[clackers]

Ken is a recent adopter of Pentax, being mainly a Nikon shooter.

"I am a night photographer. I drive long hours in a dusty car listening to weird music, stay out all night creating photos, get dirty, hang out with other creative sleep-deprived weirdos, see the stars drift across the sky and always find the best taco stands while photographing forgotten abandoned locales and amazing nightscapes. I have two books published with two more on the way. My images have appeared in National Geographic Books, Omni magazine, Los Angeles Times, Westways magazine and numerous other publications ... I’m not wedded to brand names. I don’t really care if it’s Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Leica, Fuji or anything else. I only care that the camera fits my needs. And the Pentax K-1 does so in a big way. That it does so at such an attractive price point is the cherry on top."

Check out his reasons for buying a K-1 here: https://photofocus.com/photography/seven-reasons-i-now-use-a-pentax-k-1-camera/

His own site is here, super interesting to browse: https://www.kenleephotography.com/

His entertaining and informative Nightaxians podcast (soon to resume with more episdodes) is here: The Nightaxians - YouTube

All three hosts find fun when the sun goes down. Because we've not seen their reflections in mirrors, I haven't ruled out that they're groovy, Pentax-wielding vampires!

He's posted some terrific light paintings here, recently, here's just one from his post at: Fleetwood Cadillac-Ac-Ac (Nelson ghost town-night photo with light painting) - PentaxForums.com

[MarkJerling]

Lovely photo! I love these "meet fellow Pentaxian..." posts. Thanks Ian.

As an aside, that's a 1950 Buick bumper having off the front of that '46 Caddie. Odd mod.

[clackers]

Lovely photo! I love these "meet fellow Pentaxian..." posts. Thanks Ian.

As an aside, that's a 1950 Buick bumper having off the front of that '46 Caddie. Odd mod.

Yeah, well picked Mark, he even says that in his post!

[AggieDad]

Lovely photo! I love these "meet fellow Pentaxian..." posts. Thanks Ian.

As an aside, that's a 1950 Buick bumper having off the front of that '46 Caddie. Odd mod.

You picked up on the bumper before I got a chance. Well spotted. If memory serves, it was referred to as the "waterfall bumper-grille." This may have come from Tom McCahill of Mechanic Illustrated who was sort of the premier road tester of the 1950s.

And yes, it is a very "odd mod."

[MarkJerling]

You picked up on the bumper before I got a chance. Well spotted. If memory serves, it was referred to as the "waterfall bumper-grille." This may have come from Tom McCahill of Mechanic Illustrated who was sort of the premier road tester of the 1950s.

And yes, it is a very "odd mod."

The only year, I think, that Buick went overrider crazy, and only on the Special. I've always found Buicks of the early 50s very pretty cars.
Tom cCahill. Now there's a blast from the past. I have several Popular Mechanics mags from the '50s and I'm sure Tom's articles featured in those as well.

[pschlute]

Thanks for this post Ian. I had a good look at his gallery. Love the way he uses artificial light to create outstanding images.

[clackers]

Thanks for this post Ian. I had a good look at his gallery. Love the way he uses artificial light to create outstanding images.

Must get pretty stressful,too, dressed in black after the shutter opens, handpainting evenly with light and not missing anything before the shutter closes again.

[Ken Lee]

Lovely photo! I love these "meet fellow Pentaxian..." posts. Thanks Ian.

As an aside, that's a 1950 Buick bumper having off the front of that '46 Caddie. Odd mod.

Thanks, Mark. And I believe your description of the Frankencar is about right. I know for sure that it's a 1940s Caddie with an early 1950s Buick front grille. Thanks for the kind words!

---------- Post added 02-25-23 at 08:24 PM ----------

Ken is a recent adopter of Pentax, being mainly a Nikon shooter.

Thank you so much for the introduction. I am a proud (newish) Pentaxian. And Nightaxian.

---------- Post added 02-25-23 at 08:26 PM ----------

Thanks for this post Ian. I had a good look at his gallery. Love the way he uses artificial light to create outstanding images.

Thank you very much. Light painting is one of my huge loves. So creative and fun. Hours turn into minutes. And the Pentax K-1 makes this all the more pleasurable. It's sure bliss to work with, I think.

---------- Post added 02-25-23 at 08:28 PM ----------

Must get pretty stressful,too, dressed in black after the shutter opens, handpainting evenly with light and not missing anything before the shutter closes again.

It's fun. That part is so much fun. If you screw something up, you just do it over. No big deal. But we definitely have our share of inadvertent headlights or flashlights shining into the lens, over-illuminating or under-illuminating things, and so forth. But what I love is that light painting night photography is the most actively creative form of photography I can think of!

---------- Post added 02-25-23 at 08:33 PM ----------

The photo of the Buick in the garage is arguably the most iconic photo at Nelson Ghost Town. I mean, everyone photographs that. And with good reason. It's pretty great looking. We are going to be doing a night photography workshop at Nelson this May, and this and the "crashed" airplane, nose down in the ground, will undoubtedly be the most popular subjects among the night photographers. Cool. I mean, they're unusual and very cool looking, so why not?

[mikesbike]

A delightful photo! Brings back memories of cars from that era. We also had a few older, disabled cars in garages around the neighborhood. The were much older, even had some kind of control to set the "spark".

---------- Post added 02-28-23 at 07:00 PM ----------

I've always found Buicks of the early 50s very pretty cars.

My favorite make for a long time! When I was a small kid, we had a slightly-used 1939 Buick, a wonderful car. After the war, however, we lost it and I basically grew up in Detroit without our having a car. When the war was over, the Great Depression returned for us, as production declined and available jobs would preferentially go to returning servicemen. My dad could not go into the service along with most of our friends, neighbors, and relatives, due to his having an irregular heart beat. That really pissed him off, because he wanted to fight the enemy, so he was especially affected after the losses of loved ones we experienced. I think it was this that drove him to drinking too much.

Back in those days, there were still some flat-top cars on the roads, much older than our Buick was! I recall going home after school and seeing one of our teachers who was having a problem with his car's starter, so he was busy cranking it!