Turning over a new leaf

View this post with Links and Comments

Cross My Heart

View this post with Links and Comments

Darkroom Vader: Darth Last Spotted on Paper!

Earlier in our story Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Holga began life as a pinata at my nephew's birthday party. He was captured by the Holga, lord of cheap film cameras and was the first image to appear through the magic of my own film development.


Now, after untold weeks and sparing no expense, Darth has become the first test print developed in the Wiederholt darkroom (albeit a bit underexposed at the enlarger).

The irony is that the physical print of Darth took many weeks, atoms, and some (but not much, Jackie, I swear!) money to produce, while on the other hand the digital snap you see here on the blog took a matter of minutes to shoot, copy to the computer, and upload for the world to see.

View this post with Links and Comments

Miami / Florida Keys quick shots

Few shots for the family-type blog readers from our recent trip to the Florida Keys. Man was it hot.

Green Sea Turtle at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. Rehab and rescue for sea turtles that have been damaged by man's trash and machines.


Miami - Sunrise view of Miami Finacial District condos. Taken from our balcony at the Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Island.

Obligatory coconut on beach shot. These are the beach houses at Tranquility Bay Resort in Marathon. Great location in the Keys. Recommended.



Ansley after taking a dip in the ocean in Key West. This is sunset on the pier at the Casa Marina Resort. Don't order the seafood kabobs for dinner there. Trust me.


Jenna having breakfast at Blue Heaven in Key West. This was open air place with live music for breakfast. Great food and coffee! Known for their great banana bread (shown below). We also saw a ton of live chickens running in and out of the restaurant's patio area. Wonder if that was Blue Heaven's dinner specialty.





View this post with Links and Comments

Getting Closer Still

If you've been following the recent posts on using enlarging lenses for macro shots, here's an update.

Some old Canon bellows I bought off of eBay came today (here's what they look like). I don't quite yet have all the connectors in place that I need to use them correctly (for example I need an adapter to connect the bellows to camera), but I had enough pieces to see how close I could get in a shot and how much I could magnify it.

Setup:
Canon 5D, Canon FL bellows, Canon P adapter ring (allows connection of 42mm items bellows) and a 39mm to 42mm adapter ring (allows 39mm threaded enlarging lenses to be mounted on 42mm threads), reversing ring that allows lens to be flipped and mounted by the threads on front of lens normally reserved for filters, and a couple of enlarging lenses.

Subject: the labeling at the bottom of the shaving cream can seen here:



Below photo is shot with the 75mm Tayon enlarging lens mounted on the bellows with the adapter rings.


Below is shot with the 50mm El-Nikkor enlarging lens mounted on the bellows with the adapter rings.


Below is shot with the 50mm El-Nikkor enlarging lens *reverse* mounted on the bellows with the adapter rings.


Again, these were all "handheld" and a bit shaky with me holding the camera up to the back of the bellows -- waiting for that mounting ring from China to arrive.... Had to hold most shots for about a second or tad less.. Also, shot these with a single incandescent light bulb, so shot at 1600 ISO, hence the noise.

Going to look for some insects or something of that ilk soon....

View this post with Links and Comments

Macros with Taylor Tayon 75mm Enlarging Lens / Converter / Full Kenko Tubes

Couple of shots taken with Taylor Tayon 75mm enlarging lens, mounted on M39 to EF mount converter, and full set of Kenko extension tubes (68mm in total). Shot with Canon 1Ds III, 5500K, landscape calibration mode in Lightroom. Peace Plant taken at f/16, leaves at f/4.

View this post with Links and Comments