Classes start Monday, and the VTCC is back; the cadre is hard at work getting the freshmen ready. As frequently happens on a campus with a cadet corps, I’m reminded of my own undergraduate education…. odd days those.

Canon 7D 22mm at ISO640 f/4 1/1600

I got a new toy today – and no, not the camera body. You’ll note the focus is squarely on the camera strap. I’ve been using the Black Rapid R-7 strap on my camera for some time now, and I love it. In rapid, continuous shooting situations I couldn’t ask for better. But for the heavy body of my Canon 7D, everyday carry is a bit much with the R-7. Hence, the new toy today. This wrist strap harkens back to my K-1000 days and the looping of that old cloth neck strap around my arm. For in and out of camera bag days, I think this will be perfect.

Canon Rebel XTi ISO 400 50mm f/1.8 at 1/30

My first SLR. Manual everything – focus, shutter, aperture…. there’s not even an on/off switch. Most of the time it sits on a shelf with other remembrances, but occasionally, for fun, I load it and shoot a roll. When I pick it up, my hand still checks the wind lever for tension long before my brain engages and remembers where the controls are on top. Built like a tank, this camera should’ve quit working years ago. I fell out of a truck near Thies and this was among the gear in the bag I landed on; I hurt for a week, but the camera kept on shooting – didn’t even pop open and ruin the film. I shot Folly and surrounding areas with this camera for years – not a spec of rust on it. I would have stayed with Pentax… tried to stay with Pentax. They were just too slow bringing a decent DSLR to market. Thus, the caption below:

Canon 7D 50mm f/2.2

Spring comes a bit earlier here, and the garden is already starting – albeit inside. Just a few weeks now and these will be going into the ground.

Peas, with a guest.
50mm f/1.8 at 400ISO

I took this with my old Pentax K-mount 50mm prime lens. As much of a technology geek as I am, there’s something joyous about going old school every now and then and shooting completely manually. I’m reminded how difficult shooting film really was – if you wanted to be good. And with the K-mount lens, I’ve no other choice than to go manual. This particular lens is a beautiful Pentax 50mm f/1.4, made sometime around the late ’70s. It’s sharpest around 1.7 or 2, and the clarity when shooting with this lens is hard to beat. The JPG compression did nothing here to show that off, but the RAW file looks gorgeous.

Shooting with this lens reminds me that I keep meaning to pick up a more modern Canon 50mm f/1.4 as it’ll fit my body natively, autofocuses, functions more like an 85mm on my APS-C body, etc. Still, there’s something magical about taking my time to get the manual settings just so….

50mm at 400ISO, f/1.7 @ 1/10