summicron 50/2 : Cutie

I was taking shots of the clouds and sunset and it was a pretty dull set of shots, then the sun popped out for a few minutes as the kids came outside to wish me goodnight, the sun was so golden it made me pop that 50mm on the m8 and start snapping, I got 2 really great shots here they are

I love her little grin :) and the flare, and the bokeh!

ISO 160 f4 1/1000th of a second

summicron 50/2 : Goldilocks

I was taking shots of the clouds and sunset and it was a pretty dull set of shots, then the sun popped out for a few minutes as the kids came outside to wish me goodnight, the sun was so golden it made me pop that 50mm on the m8 and start snapping, I got 2 really great shots here they are

the clarity on her hair lips and nose are astounding, leica wins again!

ISO 160 f2.8 and 1/250th of a sec

Carl Zeiss jena Tessar 50/2.8 : Balloonatik

atthe market we got the kids some balloons , the pink and green ones really played havoc with the sunflare  but I think I amended it enough in post processing

 Let me know what you think

RTW


ISO 100 1/800th of a sec f2.8

Carl Zeiss jena Tessar 50/2.8 : enjoying the market

We took the kids to the new local farmers market and i got some nice shots, but I dropped my Zeiss jena lens so I had to test it, at first i thought it was broken, but I had forgotten to step down the aperture down to f5.6, so everything was blown out, no worries, a little bit of Lightroom and a quick convert to B+W and all fixed , the definition of her hair is great.

 Its almost like the lens was designed/optimised for black and white * cough*


ISO 100 f4 1/800th of a sec

Pentax Super MC Takumar 28/3.5 : Northern sunset II

the other night we had a gorgeous sunset , but I missed most of it due to traffic , I was looking for a place where I didnt have any power lines blocking the sun, and forgot about the short time you have available :(


this is shot 2 of 2 shot at f8 ISO 200 1/160th of a second

Carl Zeiss jena Tessar 50/2.8 : Happy Fence Friday II

So out of all of those test shots I took, which one did I like the best?

well I decided to keep this out  of the tessar shots, thats right, a lens from 1953 took the shot that I preferred! and this is at F4 ISO 800 1/50th of a second

here are some of the other shots I took that same day

 ISO 800 f 2.8 1/125th of a second

ISO 800 f4 1/400th of a second

Pentax Super Takumar 200/4 : the other team!

someone asked me what gear I used for the birding shots, here is the leica M8u ona tripod with the Leitz canada elmarit 135/2.8 taken with the Super Takumar 200/4 on my pentax KX , shot at f5.6

 Notice how nice and vibrant the greens are not bad for a lens from 1969!


ISO 1600 f5.6 1/250th of a sec

Leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 : Super takumar 200/4 portrait

someone asked me what gear I used for the birding shots, here is the Pentax KX with the Super takumar 200/4 super prime , thank goodness for tripods!

 This was shot with the M8u leica and a leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 , this was shooting into the sunset, and wide open at f2.8, notice the greens are a little washed out from lens flare , not bad for a lens from 1974!


ISO 160 1/90th f2.8 tripod shot!

Pentax Super Takumar 200/4 : Vintage birdshot

I tooksome shots of the herons last night using the 135mm which with the crop is a 180 , the Supertak 200 on my KX is 300mm with the crop, a LOT better , but I still had the same problems with the muddy river making the shot look too, er... Muddy!  SO I changed it using Lightroom to the *aged photo * look


ISO 1600 f5.6 1/80th of a second

Leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 : Nightflight!

 this small shot doesnt do this justice, here is the full size

First off, by now it is almost totally dark, but I had thought ahead and brought my flash with me, at full power and zoom it said it could shoot 188 feet , so I thought, WTH, lets see if it can! I set the M8 to ISO 2500 ( it has terrible noise there unfortunately) and took a few shots, and I was JUST out of reach, so I popped my homemade *snoot* on it and edged as close as i dared to the waters edge


 I took 3 shots, the 1st one I had the lens at f4 and got nothing, this one was at f2.8 , and the first shot must have startled them, as most of them were looking my way ( you can see the flash intheir eyes!)  the 3rd shot, they were starting to scatter and i didnt want to bug them anymore 


Strobist Info :  Metz mecablitz held above my head at full reach with the snoot aimed at the water ripples in the centre, full power, zoomed to 90mm , it was on such a high setting I could see the light reflecting off the birds and they were perhaps 220 feet away!

summicron 50/2 : hmmm, I think I'm losing

This is when she realised that I think she was getting beaten!

ISO 320 f2.8 1/30th of a sec ( handheld!) I love that camera!

FA SMC 50/1.4: Retreat retreat!!

Yes,I know this isnt vintage, but I was too chicken to take the M* out into the puring rain, but in my defence this is manually focused, I get annoyed when the autofocus wont let me override it and take a shot " wait wait, we arent focused yet!!!.........."

ISO 1600 f8 1/40th of a second on my Pentax KX

summicron 50/2 : 7 vs 71

My father was over the other night and at 915PM my daughter asked him to play a game of chess, it was great fun all around :)


notice how she is really concentrating and Grandad is eating birthday cake :)

ISO 320 f2.8 1/60th of  a second

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50/1.4 : Birthday Gal

We had some cake and ice cream for my wifes (censored) birthday yesterday, I managed to take a really nice shot of her being all happy and birthday-ey abour 2 seconds before she blew out the candles ( thats why she is illuminated all orangey , look at her eyes for the reflected candles)

 I spent a bit of time in lightroom cleaning it up , and then popped it into colorefexpro and added the film style Fuji 160C , as i found it gave it a very flattering look and pleasant grain

Im quite proud of this as it really captures what I like about her, her youthfulness and positive outlook on everything

ISO 800 1/60th f2

summicron 50/2 : Stained glass at Pizza Hut?

We went to Pizza hut for my wifes birthday and I took some shots with the Leica and cron 50 combo, , I wanted to try out some different stuff, but didnt get a chance :(

 so here is a generic lightshade bokeh shot, but I do like the fact that the outdoor windows look like stained glass


f2 ISO 320 and 1/1500th of a second ( the camera guestimated this as f1.7)

summicron 50/2 : Yellow Rocketship

After taking these shots of a friends motorcycle this morning in the parking lot, I found an M coupe at lunch at a restaurant, sort of a German day I think!

 ISO 160 f 5.6 1/1000th of a second

summicron 50/2 : Sick Strobist kid

 

another Strobist style with my Metz Mecablitz ( I love that name!!!)  My daughter the night before she woke up at 6 am with a 103F fever, I didnt notice she looked that sick until I processed this image :(

ISO 160 1/180th of a second and F4

Elmar 90/4 : Decaf :(

All these great coffee shops and I'm reduced to drinking decaf or tea :(

taken with a 90mm f4 elmar from 1958

ISO 320 f4 1/180th of a sec

Carl Zeiss jena Tessar 50/1.8 : Black cup panorama

Out at a coffee shop with a pal today and I couldnt resist taking this shot of the coffee mugs and saucers for sale, very colourful, and bokehlicious at f2.8 with this 57 year old Zeiss lens

 if you look n the black cup you can see the whole store


ISO 800 1/20th of a sec f2.8   , lens is from 1954!

summicron 50/2 : Hamsterrolle

we play a lot of board games , and one is a German made game called hamsterolle and this is what it look like , a wooden ring where the object is to place your blocks higher and higher until the first person with no blocks wins!

 Oh I forgot to mention, if any blocks fall out while you are placing one, they now become yours :)  shot at F2


ISO 160 f2 1/250th of a second and using my Metz MECABLITZ flash unit

Leitz Canada Elmarit 135/2.8 : Im outta here!

full size is here and a lot better

I took my 135mm lens to work with me as we have had a bunch of ravens and crows lately scavenging peoples pickup trucks, as soon as I popped on the big lens and aimed at this guy he took off in about 1/2 sec!
I think they assume its  a gun with that tele lens on it!

 Best viewed full size


ISO 160 f2.8 1/6000 sec

Summicron 50/2 : Me taken by my 4 yr old daughter!!

After my 7 yr old took a shot of me on the boardwalk last week , as I was putting the flash  gear away my 4 year old shouts " Wait!!"

Me " whats wrong??!!!"

her " I want to take a picture of you cos you are never in any"

 so now I have a 4 yr old holding a leica m8 atached  with a short cord to a tripod with a flash on it, what could go wrong!!  Not much apparently , I looked off to the side to eliminate flash reflections off my glasses and she snapped 3 of me

 as she took the 3rd shot she exclaims " OK thats good, you can put the stuff away now , bye"

lol


Metz mecablitz 40MZ-2 ISO 160 F8 1/250th of a second  , the flash was off camera ona tripod 3 feet to her left ( if you know who strobist is, its a setup like he starts people with)

Carl Zeiss jena Tessar 50/2.8 : Like a boss!

this is how l you leave a play park after a nice walk and ice cream prior, eyes closed , all happy and dont look back :)

siso 200 f4 1/640th of a seond , a M42 lens on my Pentax KX, this tessar was made in 1954!

Pentax SUper Takumar 55/2 : Crushed Chalk

I ran over the chalk pulling into the driveway, so of course i took a shot of it afterwards :)
Asahi Pentax Super Takumar (1969) ISO 200 f2 1/4000th sec

Summicron 50/2 : 6 x 17 Tulip sunset Linhof technorama

full size here

Hi, I was reading an article about a nature photographer who used to use 6 x 17 film format in his cameras for super wide angle shots, thanks to the modern digital era, i can crop to any aspect ration I like, I like 16 x 9 as it fits modern widescreens, but the 6 x 17 sounded intriguing , so the last of the shots from the golden sunset walk had a lot of clutter on the top , so a 6 x 17 crop actually fixed it up nicely!

 ISO 160 f4 1/6000th of a sec

the camera that the guy used i think was this one : Linhof Technorama 617

Summicron 50/2 : Me taken by my 7 yr old daughter

My 7 yr old daughter took this of me, and yes  its out of focus, but Its a funny story

 I  set the camera up for her using F4 to give her a lot of DOF and told her to have fun , before I gave her the leica I said out loud

" whats the most important rule?"

before she can respond my 4 yr old pipes up " dont drop it!"     we all had a good laugh !!

my rule was actually " make sure your subject is in the centre of the viewfinder" :) as you can see , I wasnt ........

ISO 160 f4 1/3000th sec

Summicron 50/2 : Illuminated Glade

I went through more of my mosquito walk shots and found a few more that I liked

 As much as the bugs were bothering me, this sapling was in a small glade and the sunlight had it brilliantly illuminated, ( It was very dark all around except for this perfectly lit area!) so I braved the bugs and took a shot

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

Summicron 50/2 : 70s centrefold

full size is here

At the boardwalk a guy had a 10th anniversary Nissan 280ZX , in the sunset it looked awesome with the lens flare from my old lens, but I couldnt decide if I liked it better in Black and White or Colour,
The colour shot shows the golden sunset colours better and the reflections on the fender

reminds me of a late 70s car ad from the magazine centre


ISO 160 f11 1/500th of a sec

Summicron 50/2 : a 1964 lens rocks at Black and White

full size here


Im still going through my woods photos and got a few that didnt work, but conversely a few that i didnt expect to work that came out great!

 in colour this shot looked a bit cluttered, but I really like the setup of the log pieces, voila, instant silverefexpro B+W conversion (thanks to my daughters suggestion!)

I love the tones and textures of it now

ISO 160 f2 1/30th of a second

Summicron 50/2 : Leicas aren't perfect!

Im still going through my woodsphotos and got a few that didnt work, but conversely a few that i didnt expect to work that came out great!

 Trying to capture lens flare when you arent looking through the lens itself ( rangefinder!) is a tad difficult, but I finally got one that looks decent and not just a bad photo!

ISO 160 f2 1/250th ( camera thought it was f1.4!)

Summicron 50/2 : Snow White

Someone asked me for another white tulip shot and it just so happened I had one ready to go :)

ISO 160 f2.8 1/1000

This is pretty much straight out of the camera with a square crop