Halifax / Life / Photography — No comments
09
May 12

Alison C.

So I actually am only working during the day now for the rest of the week as opposed to going away. This means I actually got to work on a few new photos taken with my new D7000 after work today.

The past few weeks I have been taking photos of outfits for Alison Clack’s fashion blog It’s In The Sky. The first few (and only photos) I took yesterday evening turned out fairly well. Using the battery grip for portrait photos is absolutely incredible. It makes shooting that way feel much more natural. The photos came out very vibrant right away. We were shooting outside on a cloudy day which really made the colors pop. Also, the AF points were really great, although I should have manually set my AF point to get a sharper image  when using my 50mm prime at f1.8 such as in the photo above. That mistake cost the image sharpness, but overall not too noticeable.

I’m itching to get out to take some photos and work on some projects so I’m hoping that I will have time for that after work on Friday/Saturday when things calm down a bit.

Life / Photography — No comments
08
May 12

D7000

Just a short update before I head off for a short 3 day sail. I finally upgraded my D90 for a D7000 (it’s a tradition for me to buy cameras with awesome tax returns apparently). Now, I know you might be thinking “Well that’s not much of an upgrade”, but I beg to differ. The D7000 is a fantastic upgrade for me before I go to full frame. The 1080p 20 minute video, upgraded sensor, 6 FPS, 39 AF points, weather resistance, 16.9 MP, up to 25k ISO, dual slot SD with SDXC capabilities, and the ability to use the off camera mic were my main reasons for upgrading (just to name a few). I also opted to get the battery grip, and the VR kit lens as well. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to sell the D90, but it may be looking like I’m going to keep it as a backup since its been such a stellar camera. Anyway I hope everyone as a great week while I’m gone. It sucks I wont get to play around with this bad boy much before I leave but I will be getting some shots tonight at Brad’s BBQ for sure.

Halifax / Life / Photography / Vintage — No comments
07
May 12

Peggy’s Cove & Film Prints

 

Alison and I took a drive down to Peggy’s Cove the other evening out of boredom, but it turned out to be a great adventure. I had the opportunity to take some bracketed shots for an HDR photo of the lighthouse.  This has to be my most successful HDR shot yet (my second) . I can’t stand when people overdo them to look unrealistic, any kid can do that my adding some retarded effect in photoshop. In some cases I know its not really possible, but the whole idea is to get a great photo by having an almost perfect exposure all over to get that 3D effect that you see with your own eyes.

On another note I ran into blacks today to pick up my first round of prints which turned out fairly nice. A few weren’t as in focus as they should have been – I’ll admit – but I don’t use manual focus as much any more so I’m a little out of practice. That being said, the test roll was a success and I will be experimenting a lot more with the Pentax K1000. The next step is to get the roll processed from the Electromatic.

I also found out that Blacks will send away 8mm tapes to get processed and put on a DVD! Which is great news since I should be getting my film in the mail soon for a very special project with my friend David R. Elliott, and I don’t want to have to mess around with some random dude doing them from his basement.

Design / Photography / Vintage — No comments
04
May 12

David R. Elliott album cover & a new camera!

Album art for David R. Elliott's new album "Sam Hill". Photo by: Christian Hapgood

Last week I did a photo shoot for David R. Elliott’s new album “Sam Hill”. If you haven’t heard of David R. Elliot, than you need to climb out from under your rock and check this guy out. He’s throwing out some mad deals on album pre-orders to help with his production, lets lend this guy a hand.

Thanks to Brad Allen for being the creative director AND the model, as well as just being sexy as hell, so props to him. Also thanks to Alison Clack who insured we had some badass makeup.

In other David R. related news… a collab coming up in the future. All im going to say is 8mm and ill leave it up to your imagination.

1959 Braun Nurnberg Paxette Electromatic. Photo by: Christian Hapgood

I got another new camera. Yes, another one, but I couldn’t pass this one up either. It’s a vintage 35mm camera called Paxette Electromatic by a company called Braun Nurnberg. The camera was made in 1959 and seems as though its in perfect working order, but we will see once I get some prints back. Again, makes the deal I got at blacks that I mentioned in my last post so much sweeter. The crazy thing is, I picked this guy up at the Value Village in Bayers Lake for 12.99. They had another one there which was early 50′s but I decided against it because it looked like it was missing a piece… what I didn’t realize was that the shutter works slightly different on these pre 60′s cameras than my Pentax so it may be worth checking out again.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I have a roll or two of 35mm getting developed at the moment to look forward to sharing, but it looks like blacks takes wayyyy too long if I take them to the Halifax Shopping  Center.They have to send them to Bedford…. What the hell is in Bedford anyway? Maybe I’ll start taking my film somewhere else so I don’t have to wait a month to get prints back… we’ll see.

 

Halifax / Life / Photography / Vintage — No comments
28
Apr 12

It’s a great weekend for a film revival

1950's Brumberger E3L 8mm movie/still camera. Photo by: Christian Hapgood

So this weekend has been very relaxing and it has mostly been because I took a few extra days off to spend time at home before I start sailing for 6 weeks. Alison and I rummaged through just about every antique shop in the north end of Halifax and found quite a few goodies. One of those things happens to be a working 8mm Brumberger movie/still camera. I’ve bid on some 8mm film on ebay and plan on doing some short video which will be transferred to a digital copy and some photos as well. On top of finding a sweet new vintage camera I also came across a gold mine of film in Blacks for my Pentax K1000 while shopping around for a new tripod. The film was going at $14 for 5 rolls including processing! Needless to say I’m having quite the film revival and I’m having an awesome time figuring out my 8mm. Some other notable things we found at the antique shops were: a vintage South African ebony wood sculpture, Canadian WWII helmet, and a 1960′s wicker chair. All of these incredible finds were purchased at the best antique shop in Halifax in my opinion, finer things. Go check them out! http://finerthingsantiques.com/