Just a Little Spring Fun...

[bmattock]

Here in North Carolina, ever thang is in full bloom. Yeah, like the man said, "It's spring again, ever buddy know it's spring again..." Took these in front of my front porch...enjoy!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[back alley]

wow!

well, the snow is all gone, finally.
but now it's just brown.

joe

 

[bmattock]

wow!

well, the snow is all gone, finally.
but now it's just brown.

joe

We have colors galore! Redbud trees, wisteria vines, Bradford pear trees, and dogwood trees are all in full bloom. Looks like a clown exploded.

Everything is green here, especially my yard. But my yard is green because it is full of clover and other weeds - the grass is still a bit brownish. So I spent pretty much the whole day in my postage-stamp front yard, ripping up weeds with a thatcher - which left lots of little bare patches. Then it was over to Lowes, for a hand-held spreader, a couple of bags of seed, some weed-n-seed turf builder, and a sprinkler head for my garden hose.

I've got blisters on blisters, but I think (hope) that this year will be better than the pure crab-grass horror show we inherited last year when we bought the house.

Well anyway, I still found some time to go out and take photos...

 

[back alley]

what a cutie!

i don't miss yard work.
joe

 

[bmattock]

LOL, yeah, she's a cutie all right. Even better, a neighborhood kid instead of mine. I was driving past the downtown area and saw that our local library was having a grand reopening - they've been remodeling for a couple years, and it's finally all done. New places for the drunkend and defiantly homeless to hide and urinate on the carpet. Oops. Anyway, I took some photos, trying some 40+ year-old German M42 lenses and I got shang-haied by a local mom who wanted pics of the kid with "Barney" the dinosaur. I obliged. Two things: 1) Kodak Ultra 100 is pretty nice film and 2) The Isco Isconar 100mm f4.5 is one hell of a portrait lens. Primitive technology - front-cell focusing, three-element, just icky as could be...but looky here...

 

[back alley]

ah, the beauty of small town living.

joe

 

[bmattock]

ah, the beauty of small town living.

joe

Ain't it the best? I mean, Wilson is HUGE (40,000) compared to nearby Black Creek. This, I found yesterday also. Man, I do get around...

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[back alley]

now that's funny. driving to the store on a lawn mower.
but that car looks very cool.
joe

 

[rover]

Great Grocery Store Bill. I have been looking for a scene like that myself. And to have the car parked there was perfect.

 

[bmattock]

Great Grocery Store Bill. I have been looking for a scene like that myself. And to have the car parked there was perfect.

Thanks! I got lucky, the store is in the tiny town of Black Creek, and the owner of the store also owns the car. I asked if I could take a few photos, and he said sure. Bet he didn't expect me to stand out there for 20 minutes, composing and snapping away with about 4 135mm post-WWII-vintage German M42 lenses. Amazing the differences between them photographically. I'll have to do a shootout sometime.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

now that's funny. driving to the store on a lawn mower.
but that car looks very cool.
joe

People do that around here. Also gas-powered scooters are popular, so you have to watch for em. Nobody licenses them (or has license/insurance) so you really have to be careful not to squish 'em.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[rover]

Thanks! I got lucky, the store is in the tiny town of Black Creek, and the owner of the store also owns the car. I asked if I could take a few photos, and he said sure. Bet he didn't expect me to stand out there for 20 minutes, composing and snapping away with about 4 135mm post-WWII-vintage German M42 lenses. Amazing the differences between them photographically. I'll have to do a shootout sometime.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

I drive by a house quite often that has an old barn/garage on the property. It is half falling down and must have housed a business at some time because the sign is still partially hanging onto the front of the building. Is is very rustic and very photographic in my mind. I am always tempted to go knock on the front door and ask for permission to photograph it.

 

[rover]

Very true. I am using this as an excuse to get a Hasselblad 50mm lens. I will need a wide angle and it will look great in 6x6.

I have even figured out the lighting, it faces east, northeast, so early morning light would be best.

 

[bmattock]

Indeed. I have gottne positive responses to weird requests by just waving a camera around and explaining "I'm a photographer, may I...?" and they just suspend all the normal questions like "Why do you want to take photos of my outhouse?" and such. They just say 'sure'. Seems to work most of the time, anyway. And that used to be a problem of mine. Now I have no fear, I'll march up to anyone and ask them for permission to photograph them or their stuff.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[captainslack]

Bill,

You have no idea how weird it is to come to an Internet photography forum expecting to see people talking about exotic places and here you are posting pictures of the area I grew up in!!

What a small world! 😀

BTW, what did you use to take the flower pics?

 

[bmattock]

Bill,

You have no idea how weird it is to come to an Internet photography forum expecting to see people talking about exotic places and here you are posting pictures of the area I grew up in!!

What a small world! 😀

BTW, what did you use to take the flower pics?

Yeah, I guess I would feel the same way if someone started posting photos of Pekin or San Jose, Illinois. It's like no one should know about that except me. How could anyone else have lived there?

I used a Vivitar 400/SL (M42) body with a Juplen 135mm f2.8 lens and a couple of M42 extension tubes. I just *love* to try things no one else has thought of yet.

By the way, I found a lens that you *can't* use on a Bessaflex. It is the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2. Seems it projects into the area where the stop-down kicker lives and blocks the shutter from tripping because the kicker can't move. I told Stephen Gandy about that, he hadn't heard of it. I just *have* to experiment!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Nice photo's, Bill. It's so nice to see some colors after this past winter.


I had the same problem with an old Zeiss pre-set M42. Nothing a little filing couldn't take care of; filed the part that used to hang up on the STL1000 aperture actuation pin. It goes on the camera now.