Spring in New Brunswick means Lupines!

There are tons and tons of lupines here in New Brunswick, and while they are common, they are varied in their colour and size. They provide many opportunities for exploration in composition and experimentation.

Click here for Wikipedia info on Lupine.

They are only out in their prime for a few weeks, so you need to act if you want to photograph them.




I am a little behind in my editing and blogging, but these were taken June 14, 2009 at midday in a buggy farmer's field about 15 min from my home. I love the one with the bumble bee - it was a huge bee and its legs were covered in pollen as you can see in the photo. I was practicing the technique of having blurry foreground elements present to help place and frame the subject.

There were a few daisys out as well...




Most of these photos were taken on a Canon 20D, with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens set on aperture priority at f/2.8 and zoomed to 50mm, and using a polarizing filter.

All RAW files were tweaked in post production, but mainly just a slight colour balance, and exposure correction. The first daisy photo was a horizontal crop from a vertical photo, and vignetting was added.

-André

Photo Collage Workshop

Originally, the idea of a photo collage did not really appeal to me. I think it was partly because I did not know how to do it effectively, and partly because I thought they were a little cheesy.

Our photoclub had a workshop on the weekend, and I had a great time learning and building photo collages!

Here are the collages I created during the session:







The trick is making an effective border so the images pop off the background. These were done using a large paintbrush tool, and then going around each photo so only the edge of the brush affected the photo. Also the background is usually made from a photo in the theme you have selected - do the colours are similar - and then the photo is blurred to create a background. I dound it was also effective to choose the photo, and invert it. This way you get colours which are literally complementary to the colours in the photos you have selected (like in the haircut photo collage).

I will be building more, I am sure!

1930's Ansco Box Camera

I just felt drawn to Value Village about a week and a half ago - wasn't sure why...but here is the reason!

I picked up a box camera for $9.99! It is an Ansco brand, and from my research, it looks like it was made in the 30's. Two big bonuses here - a) It works!, and b) It takes 120 film (which I have). It could have taken 116 or 127 or 620, etc... which I don't have, and you can't readily get any more.

From what I read, it has an aperture of about f/8-f/11 and a shutter of about 1/30 sec. The inside of the camera says to use Ansco Plenachrome film...?
Most sites suggest using a 100 speed film for sunny days. The sunny 16 rule would indicate that a 30 ASA film would be good for a 1/30 sec. shutter at f/16. This would mean 60 ASA at f/11, or 125 ASA at f/8 (assuming the given aperture and shutter speed are correct).

I took it for a test run at the park on a very overcast day. I probably should have used 400 ASA film, but I used 100 and pushed it to 200 in development. Here are a couple of the images:





The shots were scanned on my Epson 4490, and given a contrast boost and some sharpening in post production.

Spring is on the way.

I have titled this post 'Spring is on the way', because it is about flowers. However I struggle with this as it is Easter weekend and it has been snowing for two days. Oh well.

My brother-in-law is a managing partner at a green house - I have not taken advantage of this fact enough. Yesterday morning I went in an hour before the store opened, and spent some time shooting. I set a custom white balance on my Canon 20D and, using an adaptor, I mounted an old Nikon M extension tube (27.5mm extension) and then put on a Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 (AI mount). I found this combination pretty good for getting a half decent magnification while providing some working distance. On my first trip out, I chose to use the M extension tube with my Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 (Non-AI), for life size magnification. Unfortunately the tripod to table display distance was too great for me to get close enough. A little research shows me this:

Total extension used / Focal length used = Magnification
for my setup this was...
27.5mm / 135mm = ~ 1/5
However the 135mm lens does extend about 10mm when focused to its closest setting, so the maximum magnification may be up to ~1/4
While 1/4 life size is not great for 'Macro' work, I do get a lot of working room, and fairly close up. Compare this to the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 which has a max magnification of 0.13x (or about 1/8th)

Here are the photos!

Playhouse Entries

I know I have been slow to post recently - but just a quick update. I am planning to enter these 2 photos to be shown at the Playhouse next month!

The Pinhole is still collecting light!

Another shot from my contraption:



What fun!

Agfa APX 100 4"x5" Sheet film, approx. f/280, 1 minute exposure, developed in HC-110 for 7 min.

Linhof Technika III Pinhole!

A while ago I acquired a Linhof Technika III Large Format 4x5 camera - without a lens. I wanted to try LF but also was looking to resell the Camera for a profit. I had no film, and no lens- not a good start for testing out how light tight the bellows are...

I had the bright idea of taking the lens mount board and attaching a pinhole to it. This way I could accomplish my goals and try Pinhole at the same time. A little searching around got me a few sheets of donated film. I did a little research and fashioned myself a .5mm pinhole 'lens'.

When mounted on the camera, and the bellows are pulled out to about 5 1/2 inches from the film plane, it gives me an aperture of about f/280, and a field of view roughly equivalent to a 40mm lens on a 35mm camera.

Here is the camera:


and here is the negative on my small light box - a one minute exposure:


and here is the inverted image:


I shot the negative with my Canon Digital Rebel XT.

I have a couple more sheets of film, and will post those as well when they are ready - then the camera goes up for auction.

I may still make or buy a medium format pinhole - what fun!