Matthew Durr Photography

Now that school is back in full swing I will have to go back to my weekly update format for the near future. This way, I can have at the very least have a quality post every week filling you all in on my photography happenings. Special events and subjects (such as intermittent lens reviews and the like) will usually warrant their own post. For instance, in a couple weeks I’ll be doing a non-profit portrait session for a local organization that I will most likely be reporting back on here. Photos here and there (many of which will make it into these weekly posts) will be posted to my Google+ and Facebook pages, if you just can’t stand to go without photos from me every day. 😉

But back to the update, I’ve used the 35mm f/1.8 OSS a little more now, and am still enjoying it thoroughly. I’m starting to be able to catch where the aberrations wide-open are, but for the most part I can edit them out, so it’s no big deal. The lens can work for full-body portraits if there is substantial distance between the subject and background, but you still won’t get near the subject separation like a 50mm f/1.4 will provide on a full-frame camera:

Clay
35mm, ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/250

Part of one of my recent assignments was to capture “wrong” things. Some of the criteria were to shoot a photo out-of-focus, underexpose, use the wrong white balance, etc. (which, many made it into the 35mm’s review). This shot fell under the “overexposed” category, and as a result of the overexposure, even the reds got clipped! 🙂

High-Key Open
35mm, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/6

Our university is also running an exhibit titled “The Thirteen” that pays artistic tribute to 13 African-American girls who were lynched or otherwise violently murdered in late 19th-early 20th century Kentucky. Some of the imagery is pretty haunting, with skull arrangements and ghost works filling the gallery:

Skull’s Row
35mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/13

Ghost Luggage
35mm, ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/30

This past week also marked the first ice-storm of the season in my area. Though we only got about half what was forecast, the quarter-inch that coated everything still made for some beautiful scenery:

Picnic, Anyone?
35mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/50

Evericy
35mm, ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/60

“Unfavorable Weather Conditions”
35mm, ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/30

Frozen Leftovers
35mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/125

But back to my bread-and-butter legacy lenses (as much as I do love the 35mm). I only shot one basketball game this week—and only eight minutes of it at that! Still, I managed to get a couple nice rushing shots:

50mm, ISO 3200, f/2, 1/640

50mm, ISO 3200, f/2, 1/640

In other news, John W. O’Malley, professor of theology at Georgetown University, held a lecture on the prevalence of arts in liberal education. Admittedly, I wasn’t paying too close attention, as I had to focus everything on keeping my 180mm f/2.8 still!

180mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/50

To address student-to-faculty questions and problems, our student government association also held a campus-wide forum to pose concerns to a panel of administrators. Most of the questions were serious:

Questioning Hands
180mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/60

Panel
180mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/80

However, some light-hearted moments broke up the tension:

Pretty Excited?
180mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/80

Joking Around
180mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/80

On another note, I’m starting to learn some basic photoshopping skills in my photography class (it helps to already be familiar with GIMP, at least!). We were asked to try to play around with the levels on one of our photographs and see what we come up with. I unfortunately had cleared my card, so I just took a quick snap and gave it a shot:

False Color
50mm, ISO 100, f/1.4, 1/30
It suffices to say this turned out pretty strange, no?

Last but not least, I photographed a rather challenging blacklight volleyball event. In this particular scenario (where I am essentially shooting into total darkness), I believe a full-frame camera with a good 85mm f/1.2 would serve me well. Even bouncing the NEX-7’s flash off the ceiling still didn’t net much advantage, and it had the unfortunate effect of removing the blue hue of the blacklights. Still, I gave it a try (note: no noise reduction done on these examples because at this high an ISO, there really isn’t any detail to recover):

Criss-Cross
105mm, ISO 6400, f/1.8, 1/100

Going for the Save
105mm, ISO 6400, f/1.8, 1/100

Painted-Up
105mm, ISO 3200, f/1.8, 1/160

Digging
105mm, ISO 3200, f/1.8, 1/160

Feeling Blue?
105mm, ISO 6400, f/1.8, 1/100

That’s all for this week’s update guys and gals, thanks for dropping by!