My first love... (not 56k friendly)
Photography.
It was my dad's first love, too, and the one hobby that he might pick over shooting. Seeing all of his old photography equipment is pretty freakin' cool, and from when I was real little I've always loved photography. Anyway, after a conversation about photography a couple days ago Dad mentions getting a new camera soon so he can get back into it. I told him, "That's a great idea... know what we can start with?" He looked at me for a moment, and I went on. "Well, we wanted to catalog our guns and take insurance pictures, right?" He started grinning about the time mom started groaning (emphatically not a gun person). "And mom's getting more into picture-archiving the wines, right?" Mom ceased groaning. That sold it. We could combine hobbies, guns, beer and wine making (family drinks what it brews), and anything else we decide to do, with photography. :image035:
Right now I'm stuck with a cheapy digital camera. Quality is limited. No better time to relearn the basics than now with the simple stuff.
First, the setup.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...irstSetup1.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...irstSetup2.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...irstSetup3.jpg
All the above took was a trip to the nearby Joan Fabrics for a yard of the flat grey fabric, some 3/8" wooden dowels, and a couple white Elmer's foam poster boards. The window is big and provides a lot of control in the amount of light, and the color of the fabric is such that using the flash only slightly washes out the foreground, not the background (the flash being necessary when taking pictures of Dad's Glock and the PA 63s) because of their darker color. Unfortunately, the setup is too bright for the stainless steel Mark II, and I'm thinking of another trip to Joan's for a yard of a dark red.
It's a small set-up because I want to get the basics down with smaller stuff (handguns) before I try larger stuff (rifles).
So what did my first go at this turn out?
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...OXTRgripsR.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...OXTRGripsL.jpg
My Springfield Mil Spec, plus the new ERGO XTR grips. The lighting and limitations of the camera are the cause of that little "fuzz" around the grips, so it's hard to get a clear picture of their texture. Smoother surfaces come across nicely, and well-defined ones, but otherwise this camera can't quite catch nuances and subtleties. Oh well.
To deviate a moment, these grips were to replace the Pachmayr grips that I received with the gun after I recently shot the medallions out of the rubber part. I also suspected that the finger grooves it forced me into were negatively affecting the way I handled the gun, so I opted for a grip panels of the non-soft-rubber variety. The XTR's are a hard rubber and don't catch clothing. They're also not uncomfortable against bare skin (to me, anyway). Most important, for the $20 I paid for them they are great grips and have a good solid feel to them. They've taken one accidental knock and you'd never know it by the looks. A handgun course is the only remaining measure of how these grips will perform, because at the range I noticed a distinct boost in my accuracy (groupings were a lot more consistent and a lot tighter than even my last session, and I doubt the dry-firing got me that much better between range trips).
Back to photography. Time to add the holster.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...gleForward.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...leRearward.jpg
These were a little harder because I learned how "high gloss" the leather on the Versa Max was. Those are the best of the holster shots I took, and came after a bit of lighting changes (hurray blinds!) and fighting with the auto-flash on the aforementioned cheapy digital camera. The shadows irritate me to no end, and you can see at the edges of the image the white board backgrounds, but for not having a "half-box" setup I'd say these turned out pretty well.
Another brief deviation: I like this holster. I'm still waiting on a belt (Liger en route), even with my current dress belt (not a gun belt) I've found that when in that "sweet spot" the VMII feels real comfortable and conceals better than I thought it would for me being small in stature and the holster being fairly thick. I'll still probably add a Max Con V, but I don't see myself getting rid of the Versa Max.
Last picture is me playing with foreground and background.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...KeepPA1911.jpg
It's a little harder and the two firearms (my two pistols) both still appear to be on the same plane. This one was taken when the setup was moved to the sliding glass door facing our backyard, so there was a lot more light and angry looks my way whenever I tried to dim the lighting a bit. Gonna need to find a more permanent place, or at least a more purpose-built light box and photo setup that doesn't require me to take up space in the family room.
Anyway, this is my reintroduction to photography. I'll continue to add to this topic as I progress, so that I have a time line and can share my work (and guns!) with you folks. Tips and suggestions are always welcome.
Hope you enjoy. :smile:
-B
