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Route 66, LA to Pasadena
11 February 2011, Friday
04 05 06 11 12 13 February 2011
Today we started at Dave's house, and proceeded to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. If there aren't strong colors, then it's time to head straight to black-and-white.
Stone, PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/4.5 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
Grass, PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/8 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
Dovras, PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/6.5 at 1/50 (1 stop overexposed; whoops, but still no problem with negative film), NCPS process and scan.)
Jessica H. Johnson, PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/9.5 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
Cutts, 2:44 PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/9.5 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
The Hollywood Sign, 2:46 PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/9.5 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
Rhapsody in Black, 2:49 PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/9 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
After paying our respects, we drove right past Kodak's Cinesite off Route 66 on Las Palmas. Most Kodachrome shooters remember that address as one of Kodak's labs; today, It's Kodak's center in Hollywood.
We continued to Silver Lake.
Palms and Moon, 3:59 PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 5cm (50mm) f/2 collapsible, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/8 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
Echo Park Duck Pond Fountain, 3:59 PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1953 LEITZ ELMAR 9cm (90mm) f/4, 39mm LEITZ 1 yellow filter on SOOGZ adapter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/9.5 at 1/100, NCPS process and scan.)
Palms, 4:07 PM. (1952 LEICA IIIf, 1950s selenium LEICAMETER 2, 1958 LEITZ SUMMARON 3.5cm (35mm) f/3.5, no filter, Kodak T-MAX 100, f/11 at 1/50, NCPS process and scan.)
Now to Highland Park, home of Frank's Camera:
Frutas y Verduras, 4:40 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, Auto ISO 160, Auto 1/125, 2003 LEICA ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8.)
Frank's Highland Park Camera, 5:00 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, Auto ISO 160, Auto 1/90, 1998 LEICA ELMARIT-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH.)
This place was scary. I'd seen their ads throughout the 1970s, and I was told they closed ten years ago. We tried to look past the double crime-gates on the front, and saw nothing but dirt, dishevelment and disarray. No cameras, just old sales flyers and old cases thrown about.
Then I saw a dead body inside through the dirty glass! Then it moved! There was a live dead guy trapped inside!
I came around the back, and the door was open.
It's a mystery to me, but a lady and a dude, possibly the fabled Vera from Frank's ads in the 1970s, was in there doing I don't know what. They claimed that they open a few hours each Friday, and if you're in the area, I'd love to know just what they do when they are open. There's nothing to sell inside, except dust. Nothing inside seems to have been touched since the place was abandoned around the turn of the century. All the Nikon Pronea banners are still up! These photos here, here and here were by someone else in 2006 when it was in much better shape.
Did we see ghosts, or is Frank's still selling something?
Yellow and Green, 5:09 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, Auto ISO 160, Auto 1/125, 2003 LEICA ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8.)
Yellow, 5:12 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, Auto ISO 160, Auto 1/250, 2003 LEICA ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8.)
After Highland Park, we headed to Pasadena for twilight.
Route 66 Bridge, 5:42 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, Auto ISO 160, Auto 1/8, 1998 LEICA ELMARIT-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH, no stinking tripod.)
This bridge is about a thousand feet (300 meters) tall. It's how Route 66 makes it across the Arroyo Seco Gorge. It's huge.
As we photographed it, locals stopped their cars, and people walking their dogs all stopped to ask us what we were photographing. It all goes to show you how easy it is to overlook really interesting things right in front of your face.
After the bridge, we headed to the Saga Motor Hotel. While everyone else felt the need to retire to their rooms to play on their computers, instead I walked out in the courtyard before dinner and made these shots. I don't bring a computer when I travel; it gets in the way of making pictures. I could have shot these at f/1.4 and ISO 800, but to get depth-of-field and shoot at a low ISO I grabbed my tripod. I knew with everyone else was sedated by their laptop computers so I'd have plenty of time to shoot.
Saga Motor Hotel, 6:58 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 12 seconds, 1997 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH.)
Saga Motor Hotel, 7:00 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 32 seconds, 1997 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH.)
Saga Motor Hotel, 7:05 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 16 seconds, 1997 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH.)
The brilliant 18-pointed stars on the street lights come from the lens' 9-bladed diaphragm stopped down to about f/11.
Palm and Stars, 7:18 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 16 seconds, 1997 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH.)
We got everyone off of their computers, and headed to The Hat for pastrami dinner.
Chili Cheese Fries, 7:54 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, auto 1/45, 1997 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH.)
Yes, there are enough fries here to feed the US Army, and half of the Marines.
The Hat, Pasadena, 8:41 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, auto 1/30, 1997 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH.)
I don't have enough skill in Apple Aperture 3 yet, but astoundingly, the LEICA M9 DNG files have so much dynamic range that they actually retained the color in the neon tubes if I dropped the exposure slider enough. I don't know how to compress the range in Aperture to keep the color in the tubes and keep the rest of the image light. I chose to set Aperture to let the tubes wash-out to white in order to keep the image looking right. I don't know if Aperture can do this, but the information is in the DNGs.
04 05 06 11 12 13 February 2011
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