Transience

I'm a bit spoilt for choice as to what I can write about today, as so much is going on in my life right now it's starting to wear me down a little! Thankfully most things will be out of the way by the end of this week, but the tiny light at the end of the tunnel are the new ideas and projects that I can't wait to get started.

Firstly, today myself and a few other second, third and first years went to Narberth in Pembrokeshire to see an exhibition in the Queens Hall Gallery. There were some lovely photos by rather exotically named photographer Dragos Lumpan. It was all about Transhumance and documenting this ancient tradition that's slowly dying out in many parts of Europe and beyond. One of the main reasons we went there however was as part of our professional practice brief, to get us to learn how to get our work into galleries if we so wish. As it turns out, a few of the second years photos from the cinematography brief are going up in the gallery soon, including one of my own, which I'm rather excited about!

The image in question that's going to the gallery

I started to wonder what else I could do to submit to galleries, what I'd enjoy. My mind wandered back to the days when I was absolutely obsessed with pinhole photography. I couldn't get enough. I'd make my own cameras and experiment with various methods and materials. I even made a matchbox pinhole camera, which turned out pretty well. I'd spend hours developing things in the darkroom with the trays and the enlargers, seeing what worked and what didn't. It got a little lonely at times but I was addicted.

One of the matchbox photos

Shoebox photo

More of my old pinhole images can be found here :)

Anyway, back to the present day. I wondered if I should try it again, only instead of using light sensitive paper, maybe I should use film? I'd used 35mm film before for pinhole photography, but cutting it up into little squares proved difficult to develop (I resorted to putting a load of double sided tape in the tank, sticking the film to it emulsion side facing the centre of the tank and giving it a good shake. Seemed to work, but it was very fiddly!). I was recently re-introduced to 5"x4" cameras and I have to say, I love it.

I was a bit reluctant to try it out at first. I was feeling lazy that day when the tutor said we should give it a go. I didn't fancy spending forever focusing it, least of all on a bunch of bottles as a still life, but when the tutor suggested I do some portraits instead "Since that's what you're into",  my interested was piqued. I loved seeing the image upside down at the back, and having to hide under a black sheet is pretty funny, and the tilt shift effects you can do with it are pretty neat too. Not only that though, the image quality is second to none. Here you have a huge sheet of film, ready to be exposed. The worst part is making sure your subject doesn't move - it's difficult getting the eyes right on the focus plane, because once you've focused you have to close the shutter, put the film in the back, and then release the shutter. In that time the subject may have moved a little. But I think I did ok, all things considered!

Photographed and then inverted, not sure why it's blue but I like it! :D The black dots are my ceiling light.

My idea for this new project was simple. Paper was too limiting - you can't enlarge it unless you scan it in. 35mm film is too fiddly. But what about 5"x4" film? I could easily make a camera big enough to take that size film, and it wouldn't be much bigger (width wise at least) than a regular point and shoot. It being on film means I could enlarge the image to whatever size I like, plus I could scan it in at a high dpi if I really wanted to. Perfect! Why hadn't I thought of it before? I now had this excellent method of capturing an image, but what should I capture?

The beauty of film pinhole photography means you can create very long exposures without worrying about whether the sensor will get too hot, or if the batteries will last. You just open the cardboard shutter and let it go. If the hole is small enough and the film is a low enough ISO, you can get incredibly long exposure times, which is something I plan on taking full advantage of.

This project will cover several different places, usually busy areas, but I'll be using a long exposure. This creates a very eerie image, where nothing but the streets and buildings can be seen. Atta Kim did this too, somebody I discovered as part of my research into the subject as a foundation student, and his photo of 57th street has a strange, almost uncomfortable atmosphere to it. To me, it points out how we're all so busy in our lives that we don't pause for breath - only ghostly colours and figures appear, shadows of life. We're all so busy we hardly see life happen. It whizzes by so quickly we can scarcely take it in - even the camera only captures traces left behind.

This carries on from the project I started on my foundation course that I called (if I recall correctly, I'm going back a couple of years!) Transience. It'll be like falling in love with it all over again.

Tomorrow I'll be telling you about another project I'm working towards, this time more fashion and fantasy orientated!

My new lens! A mini review.

So, as some of you may know already, I recently got myself a new lens! I saved up and got the lens I've wanted for a while - the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. So far, it's worth every penny I paid for it, and it keeps getting better and better. I decided to give you my thoughts on it so far, a mini first impressions review I suppose :)

So what prompted me to get it? Well, aside from the obvious, recently my kit lens broke a little (well...maybe a bit more than a little). I was doing something for my 365 project at the time when I tripped on a wire near my tripod (which also stopped me from being able to work tethered, I need to get a new one) and the tripod, complete with camera and lens went crashing forwards and landed lens-first. What a nightmare! Thankfully, it landed on my shaggy rug, so the damage was minimal.

I didn't actually notice any damage until a few days later when I felt that the zoom was acting up and getting stuck. It wasn't until I was having to force the zoom to go where it was meant to and I heard a loud SNAP that I realised there was a screw or something loose and the front element was wiggling around rather happily to itself. The good news was it still auto-focused, but it wasn't quite as accurate anymore since the element was droopy and looking at completely the wrong angle (i.e., down). So on the upside, I'd accidentally created a tilt shift. On the downside, it wasn't good for much anymore. It wasn't worth replacing (kit lenses rarely are) so I figured a lens I'd had my eye on for a few months would do well as a replacement.

Enter the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. I did a lot of research before getting this, but everything seemed to point towards me getting it. It was perfect for what I need it for, and after saving up I was finally able to buy it on Wednesday! The guy in the shop smirked as I put my card into the machine and said "I love the smell of burning plastic!" I couldn't help but laugh. It's true what they say - you forget how much you paid for it as soon as you have it. 

So far I've been in awe of what it can do. For the first time on my own camera I can actually count the stitches in a piece of fabric when not even my eyes can manage it from that distance. It's incredible at picking up detail. It's smooth, quick to focus and very well built. It looks pretty funny on my little D5000 though, it makes it look even smaller! However even with a DX sensor, the focal range is fantastic and very useable.

It's pretty heavy, though not in your hand. When it's mounted on my camera the leverage it provides makes my wrist ache after a while if I don't support the lens too, but I think that's because it's so much heavier than the body. Once I upgrade to the D700 I think it'll be pretty well balanced. I'm used to using the Phase One for hours on end in the studio without sore arms or wrists so I'm fairly sure it's just a balance issue. It's a solid lens worth every penny, and I highly recommend it.

Once I've had a chance to take some proper photos with it I'll post them here for all to see. I can't wait to put it through its paces!

My new lens! And life in general to date :)

This post is later than planned due to me forgetting I was helping out at youth yesterday. I was in college all day and then youth shortly after that and I got back pretty late, so I didn't really have the energy for writing it out. I was really tired from having a late night the night before and then waking up during it repeatedly. My sleeping patterns haven't been the best lately. Last night I had a nightmare too, so hopefully tonight will be more restful.

Anyway, I'm not going to write loads about the lens, there's loads of really good reviews on the net already so I'd just end up copying them.

So, the Nikkor 50mm f1.8 is in a word, brilliant. I've been messing around with it and I've found it's quite fun to focus it manually and watch the really narrow line of focus move on the live view. It gives me pictures that are similar to the kind you get with a tilt shift lens and it's pretty impressive. It's very easy to use and has gives a high image quality which is nothing less of expected since it's a prime lens. No moving parts usually means better optics due to not having to compromise for other focal lengths. That's why the bigger macro lenses cost an arm and a leg. Here's a couple of pictures I've taken with the lens so far at f1.8. I've not done any shoots with it yet so they're just things (and dogs) around the house:

The lens is really light, compact and sturdy. Some people complain that it's made of plastic and is pretty tight fitting on the camera body compared to other lenses, but I don't see what the fuss is all about. Lenses are delicate bits of equipment at the best of times even if they're encased in steel, so anybody in their right mind isn't going to throw it around and will be careful to not drop it. It's very tough plastic, when I'm not really thinking about it I sometimes mistake it for metal. I quite like how tight it is on the body, and after taking it on and off a few times it doesn't seem to be as bad. I see it as a sign of good workmanship and I rest assured in the knowledge that it isn't going anywhere once it's on. It's not going to damage anything so I don't worry about it since it's made by Nikon for Nikon cameras. I'm fairly sure they know what they're doing ;)

Here's a couple of pictures I took of the lens:

Overall, it's a very good lens, probably worth twice as much as I paid for it due to its usefulness and quality. I paid just over £100 for mine on Amazon, and I've seen it go down in price since. Kinda gutting to see something you've just bought suddenly become cheaper, but oh well :) To echo what others have said, it's probably difficult to find such a good lens at such a low price. I was tempted to get the f1.4 but deep down I just couldn't justify spending around £300 on a lens that opened 2/3 of a stop wider, was built out of metal and had weird distortion going on that the f1.8 doesn't have. It was only fractionally sharper at f2.8 than mine at f2.8 and just didn't seem worth it. I find f1.8 soft enough for most photos where I want a shallow depth of focus, f1.4 would probably be exceptionally difficult to tackle.

So, that's my new lens. I got teased about it in college by the tutors - I think they think I'm in love with it or something. Well, I am pretty pleased about it :D

In other news, the photos I ordered on Asda arrived this morning in a big brown parcel. Wasn't expecting that, I thought it'd be much smaller! I also got a letter from college telling me I'd been awarded a bursary/scholarship fee of just over £300 to help with the costs of everything on my course. I applied for it back in September/October and forgot all about it so it was a nice surprise to wake up to. I'll get it at the start of March.

I've also done something I've been threatening to do for a while - posted my provisional license application! I can't wait to start having driving lessons. That's something else I've been saving money for. I hope I pass my test this year! Something else I'm finding exciting is thinking up locations for photoshoots I can do in the very near future. Like in the next month. I've got a pretty big list so far of places to use in the local area thanks to a brainstorming session with my mum :) I was feeling pretty uninspired by the surrounding area so she helped to open my mind and my imagination to new ideas and other ways of looking at things. She's great! ^^

One of the things I could well be doing is a fireman calendar for charity. It'd sell like hot cakes :P