About Stovepipe

I'm a collector and amateur photographer, playing around with mostly used equipment picked up as cheaply as possible from local and online auctions, Goodwill, garage sales, etc.

My favorite subjects are my family, my cats, Iowa prairie scenes, the birds who visit my back yard, and whatever mundane objects I see that seem to invite reinterpretation.

I mostly shoot film, and develop and scan it here at home. Digital is for when I'm feeling lazy, or trying to photograph wildlife. I don't know which gives me better pictures, but working with film just makes me feel happier; and since I'm an amateur with a different day job, happiness is what I'm in it for.

About AM3 comments

Please don't feel obliged to comment on my pictures! It is appreciated if you feel like it. Conversely, if you know I'm watching your blog and I fail to comment, it doesn't mean I didn't like something. I usually only comment if I have something to say. I try not to fall into the quid pro quo comment game, as it makes me feel creepy.

Photography Equipment

35mm film SLR -
Chinon CP-7m; Fujica ST605; Pentax LX, K1000, K1000SE, P30n, ZX-M, Program Plus ('PPP'), Super Program ('PSP'), ME Super, MX.

Medium format -
Pentax 67; Yashica MAT 124G; Seagull no-model-name.

Film compact -
Olympus Stylus Epic (non-zoom version), Pentax IQZoom90.

35mm Rangefinder -
Yashica Electro 35 GS and GSN, Olympus 35RC, messed-up Canonet QL-17.

Digital SLR -
Pentax K100D, *ist DL

Pentax SMC prime lenses -
35mm: A28/2.0; M35/2.8; M50/2.0; A50/1.7; M50/1.7; M50/1.4; FA50/1.4; K50/1.2; K55/2.0; A*85/1.4; M135/3.5; M200/4.0; K300/4.0
6x7: Takumar 105/2.4; 67 55/4.0

Pentax SMC zoom lenses -
DFA18-55mm version 1 (*istDL kit); M28-50; M75-150

Other K-mount lenses -
Zenitar fisheye 16/2.8; Vivitar 19/3.9; Tamron (adaptall) 360b 300/2.8; numerous junk zooms that came attached to cameras and should probably go to Goodwill

M42 lenses -
EBC Fujinon-W 35/1.9, EBC Fujinon-T 100/2.8, EBC Fujinon-T 200/4.5

Film scanner -
Epson 4490

Software -
SANE (script-driven scan interface), Cinepaint (initial level adjustments of 16 bit grayscale files out of scanner), Epson "iscan" (for scanning color negatives), UFRaw (white balance and initial levels of raw PEF files), GIMP (other processing and touchup tasks); all running on Linux.