all dem gawshdarn islands

actually scratch that, whytecliff isn't an island.

anyways, on the wednesday that follows a tuesday that comes before a thursday which in turn comes before a FRIDAY, FRIDAY!, we went to bowen island.

now that it was like a weekish ago, i've procrastinated too long and my enthusiasm for writing about it has died.

it was fun, though?

well there're a few pics i wanna point out and jizz at:

first of all, i am a god for nailing focus on a running target (manual focus) at f1.4:

second of all, pentax is awesome for saying ,,l,, to flare:

and lastly, i've realized something: lens rendition isn't bullshit. 3D rendering, pop, "pixie dust", that "leica look", that "FA limited" look, it really isn't expensive equipment psychological mindfuck into self justification. well i wouldn't know about leica, but yeah...take this photo:

maybe my monitor's just weird, or it's just cause i can view it full size, but this picture, the subjects, it just pops - there's a real sense of dimension, distance,  to it. you could argue that it's just cause of the DoF. well, here's another one:

shot further back from the subjects as the last one, and the DoF is accordingly larger - the people in front are still relatively sharp/in focus. yet there's still this great sense of 3D, of the person's backpack and textures just coming alive. you could argue that the FA43 is ridiculously sharp at f2.8 already. okay, there's this one then:

even further back so DoF is even less of an excuse for the pop, plus in the 10000km/h winds + rocking boat, this shot is most definitely not sharp. yet the subject still pops (at least at full size it does, though as i write it seems like it still does on web size. what's the thing then? rendition, i think. microcontrast, whatever it is, it just happens to be innate in lenses, and it's really not measurable - this shot was pretty close to wide open, when the FA43 is tested to be rather soft. so if it's not in the sharpness, it must be in some other quality of it - the rendering. 

for example, these shots with the dfa 100 wr are great, perfectly sharp, but it doesn't have that same pop. maybe it's cause DoF is too shallow, and you don't get that realistic transition from in to out of focus areas, but still. the lens here is clinical in that it does its job immaculately, but doesn't give it that little extra oomph.

the funny thing is, whenever i read other websites, leica sites, and the poster puts up photos that they claim to have "that leica look", it's exactly what i'm seeing with my FA43: a "pop", a 3D-like quality to the image that just makes it that much livelier. it's not about pure sharpness or shallow DoF, though both can help, but both can detract from it too. lenses really are quite magical objects, imo.

now that we've got my stoner ramblings out of the way, onto today's stuff!

went up to whytecliff and had long exposures in mind. what i didn't realize was that you're supposed to cover the damn viewfinder during long exposures, otherwise, shit like this happens...

the weird banding i guess is the light leakage or whatever. anyways, took the excuse to do a whole bunch of monochrome conversions, which i think turned out pretty great for the most part...i do need to learn to keep it in check and not over do it though (but same goes with the colour versions, i'll put up both)

the funny thing for this last pair was that i was waiting for the ferry that'd just passed by to pass its waves onto the rock, to give it more whitewater...well, a few minutes passed and no waves, but some started kicking up finally. so i hit the shutter. right after my 60 seconds elapsed, the REAL waves started kicking in, and of course my k-x had to do its DFS thing so i couldn't capture it. funny how that works huh?

speaking of which, i was thinking that since the sun would set behind some mountains, there'd be no point in staying behind for the sunset. well as it happens, the sunset was bloody gorgeous all the way home. also, this:

taken at iso 100, f7.1, 1/80, 100km/h....

while i'm still pretty happy with my shots today regardless of the light leaks, one thing is pissing me off...

my goddamn filters are stuck. i was stacking filters and well, now, they won't unstack. i now basically have a really thick 12-stop ND filter, which sometimes will do polarizing effects if i happen to get the positioning lucky. 

on another note, i'm kinda wanting to buy an old film body, most likely a k1000, if i can find one for...$30 or under. that's pretty damn low so i'll likely be looking around for a while, but yeah. i've been feeling a bit burnt out - maybe it's cause of the single in march thing (the latest entries of which im not going to bother posting, too lazy), i don't know, but it just all feels kind of tiring...so, a film body sounds nice. simplicity. bliss. meter, focus, fire, advance film. some articles i read recommended that for getting out of a rut, and it does sound pretty good. though today's photos were pretty fun too, so there's that.

i think it's cause the single in march challenged just so happened to coincide with my acquisition of the FA43. i really, really want to just go around with the FA43 only, but i can't cause i need to get a shot with the super-tak too, which is a bit annoying. kind of turning me off to the taks for a bit, really.  which is a shame cause i really, really like the 28mm on apsc..

but yeah. it'll be cool to use my originally film lenses for the lengths they were meant to be at. that'll be interesting fo sho. 

and, jumping topics here, it'd be cool to just walk around all day with one lens. downtown or granville or something. i love my lowepro bag, just carrying a bag at all kind of kills the feeling of travelling light, even if the bag is practically empty. just the feeling of a bag at all kinda kills it imo. 

it's kinda funny. i still go on craigslist and look for stuff. but now that i have my fa43, it's kinda like, why bother? there's nothing i can get on craigslist that will top anything i have. it's a good feeling. tbh, i'm kind of considering selling off/trading my dfa 100 wr for something, maybe a DA70, or if i sold all my takumars (unlikely), an FA77. i dunno, the dfa 100 wr is, image quality wise, just a bit too clinical,  a bit too boring. that and it's a bit of a little bitch, cause it backfocusses and i have to adjust the camera everytime i mount it on. and i think it's got some thing going on where when i stop it down, the camera progressively backfocusses more; it seems like it's trying to compensate for aperture-dependant focus shift that's not there (the shots at f8 or w/e sometimes end up being softer as a result of this shifting, than say f2.8). 

i dunno, i'll most likely keep it though just cause of the macro capability...though i'm starting to fall out of love with macro too. who knows. time will tell. and i will backtalk. and we will go on a "break", but like the little slut that it is, it's going to have a fling with its ex space. and then i'll cry and time and space will be united once more.

idk wtf that was, so don't ask.

go onn aloneee, because i won't follow. but this isn't giving up, no this is letting go

^in that sort of mood right now.

not lyrically, but the song  rise against - this is letting go, musically, is what i'm feeling right now. the mood and such. it's awesome summery weather out and being home all day, while probably needed, is a bit wistfully depressing. i don't think you can use wistful like that but whatever.

anyways, wow, i had a good sleep i guess. slept at....11, 1130? and woke at 920. my body doesn't understand the concept of sleeping in, but any sleep is good after having been awake for 20 hours, and only getting 3.5 hours' sleep before that.

but before i get into that....


tuesday, march 22nd, at eleven - thir-ty, ay-em. one new message.

mom was all of a sudden all let's go to the states, and so that's what we did. to be honest, i don't think the photos i got out of it were worth the long drive there; i'd barely bus for it. but it was pretty cool nevertheless : D first off, it was pretty sunny and shit, and since i had my super-tak along for the ride for the single in march thing, i...well... here i'll just show:

why not get some de-yellowing done during the ride eh? a bit geeky sure, but i didn't get any odd looks or anything, so s'all good ;D (of course, i made sure not to make any eye contact with anyone, so i wouldn't know. also, i took a few along the way there...i used to be apprehensive about taking snaps of stuff while in the car since i'd be all zomggg dirty glass = ubar softttt...

and then i realized i was a bit of a dumbshit for even thinking that. who cares how sharp stuff is ? sure it's nice to be able to see facial hair when cropped in 500000%, but in the hierarchy of what makes or breaks a shot, sharpness isn't all that high up there, i've been learning recently. not neccesarily (though sometimes true) because it's not important, but just because the other stuff - light, composition, presence of bacon - matters so much more.

sooooo, here're some products from that thinking:

this one was with the super-tak. it was insanely bright out, soooo i whipped out the good ol 10-stop ND filter and made it work for its money. cut down the light from 1/6000 to 1/6 of a second (okay i did some ISO compensation too but yeah), and got this cool road blur out of it. slightly missed the focus, but eh who cares.

this one was with the 43. mainly snapped it cause this awesome bridge made it seem like we were going to drive off into the sky; shame it had to be a rapist van infront of me though.

anyways, we came upon a park which we wasn't originally our destination but ended up being our destination, deception pass. it was ridiculously gorgeous, as calvin here demonstrates:

and then we got to our "destination", after another while of driving, and then realized it was a little lame and boring. we promptly stopped by a dairy queen for food, and by some twist of fate, i took my favorite shot of the day there:

also, while searching up directions for stuff......

really, america? really now?

so at this point we were like yeah screw this place. back to deception pass we wentttt!

there was a trail to walk under the bridge - surprisingly, it's so low to the ground at this point that you could climb it. i guess that's why there's a GTFO THE BRIDGE sign there...

this shot marks the first time in god knows how long i took a macro, or took this lens out at all in general. maybe it IS more of a summer lens, as i've been thinking...it was certainly summery weather.

the lady on the right asked me if i was taking a picture of her. i said it was of the trail. that's not really lying, is it?

you may have noticed that i've been lenswhoring. this was with the macro, the above was with the fa43, and the one above that was with the da15. all within 3 steps of each other. oops, i think i broke a prime lens user's code somewhere in there...

also, this shot was interesting in particular to me, cause while taking it (or doing attempt #50 on getting the focus just right), i had a bit of an epiphany - the subject doesn't mean shit. well, it does, but not a lot of shit. several drops max, bird-shit-sized. what does matter, what it's all about, is the light. in this the stone that these mosses were on was shading the bottom of the stem, but the sunlight was peeking over the top, providing backlighting that gave them this great glow. without that, this shot may have been of some interest due to the subject, but not as impactful (though it's not amazing as it is, but still)

i was going to pick this as my single-in-march for the day, with the super-tak 50/1.4. and then i was like screw that, let's do this but with the macro (this was just about at MFD for the tak). result below:

this robin (same one in both shots) was fat as holy hell. probably cause it's american, hurhurhur

i guess i should note at that up till about now or so, i'd been walking alone the whole time (a good 2-3 miles in total, there and back). why? because my mom decided, after walking on ahead while i was doing those moss macros, that a good place to wait for me would be 1 of 10 forks in a little clearing that had, well, 10 forks branching off. instead of the main clearing. so they spent that hour or 1.5 or whatever it was searching for me by waiting by the car/top of the trail, while i'd just thought they'd kept going straight. also, there was no cell reception, to make the party that much more fun. it was good times indeedydo.

on the way home, there were so many cool compositions and lightings along the highway, but i was a bit lazy in getting the camera out. after missing the umpteenth potentially epic shot, i whipped it out at last, and this shot made me not regret it at all. i surprisingly like this shot - totally didn't expect it. also, at f8, my fa43 says fuck you to the dirty-as-hell glass windows and resolves every goddamn detail it can cram onto my poor k-x's sensor. 

i saw a rainbow but my mom couldn't see it ): this photo proves i'm not batshit insane.

another, my final, and less cool road shot. yeah...

er, spoke too soon, didn't scroll down in time. driving off into the sunset sky for the win.

lakesparttwo

hah, i'm posting twice within 30 seconds of each other. iiimmmm not retardeddddddddd. though in my defense it makes more sense to separately post different day's photos so w/e. i lose focus when i clusterfuck it all so there.

anyways, these were from buntzen lake today, and it was cloudy in that it was like the sky was squeezing, trying to hold it in. it failt and started pissing on vancouver momentarily. my kind of weather. i love that i keep reinventing those same emo settings in different emo ways ;D just to make sure that the world DOESNT UNDERSTANDDD MEEEE ;( oh god that's nauseating.


i'm going to start off heavy here.



i fucking love this photo.

now, if you know me, i can be ocd about many things, and sometimes pretty severely. i love this goddamn photo so much, i'll post it at the largest size blogspot lets me just to unleash its glory, to hell with the fact that it goes over the post border. this was taken about 30 seconds from the parking lot; apparently buntzen lake's water levels were uberhigh - picnic tables were half submerged. i want to print a poster-sized copy of this and make love to it every night.

...

anyways yeah, i didn't come home with all too many photos, but they were pretty much all keepers. tis a nice feeling.

indulged in some moss fetish here....

fern sub-fetish....

wuhbam, epicness ensues. this was shot with the d-fa 100/2.8 wr, my very first non-kit lens. in recent times it hasn't been getting as much love, but now that  i'm relearning how to "see" long, it's making a comeback. it really should be used a shitton lot more than it currently is, so this is a good start. and, i genuinely like this photo and it genuinely called for this lens to be used too, as opposed to me forcing myself to use it. so that's good.

no idea what this is but i found it hanging on this thing and...it looks cool? yeah.

whipped out the super-tak for the below two shots cause i had to get SOMETHING for the single in march challenge; up till now it's been with the fa43 unless otherwise noted.

mainly took this for the textures assignment for school. idk wtf that grey creeping plague of death is but it looks cool? : D

picked this as my singleinmarch photo. walking back to the car, rain falling on my face, and it feels great. that sounds a little emo in the description but it's really almost...therapeutic? just walking in the rain like that. there was a hiker up ahead and if he hadn't ducked into a side trail he would've really made this shot awesome, as it is it's a bit empty but oh welllllll.

for here, im not sure which one i prefer. i love them both, but...iunno. first one's continuity with the water, i think i prefer, but i like my treatment on the second one, and the water boundary at the tree is also kinda like a gandalf you shall gtfo thing. i do prefer the  second one's framing, though (the first one was when i just got out of the car, the one on the right was when i just got back to the car and decided to retake it.

and that concludes today's episode of i'm pretty sleepy and soymilk deprived now, folks. today was a great gear day in that, well, aside from the obvious omg my lenses could cure erectile dysfunction 50 times over, well... 

my bag, the lowepro slingshot 102, was awesome. sometimes the tripod was a bit tough to get back on after using it, but i can't think of any ways it wuold be improved so i'll live with that. and it slip down on my shoulder a bit unless i tighten it to the point of my diaphragm and intercostal muscles being unable to create sufficient negative pressure for inspiration. but yeah, my shit was in a second's reach, all in a pretty  small, waterproof package. and it's so comfortable, omg. when i lift my bag by the strap, im surprised how heavy it is, because the padding is so good it feels like it weighs nothing.

and i love my hiking shoes i just got. stepping in puddles and mud that's 99% water 1% dirt, my feet never got wet at all and were warm the whole time.

also, my filters. they worked great, and i finally got to use my 10-stop ND filter legit - that last shot (the pair i couldn't pick; the right hand side one) used it. cut down from 1/400 of a second to 3 seconds, making the water super smooth...i probably should've retaken the horizontal one using the ND filter again too, but that thought didn't occur to me at the time... 

finally, my best piece of equipment today, my pe- let's not post shit i'll regret on the internet.

lake this and lake that and lake your mom in the lake

YESTERDAYYYYyyyYyyyyyyyyyyYyyyyyYYYyyYyYyYYYYyyyyyyyy. oh, sorry. yester-yesterday, went to burnaby lake with my dad. er, sorry, deer lake. and of course, i took the fa43 (as well as the da15) along. before i went there though, it appeared to be sunny, and so i decided to fuck with the fa43 by shoving some sun down its throat

it took it all the way in and swallowed without flinching, really. it doesn't seem to know what flare is, which is pretty awesome - it's like my da15 in that it doesn't seem to know how to flare. pretty awesome shit. also, love how it renders blues and shite

i really really like that it has 8 aperture blades instead of 9 - this makes for 8 "spokes" instead of 18 (odd numbered aperture blades make for double the # spokes), which looks a lot more natural. 6 is too few imo.

anyways yeah, at burnaby lake it was pretty awesome, and even though i missed focus and screwed up a few times cause i just snapped and walked on, end results were great (though i can't blame any lens for not knowing what the clusterfuck to focus on amidst the million brambles.

in more exciting news, i've almost achieved happiness in editing. i mainly know how to depressing or nostalgic, perhaps mysterious in post. this shot is soooo closeeee to being happy. so let's just call it happy.

of all the types of flares i think this is the coolest and most potentially useful/least destructive, if i can harness this well, it'd be awesome to use in say portraits or something.

this shot is retardly sharp. there's so much detail in the wall and shit it's ridiculous

also, we saw bald eagles. 3 in total. i'm a bit perturbed by how common they seem to be to me, they're bloody everywhere.

i really really really really like this shot. first of all, i don't know what the fuck the person who said the fa43's soft wide open was on, this thing is plenty sharp on that blue swing and a bit going into the black one (i missed  a bit but got it close enough). second of all, i just love this - it just popsssssss. i think that the "busy" bokeh attributed to the fa43 is kind of busy in that it's realistic - it resembles the background blur innate to the eye, imo, which is why it doesn't look like just...shitty bokeh, but natural. no more distracting in photos than the background is in person. 

i'm not quite sure how the people got this to stick into the rail but okay.

2 shot pano with the fa43. omg this thing is epic at full size, the sharpness, the 3Dishness, it's just awesome. i want to print this wall-sized and fa-- let's not say shit on the internet i'll regret :)

at this point i'm at burnaby mountain, in an attempt to get pictures of the supermoon. well, i got pictures, but i was a bit disappointed. the moon clearly overstated the size of its junk last night; it wasn't anything special imo compared to any other full moon. however, i did get my cherry popped that night; i did my very first nighttime long exposure/star streaks thing, at about  20 minutes long. streaks aren't as long as i'd like and it's overall too  bright (it wasn't totally black yet) but i think it still ended up pretty awesome...

the fireball of death would be Vancouver.

also, i think i kinda failt at the single in march in that by using my fa43 predominantly these past few days, the purpose was a bit defeated. though technically the rules of the challenge are a photo a day with that lens, not necessarily to abstain from other lenses, so there's that. at the same time, when i have the fa43 on the camera, grabbing the tak is such a chore....here was my single-in-march photo for the day though.

and yesterday's:

/awesomeendingtopost.