Thanks to my friend, Bob Eggers, I recently enjoyed a bike tour of the Los Poblanos ranch. I had visited the restaurant at Los Poblanos several times before, but was unaware of the extent of the property and its interesting history and architecture. La Quinta is the name given to this building adjacent to the main ranch house which was designed expressly for large meetings and cultural events. The architect was John Gaw Meem, famous for his Pueblo Revival and Territorial Revival designs.
These pictures were shot on expired Kodak Gold 200 in my little point-and-shoot Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim (vuws). Perhaps not the camera one first considers when talking about architectural photography, but the two-element 22mm lens is surprisingly sharp and produces wide views with little apparent distortion.
I had some previous familiarity with Meems' work as a result of many hours of walking around the UNM campus where there are twenty-five buildings designed by him, most in the Pueblo Revival style. He regarded the Zimmerman Library as his crowning achievement. The Library has been the subject for many of my old cameras including the Ansco Folding Buster Brown and the KW Patent Etui.
5 comments:
These are very nice. They give a real sense of the place.
I'm looking forward to getting back to Los Poblanos. Very nice light there in the mornings.
What a serene location, very nice. And what a gorgeous pool. After a sweaty bike ride, I bet you were tempted to plunge into the pool.
As for resolution, I think this 2-element lens does not quite do it. Maybe a 4x6" machine print would look fine.
I'm guessing the lens is basically a wide-angle duplex symmetrical design that dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. The next step up from that was the Rapid Rectilinear which had four elements in two groups on either side of the aperture. Pretty impressive results considering how much more was required for any real improvement in aberration control. Plenty good enough for me since I never go beyond what I can show on the small screen.
I should add that I think the images from this session were a little mushy looking compared to what I am used to getting from the vuws. I'm wondering now if being past the expiration date had something to do with that.
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