#20, Star Trails
so i was out in the woods last night and i took this photo. i would have taken some more time to make better photos but the area i was in wasn’t supposed to be photographed, so i put my camera on top of the car and pointed it at the sky in order to try some star trail photos. i made this at iso 400, f3.5, 28mm focal length, for about 6 minutes exposure. in the past when i’ve made 10 minute pictures, there has been too much noise to cover up in photoshop. looking at this image, there is much less noise. i think less than 10 minutes might be best for capturing less noisy pictures. at iso 100 the camera wouldn’t make as much image. i haven’t tried 200 yet. perhaps next time. theoretically if the iso is lower, there would be less noise, and perhaps at 12 mintues rather than 6, there would be better star trails. but then again, considering that my camera sensor is being worked that whole time, that might be the factor, in determining its sweet spot. i want to do this with my film camera, but i’m waiting for the right time. plus my nikon f2, which is my camera with the best lenses (aside from the mamiya), doesn’t have a cable release, and i’m only able to shoot for 8 seconds max with its nobs. so i use the digital camera for my experiements. recently i picked up a ricoh 500g, which is a little cheapo rangefinder with a blub mode; i used it to make a star trails photo, again pointing straight into the sky because otherwise the illuminated sacramento foreground would have been too bright… anyways, we will see how that turns out once developed. okay, i typed enough. peace.
Taste of wine
#19
I’m in the mood for cropping old photos. I think this looks good, not sure I’ve shared it yet in full size..
Fern
#18
Testing out my new Ricoh 500G. Its a rangefinder with a 40mm lens @ f2.8, and total manual control for only 40 dollars. its shit plastic quality. but fun to use. very light and quiet 
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Bird again, #17
So Many Birds, I think Cranes
#16. I didn’t realize how many birds were in the picture when i orginally took it. looking back through my photos today, i noticed it was sort of cool. so this is my black and white conversion, still needs more touching up if i decide to print.
Last time I’m using my Brownie Hawkeye for awhile
#15) I’ve learned that the Brownie is a shit camera for capturing details. This is the best shot off of my roll, and i’ve decided that its sort of not worth it to burn film with this camera due to the shit image quality. this is supposed to be a photo of the sacramento skyline, obviously very far away from my camera, with the trainyard foreground. the other photos i took were too washed out and detailless to be interesting enough to share. another thing, is that you cannot shoot backlight or side light with this lens, it just causes tons of flare, and overexposure, and so on. this was front lit (sun behind me), so it was better. nevertheless not really worth my time and money to use this. but the camera is fun to use (knowing that the photos will be shit). honestly the best photos i’ve made with this camera have been on blub mode inside the house with limited lighting. too much light is bad for this camera. it needs even lighting.
