Category Archives: Dragon

Bazaans MF C0109

by Boris Starosta

 

Alright.. this one is a little bit nutty.  I hesitated putting this in the folio, but I thought: it’s okay if people see where and how I make mistakes…. and yet it might still be entertaining!

The film had gone bad, probably just from old age.  Both L and R show poor contrast, weak blacks.  The film looks underexposed, though that seems unlikely to happen to me in studio.  And the L and R film shows a slightly different color, both tending too much towards magenta.  So: let that be a lesson to me: stop using twenty year old film!

But worse than these defects is that I shot too close… way, way too close up, given I was shooting with the twin Mamiya 6 rig, which has a stereobase of over 3 inches.  What was I thinking!?  I wanted to have an image that did not include the waist, I just wanted head and shoulders and chest.  I’ve shot that way before doing cha-cha with a motor-drive Hasselblad (baseline of maybe an inch), but here for some reason I thought it would work out with the twin rig.  Silly.  Shooting from farther away might have worked better – if I’d had some longer lenses (e.g. 150 mm).

But still I think the the image is interesting.  Note that even with the far points set at infinity separation – i.e. the edge of her elbow, not four feet away from me, set to infinity separation – the near points could not be brought to be “behind the stereo window.”  So the actual space of her body, which spans a depth of just a foot or 18 inches, in the MF3d view geometry effectively spans five feet to infinity.  There’s a lot of stretch!

This is the way I shot for many years in 35 mm film, using a twin rig of film SLRs.  All those early images of mine look too stretched to me now – but I guess old habits, or old errors die hard.

I hope you can enjoy it anyway.

Lock Machinery, C & O Canal

by Paul Gillis

This device is mounted next to Lock 10 on the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, near Cabin John, Maryland.  I think it opened & closed a sluice gate that would flood the lock to raise the canal boats up, as they travelled up the Potomac from Washington.  Unfortunately, the canal fell into disrepair & stopped being used in the early 20th century.  But it was made into a national park, and some of the locks & aqueducts are maintained as historic tourist attractions.

I took this photo with my Sputnik on Provia 100F, around sunset under a cloudy sky.  I think my exposure was 2 seconds.  I carried a digital SLR with me to serve as my exposure meter (and to take a few 2D photos & cha-chas.)

–Paul Gillis

Ring in the Rock

by Paul Gillis

In August I was trying to take some pictures near the Chain Bridge, which crosses the Potomac from Arlington to D.C.  It’s a fairly standard steel girder bridge, but a much earlier bridge at the same spot was a chain suspension bridge, and the name apparently stuck.  I spotted this iron ring embedded in the rock near the western abutment; perhaps it was a part of the old suspension bridge.

Taken with my Sputnik on Provia 100.

–Paul Gillis

Fairview Lake at Dusk

by Paul Gillis

A small lake near my home in Falls Church.  I took this with one of several Sputniks I have, the only one that has had internal flocking & light seals added.  Unfortunately, its lenses don’t seemed to be closely matched, or maybe they just need their relative focus and their shutters adjusted.  This was taken after sunset with a ten second exposure (or maybe longer).  Luckily there wasn’t much wind.

–Paul Gillis

Fountain of Faith

by Paul Gillis

This is just a small part of an amazing sculptural group in the National Memorial Park, a cemetery near my home in Falls Church, Virginia.  It was made by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles in the early 1950’s.  Unfortunately the water works were out of commission when I took this picture.

I shot it in 1999 with two Mamiya C-330’s on a tripod.  That was a massive rig!  I can’t remember what lenses I used, but I think they were short telephotos, maybe 135’s.  After a couple of outings with that setup, I basically gave up on medium format stereo, until my interest was rekindled last year.

–Paul Gillis

Jaguar

by Brian Reynolds
Jaguar

Jaguar

 

While walking into the center of town to visit the local museum my younger daughter and I came across this very nice Jaguar parked in the middle of the town square. Unfortunately it was not parked in a way that would allow me to get the town fountain and the museum in the background. Later, when we got out of the museum, the car was gone.

This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F (aka RDP III). The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.

University Housing

by Brian Reynolds
University Housing

University Housing

 

Based on Google translate, this building is apparently student housing for a fraternity associated with the university in Heidelberg. It is right next to Heidleberg Castle, where I was standing when I took this photo. I guess I went to the wrong university.

Taken with a Sputnik on Fujifilm Provia 100F (aka RPD III). The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.

Schloss Schramberg Ruins

by Brian Reynolds
Schloss Schramberg Ruins

Schloss Schramberg Ruins

 

These are the ruins of the castle on the hill above the town of Schramberg, Germany. My wife’s maternal Grandfather was from Schramberg, and we have a photo of him from almost 100 years ago sitting on the edge of the ruins with the town down below in the background.

This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F (aka RDP III).  The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.

Three Sisters – Australia

by Jim Harp

This is an area not far from Sydney Australia. When I visited Australia in 2002 the only medium format cameras I owned were two Sputniks. I shot a number of successful hypers with the two cameras, covering one lens on each and advancing the film one exposure at a time. I think I had the two cameras four feet apart on separate tripods here. Velvia 100F.