Darrell Edwards • NLPhotogs

Mike Kovac – Man With A Camera

By Darrell Edwards on April 4th 2012

…excitement is my business. I find it by poking prying and listening. When I find what I want, I record it with my camera. Its fun, money and people. I dont know which I like best.”

A few weeks ago my buddy Ryan and I where out shooting and he mentioned an old show that aired in the late 50′s called “Man with a camera” it wasn’t until tonight after seeing a promotional shot of Charles Bronson from the showon celebrity camera club, that I decided to look up some clips on youtube.

Lo and behold, both seasons seem to be there in their entirety – full length episodes!!!

Bronson plays former combat cameraman turned freelance photog “Mike Kovac” from what I can eek from the couple of episodes I watched this evening, his dangerous assignments get him and his camera in to some tight situations. But Kovac always gets his shot in the end. Its actually a pretty decent show, its got a bit of a dark pulp feel, similar to the twilight zone, but not as campy.

Even technically its not as cheesy as it could be – Bronson is always metering, fiddling with his camera, reloading film and such. In one scene, he’s developing prints in the darkroom and remarks to a police officer “you can turn that light on now.” once the print is in the fixer. Apparently the creators tried to stay true to the period in the photo technology that they used. Kovac’s station wagon actually had a phone in it… and a mobile darkroom.

I believe the camera he is using – in the first few episodes at least – is the exact model Graflex super speed graphic that I own, wich tickles me to no end.

Anyway if you are into vintage cameras and television shows, this one is a gem that I hadn’t heard of until recently. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

Cat’s outta the bag – what’s in yours?

By Darrell Edwards on March 11th 2012

Discuss In Forums

My Daily shooter I’ve decided that I want to start taking photos of my camera bags as the lineup changes. This lineup in particular is my daily setup of the moment. I pretty much lug this one around with me everywhere. I am constantly working on my photo projects and this is the setup that works for me to accomplish that.

I have umpteen different film cameras that I really enjoy using, but lately my daily shooter has been the Bessa R2. I’ve fallen head over heels with it. I usually shoot with the voightlander 35mm ƒ/1.4 mounted to the front of it. For the most part its not technically “in the bag” because its small enough that i can have it slung around my shoulder, but it will fit in the bag if need be. This is the camera that I am using most for my “A City Like Ours” project. At the moment I have the crumplier strap attached, but I’m on the look out for a classic smallish leather strap for it. There’s not much weight in the bessa so it doesn’t warrant the thick padding that the crumplier offers.

The gripped 5d1 is my workhorse – though day to day it usually stays in the bag unless I happen upon a wonderfully dressed individual to participate in my Stitchup project. It’s got my 85 ƒ/1.8 fixed. I’ve stuck the black rapid strap on there for when I do sling it over the shoulder.

My wallet – contains no money, but does have my impossible project pioneer card… And my Id’s and stuff.

My film, mostly I use ilford XP2 400iso, but in my point and shoot Olympus XA2 (not pictured because technically its always in my right jacket pocket) usually anything will do in that. So there’s som Kodak PortraNC, and the last of my big lot of Fuji superia.

There’s the iPad. My water bottle, my broken shoe mount flash that I use handheld… On the side of it is a bongo tied Jainisi wireless trigger and the commander is just below it.

The bag itself is the Ari Marcopoulis sling from Incase. Who for a company that until recently had not done much in the way of camera bags did a smashing job on this one. the quality of the materials used is just phenominal. It has it’s shortfalls, but all in all it’s a my favorite bag for this type of setup.

Do you have a daily shooter setup? Toss a camera in your daily messenger bag or purse? Share it in the forums!

Fancey Moments

By Darrell Edwards on March 6th 2012

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Mark Fancey halloween weekend 2009 - Water Street

Street photography can mean capturing fleeting moments in peoples lives. Sometimes you snap the shot and walk on by, sometimes you engage your subject, other times, they engage you.

Two years ago I was out on a the night before halloween I was shooting the costumed, bar hopping masses that populate george street and surrounding area on such an occasion. I hung out in areas where I could use shop window light as a source and so I could properly make out who I was about to shoot before it happened. Late in the evening, a cyclist who didn’t look like a cyclist, and and didn’t look like he was wearing a costume came towards me. I fired a frame of him biking by, and he slowed his pace and turned around and Asked me what I was doing. I told him the usual: “I’m taking photos of interesting people, its good night for it.” and so on. Normally that disarms people, they accept that I found them interesting enough to snap a shot of and they walk away. Not this time.
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Camera Crank: Megapixels and EVF Clutter

By Darrell Edwards on March 2nd 2012

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Sadly I fear that all cameras as we now know them may become classics because they may cease to exist as stand alone devices.”

At the ripe old age of 31 I am beginning to feel like a dinosaur. Still Shooting my film, with my collection of vintage cameras. Or buying last years model of full frame digital body because its tested and true. There’s no denying that there are exciting things happening in technology, and they’re great useful things, the future is now blah, blah, blah…

Is it though?

In a forum discussion about what today’s “future classics” might be, fourmer Terrance Hounsel pointed to recent news of the Nokia 41mp camera phone and claimed “Sadly I fear that all cameras as we all now know them may become classics because they may cease to exist as stand alone devices.” I can’t bring myself to want to even acknowledge this phone… this camera… this thing’s existence. Don’t get me wrong, I love having a phone with a camera. It allows me to take notes, snaps of things, but its just that, a snapshot camera for grabbing fleeting moments. I love that my phone can do 41 million things, it makes my life easier in so many ways but 41 Megapixels in a phone is completely farcical. This is not growth of technology, it’s an abomination. I thought we’d grown beyond the whole megapixel war thing — the exit strategy had already begun hadn’t it?

Sony Alpha 65 EVF

Another photo/tech trend that I am too cantankerous to enjoy are Electronic View Finders (EVFs) popping up everywhere. Some people are in love with them, and yes they do allow for having a viewfinder in the smaller camera bodies, that’s great – I will never have one, they get in the way. I want to see what I’m shooting for what it is, not be bombarded with information while straining my eyes on more screen time. I’ve heard the argument “but they gain up so you can see better in the dark”. Speaking as someone who’s low light vision is horrible, you might think that it’d be a major selling feature. It’s not. Not for me. As my eyes do slowly adjust to lower light I become aware of my whole environment. If I’m looking into what amounts to a teensy ultra bright screen, I’m disconnected from everything except whats framed and ruining what little low light vision I do have because my eyes have adjusted to the insane bright screen.

For my own sanity and the sake of photography as a whole I really hope Terrance’s fears do not come to fruition. Although there are devices that are made more convenient by adding multiple tasks and features, there’s beauty in a tool that is made for one purpose. I like the purity of looking through an optical view finder, framing a shot of something I am making a physical connection with. Then hitting the trigger at the right time with no delay.

My hope is that these things are seen for what they are. Consumer fads and trinkets. What are the chances. Perhaps I’m just that crotchety old man, afraid of the future.

Camera porn — HUZZAH!

By Darrell Edwards on February 17th 2012

Discuss In Forums

The Polaroid 600SE (a.k.a. Lucy)

I mentioned to forum member Todd Baker in another thread that I had just gotten a camera that he might take some interest in and this is it.

My Polaroid 600SE. I call her Lucy.

At the moment I have the Mamiya 127mm ƒ/4.7 lens which is equivalent to around 50mm on the media size, which is about 4X 3.25 inches. so that’s somewhere between medium format and large format. You might think that the lens is slow and it technically is, but if you had a larger aperture lens on this size media you might end up with too shallow a depth of field.

Where the shutter is of the leaf variety I can sync my strobes up to 1/500th of a second and I really love the heft of this machine. The only disappointing bit is that with a leaf shutter in the lens the actual click, which isn’t that satisfying a shutter note. :-)

The window so far as rangefinders go is pretty good. The “bright lines” are selectable on the back of the rangefinder and it has parallax correction for it as well. When I first received the camera the rangefinder itself needed some work, but thanks to Peter down at Phototec it’s in tip-top shape now and I should be shooting with it this weekend! The two backs I have for it take Polaroid 66X series films which are available on eBay but expect to find only expired Polaroid film lots. Also, Fuji still — for now — make available two types of film: A BW Film (FP-100B) and Color (FP-100C) made to fit those same holders.

Feel free join in with your own camera porn — new or old — in the forums.