Kevin, is that a black widow, very cool shot. Though I wouldn't have the guts to get so close with extension tubes (if that's what you used) to this critter.

Samy

kwoodard wrote:
Saw this technique over in the B&W forum, thought I would give it a try.


Solar Widow by Kevin.Woodard, on Flickr

Nikon 50mm f1.2 on FE-2 (Tri-X)


Queen of Hearts by Ian_Boys, on Flickr

Ian, wow, her eyes are pure magic. Excellent portraiture and quite an advertisement to shoot more film.

saph wrote:
Kevin, is that a black widow, very cool shot. Though I wouldn't have the guts to get so close with extension tubes (if that's what you used) to this critter.

Samy

kwoodard wrote:
Saw this technique over in the B&W forum, thought I would give it a try.


Solar Widow by Kevin.Woodard, on Flickr

Heh, um... I used my Series E 50mm reversed... I was about 2.5 inches away from it. Was a very cold day when I encountered the Widow. Was hiding in my Christmas tree box. It tried to bite me, just cut my cuticle a little bit, was nauseous for a day. Was the biggest one I have ever seen. End to end in that shot, nearly 3 inches...

Here are the originals, not sure how to make these any smaller, so sorry in advance... Again, Series E 50mm 1.8, reversed.



Missed focus on this, she kept charging the camera...

Ray, that is very pleasant Christmas bokeh and colors!

Jorge, cool street shots of those people. Too bad you are unable to keep up with manual lenses.

Leighton, sweet Shenandoah scenery! The Udvar Hazy center had the Enterprise shuttle (which never flew, I think it was a prototype) but they traded it in for the Discovery, which was the last shuttle to fly, so I was curious to see how those tiles looked after shielding against the extreme reentry temperatures. The Enterprise went to NYC, and the third one was last seen driving through LA streets recently

Laura, each one of the Christmas lights shots were very nice.

Ray from OH, loved the b&ws you posted a few pages ago. Second one with the old Ricoh camera had some nice bokeh.

Tony, just saw a few more of the Nikki pics, they are all great, I loved the one of the Capitol and flag.

Chin, love the straight lines in the brick wall with the 45 PC-E. Even Leighton won't be able to find anything to straighten out in them

Leighton, there were also a lot of hits from Ukraine, wonder if there's some Ukrainians interested in NMF glass or if that was spam. BTW, your sheep have nothing to worry about seeing Jed's expression, he definitely isn't letting anyone close to them

Matt, very nice pics of Brandon with Santa.

Nancy, very nice shot of the beach and flowers with the 28 f2.

Bert, nice image with the mist in the background.

Ron, the bread looks well risen and ready to devour.

Rafael, where is that town with the colorful sky in the "coit" photo? Its beautiful!

Georg, loved the blackbird with the yellow beak in the white snow.

Samy

The eyes have it, Ian.

Don't you love film? I am currently scanning lots of negatives from the late 1970's and I am really amazed. Can't show them here, because most of them were taken with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F, my first SLR, but you may follow this link

Paul G

Kevin, holy schmoly that's more bravery than I will ever pull together in my whole life.

If I ever encounter one of these, I will tack on the TC301 and TC14 to my 500 f4P to get 1400mm so I can shoot from 25 meters away

That said, those are the best shots of a black widow I have seen.

kwoodard wrote:
saph wrote:
Kevin, is that a black widow, very cool shot. Though I wouldn't have the guts to get so close with extension tubes (if that's what you used) to this critter.

Samy

kwoodard wrote:
Saw this technique over in the B&W forum, thought I would give it a try.



Heh, um... I used my Series E 50mm reversed... I was about 2.5 inches away from it. Was a very cold day when I encountered the Widow. Was hiding in my Christmas tree box. It tried to bite me, just cut my cuticle a little bit, was nauseous for a day. Was the biggest one I have ever seen. End to end in that shot, nearly 3 inches...

Here are the originals, not sure how to make these any smaller, so sorry in advance... Again, Series E 50mm 1.8, reversed.

Missed focus on this, she kept charging the camera...

Supper

NightOwl Cat wrote:
Some Christmas lights on display

Your front yard?
Very nice shots!

leighton w wrote:
You know some days are just boring here on the farm.

saph wrote:
Kevin, holy schmoly that's more bravery than I will ever pull together in my whole life.

If I ever encounter one of these, I will tack on the TC301 and TC14 to my 500 f4P to get 1400mm so I can shoot from 25 meters away

That said, those are the best shots of a black widow I have seen.

kwoodard wrote:
saph wrote:
Kevin, is that a black widow, very cool shot. Though I wouldn't have the guts to get so close with extension tubes (if that's what you used) to this critter.

Samy

kwoodard wrote:
Saw this technique over in the B&W forum, thought I would give it a try.



Heh, um... I used my Series E 50mm reversed... I was about 2.5 inches away from it. Was a very cold day when I encountered the Widow. Was hiding in my Christmas tree box. It tried to bite me, just cut my cuticle a little bit, was nauseous for a day. Was the biggest one I have ever seen. End to end in that shot, nearly 3 inches...

Here are the originals, not sure how to make these any smaller, so sorry in advance... Again, Series E 50mm 1.8, reversed.

Missed focus on this, she kept charging the camera...




Thanks for the compliments. Since it was so cold out (roughly 45 degrees F) she was quite slow and appeared to be tired. I got off a few side shots first, then moved to the front. I think that made her mad (or she saw her reflection in the lens) and lunged at the camera. After I got some shots, I hosed the spider with spider spray. That made her even more angry, did not kill the spider... At one point she was on her back 4 legs trying to jump at me. It was very weird and disturbing. Heck, she even resisted my size 11.5 shoe. Eventually I won.

Normally I don't kill outside bugs, but I have young children and would hate for one of them to get bit. So, outside on the patio is a bug free zone. If I can move, I move, if not...I do the needful.

Jorge Torralba wrote:
From when I could focus manually.

105mm 1.8

MDoc9523 wrote:
Some Christmas fun with the 85mm 1.4. Sharing some Boheh





Amazing bokeh!!!

Sometimes referred to as peaceful too.. wow, love it. (could use some snow though)

leighton w wrote:
You know some days are just boring here on the farm.

Glad I could help. Nothing worse than popping in and finding "buy our cheap imitation stuff that will get impounded at the borders" spam

leighton w wrote:

NightOwl Cat wrote:
Not sure if Blogger has a spot to hold comments till you approve them, would cut down on the visible spam.

leighton w wrote:
Yea, they do. I'll make sure it's turned on, thanks. The only thing is though, the spams never actually post a comment, I just get an email indicating that they did. But whenever I check the posts there's never a comment, weird.


Thanks for the tip Laura, I just made the changes and it works real well.

WHOA, neat! Bummer that she nicked you though. Used to have them in my garage out at Edwards during the summer, so glad I don't see them here.

kwoodard wrote:
Saw this technique over in the B&W forum, thought I would give it a try.


Solar Widow by Kevin.Woodard, on Flickr

Nice one Ian!

Ian Boys wrote:
Nikon 50mm f1.2 on FE-2 (Tri-X)


Queen of Hearts by Ian_Boys, on Flickr

Thanks Samy, I'm going to put the AF shots of the animated windows up and will post a link to them here as I should

saph wrote:

Laura, each one of the Christmas lights shots were very nice.
Samy

Kevin, cool effect! I've tried this years ago in the wet darkroom, but never got repeatable results.

Ray, wow, now that's some serious bokeh-play! Was this shot at minimum focusing distance or even with tubes?

Jorge, that's a stellar set of street-shots! I'm sorry to hear/read that you'll part with your excellent MF-lens-kit...

Leighton, beautiful image of your hood! Love your framing, the B&W-conversion and the haze accentuating the soft curves of the landscape.

Tony, I'm not sure how to write this: You should shoot more often after a night-long party ;-) This set is absolutely fabulous, excellent work!

Samy, very nice work at the museum! The Dornier is a strange, yet beautiful beast.

Matt, I like your pictures of "Brandon meets Santa" a lot.

Rafael, great comparison! Many older Nikkors seem to make a jump in terms of sharpness and contrast when stopped down just one f-stop. The 28/2 and 35/1.4 are great examples for this behaviour.

Nancy, thanks for sharing your excellent pictures!

Paul, that's a beautiful portrait of your wife!

Chin, love your recent architecture-deails!

Rinie, congrats to your new MacBook! Hope the migration turns out well.
My old G4-Powerbook is for sure a SHE and a really hot one (I can iron/press my shirts with HER)

Laura, very nice nighttime-shots! My fav is #3 from the first set. I like the framing of the sculpture a lot.

Samy, thanks. Sorry, no 28PC-shots for now, was too busy to give it a serious try. Maybe tomorrow...

Heck no Monty. I don't have any desire to decorate anything this year. If you have some spare energy, come on down and help me clean

montym wrote:
NightOwl Cat wrote:
Some Christmas lights on display

Your front yard?
Very nice shots!

Thanks guys. I actually had my stuff on etsy but I suppose not everyone wants to take a gamble shipping in from Singapore. But yes, maybe I should experiment with placing the ribbon in a fish tank hmm...

Love the foggy scene Leighton. When I grow up I'd get me a farm heh heh

Brrr, the spider shots made me shudder. You're a brave man, Kevin. Reminds me why I only shoot macro with dragonflies

>>

The owner's clock on the mantelpiece.

zl 003 (tembeling_009) by Zichar, on Flickr

Quick drive up Route 66 on Saturday. I don't know about you, but the B&W looks so much better to me.

saph wrote:

Rafael, where is that town with the colorful sky in the "coit" photo? Its beautiful!

Samy

Samy, San Francisco California
Rafael