Update (April 21, 2020): Due to Covid 19"We Are The Earth...." is now a digital exhibit. You can see the full exhibit at www.kalamazooearthday.com/kcollege-art-show
Below is my photo, The Fallen, which will soon be appearing in an exhibit of artwork reflecting on the environment. WE ARE THE EARTH/WE ARE THE PROBLEM/WE ARE THE SOLUTION will be going up in Kalamazoo College's UpJohn Library Commons in early March, running until about May 1.
My photo, "Ethereal Vessel" has been accepted into the 2020Abstracts Matter national juried exhibit hosted by the 311 Gallery in Raleigh, NC. The exhibit runs from 3/5/2020 - 3/28/2020 with a reception: 3/6/2020 7:00 - 9:00 PM.
I try to limit my work to three ongoing mega projects - Landscapes, Macro / Close Up work, and Abstracts. My abstracts are usually close ups of shadows cast on the wall or floor or sidewalk. This image sis in the third project line. The vessel was just a little spot of light that briefly hovered on the wall in my living room.
311 Gallery
311 West Martin Street, Raleigh, North Carolina 27601
United States
Three of the photographs I submitted to the Carnegie Center for the Arts 2020 Regional Juried Arts Competition have been accepted by the jurors and will be featured in this year's exhibit.
One of the three is Cosmic Egg - a chicken egg straight from the fridge, and one of my favorite photos for 2019:
The other two accepted works are Summer Solstice (see the post directly below this one) and Bad Axe Barn.
Based out of Three Rivers, Michigan, the Carnegie Center sponsors this competition for artists living in Southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana. It’s open to works in all media. As an annual event with several years of history, this show always brings out excellent work from the area. This year's show opened on January 19 and will close on February 19, 2020.
The 2019 Signature Artists gallery opens Sunday, December 1! This marks Signature's 40th seasonal gallery in the Kalamazoo area. We are at a new location this year at the Carillon Center, 6800 South Westnedge Suite M (next to Qdoba). Doors open at 12 noon on December 1.
The Opening reception will be Sunday, December 8 - stop by and meet the artists.
Here's one of the new pieces I will be exhibiting - Summer Solstice, a digital infrared landscape shot in June.
Overview
A few years ago I bought a Ricoh Diacord TLR. My goal was to find a medium format camera that is compact, lightweight, and has a built in light meter. As a long time user of a Pentax 6x7 system, I value the quality of 120 film images, but wanted something lighter and less cumbersome than the 6x7. The Ricoh Diacord - "Dia" being a reference to "Diamond" - was Ricoh's premium Twin Lens Reflex camera in the 1950's. Read on for a hands-on view regarding this camera's image quality and usability.
First - a quick summary of my take on this camera:
So let's dive into the camera with a little more detail...
Build and Ergonomics
This is a well built camera with simple controls. Focusing is handled with "Duo-Lever" controls - two levers on either side of the camera that control the focus mechanism. The levers are very precise and allow for fine adjustment of the image - and if you only have one hand free, one lever is all that is needed focus the camera.
Exposure is set by two levers, one on each side of the lens assembly. The "light value" / aperture lever controls aperture and is also used to set the baseline exposure from the meter (more on that in the metering section below.) Another lever controls the shutter speed. Per the manual, the shutter only supports the indicated speeds and setting the shutter speed between two speeds "will NOT give you an intermediate shutter speed." (Diacord L manual, page 15). Shutter speeds are in non-standard increments (1 -2 -5 -10 -25 - 50 - 100 - 250 - 500).
The shutter is not linked to the film advance mechanism and must be manually cocked before firing. This makes double exposures possible, which can be either a bug or a feature, depending on your perspective.
The shutter button is located in the lower right corner ("right" being from the user's perspective.) One limitation of this camera is that is does not accept a standard cable release. A cable adapter is mentioned in the manual, but I have not been able to find one. Some users mention that a Leica cable release adapter (a.k.a "Lieca nipple") can be used, but I have not found one that looks like it would work with the threading that the shutter release screws into.
Images can be composed using either the ground glass or direct view frame. I usually use the ground glass finder with the critical focus magnifier.
Lens
The 80mm f3.5 4 element Tessar style lens is very sharp. A few sample images, all shot at f8 or f11:
The bokeh is something of a mixed bag, sometimes OK but sometimes not. It's a matter of opinion, but I don't think I've seen a really nice bokeh in any shot I've taken with this lens. Again, a few images, all of which were taken with the lens wide open in order to test the bokeh:
In the last image above - the milkweed seedpods - the trees in the background are quite far away from the focal place, but just never achieve a nice out of focus effect. The Diacord L has a 5 bladed aperture which is not considered ideal for bokeh, but since these images were shot with the lens wide open, the shape of the aperture has no effect. On the plus side, this lens does a great job rending scenes where a deep depth of field is needed.
Light Meter
It's somewhat amazing but the light meter in this 60+ year old camera is still functioning and is still measures light accurately, producing readings identical to the Polaris SPD100 exposure meter that I use with the Pentax 6x7. That said, the simple reflected light meter in the Diacord is fairly crude, often measuring the light at the camera's location as opposed to the light reflected from the subject. In the Diacord manual Ricoh makes note of this, and recommends tilting the camera downward and metering off the ground in front of the subject. For more accurate readings I usually resorted to the Polaris meter with its spot metering attachment, but if you don't want to carry a separate meter the Diacord's built in meter is better than nothing.
The Diacord's metering system is based on exposure value (EV) system and is simple and easy to use once you get the hang of it. Set the meter to the film's ISO and take a light reading. The meter reports a single number that represents all possible aperture / shutter settings for the light value. For example, here's an image of the meter on the camera showing light reading of EV 14:
To translate that into aperture and shutter settings, just slide the "light value" lever (see above photo of the Diacord L controls) until the yellow line on the "light value" / aperture control lands on the EV number from the meter. Like this:
In this photo the EV number is the red numeral in the middle row of numbers. Aperture is above it and shutter speed is below. The meter reading of EV 14 results in an aperture of f8 and shutter speed of 1/250.
This automatically dials in a correct exposure setting, though the aperture and shutter are arbitrary. To adjust the settings to the aperture / shutter combination you want simply release the "light value" lever and move the shutter lever to the desired shutter speed. The aperture and shutter levers are linked, so once the exposure value (EV) is set simply moving the shutter lever will change both shutter and aperture settings.
So - dial in the EV, let go of the light value / aperture lever, and set the shutter lever to the shutter speed you want. The aperture setting automatically changes. Like in this shot - where the shutter has been set to 1/50th of a second and the aperture is now f16+ (note that the EV setting remains unchanged):
The nice thing about this EV system is that it works with modern handheld meters as well, since most have an EV setting. I set the Polaris SPD100 to give EV values, and use the process noted above to set the exposure. If you are using a meter that just gives you the aperture and shutter setting, just grab the Diacord's aperture and shutter levers and move them to the position you want. The linkage between the aperture and shutter levers can be overridden by moving both.
Accessories
The Diacord L uses a standard Bay-1 hood and filter system. New and used filters are available, as are lens hoods. The Bay 1 mount is designed for the hood to mount to an outer ring and filters to mount on an inner ring, which allows you to use both hood and filter at the same time. However, the modern Bay-1 hood I initially bought fit on the inner mounting ring and could not be used with a filter. I wound up buying an old Rollei hood to get one that would work with filters.
The Diacord's tripod mount is embedded in the knob that operates the latch that closes the back of the camera after film is loaded. On my sample the knob itself is not very solid, so the camera is prone to vibrations on a tripod. The solution is to use a mounting plate large enough to contact the four "feet" on the base of the camera. I wound up getting a Sirui TY 70-II Arca Swiss plate, which is just large enough for the job.
Conclusion
I'm enjoying making photos with my Diacord L. It takes up one slot in my camera bag, and with it I always have a medium format film option at hand. I find it to be well suited for landscape work, but would probably look to another camera if for images where bokeh was a central concern.
More Info
For detailed info on operating the Diacord-L, check out the manual which can be found here: www.butkus.org/chinon/ricoh/ricoh_diacord_l/ricoh_diacord_l.htm
One of my photos has been accepted into the Maryland Federation of Art's 2019 American Landscapes: Scenes From The America's exhibition. The accepted photo is Expectation, shot in the summer of 2018. The exhibit runs from August 22 to September 21, 2019 at the Circle Gallery, 18 State Circle, Annapolis, Maryland, 21401.
"Cosmic Egg" - my contribution to the "Inspired By Birds" exhibit at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan. This exhibit features creations from about 20 local artists, each piece "inspired by birds...." Opening reception Friday June 21 from 5:30 - 7:30. Show runs from June 21 - September 7, 2019 in the Armstrong Gallery.
My photo, Expectation, was accepted into the 2019 West Michigan Area Show, hosted by the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. The exhibit runs from May 17 - August 26, 2019 at the KIA, 435 W. South Street, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007.
