31 Aug 2011

Toyota LandCruiser FJ62 4X4 Station Wagon


I am selling my trusty Toyota LandCruiser FJ62 4X4 Station Wagon.

Well looked after. Motor professionally redone last year by Toyota SA. Comes with bull bar, roof carrier, high lift jack, 4x metal Jerry Cans, full alarm/immobilizer/anti-hijack system, Dobinsons shocks and springs all around, recovery strap, window tinting and cd/radio. The "real deal" for overland travel through Africa!

If you are in the market for a good used 4X4 (and you live somewhere in Southern Africa!), then send me an email at thephotophile@gmail.com

And just in case you are interested, here is the obligatory set-up shot, it is a photography blog after all!


Nikon D90, 18-105 kit lens, taken in the middle of the day but in shade, zoomed to 52mm, manual mode, f8.0, 1/200s, ISO200, Nikon sb600 camera right and sb700 camera left fired wirelessly via Nikon's uber cool CLS system. I underexposed the shot a slight bit and let the flashes sort out their own exposure themselves via iTTL, this had the effect of a darker background which made the vehicle stand out. Isn't technology wonderful!?

16 Aug 2011

Still Life - Taken with a Nikon F801s


An old photo taken with a Nikon F801s and a junky Quantaray 35-80 zoom, in the late afternoon sun. This was my first attempt at a still life just after I had bought my very first SLR. While not a great photo in technical and artistic terms, it still holds a special place for me.

13 Aug 2011

Seamless White Background - How To

Just in case anybody was wondering how complicated it is to do a seamless white background product photo shot like the one below, I have included a shot at the bottom of this post to show how simple it can be done.


...and the promised setup shot:


Really not complicated at all! The flash was triggered via Nikon's cool CLS system. The groovy light stand is explained at another post here.


12 Aug 2011

Orange Stack


Nikon D90, 18-105mm kit lens, manual settings, 1/60s, f16, ISO 200, SB600 flash bounced into an umbrella from camera left and a little high, white cardboard sheet against a wall to provide a seamless background, edited in Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3.

11 Aug 2011

Dining Room in Totius House, Potchefstroom, South Africa



Taken with the amazing Olympus Trip 35 on Ilford XP2 Super 400 film, developed at local lab and scanned on my CanoScan 5600F. The camera wouldn't let me take the pic because the light was too low, so I took it off auto and set it to f2.8 and voila! Got the photo anyway! I think it looks moody.


Also featured on the Olympus Trip 35 Cult blog.

4 Aug 2011

“It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.” - Paul Strand


A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion .... All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. - Richard Avedon