florida ave. grill

A little while ago, during a stop in D.C., I walked by the famous (to locals at least) Florida Avenue Grill. As always I had a camera on me, and the light happened to be exceptionally good. I took a few pictures, about half the roll of film, and these two are the ones that looked best: one capture from head on, and the other from an angle, with a view of the sidewalk.

I used a Yashica-D twin-lens reflex camera and Kodak Gold 200 film. The film was processed by Pro Camera in Charlottesville, Va. I did the scanning myself.

Olympus Infinity S

A little while ago, I dropped a few dollars on a cheap 35mm point and shoot. It was an Olympus Infinity S, released in 1987. A fully automatic, zone-focus clamshell compact with a 35mm f//3.5 lens and a maximum shutter speed of 1/400s, it was a more or less a “next-gen” update to the Olympus XA series of compact cameras. You can’t quite tell in this photo, but it’s even about the same size.

There’s nothing bad about the camera — the only feature that doesn’t quite work are the buttons meant to adjust the focus to either close-up or infinity — but there’s nothing great about it either. Other than a nice big, bright viewfinder, it’s just a camera. I put two rolls of film through to test the lens — a roll of Kentmere 400, a black and white film, and a roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 — and came away basically satisfied with the results. The lens is sharp enough to produce good scans and, I assume, good prints.

I’ll say, that the sheer simplicity (and apparent durability) of the Olympus Infinity S makes it an excellent camera for a small child, and my five-year-old has had a lot of fun using it to take pictures when we go out on errands or to do activities. Once he finishes a roll, I’ll have the film developed and maybe I’ll share the pictures. Until then, here are the shots I took during the month or so I kept this in my pocket.

lake george

My wife and I spent a weekend in upstate New York over the summer and while we were on our way to Lake Placid, we stopped to have lunch and walk around in Lake George. I took a few pictures with a camera that has become something of a personal favorite, the Panasonic GX8. It has its limitations, but when I’m in the mood for using something with modern conveniences — versus my usual vintage equipment or all-manual digital Leica — the Panasonic is my first choice.

montreal (at night)

Whenever we travel with the kids, I tend to use evenings and nights — after we’ve had dinner and put the kids to bed — to do a little more exploring. Cities can look very different after dark, and I’m always interested to capture that. These photos were taken throughout the week we were in Montreal, on different nights when I would wander, camera in tow.

End of the shift.

Street performer.

Taking an order.

On a walk.

Billboard.

Empty subway.

Waiting for the train.

montreal (day five)

On our fifth day in the city, we did a little more sightseeing — heading up to Saint Joseph’s Oratory — and went back to spots around the city we enjoyed, like a nice big park in Little Italy, where the kids could run around and yell at birds. Other than the first shot, which is digital, these photos were taken on a motion picture film stock that I bought from my local camera shop. I clearly underexposed at least one of these photos, but I think it still came out alright.

montreal (day three)

More photos from our stay in Montreal. If the photo is digital, it was taken using a Panasonic GX-8 and if it was film, it was taken on Ilford XP2 Super using a Leica M4-P.

Exterior of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Trinité.

Interior of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Trinité.

Metro stop.

Taken during a nighttime walk.

Chinatown.

Maybe my favorite mural of the many I saw around the city.

A very large Leonard Cohen.

Not entirely sure what this is supposed to be.

montreal (day two)

I wish I would have kept track of exactly where we went each day we were in the city, but the short of it is that we tried to explore as many neighborhoods as we could. I believe that our second day had us walking through the “Gay Village” out to Plateau-Mont-Royal, stopping at parks and cafes as we went along.

Anyway, here are the photos! Everything film was taken with a Leica M4-P and Fujicolor 200, everything digital with a Leica M10-D.

We were staying downtown and I took these photos as we made our way back to our hotel. The last photo was taken during a nighttime walk while the rest of the family was sleeping.