Trying Too Hard?

When I saw this image in my archive, I thought, 'Whoa, dude, you were trying a bit too hard"! Not sure I would compose a shot like this these days, but still, I am really glad I kept the image. You see, even though it was taken almost 15 years ago, I still remember exactly how I felt at the time I made the exposure. Funny, right? I remember being bound and determined to somehow get the damned arrow in the frame. And I did, too. :)

Tasting notes: Nikon D300, 35 mm lens.

 

Photographic Jiu Jitsu, Kinda

Alas, my days of active grappling are pretty much behind me at this point. Which is fine. I do miss it, but my body is certainly grateful. Thankfully, too, some of the knowledge I picked up over the years transfers pretty well to my photographic practice. 

It was a very breezy day in Oslo and it soon became apparent that, try though I might, and I did, there was no way I was going to get a perfectly sharp image of the flowers. And I didn't. So I stopped down to f/16 and shot at 1/8 sec for a decent impression. :) 

In rolling, sometimes simple survival is the point.

Good light and fair winds this weekend.

Tasting notes: Fuji X100S.

Quote of the Day: Wolfgang Tillmans

 

'The true authenticity of photographs for me is that they usually manipulate and lie about what is in front of the camera, but never lie about the intentions behind the camera.'

 - Wolfgang Tillmans

Tasting notes: Quick collage of images from an old Fujifilm S5 Pro digital camera.

Diamond in the Rough

My wife has been experimenting with arranging flowers and wildflowers picked from our garden, definitely a boon for my photography. Late afternoon light was streaming in from a nearby window and made for a very nice natural still life. I was shooting with the Olympus E-330 digital camera, a teenaged four thirds camera. The 25 mm f/2.8 pancake lens was attached. After doing a little internet research, I learned that the E-330 sports the same sensor as the Leica Digilux 3 and the Panasonic Lumix L1. The older Olympus cameras sure do produce pleasant images. Poor man’s Leica? Only you can decide, but for $75, it’s fun to discover for oneself.

And May the 4th be with you!

This Was My Experience

Sometimes the photographic medium will surprise you, such as when you shoot a colorful subject in black and white and the result is better than you visualized at the moment of exposure. Recording your subjective experience is more important than you realize.

 
Tasting notes: Contax T, HP5+, DDX 1+4.

Contre-jour

Not sure about you, but I definitely love shooting into the sun. It can work well with a great lens, as was the case with this photograph, and sometimes even with a lousy one, if you like 'character'. I had just walked up a long grind of a hill and noticed the fine light as I caught my breath.

Tasting notes: Contax T, HP5+, DDX 1+4.

Impressionistic Images With An Old Half-Frame Camera

Several years ago, I purchased an old Canon Demi half-frame camera from the 1960s. It was only $35, but needed a little TLC before it could be used. And it took a couple of years, but I recently got a round to completing the little project. I started thinking about this old camera again as I read more and more about the increasing cost of film photography. I found the Demi to be stylish, a fun camera to shoot, and quite affordable, but the results are pretty low-fi. Not suitable for everything, but for casual shooting: two thumbs up. As it turns out, the cost of film photography can be kept pretty low, but if you want to be a hipster, you will need deeper pockets.

Tasting notes: Canon Demi, HP5, DDX 1+4.