En Plein Air Painting -- The Impression Impressionists Have Left

 

 

I have the frequent need to dig out old cameras from my collection and see how we still, together, can capture a moment.

In the past weeks I have been playing with a late 1940s Praktica FX3 that I have had for many decades. It is a sweet camera if you have time to frame, focus, and figure out why the pictures go from left to right in the e waist level view finder…  Yes, it is a 35mm waist level viewfinder camera with some serious sophistication. One of them is that it takes M42 mount lenses and has an internal, albeit obscure, switch to actually use semi-automatic lenses from the 1950s and 1960. So, instead of the cumbersome pre-set lenses, I like to use Honeywell Pentax lenses that are truly magnificent.

So, here is my FX3 with a 135mm on it and a 50mm Pentax Takumar lenses:

As a collector and a user, cameras with a historic background have a special meaning. This Praktica was made in Germany during WWII when Germany was under Soviet invasion. Here is the encryption:

I have been keeping this camera and lenses in my car in case I see something worth of street photography. Indeed, a few days ago I was parked my car in a state park to walk my dog and saw painters practicing the lovely tradition that impressionists like Monet made so popular – the joy of taking your easel out to the field and capturing landscapes.

So, the first picture I took is at the outset of this page. The film is ASA 100 so I do have some latitude with the lagging speeds of the camera:

Then I saw another painter perhaps 100 meters away. Here is the capture with the 50 mm f1.8 Takumar:

Of course I had plenty time to shift to the 135 mm lens for the following shot:

 

When I developed and printed these shots, I could not resist thinking about the Impressionists’ influence on framing this shot. Sure, it is amateurish, and it is influenced by the digital scanning of a film-based print, but still it does have that feel of the “plein air” painting that many artists dream to have the time to practice.

Here is the digitally ultra enlarged crop showing the painter and easel:

So, a 65 year old camera and Impressionistic themes – what can be better when the original goal was to take a 100 pound Akita for a walk on Halloween eve!

October 31, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

PS/ I got an email from a viewer who asked how the 35mm waist level viewfinder compares to the medium format viewfinders. It is a great question since given the size of the negative, medium format camera waist level viewfinders are larger, hence easier to frame and focus. 

But the 35mm ones can be very bright and with some practice as easy to use as their medium format counterparts.

Here is a comparison between my Praktica FX3 and the venerable 1948 Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera.

And their viewfinders

Sure, the 35mm has a smaller viewfinder  but I like the brightness of it.

A Look at Today Through Vintage Soviet Lens and Camera

 

A fine gentleman, after visiting my photography blog decided to donate his 1954 Zeiss Ikon Contaflex to my collection of vintage mechanical cameras. He was surprised and happy to find someone who still uses film, and I promised to take photos soon since he had not used it for decades,

As I was making room for the new camera on my selves, I came across a 1950s Soviet FED lens in Leica 39 mount. It is called Industar and a humble lens in performance and it was attached to a delightful FED-2 camera I bought many, many moons ago. I had never used the lens knowing its limitations, but decided to give it a chance after all these years sitting in the back row to lenses that have made my love of B&W photography so intimate.

So, I put the FED 26M on the FED-2 camera, loaded 10 frames of film (yes, I still load my canisters so I can decide on how many frames to load depending on the purpose) and took it with me for my dog’s morning walk at a nearby lake.

Here is the camera and the lens I had never used. Both are Soviet made in the early 1950s.

Of course using a 65 years old Soviet rangefinder camera while having a 95 pound Akita pulling you on the trail is a formidable task! But I managed to take one shot in contre-jour when he jumped atop a 10 meter boulder and pulled his tongue at me! I just wanted to see how the lens behaves in various light situations.

Well, it did poorly, of course. But it does have that feel only vintage glass can give. Technically deplorable, but full of that character folks like me pursue through the use of old lenses and mechanical cameras.

Then, as he was rushing to the lake for a drink, I tried to stop him long enough to focus and shoot one other frame. It is the one at the outset of this posting. The couple provided much character in their posture. The woman was using binoculars for birdwatching, and he seemed patiently waiting for her explanations about ducks and geese…

I like this vintage-feel photo. The corners are soft, the contrast is minimal, and the sharpness is non-existent, but somehow the composition benefited from this old Soviet lens the design of which is a variant of the 1930s German Tessar lens configuration.

…Then, my dog walked into the lake the shores of which are deep and black mud given the lack of rain this summer. When I pulled him back, his legs were already halfway black and he looked like a different dog. I tried to take a quick shot. When I developed the film, I could see under the loupe how uneven the focusing was – his eyes were in focus but his back and tail were not! That is a major flaw of the lens of course, but if used with that limitation in mind, could produce some creative photos…

Anyhow, here is that shot:

 

Needless to say I returned the Industar to the end of the shelf and made space for the Contaflex.

 

October 11, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

Doctor Who and the Weeping Angel

 

On our daily path away from the city square, my dog stopped and looked intensely, as he does when deer or coyote are on the path. After a few seconds he decided to check this “intruder” out and we got closer.

To my surprise, someone had decided to design an upcoming Halloween scene in this secluded area where mostly dog walkers use.  A weeping angel surrounded by raven (or crows) was next to gravestones.  Even my dog was confused as he looked at me wondering if he should chase the raven away or be touched by the sorrow of the angel…

Of course, my mind flew to the Protestant Cemetery in Rome where the original Weeping Angel was carved by William Wetmore Story and placed upon the tomb of his wife Emelyn in 1894. Since then, variants of a crying or weeping angel can be found in every cemetery of our planet. Those of us who have seen these weeping angle statues in various countries’ cemeteries I believe have a favorite or at least a favorite posture of the angel. While most are shown covering their faces, there are those that have their wings unfolded and their faces fully exposed. That posture is my favorite as it shows the extent of the sorrow and pain. The most remarkable may be the Haserot Weeping Angel in Cleveland, OH as her fully visible face is covered with what seems to black tears while sitting on a marble gravestone.

Then my mind meandered back to the 1960s when I first watched the British Series “Doctor Who”! And I almost thought that I saw his time travel ship, the TARDIS, fly over the city square… Hmm. Well, the Doctor was this extraterrestrial with a human appearance and he did good deeds around the world. For the youngsters who could not always separate fact from fiction, this BBC production made us think about the surreal but with implications for our behavior in the real world. And it was in this series that Weeping Angels were introduced as the moist malevolent life-forms evolution has ever produced. Indeed, these angels were angels of death, of grief and of sorrow. They covered their faces because if they looked at each other’s eyes they will be petrified for eternity. In other word, they will become statues.

… It was before my morning coffee but my dog wanted to walk another 2 miles but I had already walked back 60 years through the serpentine paths of memory.

On the way home, I was still wondering why whoever put that Halloween set-up put it there. Was the angel weeping in grief the hundreds of thousand deaths from Covid-19? Was she in sadness remembering the “easy” days of the past when people hugged, kissed and held each other when they met for dinner on a warm summer evening?

If Doctor Who flies over the city in his TARDIS, I will make sure to get his attention and ask these questions!

 

October 11, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020