Philippine Day in New York City

June 3 2012, Filipinos celebrating Independence Day in midtown Manhattan with a parade and street fair.

Tiny Portable Flash

I have numerous portable flash units from Nikon, Canon, Vivitar and Sunpak but all of them are too bulky to use with my small rangefinder cameras. Attached to the cameras they are top heavy and the gear tends to tilt forward when the camera is hanging on my neck. The small Metz 20C-2 is just the right size. It has a guide number of 20/meters, two auto settings, tilting flash head for bounce lighting and powered only by two AA batteries. It also has a pc cord for cameras without hot shoes and is tiny enough to fit into a pants pocket. The light output is not as powerful as my other bigger flash units but it is good enough  to produce bounced light for casual portraits like the ones above.

Small Hidden Places

I only have a small window of opportunity to take personal pictures during the workweek.
During my short lunch breaks I usually just  have 20 minutes to find something interesting to shoot.
Our company is located in a small town in northern New Jersey and there are not many interesting scenery around or exciting events going on. Sometimes I get lucky and discover small hidden places like this.

Waiting For The Snow To Melt

I'm stuck at home again today because of the weather. I still avoid venturing out when the roads are slippery because I fear I may re-injure my leg which is not fully healed yet. In the meantime I'm getting my gear ready in anticipation of the snow melting and going for one of my photo walkabouts.
No, I'm not going to carry all these stuff, just one camera body and couple of lenses.

Lone Figures

The Observer
Taken at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. While everybody was busy taking pictures
of the cherry blossoms, this woman was content on calmly observing everyone.


Columns
Camera: Canon P with Jupiter-12 35mm lens.

Elevated Views

Downtown Street Corner


Observatory Deck


Art Trolly, a street artist with his mobile studio.

Camera: Canon P with Jupiter-9, 85mm f2 lens.
Film: Kodak BW 400CN

Urban Gardens

More out takes from my recent visit to the Queens County Farm Museum and the High Line park last week. The High Line is a former elevated train track that run on the lower west side of Manhattan, NY. The city reclaimed it and converted it into a beautiful promenade park.


Queens County Farm Museum, NYC


View from High Line


Urban Flowers, High Line, NYC


Urban Flowers 2, High Line, NYC


Dreaming of Daisies, High Line, NYC

Camera: Canon P with Jupiter 12, 35mm f2.8 lens.
Film: Kodak Gold 200

Queens County Farm Pow wow-Part 3

Camera: Canon P with Jupiter 9, 85mm f2 lens. Film: Kodak Gold 200

Garden Seats

Camera: Canon P with Jupiter-12, 35mm f2.8 lens. Film: Kodak Gold 200.


Camera: Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. Film: Kodak Gold 200, converted to monochrome.

One thing I miss, living in a small New York City apartment, is our own garden where I could just sit and enjoy the day.

More From Coney Island

Super Baldax, Fuji Neopan 400


Inflatables


Little Horsey Ride


Shoot the Clowns

Canon P with 35mm Jupiter 12 lens, Kodak BW 400CN


Concession Stand


Freak


Carousel-2

Kodak Gold200


Coney Island Lager


Chacha

Philippine Independence Day Celebration

Tired Performers


Drummer Boys


Parade Performers


After the Parade


Young Parade Watcher

Filipinos celebrating Philippine independence day on Madison Ave. New York City with a parade and street fair.
Canon P with Jupiter-12, 35mm f2.8 lens, Kodak BW 400CN

My Favorite 35mm Rangefinder Cameras

A black Leica M4 or M2 is in my wish list ever since I went back to using film early last year. I can’t afford or justify the big expense of buying these classics just yet so I’ve been buying a poor man’s substitute for them ever since. So far, I had acquired a small collection of various models of vintage rangefinder cameras.
Come to think of it, if I had saved my money instead I could have gotten my dream M4 or M2 by now, but I don’t think I would have gotten more fun. Each of my vintage rangefinders have their own quirks and characters. I think just using them had enhanced my photographic skill and technique.
Regretfully I haven’t been using all of them as much as I want to. Recently, however, I found that I have three favorite cameras that I use more often.

The first one is a Leica IIF, an older and less expensive sibling of the M series. Designed by Oscar Barnack, the innovator of the 35mm rangefinder camera format, this is the type of camera that made Leica a legend. It has interchangeable screw mount lens, separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows. It is a small and compact camera. I use it with a collapsible Fed-50 f3.5 or Jupiter-12 35mm f2.8 lenses borrowed from my Fed-1 camera (Soviet copy of the Leica II).


Leica IIF

Sample shots

The Last Passengers


Roller Stroller


Music Lesson


Weeds & Metal



Canon P

For extensive shooting, my favorite is the Canon P ("Populaire") produced in Japan from 1958 to 1961. A camera that is also compatible with many Leica screw mount lenses. It has a big and very bright parallax corrected viewfinder with visible built in frames for the 35/50/100 lenses. Film loading with this camera is better and faster than the Leicas because of the hinged back.
My Canon P came with a 50mm f1.8 lens that is comparable with many Leica lenses in image quality and sharpness.

Sample shots

Reading


ZZZZ!


Inwood Park


Backyard Graveyard



Kodak Retina IIA

My next favorite is the Kodak Retina IIA (type 016), a very compact folding rangefinder camera made in Germany in the early 1950s. It has a fixed 6 element 50mm f2 Schneider Xenon lens that I find very sharp. This camera replaced my Leica IIF as my carry everywhere camera because of its folding design and compactness, very easy to carry in a coat pocket. The Xenon lens is also faster with the f2 largest aperture than the Fed-50 f3.5 lens.

Sample shots

The Bather


Converse


Bird House

See my other rangefinder cameras and photos taken with them.