Not much going on with me when it comes to photography at the moment. Not really in the mood. That said, I took this shot of my wife’s delphiniums today.
A Capture (26/5/20)
Tag: Flowers
Projects
Well it’s been a long while since I’ve written on this blog and we now find ourselves in interesting times. Passing time during this lockdown has been interesting as a photographer. While I still have the daily exercise of dog walking, I find myself getting bored of photographing the same plants on the same walks. Probably need to try some different walks!
Still, there are photos to be made and I will find them. Here are a few, taken recently.
The next thing to say is that my darkroom is out of order. Lots of the blackout material had gone mouldy. Irritating job, at the worst of times, but I stripped it back and hundreds of woodlice fell on my units. Not so good. The wood behind the blackout material had gone a bit soggy too, so that needs treating. I’ll get around to it eventually, but for now, no lith printing.
Anyway, I decided to take on a few photographic projects to pass the time. One thing I’ve been interested in for a while is cyanotypes (which is where the term blueprint comes from). I decided to get some Part A and Part B, as well as the book “Blueprint to cyanotypes: Exploring a historical alternative photographic process”. The video that inspired me to do this, and which made me want to try wet cyanotypes is this one on youtube and I think it’s an interesting starting place to see how the process works.
I also ordered some pre-coated paper from silverprint, but have yet to use it, as I found the wet processes so intriguing. It’s a bit “trying to run before you can walk”! I would highly recommend trying cyanotypes, with the pre-coated or wet method. It’s fun and quite cool to see the colour change, both when exposing it in the sun and in the wash. Then as you look at it over several days, it dries down to an even richer blue.
These are my three cyanotypes, so far:
So. That’s one project. The other is the Lomomod no 1, make your own camera kit from lomography. Now I’ll be honest. I thought this would be a quick project. Snap a few things together and you’ve got a camera. Nope!
I’ve so far made the back of the camera. It took about an hour and a half. It was very much a Zen like process and as they describe in the accompanying booklets, it’s based on joints rather than using glue or whatever. Very interesting. Assembling the back taught me several things. One, double check the images, because I put one of the main parts on upside down. Two, believe it when they suggest using a little sandpaper when joints don’t just click in. I broke a piece, which thankfully had a spare… which I also broke. But it’s OK, the spare had a spare too!
So yeah, lots to keep me occupied! Hope all who read this can find ways of keeping their creative juices flowing during this strange time. I’ll finish on a photo of our lad, just because 🙂 Taken with a Lensbaby Composer Pro II and Edge 35 Optic.
Z6…
….or how I learned to stop worrying and love mirrorless, full-frame cameras.
So, I’ve been using my Nikon Z6 for a couple of months now and it’s a fun camera to use. It’s also quiet, and has an even quieter silent mode if you need it. You can even use your DX lenses with it, you just need the FTZ adapter and need to be happy with your full-frame sensor acting as a crop sensor.
That said, even the 24-70mm f/4 S kit lense is nice, with crisp focus and not bad bokeh. As I’ve been posting of late, I’ve been using the Petzval 55 MKII lense quite a lot, at the expense of the kit lense. But no more. I’m using them both now and enjoying them equally.
As for the performance of the camera itself, the extra megapixels are nice and the camera itself is easy to use. I do occasionally change a setting without realizing it, or changing it and then not knowing how to change it back! This is however solved by a trip to the hefty manual.
As always, I will keep experimenting with this camera and I’ll start using the FTZ adapter with my currently abandoned lensbaby optics!
Captures of the… somewhen.
So, these are just a few of the shots I’ve taken of late. All taken with the Petzval 55 f/1.7 MKII.
Back in the saddle again…
So, it’s been a while since I wrote a blog post. I hit a bit of a rut and wasn’t taking many photos. Even now, I’ve not been in my darkroom for ages. But still, I’ve finally started taking more photos and I’ve started another 365 project, which is pushing me a bit. It turns out I was missing the need to take photos every day. It gets the old creative juices flowing!
Captures Of The Week (Or There Abouts!)
So, I’m still playing about with my Raynox 250 on my Tamron 90mm Macro Lense. While I’ve been doing a fair bit of macro work, I’ve also been swapping in the lensbaby as the mood takes me. Still love the edge 35 optic 🙂
Captures Of The Week (30/6/19)
Getting Even Closer!
So, I’ve been experimenting with a Raynox 250, as I said in my previous post. This is essentially a lense that clips on to the front of a lense to get you even closer. When combined with a macro lense, you get even closer. This does have it’s problems though, in that even with steady hands there’s still some shake, requiring high shutter speeds and a bit of luck. A tripod would make life easier when it comes to shake, but also makes life more difficult if you want to freely explore an object.
If I was feeling brave, I could even throw in some extension tubes and get closer still, but there’s only so much you can do whilst retaining your sanity!
I will be keeping the Raynox close to hand as it’s useful, but will need more practice using. Here are a few images I’ve made using it, mostly clipped onto my Tamron 90mm.
Captures Of The Week (5/6/19)
After a bit of a hiatus from my blog, I’ve decided to upload my favourite photos from the past week. I’ve also been experimenting by using a raynox 250 on my 70-300mm lense, with mixed results. It works well when it wants to!
I realised after posting this that I included photos from my previous captures of the day (doh!). I still think they’re captures of the week too, so they’ll remain.
Phun With Phones
So, after being forced to use my phone the other day (after forgetting my camera battery), I thought I’d play with it some more. I bought some cheap Mpow clip on lenses, just for fun. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the results. I’m especially happy with the 20x macro lense. Here are a few of my favourites so far.
Up Close And Personal 