50mm

Also from the wetlands (as is the one below) that I visited while I was in Australia. Missed the ladybug with the focus but the magic tones and the crazy background made up for it (for me anyway).

I was looking at my archive today and found this shot hidden away. Sometimes it take a year or two for me to finally see something in a shot. In this case it was not the foreground at all but the background craziness I had ignored up till now. Shame there is not more interest but still, I quite like the painterly feel.

It’s an old shot that I guess I’m re posting. Shot late afternoon near my house at the park with a Rolleiflex and a Rollinar 2. (more…)

The almost failed B+W shot on my last adventure to Kawasaki. Gotta go back soon.

Asked this guy if I could take his picture. Still like the contax lenses even if it is non square. Shame I can use the lenses on anything else.

One from an up coming collection

Late afternoon down the street.

A different way to see Harajuku.

The 14 to 35 crowd seems to do it a lot but the over 50′s? Nice to know the subway is stable enough for her to take care of fine details without getting battered around by the moving car.

So just for fun I asked several people, including my friend Stephan, for a photo. I usually use the Hasselblad and have tweaked my settings so I can use the 80mm lens to take close-up head shots. I was, however, surprised to see the result when I developed the film. I wasn’t expecting him to look so different. And I always thought that the 80mm lens on the Hasselblad was a 50mm equivalent on a 35mm SLR. What a difference a lens and a bit of fiddling with the settings makes. Stephan prefers the digital shot. Probably because of how different the lens makes his face look. I actually like it more. Most likely because it’s difficult to replicate the look. In any case I’m surprised to see how well the film version turned out when putting it side by side with the digital one. More of these to come.

So I finally finished the roll and got the film shots I took at Kawasaki developed. Here is the film vs digital.
I’m not sure if you can see it here (even at a large size) but the film appears to have more depth than the digital shot which just seems flat.
In any case I like the square format a lot more.

This past weekend I spent the day changing all my chemicals to new ones. My fix has now changed back to Kodak and is slightly more concentrated than before. The jars that hold the 1 gallon A and B solution needed to be scrubbed and chiseled at to remove the years of build up of gunk at the bottom.
As a result of all this work my negatives look amazingly clear. It’s easy to let quality slip as chemicals start to slowly die and it’s difficult to notice until it’s too late (or not at all in my case for a while).

In an effort to keep a balance between a holiday and taking photos I too my digital camera and a Holga to Nara. Using Brett’s trusty 1000 year old Velvia (that apparently had a speed range between 100 – 1000) I managed to squeeze about 3 semi usable shots out of the roll (not the films fault. Bloody f8 at 100 ASA!)
I’m happy with the result. For some reason I value this a lot more than the 500+ digital shots I took that I have not posted.

Another Friday night at the station

Here he is on flickr

This was shot quite a while ago. Not a flattering shot of the model but I like the atmosphere in the shot all the same.