144/365 - Jim - 8mm

( f/11 36mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is a Kodak Brownie 8 Movie Camera from the 60's. It takes 8mm reels of film. My grandpa had this in the mix of old cameras he gave me. There was film in it that I pulled out for this photo. I wonder what was on it... There was also a sealed canister with film in it that says it should be processed before OCT 73, so I assume it's no good anymore. The way the camera works is you wind it up with the knob on the side, then you push the button under the lens to feed the film through. When I first looked at the camera I opened it up and noticed film in it already. I quickly thought oh no, I don't want to expose this to light and ruin it. But then I realized it's probably far gone. It would be fun to film with it now and get a real vintage look, but it would probably be a hassle to get film and get it processed. Oh well, I'll just use my new HD camcorder :)

140/365 - Jim - Valentine Brownie

( f/4 38mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My mother made some brownies for church yesterday. She cut them out in heart shapes and drizzled white chocolate on them, then added a heart on top with red chocolate. She brought us some to eat and there were only two left when my wife suggested I take pictures of them. I grabbed my copy of The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 by Scott Kelby and read the page where he describes how to do food photos. He suggests using a close-up lens, so I put the Canon 500D on my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Then used it at f/4 to blur everything but the brownie. Scott suggests sitting by a window to get natural light, but it was dark when I shot this, so I used a flash with softbox to the side and a little behind. There were quite a few shots that I liked, so I made them into a collage with Picasa. If you are an amateur photographer, I highly recommend the two Digital Photography books by Scott Kelby. You can get Vol 1 & 2 for just under $30. They are super easy to read and have an example photo on every page.