7/52-20 One Camera (app); One Lens (/Film combo)

Another week, another struggle to find a theme.

On Monday, I was hard at work when I heard some commotion behind me. I turned, saw one coworker talking to another, and decided the scene might make a good subject for a square-cropped image, what with all the lines and angles created by the cubicles, the ceiling tiles, the window frames, and miniblinds.

So out came the phone, unlock went the screen, launch went the Hipstamatic, and I snapped a pic with whatever lens/film combo happened to be loaded at the time.

As I am a committed employee, I immediately turned and went back to work without even checking to see how the picture turned out.*

Some time later, a thought flashed through my head: “just use Hipstamatic and one lens/film combo for the whole week. Shoot a variety of scenes, and see what you can learn.” Ok… so One Camera; One Lens.

Or, in this case, One Camera (app); One Lens(/Film filter combo).

So what did I learn? To be honest, not a huge amount. I like this filter combo, and already knew that, as it’s in my favorites. I was a bit surprised at how well it handled warm tones, given the general cool cast the combo imparts. But beyond that, I expect I didn’t concentrate enough, or keep notes, or really study what I was doing to learn much of anything. Shame on me, I guess.

So…

iPhone 5. Hipstamatic. Wonder lens. W40 film. No postprocessing beyond downloading to the computer, kewording, exporting at ~1/2 size (probably closer to 1/3), and uploading.

And if you look close, you’ll notice I included a special treat! Due to the hour and my level of alertness, I was unable to edit down to 7 pics, so you get an extra! Aren’t you lucky…

*needless to say, it was not worth sharing.

7/52-19 Manual Focus Week!

aka “MF Week!” but I didn’t want to be ambiguous about it…

So I decided to only use old manual lenses this week. These included the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, the Nikon 36-72mm f/3.5 E Series, the Nikon 75-150mm Zomb-E Series, and the Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron, maybe). I thought about going crazy and including the Holga and some of the old screw-mount lenses, but I’m glad I didn’t as I really didn’t make that much time, nor did I have that much interest.

I think I got some nice pictures, though. Maybe.

Sunday was Vivitar day; Monday saw the Zomb-E; Tuesday had the 24mm ai; Wednesday and Thursday enjoyed the 36-72; and I didn’t shoot for the project Friday or Saturday (shame, shame).

Hummm… I thought I was going to write some more about these, but I’ve totally lost my train of thought. Oh well.

EXIF in the lightbox, if you care. The pictures shot with the 36-72 required quite a bit of post work, as that lens is a bit lacking in the color-transmission and contrast department. Thank goodness for Lightroom (and Aperture, and Shotwell, and other RAW converters and image developing softwares).

The GSV, outside some mall somewhere

Not sure what I was working on that I ended up at the mall, but I was glad I did, since the GSV caught this gentleman coming out.

Looks like he nearly got hit…

Since the films and lenses don’t naturally show up in the LightBox, I’ve gone back and added them by hand. Say thanks!

FYI: I used the shake to randomize function and snapped maybe 25 frames to get these 6. (Hipstamatic is crazy fast on the iPhone 5, compared to the 4 anyway.)

 

7/52-18 Reflections & Roses

Another week of not really thinking about the 7/52. I tried, I really did, but there was so much other excitement going on that I couldn’t really focus. I’m working on a new schedule for my not-working time that will allow for some quality photography time, and hope to implement it this week. My success or failure will be reflected in next week’s (and successive) 7/52s.

One thing that would help: clear weekly themes or projects, with some sort of goal beyond ‘get 7 pictures worth sharing.’ I’ll work on this too.

So. The lens of the week: the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. I strapped it on last Sunday about this time, and there it sat. Monday evening, I noticed some groovy reflections and colors in the kitchen door, and grabbed a few frames, which set the theme for the week, mostly.

Wednesday, determination struck, and I tried to go out wandering with the camera, but I hesitated one second too long and social anxiety took hold, so I started shooting reflections around the apartment. I think there are some interesting things going on in a couple of these.

Friday, I was walking in from work, and spotted the little Roses in a pot. Out came the camera, click-click-click went the shutter, and the theme mashup was born. Oh well.

Everything was shot with the D7000 and aforementioned Nikkor. EXIF is in the lightbox, and the reflection pics got 40-60 seconds of post work in Lightroom, vs. the 12 seconds of work for the roses. Good times.

7/52-17 Cats! (and not cats…)

AKA One of these is not like the other

Another week of not-really-focusing-on-shooting, and with very, very good reason that I’ll share sooner or later.

I did manage to break off an hour or so on Wednesday, and another 15 minutes yesterday in order to make some pictures, and I’m thankful I got 7 that I found interesting enough to share. It  would perhaps be better if there was a continuous theme (ie just cats, with no ‘not cats’ or, conversely, ‘not cats’ with no cats), but it is what it is.

Not much else to say, and I’m running a bit behind this morning, so…

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron, maybe). EXIF in the lightbox (too lazy to look it up…). Mild-to-nonexistent post work in Lightroom.

7/52-16 a day with the Vivitar 50mm f/1.8

Well, I definitely broke a cardinal rule of the 7/52 this week… I only shot for the project on one day. I could make excuses—and the ones I have would be convincing and you would likely give me a pass, given the terrifyingly fabulous week  I had—but I won’t. Suffice it to say, I was simply lazy and allowed other thoughts to crowd my mind, and allowed this crowding to occupy most of my time.

Anyway.

I strapped the Vivitar 50mm f/1.8 (Cosina-made) onto the D7000 via a reversing ring late on Sunday, and then didn’t take the camera out of the bag until Wednesday afternoon, in an attempt to shed some of my worry and relax for a bit. I wandered around the apartment complex grounds, kneeling, stooping, and crawling on the ground, looking for various bugs. I didn’t find the expected ones, and so switched to flowers, but continued to keep an eye out for bugs.

Most of these received very mild adjustments in Lightroom, or a slight crop. The square-cropped one took the most abuse, but even it saw less than 2 minutes of slider play.

D7000. Vivitar 50mm f/1.8 (Cosina). ISO800, various shutter speeds (AP mode), all f/3.5ish (I think: ignore the exif on this, as the D7000 couldn’t see or feel the aperture, given the reversed nature of the lens, and anyway it’s an M43 mount lens).

7/52-15 LensBaby Week!!!1!

So I was pondering a theme for the week, couldn’t come up with anything better, so I decided it would be LensBaby Week. Yay.

The LensBaby is a sort of toy tilt-shift lens with a pronounced sweet-spot (area of acceptable focus) and distinctive blur to everything else. I have the Muse with the plastic optic (no longer produced: current models have a double glass optic that is sharper with less distortion)… there are fancier ones, with larger sweet spots, the ability to lock focus etc., but the Muse does some things the others simply can’t do.*

With the Muse, you focus by squeezing and twisting the lens. The slightest change in lens position causes a vast change in focus.

For most applications, a normal-type lens—one with an aperture and the usual twist-ring focus (or auto-focus) and numerous glass lenses with fancy coatings and specific curvatures—is preferred. In fact, I found myself rather frustrated with the LensBaby on more than one occasion this week. I probably need to limit myself more, as I think this frustration showed a lack of creative intent and suggests that a certain amount of decadent complacence has crept into my photographic practice.

Anyway. If you look back into my archive, you’ll find a few other examples of the sorts of things the LensBaby is great at (in my hands, anyway). In more capable paws, it’s likely the Muse would be capable of greatness.

D7000. LensBaby Muse (plastic optic). Various ISOs (1@100, 3@200, 3@800), various A-mode-provided shutter speeds, wide open (f/2) for the first part of the week, with drop-in apertures of f/4 and maybe f/8 employed, but I’ll challenge you to find them, since the EXIF reports f/2 only. Very slight changes to saturation and contrast on one, and a slight bump-up in shadow detail on another in Lightroom.

*see, for example, the LensBaby Bubble, day 216 of my 365 project