Oct 24 2017
Archive for the 'Posts' Category
Jan 15 2017
Macro focus
My mom bought me my first camera in @1975. An Olympus OM-1 with a 50 mm f1.4 lens.
That camera, three other Olympus cameras, and a handful of lenses got me through my career as a reporter/photographer/editor.
Last year I bought an Olympus OM-D E-M10 digital. The main selling point for me was that I could use all those old [legacy] lenses on a modern digital camera.
I have been experimenting with the camera and with the lenses and posting images on Instagram. Today I dug out a macro focus ring and added it to a 50 mm f1.8 lens. The photo above is of Rylie. She wasn’t the best model, so here are some other examples.
This is what the camera looks like with the adapter, macro ring, and lens. (Taken with my iPhone, w/some color correction.) It’s long, and front heavy, but much easier to use than my 200 mm plus the adapter.
Back in the day, Olympus cameras were smaller than every other 35 mm. The OM-D re-creates the original look as much as possible.
One small issue I have with the camera/lens setup I bought was that the Olympus 14-42 f3.5 lens is a bit cheesy. It makes good images, but it seems so insubstantial. Lots of plastic. These older lenses give the camera a heft and solidity I remember.
The focusing distance runs roughly eight inches to 16 inches. (Which made Rylie uncomfortable.) The focus can be a little difficult, but the peaking feature helps a bit. I also need to get a table-top tripod if I’m going to do more with this.
The photos have been through PhotoShop, but only to adjust size. No sharpening or color adjustment.
One of the art filters available with the camera is called Diorama, which is similar to the shallow focus effect here. I’ll have to put the two together — filter and ring — to see what I get.
This suggests the depth of field. The diameter of the bottle is about 1.5 inches, so the depth of field is less than an inch, even at f11. ISO was 1600.
One last shot. I don’t remember why I bought the macro ring. I don’t remember having any particular need for close-up photography. The lighting wasn’t ideal for these photos, just my desk lamp, but this image nicely shows the ability to reveal texture detail.
Nov 14 2016
Look up in the sky, it’s … Super Moon!
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Nov 09 2016
The Day After
Everything has changed
For in truth, it’s the beginning of an end
And nothing has changed
Everything has changed
I haven’t watched the news today. I couldn’t bring myself to turn on the TV. When I started the car and heard the “Morning Edition” theme, I snapped off the radio.
To open this WordPress page I had to hide my Safari home page off screen.
I’m not ready to face reality.
While walking the dog, I thought about the assignment I gave students: “Thoughts about the election.” What would I write? How would I express my own emotions? My anger? My fear.
For what ever reason, I thought about David Bowie. I was never a huge Bowie fan, but like everyone else, I was saddened by his death earlier this year. One song, one lyric, swam up from the depths of memory.
Please don’t tear this world asunder
Please take back this fear we’re under
I demand a better future
Back in 2002 I drove my beat-up Isuzu pickup to Milwaukee and back. I must have listened to Heathen–all 12 songs–a dozen times over the weekend. Something in the album clicked with me.
I have no idea what Bowie intended with the album, but I heard wistfulness. Bowie then would have been my age now. The songs seemed to be Bowie looking at his life and thinking, “There has to be more.”
There had to be a little bit of 9-11 in Bowie’s thoughts as he worked on the album. He was a New Yorker, after all. But at the same time his career had stalled a bit. Maybe he was thinking about his legacy. Maybe he was thinking about what was ahead and how he would face a future where he would have nothing to say.
What made my life so wonderful?
What made me feel so bad?
I used to wake up the ocean
I used to walk on clouds
I sympathized, even though I was only forty. And with W newly installed in the White House, I know I was worried about what the future would bring.
(A more appropriate Bowie song for today would be “I’m afraid of Americans,” but I’m again listening to Heathen.)
The title song is the last song on the album. Generally that would be the time for the artist to extend some hope. After a reflective and generally dark album (the song “Cactus” is written from the perspective of a stalker), Bowie can’t seem to muster the energy to be optimistic. The last verse of the song and the album is a farewell:
And when the sun is low
And the rays high
I can see it now
I can feel it die
Mortality is a bitch. Every parent’s hope is to leave the better world a better place for his/her children. The reality for my generation is that we will leave our children a cesspool. Hillary maybe, with some help, could have diminished the worst effects of climate change, fear, hate, and xenophobia.
Trump is going to turn that cesspool into a shithole nightmare. God, if you exist, help us.
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