bruni wrote:
yes, I agree and that last shot really shows it.
my last attempt at Benz
ben
Ben, don't listen to them and above all don't blame them : they don't know what they say much less what Art is - your Benz shots are great, keep'em coming !
I agrees. We need Benz. And Z. Keep em coming plz.
//Kristian
Lieutenant Z wrote:
Ben, don't listen to them and above all don't blame them : they don't know what they say much less what Art is - your Benz shots are great, keep'em coming !
Samy - I love it. That's a Ben shot (not Benz): dark, lots of shadow with slithers of direct light. I was taking those shots over and over., as you say, in dark alleys ....but it .got to the point where I couldn't take anything else and I got sick of it. I was in a photographic funk like Curtis. So I thought I'd shake it up a bit, and start shooting street candids from the hip. That got me back to taking pics but the problem is that I'm just copying Philippe. These shots were dubbed "Benz" because hs moniker is LtZ, so it's a mash up of Ben and LtZ.
Yours is a classic Ben shot. I wish I'd taken it. I think it's better than my usual Ben shots because they're usually of people walking into the light and from a distance but you've caught a great portrait. I love the expressions. It's great that he's turning his head away. All that dark, their expressions - It evokes so much about their relationship.
Instead of doing something useful, I decided it was about time to play around with another lens I recently purchased. A 35mm f2 Nikkor-O
When I bought the lens, and unwrapped it, my first thought was; "i have to return this lens. It's far too good to be used by the likes of me"
So I tried to sell it. But after 2 months, I only had a few low-ball offers and a phone call from a guy that was obviously drunk, trying to negotiate the price down. So I decided to cut the aperture ring, even if the lens looks and feels like a new lens.
To my surprise, it's not far behind the 300 f2,8 in terms of sharpness, and OoF rendering is really pleasant
The only lens that was in the bag, but did not make it onto the camera, was the 55mm f1,2 Nikkor-S.C. part of the reason for this was the brightness. I really need a variable ND filter to use the 55mm in these conditions
I will add a few I took this evening. Had a nice break in the weather so I was sitting on the back deck. I mounted the 50-300/4.5 ED AIS on the Df and was just practicing focusing between the butterfly bush and hummingbird feeder.
I am planning on using this lens for a photoshoot I am really looking forward to this fall. My son volunteers at a conservators center on weekends when comes home from college. It is a wildlife rehab and rescue of exotic animals from illegal trade or from living in unacceptable conditions. Including, big cats, wolfs, New Guinea singing dogs, dingos and more. Anyway, they offer private photo sessions for 1 to 2 photographers from access points that allow shooting without a fence or enclosure in the way. I am thinking the Df/50-300mm will be the combo to give me the best options of shooting along with a wide angle prime on the X-T2.
Below are a some to contribute to the weekend shooting. Nothing like trying to manual focus a zoom on butterflies and hummingbirds
Off to Mining country for 4 days tomorrow so I thought I'd share another shot from the last trip to Chillagoe, an information sign in the spot where the town used to be, about the town of Mungana. Very reminiscent of Gold Rush America here, no ghost towns like Bodie though, almost always the buildings were moved to the next boom town piece by piece and reassembled, the itinerant workers living in tents anyway. It's weird standing were towns with hotels, Post Offices etc. used to be, very little trace left. Most that survived intact are now at / in the Historic Village at Herberton which you may remember. We're off down that way next week so might pop in again, we're actually going to stay on a Cattle Station (what Aussie's call a ranch) at a place called Montalbion - the Station is 20,000 Acres !
I hope you can read the text, I posted it large for that reason.
Fascinating that camels were once used to transport ore etc. - Australia to this day still has a large population of feral camels in the Red Centre, more camels than in the Sahara Desert apparently and they actually export the beasts to Saudi Arabia !
Afghan Abdul Who knows if that what a nickname, based in fact or what !
Laura, those aren't too shabby for a nailing focus on a fast moving subject. Even f/8 at a distance is still a gimme with a 300/2.8
Rafael, that's a very nice Corvette. The coke bottle body type was always my 2nd favorite after the split rear window sting rays. I had an elderly baby sitter who had watched me when I was very small. She and her husband were very but didn't have any children, and very little family. Fast forward a few years, and one of her nephews had come to visit her, and driven his mint condition, red '63 Sting Ray. While visiting, it had some sort of mechanical/electrical problem... so I rode my bike over to her house to go look at the car almost every day for a month until he had the time to get it fixed.
Scott, I do enjoy seeing the old tractors.
James, the 300 looks to be a fantastic portrait lens in your hands.
Ken, your composition of the backlit trees and power lines is stunning.
Kristian, I enjoyed your shot of the highway. It's great to challenge and find new ways/places to shoot. The continued posts are not helping my current case of MFNAS...
Leighton, Peg's tomatoes look delicious. I'm glad someone has success with determinate varieties this year. My cherokee purple plan made a couple of fruits that all quickly got blossom end rot and died (despite adding eggshells and epsom salt to my soil). Fortunately my indeterminate sun gold plants have kept going and going and going. They were 8 feet tall before 3 days of showers from Hurricane Harvey. Leighton, PM me with the results of smoking the Catalpa tree. We had one of those in my backyard growing up (it's still at my parent's old house); we never smoked the cigars, but usually just hit each other with the cigars
John, the girls have grown up so much. I think the last time I remember seeing a picture of them, they resembled the latter picture much more than the former!
Curtis, Margot is delightful, thank you for sharing.
Lestor, that's a great shot of your daughter to treasure!
Colin, a great shot of the moon there.
Jay, love the shots of the canyon and the distant storm.
Reagan, I'm hoping that Irma swings back out into the Atlantic and manages not to hit Florida (or any of the US for that matter)
Ben, I'm enjoying the photos, regardless of what your style is being named these days.
leighton w wrote:
I use Mpix. Fast and they do good work.
I do almost all of my printning through MPix. The true B&W type prints I get for my wall look great, and all the other color prints were fantastic, a mix of metal/gloss/matte papers. I did request a set of color calibration material from them (I believe it was test prints and digital files or something similar) as I don't have a calibrated monitor, but I was able to eyeball adjust the monitor and prints close enough together that I get really solid color output from them that matches what I expect/want.
