Blog – Page 22 – James Cockroft

Wide Angle Battle, Round 4: Driving and the River

The mid-summer 2021 trip to Mom’s was short, and after only 3 days, I headed back home. The drive home from Mom’s taught me a good lesson over the years: I’m one who almost always eats my spinach before I have my dessert. That is, I save the best for last. It’s an ok policy, though it means I eat loads of spinach and sometimes—sometimes too often—have no dessert at all. When driving from the lovely Ozark mountains down to the Metroplex, one can’t really save the best for last… The twisty mountain roads too-quickly give way to flat, straight superhighway.

These days, I often stop at the public boat launch on the White River that I pass on my way out of the mountains. For Round 4 of the Wide Angle Battle, let’s see how three 17mms—the LC-W, FM3a & 17-35D, and the WaiWai—handle things.

Wide Angle Battle, Round 3: Down the Crik

The roads around Mom’s house vary between narrow state highway, freshly-paved blacktop, rutted and pitted country lane, and dirt or gravel track. I like to travel a little figure-8 loop from her house, up the highway to the charity shop, down the roller-coaster road I’ve shared previously, past a hippy-decorated house hidden behind a very high bamboo hedge, back past Mom’s, and then down around to where the road turns to dirt, through the creek, past the cattle ranch, and back up to Mom’s.

I regularly stop a the creek and photograph some, and I wish I’d get down there when the light was decent… Alas. It seems I only make it there in the middle of the day. For Round 3 of the Wide Angle Battle, let’s see how the Nikon FM3a and Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D fare against the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim and the Konica WaiWai.

Wide Angle Battle, Round 2: Interiors

Mom’s mountain home is beautiful and pleasant and a relaxing place to visit, and I always enjoy my time there, even if the seafoam green carpet and tile aren’t much to my liking. During a visit to her place in late July, 2021, four cameras battled: Lomography’s LC-Wide, a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, a Konica WaiWai, and the Nikon FM3a with the 17-35mm f/2.8D.

In Round 2, we see how well the LC-Wide, Vivitar UWS, and Konica WaiWai perform indoors.

Wide Angle Battle, Round 1: The Deck

Mom lives on top of a mountain in northwest Arkansas. It’s beautiful there. In late July, 2021, I took four cameras along—Lomography’s LC-Wide, a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, a Konica WaiWai, and the Nikon FM3a with the 17-35mm f/2.8D—and they did battle…

I present the contest in the form of a round robin. This is Round 1: featuring photographs made on or from Mom’s deck by the the FM3a, the LC-Wide, and the Ultra Wide & Slim (UWS).

Coming Soon: the Wide Angle Battle

In preparation for a recent short trip to visit Mom, I thought it might be fun to pit the Konica WaiWai against the Lomo LC-Wide. I then thought it might be a good idea to also add in the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, and then remembered my recent purchase of a gently used Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D to use for unboxing videos on the D780, and wondered how it would perform on film. And with that, the Wide Angle Battle began…

Peter Funch – ‘The Imperfect Atlas’

Peter Funch’s The Imperfect Atlas is an interesting attempt to tackle the subject of climate change in photography. I’m not too sure where I heard about the book. It was Jeff Mermelstein’s favorite photobook of 2019, but by 2019 I was already trying to ignore best-of lists as a money-saving strategy, so I probably heard about and ordered it on swerdnaekalb’s recommendation.

Rich-Joseph Facun – ‘Black Diamonds’

Rich-Joseph Facun’s Black Diamonds is, in his words, “an effort to connect with and understand the region I now call home.”* It was the Charcoal photobook of the month selection for August, 2021.