Happy Holidays!

Much news, just nothing photography or camera-related, so I've refrained from blogging the dull details of my life during the holidays. I shouldn't say dull -- as usual, between work, sports, school, hobbies, and the endless holiday parties it's a wonder I can remember my own name...! It's Nick, right?

To be honest I've not been shooting at all lately, vacation photos notwithstanding -- I'm in one of my periodic uninspired slumps, at least where photography is concerned. And we know I never get any darkroom work done in December because it's a Christmas present staging area. Not that I need to be out in a freezing-cold garage right now! Yikes.

So sad to hear that Ruth Berhnard died, she was without question my all-time favorite photographer. I always asked about her whenever I talked with Scott Nichols, who has an extensive collection of her work. The last time I talked with him he relayed that she said she was spending her time more 'horizontal than vertical lately', so I have been half-expecting the sad news for a while. She will be missed. She did live a long and full life, and left behind a legacy of wonderful images and words that touched many. Would that I grow old as gracefully and with as much spirit!

As for you, dear readers, thank you for visiting and for all your emails, I wish you the best of the holiday season and a joyous New Year!

Disneyland!

Whew, we just got back from Disneyland and boy are my arms tired! And my feet. And legs, eyes... and just about everything else. Four days of non-stop fun and capped with two driving days. And followed by a day of laundry. My film and Casey's and are still awaiting pickup at Costco -- I took 5 rolls with two cameras (n6006 and 35ES), Casey took 4 with his Kodak Sure Shot Supreme and Ellen shot 200+ with the digital. I know, you care.

I do have a little-known camera tip for you Disneyland visitors: while the photo shop at the edge of Main Street doesn't sell photo accessories (they're mostly film and batteries), they do have a lens cap lost & found, and if you ask nicely they may just let you have a replacement for your lost lens cap, free! I lost the push-on cap for my Vivitar 35ES somewhere between the Haunted Mansion and the square in a rush to meet up with the group, and was able to find one in the box that fit.

Bonus tip #2 -- the corn dog cart next to the photo shop has the best corn dogs, ever, anywhere. Hand-dipped and oversized, they're one of the better food finds in the park.

Bonus tip #3 -- if you haven't seen Disneyland done up for Christmas, you owe yourself the treat. I've never seen anything like it. Magic Kingdom indeed!

So now we're back from sunny Anaheim, and it's 40deg and raining. Hm, string lights in the rain or watch football and practice guitar? Tough choice....

Bleary-eyed

If only it were for a good reason like drinking all night, which is what I looked like when I woke up this morning despite a reasonable night's sleep. No, I appear to have contracted the dreaded pinkeye, our friendly name for conjunctivitis. None of my kids have it so I have no idea where it came from, probably a dirty shopping cart handle or something. I can't imagine where else. It's a drag.

I haven't had this since I was a youngster, I remember waking up then in a panic thinking I was blind because I couldn't open my eyes and couldn't see... I also remember that that bout of pinkeye coincided with movie night at my grandparents' house, and that meant 8mm Laurel and Hardy projected with a real film projector onto a collapsible movie screen like everyone used to have, you know, back before there were video iPods. Maybe a little longer ago. I tried my best to enjoy what were really very funny films through scratchy pussy bleary eyes. Like the ones I'm using to stare at this little type on the screen.

And here I thought my eyes were just tired and achy from so much computer work this week... it hurts to even look at anything, I can't wait to see the doctor tomorrow. I need to be better in time for our road trip, kind of hard to drive if I can't see.

Other news... not much really, I did notice today by complete accident that one of my domain names (mattsclassiccameras.com) wasn't forwarding, and then saw that my web host had completely overhauled their website in the last week. They fixed the problem as soon as I emailed them, which is nice. They didn't know why it didn't carry over. I hope my pages load a little faster now!

MD

New sample page - Vito B

I did finally finish up that Vito B roll the other day, it had pictures I don't remember taking but they didn't really come out so it doesn't matter....

The sample I picked is quite impressively sharp and detailed, I don't know why they weren't all on par with that except that my scale focusing ability isn't always that great and I tend to get camera shake when I try to get sneaky candids. But the sample really shows off the capability of the lens, which is the point.

http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/vito_b.html
http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/samples/vito_b_sample.html

Yes it's true

I've been moonlighting on the side of my avocation between my real job and my hobbies....

With another blog! (see links, right)

It's a lark, a little thing my brother and I put together using a concept suggested by a friend (who contributes in spirit.. get it?). Seriously though, all the good names seemed to be taken :)

We update it semi regularly. Please visit!

It's all coming together

Did I ever tell you I was a writing major in college?

I had intended to be a commercial arts major (eg graphic art) but upon discovering too late that my chosen school only had what I figured was a non-commercially viable fine arts program I went with my other passion, writing. Literature/Writing to be precise. Then I got a job as a graphic designer and it all worked out. Maybe this doesn't come as much of a surprise.

At any rate, as I do from time to time when I have too much going on, I put writing away years ago to concentrate first on art, then on photography, knowing that when the time was right, it would resurface and offer me an outlet. 300 page website notwithstanding, of course.

So now I find myself doing something that I did only once before for a brief period, I'm dabbling in songwriting. I have three fairly complete pieces of music and a few sets of lyrics, they don't necessarily go together (yet) but it's fun for now :) As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Things that make you go hmm....

I had a good laugh when my wife pointed out today that our elderly next-door neighbors have suddenly had double-paned sound-damping windows and slider installed on the side of the house facing ours. I wonder what prompted that?

I Remember Now...

Ah yes, I remember now why I didn't get any shooting done last fall. Acute seasonal and world-event-related depression notwithstanding, between the work, the several takewondo classes per week, the assistant coaching basketball, the windup to the holidays, and the crummy weather, it's a wonder I have the time and ability to ensure that my socks match in the morning. Why, I barely have time to watch my stories! :)

Sidebar -- I really need to find another present-hiding location besides the darkroom. We start shopping early and it really puts a cramp in my style. Besides, they'll all figure it out eventually.

I did start carrying around my XA2 to shoot a comparative roll that I can contrast with the L C-A roll. But haven't done much with it yet. And it doesn't get me farther into my Vito B test.

At least I have my guitar(s) to get me through these stuck-indoor times. Last night I actually fell asleep with the Les Paul (note to self - think of name for guitar) on my lap while watching TV. I've been learning a lot of new stuff since I found this corner of the website ultimate-guitar.com where this funny dude who calls himself PickNGrin makes these funny little guitar tutorial home videos, they cover all subjects and are really easy to learn from. Check it out. Hey, you know I always give props where props are due.

OK back to work. Mondays. Blah.

Fun Thing

I did a little fun thing, on the new pic called "Casey, Son of Shutterbug" I put in a hidden page that shows the picture of me that Casey took, scanned from the scrapbook he made of his pictures from our vacation. If you click on the pictures you can flip back and forth.

http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/new_work/casey_shutterbug.html

Story of the pic - I saw him standing on the Mission steps in that Santa Barbara sunlight and wanted to get a shot of him looking off to stage right, but he insisted on taking a picture of me while I was taking a picture of him, he thought it would make for a better photo. Maybe it does. He's a pretty creative photographer, though sometimes he needs to settle for the snap he can get and not fret about the one he can't micromanage. I think we've all been there...!

New Page

It's just a little one, about a little item called a Mini Softrelease. No jokes please, I didn't name it.

Hm -- apparently Monday morning is a popular time to update blogs! blogger.com is always slow on Monday AM.

BTW I did shoot that roll in the Yashica FX-3 yesterday, and got what I hope are some cool still life type pics with and without the Tamron 2x that I'll make a page about once I have a sample to share. Didn't get a chance to develop the roll though.

So still to finish: the Konica b/w roll, the Vito B roll and a roll I started ages ago in my Photax Blinde that I just found! I should just go to the beach and shoot it or something. Too cold today though, autumn is asserting itself the way it does in SF. Brr!

LOMO page updated

With sample page and bonus in-page sample.

http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/lomo_ca.html

http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/samples/lomo_ca_sample.html

What I'm Working On

(since I know you're curious!)

A roll of color film in the Voigtlander Vito B, barely begun;

A roll of b/w film in my Konica T3, first for fun (nudes!) and second to re-test my Sigma 28mm in Konica mount, since I can't find the roll I first used it on;

A roll of b/w in my Yashica FX-3 which has been sitting in a drawer at work for a while, waiting for an opportunity -- I am trying to check out this high end Tamron MC 2x converter that was basically a brand new bargain;

Just finished that LOMO roll I mentioned below, need to update that page, but I scanned the sample photo;

And will use one or more of the above to practice my hand at still life, something that sounds easy but for the most part has eluded me when I've pursued it.

That and still needing to get in the darkroom to print proofs and other stuff. Yes at this point I could just scan it but that's much less fun.

LOMO

I finally finished the second test roll in my Lomo LC-A, after the first disastrous roll where I kept forgetting to change either the focal range, aperture, or both. And frankly I wasn't impressed this time around either.

My goal was to test it in low light situations taking pictures of colorful items, as this was supposed to be one of the selling points of the LC-A, its colorful contrasty pictures and good auto-metering. So my self-assignment was, basically, collections of bottles, either in bars or liquor stores. Aaaand I didn't really turn up any good examples, except one photo which was taken in daylight of something completely different, which came out very well. They're all more or less well-exposed but vastly out of focus or at the very least unsharp. Granted, it's difficult to handhold a 2s exposure when you have a drink or two in you and are trying to be discreet about your snaps, even if you rest your elbows on the bar like you're a tripod. Still, this type of scenario is supposed to be where the LOMO shines!

At any rate, I'll update the page and post a sample soon. I guess the next thing to do is do a similar test with my beloved XA2. Well, if I must, I must!

Good news

I have fixed the problem with RSS feed and the links on the archived post pages that I was unaware of up until yesterday.

Also, I'm happily shooting again after a fairly long drought. Sometimes you just have to recharge your batteries by working on other things.

My Bad!

The hit counter is off the hook lately, but my email has dropped to nearly nil! It occurred to me this morning that this is my own fault by inadvertently implying that I never respond to my email, which is not the case at all!

Actually, I nearly always respond the same day if not within hours. It's just that there was a slew of very technical questions there for a while that got set aside because I didn't have a chance to research an appropriate response, and then time got away from me. So please, keep those emails coming!

(That is, except the ones that ask how much I think a certain camera is worth. I don't know. I'm not an appraiser. I'm a photographer. Check ebay.)

10, 9, 8, 7...

My hit counter is about to roll over 100,000 new views! Woo! I know, goofy thing to be excited about, but I think it's pretty cool. I'll have a little private toast in celebration and, what, a 21-frame salute??

All Quiet on the Western Front?

I actually sent myself a test email to make sure my email account was working, after it got quiet all of a sudden right about the time I upgraded Thunderbird to 1.507. It works, it's just quiet out there I guess.

SO just as my calf starts feeling like it's getting close to 100% I get a nasty cold and cut the palms of both my hands with my Santoku knife while washing it. Guess I was holding it too gingerly and it slipped. Sharp little bugger! Anyway I avoided the ER trip this time and self-administered first aid, the worst was the right palm which seems to be doing very well two days later. Had to spring for some of that New Skin liquid bandage since regular Band-Aids don't seem to stick to palms for long. Works great. The one thing they don't tell you on the box -- the stuff hurts like hell when you put it on. Even worse than the original cut! Must be the high alcohol content. At least I can type now ;)

Hope you've had a chance to poke around some of the newly added pages, I didn't announce them all, and have a few more waiting in the wings. I'm still working on rolls of film in at least 2 cameras as usual, slowly, slowly...

2 new samples

For the Nikon N2000 and N6006. Interesting - I think I've only taken one roll of film with the N2000, while the N6006 must have had at least a hundred run through it between Ellen and I. Of course, most of the best pictures from the N6006 have already been cropped and added to various scrapbooks. I like the one I picked though. Was trying to stay away from family pics, which have been 99.9% of its output. Hard to pick those samples sometimes!

Hey here's some advice for you that you hopefully will never need: should you ever drop a large sharp knife while washing it, don't try to catch it -- let it fall or jump out of the way. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Little Changes, New Samples

I'm still finding the occasional broken link; I have a few lingering issues from some global search & replace sessions. So minor tweaks here and there as I find them.

Today I fixed the missing Salyut-C sample, first it was absent and then incorrectly linked. I also replaced the sample for the Ricohmatic 35 with one from the same roll that I think better represents that cool little classic.

More missing sample pics as I can. Seems like I'm missing some rolls of film, I'm sure they're around here somewhere!

Finally, New New Work!

True, some of the images are simply unpublished images from 2003-present, while some are very recent. I still haven't printed or scanned many of my most recent images -- they will be in the next round of 'new work' and then some of the ones you see here will filter down to the other galleries.

Enjoy!

Two Galleries Updated

Yes it's coming fast and furious now, I'm obviously on a tear to get this all done. Must have other work I should be doing :) Of course after that I'll probably be quiet for a while. Hey now!

The People gallery and the General (aka Places & Things) gallery are both now updated with some new images, plus some images that may have been up previously but went missing for one reason or another. And I've rearranged them a bit so they're all, you know, pretty and stuff.

PLUS -- I have the images for the New Work gallery picked out and properly sized, and am just putting together the pages to go with them. Very soon!

Slower than snails?

Last summer about the time I got sidetracked with life stuff and stopped collecting and shooting and updating the website, my computer hard drive crashed and took much unanswered email with it. Between that and changing email programs, and other life stuff since then, I am sorely behind in my email for the most part.

So those of you who wrote and never got a reply please don't be offended. And to those who are suddenly receiving replies to emails from as long as a year ago don't be too shocked!

Matt

Nudes

A new page has been added to the Nudes gallery, and all the other gallery pages have been updated to match the new look and feel of the site. I have also updated the pages in the People and General sections even though I will be replacing some pages and adding others.

I may do the New Work section in phases, I have too many images to choose from -- it hasn't been updated in far too long -- and so may add some now and swap them out later...

More Updates

I found a couple of 'missing' pages! New to the website:

Seikanon Zoom for Minolta MD
Voigtlander Vito B

plus new samples for two lenses:

Seikanon Zoom for Minolta MD
Rikenon XR 135mm for Pentax K

and an update to the Vivitar Handgrip which is even more versatile than I remembered.

and a few more broken links cleaned up.

Comments welcome!

On to the Galleries

I have finished going through all the camera pages! I will continue to refine them with user-contributed tips and info but in the meantime all the links are updated and all the information is up-to-date. Whew!

My first pass on the galleries will be to update all the pages with the new look and code, and then I'll go back and add new images. I have plenty, I swear :P Just need to get into the darkroom and do some printing. I also have some scanning to do...

Not to mention I also need to pick sample pictures for some of the cameras that don't have them yet, including... the LOMO. Actually I'm still working on a roll in that one, it's a replacement for my first LOMO LC-A that basically committed suicide, and I was determined to get one at a reasonable price to try out, and it took me a while to find one. Soon...

Rangefinders

I'm almost through the K's in the Rangefinders. My bus commute to the City gives me a great opportunity to work on my site! Especially now that school's in session and the normal 101 traffic has begun...

This weekend I hope to get in the darkroom and do some printing. Happy Friday!

Now We're Getting Somewhere

SLR pages are done! Even added another camera that wasn't profiled before! Wow, that just leaves the super-long rangefinders section. And all the galleries.... DOH.

Now, to be fair, I'm not just going through the pages and making sure the links are valid and checking the html/css code, I'm also reading each page and making sure they're still accurate and make sense when you read them. I've seen a few 'huh?' sentences and 'what the...' paragraphs and have, shall we say, massaged the text to make it more... readable.

Also as you may have noticed I redid the colors on this page to make it blend in with the rest of the site as a cohesive whole -- it's published here from the blogger website with a stock template that I've tweaked a little and also used as a jumping-off point for my new css templates.

Comments always welcome!

Where did the Weekend Go?

Three day weekends are like a bait-and-switch that get you thinking you're having a vacation, and then just when you're getting comfortable, smack you upside the head with a work week. Sigh.

Site update: I'm well into working over the SLR pages (man I have a lot of cameras), I started at the bottom and have Pentax-Zenit done now. A couple new accessories are up on the accessories page. Rather, one new one and a relocated one.

Still sifting through old pics for images, I have now at least 4 proof sheets to make, mostly from recent pics but one of which is a set of negs I don't remember taking nor know why they didn't get proofed & printed already. Huh. I guess I'm easily distracted eh :)

Other news: pentatonic blues is coming along! Also I've slightly customized my guitar courtesy of ebay -- I swapped out the knobs for some knurled silver ones and added a pick guard. I'm having a ton of fun with this guitar.

Further news: just got an email from a designer in the UK who is using a font I designed several years ago on his website and wrote to thank me for it. Cool! I have yet to relocate my little font portfolio site, but will soon. Bet you didn't know I used to do that kind of thing....

Box and TLR section done

That's all. Let me know if this is annoying.

Three Down...

OK I've now revised the Lenses section, the Meters and Accessories section, and the Folders section. All links in those sections should be current and in many cases the text has been updated, revised, and/or spelling-corrected.

I'm now working my way through the TLR and Box cameras section. I know you're riveted, that's why I'm keeping you posted ;)

Processing...processing...

I'm going through my site (Folding Cameras section now) and checking links, I'm happy that so many pages are still around with extensive info on cameras. Yes, some have changed addresses, some have disappeared, and some new notable sites have popped up in the meantime. One notable 'new' site is Mischa Koning's redo of Chris Eve's old Kodak pages, props to Mischa for taking that over, it's a great resource! Another one I hadn't heard about is camerapedia.org, a wiki for camera info. Between that and wikipedia I hope to see this type of info continue to be more comprehensive and made more accurate as people continue to contribute to the history of all these great cameras.

Links:

camerapedia.org
wikipedia.org
Mischa's Chris' Kodak pages

I'll work these in somewhere, no worries!

Taekwondo Leg

I found a description of what happened to my leg, it's a fairly common injury in people my age and usually referred to as "Tennis Leg". Here is the description of the injury and rehabilitation at about.com. It's pretty much spot on.

Tried taking crutches to work today, it was more of a hassle than simply walking slowly. Got attention though. I'm telling people I got the injury sparring a 3rd Degree Black Belt, which is essentially true. We just weren't making contact at the time. :P

Also found the time (how? where?) to take a few pics with my semi-new refurbished LOMO LC-A, hope this roll turns out better than my last failure with the camera. It's no XA2, you have to read the instructions. DOH!

Guitar Plug

OK so this is a little off-topic but I wanted to put in a plug for the place I just bought my latest toy -- an Epiphone Les Paul Special II electric guitar: samedaymusic.com. No tax (except in NJ), free shipping on most orders over $49, great selection, great prices.

I had settled on the LPS II as the best guitar for the least amount of money after trying out what must have been 15-20 guitars at 5 different local music stores, including the crowded Bananas at Large, the great Magic Flute, and the overwhelming Guitar Center. Then I was waylaid by injury. So Tuesday morning (8/15) I ordered the guitar and it arrived the following day via FedEX Ground (free)! I couldn't be more pleased. I've been playing nearly nonstop ever since.

FYI instead of the starter "Player Pack" (I already have a tuner, dvd, picks, etc.) I went a-la-carte with a little Marshall MG10CD amp, which sounds fantastic. Anyway if you're in the market for some instrumentation, I highly recommend samedaymusic.com, I was very happy with my experience with them. I also recommend the guitar for a beginner, it's very solid with good sound, good sustain, and a fairly fast neck. Also I have to say I LOVE the fat humbucker sound!

And yes, I'm still working on the website. I'm going through some stacks of old prints looking for overlooked images for the gallery sections. Being couchbound is boring!

Lenses Section Revised

As predicted I'm making progress on my guitar (I'm getting E Minor Pentatonic down) and on my photo site as my couchbound calf heals. I've just gone through the lenses section and made sure all the links are current, and fixed a couple problems with sample pages. A lot left to go but at least I'm making progress :)

Ouch

WELL I guess I'm guetting old, I seem to be able to injure myself without much effort these days. Last night I tore my soleus (calf) muscle at taekwondo doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary but landing a small jump kick. Guess I should have stretched better, or something!

So I'm couchbound for at least a day and I guess I'll take the opportunity to catch up on email (my apologies to those who have waited so long they have given up on me!) and work on the website. Too bad (for me, not the rest of the family) that the electric guitar I have on order won't be here in time to noodle on while I recover. Ah well, I still have the acoustic.

I think I'll shoot more medium format

Shazam -- I developed a roll I recently shot with my Yashica 124, after developing a roll from my Minolta XD5, and was completely blown away by the difference in detail. I know it's been a while since I shot & developed any MF, and granted the 124 has extremely nice lenses (not that the lenses I was shooting with the XD5 were slouches) but whoa! The leaves on the trees, the crinkles of the fabric, the tiny print on the books in the shelf that I shot handheld in available light at 1/15... Yes, I think I'll be shooting more medium format. Don't know what else to say about that. Except wow!

Sidebar -- we were just at a wedding in San Diego and I talked to the photographer at the reception, in an interlude between getting drinks and waiting for the toast. He was shooting with a combination of digital (Canon DSLR) and film (Hassy of course), and we were discussing the virtues of both. No point really except to say that I was happy to see a professional still appreciating the qualities of MF film (I believe it was Fuji he was shooting) and that there are pros that still know that digital isn't the end-all be-all. Convenient, no question. But not always the quality you want in your final product.

More New Pages

Been busy! New pages are up for several lenses and teleconverters, and a few new sample pages including one for the Yashica Pentamatic, a relative newcomer to my collection. I will continue to update pages and for the most part, mark notable additions on this blog.


Sears 28mm Minolta MD
Soligor 28mm for Minolta MC
Lenmar 2x for Minolta
Kiron 2x for Konica A/R
2x for Kiev 88
Vivitar 2x for Pentax K

New Camera Page Up!

I finally added a new camera page: the Nikon N6006. A couple more are on the way, plus I have some lenses that will be getting their own pages soon and several more sample photos to post. I'm also still considering various images for the 'new work' section.

Developed another roll of film today that I forgot about, a roll of Konica Infrared 750 that I was working on in my XA2. I'm a little surprised it came out at all but I see images so I'm waiting to check it out on the light table later.

I do have a new page up on the Canon Classic 120, it's not finished or revised at all, in fact it's more of a placeholder till I have a chance to go and flesh it out/finish it. I don't usually post pages before they're done but it was linked to from the revised 'additional notes' page so I left it. On the other hand, I did go through the meters/accessories section and update all the links there so that's one section done!

I forgot how time consuming website management can be, bear with me as I work my way through it all.

More Progress

As some of you have noticed, I'm well along in the mechanical and cosmetic portion of my site upgrade, and am getting closer to the final phase -- content review. That's when I'll go back and check broken links, add new ones, update any pages that I have new info on, and all that.

Prior to that I'll be updating my 2-year-old (what!) "new work" page and some of the galleries. Looks like I need to do some new nudes, wonder who I can talk into posing...

In a Darkened Room

Developed a roll of black and white film today for apparently the first time in a while, I actually had to look at my own notes! It was FOMA Pan 100, a nice value film that compares well to TMAX 100, though I use the Plus-X instructions for developing. Pictures from our visit to UCSD and to a beach near Del Mar.

Before we left for our vacation, Ellen was pushing to scrapbook last year's trip to Oregon and Washington, so I went into the darkroom for the first time since last summer to make some prints. Like today it took some acclimation but it sure was nice to get in there working with the hands, making prints the old fashioned way. Didn't take long to get back in the swing. Nothing like the smell of developer and fixer to get the juices flowing!

Before I got busy tearing out the kitchen last summer, and started using the darkroom for storing Christmas presents last fall, I bought an Epson Perfection 3170 scanner. The idea was that I would scan negs instead of printing and scanning the prints, and that it would be easier and faster. The 3170 scans 35mm strips and medium format to 6x9 with the included adapters, but is tedious work. Scanning negs is like watching computer-generated grass grow. No offense to the heralds of the new era, I prefer the hands-on darkroom work for most printmaking. As for the prints, they all got cropped and mounted in the album before I could scan any for the website :)

Back from Vacation

Ah it's good to be home, no matter how much fun we had in San Diego (or Sandy Eggo as we used to say). I did settle on a couple of cameras to bring, it wasn't an easy choice! I was happy with it though: Minolta XD5 with 45mm Rokkor, 28mm Sears for MD, and 2x doubler; and Yashica 124.

My two older kids actually shot much more film than I did, Bailey shot 4 rolls and Casey shot 6, while I only shot 1 roll of Kodak Black & White, two rolls of FOMA pan 100, and almost a roll of Macophot 100 in the Yashica. I did take more pictures than that though, with the family digicam, though most of the nearly 600 digital pics were taken by Ellen. I'll see if I got any good ones after I develop my film and add them to the upcoming 'new work' update.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to and tour of the Stone Brewing Company's new location which just opened in Escondido near the Wild Animal Park, if you're a lover of bold craft beers you owe it to yourself to drive a couple miles north after visiting the Park, and check it out! It's near the I-15 and 78 interchange on the top of a hill. You won't be sorry.

SO... the trick now will be remembering where I left off with my site updating. Should have left myself more bread crumbs. Here's a pic from where else, Legoland!

Progress

As suspected the website is evolving as I work on it, I like it better than ever now, the subtle changes in the format make the pages more accessible I think. Note that I'm currently working on a local copy so there aren't that many noticeable changes yet.

After I finish reformatting all the camera pages I'll review them for dead/broken links and current information and upload them as a whole. I'm finding a surprising amount of missing sample pictures for things I've taken pictures with, I'll have to dig out my stacks and get to work scanning when I come back from vacation.

Speaking of, I have my usual dilemma, what camera(s) to bring? I know, I should be more worried about which shoes...

Site Update in Progress

It is time. Slowly, surely, you will begin to see the pages at mattdentonphoto.com and mattsclassiccameras.com updated with a slightly new look. I've picked a layout and typefaces, tweaked the templates and have been testing it quite a bit. Not only is it a slight cosmetic upgrade, this update will give me an opportunity to clean up my code and update all of my pages and links, though there are hundreds of them so it will take a while.

The move to use css has been something I've been putting off for a long time, but now the time has come, the technology is tried and true and used very widely now. In the end it's as much for the look as it is for me to be able to update the site more easily and quickly in the future.

I'm prepared to hear complaints that the 'new look' is too this or too that, even though it's essentially the same... just a little application of some of my dormant design training, that's all. It may change again as I go through this process, we'll see.

Keep checking back!

What's Going on (What's Going on) ?

What the heck have I been up to lately you ask? Certainly not adding new cameras to my Classic Camera page! Alas, this is true, though I do have a few pages that I am working on for a few worthy cameras that haven't been immortalized yet. And other updates as well...

Instead, what I have been up to since last summer (2005) have included the following:

-changing jobs within my department
-remodeling our kitchen
-continuing to take and teach Taekwondo (Casey and I are both black belts now)
-assistant coaching Casey's basketball team
-learning to play the recorder, the tinwhistle, and now the guitar
-photographing.... a little...
-engaging in the fine (and fun) art of spirits tasting, notably premium tequilas and bourbon

a lot of the latter actually :)

and other life stuff

What happened last summer was this -- we went on vacation where I took many rolls of film with 3 different cameras, then came back and developed but didn't print most of the images. THEN, went into house project mode and gutted our kitchen/dining area, so many of my cameras and books went into storage in the garage. Spent the next month rebuilding the kitchen and installing cabinets, etc., and once the kitchen was done I still have less storage for my stuff than before SO most of it's still in the garage. Without space to store stuff there wasn't much point in continuing to collect so I put that off and then got busy and haven't done much photography either. Not to mention that my darkroom became a holding bin for Christmas presents and well, refer to the list above to see why I might not have been able to find the time for darkroom work since Christmas.

Then I changed website hosts, which opened up some opportunities to do some things that weren't really possible before -- such as this past week I've been teaching myself css and attempting to rework my website in css to be able to update it easier, and integrate this new blog.

Almost forgot - I also lost a fair amount of time glued to the World Cup on tv and Yahoo Matchcast (not to mention lunchtime pub crawling - yow!).

Anyway, check back for site updates in the near future, I have new images to (finally!) replace my ancient 'new work' area. It won't be done overnight but hopefully it will be a steady stream of updates and tweaks. Keep those emails coming!

Matt

Welcome to my Weblog

Hello all - I finally decided to take the plunge and adopt this trendy technology to stay in touch and help keep my site updated even when I'm not adding new pages. Bear with me while I work on integrating this section and updating the mechanics of the site itself. The challenge for me (besides finding the time!) will be to update and enhance the site without compromising its simple look and feel.

To be sure, this is not my first attempt at what is now called a weblog or 'blog'; several years ago I attmepted in one of my early websites to keep an online diary (long before blogging software made it simple), in what became "Geekboy's Essays" before it just got too difficult to maintain. Ring any bells? Of course not. Not enough people were online at the time, which is why that site eventually vanished in obscurity. NCSA Mosaic and Netscape 1 were the browsers of choice, Altavista was the search engine of the day, Amazon was barely starting out and there wasn't much worth seeing on the Internet except for Swedish porn (well, some things don't change). Only geeks and nerds were online, not the general public. Now everyone and their grandmother is online and has their own website and weblog....

Hm... suddenly I feel like I'm on the verge of ranting 'Blogging! Text messaging! Why, in my day we just used two cans and a piece of string and liked it!' Ah well. Check back for updates and announcements, I'll try to keep it interesting :)