New Lens
May 11th, 2022
I told you about my new camera, a Nikon Z7ii. I’ve had it a while, but I didn’t have a Z-mount lens because the one I wanted was on back order…for months. Well, the lens arrived yesterday. It’s a Nikkor Z 24-120 f/4. I’m not planning to buy a bunch of lenses for this camera and that one seemed to offer just what I need. That focal range will cover 90-95 percent of the photos I take.
But, just how good is this lens? Is it up to the high resolution sensor in the camera. Some of my friends have suggested that it is too long a focal range for the high quality I’m looking for to be there. So, today with the help of a wonderful model who just recently contacted me about us working together, I was able to make my first test of the lens. Thanks to Erin Hinkle for being especially beautiful in front of the camera and for being patient while I went through a series of test settings.
I found some interesting things…some of which will require more testing to fully understand. First, as you can see from the first photo above, the lens is excellent. Very sharp. Almost too sharp for portraits. But that means it’s perfect for the documentary project I bought it for.
But, here’s something of interest. Below is a shot at f/5.6.
And here is an extreme crop of that photo so you can see just how sharp and detailed files from this lens and camera are:
And here’s where it gets a little interesting. Below is a photo shot in the same place at f/22:
Let’s see how that one looks in an extreme crop:
I hope in these jpegs you can see how much less sharp the f/22 frame is. Of course I know about diffraction at small apertures, but this is the most extreme example of it that I’ve seen in my own photos. More testing is going to be required to fully understand what’s going on, but it’s looking like I’ll need to be careful to always shoot at f/11 or wider if I want to maintain optimal sharpness.
Another thing I wondered about was flare. Back in days of olde flare was one of the reasons we didn’t use zoom lenses for many years. That’s mostly fixed in modern lenses, but I wondered how this specific lens would perform in that aspect. Well, take a look at the photo below:
I’d say, based on this test, that flare is pretty much non-existent with this lens.
So, I’m very happy with my new camera and lens. Ready to put them to use on some new projects. I’m also very happy with my new model, Erin. I hope I’ll be shooting a lot more with her in the near future.
New Camera
May 6th, 2022
I’m not much of an equipment nut. I just want the right tool for the job at hand. And I’ve been, and still am, very happy with my micro 4/3 kit.
But I’m getting ready for major documentary project that I hope to start this summer. And I felt that I wanted higher resolution files for this job. So I bought a new camera. It’s a Nikon Z7ii. I’ll admit that it’s nice to be back with Nikon, which was my camera brand since I started with a Nikon F in 1968.
So, I have the new camera, but the lens I want for it has been backordered for months. Thankfully I got the notice yesterday that the lens has finally shipped, so I should have it in a few days. Then I can get to some serious testing.
But, of course, I’ve been taking photos with the new camera and old lenses. I used it for my Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day photos. I have a couple adapters that let me put Nikon F-mount lenses on the Z-mount camera. Unfortunately, I only have one old lens that will autofocus with the new camera, and it isn’t a very sharp lens, an old 18-200 lens for the cropped sensor Nikons. The new camera automatically switches to the cropped sensor format when this lens is mounted, and thanks to the electronic viewfinder, shows the full image.
So I’ve done a few photos with the new camera and that old lens. The photos above and below are a couple samples of portraits with friend and model, Jenny.
Another fun thing with the new camera is that, with adapters, I can use any of my old F-mount lenses on it. So I’ve been playing with some of my old favorites that I haven’t used for years, even decades. The photo below was shot with one of my all-time favorite lenses, my old trusty 85mm f/1.8. This is one of the best lenses Nikon has ever made, and it’s so solidly built that we joked you could use if for a hockey puck between shoots with no issues. It’s really sharp and makes lovely images. But, it’s manual focus and digital SLRs just couldn’t be focused well enough with manual focus lenses. But that’s changed now with the great focusing aids that the Z7ii offers, including fringing and magnification. I love electronic viewfinders.
Another old lens that I haven’t used much for years is an old 100mm single-element soft-focus lens. I’ve had it since college. It does some lovely things that can’t be faked in software. But, it was effectively 150mm with my cropped-sensor Nikon SLRs and 200mm with my micro 4/3 cameras, so that made it hard to use for portraits, which is what it’s best at. But the Z7ii is full frame, so it’s back to its intended focal length. It’s still hard to focus. It’s so soft that the focus aids in the camera don’t kick in, but I can manage, just as I did in times of old. Here’s an example below. I kind of love the perversity of using such a low-resolution lens on one of the highest resolution cameras available. And I did enjoy doing that with the pinhole the other day too.
The new lens will be here soon so I’ll be getting busy testing it and you’ll see those results before long.
Why Pinholes?
April 27th, 2022
Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day was this past Sunday. As usual I made some pinhole photos and submitted one to the website for pinhole day. Above is the photo I sent. And here it is on the pinhole day website:
http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2022/?id=432
This year was a little different because I used my new Nikon Z7II camera to make the pinhole photos. I used two commercially available pinholes. They are in Nikon F mount, so I used my FTZ adapter to mount them on the new Z camera. I haven’t been able to find any pinholes available for the Z mount yet. I’m sure they will be coming in the near future.
Here’s the camera with a simple body cap pinhole. This gives an effective “focal length” approximately of a normal 50mm lens.
And the other pinhole I used is a Thingyfy brand pinhole that is something of a wide angle.
With a pinhole the “focal length” is determined simply by the distance of the pinhole from the sensor or film plane. I’m going to share some of the other pinhole photos I made on Sunday while I talk a little about pinhole photography.
I enjoy making pinhole photos and especially enjoy Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. But I didn’t always like pinhole photography.
Back in photo school I was required to make some pinhole photos. We had to make our own cameras and pinhole and, of course, this was in the days of film. So, we ended up with many unknowns. I didn’t know what angle of view I was getting. There was no “viewfinder” so I had only a vague idea of what was going to be in the frame. I didn’t know what size my pinhole was, so there was no way to know what a correct exposure might be. And it was film. And the “camera” only held one sheet of film and had to be loaded in the darkroom. So the only way to work was to make a guess at an exposure, go to the darkroom, find out you guessed wrong, load another sheet and go back out and make another guess. Not a way that I enjoyed working.
I complained at the time, but I now understand the point of that exercise. It really forced me to learn about the whole process of photography and how things worked. I think that kind of exercise is even more important now with so many photographers out there who have never worked with film and who don’t really have a good understanding of the principles of photography and how things actually work. I don’t mean to put down young photographers. Many of them are doing excellent work…even those who shoot with phone cameras. But a deeper understanding of photography can do nothing but improve their work and their ability to adapt to different situations to make the photos they want to make.
I came back to pinhole photography when I found a better way to do it. At first that was using my Speed Graphic with a homemade pinhole and a Polaroid back. That way I could easily do test shots and see the results almost immediately so I could get a correct exposure. I still couldn’t see through the pinhole to compose, but I could shoot and adjust the composition.
Then digital cameras came along. Soon I was mounting a homemade pinhole on my Nikon D100. I made the pinhole and taped it onto a T-mount adapter to mount it on my camera. That worked ok…I was still not able to compose in the optical viewfinder, but I could immediately see the result on the screen on the back of the camera and work from there. I continued to work that way with digital SLR cameras for several years.
Then along came electronic viewfinders. Early on I got one of the first Micro 4/3 cameras and found a commercial pinhole to mount on it. Now pinhole photography had become just as easy as working with a regular lens. The electronic viewfinder let me see what I was getting on the sensor. And using a high ISO coupled with in-body image stabilization meant I could hand hold the camera and just shoot away, composing just what I wanted to get in the viewfinder. The resolution of the pinhole is so low that the high amount of noise or grain in the images really didn’t matter.
Now, with this new camera with extremely high pixel count, even though I’m using what would once have been considered astronomical ISO, the noise doesn’t really seem to be all that noticeable, even at 25,600 ISO. Simply amazing.
So, if you’ve never tried doing pinhole photos, now is the time. I encourage you to give it a try. You can find lens cap pinholes on e-bay for very little money that will mount on just about any interchangeable-lens camera. It won’t be quite as educational as the old experience with home-made cameras and film, but I still think you will learn from the experience. And next year you can do a photo on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day and share it with the world on their website.
RIP Joe
April 25th, 2022
I haven’t been posting for a while because I’ve been dealing with tragedy. My son, Joe, died last month. He was 35 years old. The circumstances of his death are suspicious, but the police don’t seem to be interested in finding out what happened.
I’m left broken hearted and grieving. It’s very hard to deal with. But I have no choice but to move forward. And I guess it’s time to start working on posts for here. I’ll be back in a few days.
French PHOTO Finally Arrives
March 5th, 2022
Thanks to a friend of my friend, Dave Rudin, I finally have copies of the Jan-Feb issue of French PHOTO magazine. The friend, who lives in France, had to mail the copies to both Rudin (who also has a winning photo in this issue) and myself. It appears the magazine is no longer distributed in the United States.
That’s my photo above in the magazine. It features the amazing Blueriverdream, who carried that great dress up a mountain in Nevada so we could make this photo.
There are categories for the entries in this contest, such as “nude,” portrait,” and “photojournalism.” This was the first time I’d entered a non-nude photo and I couldn’t figure out what would be the appropriate category for this photo. (Since I speak no French at all, it was more of a challenge than it might have been otherwise.) So I sent it in without selecting a category.
The magazine editors may have had as much trouble figuring out where it fit as I did, though…they ended up publishing it in the “sports” category:
I have no idea what led them to make that choice. But I’m just happy that it is a winner and is published in the magazine.
Here’s the photo so you can get a better look:
Alligator Farm
February 27th, 2022
A few more snaps from Florida where I’m enjoying not experiencing February in Ohio.
These are from the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine. It’s really a very nice zoo.
They have an excellent lemur exhibit.
Lots of birds as well.
Florida Snaps
February 19th, 2022
I’m avoiding winter this February by hanging out in Florida. That’s why I haven’t been posting much. But I thought I’d share a few snaps from here. Above is a manatee catching a breath. Below a baby alligator.
These were all taken at Blue Springs State Park. There were more than 300 manatee hanging out there when we visited.
Above is an osprey heading home with his lunch.
Here’s a lazy ‘gator above. Below, a ‘gator in the grass.
And a few bird photos. I’m not a birder, or even a bird photographer. So don’t ask me to identify them.
Finally, a herd of manatee above (along with a friendly ‘gator companion) and some flora below to go with all the fauna.
Finding Eden
February 8th, 2022
Well, actually, Eden found me. And it opened the door to a wonderful creative relationship.
We had actually met many years ago when she first started modeling. We did a shoot and then nothing happened. Turns out she had decided not to continue modeling at that time. Fortunately, she changed her mind and decided to start again.
So, she contacted me about a year ago and asked if I’d like to work with her. I get contacted like that now and then, though not as often these days as it used to happen. I’m always happy to work with a new model who wants to work with me. That’s a great place to start on making some art.
So, Eden and I got together for what I call a “get acquainted shoot.” And it went very well. I found her to be a lovely young woman who was not only beautiful and talented as a model, but also very nice to be around. I only work with models who I like, and Eden and I were obviously going to be friends as well as collaborators for making art.
Since this shoot Eden and I have worked together many times and it only gets better with each shoot we do. We have more things planned for this coming year. It’s really a delightful thing to find a muse like her.
(Much) More of Mer Imbri
February 3rd, 2022
Yes, Mer and I did shoot some nudes. The last nudes for me of 2020. The plague shut everything down shortly after this shoot.
Sometimes I like to use orbs in regular photos.
Mer wanted to do some photos with her Tarot cards. I’m always happy to go along with whatever my models want to do. I added the Moon, which I thought fit pretty well with this photo.
Something I always enjoy is playing with what different kinds of light will do with the color of photos. I love mixing light and seeing where the colors fall. That’s one of the reasons I work mostly in color.
And a little drama in the posing sometimes is enjoyable. Especially with such a beautiful and talented model.
The Moon and Orbs
January 30th, 2022
On my last shoot of 2020 I did a few photos with Mer Imbri (@merimbri on instagram) for my Brigman-White Project.
I had a new “Moon” that I included in some of the photos.
And, of course, I used one of the trusty older orbs for a few photos.
As always, the lovely Mer did a great job and helped me make some fine photos for this project.
