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The clouds this Evening were varied and changed by the minute with the setting Sun.
Canon XTi and Sigma 15-30mm
November 18, 2009
October 25, 2009
October 18, 2009
Choo choo
Today I was heading towards a wet area a few miles from home for some foliage shots when I noticed this local short line consist heading home. A quick diversion and I headed it off near a small depot that has been turned into a museum. I managed to get down the line about 1000′ and get set up as the whistle for the road crossing was sounded. The Sun disappeared soon after and the foliage shoot will have to wait.
Canon XTi and Sigma 15-30mm
The station is called the Martisco Station and the short line is the Finger Lakes Railway.
October 17, 2009
An Old-Time Hardware Store
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Today I went to photograph the interior of a hardware store that takes you back in time. The screen door protests a little as you open it, the floor is wood, and the ceiling is tin squares. Everywhere you look, the stock is packed tightly together. You name it and it is probably there somewhere. The store is located in Minoa, NY and is a family owned and run establishment. If you drive down the main street, aptly named Main St, you will have no problem finding it. Simply look for the wide windows on each side of the recessed front door. They are packed with enough goodies to keep you standing on the sidewalk for quite a few minutes.
As always, simply click on any thumbnail to enlarge the image.
September 6, 2009
New York State Fair 2009
Here are pictures taken today, Sunday, at the NY State Fair in Syracuse. I started around 8:30 am and finished around 11:15 am. The increase in people and the decrease of trucks is apparent. The buildings open at 10 am and the speaker system at 9:30 am gave warning to remove all vehicles.
Canon XTi with Canon 28mm f1.8 or Sigma 105mm f2.8. Most were manually focused on AV. I just managed to get the pic of Stargate Fair before they threw a huge blue tarp over it, they must have had an off-world problem.
When there are this many images in a gallery, some thumbnails may fail to load and just leave a square with a ? in it, simply click on the ? and the larger image will load.
August 23, 2009
Hyperfocal
I use a very simple method to determine Hyperfocal settings. Since I use mainly manual focus lenses, I simply use the built in guide put there by the manufacturer. If you look at the lens, on either side of the focus distance mark you will see f/stops. A pair for each. Using the Sears f1.4 50mm lens I have at hand, if I set the focus at 15 feet, the infinity mark is right above the righthand f16 mark and the leftmost f16 mark is between the 7 and 10 foot point. This means that if you want everything between ~8 feet and infinity to be in focus, set the aperture to f16. F8 would give 10-30 feet as the DOF. F4 as 12-17 feet DOF. From there on it is a crap shoot to use the scale as the DOF is so small.
For street shooting in NYC, I use a Meyer Optik Gorlitz f3.5 30mm on my Canon XTi with the vertical grip/battery holder. This gives a DOF at f11 of 1 foot to infinity. If I get the chance to focus on a particular point, I do so, setting the aperture to what I want for the shot. Then I return it to the f11 setting and reset the focus.
The FOV of the 30mm gives me an ~48mm lens value. Leaving the camera hanging from it’s strap around my neck, I can trip the shutter from the grip’s auxiliary button at the bottom so it appears I am only holding the camera from bouncing around rather than taking a picture. Raising a DSLR to your face and framing the shot will result in the least as having faces averted to a confrontational shout of “Did you take my picture?” and possibly more.
After a few minutes of shooting and stepping aside to a quiet place to review results, you get a feel for the hip shooting technique. Soon you will be able to shoot up/down/right/left of center with good accuracy. I get the personal feel of being the good guy in a Western that shoots the badguy off the roof with a hipshot while still facing down the badder badguy in the street ahead. Mirror slap is something you have to live with. My ‘new’ Pentax istD with a manual lens and set on live view is much quieter than the Canon and will probably replace the Canon for street shooting as soon as I locate a vertical grip for it.
If you have one of the newer AF lenses without an aperture control, consider stepping back in time to a simpler era of photography. Check it all out at Manual Focus Lenses Website
A quick note here. According to some mathematically focused experts – if you use full frame lenses on a crop DSLR, as I do, there is an increased DOF. This doesn’t make sense to me as the increase in FL of the crop factor would seem to indicate a decrease in DOF. I tend to ignore this as distracting and, if true, it just means I have a larger DOF than I have planned on.
August 11, 2009
Argus FA Test Roll
After having such good luck with the Kodak 35 test roll, I was hoping for similar results from the Argus FA. I am very disappointed with the Argus. The corners suffer from vignetting at f8, the lens flare is bothersome, there appears to be a light leak at one end of the rear cover, the shutter stuck open a couple of times, and it is cumbersome to use as the button to allow film advance has to be held down for about a third of the advance in order to cock the shutter. The pop out lens turns as you make adjustments, forcing you to have to search for the shutter. Otherwise it is fine 
I am not going to waste further film or time with this camera. However – it does look nice on the shelf with that art deco design.
If anyone asks why film is dying, a look at the dust on these scans from the overnight lab will give a clue.
Little Falls NY
I had the chance to go to Little Falls this afternoon. About 30 minutes was all there was to do a quick wander around. These were taken with the Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Lydith 3.5/30 on the Olympus E-510. It was a learning experience with the E-510. Nothing special here.
August 9, 2009
Kasey Kahne Steel Palace Classic
First off, let me say that the very worst place to take pictures of a racing event is from the stands. The very best? Have a photographer’s pass or be a track worker .
The cross hatch pattern seen in some of the pics is the way out of focus debris fence protecting the stands from flying parts.
Here are the best I managed at this event 8-6-9. Kahne was in car 67 and Newman was in car 11. The closeups of Kahne were taken as he passed in front of our seats on his way to the tower stairs. Kahne tried out one of Oswego Speedway’s Super Modifieds – that class has the highest power to weight ratio of anything that doesn’t go in a straight line. He is shown in the car with his helmet still on. Within a second a crowd surrounded the area – see opening statement.
August 8, 2009
Kodak 35 Camera Test Roll
See the original post regarding this camera here
The Kodak 35 was the first 35mm camera made by Kodak for sale. It is a brute made with solid stainless steel gears and spindles. The camera uses the actual pulling of the film by the winding knob to cock the shutter and move the exposure counter. The sacrificial rolls of old Fuji film that was stored next to an overheated nuclear reactor for ten years made many strange noises emit from the interior of the camera as I turned the film advance. The pressure to cock the shutter was so great at the start that I feared for the film itself. After running two 24 exposure rolls through it, with a touch here and there of camera oil, it freed up quite well.
The serial #316XX is on the case. Kodak began using the CAMEROSITY code on lenses in 1940, so until proven otherwise, since the serial number is on the bottom plate and none on the lens, it was made in the 1938-39 span, rather than the 1940-1948 end of production run.
I got the test roll from this camera today. The pictures here are very poor compared to the actual prints. I used a 24 exposure roll of Kodak Gold 100 film. The instruction manual had speed ratings for the old Kodak B&W films of the time. I then adjusted these values to the current ISO film ratings and got a Sunny Day exposure of 1/100 with f11.0. The prints look very nice. I told the guy to just develop and print the results with no tweaking and to make a CD. The exposures are right on except where I forced the aperture to check the depth of field and expected ghosting at dark/light junctures.
This is the last time I use the CD service from this place – the results as shown here suck. Every picture is pixelated at the 1500×1024 original scan size. If my PC was connected to the scanner I would have scanned the prints or negatives myself.
Anyways – the camera works just fine. I will now take a few rolls of B&W Kodak C41 process film and see the results. I doubt the lens is coated well, if at all. The B&W I will post on my f22plus.wordpress.com website.
The first is the picture of a tub of flowers in the front yard. The second is a focus on the light post at the wide open f4.5, the third is the post at f16- the other end of the range.
Bright Sun, No Clouds, Dreary Colors
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In other words, the norm for Upstate Central New York State from November 1 to May 30 each and every year. The only thing alive are the conifers. In an attempt not to waste the Sun, I went out with the XTi and the 13-30mm Sigma. Here are the crap results.
I went to the site of a restoration project of the area around where these to tunnels allow the passage of a stream under a built up berm of material that is topped by a local short line railroad. The car tunnel does the same. The bare trees backlit by the Sun are at least a tinsey bit artistic, maybe.