Air Power

Photographed at a New York Pinup Club event at the American Air Power museum in Farmingdale NY. TL-120 with Vivitar 285H fill flash. Ilford Pan F processed with DR5. DR5 recommended rating the Pan-F at ISO 25. I believe this was a half-second exposure at f16. It’s challenging to get sharp portraits at the long shutter speeds these low ISOs require.

Halo

Photographed at the 2022 Coney Island Mermaid Parade. TL-120 with Vivitar 285H fill-flash. I was happy to see this event happen again after its two year absence, it’s a portrait photographer’s paradise.

Christmas in Ginza Tokyo

I shot this in 2004 using a twin Yashica-Mat 124 rig. I would go on these business trips to Japan with just a few items of clothing and my suitcase filled with tripods, twin bars and other camera gear. I brought the actual cameras as carry-ons whenever possible. They’d keep me working all day so I ended up with lots of nighttime shots.

This was probably a two second exposure at f16, I manually fired a Vivitar 285H flash while the shutter was open.

Rita N Wink on the mic

From a 2018 New York Pinup Club shoot – TL120 with a Vivitar 285H flash. There was also some studio lighting, I used an incident meter and crossed fingers. I was using long exposures, 1/4 or 1/2 second and asking the models to hold still.

Katie Kells Beach-Ball

This is from a New York Pinup Club shoot in Long Island June 2021. It was very hot and humid that day, many of the photographers went home early. This is a TL-120 without a flash, Provia 100F pushed one stop. I believe it was 1/125 at f22.

Coney Island Mermaids

The past few years the Coney Island Mermaid Parade has been the event where I shot most of my Medium Format rolls for the year. This was the event I most missed among all the cancelled activities of Summer 2020. This shot was taken with a TL-120 using a Vivitar 285H fill-flash. My TL-120 reliably syncs to flash at 1/125 even though flash sync is marked for 1/30. This has softened the shadows on countless Mermaid Parade portraits I’ve taken. Provia 100F pushed 1 stop.

Alcatraz

Shot with twin Mamiya C220s with 135 mm lenses. I enjoy the surreal effect telephoto 3D creates. For years I had dreamed of being able to own twin Tele-Rollei’s and then one day I realized I could get very close to that on the cheap with the old Mamiya TLRs.

Rita N. Wink

Taken at a “New York Pinup Club” event in March 2019. TL-120 with Ilford Pan-F processed by DR-5. I believe this was a half second exposure, Rita did a good job staying still but there’s still a bit of motion blur.

Chicago Theater

Shot with twin Yashica-Mat 124s, I used to have a lot of fun with this rig, the additional lens separation works well on shots like this. Unfortunately I had constant shutter misfires with these cameras and finally got put them away for good.

Mermaid Couple

Photographed at the 2019 Coney Island Mermaid Parade. TL-120 with diffused Vivitar 285-H fill flash. Provia 100F pushed one stop. For close portraits like this a diffusor is critical for the fill flash. Sadly the 2020 Mermaid Parade was cancelled, this event is where I do most of my Medium Format shooting these days.