Friday, May 31, 2013

Selenium Light

Going to a botanical garden one would think they would come home with a lot of lovely flower photos in nice bright saturated colours. Not me. In my previous trip to Van Dusen Garden my favourite photos were black and white. Today is no exception. I saw this photo and took it knowing it could not be in colour. It is my favourite of the day. Well, I think so. When I looked at this I started working on it and still have to go through the rest. I must admit I did not know what Selenium was other than a tone selection on the black and white conversion software. I thought maybe it was the colour of the tone. Lo and behold it is an element. I found this out when I looked at the Wikipedia entry. There is a lot of discussion of its presence in nature, it's industrial uses, and in electronics. It only gets a brief mention concerning photography " Selenium is used in the toning of photographic prints, and it is sold as a toner by numerous photographic manufacturers. Its use intensifies and extends the tonal range of black-and-white photographic images and improves the permanence of prints."
I chose this tone because I thought it looked good and suited the photo. Little did I know there was so much more to it. 


  I took this particular photo with the 24-70 2.8 at 70mm 1/2000th sec f2.8 iso 400

Monday, May 27, 2013

Old To The New

I don't usually talk so much about the equipment I use but I just had to mention this. I just got an adapter to attach my 40 year old (approximately) Hassleblad lenses to my newest Sony camera. The reason I am writing about it is I am amazed that this advanced technology will operate with these lenses and do it so well. Usually there are handicaps when mismatching a lens to a camera because the camera is operating as though it doesn't have a lens on it. To start, it's manual focus only. My Sony camera has a focus peaking feature which makes manual focus pretty easy. As the camera is unable to set the aperture you have to set it on the lens and leave it. A camera with an optical viewfinder would get very dark as the aperture gets smaller. The electronic viewfinder on this camera adjusts as you set it so you see the proper exposure and of course it's bright enough to focus manually. I always thought it was too bad to have some really classic and high quality lenses that weren't getting used because cameras advanced and changed so much. This camera is so advanced it works with these old lenses and does it well.  

 
For this photo I used the 24-85 at 26mm 1/60th sec f22. One flash upper left with a shoot through umbrella and another flash hand held to the right and behind with a Stofen Omnibounce attached.

Almost forgot to mention these lenses were built to last. They are all metal and glass, and they are heavy. I am quite sure if I saw someone running away with my camera bag I could take the lens off, toss it at the perpetrator knocking him off his feet then put the lens back on and take photos for the police. 

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Dark Light, Light Light

I've been looking at Pinterest a lot lately and there are some amazing photographs being displayed there. I think the photography section is worth looking at for anyone. One fellow has been "pinning" photos of flowers with a plain black background and window light only. It was always something I wanted to try and I got inspired by his photos. Today I went and got some white tulips.

For this photo I used the 100mm macro 15 seconds f32 iso 100. Converted to b&w in the computer.

If you have been looking at previous posts you may have noticed I like to photograph things (even the cat once) with a white backdrop and flash. Why should today be any different. 
 
The 100 macro once again 8 seconds f16 iso 100. 2 flash with a shoot through umbrella on each the left one directed a bit more to the backdrop.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A New Westminster Wall

Dar and I have gone into this area a few times. The buildings house car repair shops, wood crafting shops, and other various industries. They were built to be functional and I don't think will ever grace the cover of magazines like "Architectural Digest". They have a certain charm to them though and can be interesting subjects. It has taken me a few tries but I think today I caught the type of image I wanted.

 Taken with the 24-70 at 24mm 1/600th sec f10 iso 400. The photo was taken here.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Corner Light

You never know what you may find tucked away in a corner under a tree. 

 Taken with the 24-70 2.8 at 70mm 1/5000th sec f3.2 iso 1600

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Carpe Diem

Seize the day, hold on to the hour, Capture the moment. It only takes a second. 

 24-70 2.8 at 45mm 1/60sec 2.8 iso 100

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Like A Handle On The Wall

The other day while in New Westminster I took some photos of a building being torn down. I was having a quick look through them when I noticed the handle. My first thought was "Could this be a secret door for someone not very good at keeping secrets?"


 Used the 70-300G at 300mm 1/250th sec f8 iso 400

Friday, May 3, 2013

Light On An Urban Myth

Ever wonder why people tie shoes together and fling them onto an overhead wire?  It seems no one really knows why. There are lots of theories from a symbol of a gang territory, signal for a place to buy drugs, to a celebration of the last day of school or simply throwing up the old pair when a new pair are bought. Or, one person though maybe it was to warn low flying aircraft. These are some ideas that Cecil Adams  (Straight Dope column) got when he put the question out. There didn't seem to be any solid answer so he summed it up "It's either a harmless prank, a rite of passage, or a sign of the end of civilization. You figure it out."

Whatever the reason I think the person who hung these didn't want to put them too high in case he/she changed their mind and came back for them. 

I used the 24-70 2.8 at 70mm 1/1000 sec 2.8 iso 100 

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Smiling In The Light

Smile! I don't say that anymore. Trying to get someone to smile when they don't really want to or just being in front of a camera can make their smile look forced. Spending a little time with the person and talking about anything (but the photograph) as you begin the session you will usually find they relax and you get real smiles.

I had a nice visit with my friend Sarah today. We hadn't seen each other in some time so spent a few hours catching up. We started outside the coffee shop but it clouded over so we went to a table inside which just happened to be right by the window. So naturally the camera came out for a little bit. 

For some people their smile is so easy and natural it lights up right into their eyes and it's, brilliant.

 I used the 24-70 2.8 at 60mm 1/125 sec f3.5 iso 100

Sky Light

Today was a great sunny day. Tracie and I took advantage of it by getting out and walking. It wasn't a photowalk but I did bring my camera. While in a little restaurant I brought it out for some photos and as usual Tracie was a willing participant. We were towards the back and well away from any windows but luckily there were skylights that gave us a nice diffuse light. I really do enjoy taking photos of people and love doing little spontaneous photo shoots where ever we happen to be at the moment.

I used the 24-70 2.8 at 70mm 1/25th sec f2.8 iso 400.