medium teles

aloha all !
from my last post, talking about standard focal length or 50mm we jump up to medium telephoto lenses. my favorite two are the Carl Zeiss Jena biotar 75mm f/1.5 and the venerable Nikkor AIS 105mm f/1.8

both feature compression and shallow depth of field. the former, Carl Zeiss Jena biotar (scalloped focus ring) features a very eclectic and ‘vintage’ view. the old coatings, glass and lens formulation gives me a very unique tool. i remember when this lens was fairly common and great value. quite recently, the prices have soared to over US$1000 ! yikes. this is a very unique lens, although very difficult to focus and prone to flare, this optic gem renders common scenes with a poetic stroke of the brush, rendering light in dreamy and surreal manner. enough said, its best seen in photographic examples.

i use all my lenses wide open. which means even during bright sunny days, i slap on a ND filter or use a slow ISO of 50 or ISO 100 to retain the aperture at f/1.5 or f/1.8.

below is an example of the Carl Zeiss Biotar freelensed. that is, lens removed and held manually in front of lens mount. a ‘handheld’ extension tube if you will !

humble thanks for swinging thru. for more visual updates featuring two current photo projects please follow me on twitter @lightmeister.

fav focal lengths part 2 50mm

part 2 in a series. LOL

the infamous and standard focal length, the 50mm lens.

in my camera ‘stash’ i use various incarnations of the 50mm lens, each with its own signature and character. Starting with the fastest of the fastest, is the Canon 50mm f/0.95 in Leica mount, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Lensbaby 50mm f/2.0 in Nikon PB-4 tilt/shift bellows, and the most used, very sharp Nikkor AI 55mm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor for studio work.

above image created with Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 freelensed on a Canon 7D.

fitting into a nikon PB-4 TILT/SHIFT bellows, a Lensbaby 50mm f/2.0 . very versatile and fantastic on cropped sensor cameras. the bellows allows for some fantastic macro images. image below.

lastly, the Nikkor AI 55mm f/3.5. fantastically sharp and versatile with its flat field, or low distortion and the ability to make macro or closeup images.

image above, Nikkor 55mm micro nikkor. sharp and nice bokeh signature.
while below image, the macro also performs well for closeups too. two lenses in one.

each 50mm variant has its own character. the lensbaby features a very shallow depth and interesting bokeh signature. while sharp in the ‘sweet spot’, the lens also doubles as an interesting lens at infinity. the zuiko is a fast f/1.4 all around lens, super compact and sharp. lastly, the micro nikkor is also compact but razor sharp for all around images and most especially, closeup macro pics.

thanks for reading ! please chime in if u have any questions or comments !

my fav focal lengths

my favorite focal lengths. this will be a series of posts. i was thinking of going from 8mm thru 500mm. but decided to go with most favorite to most favorite. LOL

without centering too much on brands or lens formulas, one of my favorite focal lengths is the 35mm.

there are many incarnations of this particular lens. leitz makes a 35/2.0 summicron, konica 35mm f/2.0 on hexar AF, canon EF 35/2.0 and f/1.4L, nikkor AIS 35/2.0 and f/1.4 and many more.

the ability for this lens to ‘see’ in a very unique way. visual juxtaposition is easiest in my opinion with this focal length. it is a wide angle lens primarily that works well in close and allows very little distortion. my opinion, its easy to slap on a 20mm and go in, but difficult to use a 35mm. visual elements can be included with little distortion to the edges of the frame to create ‘activation of the edges’ creating visually dynamic images.

each of these sample photographs were made with a Hexar AF 35mm f/2.0 hexanon lens. shot on 35mm film and scanned at fullframe. you can see the actual frames.

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the 35mm focal length or lens works well in close too, as in this portrait below of tommy oshima.

thanks for reading !
please chime in with questions or comments. happy to respond.

perspectives

Starting the weekend right.

perspectives or point of view/s.

what is it ? how do you use it in photography ? first, for the photographer it can be crawling on the ground or offering a bird’s eye view by climbing to the top of the highest building. two different vantage points with different psychological and visual differences. besides getting down and dirty, changing the view, via camera perspective show’s you the photographer are ‘working it’. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. the important part is the effort or efforts.

in the above photograph, a fisheye lens is used to ‘force’ the foreshortened perspective, holding the camera above on a monopod gives a slight aerial view and a clear view of the rest of the subjects. so in this case, various lenses can create a super wide feeling or an isolated feeling via a macro (closeup lens).

macro view. below, freelensed macro view of pink flowers. (lens handheld in front of camera). the isolated view point, condenses the viewers and concentrates her/him into a perspective that oftentimes would be overlooked. detail images is what many photographers sometimes forget to ‘see’, they see the big picture and miss the little ones.

as you know, you can’t go back to the situation after the job is finished.

also when editing a final product of a bunch of images, having different views of an assignment sometimes lends itself to tell the story in a different and creative way.

another variation on the theme with perspective is the illusion of 3-dimensionality on a 2-dimensional surface. a genius of this was escher. huh ? 3d on 2d ? once you learn a bit about lighting, playing in the studio and learning more of the phenomena of light, you can start playing. breaking the rules too.

what rules ?

now the fun begins.

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quality of light

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learning about facebook and twitter… the million dollar questions, how do i connect a potential client to the vendor, in my case, how do i connect with new clients or companies needing images for their corporation or brand ? if u know please let me know. i’m learning about how social media can spawn new clientele. many humble thanks to our readership.

not just any kind of photographic images that any tom, dick or harry can make w/ a $2000 multi megapixel camera, but instead images that move beyond a snapshot by a ‘picture taker’ as opposed to an ‘image maker’.

one important key is LIGHTING. what is LIGHT ? simple photons you might say ?

there is one key component of light in the photographic world called ‘quality of light’. the sun is a light we commonly know and see every day, morning to evening. the most beautiful ‘quality of light’ of the sun happens at the moments before the sun actually rises and another time before the sun plops below the horizon and a magical time after the sunsets. i see many ‘picture takers’ leave after the sunset, they don’t realize or ‘see’ the magical ‘quality of light’. these ‘picture takers’ have the gear but lack the sensibility of how to see light.

i often wondered why i was sitting in art history class up at manoa listening to countless lectures and millions of slides being projected on huge auditorium screens. engrained in my subconscious was the renaissance works of rembrandt and his iconographic sense of light. what made him a painting meister was his sense of creating a mood with highlights and shadows.

PHOTOGRAPHY is ‘drawing with ight’ or in my case ‘painting with light’. when i set out, i brainstorm a few ideas, sketch them. most importantly, i think about the background (BACKGROUND, BACKGROUND, BACKGROUND) and of course foreground light and how and what tools i might schlepp along. less is more… sometimes.

if you have any questions, please chime in, this is a two way dialogue. sharing, growing and learning together. Follow @lightmeister

wow factor

wow factor

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while out scouting for locations for fireworks, one needs to think creatively. many photographs of fireworks have been made up to now and one cannot predetermine how large the display is, especially since once you’re committed to choosing your area, you will likely be seated mat to mat. as i reiterated before, background, background background. in this case, the fireworks will create the background, the key is create an image that tells the viewer about the unique place. as in this case, coconut trees work well to immediately tell the viewer, we’re in hawaii.

luck is a factor too. as you can’t control what’s happening in front of your lens. for fireworks i love water, for the matter, i love water on the ground. in night photographs, the water acts as a giant reflecting mirror. in hollywood, they often will wet down large areas for night shots/scenes. look carefully in your next movie. this was low budget, so i just looked for a place that would offer water for free.

d-max is a also a factor. in film, density maximum. in digital, the sensor can only handle so much. u can control it via your aperture, but depending on the brightness of the fireworks and the ambient light, u need some balance. if u close down your aperture too much, you lose your ambient light. so, toggle and balance your f/stop (aperture), time (bulb) and ISO. also, a key point, while the exposure is being made, i also wave my hands in front of the lens. yes, you heard right. in printing its called dodging. i ‘dodge’ while the exposure is being made, to lessen the burn or strong high lights. sometimes is works, sometimes not.

one year i wanted to work on the reflection. below is a panoramic format image. with more water. one could explore reflections, likely my next foray !

Happy fourth ! be safe !

one always seeks to make the next day, next image and next years photographs better. in this case, dealing with the same location. i’d like to set up remote camera, same location and paint w/ flash the coconut trees. also would like to make portraits with this fabulous background. any volunteers ?

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yokohama wanderings

Wandering about Yokohama on a fine, muggy afternoon with Mr. T. Decided to ‘layer’ images of the port city, 6-images at a time, various compositions using the Hexomniscope 6-pinhole camera. Keeping ye ole fingers crossed until i process the film sooner or later. I really wish processing C-41 in japan wasn’t so expensive ! really miss processing at Hawaii Pacific Photo across the street in Mo’ili’ili !

The light was fabulous ! clear and clean blue skies, the sun dropped but gave a show of amazing colors and clarity.

Enjoyed also lugging the velbon tripod, a non carbon fiber variant thru the thick, muggy port city air. Happened on a cool rest spot, a Lawson’s convenience store situated just along Osambashi Pier. Grabbed a beverage and sat in the air conditioned air and watched folks peruse by outside. Also had Mr T’s Helios 40-2 85mm f/1.5 lens in tow, the lens ways a ton. hefty.

along the way i was testing a Helios Russian 85mm f1.5 lens. wild bokeh. sometimes sharp sometimes bokeh’d. LOL.

i think this is commander Perry’s arrival reenactment. cool. looks like it was shot w/ a tilt shift lens ! haha !

anyways, thanks for swinging by. hopeful to post some images after i get the film back.
cheers !

Blooming Ajisai

Ajisai blooms in Kamakura, Japan (above photograph, nikkor 105mm f/1.8 lens, freelensed). This year was unusual at our favorite place in Hasedera, it seemed only 15-percent of the plants were flowering. Quite disappointing considering standing in line for almost one hour and then seeing this below. usually, the whole mountain terrace is loaded with a panoramic sea of colors. this year, only green. whoa … what is freelensing ? carefully holding lens after removing the lens from the camera body, then tilting or moving the lens away from the body, like an invisible extension tube. Using the canon 7D, the sensor is smaller so the 35mm lenses have more coverage allowing the photographer to tilt, swing the lens.

Thousands of people flocked to see these little morsels of color, meandering in murmuring lines of humanity. i’m not usually a ‘flowerly guy’ but living in japan, every season (hawaii is stuck in perpetual summer) is greeted with an amazing array of flowers that signal a season. The olfactory glands are in full swing as you peruse through undulating terraces, climbing, climbing and climbing. ayu tagged along for this short vacation, so with camera and a baby strapped to my chest. fun ! try making macro photographs with a wiggling one year infant moving. manual focus becomes challenging.

people wall to wall making photographs of the tiny hydrangea flowers known as ‘ajisai’. ranging from whites, pinks, purples and even cyans. wow ! the fresh air of kamakura rejuvenated our bodies as we hiked through mountainous roads ending up in amazing smaller temples along the way. Kamakura is an amazing place for exploring.

ajisai or hydrangea are about the size of your palm.

image below, snaking lines of people. we happened to go on a weekday, i can only imagine what weekends are like with thousands more people. lines are common. if you’re visiting japan, go early, Hasedera opens at 8AM.

bokeh signature

Bokeh signature. amazing character of bokeh. wikipedia describes it as, “In photography, bokeh ( /ˈboʊkə/ boh-kə,[1] Japanese: [boke]) is the blur,[2][3] or the aesthetic quality of the blur,[4][5][6] in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”[7] Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—”good” and “bad” bokeh, respectively.[2] Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.
Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas.[2] However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.”

the key point is in the lens aberrations and large aperture with shallow depth of field. a key point, bokeh’d highlights can occur in the foreground when focus is at or near infinity. try it ! see below image.

the extreme shallow depth of the Carl Zeiss Jena 75mm f/1.5 Biotar, though difficult to focus, has some interesting lens issues that create a very unique bokeh signature when used at f/1.5.

the swirliness of the biotar is legendary.

diff strokes for diff folks

accidental double exposure while being pressured by security personnel on hand to prevent photographs from the top of the guggenheim museum, NYC. homage to moholy Nagy. noblex 135S panoramic camera. fuji film. the noblex features a lens that swings or rotates for images around 135-degrees diagonally. used 4 AAA batteries and even had front shift or front rise. meant u could have the horizon line in different positions.

sharing a lensbaby panoramic image of lanikai, one of my favorite beaches on oahu. when approaching many of my gigs i strive for a different view, a unique view that sometimes requires some special equipment and other times just some mad skills. insert sinister laugh here.

often times many photographers are working the same gig, one needs to focus on your personal vision. what is this ? usually before heading out to a gig, while in transit, i’m thinking about how to share the story visually. a core part of this is your imagination, which is endless. although, its never the same as what you imagine, sometimes having a mental checklist of images that were not created often times will be a ‘unique’ image in the end. i’m wondering if i’m making sense… or the petite syrah from last night is talking ?

how important is your vision ? it can be a frustrating subject to young photographers. my personal philosophy about image making is this, if you can literally put a camera in a place you cannot, the image yielded will be interesting. easier said than done. for example, many different perspectives are possible, the key point is offering the viewer of your photographic image a new vantage point or a view. freshness. craziness or whatever you want to call it.

you’re probably thinking its all been done… well stop reading here and get rid of your cameras if you think this. LOL.

in every new situation, new client, new products, new ideas etc offer new opportunities. although a foundation of art historical references such as paintings, digital art and three dimensional arts have been created, there is the opportunity for visual renaissance based on what has been done. what you don’t want to do is recreate the wheel and think you have a new invention. enough of my rhetoric. hey, aren’t you suppose to be a photographer ? i hate writing, but i am forced to, to share my ideas and thought processes. more writing coming soon.

above, luminarium image features 12-images shot using a special rig that keeps the camera level and has the ability to turn on the lens’ nodal or center. as you rotate each image, each is overlapped with ample overlap to be stitched later. the more even the exposure, the easier the panoramic will look. also remember white balance issues.

some rigs for cubic sphericals or complete spheres or 360-degree views require a rig like the one below

another one of my rigs is this one here. this is the one i use with creating 12 images, horizontal formatted panoramics.

the below was two 360-degree views added together.