This just past weekend (Friday to Monday - a long one) was spent
3 hours west of Sydney in the country/bush in a hut:
http://www.bluemts.com.au/johnsHut/Default.htm
(note, not my photos - just John, the owner's, little webpage)
It's a really nice place to spend a weekend in peace and
quiet now that it's started to cool down. For those that
get regular snow in winter, this won't mean much, but this
place get's occasional snow in winter which is a blast for
us who don't get to see it much. There's no real electrickery
to the place (some solar powered fluro globes about it that
you tend not to use), and heating for yourself and water
is by fireplace and stove (the stove heats water in a big tank,
which is great for an arvo bath). It's also got a great outdoor
fireplace/barbecue for sitting and drinking around and throwing
dead trees on.
Anyway, to the point...
...this is a nice place for photography. The hilly scenery of
farms and bush, and just the casual relaxation with furkids (dogs)
and partner make for enjoyable photographic opportunity.
This time I had the wonderbrick (Canon EOS 50E) and the OM1, and I
though buggerit, I'll take the OMPC with a few batteries (it's
prone to quick battery-failure). It also meant I got to "test"
out more the new Zuiko 135/3.5, and the more I use it the more
I love it. It's just a sweet little thing on the OM1! Easy to
love, but I better wait for results, huh? I also used the 50/1.4
on it. This camera had C41 B&W film (Ilford in this case - it's
normally Kodak) all the time. The OMPC was used by my partner
in a more "snapshotty" manner with Kodak Gold 100 (which is what
he prefers) - bastard'll probably have taken better pictures than
myself, the result of a natural eye versus a struggling enthusiasm
respectively <grin> It worked fine, so he's pretty enthused about
continuing to use it (and if it keeps buggering up on the
battery-score, I'll by a new one, or an OM10/20/PC/whatever
replacement). He also liked the 35/2.8 which stayed on it all
weekend. The wonderbrick had slide film in it (me being new
to slide film, and less confident of my ability to judge exposure
situations with the OM1's meter).
Both OM's sit more stable on my basic Manfrotto 190/141RC
tripod than the Canon - I think it's a centre-of-gravity thing,
with the Canon sitting high on it's battery-pack, and the QR plate
not seeming to "catch" real well the plastic bottom of said
battery-pack. The OM1 and the Manfrotto feel like a single unit.
I/we took nearly two rolls of 36 on the OM1, one roll of 36 on the
OMPC, and nearly one roll of 24 on the Canon, so as you can tell
I was giving the newly refurbished OM1 and my new 135/3.5 a workout.
When I get them developed (I'm a bit of a scab - I'll be wanting to
finish off the rolls still in the cameras before I get all of
them developed), I'll scan in the good ones (wishful thinking <g>)
to show y'all and get your valued criticism. Ironically, there
won't be many landscapes - I've got to practice them more, but
I'm not real good at doing other than boring ones at the moment.
We have booked the hut for a weekend in each of the next 5 months,
so from the results I can learn and practice everything.
Oh, and my wish to try some astrophotography was thwarted by full
moon and semi- to full overcast, though I tried a couple of night
shots of the hut - we'll see. I did this with the help of an OM-post
on "How to photograph starry night skies" by Roger Wesson. Thanks
Roger! Thanks Brian Swale too, for reminding me that membership (of
the OM-list) not only "has it's privileges", of which this is one,
but it's obligations too (ie. results forthcoming). OM-list, TOPE and
other events have breathed new life into my flagging, despairing,
enthusiasm.
Cheers, and thanks for letting me share ((((group-hug)))) ;-)
Marc
Sydney, Oz
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