Nice combination

Recently, I bought a number of vintage lenses such as Carl Zeiss 35mm Flektogon from East Germany and also some Soviet-made lenses like the Jupiter 9 and Helios 44M. I bought these to replace some of the lenses that I sold that were medium format that I had been using on my Nikon D800 for several years. In fact one of my early posts in this blog refers to those lenses that replaced some more modern Nikon lenses - one in particular that was totalled in a fall of a cliff (24-70mm). But that’s another story. Just prior to buying these vintage lenses I bought a Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85 mm F1 .4 for those occasions where I might need a larger image such as the Nikon D 800 can provide but with a good quality lens with excellentllent resolution. It’s turned out to be a very impressive piece of glass. But more interestingly I combined it with an XPro close-up lens super II F500. The resulting sample image can be seen here. I’ve always been wary of using any other glass in combination with a lens I know to be of exceptional quality like the 85mm CZ for fear of diminishing the quality of the image. That did not seem to be the case here.

Carl Zeiss 85mm f1.4 with XPro F500 close-up lens

While not exactly macro I was particularly pleased at what could be achieved with this lens. BTW, the CU lens was not attached via a threaded adapter (which I’ve since ordered), I just held it up to the lens. The image has not been sharpened or touched up in any way save a small amount of exposure compensation. I couldn’t achieve this result with any of the other lenses. Both the sharpness and bokeh for my liking are superb. Message me for more details if you’re thinking of this combination. The CZ lens came in at around AU$1100 and the XPro $55. Both are second hand but mint condition. PS. Although I still have the D800, I have an adapter for the Sony A7III which more easily accommodates the vintage lenses.

Gumtree and black pines in snow

A cold blast or as the weather news described - an ‘antarctic blob’ arrived yesterday and delivered a substantial snow dump close to and including the Blue Mountains. The shot below was taken near the town of Oberon. More to follow…

'Aerial' shots

Well, not really… I was in the process of compiling some video clips for a meditation sequence. The images reminded me of some aerial views of the landscape in Iceland. They were taken on the coast south of Sydney.

Cliff face shots (below) from the northern end of the beach.

Anamorphic images

Well its been a while since my last entry into the captain’s log. Lots going on in the world right now but this will be on the topic of photography. For various reasons partly involving me doing video shoots with people and food, I have resorted to the use of iPhones to get the job done. I was also inspired by the quality of the images I took on my recent tour to Russia and Hungary. The iPad with a measly 5 MB camera turned out some pretty acceptable images. On the strength of the improvements offered by the better cameras in the iPhone 8 Plus I decided that the videos that I will be making could just as easily, in fact much more easily be done with phones. The size, the compact nature of them, battery life, on-board memory, quality of the video, all made them a front runner in putting together and editing the footage on an iPad.

In addition to them having a modest zoom function I looked into the reviews on third party lenses in particular the Moment anamorphic lens which attaches to the iPhone via a case sold also by moment. I ah e bought the Tele and the wide but as yet haven’t used them extensively. There are plenty of YouTube videos about them though. I did a photoshoot the other day with the anamorphic and was very pleasantly surprised by the results. I’m posting a couple of shots here of a mother and son in Mt Wilson

Czar’s holiday house

This is one of those images I photographed many times with the iPad. Mainly because I wanted to get just the right positioning in relation to the tree and horizon. I also had the DSL are and took some shots with that as well. Apparently this is the summer residence of the Czar (Peter) at Peterhof. Well, this is his verandah. The summer house which is not in view is a single story effort. Not that impressive but I’m sure it’s very comfortable inside.

Fit for purpose

If you had of told me a few years ago that I’ll be walking around using an iPad for photography I wouldn’t have believed you. In reality most photography if we are real about it doesn’t find its way onto the walls of a gallery. Most photography is done, intentionally or not for the web. And it makes sense because that’s where the biggest audiences are. I’m not completely won over by the use of the iPad as a walk around camera mainly because I end up with JPEGs that I can’t do very much with in terms of colour balance. But on balance taking photos with this tool makes its functionality and acceptable compromise in certain situations.

While I was travelling in India I never wanted to convert my images to black-and-white just because it has such richness of colour. However in other places where colour isn’t that much of an influential factor and where street photography is the main consideration then black-and-white makes perfect sense. So then it doesn’t matter so much how accurate your colours are as a JPEG.

Having said all that, just for the sake of having flexibility in the final output I still want to have raw files. I have intended for a year or two now to downsize my Quitman and equipment and I’m interested in the camera that has reasonable quality and IBIS and is compact. The new Olympus EM5 MKIII when it comes out may well be the ideal choice.

Blown highlights are not pretty

And I would never commit an image to print that had them. However, more important in this instance then my photography skills being demonstrated is the telling of the story to show the skills and the quality of art work. It’s a bit like spelling mistakes when you’re communicating an important idea – they don’t seem so significant or detract from the idea. The question arises though – later will I want to commit an image to print ie. will it be used in other media or have a standalone application. Meaning, will it have to tell it’s own story?

Sometimes simple is good

I have to say that so far on this trip I have valued the convenience of the iPad with which all these i photos were taken. At the time of taking the images I had a backpack with the 5D Mark II and three lenses but I found that due to shortage of time it was much easier to move around and take as many shots as needed with the iPad. I may yet regret this decision as in the past I’ve always wanted a larger hi-res image to use as required - in fact I left my little Olympus at home which probably could’ve done the job with a 24 to 70 lens equivalent. Yes I do make larger size images and canvases and prints but I also considered the subject matter. For me the main use will be web and I may publish a small book. I am interested to see how the images work in print. It’s just so convenient I’ll have to see the results and make a decision.

Imagine if…

You had to walk through an art gallery every day to get to work. Art Gallery actually describes the nature of Moscow underground Metro system. The variety is amazing Its reminiscent of some of the temples in India and some of the cathedrals in Europe combined with paintings and mosaics by great artists.

Moscow musings and photos

I’m hoping to put up a number of images while traveling. This is my last day in Moscow where I covered the underground train system (metro). Not exhaustively but with the time I had available. It was an eye opening experience. There are many ideas to express but I’m starting out with a sample image. A little more organisation is required before uploading more from the project.

Moscow metro station