Why I Might Go Digital

For a long time I've prided myself on using film. I love working with film. I've held off from going digital because of the upfront cost. But now I might do it just because I'm not willing to give up shooting color because I can't find a reliable lab.

It's one of the things that sucks about living in a small town. I've got basically 2 choices. Grocery/Drug Stores and Camera shops. Now, the camera shops would be great except they charge $8.00+ per roll for development and printing. That's just way too much when the grocery stores do it at about half the price. But the quality of the prints there is usually really bad. Yea I know I could develop the color negatives myself but given the cost of the equipment and the time spent I might as well go digital.

So that puts me down to 2 options:

Option A is to go digital and put out $1000+ for a good camera and accessories.

Option B is to let the lab cointinue to process my color negatives (which they seem to be able to not mess up) and just print my own pictures using a negative scanner and a photo printer.

Hopefully option B will work out for me because I doubt I'll be getting a grand to spend on a camera anytime soon. (I could try for Christmas but I highly doubt it'll happen.)

i love my best friend

i love my best friend, originally uploaded by crownjewel82.

Of all the shots I took in Frenchtown. This is the one I like the most.
I found it on a wall near the old Lincoln High School on Macomb St. I was taking pictures of houses across the street and just happened to see it behind me.

Frenchtown House, originally uploaded by crownjewel82.

It's one of the things I love about Frenchtown. There are people in the burbs living in 3-4 bedroom houses with 2 car garages who can't be arsed to mow their lawn. But all through Frenchtown there are little houses like this one where people have taken the time to take care of what they have.

I've got more Frenchtown pics on my Flickr page.

I used Kodak C-41 Black and White film in my Mamiya. It was an exceptionally bright day with almost no cloud cover so i was shooting at 1/1000 and f/16.

Tallahassee Train Station

Platform, originally uploaded by crownjewel82.

I love the train station. The fact that it isn't a modern station gives it a kind of character that many places have lost.

These shots were taken at f/16 in bright natural light at 1/500 or 1/1000. I used Kodak C-41 Black & White in my Mamiya.

Train Station Bench, originally uploaded by crownjewel82.

Tallahassee, originally uploaded by crownjewel82.

Blue Hat Photo

Saving a seat, originally uploaded by crownjewel82.

It's called Blue Hat Photo because I almost always wear a Blue US Soccer hat when I go out shooting. Lame I know, all the good names were taken.

This shot is from when I went to Tampa to see the team (US MNT, keep up ok) play in Raymond James Stadium. The hat in the picture isn't mine. The guy sitting next to me got up to go get snacks and left his hat to save his seat. Instead of just dropping it there like most people, he spent about 5 minutes straightening it and positioning it.

The thing I like most about the shot is that there's n one else sitting in the row and the row above so it's got these nice clean lines down the middle of the photo to the next section.

My main camera is a Mamiya 1000TL 35mm. For this shot I used 400 speed Fuji Color film at f/16 and shutter speed of 1/1000 since it was so god awuful bright outside.