Summicron 50/2 : Sunset Elf

We went for a walk  in the woods and the bugs were terrible, so afterwards we went to the boardwalk by the river, MUCH nicer as the wind blew the mosquitos away :)

26C and a glorious may evening

ISO 160 f2.8 1/750th sec

Summicron 50/2 : The shire?

Walking though the woods was brutal, 6 bazillion mosquitoes were out, but I did manage to grab this shot of a bend in the river , I think this was at F11 and altered a tad in colorefex pro

ISO 160 F8 1/125th of a sec

Summicron 50/2 : Sandbox Diva

My youngest was playing out back today, and was dressed all up like a queen/diva , to play in......................the sandbox!

hehehe

ISO 160 f2.8 1/250th of a second

Summicron 50/2 : my first off camera Flash Portrait

I bought a Metz mz 40-2 off ebay complete with Leica 3501 adapter

I managed to take one decent shot today out of a dozen attempts, this is handheld , and totally manual ( couldnt figure out the TTL at the time) I had it set to bounce up about 45 degrees , but I was holding the flash in one hand and the camera in another

Came out quite nice I think , oh it cost me $30.99!!

ISO 160 F8 1/180th sec

Pentacon 50/1.8 : Ice drop II

As I'm slowly but surely going through my hard drive I am finding some photos I forgot about

 here is one of a frozen ice drop on a branch shot with an East German Pentacon 50 lens on my Pentax KX

 this is wide open at f1.8 a I wanted to see if the bokeh effects were worth pursuing

ISO 100 f1.8 1/6000 sec!

Pentax Super Multi Coated Takumar 50/1.4 : Lashes

 I went to my 7 year olds Christmas concert and after the songs etc we were invited back to the classroom for 30 minutes of Christmas activities, here is a shot of her with my Pentax KX and the luscious Super Multi Coated Takumar 50mm f1.4 at f1.4!

 I like this shot as candids with kids are hard to capture!


ISO 800 f1.4 1/80th of a second

Contax/Yashica T* Planar 50/1,7 : 70s windowpane

Im going through the old shots on my PC and I found 2 folders called planar

This one was shot with the 50mm Planar on my Rebel Xt  last autumn , this is f1,7 and it was VERY sharp

I wish they had an adapter that wasnt too expensive to adapt it to a Pentax , then again, i sold it and the 85 to fund half a leica M8!

ISO 100 f1,7 1/4000th of a second!

Leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 : Drawing Nephew

not the most imaginitive name for the shot, but I like the reflected light off the newspaper that made him *glow*

 This was handheld at 1/45th of a second and shot from a room away, got to love a fast tele lens!


ISO 640, f4 and 1/45th of a second 

Leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 : The rest of the gang

In addition to taking pics withmyhelios 44 I tried some with my 1973 Leitz Canada Elmarit M 135/2.8

these didnt come out so well as focusing is quite difficult , its in essence a 180/2.8 lens and you dont look through the lens ( its a rangefinder after all!)

But when it works, it works quite well

this was taken from about 4metres away , and a few minutes after the Helios 44 shots, so the light wasnt as golden, more peachy

ISO 160 F2.8 1/180th of a sec

Helios 44m6 58/2: Golden Glare

After 29 days or so of rain we had a beautiful sunny evening and sunset, all the flowers in teh garden were covered with cobwebs, and.........................no water, so I ran inside to grab a spray bottle and sprayed everything down

this came out really nice, shot at F2 with the sun directly into the lens, hence the flare/glare in the bottom quarter

ISO 100 f2 1/200th of a second

Helios 44m6 58/2: Macro Tulip with spiderwebs

After 29 days or so of rain we had a beautiful sunny evening and sunset, all the flowers in teh garden were covered with cobwebs, and.........................no water, so i ran inside to grab a spray bottle and sprayed everything down

this is f2 and about 0.3 metres , so close I could smell it!

ISO 100 1/320th of a second F2

Summicron 50/2 : Niece in 3D

This shot came out REALLY nice , my Niece looking very  3D!

ISO 160 f2.8 1/90th of a sec

Thanks Leica :)

Summicron 50/2 : Blind Window

From a birthday party and my mother-in-laws house, the summicron 50 is quite sharp at F2, even in the dark!

you can see the mesh outside the window thats used to keep bugs out

ISO 320 f2 1/125th of a second

Summicron 50/2 : Peachy sunset II

the sky looked really neat as the colour faded, very peachy , neat!

iso 160 f2.8 1/1000 sec

Helios 40 85/1.5 : Monet watercoloured eggs

I was at 2 birthday parties this weekend and took a lot of shots, I managed to go through about half of them , and I found this one I liked

 there was a bowl of chocolate eggs, so I placed them on the tablecloth and took a shot wide open at f1.5 using my Helios 40, a phenomenally think depth of field but it also shows the crazy bokeh effects this lens can create! some people dislike it I LOVE it!!!

RTW


ISO 800 f 1.5 1/125th of a second

Summicron 50/2 : Grammy Cats!

At my daughters birthday party I took some shots of my family that I converted to Black and white

this is my mother, who the kids used to call " Grammy Cats" because she used to have 2 cats at her house

full size here


ISO 640 f2.8 at 1/90th of a second
(converted to B+W using NIK softwares Silverefex pro plugin for Adobe Lightroom 3 )

Summicron 50/2 : Peachy sunset

a replica of a shot I took a year ago with a zeiss planar lens , after the birthday party we had this beautiful sunset, so my daughter told me to " get upstairs quck and bring the cameras!!!"

ISO 160 , f5.6 1/2000 of a second

Summicron 50/2 : Sunwatcher

My daughter watching the sunset at the end of her birthday

ISO 160, f2.8 1/90th of a second

Helios 40 85/1.5 : Nephew in Blue

ISO 800 1/640 f2

my Helios 40 85mm/1.5 is a bit soft wide open , but it really sharpens up at f2, as demonstrated here by the shot of my nephew I took at teh kids birthday party this weekend!

I processed this to look semi retro, sort of 70s Kodak

Helios 40 85/1.5 : Sparkly Eyes!

ISO 800 f2 1/640th of a second

This shot blew me away once it showed up in lightroom on my LCD monitor, I knew it was going to be decent, but it actually made me exclaim out loud " whoa!! hahaha" I did very little processing to this, a little white balance, and a tad contrast !

My leica has some competition it seems! a "Beginner DSLR" Pentax KX and a 46 yr old Helios 40 are a formidable combo !

Summicron 50/2 : Willy Wonkas Hotrod

From the kids section at the local Chapters book emporium, a funky coloured teacup that has seats in it for the parents

 To me it looks like the colour scheme for either Willy WOnka or the Cat in the Hat's hotrod

ISO 320 f2 1/250th of a second +1/3 EV in post processing

Leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 : Jetsetters!

I received a new to me vintage lens, a 1974 Elmarit 135/2.8 for the Leica m8 , its pretty buky and clunky, but it does take really good shots!

 This was an infinity test at f2.8 of an aircraft flying over and illuminated bythe sun ( which was below our horizon) pretty neat!

full size is here

ISO 160 f2.8 1/500th sec ( funny thing is: the camera things it was shot at f1.0!)

Carl Zeiss jena Tessar 50/2.8 : HFF!!!

This lens is from 1954 and its a M42 mount, I use it on my Pentax KX once in a while to get some cool retro looking shots

As you can see the rendering is indeed VERY retro, this is quite minimal Post Processing, just a bit of white balance and adjusting the black tones as its not multicoated and has a tendency to flare

Happy Fence Friday!


ISO 800 . 1/125th of a second and f4 for the stop 

Summicron 50/2 : Strike a pose

After taking all the photos at Crystal palace i think My daughter got sick of posing :)

ISO 320 f2.8 1/125th of a sec

Summicron 50/2 : Bossy Boots

I loved the fact that my daughter wore these retro rubber rain boots whenit was 22C outside, then said

" my feet are sweaty!"  hehehe

ISO 320 f2 1/500th of a second  1964 Summicron 50/2 on my Leica M8

Summicron 50/2 : Black Chrome

I was at the local indoor amusement park ( a very small one for kids) and I saw the swings hanging in the sunlight and thought they looked neat, and that the tones might look decent in black and white, so this is the first shot I have taken where my intention was to make it B+W

full size here

ISO 320 f8 1/125th of a second, and it was post processed using Silver Efex pro

Summicron 50/2 : The Angel?

Summicron 50/2 ISO 320 f 2.0 1/250th of a second
I didnt realise that she was standing in front of the brightest lights in the place :( but It looks neat IMO

dont worry Ill be breaking out the KX and the takumars/heliii out for a birthday party this weekend

Summicron 50/2 : Blue Bokeh

From a trip to the park as Spring started to , err spring

 A broken twih in front of the basketball court and a blue gazebo.

 I think Im on a widescreen kick this week!

ISO 160 f2.8 1/3000th of  a sec