Just a Hint...

Sunrise fizzled a bit, but I still had a good time watching it unfold....

Why I get up early some days......

The 4 Amigos!!!!

As you know by now I added a new lens and in an old photographic tradition I took pictures of the new guy with his new/old friends. I guess I am turning into a collector of vintage Pentax lenses. The beginning of a disease known in the photographic community as LBA-Lens Buying Addiction. It is certainly a thrill to hold and use a new guy!

Here they are at infinity focus with caps on. (L to R) K28mm f3.5, K35mm f3.5, K50mm f1.4 and K135mm f2.5. They are reasonably compact, but the 35 is just really small, making for a nice package on the camera. Would show it on the camera but I am without another camera to take a picture of my camera with....

Fully extended to close focus, still compact, though the 135 is getting a little long. It is a solid chunk of glass for sure!

And two head on. The first three have a 52mm filter thread, which makes it easy to share filters and a rubber lens hood. The 135 has a 58mm filter thread.

It is interesting to see the color difference with the 50mm coatings, there is a reddish tint to it, which I never noticed before.

Ah..... a New Lens!!!! Pentax K 35mm f3.5 (The Poor Man's Limited)

Got lucky enough to purchase a lens at a firesale price from a friend of mine (Ron Brandon aka brandrx on DPReview) it is a Pentax SMC K 35mm f3.5, one of the first series of lenses in the Pentax K bayonet mount, when they switched from their old ScrewMount (M42) style lenses. I have wanted this lens for a long time to match with my other K lenses. I have to say so far that I think it is a beauty! Color and contrast are really good even wide open and it is sharp too. I really need to put it on a tripod and try some controlled testing, but I reckon that it is at least as good if not better than my Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5, not bad for a 30+ year old lens!

First two shots are in the Scofield, UT Cemetery, went to visit a grave of a greatgrandmother and meet Ron to buy the lens as it is sorta midway between the two of us. Though I think it does tend to overexpose, in part due to the fact that I only get spot metering when using non "A" aperture ring lenses.

This is a beautiful place and I need to visit again early in the morning I think.

I call this "Rural Decay" because Scofield is not urban or suburban by any stretch.

We ate lunch at a small park, while my tadpole #3 was playing I saw this just a few feet from the last shot, I love the colors this lens produces!

The rest of the shots here were taken this morning in the area around my house. This lens is a great "Walkaround" lens.

I did NO color adjustments at all, just a slight exposure adjustment and two passes of USM (one at 100%, 1.5 pixels, 3 threshold, and another at 20%, 60 pixels and 0 threshold)

These guys are untouched, the first is at f5.6 or f8.

Tried to frame it the same but failed, this is at f3.5 (wide open) I think that the bokeh is reasonable both stopped down and wide open!

I love this bridge, it is on Oquirrh Lake by my home. I was combining breaking in some new hiking boots and playing with my new lens.

Unusually for Utah there was some fungi growing, I thought it would be fun to again play with the aperture/DOF. This was at f8

The rest of these are at f3.5, the bokeh is slightly nervous but not bad to my mind.

I really am impressed with the sharpness. Here is a goose that I think turned out quite nicely, again with two passes of USM.

Just gotta get up sooner some days!

I kinda missed the sunrise several days this week, decided to make a better effort this weekend.

All taken with my vintage Pentax SMC 28mm f3.5 lens. Classic lens, just love it!

Fireworks from Draper Pioneer Days Celebration

I love fireworks, they have been magical for ever since I can remember. As I kid I always wanted to be at the park and underneath them. My kids are less excited about loud noises so we watch them from my parents back yard.

As a photographer I find fireworks fascinating because they look so different in camera (can't really say "on film" anymore.....) the streaks and patterns fascinate me. Probably always will!

These are my best 5 from this years show! Yes that is the moon in case you wondered.

Dinner.......

So... desiring to take some kind of photos tonight and wanting to get more practice with my vintage K-28mm f3.5 Manual Focus lens... and being hungry! I decided to mix all that together in an impromptu photo shoot! Here ya go... Dinner.

Toasted with butter

With Jam

A Sunrise and two Deer in a Graveyard.... no REALLY!!

Grabbed this shot on my way to work on Monday, Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 right in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I love these cotton ball type clouds. Love love LOVE!

After leaving work I drove past the football stadium and spotted these deer in the graveyard across the street. Hung a quick U-Turn and chased them down. They were really hard to shoot because the insisted on staying in the shadows and moving just as I pressed the trigger.

Momma Deer

The Fawn, he had a twin that was more camera shy.

All in all not a bad day!

6:15 AM July 17, 2010

Got up early to do a favor for a friend, while I was waiting for him in our back alley I walked down to the end of the driveway and took a few shots. You have to have your camera to take advantage of the opportunities. What is the saying.... Oh yeah! "F8 and Be there!"

Recently I have been in a bit of a funk as far as motivation to get up early and capture some of these scenes. Not sure why, maybe I just need to be getting to bed earlier.

Anyway... First shot with my Sigma 17-70. (As always click on the photo for a larger version)

Panorama of 4 shots but cropped down to the width of the first three due to some powerlines. Taken with Pentax K 28mm f3.5

This is just SAD!!!!!!!!

Watch this Video, this dude ruined a LOT of expensive equipment for certain!

http://hah.lv/2010/07/08/kazu-fotografa-fail/

Murray Fireworks

It has been years since I shot fireworks, this is an OK attempt, the hardest thing I found was pulling a decent focus, I ended up focusing on a burst then flipping the switch to manual focus.

In case you are wondering what my setup was, it looked like this: Pentax K200d with Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5 mounted on my Induro Tripod with Vanguard SBH 300 Ball head, and a wired shutter release with lock. I aimed the camera at the approximate area of where the fireworks were expected to be, set the camera at f8 and focused at infinity (Refocused when the first few were not super sharp) & re-aimed once they started and simply held the shutter down while the fireworks that I wanted to capture went off and released the shutter when they were done.

I did have to do some cleanup in photoshop, there were some parking lot lamp poles in the frame and the smoke from previous shots that reflected the light from the shot going off. But nothing to alter the fireworks themselves.

Hope to find a way to get some foreground that is photogenic one day.

The Value of Getting up EARLY....

I have been in a recent funk photography wise, I think in part because it is hard to get myself out of bed as early as the sun comes up this time of year. Waking up early this morning I managed to drag myself out of bed before 6:30 and go down the street to a field where I have seen a fox on several occasions. While waiting for said fox (More on him in another post once I have processed what I shot) I noticed some interesting flowers on the border between two crop areas stashed in among the thistles.

I don't know what these are but I REALLY liked the look of the flower! (As always click on the photo to enlarge it!)

The strangeness of a ball of these blooms was a little intoxicating, and I REALLY enjoyed myself.

Unborn Thistle.... having lived in Scotland I am fond of them, I keep waiting for them to bloom... waiting.... waiting....

Half way there!

The Fox, The Cormorant and The Flowers

So eventually the fox that I was there to shoot showed up, but was quite a ways away, these are some pretty tight crops, so don't look too close!!! Anyway, now that I know where he tends to go, I can try to get a little closer, (insert evil chuckle!)

After stalking the fox around the field like a total dork (Believe me... if somebody videotaped me doing that, it is on it's way to "Americas Funniest Home Videos" for sure!) I went up to our lake to see what was shaking. Seeing my skittish Cormorant friend I chased him a little bit too. I am now convinced I need some LONG lenses if I plan to do much wildlife shooting! Long Long Long lenses.....

The sprinklers had been running and since I am incapable of seeing flowers with water drops on them and NOT wanting to take a picture. I did. Reversed K 50mm f1.4 on my Induro Tripod. (The thing is a swiss army knife!)