Going back to film - Canon 500n and Fuji 400 - part I

These murals were shot at Bondi Beach Sydney on the beach boardwalk. The colours are great and the artists are certainly talented. The Fuji 400 colour 35mm film worked out very well and they were processed at Foto Reisel in the city, then took the high res jpeg scans and processed in Nik Software and Perfectly Clear. I think they turned out very well. I think I'm liking film. Enjoy.

Canon 500n with Rollei 35mm film

Inspired by the great forums on Google plus dedicated to film photography, I bought a Canon 500n on eBay for $35, attached a Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens and loaded some Rollei 35mm film recommended by the guy at the camera store. First big mistake - using a cropped sensor lens on a FF body results in ugly vignetting - well maybe its now hip but I didn't intend it that way! Oh well. Next I load iso 100 film which is very difficult to use in low light. Just bought some iso 400 B&W and colour film to try next. These were taken in Sydney's Chinatown. I will persist with film for a while and see what eventuates. its a challenge. Enjoy.

typical dining in Chinatown

sock seller at Fridays markets - cropped to avoid vignetting 

fruit market - check out the distortion and vignetting!!!

who reads papers anymore? apparently not many

piece of history - ugly distortion and vignetting!!!

Friday markets are a must - great food and life everywhere

old school notation by new school

x100s does Vivid Sydney 2013

Took the x100s out for a very quick look at the Sydney Vivid Light Festival last night. Usually you will get better pictures lugging around your DSLR, however with the family the x100s was far easier and more enjoyable - after all I'm not trying to win a photo contest with these pictures. Some were tripod mounted, most we handheld at ISO's between 3200 and 6400 at f2. Enjoy.

tripod mounted picture on a 2-3 second exposure

walk by snap to try and go unnoticed!! i like the angle

handheld at iso 6400 f2

tripod mounted 2 sec at iso 100 at f2

tripod mounted 2 sec at iso 100 at f2

tripod mounted 2 sec at iso 100 at f2

Sometime the picture of the projector itself can be art

handheld everything auto

handheld everything auto, converted to b&w in Nik Silverefex 

same as above

light tunnel - funny how captivating something simple is

handheld everything auto

iPhone 4 rocks for cafe art

Enjoy.

X100s drive home in rain

Who says every photo needs to be sharp? For this shoot I shot the whole series whilst stuck in a traffic jam (not driving!!!), set the camera to program mode, with the occasional manual focus for low light issues, and just thought about capturing some great light. Yes even a boring car trip home can be made into an interesting shoot. All shot in jpegs, post processing in Nik Software with Perfectly Clear, most shot in f2, ISO 800 and above. Enjoy. More at dwwphotography.blogspot.com.au 

X100s captures Sydney morning

Grabbed the x100s this morning with gorilla pod and headed down to High Street wharf North Sydney to capture some sunrise over the water. A little late to get the really early light, but tried some ND filter useage and ISO 100 settings on f8 to see what it would look like. all processed in PSE 10 with Nik Software and Perfectly Clear. Easy and not time consuming. All jpeg files.  Now you know why so many people from the cold northern hemisphere love settling in Australia. Enjoy.

X100s captures a ghost game of football

Mothers day also had us travelling to 2 AFL (Australian Football League) games on Sunday morning, still early enough to clearly see the fog. Now I realise the X100s is no sports shooter, but I bought it anyway knowing that the fog may create a unique and slightly surreal feeling not often seen on a sports field. I think everything was set to A which is effectively AUTO in these cameras. I almost looks like a battle scene from a WW1 movie set. Processed in Nik Silver Efex in 2 minutes. Enjoy.

x100s portrait of Mum

Mothers day comes around fast, as does life, so its important to capture these special moments. Now my family believes that I've gone photo mad, so I grabbed a quick snap that was processed in Nik Color Efex - tonal contast + Perfectly Clear in PSE - 2 minutes, and presto - a great memory mainly thanks to the X100s and the right light. Enjoy.

Fujifilm X100s light trails of traffic

I had about 10 minutes waiting time so I decided to try the x100s for light trails of traffic. Taken using a gorilla pod tripod. These were processed in PSE with Nik ColorEfex and Perfectly Clear - a quick 2 minute process. I used the 'T' mode on the shutter speed dial and mainly used f8 for aperture  I ended up using the ND filter to try and darken the highlights and allow more processing time, therefore more traffic. Also pictured is a quick iPhone video of the setup on the back panel. Enjoy.

no nd filter, f8, 20 sec exposure

nd filter, f8, 20 sec exposure

nd filter, f8, 20 sec exposure

Canon 60d and 75-300mm IS captures sunset over Broadbeach QLD

I think these speak for themselves. Shot on tripod just as some spectacular light and shade was presenting. Canon 60d and 75-300mm IS. Enjoy.

Wedding photography as a guest Canon 60d + Sigma 85mm 1.4

Last October we attended the wedding of a teacher of my youngest son. It was a beautiful day in Sydney and the church service was held in a school at North Sydney. Now this was not an official shoot, as I had my family with me and we needed to stay out of the way of the official photographer. The Canon 60d was great and armed with an 85mm 1.4 lens I had the right balance between reach and light to get some ok shots. With the cropped sensor 60d the lens had the actual effect of a 135mm lens. It also goes to show that you don't need to spend many thousands of dollars on more expensive cameras to capture some memories. The church (like most churches) was dark and not well lit. I've tidied these shots up with the Perfectly Clear plugin for Photoshop Elements 10. Enjoy.