Went to the cold water jetty as there were clouds all day but they started to break right around 3:30 or 4. I expected the view to the south to be good, as that’s where it has been the last few times I’ve been out on days like this, so I climbed out on the south jetty and pointed toward the surfers and the power plant.
I was wrong. It just kept getting more socked in south, but north it was opening up so I took shots of the north jetty, and the sky did not disappoint. Alas, I should have been on top of the seawall behind me, so I could get the surfers and both jetties in the frame, but I was really there for the film camera, the digital was just an afterthought.
Here was the view south that I began with.
I got a couple with people riding waves as well, but as the light died off I had to turn around and set everything up facing the other way:
I have NO idea if any of those film shots came out. My Z6 was routinely telling me a way faster shutter speed than my light meter. so while I guessed exposure trusting the meter, I have no confidence.
Meanwhile, while I was setting up the film camera I had the digital on an intervalometer, so I wouldn’t miss the sunset to my left, which did not disappoint. The gentleman in these shots had a brand new Panasonic Lumix camera with him he was learning to use, his daughter had less patience and was doing a lot more running around. She was strangely fascinated by my messing with the film camera, it seems. But this is common, children often stare. Byproduct of being weird looking, I guess, but Cats and children have always flocked to me, though I much prefer dogs to either one.
I had framed the sunset and the boat, and the people sort of came along later. Asked if they were in the way and I just said “Nah, go out there. It’ll make the pictures better.” I just framed it then set it to fire shots every 15 second and see what I got, then when it was done zoomed in and did it again. I didn’t want to pay too much attention to the digital, since my real attention was needed elsewhere. They are nice snapshots I guess. I like the one with the bird the best.
Sunset kept going to well after dark. At one point it just lit up like fire for a minute or two. Then ten minutes later the clouds got tinged with pink in the deepest dark of blue hour and I did a few 15-30 second exposures to see what would happen. Did 3 long exposures on film, too, as well as two that are guaranteed black since I didn’t understand how the bulb mode worked on the camera. Sometimes you learn the hard way.
I’ll see how the film shots come back later in the week. Not sanguine that I captured the deep reds after dark, though. I went out there looking for a challenging light situation to practice metering, but this is still a little over my head. The Z6 does a lot of the heavy lifting for me, exposure wise.
I got some rolls back from the developer today. I had tried a few things in black and white using Ilford Delta 100 and Ilford XP2. I also did two rolls of color, Ektar 100 and Portra 160, to compare them. But, alas, I pulled the roll of Portra 160 out in the field to swap in a new roll and the worst confluence of events happened.
120, I have learned1, is not a cartrdige film like 135. It comes on a plastic spool and you wind it up on a second plastic spool. When you are done the second plastic spool holds the film and you just swap the spool that came with the last roll into the takeup spot for the next roll of film. Normally, the exposed 120 film gets sort of sealed closed when the roll is finished up. There is an adhesive leader that is just enough to keep it on the reel and tight. But this roll of Portra didn’t seal up for some reason and, of all the times to be clumsy, I chose THIS roll to drop. I watched it spring open and wipe out all the carefully exposed images I’d taken the previous week. Dammit. At least I got some shots from Ektar roll to look at.
Delta 100 is pretty much a standard, fine grain, decent contrast, forgiving range. I was given two rolls by the gentleman who sold me the camera and since they had the closest expiration date I started there. I am very pleased with what I got out of them and will certainly use this film again.
The XP2 is weird. It’s a 400 speed film and, though it’s black and white, it is processed with C-41 like color film. I was looking for a 400 speed when I bought it, and didn’t realize it was weird like that. I guess that is a benefit in some places, as it can be developed by any lab, but the folks I’m using charge the same for B&W as color, so really quality is quality. Grain is different than Delta 100, but it is supposed to be contrasty and saturated and still has good latitude.
The Ektar 100 makes very saturated, colorful images for a negative film. It still has more latitude than something like Velvia, where you’ll blow highlights completely more than a couple stops over, so I thought I’d try it for landscapes and sunsets. I’ve had mixed results there, but at least some success with my most recent roll. And I have learned that they aren’t kidding when they say saturated. It pops color and paints skin a bit red.
The Portra 160 is supposed to be fine grained and have much more honest colors. Good for portraits and skin tones, etc. Like I’d know. The first roll I shot I threw on the ground. I’ll have to report back after the next roll is done. Maybe I can convince Doug to stand in the sun again so I can get a portrait to compare as well.
I started with Delta. You remember my first film picture from the earlier post:
Very pleased with the qualities of even my marginal first attempts, I loaded a second roll and took some portraits of Doug and Bootsie. Then I spent a little time wandering the village on Tuesday night when it was reasonably barren so I could get some more difficult subjects.
Here are the portraits:
Nothing wrong with those other than my marginal skills at focusing. Plenty of detail in the shadows, excellent grain. Easy peasy. Here are the night shots, which tested the film much more, mostly because I was having trouble deciding how to meter in the dark2.
For Spin Record, I chose to meter the Spin sign as medium grey. It’s a yellow lettering on a brick wall, and that wall is way darker than medium grey. Probably should have gone at least one stop down, maybe two even, so I could get more detail inside the store and not blow out the Open sign. But it did hold a lot of detail in those highlights, even 4 stops over.
The Baba shot was better metered. I shot everything and decided it was all within a reasonable range, so I just metered to the tree leaves above the lights in the upper right. I got plenty of detail everywhere.
The spin photo, not so good. But I know how to do it better. The Baba photo, however, is stellar. Even in the dark where there’s no blue hour sky to make that corner interesting, I really like this photo. Especially the We’re Open sign, which gives it a very Clerks vibe.
For the XP2, I shot some at the lagoon. Most of the shots are of well lit reeds, which are beautiful in person but kind of boring as a photograph. The contrast is good, detail is good, grain is just fine for 400 speed. I did try a hard one, just to see the dynamic range, taking pictures through a shaded tree of an extremely bright background. It was able to handle four stops without too much trouble.
The sky isn’t blown out. It was just ridiculously clear that day. Like you could see forever clear.
I also shot these with Ektar (And with portra, which I then ruined) and was surprised at how much range Ektar had. Also with how ridiculously saturated it is.
For reference, those reeds are golden. Here are digital images from that day that are closer to the real color of the lagoon. The one through the tree is HDR and kind of sucks… I don’t like HDR. But it is presented here as a comparison so you can see how much Ektar pops the reds and greens.
Portraits of Doug and the dog definitely show how extremely saturated Ektar comes out.
The greens are rich and lush, and the colors of his shirt and vest really come through, but his skin is a bit ruddier than in real life. Good to know for future film choices.
I took a shot of Baba two nights ago. This was one week after the black and white one above, and taken during the blue hour as they were preparing to close up.
I took a digital shot about fifteen minutes later, and the Ektar is as saturated as the processed digital, but also has nicer highlights.
I have no idea what I did to get the color shift in the sign. I have auto white balance going on, so most these colors are probably more real to life, but I had to dial back the highlights in the digital image quite a bit to get those lamps in gamut and doing so maybe I pulled some of the blue out. It is a wonderful image, full of detail, that I’m very proud of, but the highlight range on that film is really cool. Even with the green tint from the streetlamp and the exaggerated reds, I dig it. The lamps in the restaurant just pop, and yet nothing is blown out on the sign or the white wall. The more I look at the film image the more I like it, so I intend to mat it and give it to the owners of the shop.3
1. Really, I just learned this two weeks ago. Don’t take my word on anything film related. It takes at least three or four weeks to become an expert on things like this.
2. This is mostly hubris. A wise man would shoot a few rolls in the daylight of a simple subject that could be metered by holding the Seikonic in the air and doing whatever it said. Dealing with new gear, in the dark, and trying to spot meter was too much to do at my skill level.
3. Again, hubris. But I don’t have a place for tons of prints so I pretend people care and give them away. Most people act like it’s a big deal, and I don’t have to watch when they toss it in a drawer and never look at it again so my heart still swells with pride.
Or… How I lost my mind and decided to do things in a way that’s harder, slower, and takes significantly more effort for modest results.1
So, yeah. I bought a film camera. Not too bad a thing, right? Considering I have a metric crapload2 of extremely high quality Nikon lenses that will work extremely well on an old body I could either dig up my old FM or just snag an N90 off the fleabay for $40, scrape all the gooey rubber stuff off, and be good to go. I could even splurge a little and get an old F, which is one of the cameras I learned on. My middle school art teacher had an F photomic he’d let me use, though the classroom camera I used most was a Pentax K series, which also holds a place in my heart. But that giant silly pentaprism on the F photomics strikes me as one of the Japanesest looking things in 1970s photography and I love it to this day.
Even an F4 would be a relative bargain, and would scratch the nostalgia itch because it was the camera I wanted back in the days I was shooting regularly with my FM and 4004. In fact, the F4 is about as modern as I would need at a fraction of an F6 price, and would pair beautifully with several of my lenses. Even an F5 is less than half the price of a used F6 and might be the best built camera Nikon ever made. So many great 35mm options.
Definitely the wise choice for me would be an F4 or F5 to use modern lens features, or an older F series if I don’t mind manual focus (which I don’t). Small investment, big reward there.
In case you’re not getting the hint, this camera is big. It’s like a Flintstones camera, everything strangely oversized and extremely mechanical compared to modern digital
Having carefully thought through the best course of action, definitely being a late model Nikon, I bought a medium format camera. And not an old RB67, an absolutely ridiculous Fuji GX680IIIs. 6×8 negatives, switchable and rotatable film backs (to shoot portrait without having to move the camera), autowind, hot shoe, and all of the other bells and whistles that were absolutely state of the art for medium format in the mid ’90s. A far different ecosystem than the 35mm I grew up in, and of course completely incompatible with everything else I use — including my filters, alas. More on that later.
A local man was selling a very complete kit with a pair of film backs, half a dozen lenses, and various other accoutrements, all in reasonable working order and good for local pickup. I could theoretically get shooting right away and not have to further accoutre this beast. So I struck the deal and we made arrangements for me to pick it up last weekend.
When I got there it was even better than he promised. He made sure everything had batteries (the film backs have separate batteries from the body, so they will hold their meta information when separated) and all was in good working order, and had more accessories than I expected or really think I’ll use, including a Polaroid back, extended rails for macro work, and the remote, which I really like for zero shake shutter release on landscapes. He was even kind enough to throw in a bunch of fresh Ilford Delta and Portra160, to which I added a box of Ektar100 because I have read is very saturated which might make for interesting landscapes.
He also supplied me with a substantial tripod at a reasonable price, something I had not yet located, but decided I needed before even paying for the camera. My Manfrotto’s legs are up to the task but the ballhead is pressed to its limits with the the 200-500 lens, ftz, and Z6, all of which add up to about 8lbs. In Manfrotto’s defense, the only time I really have problems is with the lens fully extended and at angles, like when shooting the moon, which really unbalances things. Still, I didn’t want to push it with the Fuji. The Bogen I bought from this kind gentleman has a video head on it that’s rock solid. Probably too much, in fact, as the tripod weighs as much as the camera. But, again, it is safe and usable. I can find a slightly more portable solution later. For now, I will just stay near enough to the car that I don’t mind the 12 pounds of tripod.
In case you’re not getting the hint, this camera is big. It’s like a Flintstones camera, everything strangely oversized and extremely mechanical compared to modern digital, or even 35mm of the same era. I got the S version, which is the “lightweight” jobber without tilt and rise controls on the lens, so mine’s only 8.5lbs with a smaller lens. The III (non-S) is half a pound heavier, though it has rise and tilt controls you only see on large format. If I was shooting architectural I might have held out for a bargain on that version out of Japan, but my original idea for medium format revolved around landscape and portraiture, where this should shine.
When I mention mechanical, I mean in the sense of 1990s Japanese industrial design, where everything is remarkably solid. The film motors sound resolute and powerful as they wind. The mirror raises with a resounding thunk and even the shutter itself — leaf shutters that are made by Seiko and built into the lenses — is loud. So loud I would never use this camera for wildlife. At least not up close wildlife that I was not wanting to disturb. But it’s not an old fashioned, all manual camera. It was pretty state of the art in terms of 1990s medium format, in fact.
Of course, there’s no internal metering like on a modern 35mm. Actually, that’s not true, there is internal metering, but only while the exposure is happening so the thing will beep angrily at you after the shot if you are over or underexposed by 2 stops.3 But otherwise you get to pull out the Seikonic and deal with that hideous UI to figure out what exposure settings you need.
So, my first image, taken in lovely black and white to make it super artsy-fartsy awesome, was of my tiny little baby camera.
The aspect ratio is 4:3, with the negatives being 6×8. For perspective my cellphone camera is 6.5cm wide, so the negative is almost as wide as the phone screen. In the photo above you see what looks like the end cap of a 5″ artillery shell that the camera is sitting in. That’s the lens cap for the 50mm. It must weigh almost a pound by itself.
The 50mm lens, which takes beautiful photos and has a field of view slightly wider than my 24mm on the z6, is just monstrous.4 Alas, it has 112mm filter threads, which means I can’t use the 100mm filter holder I use with the z6 as most of my Fuji lenses are 95mm or 112mm threads.
Most of the black and white roll I shot that day came out OK, but I underexposed most of the color roll. A combination of having trouble setting and reading my light meter — which I think I have since beaten into submission — and thinking digitally. I can pull detail up from too dark in digital, but with both Ektar (color) and this Ilford Delta black and white film it seems best to use the old-school method of metering the shadows and letting the highlights take care of themselves.
The first color photo I took, underxposed, was of the Z6 and the powerplant below. The light was wishy washy at that moment and I should have just blown the sky out. The second shot of surfers and rocks was also underexposed, and I could easily have added a stop to get detail from the jetty, which was positively glowing in real life, and still had plenty of detail in the sky. For contrast, I added some that I took properly exposed of Doug and that little asshole dog. Between the underexposed early attempts, and the mundane pose (poor Doug had no warning, hadn’t shaven or dressed or put on his best ball cap, but I was in need of a subject) these don’t qualify as artsy. Doug calls the dog “Stinky” instead of his given name “Bootsie” so I’m thinking they qualify as fartsy, though.
On the surfer picture, I shot the rocks with a spot meter to make sure I didn’t blow the highlights and it came up a stop below the incident reading and what the Nikon was saying, the sky and reflections spot metered a couple stops above. I fudged down, as I would with digital, and it was all too dark. Too dark also means more grain, and less detail with Ektar. I am having to learn what is a good match for medium grey and those rocks are way lighter. Frankly, I shouldn’t bother with the spot at all if I’m not stretching more than five stops. The sun lighting me is the same distance away from the rocks and the surfers, I can just trust the incident. But I learn by doing so matching anything I can point the meter at with the incident reading should, in theory, eventually teach me what is a midtone and what isn’t.
For the portraits I just believed the incident meter and, for fun, shot all kinds of stuff in the scene with the spot. The green plants are a good substitute for middle grey, and the browns come up close. The shadow of Doug’s face under his hat was within a stop or two of those readings, too and the film had plenty of dynamic range to handle it and not lose detail.
And it looks pretty good when actually, you know, properly exposed. Ektar really does have saturated colors for a negative film, all you have to do is get enough light on it. Who would have guessed it?
For reference, here’s the surf scene properly exposed.
Properly exposed — taken with the Z6 at the same time as the film shot above
As a silly art project I recreated the first film shot, except in reverse. Using the Fuji as the subject and shooting with the Z6. It’s wearing the 100mm, which is the physically smallest lens in the whole kit, and sitting on the lens cap from the Nikon 24-70 I’m using to take the images. The size difference is palpable.
I’ll post more later about the camera, and maybe some more pictures if I can get any good ones. It takes a long time to get good images with this thing. In terms of setting up, I guess, but especially in terms of the number of days between taking a shot and actually being able to see the results. And if you drop a roll you just pulled out of the camera and it springs open you lose all the shots you carefully composed over the last two days and have to try again.5 But I plan on a roll of film (9 shots) per week minimum until I learn how not to ruin 8 shots per roll. We’ll see if my artsy to fartsy ratio improves in 2021.
1. This should be read in your best Jay Ward voice.
2. Variously Crappeloade or Imperial crapload equal to 1.1023 of a normal crapload
3. I’ve worked with people like that. They won’t give you help up front. Just have you do all the work then tell you you’re wrong after. Those are the best kinds of bosses!
That result is never as good as when your exposure is damned near perfect in the camera
My porch has a view of a tiny peek of the ocean. With the 500mm lens you can just get a glimpse of it through these two palm trees that are about 1000 yards away along the lagoon, but if you move a few inches left you catch the corner of the house, and move an inch right and you’ll run into the post on the corner of the porch. There’s not much latitude for movement, but at the end of the summer I noticed the sun setting closer and closer to those palm trees, and really wanted to try and get a picture of them, the peek of water, and the sun. I figured I had two days to make it work, no more.
I mean, I could make it work other days. Get a ladder, climb on the roof, whatever. Just rig something so I can move the camera off the porch and still get up high enough to see over the neighbor’s fence and the avocado tree, but these are the dark days of 2020 when there’s fuck-all to do so this is the game. Gotta take it from the porch, or not at all.1 For the next month I tracked the sun a couple days a week, watching it setting a little farther south each day.
Mid October the sun was almost there. I practiced exposures a bit so I could get it perfect on one of the two good days. I figured the best days would be around the 14th, but we had some clear afternoons in the week leading up. Here was the 11th:
As you see, there were some clouds rolling in. The next two days were cloudy, I didn’t even get a sunset on the 12th, but it cleared up just before sunset on the 13th. I was rushing, and I had to crop a bit of the rain gutter out of the upper right corner (which is why it’s 4×5 ratio), but got this shot:
Still not quite perfect. Maybe one stop underexposed. I could bring it up in the photoshops, but even if I had that program or something like it that result is never as good as when your exposure is damned near perfect in the camera. A weak Santa Ana was forming so the next night was good for one more shot:
Bam!2 Money, baby! This is straight from the camera, as shot.
Proof: No edits, just dump to jpeg from CaptureDX
I did cheat some. I bracketed the exposure and let it fire five times, though the setting I chose in the middle was the best, identical to the previous night then up 1.3 stops. More exposure blew out the sun and less lost details.
The setup from the porch looked like the picture inset. Note I have an inch or two to move right before I hit the post… almost enough to get the sun centered. I don’t remember if those were the final camera settings. If you care, this was 1/40th at f/22, and I got there with spot metering, preserve highlights, and cranked the middle exposure +1.3. At least according to the exif data in NikonView.
The very narrow room for composition
Since film is free in the Z6, I also took a bunch if brackets from before the sun hit the palms until it was beneath the horizon, and there were a plenty of really nice shots. I even had one in the middle of the trees… but I am not going to show you any more.
This is my favorite. I like it slightly to the side, and just kissing the water. Something about asymmetry speaks to me these days. It’s more aesthetically pleasing, especially when cropped to an 8×10 print, which I do just by lopping 2 inches off the right side.
The next night was cloudy before sunset, so this was my last chance.3 My weather luck held up on the 14th though, so there you have it. October, 2020’s magnum opus.
Go back and look at the money shot again, right click and view file, it’ll expand to 2200px. That’s about 1/3 the original size, and the detail amazes me. An almost impossible shot with technology even a few years ago and, while I shouldn’t call it easy, it was easy enough it feels like cheating.
The three images I sent to test North Coast Photo
This was the first print I made at North Coast photo. That same evening, in fact. I sent it off an hour after the sun set. It looks even better on paper, in your hand. Contact me if you want a print, I’ll make you one in a heartbeat. The one on my wall is 8×12, but It is easily good for up to 12×18 at the original ratio, or 16×20 cropped. If I know you I’ll do it at my cost.
Only like six people have ever looked at this blog, so you probably have my email or phone number.
1. Yeah, I’m full of shit. If I’d missed it I’d totally have stacked some boxes for the tripod to stand on or climbed on the roof the next week.
2. I sure hope you read that as if it was uttered while squeezing a Spice Weasel
3. Pretend with me, or the title Palmhenge isn’t as fun. We can intone “Lo, and the sun shall only kiss the gap on the third week after the solstice,” or some crap like that.
I had planned to play with the film camera today, but by 1PM there was scud rolling in and the light was really tricky, so I decided to leave it at home. I expected overcast at the beach and with the new camera I have a few issues I need to overcome, not the least of which being the fact that the 50mm lens, which is perfect for landscapes, has a 112mm filter thread! Seriously. 112mm. That’s ridiculously large.1 I’m using a 100mm system now with the largest thread for the adapter ring being 82mm. That means it’s good for my 100mm and 210mm Fuji lenses, but I need something bigger2 if I am to use filters on the 50mm or 80mm, which are, of course, the obvious choices for landscape.
I could have taken shots … with zero effort had great reward. I mean, it was an f/8 and be there kind of moment
If it means anything, I’ve wanted something that’ll do 95mm ever since I shot Palmhenge3, I just haven’t because how often will you really use a filter at 500mm?4 I guess now I will have some more opportunities, though I’ll be limiting the number of filters as the most likely candidate seems to be a Cokin XL. Those 130mm filters are a lot less common than the smaller ones, and can get expensive. So without a way to stop down the sky on the ultrawide I just assumed it would not work out. Thus my decision to not have it set up and in the truck.
The problem with this decision? Well, the sunset was perfect for photography. First. the sun came out and lit the power plant and the bluffs behind the cooling pond spectacularly. I could have taken shots away from the sun, no filters, and with zero effort had great reward. I mean, it was an f/8 and be there kind of moment, and I realized straight up I should have had the confidence to at least have the camera ready.
Of course, I had the z6 in the truck, so I headed south planning to shoot wherever I found a parking place. The first open hole was by the cold water jetty, so I trekked out to the middle of the jetty to see whatever I could see.
By the time I was on the jetty a cloud obscured the sun, which removed the glorious glow on the powerplant and bluffs, but the sky was still fun so I took pictures of the surfers. There were some kids catching the white water and laughing and yelling the whole time. Their mother was on the beach yelling at them to come in and they’d call back “Not yet! Wait until it’s dark!” I left after it was well dark and they were still in the water, but by the time I was to my truck they were getting the “You come in right now!” speech, with all sorts of threats. Those kids are in for a stern talking to tonight. But I’m sure it was worth it.
After a few shots of the surfers the sun peeked out beneath the clouds again and the sky turned into a picture postcard, ready to be made. A young couple was out on the end of the jetty, so I used them as a focal point. I got more than a few good shots, some with them silhouetted, one or two where they’re more exposed. I gave them an email address as they were leaving, I hope the contact me so I can give them some pictures.
After they left I set up again as the light was changing, hoping to get some birds and this fishing boat that was on the horizon. But, then, the most annoying thing on earth happened, some lady and her child climbed out on the jetty. Now, that’s OK. I don’t own the jetty, but for fuck’s sake, you have a pile of rocks thirty feet wide and two hundred feet long, do you have to stand LITERALLY right in front of the camera I have carefully placed on a tripod?
Do you have to stand there? Really?
The climbed around in front of me until the sun was almost gone, pretty much ruining the rest of the shots from this perspective. For obvious reasons, I didn’t give them my email address.5 They don’t get a lovely framed 8×10 Color Glossy picture with circles, arrows, and a paragraph on the back.
The thing with this sunset, though, is that it never quit.6 The color died down for a few minutes, then it went insane, the sky lighting up pink and crimson, and the water reflecting colors. It kept changing, and I kept taking shots thinking “This is the peak” but it didn’t peak for 10 minutes. The color would just be brighter to the left or the right. At that point I could easily have taken film photos, with ANY lens including the 100mm. Below is a photo taken at 47mm, and I cropped it to 6×8 to get an idea of what field of view I might get with a 100mm lens and, frankly, it makes me feel that much more foolish. I’ve said it before, sometimes the days that look ugly in the afternoon come up with the wildest, most interesting skies.
47mm cropped to 6×8 should be about the same field of view as the 100mm medium format.
There were many, many more lovely moments. I left long after sunset and the beach still harbored dozens of people staring west. When I got home another blossoming of color happened, streaks of purple and deep red lit all the clouds. Had I stayed I might have gotten some fun long exposures, but I had important business to attend7 and hustled away. I think I got enough after sunset shots, even if I was impatient.
Here’s some experimenting with images I got after dark. I converted one to black and white to see what it might look like shooting Delta100 or something. The pelicans were taken well after dark, and are a touch blurry, but I love birds in my photos. My favorite is the one with the crashing wave, but there are two dozen equally colorful photos on the memory card. It was that kind of an evening.
If there is anything to learn from tonight, it’s to keep even the gigantic camera ready to go. I’ll have to ruin a few rolls of film to learn all of its quirks anyway, might as well get on with it. F/8 and be there.8
Since I referred to it before, here’s Palmhenge, the sun setting between a pair of trees about a KM away in October, 2020. What you see here is uncropped, unedited, and I’m strangely proud of that. This one prints out spectacularly, and I’ll gladly sell you a signed and numbered print either in the current aspect ratio (in 8×12 or 16×24 inch glossy) or cropped to match consumer frames (in 8×10 or 16×20 glossy). Just shoot me an email.
1. That’s what she said.
2. That’s what she said.
3. I only now realize I haven’t posted Palmhenge. I have included the money shot here. I should make a post for it, alone, one day.
4. Once. Only once. Well, twice, once to correct what I fucked up the first time I tried it. But only once that I would show anyone.
5. Because Fuck You, that’s why.
6. That’s what she said.
7. Laundry. My important business was laundry, with which I was helped by Lucy. There’s often the annoyance of being bothered by a cat while folding your underwear, and I suppose it’s understandable. Except in this case, because it’s not even my cat, so it’s just weird.
8. For people who haven’t heard the phrase, f/8 and be there is a photojournalist’s credo from the early days, meaning it is better to be ready and take an imperfect, but good enough, shot than to be fussing with your gear and miss something.
I have been experimenting with a few things recently. Filters, different lenses, and weird light. I scouted a couple new locations that I think will be great for sunrise photos, and took sunset photos while I was there even though I was looking the wrong way because, why not? I saw lots of pelicans diving off the beach one night while I had the 20mm on, so I switched to the long lens for the next time out and… wasn’t able to get a single pic of a diving bird.
So, here’s some random stuff from the last two weeks.
I tested the Nikon claim that my camera was weather sealed this evening. In between rain storms I shot some landscapes, using a GND to tame the sky and a reverse GND to tame that sun when it decided to peek out.
No neutral density. Ocean was pretty victory-at-sea today and the wind was howling, so very few reflections to play with. And I wanted the clouds to look like the looked, which was absolutely wild.
Would have liked to do more experimenting, but the lens and filters were so spotted from the squall you can see coming in in the third photo, I couldn’t get anything but water drop blurries after that. I headed back to the truck to dry off my gear.
Interesting side note as I post these. I did the third one out of Nikon Capture, and the first two from On1. I did auto white balance on each, and On1 wants to correct that magenta cast while Nikon doesn’t. I might try an apples to apples comparison, as it was getting mighty dark in the last photo as the squall line marched toward us, but… I probably won’t. I like it just fine either way.
Yeah, you know me. Who’s down with GND? Every last lady…
Wait. Not sure that’s appropriate. GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filters are what I’m talking about.
They are a mainstay of old school landscape photographers. I’ve done the circular GND thing, but since I’m using lenses with stupid large filter threads (which means they must be better than smaller ones, right?1) and my favorite lenses all seem to have different diameters, I figured it was time to just get a proper holder and use square filters. They’ll work on my main lenses, which use 77mm and 67mm threads, and when I get stupid and pull out the medium format they’ll work there, too. So it’s a good investment2.
Sometimes the ugly days will surprise you with a few good moments if you’re patient.
I started with an open-box set from the bargain bin on the Formatt Hitech site that has 1, 2, and 3 stop soft GND and 1, 2, and 3 stop solid ND filters in resin. They are pretty cheap to begin with, especially compared to the name brand resin filters, but with the open box bargain they were as cheap as anything save the horrible random-chinese-company-brand filters you get off of the amazon dot com. My thought was to experiment with them and then be better informed if I decide to spend money on higher quality glass in the future.
I’m not bitching too much as getting a half dozen good filters for less than a hundred is impossibly inexpensive — one Lee resin filter costs that much — but they aren’t exactly perfectly neutral. The clouds today and the foggy sky yesterday definitely showed a magenta cast, especially when I tried stacking the NDs to get 5 stops. Maybe Hitech is trying to be the Velvia of the filter world. It’s not the worst thing, and probably correctable in software if I cared or knew how to do more than use the crop tool and click on “Auto sharp”, but definitely not perfectly neutral.
I also got a reverse GND for sunsets since I take way too many pictures of of the sun setting on a perfectly flat horizon. I really should remember to turn around once in a while, as the joy of golden hour light is what’s illuminated, not the lamp. Also, I have heard rumors that there’s stuff east of the beach, though I haven’t confirmed that recently. Really seems pointless to head east of I-5.
Of course, the weather yesterday was terrible. Foggy, but not foggy enough to be interesting. Today was almost as bad, but there were high tropical clouds, so at least there was something to test. And sometimes the ugly days will surprise you with a few good moments if you’re patient.
I shot the sand at the waterline, and then the sky, and found 1.5 stops difference. Strange as I usually see 2 to 3 stops, but that’s why you don’t just get a 3 stopper and be done with it. So I began with the 2 stop GND and added 3 stops of ND so I could do a long exposure.
Interesting to see the little blurries there as I was using 15-25 second shutter speeds and there were lots of people around, kids running in and out of the water, surfers, and wading birds. I think the ghosts add flavor.
I did clean my sensor last night and can be proud of the fact that there aren’t a dozen little spotty things to use the retouch tool on. So I have that going for me, which is nice.
Then I slapped the 2 stop reverse GND on as the sun was on the horizon. This worked well, and the hard edge was much appreciated compared to the softer GND I started with. I have some proper glass filters, hard edge, already on the way as I think they’ll be useful for this superwide lens, but this sky wasn’t the best for a reverse GND alone, so I slapped the 1 stop GND on with it to tone down the top of the sky some. That gave me 2.5 stops on the horizon and maybe 1.5 stops at the top of the frame, and I set it up to do three shots, at exposure setting and 2 stops above and below. Just to experiment with what I got using different metering.
Then, somewhere in the middle of this intervalometer experimentation, the sky went insane. This was 10-15 minutes after sunset and the clouds had dulled, but they suddenly brightened again and turned a brilliant crimson. It was cool. Everyone on the beach was either staring slack jawed or trying to take selfies with the red sky behind them.
Alas, I spent time fumbling with the camera, still had 3 stops of ND filter in even though it was getting significantly darker, and still had both GNDs in though the sky was barely a stop brighter than the reflection at this point. I yanked one and lined it up for some shots, but I was rushing and didn’t remember to turn off my bracketing. Of the half dozen shots, each between 10 and 25 seconds long, only 2 came out. Then one I did with a shorter exposure that came out OK. The brilliant sky only lasted a minute or two and all of this was past the peak.
I guess it’s a good lesson. I know how to set this stuff up, but all the fiddling and silly experiments with timers and automatic exposures are too tempting. I could have gotten at least three more great shots with different framing if I’d just stuck to the script. So these aren’t my best work, though I did clean my sensor last night and can be proud of the fact that there aren’t a dozen little spotty things to use the retouch tool on. So I have that going for me, which is nice.
Here are the two that came out close to adequately exposed. Both taken after the peak in the crimson glow, but still before it had completely faded. The last one I had spun the aperture way open and was a bit overexposed, but none of the highlights were blown so it was recoverable. There are benefits to compressing the dynamic range before it hits the sensor.
I’m sure I’ll take more soon, and we have proper rain coming this weekend. Two storms back to back, so maybe I can get something dramatic in between the storms, or after the second one passes. There’s often a day with great visibility and fluffy white clouds after a front moves through, so here’s hoping the timing of the rain is photographically opportunistic.3
1 That’s what she said.
2 By investment I obviously mean expense. No offense, but if you’re looking to someone wasting good money on camera gear for financial advice you’re probably barking up the wrong tree. Between the lenses and filters I have I could have really invested, in something really important and useful. Like a guitar.
3 It’s 2020. Let’s be real, this is about as much optimism as we can invest right now.
Sounds like a parable of some kind. I should write it. But mostly there was a big friggen red tailed hawk on the telephone pole out front and the neighborhood crows don’t cotton to that, so they were divebombing him attempting to chase him away.
Tried to get some decent pictures, but pictures of a static hawk and a dive-bombing crow turn out to be damned hard to capture. This is about all of the drama I was able to get in the frame before the hawk decided to fly away, chased by a handful of zealous black shadows.
Maybe there are more stills worth bouncing to jpg. Check back later and see. For now, here’s a couple of the hawk, himself.
Just a couple of studies of the finches that occasionally feed on the berry bush by the driveway. They’ll hang out atop the avocado tree, and often there will be half a dozen in the berry bush, but they don’t stay there for long nor can I count on them every day. As I was taking these, Doug came by and startled them, and they never returned.
The first is in the berry bush, where I finally got one not obscured by the branches. This is actually only the first on the page here, as this series was what I was taking when Doug and Bootsie came through and broke up the party.
A few will pick pine nuts off the dead pine tree in the middle of the yard. The Goldfinches do this, as well, but I haven’t been able to get a really good shot of them.
And this guy spent some time atop the avocado tree. The dark streaks in the background are the power wires across the street, and I haven’t photoshopped these. I just cropped what came out of the camera.
Alas, while this perch is great in that they’ll stay there, it is still difficult to get a good angle on them as the light is from the west and the tree is right on the western edge, against the fence. Trying to get up against the fence always scares them away, but as the summer is past and the sun is moving south, it is easier to get them reasonably lit while standing in the driveway, due south of them.
So, LBBs are hard. There’s a reason for the term “flighty” and these little bastards sure are. They swoop in and swoop out, and choose a different place to perch or feed almost every evening, very seldom where I am when I have a camera in hand.
At least I’m getting some practice exposing birds. Even if I do end up deleting 100 crappy images after I’m done trying.
