Dedicated to the Brave Men who go Down to the Chips in C (camera, that is)

Sorry for the really bad pun in the title.

How close can I get? Well, with a 100mm prime lens and a full set of Kenko extension tubes, I can get this close. I guess if I somehow did tubes and my 400mm it would be (4x?) closer, but not sure if I would be able to throw a whole bunch of light in there to support that shot.


This was challenging to light -- the camera was so close to the subject that it kept getting in way. I used an overhead softbox, and then had a raking light and handheld reflectors off to the side. I guess I see why people use ringflash on macro shots -- can illuminate everything pretty well that way.

By the way, the photo above is full, un-cropped 21M pixels. If I make a simple 1:1 (800x533) crop, this is how it comes out. How's that for focus! The DOF is about as narrow as that dime is...



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Film Developing

Well, now I have one roll of 120 B&W and one roll of 120 Color film that need to be developed. There are probably not too many shots, because every time someone saw the Holga, they grabbed it and started fiddling with knobs or pressing shutter. Who knows what I'll get out of them.

I decided to develop the B&W myself, and then scan the film with a scanner (I don't want to make prints myself just yet). Chemicals and equipment are cheap, and darkroom is really not needed just to develop.

Learned that on a Sunday, there is pretty much nowhere in Atlanta that you can buy film developing chemicals. The usual suspects, Showcase and Photo Barn, are closed on Sunday. Did learn of a couple of new darkroom supply places in Atlanta, QualityCamera.com and WingsCamera.com, but they are closed on Sundays too. So much for impulse buying.

So, I went ahead and ordered stuff from B&H in NYC for delivery. Too busy this week to drive around downtown looking for supplies. Will probably be a week before I get the package.

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The Holga 120N

I bought a Holga camera - a $25 plastic camera from china with a plastic lens. It is a film-based medium format camera. It has only one aperture setting (probably somewhere around f/11 or f/13). It has only one shutter speed (probably around 1/60th second). The "focusing ring" has 4 settings: an icon of one dude, an icon of 3 dudes, an icon of a group of dudes, and and icon of a mountain.

I've loaded it with B&W ISO 400 film, which given all the constants above, is probably going to be best for early morning and late evening -- golden hour and twilight shots outside. Probably won't be good for indoor shots, unless it is a sunroom or a well lit museum or atrium or something like that.

I took one shot this morning. Amazing how film made me much more deliberate in thinking about composition and light and "worthiness" of the photo before I snapped the shutter release. Digital is cheap and immediate. Film is costly and timely. I wonder if it'll make me a better photographer?

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Wedding Picnic in a Barn

I went to a wedding picnic held in a barn. This is how I remember it.

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Lighting Abstracts

Couple more abstracts, again focusing on lighting with these. 1) Raking Light and Refraction, 2) Backlit.


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Shadow Abstracts

Studio Strobe, with 10-degree grid, *and* a snoot, 8 feet away from the table. Was trying to make the light as hard and parallel as I could. The sun does a much better job!

Anyway, this is potato masher and a couple of pieces of foam core. Also the blue bottle from earlier post below.






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boids

On the eve of my day off. Hanging out on the back deck at sunset and twilight watching the birds. This is the same 100-400 lens as used at PDK Airport photos below. It doesn't do as well in low light situations.



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