Happy mistake

The ageing process is taking it’s toll and yet some happy mistakes are being made. Not sure how I ended up with this 5x4 image. The selection is not close to any of my preferred choices. And, yes the small selection button on the Fuji is a pain to work with. It’s the joystick that gives no joy. I don’t have many complaints about this camera since I suppose you can’t have everything at every pricepoint. Still, this is something they could pay attention to. But if they did, I wouldn’t have this perfectly balanced image to crow about. Do I prefer it to the square format? Probably yes. I’ve never shot film in the medium format world but I like these proportions - a lot. Do I prefer it to 4x3? Possibly. It probably demands more discipline and attention - a need to be more discriminating to create a strong image. That’s what we’re here for though.

wide enough

Crookhaven Rocks

Crookhaven Rocks

The Xpan format is a very versatile one. You get the wide angle look whichever lens you use. Stitching (separate images) is an extra step and a bigger commitment to that style of photography. I don’t have that. Thus I have a rail and nodal rail sitting in a draw taking up space. You can of course trim or crop any file to fit these dimensions but looking at the scene through this view/frame to begin with makes precise capture that much easier. This first image was taken with the Fuji GF 32-64mm, equivalent to about 25 -51mm full frame. The second is a pano taken with the GF 23mm, equivalent to about 18mm full frame. I didn’t think I had much use for this lens. In fact I had it for sale for a short time. Happy I kept it though. I mainly use it for these panorama shots.

Passable feature

iPhone 15 ProMax using pano feature

It may not pass muster as a magazine photo but considering what we had years ago, it’s not too bad. Yes, I can see some bulge in the horizon and the sky colours are inconsistent but…. it handles the direct sun well. And, if you consider the effect of some polarizing filters on wide angle lenses where the sky is very unevenly reflected, it’s not a bad result. Additionally, wide angle lenses don’t cover this much ground. Anyway, not much done in post at all. You just have to make surethe image is balanced and you have enough subject matter to fill the frame.

highlight rolloff

Sometimes the lighting can play just right for an image. I’d finished photographing for the day, as I thought and was driving home. Late afternoon as you know is often when lighting is at it’s best but it’s not always that favourable. For some subjects it’s coming from the wrong angle. I pulled up passing this tree and didn’t bother getting out of car. I took this out of the window. It just happened to be the right angle. I particularly like the light in the background and the way the camera handles it.

all the minor players

Brogers creek, NSW

Recently, a well-known landscape photographer went on a wildlife shoot. His realisation was that even though he wanted to capture an imposing image of his subject - in this case a tiger - he had to capture it with some context that actually enhanced the image. I think this idea extends to landscape photography as well. As much as we like to capture detail and in many cases a more intimate scene, the surroundings often provide interesting textures and detail which enhance the main subject. A lot like bit actors in a movie. Another element that contributes a lot to b&w images is the grey scale range and how it is distributed throughout the image. In this case the backlit area adds some dimension but there are also highlights in the foreground. In landscape photography it doesn’t work that well to crush the blacks unless the detail in shadow areas are a distraction. The milky reflections in the water give a softer, dreamier feel to the image.

Early days

Somewhere near the turn of the century I thought it would be a good idea to adopt digital technology. A friend was using an Agfa camera with the swivel lens (Agfa ephoto 1680). For anyone doing street photography this was in the day, as they say, a game changer. Why? You could roam the streets without anyone realising what you were doing. So, photos were pretty candid for the most part. The design as you know allows for photos to be taken from the hip as it were, just as you can now with a flip screen. Only now, people are very savvy regarding photos taken in this way.

I remember paying around $2100 (AUD) for this camera when it came out. Back then CF cards were mighty pricey too. A 32MB (not GB) card cost me $230! I was pretty happy with the quality of images it put out though. The above photo was taken in Jaipur, India around sunrise. At the time of taking the image below, I also took the same shot with a 35mm film camera. I much preferred the colours on this one.

Finally, this image below. I probably thought I was more invisible than I actually was. Or, maybe he was just curious about my fiddling about with a camera at waist level. In any case it was a step-up from the Agfa which did 1 Mp files while the Nikon did 2 Mp files. Funny Agfa didn’t pursue digital camera production much. They went bankrupt in 2005. (the digital arm at least). I think these images hold up relatively well as digital images albeit smaller size.

38-115mm - 3x optical zoom. f2.8-f4. 2.1Mp. No RAW but tiff format available. ISO 80 / 100 / 160 / 320 (Default 80). Focus modes - Continuous AF mode (when using LCD), single AF, manual focus.

Rocky coastline

I took these images before I started taking methylene blue so I can’t remember where exactly it was. Yes, skies are somewhat different colour - perhaps the filter!

Looking back

A bit of a nostalgic review of some images taken with the Nikon D850 and a wide angle (which now escapes me and which I no longer own). The top image I appreciate for it’s atmospheric qualities and colour. You might notice an unintentional camera movement (double exposure effect) due to a sinking tripod - a happy coincidence I call that. There were several other images taken on the day which displayed some field curvature where houses were included. For that reason, I’m not a fan of super wide angle lenses. I find it too distracting. And too much correction is required to make them acceptable. It’s a little less obvious where nature shots are concerned.

Marcus Agrippa

Amazing to walk around a 2000 year old building. It did burn down and was rebuilt by Hadrian who kept the faceplate to honour the original ‘builder’ Marcus Agrippa 27BC.

Mad tree

Colour version of a photo taken back in 2015, travelling around New Norfolk in Tasmania.The tree itself stood out (haha) on it’s own but the cow in the background provides an extra layer of imagery.

The Anarchist's Boat?

This boat sat unfinished, so it seems. Just off the country road metres from the Anarchist’s chair. There must be a story here but who to ask? You have to use your imagination. Not looking sea-worthy but… maybe not far from the finished job. Also nearby were a bunch of sculptures - horses and a lion. A woodworker’s dream. Certainly a lot of skill went into the exercise.

vanishing trees

Sometimes while traveling there’s not much going on, so we play with nature - shapes and forms, proportions, framing, textures, movement, implied movement, geometry regardless of the subject matter - whether it’s man made or in nature. The same vision is applied. This is how we move from one genre to another. A photographer is a photographer. In the same way as a builder builds many different kinds of structures using the same principles but on a different scale and using different materials.