The San Rafael Valley and using old photo equipment.

I went and photographed last Friday down near Harshaw, a ghost town east of Patagonia, Arizona. There is an old cemetery, a couple of old buildings and a number of sycamore trees in the area. Nearby is the San Rafael Valley and I got up there near sunset and took a couple of images. This one shows the grassland from a wide angle perspective.


Last week I was reading about lens adapters for using old manual lenses on modern auto-focus digital camera bodies. I still have the Pentax equipment I inherited from my father so I ordered an adapter to allow me to mount M42 screw mount lenses on my Canon 40D and 450D. One of the things I have in that old kit is a set of three extension tubes that allow close-up photography. I don't have a set of Canon extension tubes and auto-focus really doesn't help much at high magnification anyway so I've been trying the combination of 450D, extension tubes, and my 28mm f3.5 Super Takumar lens. Here is an example image of a dime. Click on the image to see a bigger version. Its almost like using a microscope.


This coming weekend I'm heading up to Flagstaff (I have to be there Monday for work) so I'll see what I can find to photograph. I'm thinking of trying some stuff in small towns along the way, perhaps even photograph local people, we'll see.

In other news, I'm working on some of my vehicles. I traded my '59 VW panel van to a friend for some help with repairs on my '66 VW microbus. I've also taken the '54 J.C. Higgins bicycle down to the shop to have the rear wheel rebuilt and the bottom bracket replaced.