I like lemons. I like festivals. It seems like the perfect combination. We happened to be in Santa Barbara, California, at the time of the 30th annual Lemon Festival in Goleta, just a short drive away. It turns out a friend was one of the judges at the pie eating contest, so it made for a great day! Insider tip: The Rotary Club has amazing lemonade!
Located at the southern end of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean island chain, the country of Grenada is actually three islands, Grenada, Carriacou, and Petit Martinique. Over Thanksgiving, our family visited the island of Grenada, known as “The Spice Island” for the abundance of spices which are grown on the island. The island of Grenada is the second largest producer of nutmeg, second only to Indonesia. We stayed at Spice Island Beach Resort, a family-owned resort famous for its hospitality since 1961. We toured the island, visited Concord Waterfall, lunched at Bathway Beach, picked up some chocolates and Belmont Estate, saw Mona monkeys, and snorkeled the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Garden.
Shot on the Canon EOS 1v, with Canon 24mm f/1.4 and Canon 50mm f/1.2 lenses, and using Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Portra 160, Kodak Portra 800, Fuji Pro 400H, and Fuji Provia RDP III 100F film.
My daughter is getting married next year, and it came time to pick a dress. We are both fans of the show, “Say Yes to the Dress,” so it was time to make my first trip ever to New York City to visit Kleinfeld’s Bridal, and fingers crossed, hopefully, she would say “yes.” We only had a 3-day weekend in the City, but aside from our appointment at Kleinfeld’s, the weekend was devoted to sightseeing and eating.
As a newbie to the City, I was really impressed by the architecture. I shot the Empire State Building so many times it was ridiculous, although having a suite at the New York Edition with a view of the ESB encouraged me to keep shooting. The New York Edition is located on Madison Square Park and is itself a historic building, the original home to Met Life Insurance. The building was the tallest building in the world from the time of its completion in 1909 until 1913, when the Woolworth Building passed it up. It is adjacent to Madison Square Park, which was the site of the first public Christmas tree display, which is marked by a star atop a white pole in the park. You’ll also find the world’s first Shake Shack if you’re in the mood for a burger. The Flatiron Building was on one corner of the park, but unfortunately, was ungulfed in scaffolding during our stay. Our location was perfect, within a short walk of NYU and Times Square.
I planned a visit to the top of the Empire State Building at sunset on our first day. Our timing was “perfect” as a storm rolled in over the City just as we approached the observation deck. These are far from your normal ESB sunset shots, but rather dramatic.
Great restaurants in New York City are everywhere and we were not disappointed. Even my pumpernickel bagel was the best I had ever tasted. New York City restaurants are presently requiring proof of vaccination – your vaccination card and a picture ID – but once complete, your dining experience is uninterrupted.
It was a short, but wonderful three-day trip, and she said “yes!”
Images were created with the Canon EOS 1v. I have too many photos for one post, so here are the images shot on Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Portra 800, and Fuji 400H (my last few frames on the last roll in my camera when I started the trip). My next post will feature all the images shot on Lomography Metropolis.
In September 2021, Wisconsin was the host to the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin. We had been looking forward to this since it was first announced that Whistling Straits would host PGA Championships in 2004, 2010, and 2015, the Senior U.S. Open in 2007, and finally, the best of all golf tournaments, the Ryder Cup, in 2020. COVID delayed the Ryder Cup by one year, and as a result, there was less representation by European fans, but it was as exciting as ever, with the U.S. showing the power of its young team, consisting of eight of the top ten players in the world. The U.S. won 19-9, the largest margin of victory since the 1960s.
The great thing about practice days at a golf tournament is that the rules on cameras and photography are seriously relaxed, so you could bring any camera you like and no one gives you grief. I brought along the Canon EOS 1v and the 50mm f/1.2 and 24mm f/1.4 in my small red Billingham Hadley. The sun was out early, but a storm came off the lake, but we had a great time walking the grounds and spent a lot of time perched above the 7th green, before attending the opening ceremonies. Here are a few shots of the grounds, as well as some of the fans that make the Ryder Cup so much fun!
On the way home from Detroit, we made a brief stop for lunch at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As it was graduation day, it was a bit busier than expected, but I had the best corned beef and pastrami sandwich I can ever remember. All shot on the Canon 1v with Kodak Portra 800, processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.
One of the great features of digital photography, aside from the instant gratification of knowing you’ve got the shot, is that the cameras record your settings, the metadata, assisting you in evaluating what worked and what did not. Most film cameras had no way of recording the settings used, requiring that the photographer keep meticulous notes, which could be consulted once the film was returned from the lab. As film photography developed over the years, manufacturers were able to design film cameras which recorded the shooting information. However, extracting the information from the camera required special software and a cable proprietary to the manufacturer. In researching the purchase of my Canon EOS 1v, I learned that the shooting data was recorded on the camera, requiring a special cable and the Canon ES-E1 software to download the data. Finding the cable and software was a challenge. It was no longer available from Canon, and it was not easy to find. When a set would pop up on Ebay, the price was astronomical (assuming you could even get the software running on current operating systems). Now photographers have a much less expensive and easy alternative, Meta35.
I had given up on my hunt for the ES-E1 software and cable when I stumbled upon Meta35. Meta35 replaces the Canon system in a small easy-to-use device. When your box arrives, inside you will find a USB thumb drive with the software, the cable for your camera, the USB adapter, and the simplest set of instructions I’ve ever seen.
It really was simple! Let me show you how it works. I am using a MacBook Pro for my installation.
Pop the orange USB drive into your computer. Copy the file to your Applications folder.
Once you get rolling, be sure to update the software using the “Check for Updates” option available under the “Help” menu.
Plug the black Meta35 cable into your computer. Then connect the camera to the adapter with the cable. Below you will see the location where the cable is attached on the Canon 1v.
On the 1v, you have on other step. As you’re looking at the back of the camera, flip open the door on the right side. Inside you’ll find the Multifunction button, “M.Fn.”
Press that and you’ll see the left and right arrow symbol and “PC” to show that you are connecting to your computer.
Open the Meta35 software. In the upper left corner, you will see “Import Data” adjacent to the filmstrip icon. Click that to download the data from your camera into the software. Your data appears on the left side of the screen.
At the top, you will find your film roll identification numbers. On the Canon 1v, you can change the first two digits (XX-XXX) to designate different cameras. Mine is set to the factory “00.” The last three digits designate the roll number. This cannot be changed on the camera. Where do you find your roll number? These are imprinted on the film leader by the camera. The numbers are super tiny. This was roll 00-165.
In the future, I will make sure to mention in the special instructions to my lab to be careful not to cut through the numbers. There were several rolls where I could not make out the number because they cut the strip in exactly that place.
Once you have the roll number, go to your listing in Meta35. Let’s use roll 00-177 as an example. Find the listing in the top left and click it. For some reason, my roll appeared as “01-077.” I don’t know exactly why that is, but I was able to confirm this was the correct roll. Below you will see the metadata for each shot on the roll.
To match the photos to the data, click “Load Images.” The software will prompt you to locate the folder with your images. Click the folder, and the software imports the images into Meta 35. If the number of photos does not match, the software will prompt you to omit images. I had that happen when I opened my camera mid-roll, and the camera reset the roll number, so one roll of film had two different roll numbers. All I did was omit the images which were not on that roll number, and repeat the process with the second roll number. That happened on this roll. You’ll see 6 images on roll 00-176 and 26 images on roll 00-177. I pooched a few frames when I opened the camera.
Back to our data. The program imported the photos and we see them along the right side of the screen.
I noticed that my vertical images appeared as horizontals.
On this vertical image, I wanted to attach information to the file that it needed to be rotated counterclockwise. To do that, click “Rotate CCW” and the image will appear upright. Once that is imported into Lightroom, it will know it is a vertical image.
To confirm the change, click the green arrow, “Apply.” The “Apply” button appears once you click the rotation button.
You can also add other information to the images in the box on the lower left of the screen, and elect to have that information apply to the entire roll or be your default information.
Once you have tweaked the data and the photos are lined up with the metadata, click “Embed Data” and the program will save the images with the metadata, ready to import into your favorite processing program. You will see that “Embed Data” is shadowed in the examples in this post. That is because I completed the process for this roll, which you can also see by “Yes” appearing in the “Embedded” column for roll 00-177 (also known as 01-077!) on the left side of the screen.
It’s as easy as that! There are other functions made available to you with Meta35, which make setting your camera controls so much easier. Without the software, to change custom functions on the camera, you needed your manual and needed to go through a lot of pressing of little buttons with codes to make the changes. The software makes these changes a breeze. Scroll through the custom functions, click your preferences, and click “Export to Camera.” Done.
The program kindly reminds you to remove the adapter when you’re done importing to save your battery. If you have gotten the message, and no longer wish to see it, you can make that change, and others, in the preferences panel.
The Meta35 kit is available for other cameras as well, including Nikon F6, F5, F100, N90s, N90, F90x, and F90, and Minolta Maxxum 7, Maxxum 9, Dynax 7, Dynax 9, Alpha 7, and Alpha 9. I paid $149 for the Meta35 kit and it was worth every penny.
Film is not dead! Enjoy it even more with Meta35!
Lately, I’ve been back to shooting film, shooting both digital and film cameras on our recent trips to Anguilla, Antigua, and Barbuda. Along for the journey were several film cameras, including the Canon EOS 1v. The 1v was Canon’s last professional 35mm SLR camera, with a magnesium alloy body and weather sealing throughout. At 10 frames per second, it was a favorite of sports shooters for years. It is a solidly built camera, and fits perfectly in my hand like the later DSLRs that Canon produced. I have the HS version, which includes a detachable power booster, however given the bulk, I leave that behind.
The beauty of traveling with the Canon EOS 1v is that it uses all the same lenses as the current line of Canon DSLRs with the EF mount. To shoot film, I’m really only adding the size of the body and the rolls of film to my camera bag.
When looking to purchase your EOS 1v, try to avoid purchasing one with a high film roll count. On the right side of the camera is a little door which you can open. Inside is a button labeled “M.Fn.” Press it and on the LCD screen on the top of the camera you will see a three-digit number which is the roll count. This number is also imprinted on the film leader when the film is loaded. Given that it’s only three digits, it will presumably reset at 1000, so you should also examine the total picture and the source from whom you are buying to assess its overall condition.
The camera was originally packaged with a proprietary Canon cable and Canon’s ES-E1 software, which allowed you to download your shooting data. I tried for a while to locate the software and cable with no success. Even if you could get your hands on the software, good luck getting it to work on current operating systems. However, it appears someone with far greater technical knowledge than I has figured out a solution. The folks at Meta35 offer a cable and software system for the 1v, along with some other Nikon and Minolta film cameras, allowing you to access the metadata and write the data to your scanned images. I’ll be giving the Meta35 system a look and report back! [UPDATE: Check out our review here: Meta35 Review ]
While some may ignore film photography given the ease associated with digital, it’s very easy for me to see the difference now, and appreciate the beauty that film captures. Keep shooting!
NOTE: Originally published on August 31, 2015 on our sister site, My Irie Time.
I buy my film at B&H!
