NBM House and Home

Yesterday I needed to clear my head a bit before meeting a friend of mine in Eastern Market, so I decided to swing by the National Building Museum. I didn't have any particular exhibits in mind, but I've never known the NBM to disappoint. By chance I came across the House & Home exhibit. At first glance it didn't seem like much; some displays of rooms and such. The detailed models of city and country residential structures were interesting. But the real magic was toward the end.

Imagine an issue of Dwell magazine that's 10 feet tall and consists of nothing more than full page images of beautiful, modern homes and apartments. Now instead of still images, imagine video, constantly alternating between each side of the magazine, showing people living in the homes, along with some Helvetica-like music. It really was enthralling.

On top of that, one the dwellings featured in the video was MICA's very own Gateway building. My picture above doesn't really do it justice.

If you're in the area of the National Building Museum or the Gateway building, I suggest you take 30 minutes and check them out. You won't be disappointed.

Fort McHenry Radio

This isn't really photography related, but I thought I'd post something about it since I can't seem to find it elsewhere on the Internet. One dark, early morning commuting through the Fort McHenry Tunnel, I noticed that certain radio stations would stay on the air even as I was passing through the tunnel. "Surely not,"¹ I thought to myself; I was underground, under the water. There must be a repeater.

I pointed this out to a friend of mine, and he figured that since the stations coming through were from Baltimore, maybe they had enough power to make it into the tunnel. I had my doubts, but I didn't have any evidence to the contrary.

A few months ago I was driving through the tunnel yet again, but this time I'd left the radio in scan mode since none of my presets had anything good on. Sure enough, the tuner landed on 107.1 MHz about half way through the tunnel. A female voice simply repeated, "This is the Maryland Transportation Authority radio rebroadcast system for bore 3 of the Fort McHenry Tunnel. This is only a test."

So not only is there a repeater for the tunnel, there's actually one for each bore of the tunnel. I haven't done an exhaustive search for stations that they're repeating, but so far I've found 100.7 and 102.7. I'm sure there are more.

I also haven't checked to see if there's something similar for the Harbor Tunnel. My guess is that it's really there to provide emergency broadcasts to people that might be stuck in the tunnel during the regular bumper-to-bumper delays. Obviously it also provides entertainment, probably helps relieve some people's claustrophobia, and may give workers something to listen to while they're doing maintenance.

Ok, that was a lot of words for not a lot of content. The picture above was taken (haphazardly) with a Leica M6 on Kodak Tri-X. Normally I wouldn't post such a poor photo, but it seems to capture a bit of the grittiness of commuting in this area. It's also my only photo that's remotely relevant to this article.

Happy shooting and commuting!

¹Insert Airplane quote here.

From Industry to Charm

Really these pictures could have been taken in any industrial area. These pictures happen to be from Baltimore. I still believe in Baltimore. Between 1950 and 2012, the population dropped from about 1.1 million to around 600 thousand. But I think the city is well over that statistic. Today it's more about the art, the business, the waterfront, the history, and of course, the charm.

If all you know of Baltimore is what you've seen on The Wire, you know nothing. I dare you to walk up Charles Street from Federal Hill to Penn Station and not fall in love.

These pictures were not taken anywhere near Charles Street. At no point was I afraid that some thug would take away my Leica though. Just put that image out of your head.

Baltimore Grand Prix 2012

So here's a post that's way overdue. Last September I finally got to go to the Baltimore Grand Prix (ok, "Grand Prix of Baltimore"). If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it. Here's what you'll need to get these shots:

• Canon 1D Mark II
• Canon 400/5.6 L USM
• CF or SD cards
• Plenty of water!

Just stand as close to the fence as possible and shoot through the fence at your widest aperture and you should be good to go. This is where a shallow depth of field really helps you out. The fence is so close that it blurs right out of the picture. In many cases, there were two fences between me and the track, spaced about four feet apart. With such a long focal length, I was still able to shoot through both fences without a problem. I'd still recommend switching the lens to far focus range (8.5m to infinity) to keep the camera from being tripped up by the fence though.

Also note that "tickets" aren't on that list. All of these shots were taken from the public viewing areas outside of the track. It actually amazed me that some of the best viewing areas were left totally free.

That's not to say that I wouldn't recommend tickets. The general admission will get you plenty of cool places to watch the race, and plenty of free schwag. Unfortunately, almost none of the viewing locations lend themselves to racing photography. On the other hand, if you're looking for shots of spectators, you won't be disappointed. There's plenty of good people-watching in the general admission areas.

If you can swing it, I'd also recommend getting the paddock pass. It's inside the convention center, which is a great place to cool off and watch the drivers and race teams prep the cars. In some ways it's a show unto itself. If you're into getting portraits of the drivers, this is the place to be. Just have the high ISO ready, as the lighting is fairly poor (1/30 f/2.8 at ISO 1600).

As a final note, here's a nine-shot composite image of turn 12 during the American Le Mans Series race. Each shot was a 2 second exposure at ISO 50, f/32.

It's amazing to see the variation in the tracks. Many of the wider and shallower turns (presumably sub-optimal) were due to other cars that were going through the turn at the same time. Here's a normal exposure from the same vantage point:

Of course the 1D Mark II scored again. A camera that I bought used in 2005 is still making great images in 2012. You shouldn't have any trouble finding one for well under $1000. Happy shooting!

Test Rolls

As some of you know, I bought a Leica kit late last year. I've been gradually putting the gear through its paces. Of course the main item I was after was the M6. However, a Leica CL was also included. When I bought it, the former owner told me that the CL was actually his favorite camera to shoot with. At the time, I found this hard to believe with an M6 sitting right there. However, after taking it out and about in downtown Baltimore, I'm starting to see why.

Patrick Joust was nice enough to give me a couple rolls of (very) expired T-MAX 400 at the Film in Baltimore meetup last March. I thought the CL would be the perfect test case.

I do have to say though, that this film was in bad shape. The lead sticking out of the canister was much lighter than the film inside the canister, and the film was so brittle that I actually snapped off the tip when I was loading it into the camera. It's interesting going out to shoot when you know that none of your shots may be coming out. As you may have noticed though, I like exploring, so even if the shots didn't come out, I could still write it off as "scouting."

In the end, NCPS did a great job developing and scanning the film. It came out a bit grainy, but hey, this was just a test.

So the CL may not have the amazing build quality or cache of an M6. It's a practical photographic tool that accepts great Leica glass like the 40mm Summicron. And for a price that leaves some room for actual film and travel. Sounds like a deal to me.

That First Roll

There's a lot to be said about the first roll of film that comes out of a new camera. Simultaneously bringing all your experience to bear on a new photographic tool. The feeling of uncertainty that comes with film, followed by the satisfaction of getting that first roll back from the lab. It's completely intertwined with the act of photography itself.



Occasionally it results in disappointment. The first time I went out to shoot with my Xpan, I completely botched the film loading process. After walking all over downtown Baltimore to finish a whole roll, I opened up the back of the camera only to find the film lead just sitting there. In the end, I simply had to write off the whole thing as a "scouting opportunity" and move on. It wasn't until just a couple months ago that I returned to some of those places for a do-over:



Of course, the real reason for this article is my first roll through the Leica M6, which I acquired about a month ago. This thing certainly lives up to the name. The meter only worked for about the first half of the roll before the cold killed the batteries. No matter though, because this is a fully mechanical camera. As long as you can set the shutter speed and aperture, it will gladly keep shooting.

I'll admit, eyeballing the exposure was a bit intimidating at first, growing up in an automatic age. A little practice with a free Exposure-Mat and soon I was memorizing f/8 exposures for all kinds of situations.

I was also afraid that the pictures wouldn't have enough contrast since I didn't have any E39 filters. I almost always use a 49mm Orange(G) filter on my Xpan to add contrast. Lo and behold, the legendary Leica lenses came through, adding their own creamy contrast.



The sheer simplicity of it really is mind-boggling. And nothing else in photography feels quite like the smooth, manual action of winding the film crank on a quality camera. Just wow. Need a Leica alternative? Fear not, the winding action on the venerable Nikon F3 is extremely impressive as well.

But I digress, this is supposed to be about photography, not mechanics. It's that clean, featureless simplicity that allows the photographer to focus on being a photographer.

Here's to another amazing tool in the toolbox.

Awesome Batch

You know it's a good sign when your scanned film comes back from the lab, and the CD jacket has "Awesome batch!" handwritten on it. Needless to say, this required immediate attention. Here are some of the highlights, including semi-recent trips to Philadelphia, DC, and Baltimore.

















I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend.

Macro in Gunpowder

"I need to photograph some water," said Tom's text message. I was pretty wiped from the hike up to Weverton Cliffs earlier that day, but when a friend needs to photograph some water, who am I to refuse? Eventually we agreed on Gunpowder Falls State Park at 9am the next day.

I still wanted to keep it simple though. I decided to focus on getting some macro shots with the 5D, 50/1.8, and EF25 II while Tom did water shots. By the time we were done though, I didn't think I'd come away with as many good shots as I'd hoped; at least not as many as I got at Patapsco last year. I was wrong.



The real stars of the shoot were some very cooperative spiders though. I'm still amazed at the detail of these shots. It seems like a crime to only post the shots at web resolution though, so I've included a couple extra shots at (nearly) full resolution. I never knew a daddy longlegs had eyes like that. And is that the male hanging out underneath? Crazy.





Here's another spider that was just hanging out in the middle of his web near the ground. Just to give you a sense of scale, his legs spanned about the size of a dime. I didn't even notice the "large" hairs on his legs until I pulled the image up at full resolution.





I also came away with a few interesting leaf structure shots. Mother Nature is clearly a graphic designer.





I used the same techniques as I did in Patapsco last time, so check out that article for more info. By the way, the gear I used can be had for about $1000. Happy shooting.

Suburban Airport

Ok, just got back from Rome. The pictures aren't even copied off of the cards yet, so in the mean time, I thought I'd post this article which I meant to post just before I left...





I came across this rustic airfield one evening in early March. It was completely open, without even a fence separating it from the road. TSA would probably have you believe it's a hotbed of terrorist activity, but for a photographer, it's a gold mine. There was only one other car in the lot, and not a soul in sight, so I started wandering around the shacks hangers. I found an old roll of Provia 400F in my bag, so I popped it in the Xpan along with an 81A filter to warm things up (Provia tends to be rather frigid).

After a few shots, a gentleman came out of the "terminal" and started watching me, so I walked over. I told him I saw this place from the road and just had to stop and take a few pictures, if that was ok. He said it was fine, and to be mindful of my surroundings since they occasionally get "B landings." I assume this meant pilots sometimes use this runway as a backup in case they can't land at their intended runway. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

As I took more pictures, the sleepy winter soul of this place started to show itself. Ten frames later I felt like I'd captured just enough, and left a little for next time. The sun had set, and it was getting cold. Time to go home.

Weekend Update

Just wanted to share some more Xpan shots from the batch that came back from NCPS. I also tried out the new 90/4 down at the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art yesterday; some great I.M. Pei architecture to admire. I just hope my hand-held shots are steady enough.









Also, the Nikon FA thing was a bust. I put the new battery in, but the shutter jams on every other frame. The only way to unjam it is to switch into M250 (mechanical 1/250 mode). Luckily I didn't put any film in before testing it out. Switching the camera back and forth out of mechanical mode may be making the problem worse for all I know. I'd consider getting it repaired, but I can get a used one in excellent condition for about $120, which is probably less than the cost of a repair. I think I'd much rather have the classic workhorse F3 anyway. Now that's a camera you can go out into the middle of nowhere with.

Docking Bay

This picture has nothing to do with anything. It's not even recent. I just felt like posting it along with a few interesting, unrelated links:

Probably the most beautiful bicycle I've ever seen (and a cool photo project) at #BikeNYC.

Slow motion video of the 5D shutter. Look at the way the mirror bounces at the end. It's no wonder mirror lock-up reduces vibration.

I'm looking forward to the Fuji X100. I hope it lives up to expectations.

This makes me want a Fuji GA645, though when I held a Fuji 6x9 at B&H a while back, it really did feel cheap. It's tough to argue with results though.

Valid code quality measurement, reposted from Chris Gooley a while back.

Flight Control is probably the best game I've ever played on the iPod. $1 addiction.

Macro in Patapsco

Ok, back to actual photography. Today I took my 5D and 50/1.8 to Patapsco Valley State Park in Elkridge, Maryland. I was somewhat confined to a particular part of the park though, so I decided to take my extension tube (EF25II) and explore my little corner of the park in macro. As always, God is in the details, and if you're shooting macro, the world is suddenly a whole lot larger.

I was shooting everything handheld today, which is somewhat tricky for macro photography. A couple things that helped though:

• Use AI Focus or Continuous focus mode. With such a shallow depth-of-field (millimeters), you and the subject will inevitably sway towards and away from each other. AI/Continuous focus can help compensate for the constantly changing distance between you and the subject.
• Switch to manual focus when auto-focus fails you (it will at times), or as a starting point before you turn on auto-focus.
• Shoot subjects that are in direct sunlight, with shade in the background. The sunlight/shade contrast will help your subject stand out from the background. The direct sunlight will also give you the high shutter speed you need to compensate for all the little movements that can occur in the macro world.
• Don't be afraid to shoot without looking through the viewfinder. Good macro subjects are sometimes high, low, or in tight spaces. Aim the camera as best you can and give it your best shot. If your camera has a Live View feature, then definitely use it.

Here's my top five for the day. There's a little more detail in the flickr comments for each photo, so click on the image if you want to know more.











Happy shooting, one and all, large or small.