My favourite guest house in Witbank

If you are going to be staying in Witbank at any time in the near future, I highly recommend the D&L Guest House! Great guest house, fantastic service, personal touch.

Messing with reality.

Contemplation

Another natural light shot, with harsh light streaming in through a window. I like to think it adds mood...

My friend Jesus - Portrait

After shooting a bunch of portraits with my cheapo umbrella/flash set-up I decided to take an available light portrait of my Mexican friend Jesus.

The Nikon 35 f1.8 DX AFS does a really great job, and sharp too!

Micro Stock photography sites are "evil"

At least most of them are... and I have believed for some time that they have damaged the industry. Nice to see someone agrees with me. There is an article here: “Unsustainable” – MicroStock Comes of Age…er, Not. that deals with the Micro Stock photography industry and explains why it is not all coming up roses.

I personally have never had the urge to sell my hard work for a pittance and probably never will develop that urge, but the Micro Stock industry has affected many hard working photographers worldwide negatively anyway. If you feel the urge to work for nothing, at least do it for a good charitable cause, not to simply enrich some jerk in an office a thousand miles away!

Daryl - Portrait

Nikon D90, Nikon 35mm f1.8, SB600 flash shot thru cheap transparent umbrella = lots of fun!

Kevin - Portrait

Putting my umbrella to good use!

I could really get used to having so much control over the light...

Another from the same session

It's amazing what a big difference the cheap budget shoot through umbrella makes to portraits as opposed to direct flash. A definite step up in terms of quality! The diffuse light falls off much more gently, and gives a nicer, more natural look. One day I want to step up to more powerful studio lights, but until then my existing flash units look like they can handle these smaller jobs.

Phoebe - Portrait

Trying out my new shoot thru umbrella with a Nikon SB600 flash inside.

Small town blues!

Late night in Parys, South Africa. It doesn't exactly rock, but it's a nice little town.

In the details...

Everybody liked the previous photo so much that I decided to include another from the same shoot. :-)

Courtyard

Bride with Yellow Bouquet

Malawi Fisherman

Quaint Country Church

Whole Lotta Great Music

At the La Fayette restaurant in Centurion mall.

Golden Afternoon Sunlight

At the 102+ year old Palm Court Hotel in Parys, South Africa.

WhooHoo! New Camera!

As some of you may know, I really like the Olympus Trip 35, hey I even started a separate blog just for that little wonder of a camera! So when I came across a close relative of the Trip, I jumped at the opportunity and grabbed it with both hands. It is my first range finder camera and is the fantastic but scarce Olympus 35 DC, a fully automatic camera with manual focusing. (Isn't that a contradiction of terms?)

Like all range finder cameras the focusing is very easy and accurate, and the shutter is just amazingly quiet. The shutter speed and aperture is taken care of very effectively by the camera and leaves you free to just concentrate on getting the picture,

As with the Olympus Trip 35 it sports a Zuiko lens, but this one goes all the way open to f1.7! Yeah, now I can shoot in the dark! And if you look at the pics below you can see that the lens is every bit as sharp as the Trip. The main thing I  like about this camera is that the focussing is a lot more accurate than the Trip, but then it also becomes a little slower to use and shooting "from the hip" isn't quite as easy either.

All these photos were taken on expired but frozen for years Kodak Ektachrome 64 slide film and scanned on my CanoScan 5600F scanner. The only thing I did was correct a slight blue cast, resize and brand before posting. No sharpening required, boy this thing is sharp!

If you can get one grab it, as far as I can see there were far fewer of these manufactured than the Trip 35, so they might be harder to find.

Some links featuring the Olympus 35DC:
Photo.net
Flickr
emuu.net
Camerapedia

Pretoria Panorama

Under the Stairs

Getting a little more creative...

A Cityscape

This is a view of Pretoria, my hometown, from the hill on the southern end of town that has Fort Klapperkop on the top.

Die Akker

Another Velvia Sunset

Actually the same sunset as the one that I posted on the 4th July, only about 10 minutes later (and zoomed in a bit), hence more delicious red colour.

This Fuji Velvia 50 film is simply the best for these wild colours! This is straight from the scanned jpg, no saturation or sharpening added. All I did in my favourite graphics program was touch up four tiny dust spots, resize and brand. No grain removal needed, at ISO 50 it is plenty smooth enough!

Nikon f801s, Junky Quantarray 35-80 zoom, Fuji Velvia 50, scanned with a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the GIMP.

Ancient Measuring Equipment, and a small pot.

Taken at the Fort Klapperkop Museum in Pretoria, South Africa.

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm F1.8D, heavily expired but frozen for years Kodak Ektachrome EPR 64 ISO film. Sigma EF 500 flash hand held to my left on a Nikon flash extension cord. Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited with the GIMP.

Praise

Nikon f801s, Tamron 100-300 zoom, Fuji Superia 200, scanned with a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the Gimp.

StatCounter

If anybody needs a website counter and statistic collector and you don't have a budget worth speaking about, then I highly recommend StatCounter, they are the best I've seen. Below is a screenshot from my yearly stats... looks like a little growth happening there since I started the blog in 2008! Hooray!

It's really easy to use and is great for seeing if anyone is actually visiting the blog you work so hard on updating!

What brand of film do you prefer?

There is an interesting question asked here about which brand of film is your favourite. Here is my answer to that question:


I like a few, depending on the application.

A good all round cheap daily use film: Fuji Superia 200 (cheap to buy and develop, and surprisingly good quality, a little grainy but in a nice way)
Black and White: Ilford XP2 400 (cheap to develop, sharp and has great exposure latitude, unobtrusive grain)
Landscapes: Fuji Velvia 50 (expensive to buy and develop, but incredible colours and no grain)

...there are many other very competent films out there and really it comes down to what "look" you prefer. Try as many as you can, compare the results and then concentrate on getting to really know how to use those films to get your own unique look and style.


How about you guys, what do you prefer to use and why?

A Velvia 50 Sunset!

Nikon f801s, Junky Quantarray 35-80 zoom, Fuji Velvia 50, scanned with a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the GIMP.

Natures Patterns

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm F1.8D, Ilford XP2 Super 400 C41 process B&W film. Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited with the GIMP.

537

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm F1.8D, heavily expired but frozen for years Kodak Ektachrome EPR 64 ISO film.  Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited, and desaturated, with the GIMP.

Red and white toilets on Kodak Ektachrome EPR 64

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm F1.8D, heavily expired but frozen for years Kodak Ektachrome EPR 64 ISO film. Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited with the GIMP. I got given about 30 rolls of this fantastic, historic film.

The wild colours of Fuji Velvia 50!

These colours are straight out of the scanner, no saturation applied. No wonder it has such a following. Just look at the amazing blue of the sky, the reds are really RED (not orange), the orange is orange, and the blacks are deep black. Nice and sharp film too.

Nikon F801s, Nikon 50mm f1.8D, Fuji Velvia 50.

Homemade Flash Diffuser

Just trying some DIY and came up with this handy, homemade flash diffuser made from a margarine tub, bubble wrap, duct tape and a rubber band. Tech info: the bubble wrap is a double layer and I used a Stanley knife to cut the tub. ;-)

Not sure how it will work, if at all, but I will post sample pics as soon as I have some. Stay tuned!

Plane in a Dramatic Sky

Minor disaster useing the Olympus Trip 35

I think I must have had a defective roll of film, my first ever, because it simply pulled very easily out of the canister when it got to the end. Not really knowing what happened, and not having a dark room, I opened the camera and discovered the fatal problem. Oh well, now I can re-shoot the same shots and do them better! (me being positive!)

At least this means I could finally look under the pressure plate for the date of manufacture code and can now say with certainty that my Trip 35 was manufactured in March 1969. That makes it 41 years old! My hat off to Olympus for great build quality!

In my initial post I never included a pic of the original leather pouch it came with so here is the poor hapless battered wreck... but it does still work!

More to come soon...

Abstracts we pass by every day 2

Olympus Trip 35 Cult

I just discovered that a particularly addictive cult exists in the world today that seems to be grabbing thousands of unsuspecting and innocent people and turning them into retro photographers. It is the cult of the Olympus Trip 35.
I was quite innocently lured into this seedy cult this week when I unknowingly purchased an Olympus Trip 35 at a local antique store this week for the incredible price of R30 ($3.90) and I confess that I am hooked!

I am not really sure what it is, but it just feels right in the hand, a small solidly built piece of craftsmanship that simply oozes simplicity. It has a nifty 40mm f2.8 Zuiko lens that is reported to be quite sharp and, judging by the photos I Googled, is quite capable of outperforming some of the more modern pieces of kit out there. Excuse me as I wipe the beads of sweat from my palms...

Judging by the low serial number, mine was manufactured some time in the 60's. I will be able to get the exact date when I get the film out and can look under the pressure plate. I discovered this fact here. I was so eager to get film in and start shooting that I didn't find this out until today when I looked it up on line. Holy smokes, that means this camera is almost as old as I am!

When I finish my roll of film I will scan the results and post them for your viewing pleasure.

You can buy them reconditioned here: Trip Man
Ken Rockwell has a nice little review here: Ken Rockwell Trip 35
Camerapedia lists it here: Trip 35
A blog for it exists here: Olympus Trip 35
You can find a manual here: Trip 35 Manual

The manual is a very reasonable 12 pages instead of the volumes you need to read before you turn on your new dslr.

Please be advised that this cult is extremely addictive and will probably get you too if you don't exercise some restraint and take suitable precautions... or you can just jump right in and smile insanely, yet smugly, like the rest of us!

Thunder Ridge Spur

Featured Photographer - Danie Bester

This was a candid shot. I was walking out of a wedding reception and saw this girl standing at the fountain. She looked sad, in contrast with all the other children playing in the background. I love the shot for the emotion and the shallow depth of field.
Danie Bester

You can find Danie's blog here.