CVLE Bike Fest

A couple years ago, we had a new bike race organized in my home town of Charlottesville. I like this subject matter for the challenge of capturing the essence of the sport, though it is also a bittersweet experience to stand on the sidelines with a camera, as I have several decades of bike racing experience, and I do miss participating (my last racing was ten years ago, and I’m fairly sure I finally quit for good).

I knew this shoot was going to be “low yield,” but I love these kinds of dynamic images in 3d. Few people have shot this style in MF3d, and it’s no surprise, because getting a good shot – where at least a few parts of the image are not blurred – is basically a crapshoot. Indeed, out of four rolls shot with two spuds, I got at most three or four images that meet that standard! For more backstory (and images) from this shoot, please visit my patreon page about it here.

There are several races during the day, but only two of the races have large fields of experienced riders, riding tightly packed, which is the most exciting. Thus, I shot with two Sputnik cameras, because during any given race, there’s no time to reload the camera; that gave me twelve exposures for each of those two races. Even before I started shooting, I tried a couple of different ways to aim and pan.  I discovered very quickly that trying to look down into the mirror finder was not going to work – too confusing!  I shot about half the material with my eye at the camera, looking through the “sport finder,” and the other half with the camera more or less at arms length, held out in front of me, aiming by “feel” – I felt this helped me keep the panning motion of the cameras very smooth.  I used shutter speeds of 1/10 and 1/25 second, which was about right for the camera apertures of f32 and f22.

Sputnik sport finder

(For those unfamiliar with it, here’s the “sport finder” mode in the Sputnik.  Note one hazard of using the sport finder: because you are not using the middle lens to aim, you have no feedback about whether or not the lens caps have been removed;-)

OBX pier

A couple years ago we rented a cottage with another family for spring break in the Outer Banks, NC. This image was made one evening, about twenty minutes after sunset. Shot at the usual f32 with my sputnik, on Fuji Provia, requiring about thirty seconds of exposure. This was my goal: to blur the waves into a fog. I’d like to find another opportunity someplace to make an image like this, but with bigger waves! (taller fog)

I had brought a bunch of film, and had hoped to make more MF3d images whilst in “OBX,” but ended up with so much other family related stuff to do, that this motif was the only one that ended up on MF film.

Richmond Trestle

I shot this in 2023 with a damaged Sputnik. On my way to the location, I was doing something with my camera bag, and it suddenly inverted, spilling out both my spud and my (brand “new”) Heidoskop onto the pavement of the parking lot. I soon discovered that the fall caused the Spud shutter to become partially inoperative – I had to close the shutter manually… it behaved like a bulb setting (actually worse, I had to push up on the cocking lever to close the shutter).

I shot this scene with the Spud, timing the exposures around 1/2 second by the “seat of my pants.” The Heidoskop had worked better, it didn’t appear to have suffered any damage; but I later discovered it had developed a large light leak, because of a broken seal in the custom roll-film back – so none of the exposures from that camera were any good.

Just goes to show: even a busted Spud can make good images!

railroad trestle and architecture

P.S.
In the interim, I’ve not had much success with fixing the Spud shutter. My efforts on that front are detailed in this Patreon post. Last year, Bob Venezia was kind enough to send me several Spud lens boards/shutters, to help me fix this thing, but alas, I’ve not yet gotten into it deeply enough to succeed with the repair.

Come, Fly, With Me

I like the look of this bee a lot, but this is one of the very few times I was able to also capture an insect other than a bee. One of the things I love about these echinacea is the colorful spikes in those danger colors—yellow, orange, and red—like a collection of nuclear warheads arranged by Fibonacci.

Honeybee and green fly join forces in the inspection of nuclear warheads

Honeybee and green fly join forces in the inspection of nuclear warheads

Go Raptors Go!

Because of the Toronto Raptors historic 2019 NBA Championship win over the Golden State Warriors I have decided to send all my images this round from that fair city. Interiors are Fuji Velvia RVP 100F and exteriors are Provia RDP III taken with the TL 120.

Ontario College of Art And Design It kind of looks like they wanted to preserve the building underneath and stuck this one on top of it.

Roger’s Toronto Late Afternoon.  This is a cha-cha and I got pretty lucky with the lack of clouds and so not much movement between shutter clicks in the bottom although I just noticed a ladder or small crane in one image and not in the other one. I took a bunch at sunset but they are unviewable because of the cloud movements in the sky. This was taken from the balcony of  by brother’s appartement very close to the centre of the city which is basically Yonge and Bloor streets.

Stained Glass Silhouette Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street. Tried to expose for the stained glass windows but maybe a touch too dark.

Scared Arts : Painting, Music and Sculpture. Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street

Left and Right

Right Side

If the Juneau tourists get a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier, a mile long walk along the willows on the lake shore will bring them to the bottom of Nugget Creek. It offers a nice waterfall, and good view of the glacier.We’ve been here before.

Left Side

And if one walks several miles up the “left” side of the lake, and climbs a little, it is much quieter and less crowded.  Not many unguided tourists make it this far up the trail, so when I meet one I try to make them feel welcome. If the lenses in your viewer are good, you can see the crowd of tourists on the beech at the base of the waterfall.

Twenty years ago, all the open water in both images was ice. The face of the glacier was just past the rightmost iceberg in the second image. At that time, the bedrock was below more than 100′ of ice, and Nugget Falls disappeared under the edge of the glacier.

Both images are from my TL120, Nugget Falls has been captured with Kodak E100G rather than my usual Provia.

Town and Tours

So Many Choices

Juneau is historically a gold town. More recently, it is a tourist town. On a ‘good’ day, cruise ships can deliver more than 15,000 passengers to shore. And when all those people get ashore, they need to find something to do. Most of the ships work hard to sell package tours on board to their captive audience, but there are still folks on the sidewalks ready to help put tourists on buses out to the glacier or to another dock where they can grab a whale-watch tour.

Whales, Whales, Whales

Most of the vendors are seasonal workers. They arrive from Outside at the start of the season, rent their booth, and sell tours on commission. They’re assertive, but friendly. I’m not often mistaken for a tourist (wrong clothing and not enough tan), but when I am I listen to their pitch before turning them down.

Both of these are from my TL120 on Provia.

Rocket Bursts

This was from the first year I successfully shot hyper firewords bursts from my twin-rig setup. I only got a couple of shots that year, but the results were good enough to keep me trying. I used a formula I got from Don Lopp to calculate the stereo base, and I came up with 22 feet. After Don looked at the shots he said, “You know, since you don’t have anything *behind* the fireworks you could double the base. Ive been shooting with a 40 foot base ever since. Shot with twin Hasselblads fitted with 150mm lenses.

Matt Neima – August 2016

Matt hasn’t shot alot of film lately, but still wanted to participate in this loop of the folio. Since members of Folio B haven’t seen any of his images, I suggested that I be allowed to pick out four slides from his past body of work for submission to the Folio. He agreed and asked me to curate.  My image descriptions will also serve as my comments.  Matt usually shoots with Fuji Provia 100F film (not for “Ferry Dock” of course), and a Sputnik.  He has also owned two incarnations of the TL-120 – a TL-120-1, and a TL-120-55.  As these selections span seven years,  I’m not sure which camera or film was used for each one.

MATT NEIMA ALBION FALLS“Albion Falls” – captured in Hamilton, Ontario,  Summer 2004 – I selected this shot for its composition, varied lighting, depth and detail.  That particular area of Hamilton / Ancaster is home to a great number of waterfalls.  Matt has captured a lovely rendering of one of them.

MATT NEIMA PRETTY WOMEN“Pretty Women” – Misha, Sandra and Kim,  in Matt’s backyard,  2009 – I selected this image simply because I think it’s a great portrait.  You can invent your own back stories for the expressions on the women’s faces.  Thought went into the stereo composition – there are foreground elements,  the main subjects, and a slightly soft background which serves to highlight the main subjects.

MATT NEIMA LAKE HURON“Lake Huron” – captured in Pinery Provincial Park,  2010 – As you may know, it’s not easily to properly expose snow.  Especially when it’s 30 below, ho ho ho.  I like the repeating hilly motif from foreground to mid-shore.

MATT NEIMA SELF TITLED“Self Titled (Ferry Dock)” – captured in Vancouver’s Ferry Market 2011 – I selected this image for the wonderful use of the dr5 process, the composition, subject matter and the sharpness of detail.

Matt died of cancer October 1, 2016. His generosity and support for his friends will be missed. [JRT October 3, 2016]

Dolomite Mountains

WA152Location        Alta Via Trail, 3 hrs N Venice

Technical      Fuji GA645w (cha-cha no slide bar ), Fuji Provia F100

Comments         In July of 2014 my wife and I trail ran and trekked the
Dolomites in the Italian Alps.  There is a lot to see here: the classic
Dolomite peak craggy rock formations, the wild flowers that slowed down
just enough for me to take this stereo pair cha-cha, maybe not the
moving clouds in the bg.

New Mexico Moods

Kitch Gitten Place

This Sante Fe shop keeper agreed to have this environmental portrait done in the doorway. The Open shade made Velvia the choice – interior light balanced well by luck.

Crown Jewels

I like shooting store windows – reflections vs. transluscence. Thi one is more about the stuff, the sunflowers, and signage.

Abandoned Adobe

Velvia worked wll for this lighting scenario – side sun. I love how it saturates the colors.

One Man’s Junk

I was absolutely awestruck when I came upon this scene. The picket fence, the metal barn, the broken glass, even the wires in the sky… and wow, what a sky.

 

Dolomites

Picnic Table Waterfall

In July of 2014, my wife and I trail ran and trekked the Dolomites in the Italian Alps. There is a lot to see here and we opted to take a guided running tour with holomites.com. After a brief rest at this picnic table, we made an easy climb to the base of the falls.

The Cross

This view is an inspired resting place where views of the mountains and summer wild flowers surround you in every direction. After my cha-cha shot, I put my camera back in my Osprey Rev 6 hydration pack and ran to catch up.

Giant Leaves

While running along the river bank I was enamored with the giant leaves you see here. If you were to stand in the bunch, you’d be knee deep more in water, and single leaf would provide a good hat from the sun.

Dolomite Garden

I ran by many summer gardens in the ski town, but this one made me stop, take out my camera for a cha-cha shot. If you look closely at the background you can see a car on the road and few cable cars in different positions in the left and right images 🙂

All images were made with a Fuji GA645w using Provia 100F film.