Five Years

One of the folks I follow on Instagram often posts Stories titled "X Years Ago". They go through their image archive and have a look at where they were a year, or five ago. It is an interesting exercise that I've started to do too--looking at the work, at least, not posting it to IG. Anyway, five years ago I was doing a lot of HDR focus stacked macro work. I learned so much about craft by doing this work. A few of the images hold up pretty well, too.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler. Enjoy going through your image archive and having a think about your journey so far.

 

Spring Training

A couple of years ago, my son took an old film camera and a couple of vintage manual focus lenses with him on a trip to Peru. When he got back, I developed and scanned the film for him. I was a bit shocked at how crisp all of his images were. His eyesight is so much better than mine. It ain't getting any better, either, my eyesight... It's still good to break out the vintage lenses from time to time and practice your basic photography skills. Sometimes practice is an important part of your practice, ya know? Kind of like Spring Training.

Tasting notes: vintage Nikkor 85mm f/2 shot at f/5.6.  

Sun Salutations

Observing your breathe is an established method of becoming centered and preparing for another day of working in the studio. I suppose they're both called 'practice' for a reason. Becoming aware and noticing things. Sometimes an opportunity to make a photograph also arises...

Tasting notes: Olympus Stylus 1 digital camera. 

Don't Be So Hard on Yourself

At the time I took this photograph, my intent was to incorporate it into one of the trippy kaleidescope images I was into at the time, so I didn't bother to include in the frame any obvious clues that what was being photographed was actually a reflection in water. Back home, I did, in fact, make a composite image that also included a field of stars and a shot of the full moon. Hehe. Cool though it was, it ain't something I want to share right now. The point is, your studio is a place to get out of your comfort zone and experiment. Some of the misses are better described as near misses, so don't be so hard on yourself. 

Photographically Bored? Maybe Try This...

About twice a year I go through my entire film camera collection (~50) and check on their overall health and well being. Without fail, I notice a camera that has been neglected a bit, and decide to shoot with it right away. This time it was the Leica MD-2 that caught my eye. This camera was designed for technical applications and was manufactured without a rangefinder or meter. In recent years, film shooters have picked up these bodies to use with wide angle lenses in conjunction with a hot shoe mounted viewfinder for framing. 

The brief, should you decide to accept it, is to load a roll of your favorite film into your 'blind' and meterless camera, and go out for a photowalk. Expose using Sunny 16 and set focus using the appropriate hyperfocal distance on your lens. Desert island photography at its most fun. I was shooting Pan F at 1/50s (flash sync speed :)) and f/5.6 for this shot. If you can come back with decently exposed and mostly in focus images, that of course is the goal. Next time out you can loosen up and shoot freely. 

For this shot, I had sufficient depth of field to cover the chairs. I thought they made an amusing yet transient tableau. You see, these were nice chairs and the pickers will surely snag them right away.

Good light to you this weekend!

Tasting notes: Leica MD-2, Voigtlander 35 mm f/2.5 Color Skopar, Pan F Plus film, DDX developer, digital camera scan.