Yashica Electro 35 photos

When I decided I really wanted to get into film photography with some degree of seriousness, I did a lot of research and came up with what I thought would be the perfect camera for me, based on my digital photography habits, and my love for 1970s Japanese cameras.

The one I came up with is the Yashica Electro 35 GTN. It is an aperture-priority auto exposure rangefinder, which is admittedly a lot of jargon if you're not into photography. Anyway, it suits me and the Electro 35 is one of the few cameras that uses this method.

It also happens to be a fantastic camera all around, and cheap as well. I paid $7 for mine on ebay and picked it up locally. Of course, the batteries cost as much as the camera itself but that's to be expected.

I took a gamble on it, since there is a specific fault known to affect these cameras, but it turned out to be working perfectly. All the photos on this post have been taken with it during the past month. The above four were on my first test roll of film.

It has really good low light capabilities, and was advertised as being a camera you'd never need a flash with. It's a pretty accurate claim, as you can take good photos indoors and in twilight without a tripod. Even in the middle of the night if there are city lights and you have a steady hand.

It's a fantastic camera all around; easy to use but not fully automated. The exposure is always good, and the images come out sharp and clear.

These photos are from a recent trip to San Francisco.

I like how this photo of signage turned out, you can hardly tell that it's not from the 1980s.

Here is an example of handheld night photography. A little blurry, but not bad at all.

Back in Sacramento again, a city which might as well call itself "old car city" for the number of vintage automobiles lining the city streets. I'm not really into cars, but it is fun taking black and white photos of them.

This Chevrolet has seen better days.

Here are a few dogs playing in the early morning light.

These old brick warehouses have sat empty for years, pending redevelopment. The project has been in the works for over 20 years, but it's supposed to be picking up speed...

A few more old cars; here's a "Ramble".

And a Hudson, quite a nice find.

Of all the old cars, though, probably the easiest to find on these streets are old Volkswagens of various types, especially the vans like this one in bright red (not that you can tell).

And to finish it off, here's a self portrait to show off its indoor lighting performance. That's my Optima Humber 88.

PNW2017 (days 5 to 8)

Our next stop was one of my favorite places in the world, the Hoh rainforest.

I'd never visited it in the middle of winter with snow, and it was a new and different experience.

With the temperature just below zero, the typical thick, foresty, musty feeling of the air was less apparent.

We got to see salmon swimming upriver to lay their eggs.

This is a natural colonnade of trees formed by a nurselog.

Next, we hiked the Ozette trail to Cape Alava, the westernmost point of the contiguous 48 states. Much of the trail was a boardwalk.

Here are some views of the coast at Cape Alava.

Then we drove up to Hurricane Ridge to get the real snow experience. It's a popular place for skiers but we just tromped around in the snow.

Our next destination was Seattle, which we reached by the Bremerton ferry.

Washington State Ferries is the largest ferry system in North America, and is publicly owned.

It gives a great view of the Seattle skyline.

To get a daylight view, we climbed to the top of the water tower in Volunteer Park, a free alternative to the Space Needle.

Plus, you get to actually see the Space Needle in the skyline this way.

PNW2017 (days 1 to 4)

Earlier this month, I, W, and two friends visiting from Europe went on a long road trip along the northwest coast, beginning in northern California and ending in an extended stay on the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle/Tacoma area.

This is a shot from the California redwoods.

These are some images of the southern Oregon coast.

I'm not good at identifying birds, so I call these carrot-beaks.

Sand dunes several miles inland from the Oregon coast.

The lighthouse at Heceta Head is in the distance; photo taken from Sea Lion Point, aptly named as there were dozens of them making quite a racket below.

Another southern Oregon coastal view.

Now in Aberdeen, Washington, is this, one of my favorite low clearance bridges. (Only 6'6" clearance on the left side)

Naturally fallen red alder trees (not to be confused with birch) in the Queets forest, Olympic Peninsula.

Some frost in the area, as the temperature hovered around the freezing point.

Plenty of good rocks for skipping.

We hiked along a road that was closed due to being destroyed by a landslide. This shows the aftermath, looking out towards the river from the new end of the road.

Now at the beach at Kalaloch, sea anemones.

Sunset and seagulls.

Windswept trees.