f1.4

Daisies around the corner.  Perfect opportunity to try the Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens Ari gave me for my birthday!!  All were shot at f1.4, ISO 100 and Tv of about 1/1000 sec.  The goal was to create a very shallow DOF, thus isolating the main subject and creating a complimentary blurred background. The first and third shots were edited as color images in iPhoto.  The middle in Topaz adjust using the preset bleach bypass. Enjoy, Jeff

  

 

 

 

 

 

SX-70 Experience

My great friend Cliff and I went to Vassar College today to see the SX-70 Exhibit.  The SX-70 was Polaroid's fantastic SLR introduced in 1972, that used "Instant Film".  This film, the malleable kind that could take up to 2 hrs to harden in warm temperatures was great to manipulate with a stylus.  Sadly, although SX-70 film is now made again by The Impossible Project, it is not the soft kind.  These are some of my shots taken with this film. I was GREAT fun!  Enjoy, Jeff

Newport 2003

Marine Shack AC

Lady Dawn AC Marina

EvianWaterNYC

cushmanmarine

BayouCafe 

SaratogaBurgers

Toasted Sunflower

Schaghticoke WaterGames

 Schahticoke Fair The Guesser

Marine Shack AC BW 

Grandpawoodstock

Lucy the Elephant

A Nature Shoot at Five Rivers

As I am becoming more ambulatory with my walking boot, i thought a little outing to our local nature preserve would be worthwhile this morning.  I used a Nikon D200 DSLR and a 400m Nikon F4 lens.  On a Dx camera that is equal to a 600mm lens, great for wildlife without compromising the animals.  To get a fast shutter speed of a minimum 1/600th second,  I set the ISO to 800 and shot between F8 and F5.6 depending on the light.  The rabbit was at 5.6 for example. 

WB was automatic and then adjusted in iPhoto with subtle editing of curves and contrast. 

It was great to get out and enjoy this special place.  Enjoy, Jeff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre and Post Development

Shot with an iPhone 5 and "developed" in Laminar. Enjoy, Jeff

Barbara's Flowers

I always look for the light, especially backlighting which really makes translucent objects pop.  This was taken with an iphone 5 using camera+ on 5sec delay shutter to insure steadiness as it was hand held. I blocked the sun from flaring into the lens with a large folder.  Later edited in Laminar. Enjoy, Jeff

iPhone versatility

Original shot with iPhone 5 using Camera+App. No editing

Cropped and Levels applied in Laminar

Using Big lens App to simulate a 1.8 lens on a DSLR, blurred the background leaves and applied a slight vignette.  

Enjoy, Jeff

Sadness

Sometimes you have to be quite secretive and taking a person's photograph of this very sad woman in Sicily. She thought I was playing with my camera button when actuality I was photographing her. I was struck by her facial expression, her sadness which was somewhat contradicted buy her red bright scarf.

Enjoy, Jeff

The Street Portrait

I love street photography. One can capture either candid photographs where the subject is not suspecting that their photograph is being taken or take posed photographs. This photograph of a young man late at night was a combination of both. I saw him walking across the street and was immediately attracted by his appearance as a great subject. I asked him politely if I could take a photo and he gave me permission. I popped up the flash of the Canon G9 camera and took one photograph. I converted it to black and white as I think it has a bit more impact.

Enjoy, Jeff

Simple Portraits

There has been much written about portrait lighting. Many options exist, including using a main light such as a fixed light, a window with soft light and then a reflector to cast some light on the shadow side.  Here I used the camera on tripod and two flashes controlled by a radio wireless transmitter on camera.  The main flash was set to my left about 6.5 feet high firing through a white umbrella, set at full power. The fill light flash set opposite, through umbrella set at half power.  Both flashes were 45 degrees to subjects .  Further fine tuning of exposure was through the camera.  The ambient light portion was set at a 60th second and to control the flash burst, the aperture was set to f9. F9 also allowed for adequate depth of field to insure front to back subject sharpness.  Camera was a Minolta Maxxum 7D DSLR.  Lens, a Sigma 28-70 2.8.  As you can see everything was set up manually.  With adjusting the variables available until the histogram shows a proper exposure, it is not difficult to get it right. Enjoy, Jeff