Lenses Wide Open

[Pete Askew]

It has been some time since we last had a theme to get our teeth into. I've been suffering from a bit of image apathy of late and, prompted by Hamish's article on aperture, I thought it might be nice to start a theme based around it. So, using a mis-quote of the title of a film by Stanley Kubrick (a photographer and 'apprentice' to Weegee before he made his first film), I thought it might be nice to explore minimal depth of field / low light using the maximum aperture of a lens to creative effect.

This was shot using available light in a fairly dim cafe in Paris a few years ago. It was shot with a Leica MP loaded with Ilford Delta 400 through a Voightlander 35, f/1.2 at full aperture.

I have a few ideas for the theme but I'd love to see the take of others over the next couple of weeks. So, what do you think?

 

[Larry Bolch]

Coincidentally, I was playing around with this very technique a few days back, shooting with the D700 and 28-300mm, f/1.8 50mm AF and f/1.8 105mm AI-S at a meeting with friends. I just had ACDSee generate a gallery which can be seen at
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/selective/

Fine group of geeks, but nothing as pretty as your subject.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Ah ha, was doing just this with my granddaughters today and a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens

Ended up using AI Servo as the kids won't sit still for long!

 

[Hamish Gill]

those are stunning Chris!
im gonna have a field day with this theme!

 

[Pete Askew]

Number 2 is great Chris. Bang on theme! I'll be unleashing the 85 1/1.4 soon (don't think I'll bother with my new 12 1/5.6 though - don't think it would achieve quite what we're after!! )

 

[Pete Askew]

Coincidentally, I was playing around with this very technique a few days back, shooting with the D700 and 28-300mm, f/1.8 50mm AF and f/1.8 105mm AI-S at a meeting with friends. I just had ACDSee generate a gallery which can be seen at
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/selective/

Fine group of geeks, but nothing as pretty as your subject.

Some nice examples there Larry. 7904 and 7908 are my favourites (I'm quite partial to an interesting hat myself!). Dare I ask what's going on (apart from complaining about the youth of today and setting the world to rights in general!! )?

 

[Hamish Gill]

Number 2 is great Chris. Bang on theme! I'll be unleashing the 85 1/1.4 soon (don't think I'll bother with my new 12 1/5.6 though - don't think it would achieve quite what we're after!! )

Voigtlander Heliar ultra wide by any chance ... Jammy git! Why can't you live close by me so I could borrow your stuff?!

 

[Pete Askew]

Yep, the new VM version. Even RF coupled, as if that would ever make any difference!! Will have it with me in Greece to try out. You'll have to move!

 

[Hamish Gill]

I'm behind on my Voigtlander optics it would seem, I wasn't aware of a rf coupled one!
I have the ltm 15mm 4.5 ... Lovely little lens it is... One day, should money permit id love a 12mm though, I have never shot... or even seen through a lens that wide I don't think(?) it must be quite spectacular!

 

[Pete Askew]

It certainly is and the extra nice thing about it being on a rangefinder is, even when using the optical finder, the field of view is always a surprise when you view the file. I'll post some images from it soon.

 

[Larry Bolch]

Some nice examples there Larry. 7904 and 7908 are my favourites (I'm quite partial to an interesting hat myself!). Dare I ask what's going on (apart from complaining about the youth of today and setting the world to rights in general!! )?

Why would we be complaining about the youth of today? We are the youth of today—though we have been around a bit longer than many!

Would you believe it is one of the few remaining Amiga user-groups—AmiCUE—with a very long history reaching back to the early days of the Commodore computers. When Commodore went belly up in 1994, we did not disband the group, since we share both an interest in tech—and in each other as friends. Some of the group play with emulators, and probably there is an Amiga or two in the closet with most of us.

PCs, Macs, Linux and iPads are more likely to be seen, tips exchanged and stuff demoed. After the monthly meetings we head for our favorite pizza place. Saturdays we gather for lunch and conversation in my area of the city. Feasting is very much a part of the group's longevity. Summer is BBQ time.

I have been chronicling this group since film days—digitally for nearly a dozen years. You may notice that the camera did not intrude on any of the pictures. They have long since learned to ignore it.

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks for the explanation Larry, I wondered what it stood for. And now we can see what a misspent youth really leads to!! I bet the chronology of the pictures you've taken is interesting.

 

[Larry Bolch]

Thanks for the explanation Larry, I wondered what it stood for. And now we can see what a misspent youth really leads to!! I bet the chronology of the pictures you've taken is interesting.

I have been posting the chronicle on Facebook starting currently a few years back. Now that one can process JPEGs in ACR prior to opening, I have gone back to my earliest exposures and will fill them in from time to time. The group on Facebook is totally public and can be seen at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5434167796

There are now 37 members world-wide on Facebook with around 20 members locally. I also have albums on my Facebook page. I tend to reserve my site for major tutorials, essays and galleries, and use Facebook as my more personal presence on the InterWebs, as easy access to my day to day work. The first two years of the project are mixed in with the present there.

The ones with the least grey hair are the early ones. ;D