Mea culpa

Yes, I'm falling behind on posting photos. I've had a busy week that included both some much-needed family time and overtime at work, so between all that and my pernicious habit of falling asleep every night, writing and photography have suffered.

On Tuesday night, I went to the first FreeWheel seminar about this year's cross-state ride. It was standing room only! Amazing! The route is along the eastern part of the state, and is described as 'scenic'. That means hilly. But it also gives participants the opportunity to visit Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri in one week. Read the report over on the Examiner site.

Just because I haven't posted any photos doesn't mean I haven't taken any.


This is one of my co-workers - back when he had hair. The photo dates from the mid-70s. The car is, or was, green. This is what happens to old photos as the dyes degrade. The dyes are organic compounds that slowly change over time. I've tinkered with this image in an effort to restore some of the original colors, but it's beyond my ability for now.


This is a classic 'brick' camera, an Argus C3. Argus made these for about 20 years. This particular model was produced during WW2. My mom found it at a garage sale somewhere in Georgia or South Carolina.


Here's the interesting part of the C3, the case. There's a name inside: Ray W. Pratt from Bradenton, Florida. The address includes a zip code, so it was written probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I tried to locate a Ray Pratt in Bradenton without success.

Shiny objects! Here's a set of Craftsman ignition wrenches that I use at work, along with a Snap-On 1/8th inch wrench and an antique Blue Point wrench. Snap-On and Blue Point wrenches have tiny stamps that identify the year of manufacture. The Blue Point is from 1949, and the Snap-On is from 1980, if I recall right. Like many tools, I needed the 1/8th for just one job and nothing else fit properly. That single wrench cost more than the set of Craftsmans.



Also, there's news on the Yashica Electro 35 GT front. I suspected an intermittent connection at the negative battery terminal. The spring on the negative side goes right through the camera case and has two wires (if I recall right) soldered to it. The connection is buried under the rangefinder assembly, so to reach it, I removed the top case and the rangefinder, only to find perfectly good wiring. Hmmmm. What about the positive end? The camera chassis is neutral, that is, it's not connected to the electrical system, so it's not a consideration. The positive connection comes from a wave washer installed on the battery cover. It contacts a small ring set into the chassis. The ring is visible just under the bottom cover, and there are two red wires soldered to it.

On the GLN I gave to Wade, there's a small paper dot that indicates the positive end applied to the center of the battery cover. I carefully pried up the wave washer so it would definitely contact the ring. Viola! The camera worked....for a while. Then the connection went away again. The wave washer doesn't seem to have much spring to it, so maybe that little piece of paper provides just enough stand off for it to maintain a slight curve. I bent the washer again, but I don't want to make this a regular practice. It's bound to break eventually.

So I'll try a thin piece of paper or plastic in there tomorrow....after I recalibrate the rangefinder. Yep, all that handling put the adjustment off. It now focuses beyond infinity, much to the annoyance of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed as I wandered through the house shouting, "To infinity and beyond!" all evening. She just doesn't have my finely attuned sense of humor.

There are more photos, but they can wait until tomorrow.

Weekend posts

She's rapidly turning into my favorite model...mainly because she works almost for free.  This is my daughter the shopping maven.  We were out on Saturday at the Tulsa flea market, various thrift shops, and Gardner's Books, the latter a favorite of my kids since they were toddlers.  This shot was taken in the cafe using window light, and I think it turned out well.  She's giving me the oh-so-patient "Stupid Father Look" which will someday morph into the Stupid Husband Look.  I'm in no hurry to see that happen.  

All these shots were taken with a Yashica Electro 35 GLN, the same camera I purchased at last week's flea market.  I cleaned the exterior and the rangefinder assembly, installed new seals and a new battery, and exercised the shutter.  It works fine but may be underexposing a bit.  I gave this camera to a friend yesterday.  He's going to run more film through it, and if it's consistently underexposed I'll adjust the autoexposure diaphragm.  It's very possible to install a voltage regulator in one of these cameras - lots of space.  So I'll look into building a 5.6v regulator also.

Here she is in the stacks.  A few days ago, I did a similar shot of her mother.  Neither of them like to be photographed.  I like the way the rectangular pattern of her coat seems to be the same as the more of less rectangular patterns of the books.

I staked out the Dungeons and Dragons reference book rack, hoping that someone would pause long enough for a snapshot.  I was not disappointed.  It drew an eclectic group of people, but I never realized it was a spot that encouraged spontaneous worship.  Maybe there's more to this D&D stuff than I realized.

Thursday and Friday

Canon Canonet.  Exposure unrecorded.  Kodak ISO400 film with an orange filter.

She-Wh0-Must-Be-Obeyed doesn't like to be photographed, so I have to be sneaky.  The Canonet is ideal for that.  The lens is a 40mm f1.7, so taking photos by available light works well.  This was inside our local library where Mary usually has an armful of books for me to carry out.  Yesterday was no exception.  She had 13 when we left!

 Canon A590IS, ISO200, f5.5, 1/10sec.

This is Mark, one of my co-workers.  He's wearing a pair of binocular magnifiers with 6 LEDs on the front that light up his work.  I've relied on the same type of magnifiers whenever I have to do close work, but mine do not have LEDs!  Oh the humanity!  

My daughter laughed as I worked on that camera a few nights ago because - according to her - I looked like a geek.  Well...yes...but I'm a professional electronics geek, not an ordinary idiot.

I gotta get me some of them lights.  Hmmm, both visible and ultraviolet would be nice...

Thursday

Sorry, no photos today because (gasp!) I was shooting film.  Yes, real Kodak black and white film.  It will be back from the processors tomorrow, so I'll post more photos then.  

I'm tired, but it's a good kind of tired.  I'm looking forward to the weekend.  Management didn't ask for overtime this weekend as I'd feared, so I get two entire days off.  Wonderful!

Still, I couldn't go without posting something.  Believe me, while there are some broad-minded people here in Oklahoma, they're not this broad-minded.  

Wednesday photos

This is a long exposure, basically the idea I want to pursue with some of this nightime photography.  This was taken with the Canon A590IS with an ISO80, f2.8, for 15 seconds.  Yes, 15 seconds.  That red streak is my son driving by in the car.  I like the way the headlights lit the road.  And I also like the very low noise in this photo, so much unlike the one from earlier in the week.

This is much the same shot without the car going by.  Several of them drove up the hill, but their headlights overpowered the camera.  I want to try 'painting' a foreground object with a powerful flashlight too.  But it was getting cold, my batteries were about shot, and dinner was waiting.

This is interesting too.  It's a power supply board with a burnt-out thermistor and capacitor.  When this thing went, it shot tiny balls of molten metal onto an adjacent circuit board.  It looked almost like weld spatter.  The weird thing was the computer still worked.  I'm hoping the board isn't badly charred under the thermistor, or it's very possible the card will be scrap.  At about $12,000 a piece, I really hesitate to scrap them.  I've been trained to repair multi-layer boards like this, so it may be salvageable.  Still, board repair work is tedious and very time-consuming.

All in all, I've had a good day!

Tuesday photos

Canon A590IS

There are two photos today.  This first one is a snapshot taken as I walked out the front door this afternoon.  She's the reason we have tiny paw prints across the cars.  This cat is a stray we've named 'Baby.'  She's not feral as she's quite sociable.  In fact, she's something of an attention sponge.  Baby will gently bite my hand when she needs some affection.  She's also fond of grabbing my hand between her paws and drawing it over toward her head for some ear scratching.

 

Mary and I came across this in the grocery store last night.  Look carefully.  It's Pepsi made with REAL SUGAR not corn sweetener.  Some Mexican groceries carry imported sodas made with real sugar.  They charge premium prices for it and the stuff sells out rapidly.  This is the first time I've seen this product in the mainstream grocery.

I bought it as a special treat for Mary, but she'll have to be very careful of the sugar content.  Each can has 40 grams!  This will be for special occasions and she'll have to split the can with Lyndsay.