Plants & Animals

 Albuquerque is having fine Fall weather.  Daytime temperatures are in the 50s, while the nights are cold enough to cause the mulberry trees to lose all their leaves.  I spent the week walking around with my Olympus  Pen-FT, visiting the botanical garden, the riverside forest and the Rio Grande Nature Center.

The local wildlife rescue group put on their yearly education event to give visitors to the Nature Center an opportunity for a closeup look at the area's common raptors, a Kestrel, a Red-Tailed Hawk and a Great Horned Owl.  All three had wing injuries preventing them from living free in the wild, but they were all healthy looking and well behaved.

Full-Frame

 I shot some Arista 200 in the Leica IIIa with the Elmar 3.5/50mm for the purpose of comparison with the images I have been getting from my half-frame Olympus Pen-FT.  At the size I normally show on-screen I think there is little difference, but at larger sizes the full-frame images from the Leica do show some better sharpness and finer grain which allow considerably more enlargement.

On a bike ride along the Bosque trail north of Central Ave. I came across the firetruck and a group of firefighter recruits being trained in the use of portable pumps for fighting fires in the riverside forest.

Some cloudy days are bringing nice light to both Old Town and the Bosque.

 

(The chromework on the Harley suggests that some care should be exercised in getting on and off the bike.)

Pen Play

 Working my way through a 24-shot roll of film with the Olympus Pen-FT is a challenge.  The camera squeezes 53 frames onto the film strip, spanning a variety of scenarios and trying my patience to move on to processing and seeing what I've got.  I mostly tried to stick to close-ups at home and at the Botanic Garden with this fourth roll through the camera.  I'm on the lookout for additional lenses for the Pen-FT, but I'm still very pleased with the sharpness and close focusing capacity of the 1.8/38mm F.Zuiko.

My New Bike

 Mobility has always been a key element in my photographic endeavors.  My main strategy has been to cover a lot of ground and make pictures of whatever I come across of interest.  Lately, my walking has suffered some injury-related setbacks and getting a leg over the seat of my sturdy old bike is a challenge. 

So, when we stopped in at my favorite thrift store on the east side of the Sandias recently I was pleased to find a bike that looked a good match for my current capabilities.  It is a new looking, light-weight Schwinn ten-speed with a step-through frame, handbrakes and skinny tires.  I peeled the $20 price sticker off the fender and took it into the cashier who informed me that everything that day was half-price and I had to part with just ten bucks to load the bike into my truck!

My compact Olympus Pen-FT will be a good match with the bike as it slips pretty easily into a jacket pocket.

I've come back unscathed from a couple trial runs with the bike, so I'll get out with bike and camera for a real photo shoot this week.

Arista Edu Ultra 200

 I have a little film left on a bulk roll of Arista 200, so I loaded a short roll and shot it in my Olympus Pen-FT.  I chose familiar subjects in Old Town with the intension of comparing the results from the Arista with the Kentmere 100 and 400 that I had used previously in the same camera.

All three films were developed in PMK Pyro.  I don't see any very significant difference in the quality of the images.  The Kentmere 100 has a bit finer grain than the 200 or 400 speed films, but I think the tonal values are pretty similar among them, and scanner and Photoshop adjustments can easily over-ride other factors.

The prices of all three film  are under six dollars for a 24-exposure roll.  Bulk rolls of Kentmere are a few bucks cheaper than Arista at B&H.  So, any of these three films seem like they will be fine for half-frame negatives.  I have a couple fresh rolls of $6.99 Kodak Gold 200 in the refrigerator which I'll try in the Pen-FT as soon as I get a new Cinestill C-41 kit.

Pen-FT - Roll 2

 The Day of the Dead events got underway during the weekend with a line of pickups in the Plaza Vieja decked out with ofrendas.  I had the Pen-FT loaded this time with Kentmere 100.  That gave me finer grain images than the 400-speed film of the previous roll, though in this instance I think I prefer the deeper tonal range and the enhanced depth of field provided by the faster film.  Too early to make any judgements about those issues, but I think it will be interesting to try some C-41 in both b&w and color.

The obligatory final picture of my cat was made with the F. Zuiko lens wide open at f1.8.