distracting questions month meme

According to a bunch of you march is question month - so, since i'm running a few days late on everything this month so far, why not this meme as well?

Ask away with the questions! I promise to make a valiant attempt at answering - though since time slips away from me faster than a lubed up squishy toy, i can't make any promises about timeliness :)

Anonymous allowed - everything's screened initially anyway.

Camera porn

I know, i'm behind on my photos of the day - still processing from Hawaii and waiting for film.

In the meantime, I do have -some- pictures, taken today, even! I just recently purchased my first large format camera. A 4x5 film camera - the Graflex Super Graphic. That's 4x5 inches (most of my cameras up till now have been measured in cm - a 6x6 camera has a roughly 6cm by 6cm negative (actually less, but who's counting?)). The negatives on this thing look like they'll be huge!

Typically referred to as a press camera (vs. a full on view camera with all front and rear standard movements or the slightly more portable but sometimes limited in movements field camera) - the Super Graphic did add enough flexibility/movements that it should more than satisfy my Scheimpflugging for a while.

Click for the full set of camera porn imagery. Now with commentary!

When I got the camera it came with a pack of film (old kodak tri-x 320 in a 16-sheet pack - alas, as nifty as the pack appears to be I don't believe anyone makes 4x5 film in packs anymore, just sheets). Granted the film expired in 1974 but that didn't stop me from loading up the film into the holder - tossing it into my bag - grabbing my tripod and going wandering!

I've taken 9 shots so far - mostly boring shots for testing out the camera. 4 shots of a church with different camera movements to see its effect - a few other street shots and some shots of my favorite piece of local sculpture. I also got to use the camera in it's original roll as a press camera - there was a lot of cop action in fruitvale! (Bus pulled over and empty and something like 8 cop cars :) If only I had the big bulb flash on there, I could've gone right back to the 50's

I also took one shot with a completely insane set of camera movements - to fuck with perspective and planes of focus. In fact the camera in these shots is how it was set for that last test shot (though, I have to admit, I did add some tilt to the camera halfway through the shoot - to get more of a ... sultry look out of it ;)

I've got 7 more shots to burn then I can take it in to get developed and see what comes out the other end. I can't wait!