Gear Geek: O Noes!

It seems a trip to casualty Apollo Camera in Oakland is in order. I pulled my beloved Pentax MX from my camera bag this evening, wanting to get this interesting shot of a seagull at the Ferry Building, only to find that the shutter mechanism felt very loose, like a tooth about to come out. I was able to fire the shutter but when I got it home the shutter came off completely.

So the whole camera is in a plastic zip bag waiting until I can take it over to Apollo in the next couple of days.

I realize that, in the grand scheme of things, a broken camera shutter is not such a horrible thing, but if you know me, you know how much I love this camera. Max has been my workhorse, my go-to guy. Those redscale film shots I've posted recently? Those were run through Max. I was just 4 shots into a roll of the new Kodak Ektar 100 film (which has now been safely retrieved from the camera, though I accidentally re-wound the film into the canister so I need a retriever gizmo...).

Fingers crossed that the shutter can be repaired or replaced.

More Redscale Film Fun

Along the Altamont Pass:


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Port of Oakland:


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Golden Gate Bridge:

A Redscale Film Two-fer

Streetcar:

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Embarcadero Center 4 and Concrete Ball:

Middle Harbor Park, Oakland, CA

Shot on Kodak Ektachrome 320T film, which gives the image its blue cast since it's balanced for tungsten light. If I had wanted to balance out the color, I would have used a yellow filter. But since this was expired film I had no idea how much color shifting was going to occur anyway, so I just shot as-is.

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This is a roll of Velvia 100 film that I hurriedly plonked in my Pentax MX to shoot this part of the base. Trouble is, I forgot to change the ISO setting and ended up shooting the roll at 800. Thankfully, Velvia can handle an obscene amount of pushing, so I didn't lose the whole roll of film.

San Francisco Waterfront at Twilight

Pinhole Tree

For Pinhole Day last year, I bought a pinhole body cap for my Pentax MX and shot 4-5 rolls of film with it. It was my first try at pinhole photography and I quite enjoy it. Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is April 29, 2007. Check with your local flickr (or other photographers) group for a photo stroll near you!