Film Friday - A Few From Louisiana

From our trip there last October.

*Interested in a film or digital portrait session? Please contact me for details!*

*Want to see more film? Check out all the Film Friday posts!*

New! Zenit Petzval Lens

So, I have never been the type to haunt Kickstarter and fund random campaigns (even though I think the site's awesome and it's so great that people do), but when I read about a new/old lens type that was being re-made it caught my imagination and I signed up. I'd go into more detail, but I think it will probably be much clearer if you just go read more about it here.

Anyway, five or so months of waiting and my new lens arrived in the mail! Sorry I didn't do an unboxing video, but if those are your thing here's a link to the shortest one (there is one that's 13 minutes long! I hope it was a really complicated box).

Anyway, long story short it's not your standard lens: it's soft in the corners (well, kind of soft all over, honestly), has what I like to think of as 'painterly bokeh' and produces just lovely colors. It's also all manual: manual focus, aperture plates that you have to carry with you and switch out, and did I mention it's made of brass? Yeah, that part's kind of cool.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'm in love, but I do think I might be intrigued. I've decided to take it on my next few portrait sessions and at least use it for a couple of photos. Who knows? Maybe it'll be something I always carry with me.

None of this is Photoshop; it's all done in-camera. Which I guess makes it cooler.

So let me know, what do you think of the photos and of the lens? Keeper?

Happy Cat- and Chicken-urday

Not quite as catchy, somehow, is it?

Meet Fluff, the chicken. She was low on the pecking order (literally) with her previous chicken pals, and so she was brought to the shelter in the hopes that she could find a more positive home life.

Which she did. She got adopted pretty quickly by a lovely lady who swore her pecked-at days were over. I love the stories that end like that.

And of course I wouldn't leave you without some cats as well!

Orange.

Black.

And orange and black.

Find more adoptable cats, kittens, dogs, and other small animals at Animal Care and Control San Francisco.

*Want to see more cats and kittens, or schedule a pet portrait session? Visit my website at www.quotidianphotography.com.*

Film Friday - Black and White Musings

Here are a few photos of San Francisco in black-and-white. The first two I shot on the same day as my first roll of Velvia with David - what a wet day! Whew.

And then these I shot on a day when I was on my way to a dentist appointment, and I took advantage of the little bit of extra time I had and made my way to the ocean. Something about that open space and infinity of beach and sky just gets me every time. And I knew it would look good in black and white. What I didn't expect, was to see the people working on the roof, or to be inspired by the row of houses all exactly the same except for the color (somehow still expressed well in black and white). 

And the calla lilies, effortlessly elegant as usual.

I've been experimenting with doing a little bit of meditation every day when I can manage it. There's something about five minutes of just relaxing not doing anything that really focuses the mind.  

Shooting film is like that for me. When I'm shooting a roll with only twelve frames, I don't think about anything except my next shot (and I know there's only going to be one photo of this particular subject, unlike my digital work) and that's very freeing. With digital I can take any photo I want, so somehow I don't want to take them as much. 

Of course, there are some limitations. For example, shooting film that's 50 ISO is really difficult. Even on a bright sunny day I find that there are compositions that are too dark to make the photograph. This is a problem you never have with modern digital. 

But maybe that's the point. Maybe it's the problems that make the solution feel more elegant. Get rid of the problems and what's the point?

*Interested in a film or digital portrait session? Please contact me for details!*

*Want to see more film? Check out all the Film Friday posts!*

A Recent Real Estate Shoot

Just a few photos from a recent house shoot. I loved the light this place got in the middle of the day - quite unheard of for many spots in San Francisco. That's why I'll take a second floor place over a first floor place any day of the week; light and plenty of it is so important to me.

Gotta love those blue skies!

And what a lovely kitchen space.