Snow day. Car snowed under again overnight and I couldn’t get it back out before it started snowing today. Walked to the giant shop on the Kingsway and took some photos on the way. Some of them are ok. Sore feet now. Taken around 3pm at the intersection of the Kingsway and Strathmartine Road.

On my way back from the shop, around 4:30pm.

After we left Magdalen Green I gave Dan and Emma a lift home, but hadn’t really considered the logistics of getting a small hatchback up a fairly steep snow covered hill. I’m pretty thankful for the group of guys on their way home who gave us a push up the last bit of the hill! After that I plotted the flattest route home that I could, and had little trouble. I would like to have stopped to get some photos of the Stack Leisure Park on the way past, but didn’t want to push my luck. This was taken when I went out on foot with my tripod. One of the last photos of the night, taken around 2:30am on the outskirts of Dundee.

Last one from Magdalen Green.

Top of Magdalen Green.

Magdalen Green again.

Taken from Magdalen Green.

I try not to post more than one or two images at a time, especially from the same “set”, but I’m going to break that rule here. This was taken on Magdalen Green at around 1am today. My friends Dan and Emma and I managed to be pretty much the first people on the fresh snow. This is a shot of some of those who followed. I like snow a lot. The remaining images are in (roughly) chronological order.

Lochee Park, Dundee.

I don’t think there’s any need for me to upload several hundred more photos of fireworks to the internet, but I liked this and a couple of others. Taken at Lochee Park, Dundee.

Minolta Hi Matic 7s w/45mm lens

This is about equipment, rather than photos.

I’ve been giving some thought to lens choice on rangefinder cameras. I’ve dipped into the topic before, but given the equipment I use, I’m finding the 50mm the lens best, meaning the lens that least gets in the way between me and the photo I’m trying to take.

I know many people like the 35mm lens, especially for street photography, and use it as their standard focal length.  That’s great if your camera has the frameline built into the viewfinder.For those of us using older equipment — such as FSU rangefinders from Fed or Zorki — using anything but a 50mm usually means an accessory viewfinder in the flash shoe.

Zorki 1 w/50mm lens and viewfinder

I actually like accessory viewfinders. They’re usually brighter and clearer than the one that’s built into the camera, and often kinder to people who wear glasses. Still, this type of set up  can be a bit awkward, especially if you need to keep your camera in a case at all. The viewfinder seems to find a way to snag on something, every time I take the camera out. I also like to keep my Voigtlander VC II light meter on the shoe of my old rangefinders.

Zorki 1 w/Jupiter 12 35mm lens

I’m a fan of wide-angle lenses. My Jupiter 12 is a fine piece of glass, and my favorite for my Canon F-1 is a 24mm lens. But there’s also the argument that a camera works best (easiest) with the lens it was designed for. The less fiddling there is to do, the better (and there’s plenty of fiddling required of a FSU rangefinder).

I also think there’s a fair amount of European urban influence in the popularity of 35mm lens. The wider focal length suits the narrower, more cramped environment of many European cities where street photography gained its fame. In the United States, our towns and cities tend to have more open streets, giving you plenty of room to step back to make things fit into a 50mm frameline.

Konica C35 w/38mm lens

This is all must, of course, if you’re talking about fixed-lens rangefinders of which I own plenty. What I like about those compact Japanese rangefinders from the 60s and 70s are their sharp lenses, built-in light meters, low price and the fact they’re so easy to use.

So until I move up into the world of Voigtlander Bessas or a Leica M (either seems unlikely for the foreseeable future) my 50s will have to carry the load.

Taken at the WASPS Studios open day in Dundee today. The fourth floor was meant to be open today, but when I went up it was locked. One day I will get to see inside.

Taken outside my flat on Friday night.

I take quite a lot of photos of my nephew, Brook, because for the most part he’s a willing subject, plus he doesn’t stay still for long so is always good for action shots. This was taken in my Gran’s garden on Sunday just past, he got a shot of the camera later to take a couple of pictures of me and of one of his toys.

The result of playing about with rear flash while at Dundee’s Klub Kage. Not being entrirely sober seems to have had little effect on my (in)abilities.

Another one taken up the Law last Friday. Nothing special going on here, I just liked it. You can make out a couple of tower blocks in the Hilltown in the background.

Taken this evening just outside Dundee. One of the last shots I took after an evening cycling around trying various different locations. I was almost home when I noticed the cloud had broken and was giving a nice effect, so carried on back out to an open space to try and capture it. I was using the 35mm prime again, really enjoying using that lens!

New toy time! I picked up my new 35mm prime from the Post Office after work and headed up the Law to try it out. It was a lovely evening and I actually managed to get a few shots I like, so a successful evening in all.

Go Ask Alice 190/365 Project

I went out for a walk today and in the yard of the house down the street was this giant mushroom.  I took this photo and then added a bokeh texture from my archives.  I wanted to give it a whimsical and classic feel.  Almost like it could be in an Alice in Wonderland novel.  I like how it turned out. I am updating my etsy shop this afternoon with this plus four other images. Happy Monday!

T

Rooftops & Clouds 162/365 Project

I went downtown today to watch the  World Cup  matches before work this afternoon.  It was raining, however,  in typical Kansas form the sun popped out and the sky was filled with these billowy clouds.  I hiked up to the top of the parking garage and saw this ancient antennae which made a nice frame for the clouds. Seriously, when is the last time you have seen one of those? Since I had my little Pink Acer I used the Virtual Photographer to edit this image.  The best part about this program is that it is completely free!  Using the classic black and white 4 setting, it created a rich tonal value from black to white without losing any of the detail of the clouds which is nice.   I have used this program before and have had great results. Being able to edit images on the fly is a great luxury.  Give it a try.  I would love to see your results.

T

Pink Hydrangea 155/365 Project

My lovely BF bought me a Nikor 35mm f1.8 lens for my  birthday. Although my birthday is not until  June 19, it was futile to try to make me wait to use it.  I took this photo of a pink Hydrangea, that is going to be placed in the corner of my yard tomorrow, and I am impressed with this lens.  The focal range is closer to 50mm than my 50mm lens so you can get a smidge closer to the subject.  I think that my lovely nifty fifty is going to be ignored for a while

T

Hobby Lobby and I are fastly becoming tight friends. LOL!  I’ve purchased all my recent backdrops from there and love how I can always find a sale. Yesterday, my little one and I went there to find yet another backdrop. While I was there I think I found another item that I will be on the lookout for to add to my props. Tri-Fold Dressing screens. They have a very nice selection. We also bought a straw hat and flowers and made a cute little hat for a prop. 

Anyway, I’ve chatted long enough, so on to the pictures. 

I love the old time look of this

When watching his videos look at how he doesn’t use the “Zoom” function on his high end video cameras.  A nice rule to live by when using your video camera is to move closer to your subject if you want to get a closer picture.  Also, if you are using any 35mm adapter on your video camera you will not be able to use the zoom function because of having to zoom in on the 35mm adapters “focus screen” or “ground glass” which is where the image from whatever lens you use is projected onto.  This is also explained more in his video demonstration.

Also, check out Philip Bloom’s website http://philipbloom.co.uk/

Or do a search for Philip Bloom on http://vimeo.com