Flowers with a borrowed lens...

For most Pentax users, but not all, the lure of using older manual focus lenses is part of the reason to use that brand of camera. I have a reasonable collection of older glass that I truly enjoy using, the feeling of being in greater control of all aspects of the operation of the camera helps me feel more in touch with what I am doing.

A while back a friend posted a review of a rare Pentax Lens: the SMC 85mm f1.8, manual focus, manual setting of the aperture on the lens ring. Old School. This is a lens I had long coveted to complete my desired set of manual focus glass. I asked him to have the first shot at it when he decided to sell, and when he got ready he sent it to me. He is a bad man.

Anyway, I decided to take a few test shots under semi controlled lighting and see what I could see. Not being sure that I can afford to buy it, not that he is not asking a very reasonable price, I like to test these kinds of things out.

First I wanted to see how near out of focus rendering was. Having bought my wife some flowers shortly before that I thought it would make a good opportunity to test it.

f1.8 wide open, yes I focused on a dead flower, I liked the texture and contrast to help me see sharpness. It is fairly sharp when not stopped down.

f2.8 things are definitely getting better but there is less isolation of the subject, but perfectly acceptable for a portrait setting, if you can nail the focus.

f4, more sharp, deeper depth of field.

f5.6, this would likely be my street shooting aperture, reasonable DOF at less than closest focus and as sharp as the lens gets.

f8, definitely sharp but not nearly the isolation of the subject. Overall I think the out of focus blur or "bokeh" is really quite good, as is this lenses reputation.

This is on my full set of extension tubes and either f8 or 11, Reasonably close focus and decently sharp. But not as sharp as my DFA 100mm f2.8 WR Macro.

After fiddling with the 85 it was time to get serious about the flowers with the aforementioned macro lens. I love the light in my entryway for shooting flowers, soft but not too soft.

The red was tough to get right but I think I did OK without totally overcooking the shadows when I brought them up.

The sun came out from behind some clouds and made this a little more harsh, but I love the color.

Focusing on just the edge of a flowers petal is really hard with your lens at f2.8 and fairly close focus. I may not have gotten it exactly right, but it still ain't bad.

A bit more stopped down and things become easier, I love the swirls.

University of Utah: Olympic Bridge

As any regular reader of my blog knows... there are one or two of you right???? one maybe? I tend to take my camera with me on those days that I travel up to Salt Lake City just in case something interesting shows up. Well.... something did.... a couple of them actually.

This is one of the older buildings on campus part of the old Ft. Douglas area. I loved the color and the light. (Forgive the halo, blogger tends to put an extra Unsharp Mask on when you upload photos that often gives halos.) This can also be seen here without the halo. (DFA 100mm Macro)

This is the main attraction I was rushing to get to when I spotted the shot above. I have been desirous of getting more shots I like of this bridge. Think I accomplished it. All these shots taken with the K24mm f2.8 lens, at f8 IIRC.

I really like the leading line of the handrail and the angularity of the guy wires against the more natural forms of the sky.

Laying down on a foot & bicycle bridge is a little dangerous this time of day. Luckily I got away with it.

This is a 7 shot panorama taken in portrait orientation and stitched in Photoshop. I am tempted to massage this a bit more for printing and submit it to the State Fair this year.

This one is 6 shots taken in landscape orientation from the top down, and again stitched in Photoshop. I may just have to get the DA 21 pancake lens someday. I really like this approximate focal length and the DA 21 is smaller than the K24 and is auto focus... hmmm.....

One Sunday Morning in January

As a rule I tend to not do much with my hobbies on Sunday, for one I am usually too busy with church business, and for another I try to keep Sunday as a day to focus on more spiritual topics. Not that photography cannot enhance my spiritual connection to God, but because I don't like the distraction of being on the computer on that day. Anyway, after a small snow storm Saturday night with a clear morning following, I decided to run out and take a few shots of my local temple with snow on the mountains behind it. On the way I found some other interesting stuff to shoot as well. Unfortunately all I had taken was my tripod and DA 55-300 lens, which lacks really close focus. Despite that I got as close as I could and started shooting.

First: some dead sunflowers, sounds like a boring subject no? Not so! Beauty can be found in death, especially when there is snow on it!

Second: Dead Thistles.... also with snow... see the theme? I do wish I would have taken my DFA 100mm Macro I could have really gotten crazy with that... of course I would have been late to church tearing me away from something like this would have been hard to do.

Third: My original subject, The Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I had to traipse past the above beauties to get to the spot I wanted, but didn't really get the shot I wanted. Retreating through the snow to my car I went a little further north and decided I liked this view. Not entirely sure that sepia is my favorite treatment but it is in and maybe it will sell well.?...?

Lastly on my way home I noticed these clouds on top of Mount Timpanogos, and hurredly drove to the nearest clear vantage point and shot several images that I stitched into this one. I like it a bunch. And I LOVE the views of the mountains where I live!

University of Utah: Presidents Circle.

Day after Christmas, have to work.... how to make the day brighter? Take pictures after work! Nothing especially awesome here, just working on getting my mojo back. Been in a bit of a slump except for the Christmas at Temple Square shoot, and needing to just wander with camera in hand. Thought about the shots I got the last time I was up on the circle and decided to head back, this time with my 55-300 zoom. Usually I am a prime guy for this kind of stuff but wanted to try something different. My goal was to capture the wonderful detail on the column caps with good exposures that keep detail on the stone.

The first four shots are of Gardner Hall, home to the department of Music.

This last is of the LCB, or Leroy Cowles Building, I had many classes in this building. Not entirely sure that this is the best processing of this, I will re-post if I get something better.

Think I learned that I am still pretty much a prime guy for creative shooting.....

Draper City Park... Rocks the Christmas Light Game!

Nothing especially technical about these shots. Just my usual night light work. Thought they turned out pretty well though.

Temple Square Christmas Lights 2011

One of the most beautiful places to visit during the Christmas Season in Salt Lake City is Temple Square. A great deal of money is spent, and countless man hours as well, making the light display one of the most magnificent anywhere. At least in my opinion anyway.

I try to get downtown every year to take some photos and enjoy the ambiance. Some years have snow, others (like this one) are mostly barren of snow. I prefer the snowy day clearing at sunset weather but seldom get it. This year was cold, and hazy, but not enough to impact the photos. Though, the drive home was a bit scary due to some foggy patches.

I took my usual "Full Kit" Consisting of my K200d (without battery grip for more solid mounting on my tripod's QR plate) Cable Release, Rokinon 8mm f3.5, Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5, Pentax DA 55-300 f4-5.8, and my Pentax DFA 100mm f2.8 WR Macro. I really didn't need the Fisheye, but I like to have it around if an interesting composition comes up. I also, of course, had my trusty Induro Tripod and Vanguard Ball Head.

My intent this trip was less shooting what I have shot before, but looking for a slightly new angle or composition. I have shot here many times before so it is easy to get stale.

This first shot was from the plaza of the Conference Center that sits north of Temple Square. I was trying for extreme depth of field so I shot at f16 with the lens set at 53mm, and an 8 second exposure. (Hint to all those folks running around with their DSLR's set to the highest ISO and the pop-up flash raised. Bring a tripod... it makes your shots look a LOT better. Trust me.

I had several spots picked out before I went that I wanted to try for, this one didn't quite turn out as I had hoped. One day I will get a nice sunset and then have to stand around until the turn the lights on afterwards and composite it together. Till then this will have to do. 19mm f9.5 2s.

I really liked the symbolism of a tree of light in front of the Lord's House, I am almost afraid that the tree dominates too much on this shot. 21mm @ f11 and 2s.

This was a quite tough shot, the lighting on the statuary is much brighter than the lights in the trees. I ended up bracketing +2,0,-2 and blending them in Photomatix. I do wish I would have gone for at least a -3 or 3.5 to give me a little more detail on Mary and Joseph in the highlights, but overall I pretty much achieved what I set out to get. 48mm @ f9.5 Multiple exposures.

Another HDR from the opposite side of the reflecting pond. This shot shows where there is a lot of value in closely looking at your composition. I ended up just cutting off the top of the trees reflection in the pool. It would have taken very little maneuvering to get just a little more height and include that.... sigh.... 53mm f9.5

When I did my survey trip right after thanksgiving, I desperately wanted to include these red trees running east from the temple. They add just the right touch. The difficulty lies in the perspective distortion from the angle. I am not entirely satisfied with the look, I always notice things not being level, this is level, but it doesn't look it. The slight tilt up and the lens pointing just to the right of the temple combine to make it look akward. Need to work on it. 19mm @ f9.5 and 2s

Strangely this is right up there as one of my favorite shots ever taken on Temple Square. For some reason these bag lights really held my attention, and I really wanted to capture them. At larger size the texture of the paper and the holes in the bag just warm my heart. I LOVE this shot. 100mm @ f4.5 and 1/8s.

You may be wondering..... why did he just repost the same shot. Fooled ya! Sorta, same shot different aperture, which changes the look of the background significantly, shot a f6.7 and 1/3s, the out of focus areas are more sharply defined and more detail can be had deeper into the photo. I like the first one simply due to the background being smoother. I sorta wish I had shot one at f2.8 and really blurred the background...

I think this is a better use of the red trees and water feature, with a longer focal length the distortion of the temple seems less, plus I like the composition a little more. 28mm @ f6.7 and 1s. It is sharp enough though I do wish I had stopped down another stop or two. There are subtle changes in the shadow and highlight detail with a longer exposure and smaller aperture that are pleasing to my eye.

This is a favorite angle for me when there is a lot of snow on the trees. Really REALLY hoping to get snow in the next week or so before they turn the lights off. 15mm @ f11 and 6s.

This is a fairly commonly shot perspective, though often from 25-30 feet further back. I love the dominance of the Red tree on the left, giving way to the light of the temple on the right. The stillness and peace of the enduring light vs. the movement of the masses below. 15mm @ f11 and 8s.

While I like this shot, I am not really happy with it. Despite being an HDR, I still have too much highlight loss on the temple. The overall composition is pleasing but I am not completely convinced that I cannot do better. 70mm @ f9.5 multiple exposures.

I shooting through things, to make something familiar almost abstract, it is hard to achieve, which makes it worth trying. Don't believe I was truly successful. However, it is pleasing to me... so there! 170mm @ f9.5 and 4s.

This shot of the same window pleases me more I think. I really need to repeat it in the spring when the tree is blossoming and the sun is just rising. 55mm @ f6.7 and 3s.

I was itching to get my Fisheye out, but I am not fond of the distortion for architecture. This works for me though, mainly because it allowed me to get into a tight spot and make an interesting shot. 8mm @ f9.5 and 20s.

This shot is really my piece de resistance of the evening. I printed a similar shot, for a friend to give to her daughter earlier in the year, but it was pushing the resolution of my sensor a bit. I zoomed to 20mm and shot 9 shots (3 columns across and 3 rows down) giving me a file with the resolution of 6250 x 5000 pixels or 31 megapixels. Plenty of resolution to print this guy BIG!!!!

20mm @ f11 and 4s.

I hope you enjoyed my photos and maybe getting a little more of the technical side of what I was thinking. Merry Christmas!

Lloyd

Shots on campus......

I am frequently on campus at the University of Utah, but I seldom take the opportunity to wander the lower parts of the campus below the Hospital. Wishing for better light I jumped off the train and set out. Not getting blessed with said light I still felt the need to flex my photographic muscles and creativity in preparation for some Christmas light shooting on Wednesday Night.

My first memory of this building is of a stormy October night, and a flash of lightning making the door look like the open mouth of some kind of academic monster. Wasn't able to frame it that way with the lens I had but I still like the shot.

These columns have always fascinated me... who in their right mind carves sandstone?

Turning my eye to the center of the circle, this chappie walking alone and cold in the encroaching December gloom seemed to epitomize the day.

Just off campus and down the road above is "The Pie" a great place for great food if you are on campus, or just in the neighborhood.

Couldn't help but take this "American Standard" shot, wonder who is renovating this corner shop, and for what kind of business.........

Thanks for going on my tour, will take you back again someday.... I promise!