Rattlebrained

Winter in the Swiss Jura mountains used to be either very sunny or very snowy, but in the last few years the altitude of the stratus clouds has raised and we are now underneath; or in them.

Today it is still Autumn, and although the first frost came this week, there was a time when it would probably have been a cold but brisk sunny day. Alas we woke up in the fog, like yesterday and probably tomorrow. You may not consider that special but fog was the one weather element we rarely saw here in the past…

The clouds moved higher during the day, my hopes of seeing the sun disappeared. So I went out and walked up behind the city instead.

This is an update to last June’s Pinholed Nex5n post, so you may want to read that first.

At the beginning of July I found the Pinhole Shop on Ebay which not only sells pinhole cameras but also just the pinholes; and also has a very convenient chart as to what the distance between the film/sensor and pinhole should be. I ordered the smallest: 0.12mm (that they don’t seem to have for sale at the time I’m writing this), which if I remember correctly, should be place 13mm away from the film.

After receiving it and comparing it visually to the pinhole I had made – and the first one I had bought (Rising pinhole, 0.2mm) – I estimated mine as being around 0.15mm. So I replaced mine by the 0.12mm in my homemade lens after sanding of as much of the bodycap as I dared to prevent vignetting from the cap itself. I also made a second bodycap lens for mine, placing it at approximately 17mm from the sensor, as well as made one for the Rising lens, placing it at 30mm…

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Last year I rejoined the world of photography when I bought a used Sony Nex5n at a local camera shop. It came with a 18-55mm zoom (SEL1855) and since I had been using a Olympus C-8080 that I had bought – also used – some 9 years before, it was a whole new world. It seemed that it was probably time to give a decent burial to the old camera with its manual lens I still had in a shoe box somewhere, but since two of those were Zeiss as you would I wondered at the value – if any – and hit the search button.

I don’t remember exactly how but down the line I ended up reading an article about using old lens on cameras like the Nex with a special adapter. Three weeks later the needed C/Y to Nex adapter I had ordered came in the mail, but I have to admit that my first relationship with it was not that great. The difficulty in focusing, the extra weight and the fact that the pictures taken with my old lens weren’t all that impressive made me think twice about using them.

Still, I ended up reading through a few articles here and there…

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Up here in the mountains, Spring usually means two months of rain and mud. It is not yet clear if we are there or not but feeling a bit of warmth in the air these last few days has been nice. Still, it can be dangerous too!

Early in the week these blocks of ice fell from the roof…

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A few pictures from our (Swamp Train’s) Saturday afternoon Chevrolet 100ans Event gig last weekend:

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Last week I fond some old plastic Joe Birl rhythm bones on Ebay in perfect condition and inside their original packaging. They came yesterday and I was able to remove them without damaging anything. I HAD to try them!

They have a grove at the top of the bones to keep them from sliding out of your fingers, a unique design to which Joe Birl held the patent. Although smaller than I would have though (6×1 inches), they have a nice feel and sound. I’m impressed and immediately regret the days when these could pretty much be found at most corner stores…

The Rhythm Bone society has put the story of how Joe patented these bones on their website.

Taken with my dumb phone last Monday while walking my folk’s dog. Most of the time cheap cellphone pictures look exactly that but every once in a while you get one in which the low quality grain actually makes it looks kind of special.

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