…. no worries, no education here…
Spending a few days in Connecticut, I had a chance of taking my D800 and 105 out for a few strolls. Plenty of wild life in a back yard, have a look.
You know hip-hop is alive when you wander through New York. It is not uncommon that a young man approaches you and offers to to listen (and buy) his self produced CD. That happened to me at the World Trade Center site two days ago when I was out doing some street shooting. After thougoughly embarrasing myself (let’s just say I am not a hip hop connoisseur) I had a nice chat with Dutch 40 (check out facebook and myspace), I got his self produced CD and his photo (below). Listening to the CD in 1 h of stop and go New York traffic (mental note: don’t try to pick someone up from JFK coming from Manhattan in rush hour ever ever again), I must say it is pretty good, though not completely PG (I did however hear less expletives than I muttered under my breath dealing with the traffic).
Dutch 40 (M9, 50mm 'Lux at f1.4)
Got down to NYC for the day to shoot some more street. I took along mt M9, 50 ‘Lux and Cosina-Voigtländer (CV) 35mm f1.2, and picked up my “birthday present” a CV 21 mm f4 (though the viewfinder was not available). It was a sunny day and in NYC, the avenues have bright light most of the day, which makes for harsh contrast, I am impressed with the relatively (as far as M mount lenses go) cheap 21 mm. There is some flare when shot into the sun but it not too bad but sharpness is good. I used to have the screw mount version a while, using it on my M8 (as a 28mm equivalent), which gave some weird darkening in the center of the image in bright light. I sold that years ago. I hear the M mount version is optically similar except fore the mount. It is also black and fits nicely with my M9.
Also check out Otto Schulze for some more NYC street work.
I have been patiently waiting for some foliage to appear on plants here in Maine. After having my D7000 converted to “full spectrum,” I finally could venture out with the 24-70mm lens and a Cokin Z IR 007 filter attached (equivalent to 89B). Just down the road, mostly looking to use it on stationary subjects, though I did come across a (somewhat) cooperative butterfly.
I am now offering Photography tutorials, not only online but also as 1:1 or group classes. Learn more here: http://www.benjaminmoritz.com/tutoring
Rumors have been circulating for a while, but the announcement finally came Thursday: some people had Ben expecting the announcement if the Leica M10 (May 10, get it? After the M9 had been announced on 9/9/09), but most were already expecting it: the Leica Monochrom.
Black an White only, 18 MP, no antialiasing filter, and as every pixel is recording light in 14 bits, rather then one of three colors that needs interpolating, the images have unsurpassed tonality and detail (well, maybe the Nikon D800 can compete). My Leica M9 is already great, but it suffers from poor low light performance, and while it used to be the camera I went to when detail was needed, it has been eclipsed by the D800 and has not seen much use. In fact, it has seen less use than my M6, which is usually loaded with TMAX 400.
In a way, the Leica “MM” is a digital version of an M7 loaded with panchromatic film, with base ISO at 320 but the detail of ISO 25. And as most my M9 photos are street shots, and get converted to Black and White anyway, this seems to be fitting my bill. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Leica has priced it out of reach for most mortals at $7950 – yes that is no typo – and so while I have preordered one (after saying all yesterday I would not), it likely will lead to the shedding of some of my Leica gear, likely the M9, maybe the M6, and some of my film gear….. But who needs that now, anyway?
It is May and even in Maine, spring has arrived, but is it just my impression that worldwide the weather is crazy. While here temperaturs finally get above 60 (except for that crazy time in March when it was 80), Europe has a cold spell again…
Anyway here is this months image, a Macro shot taken with the D800 and 105mm Micro lens.
Here is the wide version (2560 px wide, 1.7:1 ratio). Click to download, as always you are free to use and distribute for its intended use (as a desktop image!)
2560x1440 (3+ MB)
smaller version after the break
This month’s image is nothing big – no pun intended (it is somewhat of a Macro shot). Taken with the V1, the FT-1 adapter and the 70-200 VR II, you can get pretty good closeups. This spring is late-a-coming, but finally everything is betting to bloom, although yesterdays 35F did not help.
Click it to enlarge, and as usual, feel free to download and share for its intended purpose.
Size 2560x1440 (Large)
