Out of the past

DEBORAH ABBOTT KISOR, JACKSON SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS, MAY 1968. PENTAX SPOTMATIC, 50mm f1.4, KODACHROME 25

I have been converting 40-plus years' worth of slides into digital files, and came across this shot of Debby taken during a tourist trip to New Orleans just eight months after we were married in June, 1967. The Kodachrome has held up well over half a century—and so, for that matter, has she. For the conversion I used a Wolverine Titan optical converter, which does remarkably well for its $135 price. A flatbed scanner might give marginally better results, but takes much longer to use. Click on the photo to see its fine detail.

Chihuly 2

CHIHULY SCULPTURE DETAIL, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, AUGUST 29, 2014

Pentax K-5
Sigma 18-250 at 60mm
1/13 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Another shot from the Chihuly blown glass sculpture exhibition in downtown Seattle. It was taken handheld leaning against a wall; tripods and monopods were forbidden, as they usually are in venues with lots of foot traffic.

Lunchtime

LUNCHTIME UNDER FORT WALL, CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA, JANUARY 26, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 53mm
1/8000 sec. f5.6
ISO 800

A small grabshooting trophy taken from a tour bus window while it rolled along inside the outer fort wall of the old city of Cartagena. All over the city at noontime, people look for shadowy nooks to hide in from the high sun.

Sister and brother

TODDLERS, HUATULCO, MEXICO, JANUARY 20, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 120mm
1/200 sec. f10
ISO 800

Small children everywhere make excellent photographic subjects, and this pair, taken at their parents' tourist-trinkets kiosk near the Huatulco cruise ship dock, were simply irresistible. She must be rocking back on her heels because he actually managed to find the right hole to shove the block through.

Maya infant

MAYA INFANT, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 60mm
1/160 sec. f10
ISO 800

Another shot from the central town square of Antigua, where Guatemalan families as well as hordes of tourists congregate. Note the intricate embroidery of Mama's dress.

Mother and child

MAYA MOTHER AND CHILD, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-5
Pentax 35mm f2.4
1/40 sec. f8
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott captured this charming tableau in the town square of Antigua. The photo is sharp despite the slow shutter speed, thanks to the K-5's excellent in-body antishake system.

Family transportation

FAMILY ON A BICYCLE, PUERTO CORINTO, NICARAGUA, JANUARY 22, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 36mm
1/1000 f8
ISO 1600

The image quality of this photograph is not so hot—there is movement blur even at 1/1000 of a second—but the subject matter, in my opinion, makes up for the flaw. Shot from the window of a cruise ship tour bus in downtown Corinto.

Teenagers on a corner

TEENAGE GIRLS, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 28mm
1/200 f10
ISO 1600

As our tour bus turned a corner in the old city of Antigua, I shot through the window from my seat at this group of skylarking young women, probably high school seniors. No idea what the upraised fingers might mean, but a possible caption might be: "My ex-boyfriend has only two brain cells."

Lovers

YOUNG LOVERS, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 18mm
1/640 sec. f10
ISO 1600

A generation ago this young couple would have had to cope with the presence of a duenna, an aunt or other female member of the family dispatched to keep a disapproving eye on them. Nowadays such chaperones are rarely seen in Guatemalan cities. This photograph was shot from the side window of a moving tour bus.

Schoolgirls

SCHOOLGIRLS, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 68mm
1/800 sec. f7.1
ISO 800

These three Guatemalan schoolgirls are walking by the ruins of the Convento de la Concepcion, destroyed by earthquake in 1774. I took the shot from the street corner just down from the Jade Museum doorway in the photograph posted yesterday.

Maya street vendor 2

MAYA STREET VENDOR, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 18mm
1/500 sec. f7.1
ISO 1600

No sooner does a customer turn to leave the Jade Museum shop in old downtown Antigua than a street textile vendor greets him at the door to make sure he hasn't overlooked anything.

Maya street vendor 1

MAYA STREET VENDOR, ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, JANUARY 21, 2014

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 115mm
1/1250 f5.6
ISO 1600

I shot this one through the window of a moving tour bus after kicking up the ISO to achieve a sufficiently high shutter speed to stop blur. The vendors, all in colorful traditional costume, were intensely but also gently in-your-face and followed us from site to site all over the city.

Wrong turn on the way to Miami

SNOW ON FLAMINGOES, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Pentax K-5
Pentax-DA 18-135 at 78mm
1/640 sec. f8
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott captured this scene in the neighbors' backyard during her foray into the new-fallen snow the other day. It's a familiar photographic theme, but the composition is arresting.

Tessellation

CHAIN LINK FENCE AFTER SNOWFALL, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Pentax K-5
Pentax-DA 18-135mm at 53mm
1/250 sec. f8
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott went out to the back yard after yesterday's 5-inch snowfall and captured this geometric beauty.

View from my window, 12-28-2012

AFTER THE SNOW, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Pentax K-5
Pentax-DA 18-135 at 135mm
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 400

An unexpected, heavy and sticky five-inch snow overnight coated the trees outside our bedroom window with a thick white blanket except for a stubborn maple leaf left over from autumn.

Giving up the ghosts

ABANDONED HOUSE, ATLANTA, MISSOURI, OCTOBER 16, 2011




Pentax K-5
Sigma 10-20 DC at 13mm
1/250 sec. f8
ISO 100




Driving around the small town of Atlanta (pop. 385) in northeastern Missouri with a carload of rail-buff photographers yielded this picturesque old house in the weeds. The cloud formations in the blue, blue sky above the house suggested supernatural events, even if Halloween hadn't quite arrived yet. Considerable distortion correction in Lightroom was required to straighten the vertical lines of the house.

Unusual silence

CHARTRES STREET AT JACKSON SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, JANUARY 12, 2010

Pentax *ist DS
SMC Pentax-DA 18-55 at 18mm
1/500 sec. f8
ISO 400

Chartres Street at St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square, the lively heart of the French Quarter, is normally a bustling colony of tourists, artists, jugglers, magicians, fortune tellers and live music from street brass bands. But when Deborah Abbott took this photo, it was utterly deserted at 9 a.m. on an unseasonably wintry day in January, with temperatures in the 30s and winds of 15 knots.

Monument to the Lost Cause

ROBERT E. LEE MONUMENT, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, JANUARY 11, 2011

Pentax K10D
SMC Pentax-DA 28-90 at 90mm
1/4000 f8
ISO 800

This 16-foot bronze monument to Robert E. Lee, sculpted by Alexander Doyle, was erected atop a 60-foot Doric column of Tennessee marble in 1884 at what is now called Lee Circle on the St. Charles streetcar line in New Orleans. It is naturally a shrine holy to cultists of the Lost Cause, but it is also an important and impressive (not to mention photogenic) relic of American history.

Gun carriage

GUN CARRIAGE, NEW ORLEANS INFORMATION CENTER, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, JANUARY 12, 2011

Pentax *ist DS
SMC Pentax-DA 18-55 at 55mm
1/500 sec. f5.6
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott ably captured the rusty detail on the wheel hub of an old artillery piece atop the New Orleans Information Center across Decatur Street from Jackson Square. The radiating spokes suggest the rising sun, don't they? I thought it a nice sharp shot from a six-year-old kit 18-55mm lens.

Art gallery

ART GALLERY ON CHARTRES STREET, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, JANUARY 11, 2011

Pentax K10D
SMC Pentax-FA 28-90 at 48mm
1/15 sec. f8
ISO 800

Prowling around the French Quarter early in the morning yielded this shot of an art gallery whose lighting seemed to have been designed expressly for photographers who like to go on the prowl shortly after dawn. The Pentax K10D may be three digital camera generations old, but its in-body shake resistance still helps very well with low shutter speeds.