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My World: Voluptuous

A beautiful Eucalyptus tree that I've been trying to "capture" properly for a while, and finally managed to do so last week.

17647878516_ab010c3486_o.jpg

Voluptuous

I've photographed it with various equipment choices, but the winner in the end was a 1960s Nikkor-UD 20mm f/3.5, Nikon's first ever SLR ultrawide. I'm going to do a technical post sometime on this beautifully-made lens. Having sold all my Olympus digital equipment - in part to fund my entry into the Photo Contemporary exhibition (materials and shipping), it is now my widest lens.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A beautiful Eucalyptus tree that I've been trying to "capture" properly for a while, and finally managed to do so last week.

17647878516_ab010c3486_o.jpg

Voluptuous

I've photographed it with various equipment choices, but the winner in the end was a 1960s Nikkor-UD 20mm f/3.5, Nikon's first ever SLR ultrawide. I'm going to do a technical post sometime on this beautifully-made lens. Having sold all my Olympus digital equipment - in part to fund my entry into the Photo Contemporary exhibition (materials and shipping), it is now my widest lens.

Dawid,

Having just praised to heaven a B&W picture by Chris Callohan of a black girl with tightly fixed hair braids gingerly "Testing The Waters", I am loathe to wax poetic on the very next B&W image that's posted. However, here I have little wiggle room as you have self-selected, waited until you had your very best shot and then posted it. I despair, for you, that you may have to drive that 1,500 kilometers to your darkroom to print this, as it deserves. Can't you find a friendly dark room owner nearby?

You gave the name, voluptuous and I immediately imagined you had fallen for some over endowed lady in an icecream parlor, leaning forward and asking, "What's your fancy today?"

But then, seeing the picture, the tree has assumed a sensuous form that is evocative of admirable beauty of the female form with generous hips and riveting posture.

You have, once again done well. I must admit that I tried covering up lots of portions of the composition to see if the picture includes only what's necessary to be complete. There's no redundancy. Every element up to the edges is needed.

Now that I have declared my love for your picture, could you disclose the shooting parameters? What was the aperture you chose and was it your intention to get all the branches equally in focus?

Asher
 
Thank you kindly, Asher. I don't post any of my tree pictures willy-nilly these days - they are so easy to take, and so difficult to get right. I do like this one :)

This was taken at f/16, 1/125s at ISO100. It was my intention to get as much in focus as possible, and sharp right out to the edges, staying within the limitations of that the 50-year-old Nikkor can do, without killing all sharpness at something like f/22. Not one millimeter of this is cropped, and the lens does surprisingly well given it's age - I got mine basically for nothing a couple of years ago from an elderly gentleman who had since passed away.

I have a really good 16MP file of this, and it will print well digitally - I am going to make a large print soon in the mean time. I should access my darkroom again next month.

If I enter next year's Photo Contemporary again, I think an exhibition of my trees will be in order. If you're interested, of course, and not running out of wall space over there in OPF Gallery One.

warm regards,
Dawid

Dawid,

Having just praised to heaven a B&W picture by Chris Callohan of a black girl with tightly fixed hair braids gingerly "Testing The Waters", I am loathe to wax poetic on the very next B&W image that's posted. However, here I have little wiggle room as you have self-selected, waited until you had your very best shot and then posted it. I despair, for you, that you may have to drive that 1,500 kilometers to your darkroom to print this, as it deserves. Can't you find a friendly dark room owner nearby?

You gave the name, voluptuous and I immediately imagined you had fallen for some over endowed lady in an icecream parlor, leaning forward and asking, "What's your fancy today?"

But then, seeing the picture, the tree has assumed a sensuous form that is evocative of admirable beauty of the female form with generous hips and riveting posture.

You have, once again done well. I must admit that I tried covering up lots of portions of the composition to see if the picture includes only what's necessary to be complete. There's no redundancy. Every element up to the edges is needed.

Now that I have declared my love for your picture, could you disclose the shooting parameters? What was the aperture you chose and was it your intention to get all the branches equally in focus?

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank you kindly, Asher. I don't post any of my tree pictures willy-nilly these days - they are so easy to take, and so difficult to get right. I do like this one :)

That's appreciated, as we do not need a plethora of OK pictures and self-selection and discipline raises our standards.

This was taken at f/16, 1/125s at ISO100. It was my intention to get as much in focus as possible, and sharp right out to the edges, staying within the limitations of that the 50-year-old Nikkor can do, without killing all sharpness at something like f/22. Not one millimeter of this is cropped, and the lens does surprisingly well given it's age - I got mine basically for nothing a couple of years ago from an elderly gentleman who had since passed away.

I have a really good 16MP file of this, and it will print well digitally - I am going to make a large print soon in the mean time. I should access my darkroom again next month.

Dawid,

You are working, no doubt you realize, in a zone of decreased image quality by virtue of the tiny aperture in relation to the tiny pixels in the sensor. Still, you seem to have come out on top.....but only in a print can one see whether or not you paid a price for this.



If I enter next year's Photo Contemporary again, I think an exhibition of my trees will be in order. If you're interested, of course, and not running out of wall space over there in OPF Gallery One.
.

Love to host your work again. There was a good reaction and lots of folk stopped their traveling and settled down on your pictures after having been mesmerized by the neighboring one's by Chris Calohan and Charlotte Thompson.

Asher
 

Sam Hames

New member
A beautiful Eucalyptus tree that I've been trying to "capture" properly for a while, and finally managed to do so last week.

Nailed it!

Part of what I like is the perspective chosen. It's a little disorienting and hard to make sense of what is where but I think that makes it even better. Seeing all the elements but not quite being able to fit them together means I'm left exploring and getting lost in all the textures.

I would love to see some of the earlier attempts as well, I like to see the evolution of an idea.

Cheers,
Sam
 
You are working, no doubt you realize, in a zone of decreased image quality by virtue of the tiny aperture in relation to the tiny pixels in the sensor. Still, you seem to have come out on top.....but only in a print can one see whether or not you paid a price for this.

Ha, I don't think so... This picture is filled with micro-textures that only really large display sizes can illustrate. It's going to look spectacular at 60 inches wide.


nikkor-20ud_16_0-crop-01.jpg

How does the saying go? There is nothing worse than a sharp picture of a fuzzy concept. If a picture needs f/16, it gets f/16. 35mm film fundamentally limits the practical resolution we can achieve in anyway, I've never seen a difference between f/8 and f/16 on Delta 100, the finest film I shoot. A 36MP digital sensor might be different, but people really should look at the bigger picture - tones, dynamic range, composition.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ha, I don't think so... This picture is filled with micro-textures that only really large display sizes can illustrate. It's going to look spectacular at 60 inches wide.


nikkor-20ud_16_0-crop-01.jpg

How does the saying go? There is nothing worse than a sharp picture of a fuzzy concept. If a picture needs f/16, it gets f/16. 35mm film fundamentally limits the practical resolution we can achieve in anyway, I've never seen a difference between f/8 and f/16 on Delta 100, the finest film I shoot. A 36MP digital sensor might be different, but people really should look at the bigger picture - tones, dynamic range, composition.

Well, that's film for you!!

I was thinking of a digital sensor which is quite different!


Asher
 

Lee Tracy

New member
they are so easy to take, and so difficult to get right.

Never a truer word!

I'm still working on getting a good tree picture. I was contemplating lying down on the ground to get a different perspective - after seeing this - I'm definitely going to do it. In my garden first I think, although there are some truly magnificent trees in town in front of the hotel that are begging to be shot, but I think I want to see if the position works before doing it in the main road LOL. They all think I'm crazy enough as it is.

Fantastic photo. Totally jealous :D
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Never a truer word!

I'm still working on getting a good tree picture. I was contemplating lying down on the ground to get a different perspective - after seeing this - I'm definitely going to do it. In my garden first I think, although there are some truly magnificent trees in town in front of the hotel that are begging to be shot, but I think I want to see if the position works before doing it in the main road LOL. They all think I'm crazy enough as it is.

Fantastic photo. Totally jealous :D

I have a few important guides to my life, one of them is:

"Don't think! .......instead, Try!"


Taking that perfect picture, as Dawid has above, needs getting it wrong first. That's how you get it right!

Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Caution!!
Wry humour following.

Hi Dawid.
Unusual spelling. Do you have a lisp?

'Capturing' trees is easy since they are well rooted ( mean that in the botanical sense, of course); Its the photographing of such that is the difficult part.
I always thought (well, not always: since I fell out of one) photographing trees was a 'from the ground up' sort of thing. This one in particular, Euc alba if I'm not mistaken, isnt easy to include in the frame from any reasonable distance, so you have chosen well to lie on your back.
I had one of those 20mm Nikkor lenses back in the late 60's or early 70's maybe. Took a lot of trees with it. Oberon has a lot of trees - and not much else.
Nevertheless, your image, besides all the technical guff some wish to concentrate on, does heaps for me; recalling past times, fond memories and the smell of forest floor.
Cheers
Tom
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
I have a few important guides to my life, one of them is:

"Don't think! .......instead, Try!"


Taking that perfect picture, as Dawid has above, needs getting it wrong first. That's how you get it right!

Asher

My Old man would be staring you in the face right now, Ash, and telling you straight.

"Don't try; do!"

and

"Think before you do anything - if you have time".

I hope you never applied the same philosophy when diagnosing a patient.

Cheers
Tom
 

Lee Tracy

New member
I have a few important guides to my life, one of them is:

"Don't think! .......instead, Try!"


Taking that perfect picture, as Dawid has above, needs getting it wrong first. That's how you get it right!

Asher

There is no 'try' only 'do' or 'do not'. - Yoda

I'm stuck on 'do not' :D
 

Lee Tracy

New member
Caution!!
Wry humour following.

Hi Dawid.
Unusual spelling. Do you have a lisp?

'Capturing' trees is easy since they are well rooted ( mean that in the botanical sense, of course); Its the photographing of such that is the difficult part.
I always thought (well, not always: since I fell out of one) photographing trees was a 'from the ground up' sort of thing. This one in particular, Euc alba if I'm not mistaken, isnt easy to include in the frame from any reasonable distance, so you have chosen well to lie on your back.
I had one of those 20mm Nikkor lenses back in the late 60's or early 70's maybe. Took a lot of trees with it. Oberon has a lot of trees - and not much else.
Nevertheless, your image, besides all the technical guff some wish to concentrate on, does heaps for me; recalling past times, fond memories and the smell of forest floor.
Cheers
Tom

Dawid is the Afrikaans spelling of "David". It is pronounced Dah-vid, with a long 'a' like in 'car'.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
My Old man would be staring you in the face right now, Ash, and telling you straight.

"Don't try; do!"

and

"Think before you do anything - if you have time".

I hope you never applied the same philosophy when diagnosing a patient.

Cheers
Tom
Tom,

Your Dad had smarts, but there is actually a pretty good background to the rule I was quoting!

That's where education and scientific tradition beats more common aphorisms. This advice, "Don't think, try!" has been taught to countless generations of physicians and scientists following its introduction by the surgeon John Hunter. It actually is the continuation of the science of investigation of Aristotle and direct observation by trying our ideas under rigorous testing situations. This has allowed the advances in medicine. We don't merely think about what's possible to save a patient with what everyone already knows but also try to save those who otherwise would be left to fail, succumb and die.

I was fortunate to be skilled at thinking up ways around what was "not doable" and assembling everything I could to put the patient on the path to success, not stopping where there was still doubt and uncertainty and tried and succeeded, risking my reputation, in rescuing people who otherwise would die. Many physicians do this every day, harnessing every iota of knowledge and skill and then taking measured risks, they do not have to do, to convert a "thought process" on a solution to a successful all out "try" that in fact succeeds!

So that is why the phrase "don't think - try" and its variants have track proven record of enviable success.

But, also, your Dad is also right, don't just "try" - make sure you actually "land the plane", if you have taken the responsibility of being the "captain at the controls"!

In the case of photography, unless one makes mistakes one cannot make progress. Lee expressed a lot of hesitancy!

No one I know simply thought about pictures, studied great pictures and then went out and immediately snapped winners. Progress, in almost all man's efforts, required learning from failure. "Fear of being humiliated" can prevent this path to success.

If one cannot withstand and pass through failure, I don't think progress in anything is possible!

Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Thomas Dinning Sr had more influence on me than John Hunter, Ash.
Besides, I reckon I saved more lives by not becoming a doctor. At least someone didn't have to bury my mistakes.
 

Lee Tracy

New member
The only hesitancy was in convincing the very small community I live in that I am completely insane rather than just slightly eccentric.

I have 100's of deleted bad photos of trees to prove (if I still had them) there is no hesitancy in taking bad photos in the quest for the 'good' one.
 
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