365.315 yep… they still need cleaning

I ran some errands after work, and by the time I got home, I’d lost any interest in shooting, so I laid down on the floor and started shooting random stuff: cat hair, a broken off belt loop that’s now a cat toy, the afternoon light on the blinds, the trees outside through the little holes in the blinds, and finally ended up shooting the front door again, again, again, again.

Not much more to say about this. Oh well.

D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5, in close focus mode. ISO800, 1/5th (AP mode), f/8, -1EV, pop-up in Manual at 1/8th. About 5 minutes of slider play in Aperture to bring up the washed out colors and flat contrast provided by the Tokina. Looking at it now, I might’ve gone a bit far. Oh well.

365.314 encroach

Happy Election Day!

This vine grows around the courtyard entrance, and it looks really beautiful in the afternoon. This is probably my 25th attempt to capture said beauty, but it’s not really particularly close. This—and all other attempts—lack the subtlety of it all.

In other news, I think I have enough images for the Tokina review… now to make time to finish writing it, give it a couple of days to breathe, slap an edit on it, and share away. Hopefully, I’ll get there this weekend, but I make no promises.

One thing I noticed here, the barrel distortion present at 35mm has become pincushion distortion at 110mm (where this was shot), before becoming wildly complex moustache distortion at 200mm, and this even on a 1.5x crop like the D7000.

Fun!

D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5. ISO800, 1/125th, f/11. About 4 minutes of slider play, plus maybe 3 minutes of cloning out specks and splotches on the window in Aperture.

365.313 what a difference an hour makes

I didn’t notice it yesterday, but then I went out shooting at my usual time (if not for the time change event) and so I wouldn’t have.

But today, when I left work, Wow! What a difference an hour makes!

Given the relatively flat landscape, the numerous houses, and very many rather old trees, the afternoon light filtering through the trees is pretty much gone by the time I get home, and it’s only going to get darker between now and ~December 21.

By going to the ends of alleys and intersections of streets, I was able to find some lovely light, as you can see here, but it’s going to take me awhile to get used to it, probably as long as it takes my biological functions to reset themselves to the new numbers on the clock.

Should I ever convince myself to stop at a park or something on the way home from work, though, the light should be much more conducive to creating nice pictures, and so I suppose it’s worth it.

Anyway, I noticed something curious about the pictures I shot yesterday with the Tokina: the center is sharp, yes, but the corners were blurred, even at f/8, so I set out to run some tests.

Any idea how hard it is to find ~8°10″ worth of natural things worth shooting all in the same plane of focus, especially at any distance worth mentioning? I found two wooden fences, and I’ll need a tripod and remote release to shoot them at f/8 at 4:15pm, even at ISO800, and I’m loathe to go much higher, even on this camera.

Sheesh.

D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5 at 200mm. ISO800, 1/200th (AP mode), f/8. About 7 minutes of slider play in Aperture: the Tokina is pretty flat when it comes to reproducing contrast and saturation.

365.312 it’s sharp after all! (with bonus Outtake at f/4.5)

Above: the 365 pic, shot at f/8. Below: a similar composition wide open at f/4.5.

After the photowalk yesterday, while editing pictures, I noticed that the subject of several shots was completely out of focus. This was somewhat bothersome, as my initial thought was that something was wrong with a) the lens; b) the D7000’s green dot focus computer; c) my technique.

I’ve been meaning to review the Tokina for quite some time, as I’ve been unable to find any lengthy user reviews of this particular model (AT-X 35-200 f/3.5-4.5 from sometime during or after 1982). So I went out today to take some random shots of the neighborhood, and took every shot at its minimum aperture and at f/8 to see what was what.

Well, you can see for yourself here.

Both images received the same post-processing in Aperture: +.35 to exposure; +.1 to Brightness; +.05 to Contrast; +.15 to Saturation; +.1 to Vibrancy; and a levels tweak to make sure white and black were represented. Additionally, both pictures received a .1 increase to saturation in the background and .25 increase to definition in the foreground.

I’ll say more in the review, coming soon (hopefully): stay tuned.

D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200 f/3.5-4.5, at 200mm. 365 pic: ISO800, 1/1250th (AP Mode), f/8; Outtake: ISO800, 1/4000th, f/4. (See above for processing information.)

And it just struck me: a competent professional reviewer would’ve used a tripod to ensure identical composition. Alas, I’m not a professional reviewer: I’m a user, an amateur photographer, and someone more interested in general usability than mtf charts and all that.

West End Photowalk & Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday morning found me, once again, wandering around Downtown Dallas, alone, ostensibly as part of a Photowalk: this time a Scavenger Hunt with the North Texas Photography Explorers MeetUp Group.

Good news: I didn’t have a full out panic attack and start frantically texting an old friend.

Bad news: I had a constant, general, and rather intense level of trepidation. It wasn’t bad enough to start texting old friends, but it did prevent me enjoying myself or really taking time to compose, focus, frame, and capture many of the things that I saw.

I suppose it’s a win that I didn’t have an all out attack, but I hoped to feel more in control of my emotional state, and even now, 24 hours after I arrived home from the walk, I’m still shaking internally and finding it excruciatingly difficult to even step outside.

I also didn’t really make any pictures that I’m happy with.

I put this down partly to the anxiety, and partly to my choice of gear: I knew I was going to want to shoot some macro close focus stuff, and initially planned to take along the Vivitar 50mm f/1.8 with its reversing set-up and swap between that and the Sigma 30mm f/1.4, my favorite walkaround lens.

Alas, my step-down rings are stuck together in such a way as to prevent mounting the reversing ring, and I’ll likely need to invest in a filter wrench (or buy another set of step-down or step-up rings, or both) to get things operational again.

I then thought about carrying my bag, and bringing the Zomb-E, but I long ago decided to eschew carrying the bag, and try to be as nimble as possible. I suppose I could’ve carried the Zomb-E in a pocket or something, but that would’ve led to too much ‘is-that-a-1970s-zoom-lens-in-your-pocket-or-are-you-just-a-pervert’ potential for me to handle.

I thought about rocking the Zomb-E alone, and need to do that again in the future, but I knew I wanted flat focal planes and a wider angle.

I had just about decided to say “screw it” and just go with the Sigma, when my eyes fell upon the Tokina AT-X 35-200 f/3.5-4.5. Could it be the solution to my problems? It’s relatively fast, relatively wide (a mere 5mm narrower than the Sigma), and has a close focus function built in for those moments when macro-ish seems like fun.

So how did it fare? Well, I’m working on a review of the Tokina—as there are very few on the interwebs—but it’s only about half-done at present, so I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. (Note: I had some focusing issues with the Tokina. I’m not sure if it was me or the lens or the D7000, but I saw the green dot, I fired, and I got some back-focusing in the 2-3 foot range.)

The Scavenger Hunt item list is as follows:

  1. Wooden
  2. Worn, Broken or Rusty
  3. This Makes Me Hungry
  4. Old & New
  5. Shadows
  6. Curved, Curves, Twisted, or Circular
  7. Window(s)
  8. Motion
  9. Alternate Exit or Entrance
  10. Working On It

How did I do?

Everything was shot with the D7000 and Tokina 35-200 f/3.5-4.5, ISO100, Aperture Priority mode, mostly wide open, and at a rather wide variety of focal lengths.

365.311 O&N

from the West End Photowalk and Scavenger Hunt with the North Texas Photography Explorers MeetUp Group.

I’ll have a longer discussion of today’s adventure in downtown Dallas—including a long-overdue review of the Tokina AT-X 35-200 f/3.5-4.5—later tonight (or more likely tomorrow sometime), for now, though, I’ll keep it short.

Should you find yourself wandering south-east-ish on Akard, between Munger & Ross, you might notice a long line of fancy-looking streetlights outside the Fairmont Hotel.

And should you, like me, be studiously avoiding looking anyone in the eye and happen to look up at a certain streetlight, you might notice something peculiar.

D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5, at 35mm. ISO100, 1/1600th (AP mode), f/3.5, -1EV. A slight crop and roughly 1 minute of slider play in Aperture.

365.310 almost

Well, I think I’ve reached the limits of what my macro gear can accomplish in the world of bug photography, and I’ve definitely hit a point where my fitness level has become an additional impediment.

I could’ve stopped down to f/8 and gotten a slightly sharper eye. In fact, I did stop down about 15 shots later, and got a slightly sharper eye, but there was an antenna crossing this fellow’s eye. I believe—but am not 100% positive—that the Kiron-made Vivitar from maybe 1980* can’t quite hold up to a proper macro lens on modern digital sensors.

This could merely be my GAS rearing its head, but I’m pretty sure this is it.

However, I am positive that I need to do some strength training. My arms are worn out from holding up the camera and this lens for the 20 or so minutes that I shot this guy. <—-disgusting

Anyway.

So this is almost sharp, and I’m almost fit enough to pull off a half hour of serious bug stalking, and I’m almost able to concentrate on composition whilst stooping over, rocking -back and forth- up and down to focus on a bug that stayed mostly still, even when the front of the lens was a mere 2″ from him.

Hence: almost.

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron), in Macro mode. ISO400, 1/4000th, f/3.5, -1EV. About 5 minutes of slider play to bring out some color and detail, rotated 180 degrees, and cropped to 3×4 to remove a large expanse of nothing on the right edge.

*My 70-210 Series 1 has a serial number of 22059482. Its design matches exactly the versions made by Kiron, and is specific to the one and only version 1 of this lens. However, given that there are only 52 weeks in a year, this serial number does not conform to the pattern I’ve seen, so I wonder if it’s maybe a counterfeit model or something.