Niagara – Old vs New

I love the historical contrast between old and new in this shot.  Digital SLR vs Daguerreotype; and new vs old location of the Niagara Horseshoe falls.  There is such a huge volume of water that rushes over the Niagara Falls (up to 6 million cubic feet per minute) means that the stone cliff is worn back more than 30cm every year.  In the old photo it can be clearly seen how much further forward the Falls were 170 years ago.  Notice that the left hand side edge of the Falls had water rushing over it in 1840, but now no longer does.  Fascinating on so many levels.

Bokeh-licious

The Nikon 35mm f1.4 Ai-S is an interesting lens.  It’s a very fast wide angle lens that focuses to just 30cm away.  Sounds all good, but the older design results in lower than expected contrast at f1.4 and quite an unusual - if not a little disturbing - out of focus blur, or bokeh.

In the last year three different 35mm f1.4 lenses for Nikon have been released on the market.  There’s the very expensive Nikon 35mm f1.4 AF-S, the also very expensive manual focus Carl Zeiss 35mm f1.4 Biogon T*; and interestingly the Korean made Samyang 35mm f1.4 manual focus.  PhotoZone gave the Samyang an excellent review, and at around $500 it’s one quarter the price of the AF-S Nikon and Zeiss, and only slightly more than the ageing Nikon 35mm f2 AF-D.  Better start saving – a comparison is in order.

Sunlit Tulip

Getting the soft sun to land on your subject just as the background is in the shade can really make the subject stand out.  That’s exactly what happened to this tulip when I was shooting in Edward Gardens last year.  The lit tulip really jumps out in the photo, but the light isn’t strong enough to cause significant shadowing.  Just what you want!!

NEX sharp

Recently I was reading Yu Lin’s excellent Blog “Lens Bubbles”, and I noticed that he mentioned a Firmware upgrade for the Sony NEX, with a new feature called “peaking”.  Peaking is where a different colour from that in the photo shows as a highlight on the screen when that portion of the photo is in focus.  This is extremely useful for manual focusing.   So I quickly downloaded as I knew I would soon use it.

The first try out with the new peaking feature was at the recent Acoustic Gig I attended, and it was very useful.  As the singers moved around, I waited for their photos to come into the peaking range, and the snapped the photo.  Overall, while it isn’t 100% accurate when shooting at f1.4, it works very well at f2.8 and greater, and will be indispensible. 

This shot is of the bar, facing the other way from where Dallas and Andrew were performing.

You can take a look at Yu Lin’s blog here:   http://oldlenses.blogspot.com/

Cute Chick

A couple days ago I was staying in Hawkesbury for work, and after dinner I decided to go for a drive.  I spotted a very interesting church and decided to pull over and take some shots.   As I was taking some shots I noticed a baby Robin that had fallen out of it’s nest, so I picked him up and took a few shots.

I had the Sony NEX with me with the Sony 16mm f2.8 mounted on it, which was very fortuitous as the autofocus and relatively close focus distance made it much easier to shoot the chick in my hand than any of my M Mount lenses.   Unfortunately, as the reviews say, it isn’t a spectacular lens, and its not really sharp at all at f2.8; however  due to the failing light, that’s what I had to use as at 1600 ISO, it was the only f stop that prevented shake.  In the end this shot worked out OK.

When I first chased the Robin chick he (or she or it) squawked a lot and the parents soon came out and started swooping me, however, once I picked it up the was actually quite happy to sit in my hand.  However, a happy Robin chick doesn’t make a good photo, so I gave it a gentle squeeze to make it cry and I peeled off some shots.  Unfortunately, when I was done I couldn’t find the nest, so I put him in the fork of the tree to keep him out of danger, but he was not having it and jumped straight to the ground.  This makes him very vulnerable so I am sure he was eaten by something soon after .

Post Script

The next day I sent this photo to a colleague at work who is known in equal measure for his love of pretty ladies and fear of birds, and copied my other work mates.  So I sent the email entitled “CUTE CHICK!  THIS ONE’S FOR YOU!” and in the text talked about how I had picked up a cute chick; which was quite true.   This was the source of much hilarity at work the next day!

Cash registerin'

A simple shot this, but it’s one I like.  The narrow depth of field gives the image greater depth, a more three dimensional feel.  It was shot at the Antique Markets that is held on Sundays in the St Lawrence Markets northern building that is otherwise occupied by fruit, veg and meat vendors any other day of the week.

It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane! No, it’s Super Deli Planet!!!

This is a weird one.  A superman look-a-like mannequin with “Deli Planet” on his chest.  No, I have no idea why either.  Some Quebecois humour I missed?  Dunno.  However,  I do like that the evil Mr Deli Planet is plying his trade in the background.

Who knew super hero's came on rollers and had to be padlocked to the floor?