Thursday, August 28, 2014

Ornond Beach Memorial Day

Way back on Memorial Day weekend, Steffy and I road tripped up to our friends' place in Ormond Beach and spent the weekend hanging out at the beach, at a flea market, and on the Daytona boardwalk. These were shot with a Canon A2E and Ektar 100 film. I love my A2E because I have so many EF mount lenses that I instantly had a whole package and its really a breeze to use (and cheap!). This was also the day that I acquired my beloved Olympus XA2, such good memories. 


Monday, August 25, 2014

Martha's Vineyard 2014

It has been way too long since i've posted any film photography, but in my defense we did just move to New York and all of my tanks and chemicals are in storage. A few days ago I found time to go to Manhattan and drop off 8 of my rolls at Luster photo. I found them on google, and they did a pretty good job for a reasonable price. I spent most of today scanning them in, here are a couple from our annual trip to Martha's Vineyard that I shot with my Yashica Mat 124G. 



Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Helios 44-2 and Helios 135mm vintage lenses

Using vintage lenses on modern cameras has recently become very popular, not only because of their attractive price but also for the interesting look they can give. There are enough articles about them to fill many books on the internet, so i'll just to share my experience with two particular lenses that I own. A great place to find more info is Vintage Lenses for Video. After the recommendation of a DP friend of mine, I started looking into old lenses that produced what is called the "swirly bokeh" look. I wanted to add some flare to my "artisans" pilot without breaking the bank. I did my research and ordered two lenses on ebay, the Helios 44-2 58mm f/2, and the Helios 135mm f/2.8. I spent about $120 total on both lenses and shipping. 98% of them come from Russia or the Ukraine and the descriptions can be pretty dicey, but using my moderate Ebay intuition I picked some pretty good ones. The only thing you need to adapt it to a canon camera is a $12 M42 to EOS adapter. Check out the photos and read about how to use them below - 




Using these old lenses can be tricky because they don't "talk" to your camera. What that means is that you have to set the aperture manually and your camera has no idea what you set it at, rendering aperture priority and shutter priority modes useless. You also will have no autofocus. For video this obviously isn't a concern which is great, but I have been using these a lot to take photos for Steffy's blog. I start by setting the aperture around 2.8 and then doing trial and error to get a good exposure. To focus, you can set it by eye but it is easier to use a live view preview and zoom in for better accuracy. It's a little more complicated than using my regular Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens, but I think the results speak for themselves. The 58mm produces a wild looking swirl when you shoot in front of a busy background, and both lenses flare like crazy. They may not be perfect for every situation but when you have the option to be creative and add some character, I don't think there is a better way to do it on such a budget. Using these lenses has opened up a whole new world for me and actually made me excited to shoot digital again! There are so many out there to choose from an experiment with, I just picked up a 35mm Mir-1B lens for $40 and have my eye on lots of others (but I do need to hold back for now). So if you have the patience and $40 or $50 on hand, get out there and do some experimenting. 

Friday, August 8, 2014

The Artisans - NYC

We just wrapped up shooting for my new video in New York, and I had a blast. The locations were Acme Smoked Fish in Greenpoint, and Black Seed Bagels in Little Italy. The crew consisted of myself directing and shooting B camera, a producer, a second operator working the A camera, our talent, and a sound guy. Everything went well and I think the decision to use my new vintage lenses paid off. I wanted to give the show a unique look, and after a lot of research I picked up a Helios 44-2 58mm f2 and a Helios 135mm 2.8 lens. From my quick reviewing of the footage i've seen some really fantastic shots, my job now is to edit several hours worth of video into a 6-7 minute episode. Stay tuned for updates on the show's progress!



Sunday, August 3, 2014

Long Beach New York (not California)

I had thought about keeping this quiet, but the secret is out - Steffy and I have moved to Long Beach, New York. We just finished driving over 1,300 miles from Miami and spent our first weekend at the beach and in Brooklyn. I'm really looking forward to living here, its the best of both worlds. We live next to the ocean in a small, relatively quiet town but are only 40 minutes from the city. Being a freelancer I will work all over the place so this will let me have a car and also be close to JFK for travel. Here's a picture mid-drive with the crazy Uhaul trailer on my car, and some pictures from Long Beach. My pilot shoots this week, and I have two fantastic old Russian lenses I just bought to review so lots of fun articles coming soon!