Category Archives: Vintage cameras
How to Make Something Beautiful (part two)
Japanese woodblock: my vintage Canon F-1n (20mm f/2.8) Start with something completely familiar – like an analog single lens reflex. Find a chunk of clear Douglas fir and sketch directly to … Continue reading
Why I Shoot Film – Part One
Roadside Gas Station (retired), National City California Film has built-in limitations – but it’s honest. It has reciprocity problems and grain, but it’s film grain – not noise. You can’t shoot a 16 bit digital frame and desaturate it to … Continue reading
The Land That God Forgot – Part Two
El Progresso, Northern Baja California – December 1998 Driving through Mexico in the winter is something I’ve done all my life. Traveling on highway D-1 brings to mind the classic topics of life, death, creation and eternity – mainly because … Continue reading
On the Windward Side of San Simeon Point
Three frames of Kodak TMY 400 Inside the cove at San Simeon Point the wind is blocked by a headland planted with groves of eucalyptus and cypress. The ocean is calm and the air is still. Glassy waves rifle up … Continue reading
The Salt Mines
Western Salt Works, Chula Vista California In November of 1996 while driving around California on a magazine assignment I came across the Western Salt Works at the southern end of San Diego Bay. From the beginning I’d been interested in … Continue reading
Simple, Reliable & Classic
Broken Hill – Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego California Whenever I get out of sync with the world, I go back to the basics. With surfing it’s always been a big single-fin pintail. For everything else there’s my Rolleiflex. … Continue reading
How To Make Something Beautiful (part one)
Wood-block print: Rolleiflex f/3.5 with rare reversed D. Start with something you love. It has to be the kind of thing you can’t leave alone, something with a pleasing heft, well made and beautiful. Like an old Rollei. Find a … Continue reading
Field Notes: John Durant Photographer 