Blog Ring

This week’s theme for the 52 Week Project is slow down. This is particularly challenging with dogs (esp when zoomies kick in!). My approach was to turn my “hobby” camera (a little Sony mirrorless camera + a vintage 28mm f2.5 manual focus only lens) in the direction of Bender. The Sony definitely is my slow down camera. It doesn’t have a viewfinder, so all focusing is done via screen. This manual focusing particularly tricky esp if the day is bright and sunny.

Bender tolerated me pointing a camera in his face (he typically looks like a bored old man, he did not disappoint today) while I dialed in focus on him. A bit tougher to do when there’s a crunchy treat in hand! Nose shot… then we got a crisp eye!

Ummmm how close do you need to be mom?

You will give me the treat…… What you want more than me looking at you? Ears? Nope don’t have any…

This is the longest I’ve had to wait for a cookie…..

(Bender did get the cookie after a little drool and perked up ears!)

Next up visit Elaine Tweedy with I Got The Shot Photography, Northeast PA Pet Photographer and see how she slowed down for this week’s theme!

This week’s theme for the 52 week project was patience. What better way to incorporate patience than with a dog who’s attention is hard to capture while freelensing?

Luckily for me, Bender’s attention was captured by the people coming and going at the elementary school, so I didn’t need to have a lot of patience waiting for the look from him. The freelensing, that’s a whole other patience! The lenses aren’t attached to the camera body, which means they can be used like a tilt and shift style lens. The toughest part is manually focusing and manipulating the focal plane to keep a moving subject in focus.

First off I used a couple of the 28mm freelenses (I have 4 of them!), though the look wasn’t quite wasn’t what I wanted to achieve.

*Those spiffy white blobs on some of the images are natural light leaks. They happen when the barrel of the freelens (which isn’t attached to the body of the camera) is angled enough to allow light to leak in to the sensor. The dark edges are actually the barrel of the lens coming into the frame. 

Since the backyard is a little cluttered (nice van and some lovely things at the neighbors) I wanted a tighter shot with more of the freelens tilt shift look. So enter in the collection of 50mm freelenses (I’ve got 7 of them!). The results were more what I had been looking for.

And a normal shot of the handsome Mr. Bender.

Next up visit Kim with BARKography based in Charlotte NC while on location in Cannon Beach, Oregon to see how she incorporated patience into her images.

The theme for this week’s 52 Week Project was humorous. The original plan was to acquire a pair of googly eyes (Not sure where my original pair is) and put them upon the dogs and capture them in a manner similar to this image of Axle from 2013.

Unfortunately, googly eyes seem to not be trending these days so I had to settle for a pair of nerd glasses and pair of aviator sunglasses. First up was Bender, who sported the aviators and my Nerf bandolier for a badass look. For the most part….

Icey’s turn for the aviators. She wears them like a pro as she’s had many a pair of sunglasses set upon her face, but to add a humorous element, I had her bark (she’s my only dog who will bark on command). The aviators clung to her face for dear life, and the element of a dog treat in my hand helped create some AMAZING drool!

Bring out the nerd glasses! They were novelty nerd glasses with a complementary swath of athletic bandage tape on the bridge, which I removed. This in turn made them look a little more like hipster glasses vs nerd glasses, but the right face could make them look more one way or another.  Bender rocked them first, and no I didn’t pose his feet, that’s all him.

Icey didn’t want to be left out. The nerd glasses were a smidge small on her noggin but boy did they hang on for her barks!

Next up, visit Kim with BARKography based out of Charlotte NC to see how she captured humorous!

(Did you see me in the aviators?)

This week’s theme for the 52 Week Project was flare. The goal was to create a flare with a series of different lenses, so as to know how each lens would create flare and how to work around it. The lenses chosen were the 10-24mm, the 85mm & 28mm freelens all mounted on my Nikon D750.

First up, the 10-24mm – aka the creakasaurus.

Not nearly as much flare as I would have expected! This lens is made by Tamron and a bit of a middle of the road lens (it is designed for crop sensors – but works on a full frame!). The lack of flare means Tamron has a solid handle on their lens coatings which helps to negate flares (I also had a circular polarizer on, not sure if that would make a difference….). At least I got a cute little sunburst from shooting stopped down at f9!  The lens is called creakasaurus because it is MEGA noisy when it autofocuses – it fell to the floor of a Jeep, and ever since it makes an awful racket. Really fun when you’re in a quiet area…. haha!

Next up was the new to me 85mm f1.8 D. Snagged it used on Ebay, its original owner purchased it new in 1999! This means the coatings on the glass are older (at least 17 years old!) and more prone to create a flare. And boy did it!

Giant rainbow flares! Wide open and stopped down! What a treat (though if I didn’t want the flares, what a mess!). This lens also trends towards a very heavy blue tone, all correctable in lightroom.

The 28mm freelens was up next. Freelensing is holding the unmounted lens in front of your camera. This allows you to manipulate the in focus areas similar to a tilt shift lens. Plus there’s the chance of light leaks and flares happening! This particular freelens is a Tamron Adaptall 2 with the adapting mount removed (in most cases you need to remove the rear mount of the lens so you are able to get it closer to the sensor so your camera can “see” through it).

Freelensing is very challenging with dogs (or anything that moves) because you are manually focusing a very narrow area that can be changed with the tiniest tilt or shift from you or the dog. There are some very tiny minor flares on the right side of the image (I was kinda thinking there may be more…) – not sure if this was due to the lens being used as a freelens or if it was due to the lens (this is a vintage lens, possibly from the 70s or older).

Since the 85mm was throwing some very solid flares, it was remounted and I continued to see how I could force them and manipulate the flares. Plus the bokeh on the lens is very pretty 🙂

The following morning, the 85mm &  I adventured outside in our pjs and Bender to see how the flare was in the morning. Oofda! That’s a lot of light! But the flare was kind of neat as it framed Bender.

Next up visit Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area and see how she managed to capture flares!