TexasGirl Photography

I’ve had a half frame camera – a good one, an Olympus Pen F – for years. When I first bought it, I made all kinds of broken up panoramics with great enthusiasm. It didn’t take me long to notice how difficult the camera is to focus, and as a result of my frustration with countless ruined frames, I set it on the shelf and thought about selling it. The child below is 14 now, so you can see how long it sat and gathered dust.

Enter my friend Katie Mollon, and her recent half-frame bonanza that she shared on her instagram. They are wonderful photographs! This reminded me of the poor little metal box so long neglected, and I decided to take it on my next road trip. . . . then forgot to pack it. . . . so a couple of weeks ago when the shutter curtain died on my Canon T2, the time for my Pen F’s revival had finally arrived. I took it with me on a photowalk around Georgetown with my friend Russ Morris.

I also took the camera to a Houston Texans game

Considering that – as you can see – I rarely use this camera to make single, stand alone images, I was pleasantly surprised by the last photo above: not only is it sharp (thank goodness), but the detail is also pretty good for such a tiny piece of film.

I like to challenge myself when I am using the half frame to make at least diptychs, and more. Especially since the camera is automatically portrait orientation, it seems like a good creative choice for that kind of thing. I can even print them as little series in the darkroom.

All that being said, I still have a terrible time focusing the lens and for that reason find the camera both frustrating and limiting. I’m glad I revived it and gave it another shot; it might sit for a bit again, but I have a feeling it will come out to play again soon! If anyone out there has any insight on my focusing problem, I am all ears.