I recently went on a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. Such a lovely place to visit, and I can see why it is such a popular destination. This was my first out-of-the-country trip since Covid hit in 2020. I brought along my ‘other’ Sputnik, the one that I usually would leave at home as a backup. My main Sputnik never could focus properly after two attempts of repair, and started to eat film for breakfast. So, needless to say, I was pleased with the overall quality of the pictures I got with the other camera. I just feel that I could have exposed a little better, too bright for my taste. Maybe I need some ND filters next time? This is the backside of the church of Santo Domingo, located in the botanical gardens in the heart of Oaxaca. Nice place to visit if you are ever there. Shot on my Sputnik, on Fuji Provia 100f. 
Tag Archives: Sputnik
Two views from the “No Spectators” show at the Renwick Gallery
In 2018 we traveled to visit the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Descriptions below in part taken from online sources:
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man brought the large-scale, participatory work from this desert gathering to the nation’s capital for the first time. The exhibition took over the entire Renwick Gallery building and surrounding Golden Triangle neighborhood, bringing alive the maker culture and creative spirit of this cultural movement.
FoldHaus Art Collective’s Shrumen Lumen: The elements of this sophisticated, interactive cluster of fungi each has its own particular character responding to human interaction. As participants step on the footpads located beneath each cap, the mushrooms gently grow and “breathe.zzzzz’ In daylight the grouping appears ethereal white, while at night, it magically transforms with embedded LEDs that glow through the translucent outer skin to bring the installation to life.
Truth is Beauty by Marco Cochrane. Cochrane first sculpts his pieces by hand before constructing them from steel triangles at grand proportions. Built using a mold of the original clay sculpture, the version of Truth Is Beauty in the gallery is one-third the size of the fifty-five-foot tall figure that appeared at Burning Man in 2013.
Both images acquired with my Sputnik, about 30s exposure f22 I guess, on 100ASA Fuji RDPIII film.
Jim Roy’s D23 submission
Note: I’ve had some issues getting Jim signed up on the site, so I’m posting this description he sent to me. -Ian Andvaag
Newly included slides are mostly taken with a Sputnik acquired from Paul Gillis, but badly metered on a dark snowy day. They are “Bit of Snow” taken at our first snowstorm, “Ultimate Rest”, taken at our nearest apartment trash fort and hydrant, “A Little Snow” on Woodrow Wilson Boulevard just outside our apartments, and “Netherlands Memorial Lions”, taken at Marine Memorial Park’s Netherlands Carillon (recently restored) with a hand held Rolleiflex in the 1990s. I wish I still had that camera, since I reduced my camera pile from 88 in 2004 to “only” 28 today. The only 120 film ones left are a 1960 vintage Sputnik, 1930 giveaway cardboard Kodak 50th Anniversary, and a 1926 Rolleidoscop which needs repair.
Jim Roy
Bit of Snow
Ultimate Rest
A Little Snow
Netherlands Memorial Lions
Colony Place
Colony Place
This is along the main tourist shopping street just outside the cruise ship center in Nassau, Bahamas.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fujifilm Provia 100F.
Red Window
Red Window
Not being one for shopping I wandered off the main throughfare to see what might be more interesting. Luckily we had spectacular weather, which lead to some very nice color contrasts.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fujifilm Provia 100F.
Unlike most of my mounted slides, I accidently labeled this one on the front side as seen from a viewer.
Green Porch
Green Porch
Just past the Red Window was this porch. I’m not sure what the building was, but the texture and coloring attracted me to it.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fujifilm Provia 100F.
Columbus
Columbus
Back behind the tourist shopping area is a collection of government buildings. This statue of Columbus is protected by a fence and cannon. I didn’t see any placard describing the building.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fujifilm Provia 100F.
Ray Dillard – Some old, some new, some that didn’t work so well
I continue to experiment with multiple exposures. I had some failed attempts at indoor shots; somewhere my math went horribly wrong! I will continue to work on the math and measurements and make more attempts at indoor multiple exposures.
This first image I have included, titled “Angles”, is a look at shooting not only multiple exposures, but a variety of camera angles. I was interested to try and create a combination of vertical and horizontal lines among obviously diagonally skewed lines. I was also interested in the skewed lines being confused further by clearly being objects that should NOT be skewed. I plan to do more experimenting with this angular approach to multiple exposures. This is from a recent set of experiments. Five exposures on my Sputnik, handheld, with Fuji Velvia 100.
“Angles”
The next image is titled “Global Focus 3”. This variation of an image posted in a previous pass of the folio utilizes a slightly different alignment of the multiple shots. This variation is presented as it solves some of the issues commented on about the original version, while having other issues that worked better in the earlier version Global Focus presented a few years back. Thus is the nature of experimentation! I am a musician who has found experimentation to be a primary element of my 40+ year career of music making. This is just an extension of that reality. Two exposures on my Sputnik with Fuji Velvia 100.
“Global Focus 3”
Metal sculpture by Canadian sculptor Roy Hickling.
The third image I have included is “The Incursion”. This is also an earlier shot where I attempted to carefully place an object in a specific part of another object using a quadruple exposure. It is close to what I had hoped for, but size, perspective, alignment and exposure is a massive set of variables to deal with! Same sort of challenges as found in “Angles” above. Three exposures on my Sputnik with Fuji Velvia 100.
“The Incursion”
Metal sculpture by Canadian sculptor Roy Hickling.
Thanks to Steve Lederman for scanning these images for me!
Steve also developed some of the film for me in his home-basement-lab and used his superior skills to aid in some of the mounting.
Stereoscopic Creatures And Beasts, Or Where To Find Them
“BAR BAND“
Another pinhole picture, to the delight of some, and much to the chagrin of others. This is the mighty Heavyweights Brass Band entertaining a throng at Toronto’s Rail Path, an activity that started with the COVID 19 lockdown. The band decided to rehearse outdoors; a crowd soon gathered and threw money at them, so they made their Rail Path get-together into a weekly ritual. Seen here are Tom Richards, sousaphone, Lowell Whitty, drums, and Paul Metcalfe, tenor saxophone. Not pictured; John Pittman, trumpet, and RJ Satchithananthan, trombone. The image was a bit difficult to mount with the 3D World mounts – the step at the bottom left juts out on the left image more so than on the right image. I did try to use a cardboard close-up mount, but then a good portion of the image was lost. Just don’t glance down at the bottom left hand corner and you’ll be fine.
Captured with Clint O’Connor’s Limited Edition Stereo Flyer (#11 out of 100), on a Gorillapod, 2 second exposure, expired Fuji Provia 100F. Processed in my JOBO unit.
“MONOCHROME LAKE“
This was shot in a remote region of Northern Ontario, situated on Monochrome Lake, not to be confused with Black Lake, Mono Lake, Grey Lake or Gray Lake. The dumping of nuclear waste in the region caused the vegetation to devoid itself of its photosynthetic pigments, chlorophylls a & b, resulting in its inability to preferentially absorb light. This manifests as foliage with a very grey appearance. Monochrome Lake has experienced its fifteen minutes of fame – it was used as the location for the incredibly popular “Creature From The Black And White Lagoon” 3D movie franchise. It has also been featured in some episodes of the television series “Black And White Mirror”, currently streaming on one or another of those television streaming services that streams television. I guess that’s technically more than fifteen minutes of fame, as those “Creature” movies are well over an hour each. But I digress. Just in case you think I’m trying to hand you another one of my tall tales, I shot this image on Velvia 100 to prove that the area really looks like this in person. There. I knew that would convince you.
Captured with a Sputnik, handheld, on Velvia 100. Processed in my JOBO CPP2 unit.
“BEWARE OF DUCK“
I wanted to obtain some sunflowers, as one is wont to do, and was shadowed by a highly-trained, very aggressive Attack Duck. It was a situation most fowl! I was operating on a wing and a prayer as it tried to egg me on! When I finished gathering the sunflowers I told it to send me the bill!
Captured with a 3D World TL120-1 modified with a Thurston lens board and Mamiya 55mm lenses (TL120-55) on EGGspired KoDUCK E100G, sunny 16 (Sunflower 16) rule, processed in my Jobo CPP2 unit.
“SCREAMING HEADS TWO“
A wide angle cha-cha experiment. The lower left hand corner has an issue, so don’t glance down there. I’m sensing a theme! I shot this handheld, so perhaps it’s time to invest in a slider bar. From my similar submission to the recent Dragon Folio loop:
“Every year, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day falls on the last Sunday in April. It is an excuse for my daughter and I to spend a day together photographing various locations in Ontario using pinhole cameras. I will usually pack a “lensed” camera in addition to my pinhole camera(s). On WPPD 2019 we visited artist Peter Camani’s residence which hosts his grand scale outdoor art exhibition. There are various shapes of cast concrete screaming heads situated throughout his 310-acre property near Burk’s Falls, Ontario, each sculpture being in the 15-20 foot tall range. On this occasion I had packed my Hasselblad SWC, and I can’t remember if I was consciously trying to capture a stereo cha-cha image or not. In any case, I found an uncut roll of film with three pairs of images that looked like they might work as stereo pairs. Despite some anomalies between the left and right chips, my brain can fuse these images into a stereo image. Hasselblad SWC, yellow or orange drop-in filter, expired Kodak Aerochrome film, home processed with a Jobo CPP2 unit.”
Stereo Staycation!
Due to the pandemic, my road trips to the States have been curtailed and limited to shorter journeys within my home province of Ontario. With all of the beautiful Saskatchewan vistas and the spectacular travel photos that were featured in the recent go ’round of the folio, I felt that Ontario should also have a chance to show off some of its breath-taking scenery.
“SLIDE AND THE FAMILY STONED”
Who needs to travel to Kingston, Jamaica when you can easily drive to Kingston, Ontario? On the way to Kingston, why not stop in Napanee? Napanee is so named for the unusual practice of its residents, who kneel while sleeping, which incidentally is not the same as sleeping while kneeling. Napanee is full of pastoral views, such as this parking lot amusement park, seen here via an EHO stereo box camera. The Altissa-EHO Stereo box camera was manufactured in the ’30s and has no provision for focusing. It has a choice of two Waterhouse f stops – f11 and f22. This image was shot using the EHO’s original single shutter speed of (I believe) 1/30th of a second. The camera has visited a technician in the interim and has had its spring tensioned so that now it is capable of firing its shutter somewhere between 1/60th – 1/100th of a second!! Captured on expired Velvia 50 and home-processed with a CPP2 Jobo unit.
“THEIR SNOW BUSINESS”
Meet Lorrie and Ray Dillard. They reside in Barrie, Ontario, which is very far North of anything and above the permafrost line. Lorrie and Ray run a successful snow-harvesting business, selling their surplus snow to countries around the world that won’t or are unable to grow their own snow. The snow is shipped out via husky-powered sled in small individual manila bubble pack envelopes twice daily. Lorrie and Ray hired Ethel Merman to sing their social media jingle; “Their Snow Business! Like ‘Snow Business’!” This image is from a test roll I shot to determine if Rollei Superpan 200 could be reverse-processed in the sometimes-available Foma reversal processing kit. Captured with Sam Smith’s conjoined AGFA Isolettes (the “Samulette”) on the aforementioned Rollei Superpan 200, and home-processed with a CPP2 Jobo unit.
“THAT’S IT (IN SPANISH)”
People not your thing? How about taking a road trip to Cooper’s Falls, Ontario? This here gas pump is one of the most photographed entities in an almost-ghost town with not that many entities in it. Approximately 14 houses in the area are still inhabited, and the waterfall after which this semi-ghost town is named cannot really be seen (or photographed) without trespassing, as it is situated on private property. The title of this image is of the crossword puzzle question type, and by request, I am not supplying the crossword puzzle answer here. Captured with an as-fine-tuned-as-is-possible-with-a-Soviet-camera Sputnik cobbled together of donated parts, on expired Provia 100F and home processed with a CPP2 Jobo unit.
“SCREAMING HEADS OF MIDLOTHIAN”
Every year, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day falls on the last Sunday in April. It is an excuse for my daughter and I to spend a day together photographing various locations in Ontario using pinhole cameras. I will usually pack a “lensed” camera in addition to my pinhole camera(s). On WPPD 2019 we visited artist Peter Camani’s residence which hosts his grand scale outdoor art exhibition. There are various shapes of cast concrete screaming heads situated throughout his 310-acre property near Burk’s Falls, Ontario, each sculpture being in the 15-20 foot tall range. On this occasion I had packed my Hasselblad SWC, and I can’t remember if I was consciously trying to capture a stereo cha-cha image or not. In any case, I found an uncut roll of film with three pairs of images that looked like they might work as stereo pairs. Despite some anomalies between the left and right chips, my brain can fuse these images into a stereo image. As John Thurston likes to say, “your mileage may vary”. Hasselblad SWC, yellow or orange drop-in filter, expired Kodak Aerochrome film, home processed with a Jobo CPP2 unit.
Spring 2021 – Melting Out
Following the Year That Didn’t Happen, I have a mashup of things from the past, which seemed relevant to the present.
Prototyping Tl120-55 – When I got my TL120-55 lens boards back, I mounted a set of lenses on it as best I could and set out to find a suitable test subject. This receding line of houses and railings was my choice. There was lots of depth, good light, and an abundance of textures. After studying it for lens and camera defects, the image really began to grow on me. I pulled it back out because emerging from Covid feels (to me) a bit like melting out of a snowy winter.
It is a quintessential Juneau scene. A row of company cabins, set on the mountain side, each having been modified by different owners over the years. The tight-fitting porches with their mildewing railings, the scrape of snow we hope will melt soon, and the road diving before climbing back up the ridge on the other side.
Story Time With Linda – This image captures 1st and 2nd graders, trailside for a snack and story break. Those children are now grown, and to the best of my knowledge they all survived the year just past. Having watched them all mature through the years, I can say you’re looking at nurses, ballerinas, musicians, geologists, biologists, paramedics, Broadway performers, and smoke jumpers. And I don’t think you can tell from that image who went down which path. (Probably taken with my Sputnik as no one had a TL120-1 in 2005.)
Satendam – And finally, an image of what we didn’t see in the year just past. We didn’t see security fencing, rows and rows of diesel buses, or thousands of disembarking passengers each day. We had days as sunny and glorious as this, but they were quieter with far less competition for the space and beauty. I expect 2022 will see the buses back in force, and the town again shaded by ships. I suspect we’ll be ready for it. (Rolleidoscop)
Snow Nymph
Rare sighting of a snow nymph in woods near our house. Shot with the Spud – sometimes is not bad for snap shooting! Looks mounted to beyond infinity… I think I’ll go fix that when the slide comes back.
Cedarcrest Inn Spirit Succubus
In spring of 2012 we had a holiday in Asheville, North Carolina, for cycling on the road and in the mountains. It was beautiful. Though warned about the ghost, we elected to stay at the historic Cedarcrest Inn, where we got the Romeo Suite. Of course we tried to capture an image of the ghost, meeting with limited success using some long exposures in available light (thirty seconds!). Shot with Sputnik.
Sarah gets a tatoo
Sarah was one of my more productive models back in the day, with whom I was able to create possibly the most difficult (and most erotic!) imagery of my career. One day she let me know that she was getting a new tatoo on her back, so I invited myself over to get some snaps. Shot with Sputnik, handheld I think.
Concorde G-BOAD
Concorde G-BOAD
This is an Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde on Pier 86 next to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.
The Concorde was a supersonic airliner that was operated by British Airways and Air France from 1976 through 2003. This particular aircraft (G-BOAD) holds the world record for a transatlantic flight from JFK to Heathrow. While the Intrepid museum ship and its pier were undergoing renovations a few years ago, this aircraft was on display at Floyd Bennett Field Gateway National Recreation Area in Brooklyn.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Kodak E100G.