Winter’s chilly grasp has taken hold recently. Combined with my sickness (which I’m almost out of the woods with), any photography outside of assignments has been mostly a wash this week. However! I did want to at least get one photograph with that 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. Before I move on to the rest of the post, I’m working on a project 52 (speaking of which, I will share all of them upon its completion), and this week’s theme was “Still Life”. Being a college student, I do not have the luxury of drapes, wooden bowls, and picture perfect fruit at my disposal. Looking into the meaning of still life photography–that is, the depiction of inanimate subject matter usually as a small grouping of objects–I glanced around my room and got as creative as I could. I had one banana, a few chocolate turtles, and some paper.
Let’s combine them all. 🙂
Choco-Banana Sandwich
105mm, ISO 100, f/8, 8 Seconds
Using the paper as an impromptu backdrop, I was able to reflect both the incoming light from the window (left) and the incandescent light on the inside (right) to give the image more dynamic lighting. At the same time, I keep “threes” in my mind while arranging everything in the scene: the sandwich intersects multiple parts of the thirds grid (along with sitting mainly in the left third), the broken turtle also lies close to a rule-of-thirds line, finally there are three banana pieces and three turtles total. What always amazes me is the consistent sharpness this macro always provides across the image field whenever I need it. When I do my review on it, this will definitely be a big “pro”!
I had wanted to make my portrait session with the Lexington Central Music Academy a dedicated post earlier this week, but was too busy to write everything up. I had come prepared for some ensemble rehearsals with my 35mm f/1.8 OSS, but as it turned out I used that lens the least. I instead only shot private lessons, and the lens that found itself stuck on my NEX-7 was my good-old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Nippon-Kogaku. Stopped down to f/2, it provided great sharpness, contrast, and bokeh, and the organization loved the emphasis the shallow depth-of-field put onto the subjects, both student and teacher.
The entirety of these portraits are in the “environmental” style. In other words, none of the people were posed, and I simply stayed in the room waiting to catch “action” showing either a student learning/enjoying playing his or her instrument, or the teacher giving advice. The NEX-7’s super quiet shutter (compared to the flopping mirror of a DSLR) made snapping away unobtrusive.
Finding the Notes
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/80
Discovering
50mm, ISO 800, f/2, 1/80
Focused
35mm, ISO 200, f/2, 1/30
Them Bones
35mm, ISO 400, f/2.5, 1/40
Teacher
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/60
Nymphs and Shepherds
35mm, ISO 800, f/4, 1/60
All Smiles
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/80
Figuring it Out
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/80
Xylophone
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/125
Tuning
50mm, ISO 800, f/2, 1/60
All in all, it turned out to be a ton of fun, and now CMA has many more photos to use for their website, brochures, and other advertisements. 🙂
In the middle of the week our university brought in chef Carolyn Gilles from The Wholesome Chef to teach a small group of students recipes that can be prepared with simple ingredients right in the dorm room. The part I stayed for was the oatmeal no-bake cookies, and I must say I wanted to taste the final result. 😉
Teaching the Group
35mm, ISO 400, f/2.5, 1/80
Forming the Cookie
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/100
Honey Substitute
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/100
Finally, our university had its annual “An Evening at the Cabaret” this weekend, a fun production of music and dance that many students look forward to. The house was packed almost as soon as the doors opened up both nights because Disney was the theme this year. Despite the songs’ cliché, performers put on a very energetic show that presented plenty of photographic oportunities. I got clearance to attend the dress rehearsal where I could move around to get any angle I needed. If I tried to do the same during the actual performances, I would have pretty much been stuck in my seat–if I had one! With me were my ever-trusty 50mm f/1.4 Nippon-Kogaku, 105mm f/1.8 AI-s, and 180mm f/2.8 AI-s ED:
Singing Minnie
105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/125
Blue Band
180mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/125
Lined Up
180mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/125
High Notes
105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/200
Kermit!
105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/200
Waltz
105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/160
Always Singing
105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/200
Dark Solo
105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/200
Simba
50mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/125
I even made sure to record a little video of one of the feel-good songs, this one is a “scat”-style song found in the Tarzan movie. Even the elephant joins in on the fun with his appropriate trombone. 😀 I used the 105mm free-handed for this one, and didn’t stabilize it due to some weird, warping artifacts that were introduced (no doubt due to the solid background). I tried to keep my hands pretty steady, though. 😉 As always, 1080p for best quality:
That’s all for this post guys and gals, thanks for dropping by! To my readers in the northern hemisphere, stay warm!
Matthew Durr Photography 