Fuji Velvia 50, 05 February 2010

Yikes! I haven’t posted anything in awhile, have I? What should I post? Thinking…thinking…

Oh, nevermind. Here’s another photo.

Photo Information:

Camera: Nikon N80
Lens: Nikon Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 (Macro)
Film: Fuji Velvia 50 Slide Film (35mm)
Metering: TTL

Nothing much to say about this one; working with the macro lens is a bit tricky, as I’ve mentioned before. The tradeoff, of course, is this rather nicely isolated flowerbud. Shockingly, I actually know that this is a rose…but before you ask, no, I don’t know the variety. I shot this photo on an overcast morning, which accounts for the dew – and the relatively low contrast. Due to the lower light levels, I didn’t need to underexpose the shot, as I typically do with color shots on sunny days.

Enjoy.

Under the Cold Streetlight, 27 January 2010

Yeah, I know…I’m getting a post written for two days in a row – *gasp*! Well, what can I say? Sometimes, I manage my time in a reasonably efficient manner. Sometimes.

Photo Information:

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.4
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100 (35mm)
Metering: TTL

The title of this post comes from, of all places, a song, specifically, Long Road to Ruin by the Foo Fighters. [1] The line seems appropriate, I think…and yes, before you ask, it was cold that night.

This particular streetlamp is in the Olde Towne neighborhood in Portsmouth, Virginia. Given that I shot this around midnight, I didn’t have to wait for any cars to pass by to capture the shot in its rather empty state. There are traffic lights at this intersection, which helped dictate my using the normal lens, instead of a wideangle.  [2] Of course, even if the traffic lights weren’t there to interfere with a wideangle frame, there really wasn’t much else around the edges that I wanted to capture, anyways.

Not much else to say about the shot. I did get a weird optical (or possibly scanning) defect near the streetlamp starburst, but I am rather proud to say that I was able to remove it without adversely affecting the glow of the streetlamp. [3]

Enjoy.

Notes:

[1]: This is one of my favorite songs of theirs; I rather like the line, “Long road to ruin there in your eyes,” but since I don’t photograph people, I can’t really use that line, now can I? “Under the cold streetlights” isn’t a bad line, either, so I’m not complaining.

[2]: Whenever possible, I also like to avoid the optical distortions inherent in wideangle shots. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good wideangle shot as much as the next guy, but I’m also not crazy about distortion, either. Its a rather fine distinction, to be sure, but such are my preferences.

[3]: Anyone who’s tried cleaning up a defect in an area with a tonal gradient will appreciate the difficulty of this, I’m sure. It’s even worse when the gradient is arrayed in a freakin’ circle.

Mitsubishi MX-III, 26 January 2010

Short post today, since I’m tired, and…no, tired it is.

Photo Information:

Camera: Leitz Leica IIIf
Lens: Leitz Hektor 135mm f/4.5
Film: Mitsubishi MX-III ISO 400 (35mm), Expired
Metering: Minolta Spotmeter F

Look…weird colors!

Actually, the colors don’t look quite as weird as in some of the other shots I got from this roll…probably because these are autumn leaves, and they’re already weird colors, anyways.

Enjoy.

Fuji Neopan Acros 100, 23 January 2010

I should probably just accept the fact that I’ll be doing photography-related posts for the indefinite future. Oh sure, I’ve got plenty of vitriolic things to say, but I don’t have much time to engage in such pleasantries. As such, here’s yet another photo…hope y’all aren’t getting bored with them yet, because that’s all I’ve got to offer at this point.

Photo Information:

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.4 FD
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100 (35mm)
Metering: TTL

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m enjoying the results I’ve gotten with this film; I just purchased a pair of rolls last week to shoot some more, but a combination of the weather, my work schedule, and general laziness have all conspired to keep me from actually shooting them. Shucks and other comments.

Regarding this specific photo, the subject is a statue of the Virgin Mary that is outside Christ the King Catholic church in Norfolk, Virginia. Even though this isn’t a true macro lens, it does a decent job of blurring the background, owing to its wide aperture (f/1.4) and relatively close minimum focus distance (~1.5 ft). Focusing was a little tricky, since I was kneeling at just about the limit of the lens’ minimum focus distance, but otherwise, it wasn’t too difficult of a shot.

Enjoy.

Fuji Velvia 50, 19 January 2010

I’m taking the afternoon off, so here’s a relatively early post for today (early, in that I’m getting it posted before quarter to midnight).

Photo Information:

Camera: Nikon N80
Lens: Nikon Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 (Macro)
Film: Fuji Velvia 50 Slide Film (35mm)
Metering: TTL

Yup, it’s a macro shot of a basil plant. Because.

Enjoy.

Waiting for You, 17 January 2010

That’s right…the chair is waiting for you. Yes, YOU.

Photo Information:

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program
Lens: Canon 135mm f/3.5 FD
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100 (35mm)
Metering: TTL

Enjoy.

Mitsubishi MX-III, 07 January 2010

Those of you who’ve read some of my previous posts [1] already know that I received a roll of expired Mitsubishi color film [2] as a freebie from the photo lab I frequent when I’m back home on the east coast. A few weeks before I came back to Chicago, I acquired the last roll they had, [3] and proceeded to run it through my Leica – you know, because I was bored and such. As with the previous roll, this one produced, shall we say, some rather unique results.

Photo Information:

Camera: Leica IIIf
Lens: Leitz Elmar 35mm f/3.5
Film: Mitsubishi MX-III ISO 400, expired (35mm)
Metering: Minolta Spotmeter F

The colors in the sky start out seemingly rather natural, but as you get closer to the sunset, well. Yup, the yellow and red tones take a dive off the deep end, and turned out rather, well, you can see for yourself. There’s also a bit of overexposure in the sky, as those white areas weren’t really white in the original view. Unfortunately, in this case, I didn’t shoot a comparable digital shot, so I can’t compare the two as I did with the Kirkland film a little while back. In fact, I don’t think I duplicated any of these in digital, so I won’t be able to make any comparisons whatsoever. Still, anyone with a reasonable appreciation of color and such will probably notice the unnatural colors here. [4]

The subject of this photo is a view of sunset over Portsmouth, Virginia, as seen from across the Elizabeth River in Norfolk. Those of y’all who might be noticing a pattern in my recent photographic posts would be correct to surmise that I’ve spent the past few months in Norfolk. Yup, fun times!

Enjoy.

Notes:

[1]: Yes, all four of you.

[2]: Yup, that’s right…Mitsubishi sells its own branded film. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is film stock produced by another company and sold under the Mitsubishi brand, but I couldn’t find much information on the film online (shocking!), so I can’t verify this.

[3]: A little background: apparently, the film was a gift from another patron who had acquired four rolls of this film…somewhere (I don’t recall the specifics). Since this was a donation, the store didn’t have item/stock numbers, prices, etc. for the rolls, so they were just sitting around in the store fridge (okay, one of the managers also used at least one, and I shot two; I don’t know what happened to the other one). In my defense, I offered to pay for the roll, but due to the aforementioned lack of official information regarding the film, I was able to walk out with it (don’t worry…I also bought a rather pricey roll of slide film, too). I also paid for the processing and scanning for the roll, so there.

[4]: Hey, I can figure out that something don’t look right here, and I’m horrible at identifying and matching colors. No, really…I usually stick to rather simple color combinations because I really can’t match subtle shades of color to save my life. As such, if you see me wearing something that doesn’t seem like if quite fits that description, its a safe bet my sister had a hand in the selection! She’s much better at this sort of thing than I am, and she’s not shy about sharing this skill – which is good for me, because it makes me look more stylish than I otherwise ever would! Families are fun.

Fuji Velvia 50, 06 January 2010

Having worked an 11 hour day, I’m not really in the mood for any serious thinking, so here’s another photo for your viewing pleasure.

Photo Information:

Camera: Nikon N80
Lens: Nikon Nikkor 70-210mm f/3.5-5.6
Film: Fuji Velvia 50 Slide Film (35mm)
Metering: TTL

The subject of this photo is a statue of Jesus Christ outside of Christ the King Catholic Church in Norfolk, Virginia. [1] I shot this photo from a low angle – roughly 3 feet from the ground – looking up at the statue. As you can see, I also captured the bell tower of the church in the background. Despite the rather poor wide aperture setting on this particular zoom lens, [2] the distance from the camera to the statue relative to the bell tower was sufficient to render the latter mostly out of focus, as I had intended. Upon later reflection, had I used my 85mm f/1.8 lens, this would’ve been a little easier, since that lens has a much wider maximum aperture setting, and I shot this photo at roughly the 80-90mm setting on the zoom lens, anyways. [3]

Apart from the specifics of the shot, I converted this scan to black and white in post-processing; the day was overcast, so there wasn’t any worthwhile color to be had in the sky, and the statue and bell tower are grey stone and brown brick, respectively, so not much good color there, either. I’m also rather fond of black-and-white shots of statues and sculpture, [4] so it all worked out better in black and white, in this case.

Enjoy.

Notes:

[1]: In case this name sounds familiar, I’ve mentioned it before in a previous post. My Mom is an active member of this church community, and once upon a time, so was I. Again, if you’re interested in learning more about the church and community themselves, feel free to wander on over to their website. Note that you’ll also see a (much smaller, lower resolution) shot of this very same statue in the upper right-hand corner of the website’s splash page. And before you ask, no, I didn’t have anything to do with this; it is entirely coincidental. OTOH, the statue has been with the church for quite awhile, so it is only natural that they’d use it as part of their promotional materials.

[2]: Any time you see an aperture mark that says something like “f/3.5-5.6,” that means that the lens has a variable maximum aperture, i.e. at certain zoom settings, the maximum aperture is f/3.5, while at other settings (usually the more distant settings), its f/5.6. Obviously, this can adversely affect your shooting, as it severely limits the available aperture settings you can use. Of course, on the whole, telephoto lenses usually have rather small maximum apertures, and those that have wider settings (like the 85mm lens I mentioned) are far more expensive than their lesser endowed brethren.

[3]: Just goes to show that you can’t always plan for how things will play out. I originally considered bringing along the 85mm lens, but I had some other telephoto shots in mind that required the use of the longer zoom lens, so I left the former at home. Later, as I was shooting this photo, I wanted to kick myself when I noticed that I had set the zoom lens at approximately 90mm for the shot. Oh sure, you could lug around every single lens you’ve got for your system camera, but 1) that gets heavy quickly, and more importantly, 2) you may not always need every lens you’ve got. For example, I only rarely shoot with the macro lens I have for this camera, and while I love using it, I just don’t need it around on a regular basis, so I don’t normally carry it, unless I know I’ll be visiting an area where it’ll be worthwhile to have it along. Conversely, I rarely carry the zoom lens when I’m shooting in the evening, since the rather poor maximum aperture settings are not conducive to low-light handheld shots; the 85mm lens is far more useful in such situations. The tradeoff, of course, is that occasionally, you’ll find yourself unprepared for certain situations, in which case, you just have to do the best you can and hope it works out.

[4]: Yes, I am well aware that ancient sculptures used to be vividly painted in bright, lifelike colors. I don’t care; I’m more interested in what they look like now. Lifelike color isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there’s also something to be said for the interplay of light and shadow on a color-neutral object. Or maybe that’s just me…

Fuji Neopan Acros 100, 04 January 2010

Since I seem to be on a roll [1] with displaying new types of film I’ve recently shot, here’s another of Fuji’s fine products. Seriously, I may have to start using their film more often.

Photo Information:

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program
Lens: Canon 135mm f/3.5 FD
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100 (35mm)
Metering: TTL

As indicated, this is Fuji’s Acros 100; appropriately enough, the film is rated at ISO 100. [2] The relatively high contrast may not be appealing to everyone, but oh my. Just look at the grey tones the film captured – and the smoothness of the grain. Kodak and Ilford both make much of how their ISO 100 films have the “finest” grain ever, but this stuff is just magnificent. Of course, as with any slow film, there are limitations to how and/or when one can use it, but if you’re using prime lenses with relatively wide maximum apertures, [3] then you can offset the inherent speed limitations somewhat. Night photography, of course, is entirely out of the question without a tripod, but you already knew that, didn’t you?

As for the subject itself, this is a decorative urn/garland/something on the front porch of an apartment building in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk, Virginia. Having frequented the area in the past, I knew about this little sculptural element, but most of the time, it doesn’t really capture my attention. This particular afternoon, however, the sun was shining directly on it, while the trees in front of the building [4] were casting some rather nice shadows on the brick facade of the building, so the composition caught my eye. I used a short telephoto lens (135mm) set on its widest aperture (f/3.5, in this case – not too shabby for a telephoto lens, though for a portrait lens, there are better – but that’s neither here nor there), and focused on the urn itself. This, of course, had the effect of rendering the urn in crisp focus, while blurring the background. Since the distance between the urn and the facade isn’t too great, and since I was shooting from a fair distance away, the brick courses are rendered indistinct but not totally unrecognizable – I think this works well with the dark leaves on the right and the indistinct shadows cast across the wall. I did burn the shadows a little bit in post processing, just to make them read a little stronger, and I also dodged around the highlights on the top of the urn, so that they definitely read as being in direct light. Otherwise, the tones are more or less what the film itself captured.

Enjoy.

Notes:

[1]: Yes, I know…incredibly lame pun. Sorry…couldn’t help myself.

[2]: Its like the film has that number in its name because of this, or something…

[3]: You are, aren’t you? Have I not previously extolled the virtues of using prime lenses on at least one other occasion? Do you not pay attention to the wisdom I have to impart? What, you’re not listening? Oh. Well, fine. Two can play at that game! Er, who, precisely, am I talking to, anyways?

[4]: Yes, there are actual trees in Norfolk. Oh sure, there are trees here in Chicago, but you can pull them out of the ground with a rope and Pinto. Okay, so I kid…mostly. There are sizable trees here in Chicago, just not nearly as many as back in Virginia. And good luck finding something that big in the Loop…

Kirkland Signature ISO 400, Expired – 03 January 2010

Yes, I know…I’m getting a post written before midnight – *GASP* – how novel, right? Well, in my defense, today IS Sunday, and while I do intend to do some work later on, I won’t, y’know, be working particularly hard. So, for today’s offering, I have a little story to tell.

I recently spent some time back home on the East Coast working a freelance job, and to save on costs (since I was still paying rent up here in Chicago), I stayed at my parents’ house. While rummaging around the now-unused upstairs, I came across an old roll of color film, the titular Kirkland Signature film. [1] The last time I shot this film was in late 2002, [2] and sure enough, the film canister had a little note printed on it that read, “11, 2002″ – which means it expired over seven years ago. Naturally, I saw this as a golden opportunity to play with some film that now exists in a rather unique condition. Below is one of the results.

Photo Information:

Camera: Nikon N80
Lens: Nikon Nikkor 70-210mm f/3.5-5.6
Film: Kirkland Signature ISO 400 (35mm), Expired
Metering: TTL

I did adjust the contrast a bit, since the photo was rather washed-out, but the colors are more or less what the film captured. For reference, below is a “correct” view of the same scene that I shot using my digital camera.

Photo Information:

Camera: Nikon Coolpix P80
ISO Setting: 64 (Equivalent)
Color Setting: Vivid
Metering: TTL

This photo, of course, has been fully manipulated to make it a “correct” version of the scene. As you can plainly see, the colors in the former image are rather odd, compared to the corrected version. Of course, one can never predict how expired film will react; I also recently shot an expired roll of Kodak Elitechrome slide film, and everything was red-shifted (and rather unusable, so I discarded the scans and slides). In this case, the color balance still appears mostly “correct,” just again, odd.

Enjoy.

Notes:

[1]: For those of you who don’t know, Kirkland Signature is the generic brand sold by Costco; they use the brand name for a wide variety of products including, apparently, film.

[2]: Don’t go criticizing my choice here; this was long before I knew (or cared) about the various color films. At this point in my photographic activities, I was primarily shooting black and white, and didn’t much care what kind of color film I used, so long as it was, y’know, color.