superkantastic

I was wandering around the other day in some of my files and found these old photos I took (I say old, but we’re only talking like, 5 or 6 years ago).  I like these.  They deserve a post.  I shot all of these on 35mm with my Minolta Maxxum 3 or Maxxum 5.   Minolta cameras will always have a special place in my heart- my very first SLR was that Minolta Maxxum 3, talk about love- right there.   I could be wrong, but I don’t even think it had the exposure info in the viewfinder…  (chuckle). (http://ca.konicaminolta.com/products/consumer/camera-pus/slr/maxxum3/index.html)  I also found out just a few years ago that my grandfather (who passed away when my dad was still a kid) was a photographer [insert weird emotional significant moment in my life here] and… wait for it… used a Minolta!

1. I don’t care how cliché this photo is… I still love it.  I shot this on the side of the road somewhere in Arkansas between Jonesboro and Little Rock.  A friend of mine and I were driving to visit this photo supply store there (in Little Rock) that had closed it’s doors for good before we ever made it.  (Pinky’s?).  Sad, but a very exciting day nonetheless.

2. Look at this happy couple.  My in-laws at the beach on one of our family vacations.   The vignetting on these first two photos just slays me.  I love the water here, man those Minoltas really knew how to capture an image.

3. I just like it.  This was somewhere in Jonesboro, AR not to far from where I lived.  It was one of those things I’d always see and want to take a picture of.  I remember driving to this spot one day and trying so hard to get the horizontals straight (maxxum 3 probably didn’t even have a grid to help me out).

4. A successful long exposure experimentation.  Took this with the same friend from photo #1 up there.  Super long exposure (Seriously, I don’t even think it had a bulb setting!), went and sat in the machine for the last few seconds.  I was thrilled when I developed this… and was so proud of myself.  This photo won 2nd place in the “Special Effects” category at the NEA district fair photography exhibit in 2007.

5. Shot this at a 4th of July fireworks display in Watercolor, FL I think.  I like the mix of colors here, the captured movement… the fact that there were a hundred million people there… So cute.  The whole town of Watercolor is so cute it doesn’t even seem real.

What are some of your favorite photos that you took a long time ago but have never forgotten?  I’d love to see and hear about them… e-mail me!  (or even leave a comment).   I love favorite photo stories, there are some I’ve heard a long time ago that I still think about from time to time (even about photographs I’ve never even seen).