Photography – Page 29 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Backward in Time

Canon Canonet QL17 G-III

A few years ago I thought I would give film photography with a rangefinder camera a shot. It was a complete failure. The reason is I am not too sure about using this camera, much less if it really works for me. I may be better off with a regular film camera, one which uses the lens itself to focus. Consequently, I bought a used Nikon FM2n on eBay – it should arrive in a few days. However, I do intend to master this rangefinder.

This Canonet is a really cool little camera, but focusing it just drives me crazy. I can use a split-screen focusing ring very easily, but this one is different. There are little squares in the viewfinder that sorta need to line up. On top of that, if you don’t get your fingers out of the way, you might end up with one in the picture that you never saw while making your exposure.

Well, I printed out the manual and will re-read it. Then I will practice focusing it. Finally, I will load up some film and see what happens. I have some Kodak Professional Portra 400 to putz with.

Nearby Treasures

Beach Plants Above El Matador

My work schedule, for now, is all over the place, with some days ending at 9:00 p.m., others at 6:30, and others at 5. The end result is a sense of no time for me because I am waiting to go to work, and my feeling like I am totally uncreative. In between all this are the usual chores of running a household. But this is Spring Break, and I am able to do a bit of what want, despite a stated goal of cleaning out the garage (which so far has included a dumpster dumped and 9 boxes of paper shredded by a mobile shredding service!).

Cliffs Above El Matador State Beach

On the Rocks at El Matador

I am inland from the Pacific by about 35 miles, both east and southeast. Ways to get to the beach are head through the canyons, or out toward the flat Oxnard plain. A friend and I both were free, so we decided to head out to El Matador State Beach in Malibu. It is below a cliff line, and requires a bit of a walk to get there. The walk is not difficult, but it is a bit precarious as the steps are old, and in between the steps is a narrow section of pathway which is very eroded. Loaded down with camera gear can make for a rather spooky descent.

In the Cave 2

I brought two lenses with me: a Tokina 11-16mm, and a Nikon 24-120. I also brought a tripod. What I forgot was the ND110 filter for the Tokina, and as a result couldn’t get any long exposures for that soft, spooky water look. Oh well!

Incoming 2

The entire coastline in California is pretty much public property, with a few exceptions. There are laws regarding public access, that it cannot be denied nor cut off by someone. In Malibu, of course, there are wealthy and famous people who have built houses along the coast. Keeping the beaches accessible can be daunting, but there are public pathways, some hidden and unknown, others blocked off by zealous homeowners. I know that if people trashed my yard walking to get to the beach, I wouldn’t be happy, and it is these cretins who spoil it for a lot of us. Then, of course, paparazzi don’t help, either.

Mussels Signed 1000

El Matador is a lovely little beach, with fantastic rock formations, and tidal pools with urchins. It behooves the photographer to know the times for tides, but even if the tide is in, splashing on the cliffs, great pictures can be had, as can ones on the sand and in the rock of caves. An overcast day has its own challenges as does the sunset or sunrise. Forgetting certain pieces of equipment change the game plan. It was a great break from chores, and I plan to go back on a sunnier day to do the sunset, and bring my ND filter for those long exposures.

Grey Skies Above El Matador

On a Winter Day

Allium

The past few weekends have made me feel so cramped and crazy, mostly because the puppies are growing, and needing a lot of attention. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I was nuts to get two, but when they are all cute and cuddly, the answer is always a loud “Yes!” Luckily, the other half is superlative at caring for them, but he abandoned me for the Super Bowl. As the puppies are crate trained, I made good my escape for a couple of hours to the local botanical garden.

Where I live, endless blue skies are endlessly blue and cloudless. We are in the middle of a drought. The state does not plan to release reservoirs, and I don’t blame them. Weather is weird, extremes showing up which seem abnormal. Global warming? I think so, but this is not a political / ecological foray, so we will leave it at that. Back to the skies: we had rain clouds! And some light rain! I went out to shoot landscapes with a long lens, 70-300mm, but could not produce any I liked – I expect my view-point was wrong.

Sage

Instead, tripod in hand, I also focused on flowers. Always, flowers. Leaves, rocks, trees, branches. I love the shapes of nature, and ultimately these seem to be the ones I love the most. Long lenses are great for blurring the background, and with flowers it is no exception. On this trip, I took my time, crawled around, and looked through the camera to frame my shot. At times, I used live view because I was down so low (luckily, no mud), and my battery was draining faster than normal.

Small patches of bright color are always welcome on a dreary day. The smell of sage and earth and decaying leaves are wonderful. I took my time to enjoy the garden, and even though it started to rain – and my camera gear was sadly unprotected – it was such a pleasure to be outdoors (sans puppies pulling on a leash) to enjoy the beauties of nature.

Allysum

The Nikon V1 and 32mm f1.2 Lens for Botanical Photography

Multiple reasons routed me to the Nikon 1 system. A DSLR with a big lens is heavy, so when the Nikon 1 system first came out, I looked, but did not like the initial prices, nor the lack of lenses. Also, I wasn’t too sure if it would be successful enough to invest in.

Time passed. When the V1 dropped significantly in price, I looked again. Seeing images shot by Steve, by Craig Litton, Joe Marquez, Sue Wotton and others at Steve Huff Photo pushed me to look at it. Finally I bought it. Since then, I’ve added lenses to the bag, but when the 32mm f1.2 was announced, I was seriously interested, and bought one when I could catch it in stock.

There is no one area of photography I prefer, but flowers have always given me a great deal of pleasure, especially wildflowers. As it is late in the summer, nearly all our wildflowers are gone in the heat of Southern California, but locally we have some rather lovely gardens with flowers in bloom. When I finally had some time to test out the 32mm lens, at f1.2 to f1.6, I shot a series of flowers and leaves, using both the auto and manual focus.

The beauty of the lens is the ability to isolate a flower from either background or foreground. Bokeh varies with what lies in front and behind of the subject, and with the 32mm f1.2, it varies in quality. It can be rather nervous when leaves in the background are small and fine. Other times, distance or background blur beautiful, creating an element of serenity. Color, contrast, and detail are well rendered. The three pictures below show how the manual focus allows for choosing one’s focal area, and show how the foreground, middle ground, and distance can be chosen. Click on them to see full detail.

Altogether, I am very pleased with the ability of the Nikon V1 and the 32mm for taking pictures of flowers and other plants. Some post-processing can add to the beauty of an image, but even just out of the camera, most images are pleasing and need little work.

Dahlia

Fallen-1500 Fern-1500 Hollyhock-2 Purple Saber-Lily-1500

Lens

As a birthday present – a bit early – I got the Nikon 32mm f1.2 for the Nikon 1 cameras. I have the V1. This lens, equivalent roughly to an 85mm lens, has a separate manual focus element on it, unlike the others in the Nikon 1 series.

Yesterday, I went to a local garden, and took a series of pictures. Some I used the automatic focusing, on others I used the manual focusing. I need to figure out how to use it. The main, point, though, of the excursion was to simply evaluate the lens at f1.2, to check the bokeh, to check the accuracy, and to simply see how it worked.

Follows are some of the shots, with some post-processing, just because that is what I do, but I did very little sharpening because that was the main focal point – observe the depth of field of the lens.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the lens, but there is definitely a time and place for such a wide open f/stop. Click on the composite picture below, then click again to enlarge it, if you want to see more of the details.