Photographia Canidae + Mamiya 645

I am the proud owner of a new camera: the Mamiya M645 1000s featuring the amazingly exciting 80mm f/1.9 lens! *swoon* I should probably post a bunch of camera porn of it from all different angles (um, cameras taking pictures of cameras sounds unnecessarily incestuous to me… ha ha) but I’d rather just talk about the pictures that it can make. Or, even better yet, I could just show you!

One of the big reasons I decided on this camera set up is the lens. This IS the FASTEST medium format lens EVER made. Whoah. Awesome. He he he… There are a couple of reasons why it is so cool to have a “fast” lens.

Reason #1: You can take pictures in less light without having to resort to a flash. And, seriously, who wants a flash in their face? Not me…
Reason #2: You can get amazing bokeh (that’s that purdy blurry background you see below) with such a shallow depth-of-field.

The negatives this camera produces are a whopping 6×4.5cm which is almost three times the size of a 35mm negative, increasing fine detail and decreasing grain in enlargements. These are very very high quality images, guys! Image quality is very important to me, so this is a huge deal, and it honestly makes me giddy like a little girl on Christmas!

Drawbacks of the system for me so far are:
Learning curve on new camera hurts my brain… no seriously. Well, maybe I’m joking a little…
I am not used to manually focusing, so it’s certainly something I’ll need to practice with. Preliminary thoughts on the Mamiya 645 manual focus are actually quite the contrary to what I was expecting. This system is remarkably easy to use (after memorizing the entire camera manual cover to cover, of course) and once I get a few more rolls of film under my belt might even be easier than my Canon autofocus.

My dogs were the very willing and unassuming test subjects when I took the Mamiya 645 out for a spin. Unfortunately, furry family members just don’t live long enough, and I always tell myself to take the time to photograph them but I rarely get around to it. I will personally cherish these pictures for a long time, and even though the focus isn’t perfect on all of them (oops), I captured a little slice of their doggie life. That’s what I love about photographing dogs really. It would be interesting to be a dog for a day, I think. But, that’s another post for another day.

All images below were shot on 120 Kodak Portra 400 and generally exposed for the shadows, all at f/1.9 and around 1/30-1/125th sec exposures. I love how this film was able to capture the details on a white dog with black lips and dark eyes… such amazing film!
My handsome man: Charlie Brown, who was rescued from a gas chamber in Los Banos, CA by the nice lady from ARF: Animal Rescue of Fresno when he was just 3 months old. Then he came to live with me, and I’m so so so happy he did! After we got him he got very sick, and it turns out he had distemper! Oh noos! Fortunately we were able to nurse him through and he’s been my boy for almost 13 years. I know everyone says this about their dog, but he IS the best dog in the world. Period.
This is Lady. She was found severely emaciated at San Joaquin Country Club by a good friend. She was covered in ticks, starving, and on her last legs when he lured her into submission with some hot dog pieces. After several months of good food, medical care, and a real family (probably for the first time, ever), she had regained her strength and is now a proud member of our pack. She is still pretty skittish around new people, but is really just a love bug who licks everyone all the time… Her nickname is Lady Bug.
This is what Lady looks like when she dances and smiles!
Sundance is a spoiled little man, but he loves his people! This guy was rescued from the side of Highway 99 by someone and taken to the CCSPCA. On his last day at the Fresno SPCA before he was marked for death, he got a cell mate named Hampton. My sister was getting Hampton a “get out of doggy jail free” card that day and when she saw little Sunny-D with the red mark across his chart, she brought him home too, not even knowing what to do with him. Hampton found a very nice home through the help of the people at ARF while we fostered him. But Sundance… He convinced us all that he would be better off staying, so he did. He just weaseled his little booty into our family, and although he did drop out of dog obedience school (eh hem, failed), we’re very happy he’s here!
“This is MY pine cone! You can NOT haz my pine cone!”