Dgwphotos

For many years, the Commemorative Air Force's B-29A, Fifi, was the only flight worthy B-29 in existence. However, in 2016, she was joined by Doc, a TB-29, flying out of Wichita, Kansas, where she was originally built, along with over 1600 other B-29's. She was built as a B-29A, but was converted to a TB-29 in the 1950's, in which capacity she served as a radar calibration aircraft and target tug. As part of her conversion, most of her defensive armarment was removed, retaining only the two tail .50 cal machine guns. After retirement from service, she was sent to the Navy's China Lake target range to serve as a target, where she, along with Fifi, sat until 1987, when she was rescued from the target range. In May 2022, Doc visited the Museum of Flight here in Seattle, and I took the opportunity to go see her as well. The name Doc was chosen during her restoration because the squadron she was part of in military service was known as the Seven Dwarfs. Like her pre

I know things have been a bit quiet here, but I have been working on getting some fresh work from 2022 printed up and some fresh new equipment that I've been interested in aquiring for a long time, which will be part of the next few posts. I have some main project posts planned, and some behind the photos posts planned, one of which will be connected to the project posts. I will also be bringing some new additions to older projects as well, photos that have not been previously included in those older projects. I also am considering entering some of this new work in a possibly upcoming photo contest (It's generally a yearly contest, but they did not hold it this year), and will let you all know when that happens. I have also been working this year on some significant construction projects done in the darkroom to improve setting up the darkroom for operations and replacing old bench surfaces with new material. This work took much of the year and tied up the benches as well.

The Bronica ETRS is a medium format Single Lens Reflex (SLR). Unlike most medium format cameras, which produce 6cm by 6cm images, it produces 6cm by 4.5cm images on 120 format film. As I've done much of my work on 35mm, I chose a rectangular format as opposed to the square format, because I prefer the compositional choice that using a rectangular format gives. Unlike most 35mm SLR's, Medium format SLR's frequently have not only interchangable lenses, but interchangable viewfinders and backs as well. Here we see my Bronica disassembled into its individual components from left to right and top to bottom: The 75mm lens, which is the normal lens for this format. The body of the camera, which contains the battery and mirror. The back, which contains the film. The viewfinder, in this case, a simple prism finder (non metered, there is a metered finder as well, which has apeture priority auto exposure). Finally, the optional grip. The grip has a 35mm style film winder, as o

The past few months have been filled with some new acquisitions and some production, including in the darkroom of all places! I purchased four new lenses, including a wide angle and telephoto for the Bronica medium format SLR, which will receive it's own post, as there are some special elements to the design of that camera. In addition to those two, I bought a new macro lens, a 90mm Tamron autofocus macro lens that will do 1:1 (life size) without any need for extension tubes, and an 80-400mm Nikkor VR lens. In addition to the lenses, I purchased a few Wimberly Plamps, which will also be the subject of a post, a new macro rail, and two quick release L brackets. I was able to clear the darkroom up enough to do some printing, it's probably been at least 10 years since it was active. First up is this different perspective on the "Mine cart bridge" at Franklin, which actually supported a water pipe for the town: Also while browsing my negatives, I came across the

While the camera and lenses usually get all the attention, often, it's the accessories that can make the photos possible. In this episode, we will be looking at the supporting cast, also known as tripods and other support equipment/accessories. Starting out with the simplest support, we have a bean bag. This is typically used folded in half with the lens on top of it to steady the lens and camera. More elabrate ones can be found with integrated tripod mounting screws. Next up, we have the monopod. This is primarily used for sports photography, where portable support for heavy fixed telephoto lenses and telephoto zoom lenses in low light is essential. The monopod can be mounted to the tripod collar found on most professional fixed telephoto lenses and telephoto zoom lenses. Mine is equipped with a ball head, although in actual use, the ball head wouldn't be adjusted unless the camera was mounted to it directly, rather than via the tripod collar on the telephoto lens. When

This abandoned 1950's mail truck is just off the May Creek trail, between Newcastle and Renton. According to local geocachers, the van is a 1955-57 Fageol/Dodge C-3-C6 Postal Van. It was apparently painted with marking explaining the Zip code system in the 1960's. Thanks for looking, and as always, feel free to comment!