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| Béatrice Larrivée - 20 August 2022 |
In 1958 in Austin, Texas I received a lovely package that contained a big glossy box. In it was my first single lens reflex, a Pentacon-F with a 50mm Tessar lens. It served me well into the mid 70s in Mexico City. By then (since 1964) it shared my shooting with an Asahi Pentax S-3. They both had the same screw lens mount.
When Rosemary, our two daughters and I moved to Vancouver in 1975 in our VW, I took them to Disneyland and while they were there I went to a camera store and modernized my equipment.
Now I brag about my Fuji X-E3 digital camera, but I must point our firmly that all my previous cameras (many including three Mamiya RBs) are in perfect working order and I often use them with film on impulse and purpose.
It was in Argentina where I learned never to throw anything away if it could be repaired.
When I took my Pentacon-F a couple of years ago to that Vancouver treasure that is Horst Wenzel to have a look at it he said, “Why do you want to repair this antique?” my answer was that when I opened that glossy box in 1958 it worked and when I die I want to make sure it still works. He called me the next day and said, “Alex all I had to do your Pentacon was to lubricate the shutter.”
I am writing this blog with my very old Word (25 years old) on a Dell CRT monitor. When I look at an image that I am about to print on it, what comes out of my printer matches it.
Of late the monitor has its peculiar mannerisms. Randomly the screen
will go black for three seconds. Sometimes (perhaps every three days) there
will be moving horizontal scan lines on the screen. Also sometimes the image
will shift to the left and anything round will appear oval shaped. The solution
I have found is to disconnect the monitor from the computer and then reconnect
it.The issues disappear.
My Photoshop 8.0 is 19 years old and all I want from it is in it. I like its subtle sharpening tool, the patch tool is an instant under-the-eye-bag remover. But the most useful tool for me is the advance version of the Highlight/Shadow tool. From a friend, Grant Simmons I was told that any corrections with that tool should be done in LAB not in RGB. When you correct in LAB (and this includes levels and contrast) the colour is unaffected. Stuff that I cannot do with my 8.0 I perform with my Corel Paint Shop Pro X2.
To illustrate the wonders of my Photoshop 8.0 I am enclosing before-and-after modifications of the pictures I took with my Fuji X-E3 of Béatrice Larrivée last Saturday the 20th at the Dance Centre.
I consider this to be similar to the b+w manipulation I used to make in my wet darkroom.
Best of all it is lots of fun.
Béatrice - Sandwiches in my menu
Beatrice - A Persistent Vancouver Cultural faux pas
