fully into the digital camp and this is where I’ll stay. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a soft spot for retro film cameras though. Especially cameras like the ones that are being done up by ILOTT Vintage.

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ILOTT collects and restore select vintage rangefinder cameras taking great care, time and pride in refurbishing each camera that they acquire.The cameras are put through a series of rigorous tests to ensure that they are field ready before being sold.

Taking the cameras to a new level, ILOTT replaces leather body coverings with premium quality wood veneers tailored to each camera for a unique vintage appearance. Since no two cameras ILOTT creates are exactly the same, they continue to restore cameras rather than rely on the collection they already have on hand.The cameras are wrapped in Mansonia, or Mahogany which is applied by hand after the camera has been restored. I love the Argus C3, but I have to say the Mahogany Canonet QL 17 has me all lusty this afternoon.

“We love the mystery of not knowing where the cameras have been before, who has used them and what photos they might have taken.”

Monday Morning Inspiration. “The Watchmaker” by Dustin Cohen.

I work with pixels, with digital content on a daily basis. The things I create have no physical form, they are simply a display of numbers represented as images on a screen. This doesn’t diminish the creativity that goes into what I do, but over the years it has made me yearn for things made by hand. When I started my career as a designer, everything was done by hand. Even the photo processes used to create a printed page was analog. That longing for the mechanical, the analog, the hands on, has led me in recent years to a greater appreciation of finely crafted items, especially things like watches, clocks, vintage radios and stereo gear, etc.

Last night while perusing the “Made in Brooklyn” series on Vimeo I came across “The Watchmaker”. This is a short film by Dustin Cohen about David Sokosh, a watch maker in Brooklyn New York. Cohen’s short film captures that feeling about the hands on craftsmanship that surrounds the creation of a fine time piece. It captures Sokosh’s passion, and patience that is needed to produce a bespoke Brooklyn Watch. Perhaps it is my longing to spend time creating with my hands instead of a computer that drew me to this film. Then again it could also be the masterful way the short film was shot and edited.

The ironic part is, the film is all pixels, and I am equally drawn to the pixel craft went into making this film.

Be sure and check out the photo essay about the film here.