UTD Campus Photowalk and Hipstamatic recipe tests

Took a walk around the UTD campus with momma this morning, and decided all spur-of-the-moment like to take only the iPhone and give Hipstamatic a workout. Dan Cristea (@Konstruktivist) recommended some lens/film combinations at LoFiMode that I wanted to test out, and see how my only ‘favorited’ combination (the new-ish Loftus lens (from the Foodie SnapPak) and Big Up film (from the Bondi HipstaPak)) stacks up against @konstruktivist’s favorites.

Truth be told, I’m quite hesitant to shoot strangers without permission, and tend to point my camera (or iPhone) only at things that can’t scream at or chase me. Yes, this is quite irrational. And, yes, it it something I would very much like to get over, since it stems from my agoraphobia, I think, and getting over that would be rather helpful methinks. @konstruktivist has no such fear, and is quite a competent street photographer.

This is all to say that our shooting styles differ.

And so it should come as no surprise that my favorite combo (see the lead image, above) differs so greatly from the four that Dan recommended.

Anyway.

Here are the combos:

Lucifer VI Lens & Nike AO BW Film: Note that Dan recommends the Nike AO DLX film, and so I can’t blame Dan for any of this, not that I would anyway. :facepalm:

I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the vignette in this combo. That said, Dan says that this combo works best on cloudy/rainy days, and so shooting it in full 11am North TX sun is probably not the best idea.

UTD Campus Photowalk and Hipstamatic recipe testsI do like the border quite a bit, and the contrast and saturation in the whites and blacks is striking, and I can definitely see this combination proving useful in certain situations.

Lucifer VI Lens & Rock B&W – 11 Film: As Dan says, “This particular combo is probably one of the cleanest B&W setting you can find on Hipstamatic.” And it is clean, indeed.

UTD Campus Photowalk and Hipstamatic recipe testsI didn’t take as many shots with this combo as I did with some of the others, which is a shame, since I quite like this one. The somewhat transparent border works well, and the contrast is set on high.

I can definitely see this combo getting some use.

John S Lens & US1776 Film: The Grain! Oh My God the Grain!

UTD Campus Photowalk and Hipstamatic recipe testsUnder certain situations, I can see this being useful, and I quite like a bit of grain on occasion, though in this case the grain seems to wash out some detail, especially in the highlights, and I’m never (or rarely) a fan of that.

Tejas Lens & Cano Cafenol Film: I was a big fan of this film when it first came out, and looked forward to its appearance on the randomizier. (I used, and continue to use, the ‘Shake to Randomize’ function in Hipstamatic… perhaps I should do a bit more conscious experimentation, but it works very well for shooting multiple shots of the same scene, as I do when I shoot the GSV self portraits and graffiti that I find when surfing the street view.)

Lately, though, I’ve been wanting more saturated color, and when the Big Up film came out, it quickly became my favorite.UTD Campus Photowalk and Hipstamatic recipe testsFor my purposes, this combo is probably best saved for super-contrasty and highly saturated scenes that I want to depict as hot, dry, and thirsty: like pretty much anything I shoot between 9am and 10pm between now and sometime in late September. The combo works best in evenly lit scenes (see the second image on the bottom row to see what I mean), and probably needs a ton of light due to the desaturation of colors and pump-up of blacks and whites.

And now for something completely different, my favorite:

Loftus Lens & Big Up Film: The saturation: pumped way up. The border: wildly variable, often distractingly pink. And the blurred halo helps loads.UTD Campus Photowalk and Hipstamatic recipe testsThis combo does have its problems (see the last image in the first row below): it’s not going to du much for scenes without much inherent color variation, and it’s useless in the dark, but outside, with a blue sky, some fluffy clouds perhaps, green grass and trees, and all manner of other colors, it screams Candy and Rainbows and Unicorns to my eye.

If you use instagram, follow @konstruktivist if you’re not already. His feed is far more interesting than mine, and updates far more regularly.

If you ahve any Hipstamatic recipes you’d like to share, please do! I’m always looking for reasons to play with Hipstamatic and get my iPhoneography on!

And if you visit lofimode.com, you might notice some similarities to this site, as it looks to me like we’re using the same theme…

Also, if you look close, I did manage to photograph two complete strangers: one, from quite a distance, and without any recognition from either of us; the other with the guy staring right at me. I said thanks as he passed, and he gave me a smile. Good times!

Grapevine Photowalk

Good times at the Grapevine photowalk with the Dallas Photo Walk Meetup group (now sadly defunct). I spent the vast majority of the time wandering around by myself and marveling at the changes a little town can undergo in just a few years.

Most  interesting to me—and not pictured, unfortunately—there were numerous instances of fresh sidewalk throughout the quaint-ish downtown. While it’s great to see a community keeping up with its infrastructure, for sure, these newly replaced/repaired/added sidewalks were pressed with a mold of some sort that adds some texture to the fresh concrete and appears designed to make the sidewalk look like it’s of the period. This is also all well and good, except the sidewalk that they replaced actually was of the period.

Why not just put in new sidewalk? In 10 years it’ll look weathered and be worn smooth and not look the least bit out of place. Why artificially weather and treat your brand new sidewalk?

This is like buying blue jeans with the holey knees installed fresh from the factory.

But I’m getting off track…

Everything was shot with the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai at ISO100, and in AP mode, mostly at f/4, f/5.6, or f/8.

BTW: technology is in some ways a beautiful thing.

I noticed a speck in the new (old) lens today: a bit of grime that’s clearly visible through the viewfinder, and equally visible when looking at the rear element. It looks to be adhered to one or another side of the second element  in, or maybe the third, and it shows up in the preview pictures on the back of the camera.

I was expecting boulders to appear in all my shots…

But they’re gone! Not there at all! Where did they go? I bet Aperture wiped them out when it imported the RAW file.

In some ways, this is brilliant!

In some ways, it’s troubling.

But I won’t grumble this time, as it saved me many minutes of post.

365.85 Gleam

Yes, it’s a bad title. And, yes, it’s a mediocre photo (at best).

But I’m in a bit of a hurry today. Well, not a hurry, exactly, but this is all I can do today.

I did find out that the 75-150mm E Series can achieve a reproduction ratio of 2.4:1 when reversed and stacked on 100mm of extension. This is rather nice, and easy to work with, what with the 3mm depth of field at f/8, which definitely beats the n micrometers I’ve been working with for the past few days…

Groovy.

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, reversed, and extended by 100mm. ISO100, .4 seconds (AP mode), f/8.

… in a network of lines that intersect

More fun with the new (old) lens!

This one begged to go b/w from the start, since the subject looks b/w already to my eyes, but goes green & yellow at these magnifications/scales/distances.

Fun, if wildly dusty, times. Yes, I cleaned the sensor again last night, and, yes, it got dust on it from merely taking the lens off, adding extension tubes, and replacing the lens. I’m content to clone the ~20-odd bits of dust out for now, but I foresee a desktop dust-removing, air-purifying thingy in my very near future.

It would be nice if someone could make a high quality lens that focuses down to 8:1 or 10:1, but also to infinity, and has built-in extension tubes of, say, 150mm. It wouldn’t necessarily need to zoom (to be the ideal lens for me, anyway), but only combine all of the above in one package, preferably with a metal mount and depth of field markings for 5.6, 8,  11, 16, and 22, and also with a smooth focus throw and fast AF for everything above 1:2 with no focus breathing.

Are you listening, Nikon? or Tokina? or Tamron? or Sigma? or Anyone that will make one of these in an F mount for something less than $2500?

Surely it’s not that far beyond the laws of physics, right? HA!

Anyway.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed, and extended by 100mm. ISO1600 (leftover from last night), 1/20 (chosen by the camera), f/5.6.

365.83 8:1, yes, 8:1

A new old toy arrived today: a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai. This is incredible. Sharp, contrasty, good color rendition and saturation, well-corrected, and capable of an astonishing 8:1 reproduction ratio on 100mm of extension tubes.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed, on 100mm of extension tubes. ISO400, 1 second, f/11.

More pictures of a ruler to follow, later in the week…