Hosta Blossoms Still Life

If anyone was watching, they must have thought that I was really losing it, as I was out in the back yard in the dark, snipping blossoms for this little still life endeavour. At any rate, when have I ever done anything normally? After the snipping phase, I went into my lair again, and proceeded to set up for this little image. It was shot with my full frame SONY a900 DSLR, with my Minolta 85mm f1.4 lens attached. The lighting was from my LED lighting kit, and I was tethered to my computer via Capture One Express for SONY software. Sounds rather complicated I guess, but it really isn't once you take the time to wrap your head around all of the digital nonsense that goes with photography these days. Anyway, it was a fun little exercise, and for a little while, I got the feeling I used to get when I went into the glow of the wet darkroom safe light, with the radio playing in the background. Soooo, this is what I did tonight to keep the old mind active, and avoiding the troubles of the world, while playing with the lighting for this. Hope you enjoy....Cheers!
 

Portrait of a Talented Lady.....

This image was originally done about 30 years ago, and again, I recovered it from an old box stored in my garage. It was shot on Fuji Reala 120 film with my Mamiya RB67, and enlarged to 11 x 14 inches. A few days ago, when I happened upon it, I took a very quick hand held existing light shot of it, and downloaded it into the computer. My Corel software pretty much did the rest. It was converted to Black & White, which I liked equally as much as the coloured version. She has many talents, and is an industrial seamstress. If you fly Air Canada First Class, you are likely sitting on seating that she has sewn and assembled. She also is an artist, having studied art history etc. at university, and is responsible for the abstract art that I posted below. It is wonderful to be surrounded by her art pieces when I enter my "cave", and escape the world. I love my girl....she endured through being asked to pose for the old man for years! I'm a lucky old dude! Cheers! 

Fleeting Innocence Captured.....

This image is one that I found in an old box stored in the garage for many years. It is from about 40 years ago, when the world was much less complicated, and the bad guys hadn't taken over yet. Childhood innocence is such a fleeting thing, and before long, they are grown, and their world changes without their realizing what has happened. The expression of wonderment on this little lady's face, as she gazes into the bubble that I blew to her, just as I clicked the shutter button, is a frozen moment in time that will never be replicated....and I am so happy that it gave me so much happiness at the time, as well as all these years later....it still makes me smile. The original image was in colour, and this is a photograph of an 11 x 14 inch photo that I used for display.....in my other life. Cheers!

Abstract Art.....

 Tonight I got to experimenting a bit with using some high ISO settings on the camera. In the old days, we called it ASA, and I find myself still saying that....but I digress. Anyway, I had been doing a bit of research on some of the "expert" reviews online about my recently purchased used Minolta 500 mm f8 AF lens. If I were to believe the various opinions of these guys, it was a piece of junk, and not worth much. But being the stubborn headstrong type, I bought it anyway. So, I put the thing on my SONY a900 camera, jacked the ISO/ASA out to 6400, and proceeded to take a few ambiant light shots hand held, in my cave. The lighting was provided by some LED garage lights.....nothing too fancy for this little test. Anyway, the resulting image is very sharp, and had very little done to it in Photoshop, except resizing for this blog. The sharpness of this lens was more than I had expected, and I had certainly expected to see a lot more noise at ISO 6400. I usually shoot almost everything at ISO 100,,,, The image is just a very small portion, about 1/6 of the entire painting, which was done by our daughter many years ago. I rescued it from the attic to help improve the ambiance of my cave... hope you enjoy this image a litle. Cheers! 

Rain Drops on a Rose.....

While I was waiting for the burgers on the grill to cook, I grabbed my camera, and took a few shots of some Roses, and Roses of Sharon in the back yard. It had rained all day, on and off, and the sun decided to make its appearance at about the time I was tending the grill. Anyway, this little image is the one I chose to post on here this evening. I have not posted much lately, as I have been spending quite a bit of time fixing up my "Man Cave", and now that I am almost finished, I don't know why I did not do this years ago.....but such is life. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend....Cheers! 
 

Rose Buds.....

While I was working on this little image tonight, my in house person who passes judgement on my images gave the one on the right a thumbs down...big time. She prefers the unadulterated, original version of any image I might happen to shoot. As a result, I decided to post both versions tonight, for those who might happen upon my little blog. In case you are wondering why I haven't been posting much lately, it is because I have been busy constructing a little studio of sorts, out in my garage. It is the sort of project that is not for the faint of heart. At my age, I must be nuts eh? 

Anyway, this image is the first ones taken with my "new to me" Minolta 500mm f8 AF lens that I picked up last week for a very reasonable price from B&H in New York. It is an item that I did not really need, but always wanted. There have been a lot of discussion and controversy about a mirror lens VS an optics lens. If I were to buy a 500 mm optical lens, it would cost me North of $5000.00 for a good used one. However this mirror lens set me back less than $300.00 and while it is a used lens, it is in pristine condition. But, but but, it gives ugly donut shaped rings in the out of focus areas of the background....well true, but that all depends on what you are aiming it at. It takes a bit of getting used to, and at a fixed aperture of f8, a tripod is a very useful tool indeed. To me, there are a lot of folks who are somewhat neurotic when it comes to grain, noise, or donut rings in the "bokeh" area of an image. To my feeble mind, there is no such thing as perfection, and it is more important to just enjoy an image, warts and all. Sometimes, when confronted with some undesirable element that might crop up in an image, it for me, is an opportunity to try to arrive at something different, unusual and satisfying. It is an enjoyable way to pass a little time, to work on an image, and see what can be made of it, that might be a bit unusual, or even beautiful....to some viewers eyes at least. Whew! A bit long winded tonight eh? Cheers folks! 

Camera: SONY a77ll

Lens: Minolta 500mm f8 AF mirror lens

Specs: 1/360 sec. @ f8 hand held  

 

Monet's Tulip.....

It is starting to look and feel a lot like Spring is happening now, so tonight, my offering to everyone is this little tulip that is growing beside our neighbour's driveway. The mix of red, yellow and orange made for a very colourful image, and I thought that I would try to render it as something that possibly Monet might paint. The tulip was photographed in Illustration mode on my camera, and then the image was worked on a bit in Corel Painter Essentials 8, to give it a bit of an impressionist feel. It's not perfect, but it was a fun way to clear the mind at the end of a day. So this is my little offering to start the month of May....enjoy the flowers folks....like us, they are only here for a little while. Cheers!