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.
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