Let’s @TMAXParty!
*Yawn…
I mostly phoned it in this time. I’ve been in a bit of a funk of late, but am trying to pull myself out of it. If the twitters are any indication, it looks like others have the same issue: the @TMAXParty is pretty quiet all the way around this month.
There might be, yes. https://t.co/NiXlNlrqQo
— TMAXParty (@TMAX_party) April 20, 2017
I managed to test the hidden bulb mode in the XA: here’s 2 seconds vs. 30 seconds from my usual perch, high above Preston Road in North Dallas.
To activate the bulb mode, first switch on the battery check, then stabilize the camera, frame, and trip the shutter. The shutter will stay open until you switch off the battery check. That’s the good news… The bad news is that the battery check beeps the whole time, and the battery check light lights up the whole time too. I think I mentioned this before, and not very long ago either. Oh well.
I took some walks on my lunch break. Eh.
I snapped a picture from the office window, kinda the same as last month.
And I shot the marigolds in a pot on the front porch.
Truth be told, I shot much more than that, 30+ more shots… But none of them were worth sharing. I missed focus on a surprising number. The 8 foot and f/5.6 markings on the XA are in orange and I thought this was something like hyperfocal distance/point-and-shoot territory for the XA, but it’s not: the long-form manual has a depth of field table in it that gives the circle of least confusion for f/5.6 and 3 meters (10′) as 2.06-5.62 meters (6.7′-18.4′), so no wonder… for hyperfocal, I’d need f/16 at 3m.
For example, take a closer look at one from up on the parking garage. The trees are in focus, but the people below are not. This was at f/11, if I recall, with the focus on the red 8 on the lens barrel.
Hopefully, I remember this in the future and trust my eyes, rather than the numbers stenciled on the camera and that I don’re really understand.
Really, though, it doesn’t matter much: I wasn’t feeling it then and I’m barely feeling it now… the only saving grace lately has been the fun with the birthday toys, and Polaroid Week (though even that has fading some as the week’s gone on.
So this is the last TMAX party for this year. I think May is set to be #Neopantasic, but I’m not really sure. I expect @Emulsive and others will announce something soon enough.
