This past weekend I fell into a vortex of photography lens trying – it all started when I saw a lens advertised at Best Buy on sale.
A little backstory: Years ago I had a great collection of cameras (back when we shot everything on film) a Minolta with a wide angle Tamron lens, and a Mamiya large format camera. Between the two of these outfits I could almost always capture some pretty good shots. I actually had a couple of images published in Town & Country at one point of a house designed by the architect Ricardo Legorreta called Casa Cabernet. These, the editors picked over the work of a highly regarded architectural photographer that they’d hired for the article. (Was part lucky shot, part hitting every adjustment on the camera until I got the right coordinates together).
But when digital cameras with rechargable battery packs came along I picked up a Canon kit that Costco had been carrying that included a lens and a Rebel body. Even though the shots were always sub-par I hung with the camera – adding on a macro lens, which always seems to take good shots, but always at close range. The convenience of taking digital shots was just too delicious to go back to film which is an incredible amount of work and waiting comparatively. To be honest, I’m probably the most ridiculous photo hobbyist. I want to make minimal adjustments and have all my shots to turn out as though Annie Leibovitz took them. My soft focus, dull color, super contrasty photos sufficed for awhile but now with an increased demand for images through various publishing endeavors I realized lately that I need to up my game – even if just for the sake of my blogs.
So over to Best Buy to get this lens – and you know how that goes – the better than basic, but still very low on the camera lens food chain lens that I went in for looked really innadequate next to the super wide angle, super polished, ultrasonic lenses next to it. So instead of the lens I thought I wanted another long lens went home with me. After trying it out it really wasn’t a piece that would work best for me – so back to the store I went – several times with several different lenses, trying them out, until I threw in the towel and bought a whole new set up – an EOS 50D with a 28-135mm zoom lens with stablizer and ultrasonic focus. This is still a pretty basic set up (compared to some of the goodies you can buy) but I really do like the shots that I took this morning with just the auto function on. These are a few vignettes from around me house taken in low, available light, with very minimal post shoot adjustments.
Stumbled across this cool site, Pixdaus this morning – which once you discover it you’ll probably spend more time than you should scanning through the scads of great photos.
The site is devoted to environmental photography- members submit their work – other members vote their favorites. As you can see from these picks I’ve posted here – the range of thought provoking shots is pretty wide and compelling.
I could “barely” (ha ha pun) believe it when I first saw this shot:
“Naturally” there are endless garden shots like this beauty:
And enough travel shots like this one from Italy to make you feel as though you’ve been around the world.
I was flipping through my February Vogue the other day and came across this gorgeous photo spread of Diddy and Natalia Vodianova shot by Annie Leibovitz. I loved the beautiful train, the moodiness of the shoot, the classic clothes — and couldn’t help but feel like I’d been there before – at least on part of the project — especially when I saw the photo below.
When I turned to the last page it became obvious – they’d shot the second part of this scrumptious collection of images right down the highway from me at the Essex Steam Train – one of the Connecticut River Valley’s most beloved and ubiquitous attractions. One of my neighbors works on the train, and I can actually hear the whistle wailing up the valley most afternoons – it’s a wonderful part of living in this area. I’m so thrilled that Annie L. and the editors of Vogue thought so too.
Here’s the spot where the shot above was taken ~ I took this just the other day:
It doesn’t even look like they’ve moved the trains much since this shoot which must have been in October or so.
Vogue has a great behind the scenes video that is fabulous:
I’ll be sure to take some shots the next time I see it running and post them here – it has an ice cutter on it right now to plow through the snow and ice – that with the steam against the frozen river makes it look so dramatic.
Remember in olden times when taking great shots of flowers, your kids, your dogs, designer showcase houses, or your folks, required copious lugging and planning? I still have my gorgeous old cameras around – the ones that use the big format film that came on the gigantic rolls that had to be carefully loaded and re-spooled. I also remember missing tons of shots at conventions, parks, shopping, the streets of New York, store windows, because I didn’t want to carry a heavy camera bag with me.
New innovations have spawned an entire culture of photo hobbyists who thrive on grabbing unexpected photo opps on the fly and pushing them up to Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Facebook, Picasa, FriendFeed, and Twitter all in one action for their friends and family to enjoy.
I love this collection of goodies above – the Shootsac – a super cute message style camera and lens toter that molds to your body, weighs just a few ounces, and carries the goods you need to not miss a shot. Also has tons of covers so you can change the look with your mood or event.
The Telephoto Lens for iPhone is a true stroke of genius – slide your phone in and grab those shots from a distance (think birds!)
This Trick Camera lens for iPhone looks like a riot as well – wide angle, sparkle, kaleidoscope, heart or sunburst – take your pick at $8 how can you miss?
