On the Waterfront: the Duwamish Waterway and Port of Seattle, Washington (Sea 07)

The Duwamish Waterway (river) flows into Elliot Bay along the base of the glacial drumlin that forms West Seattle. The mouth of the Waterway has been extensively modified to create the Port of Seattle. The city created Harbor Island and the other terminals by dredging and filling over the last century. This is a busy commercial harbor with container and bulk terminals. But I was surprised to find that the city has been preserving small parks and wetlands in the industrial zone. And bicycle paths let you bike along large sections of the shore, passing through or around the commercial terminals.  

March 2, 2025, was not raining, a good day to drive to the city and explore the waterfront. It was a cloudy Pacific Northwest winter day, the sky was overcast, and the light was blue.  Click any photograph to see it at 2400 pixels wide.

Port of Seattle and Harbor Island shore, view east

Seattle from Jack Block Park viewing tower

Port of Seattle view north (55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lens)

Terminal 5 from Jack Block Park, view south (55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lens)

Terminal 5, view south

Don't eat the oysters; Duwamish Waterway view northeast towards Seattle

Duwamish Waterway and Ash Grove Cement Seattle Plant (35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Duwamish Waterway from Harbor Island Marina with West Seattle Bridge in distance

Rail car, West Marginal Way (35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Work barges, Kellogg Island, from həʔapus Village Park & Shoreline Habitat (135mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens) 

Bicycle club members

I met these gents in the viewing tower at Jack Block Park. They had biked all the way from Lake Union along the Seattle waterfront. They belonged to a club and were in their 70s and 80s. Two of them had ridden through the new Rte 99 tunnel (under the waterfront) on the official opening day when it was open for bicycles.

I took these pictures with my Pentax Spotmatic F camera on Kodak Ektar 100 film, exposed at EI=64. This is a high contrast color negative film, which I find it hard to use. The scans from my Nikon Coolscan 500 ED scanner had too much blue. I used skylight filters on the lenses, but an even warmer filter, like an 81B or 81C would have helped. I corrected the colors as well as I could with the neutral grey dropper tool in Photoshop 6. 

This is Seattle article no. 07.

Nice Surprise! Tacoma with Fuji Presto 400 B&W Film (Abandoned Films 14b)

Classic B&W Film

My Indiana friend, Jim Grey, sent me some 3-packs of a type of Fuji film I had never used before, Presto 400. This was the Japanese name for their Neopan 400 Professional, a high-speed, black and white negative film with an ISO speed of 400. I read that Fuji originally aimed this product at sports and documentary photography. Sadly, Fuji discontinued it in 2013.

This film reached me via one of the handy connectivity functions that the internet can provide (sometimes). A fellow in North Carolina wrote to Hamish Gill of 35MMC.com that he wanted to donate some film to help fund the web page. But there was a minor problem. The film was in North Carolina, and Hamish was in the United Kingdom. Hamish emailed some of his regular US contacts, and, by amazing coincidence, Jim Grey was heading to North Carolina on business in a week. Jim went to see the donor and found a refrigerator full of film that had been imported from Japan. I do not know the details, but Jim sent half the film to Hamish and distributed the rest in USA. Jim generously sent some packs to me.

Tacoma, Washington

I like Tacoma! The waterfront is full of interesting industrial and railroad subject matter. On a rainy-drizzly day, I wandered around the waterfront with Presto in my Pentax MG camera. I set the exposure index at 320. Click any picture to see more details.

BNSF rail yard from East D Street (50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens)

Turntable, BNSF rail yard

BNSF rail yard (50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens)

East D Street view south (toning as a result of scanning as RGB full color; 135mm ƒ/3.5 Pentax-M lens)

Berg scaffolding company (35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens)

Berg scaffolding company (35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens)

Crossing tracks, J Street (35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens)

Rail cars, J Street (50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens)

Wood warehouse, East D Street, from under the 11th Street bridge

East D Street from the 11th Street bridge (35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens)

This Presto 400, I love it! It is grainy, like 1970s and 1980s Kodak Tri-X (pre T-grain technology). This Presto has a gritty sharpness to it. I hate to use the term "sharp"because it has become a semi-useless buzzword among internet photo posters ("Is my lens sharp enough?"). But I am referring to contrast and edge distinction. Regardless of nomenclature, I plan to use more Presto in the future. Thanks, again, Jim! 

This is Abandoned Films no. 14b. I used Presto earlier this year when I took portraits at the Not My Presidents Day protest. Please use the search button if you are interested in other long-lost films. 

Another milestone: this is Urban Decay's 800th post.

Really Good Things in Small Packages: My Leica IIIG Camera

Background

The stock market behaved as every economist predicted in response to the chaotic tariff regulations. Our family assets sink with each burp of the markets. That is sure making America great again...... The popular photo blogger, Kirk Tuck, recommended folks buy any cameras they might want immediately. Hmmm.....  

I like that advice!! I suffered another bout of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and ordered a camera I have thought about for some years, the Leica IIIG rangefinder. A sale of Leica goodies at Tamarkin Camera in Chicago was too good to resist. The 'Bay lists tens of IIIGs for sale, mostly from Japan. But the Tamarkin price was a bit lower, and all his camera bodies have been checked, cleaned, and adjusted as needed.

The Leica IIIG

The IIIG is the last iteration of the famous Leica thread-mount camera line. Leica made this beauty from 1957 to 1960, with production of only about 40,000 units. Ernst Leitz GMBH had recovered from the war and was selling their top quality cameras and lenses around the world. Leitz had introduced their fantastic M3 camera in 1954, and the IIIG was their last and most sophisticated version of the older thread mount series. Unlike all the previous III models, the IIIG had a viewfinder with movable frame bars to show the coverage of a 50mm lens. It was a major improvement, although not nearly as sophisticated as the finder in the M cameras. 

Framing the scene that a lens will project on the 24×36 mm piece of film is always imprecise with viewfinder cameras. In the past, I have been frustrated with cameras that have a viewfinder only, such as my Vito BL, Kodak Retina IIa, and Leica IIIC. Depending on where I placed my eye, the frame shifted left or right. The projected frame bars in my Leica M2 and my Canonet cameras are a major improvement in aiming more accurately. Therefore, my new IIIG provides this improved function also (see, I just justified GAS). 

 

Leica IIIG viewfinder windows including small window to illuminate viewfinder frame bars

Like the older thread-mount cameras, the IIIG has two shutter speed controls. The dial on the front is for B (bulb) and 1 to 1/30 sec. The dial on the top controls 1/30 to 1/1000 sec. The self-timer is the lever on the front. 

Immaculate engraving and machining

The IIIG is somewhat of an anachronism today, being a mechanical camera that takes film and has no light meter. But it is more compact than my M2 camera, has a hand-crafted jewel-like precision, and has a fun factor that today's electronic cameras lack. And film has certainly enjoyed a revival compared to the early 2010s. Whether it lasts, I cannot predict. 

Loading contemporary film in current 35mm cassettes requires some preparation. You need to trim the film leader to have a tongue about 10cm long, similar to the way film was supplied in the 1960s. You load the film from the bottom. Lacking a back film door, the body is especially rigid.

I already had three 50mm thread-mount lenses that I used with my 1949 IIIC: 

• 1949 5 cm ƒ/2 Leitz Summitar (in the photos above)
• 1962 Soviet 50 mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 (a Sonnar type of lens)
• 1950s 50 mm ƒ/1.8 Canon (late production model) 

So, of course, too many camera toys....   

Note: In 1999, Leica issued their 50mm ƒ/2 modern Summicron lens in a thread-mount version. Hmmm... 

Olympic Peninsula, Washington

On a sunny and cheerful April day, my wife and I set out north into the Olympic Peninsula. I mounted my 1949 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens on the body and loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 160. Leitz designed this 7-element lens before the war and continued production until 1953 or 1954. My example is coated and unscratched. I measured light with my Gossen Luna Pro digital meter, set at Exposure Index 100. Here are some examples. Please click any picture to see details.

Hunter Farm, Rte 106, Union

Fix me up, Center Road, Quilcene (1/250 ƒ/5.6)

Fixer-upper house, Center Road, Quilcene

Waiting for repair with a bit of fungus, Rte 101, Quilcene

Skeleton man on patrol, Quilcene

Also waiting for repair, Rte 101, Quilcene

Rte 101 bridge over Hamma Hamma River (1/125 ƒ/8.0½)

Motel, Rte 101, Lilliwaup (1/60 ƒ/4.0½)

Country store, Rte 101, Lilliwaup

Oh, oh, no coffee here, Rte 101, Lilliwaup

Summary

OK, I am thrilled. This  IIIG certainly passes the test. The body looks great, the finder is clear and clean, film spacing is even, and exposure is uniform across the frame (meaning the shutter curtains are running smoothly). 

The old Summitar lens is contrasty on a bright sunny day. The center of the frame is high resolution. But it has serious field curvature and is not as uniform across the frame as a modern lens. On the scale of internet display, the frames look fine. The entire package is fun to use, with a mechanical watch-like precision. 

My recommendation: Buy a Leica thread-mount camera and get back to the basics of film photography! Have fun! 

Reading

One of the best reviews of the IIIG camera is by Mike Eckman. 

Appendix - Leather Case

Genuine E. Leitz case for Leica IIIG with short or collapsing lens

Tamarkin Camera included a traditional ever-ready ("never-ready") leather case. Such cases were ubiquitous pre-1975 or so, but they fell out of favor with most photographers. I had enormous bulbous leather cases for my Nikkormat and Nikon F cameras in the 1970s. 

I stopped using cases for most 35mm cameras years ago. However, the one for my Retina IIa was useful and compact, and the square one for my Rolleiflex 3.5E adds almost no bulk. Despite the criticisms, cases can be handy because you can walk around in a rain and have your camera protected. But the camera remains easily accessible. And, you can toss it into a backpack or the floor of your car, and it will be reasonably padded. 

The case above is beautifully made of molded brown leather. And this one still has good stitching. It is a compact model with short lens snout, probably intended for collapsing lenses or a small unit like the 35mm Summaron. My Summitar fits when collapsed. 

Leitz also made taller cases that, I assume, were designed to hold the camera and a mounted selenium light meter.

Would this be handy for a bicycle outing? The leather straps are old and need to be replaced for safety, and a light meter will need to be in another pouch or a pocket. Hmmm, something to consider.

Return to the Olympia Brewery (Abandoned Films 13a)

Kodak T400CN, expired 2005

The Film

Dear Readers, you may remember that in February (2024), I used some long-expired Kodak T400CN black and white film. Because it was old, I exposed it at EI=100 rather than the original 400. The results were successful, and the film is convenient because the infrared scratch tool in my Nikon Coolscan 5000ED scanner cleans flaws and minor scratches. 

In preparation for an upcoming trip, I bought some more T400CN film from an eBay seller who said they had been stored in a refrigerator. I shot identical scenes at 100, 200, and 400. The roll came back very thin. The 100 frames scanned adequately, but the 200 and 400 were hopeless. I must give credit to the Coolscan scanner because it extracted so much data from the 100 frames. And having the ICE function to clean scratches and dust saves an immense amount of time.  

Results in Tumwater

Here are some more frames of the old Olympia Brewery in Tumwater. These are the 100 exposures, with minor adjustment in the brightness after scanning. 

(Pentax MG camera, 50mm F/2 Pentax-A lens, yellow-green filter)

No entry here (35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens at ƒ/4)

The back of this building was peeled off. I read that a company removed machines, and peeling off the wall was the only way to remove large equipment. Of course, now this eyesore sits here year after year. 

Waiting for a seat (50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens at ƒ/8)

This concrete hulk is next to Custer Way. The back, with the peeled off wall, is within sight of the historic Schmidt House, which is owned by the Olympia Tumwater Foundation. The foundation built the 15-acre park along the Deschutes River waterfalls. 

Turn the corner to Capital Way. The Pacific Highway, formerly Route 99, runs over a 1938 bridge. It was decorated with Art Deco and Native American motifs. 

View of Rte 99 north over 1938 bridge. (Photograph 1951-1960, Item P40_N02, courtesy of the Olympia Tumwater Foundation)

Figure on northwest side of Capital Way (Rte 99)

Totem post, northeast side of Capital Way (Rte 99)

Former North Pacific Restaurant

The North Pacific Restaurant burned on June 25, 2024. Once popular with brewery workers, it had been unoccupied for many years. The "Cafe" in the color picture above is at the same location as the South Pacific (probably the same building). As of November 7, trucks were removing the debris and timbers. 

Factory walkways under the Rte 99 bridge

More walkways

View south past former powerhouse

Summary

This roll of T400CN had lost at least 2 stops of sensitivity compared to when it was new (ISO 400). But I think the frames of the old brewery, taken on a grey day, look fine. They have a classic vintage black and white look, a bit gritty (grungy?) with some grain. 

The frames above are from 50mm ƒ/2 and 35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lenses. I am impressed at the resolution of these modest-priced lenses (click any picture to expand it). Pentax made excellent glass in the 1970s, 1980s, and later, easily the equal of the big name companies. These mid-century lenses may not be as "sharp" as the newest optics (whatever that means in internet fantasy land), but does it make any difference?

Next roll: try at Exposure Index 50?