Last of the lake

Here for your enjoyment the last few pictures taken with the Nikon at the lake this year.

Sometimes lens flare adds to the picture.

Next week I have a medical procedure to undergo, and I don’t know what will be happening other than that.

Final Kodak moments

Today we go home. The weather is absolutely miserable, as is typical for this time of year. These shots were taken with the Kodak P850 before things turned bad. I suppose you could say they were from my re-learning experiment, using that camera. I discovered it is one that is very hard for me to use now. *sigh* C’est la vie photographique.

The wood is stocked, but I will have to come back to “close up” once the wife and menagerie are moved back home. Then … so many more things to do before returning next May.

Re-learning curve: Canon PowerShot G11

What re-learning curve?!

Despite a lack of co-operation from the weather and increasing pressure to do things other than photography I managed to fire off a few shots with the G11. To my delight it is still easy to use even with my failing eyesight. For one thing it has an optical viewfinder which remains bright (unlike the Nikon P610’s dimming EVF) even if partially obstructed by the lens barrel at wide focal lengths. Oh yes, the camera has limitations in that department, but few in any other! The CCD sensor renders great tonal range, the ISO goes down to 80, the lens is sharp enough for general purposes, and the exposure is correct (although I prefer -1/3 EV setting).

As the saying goes, the proof is in the photos!

A beautiful day at the lake. We’ll be seeing fewer of these as Autumn rolls in. At least the fire smoke is mostly gone now.

Lakeweed. Nice detail for a point-n-shoot camera!

The great tonal range of the CCD sensor translates into a wide array of gray tones when desaturated!

This particular type of camera is best at taking pictures of objects. Dogs are objects. If you object to dogs, get a cat.

Here: one standard-issue cat, in box, with accessory toys.

If you’re willing to put a little effort into it, the G11 is capable of artistic shots as well.

I am so keeping this camera! Best $12 I ever spent! I could probably get pictures out of it without eyesight.

Speaking of which, I see the doctor again on Thursday. I look forward to mentioning the continued pain, blurriness, spots, and weariness. I don’t look forward to hearing what he has to say because I have a pretty good idea what that will be.

Re-learning curve: Canon 1Ds

“Re-learning”? Not with this camera! This is the ‘full frame’ DSLR, and as such has the largest and brightest viewfinder. Seeing what I’m trying to photograph is the biggest problem these days, and with the 1Ds it’s almost not an issue. Likewise the Canon G11 with its optical finder gives similar performance. Only the EVFs and smaller, dimmer optical finders present much difficulty.

Okay this camera still has poorly-thought-out controls, but I know where they are and don’t have to change them often. Also it weighs a lot. But what about the all-important results? Well I took 28 photos and only 6 of them are actually bad. That’s the best post-eye-problem ratio of any camera I’ve got.

All these photos were taken with the 75-300mm Canon EF lens. Some are the full image, some are cropped to varying degrees. This is not the best lens either, but it was cheap and it works.

Natural guitar pick. (Stone full of mica.)

First of this year’s wood harvest. (640 x 426 segment of full frame.)

The success with using this camera reinforces the validity of my revised plan. In fact replacing this camera and the T100 with a 5D Mk II would by viable, but unlikely to happen. At this point I’m aiming for keeping the Fuji F80, Canon G11, Nikon P610 (which needs replacing at a later date), Canon T100, and this Canon 1Ds. Also I will use various adapters to allow the use of classic lenses with either Canon DSLR (the full frame cameras are not quite as good with this due to some lenses getting in the way of the larger mirrors).

To that end I have purchased some new equipment which hasn’t arrived yet but will result in further posts when it does. I’m not doing so well at selling off the superfluous stuff, but then there’s a lot else going on around here now with the start of the annual wood harvest.

“Filmulation”

It’s World Photography Day! What better day for an old fool who doesn’t know anything about anything (me) to palaver on about some of which he does not know?

Or something.

Anyway, today’s pictures are a result of using a digital camera as though it were a film camera. It’s easy with the right equipment. Now for some people the “right equipment” is a Fujifilm X camera which has some pre-set film simulations as well as a host of programming capacity to vary all sorts of settings. Lots of fun, for lots of money.

For me the fun comes from getting film-like results without spending a lot of money or experimenting endlessly with settings. Part of the charm of film is the slightly unpredictable results, and I have achieved that using some sub-par equipment and a little know-how. Or maybe no-how.

The camera is the always dirty Pentax K100D Super. It has the advantage of a CCD sensor which produces better colour tonal range than the CMOS sensors (in my opinion as well as that of several others). Plus the limited 6MP size is something of a bonus here as it is not crazy-sharp. The lens is the very sharp Pentax Super Takumar 35mm f2, whose glass is stained yellow due to the thorium content. This is an all-manual set-up too; no auto exposure or focus.

Settings are the same as with Mini Manual Manual, save the added adjustment of fixing the white balance at daylight. I think leaving off that step is one reason why so many film simulations don’t have that random variation that film gives us. Remember film has fixed sensitivity and colour temperature. On a digital camera these are two more variables. So we set it like film and shoot it like film: ISO 200 (lowest possible on this camera) and Daylight colour balance. Here’s what we get:

Marley on the beach. This looks exactly like a typical colour print from the 1960s.

The yellowing of the lens does show up in the images and needs to be compensated for in the final processing. But here we see the side effect of it enhancing cloud contrast just like a K2 filter would.

In the woods. My eyesight got me in trouble here on exposure, but not so much that I wasn’t able to ‘save’ it.

“You can’t control natural light.” Unless you learn how.

I was going to do some more shots in the same manner only using the T100 as the camera, but I haven’t got to it yet. It’s been a busy and tiring week, and that as of Tuesday.

Meanwhile my redesigned Master Plan continues to take shape and unfold. Slowly.

Last night

More landscape trials

Canon 1Ds evaluation continues. First two with the 50mm Super Takumar, second two with the 135mm Vivitar (which is not as sharp but is no slouch either).

Landscape trial

Camera Decision says the Canon 1Ds is no good for landscape photography. Their complaints are a lack of live view and low resolution sensor. Naturally I had to give it a try.

These were all taken with the 40mm EF lens, which is fairly sharp but not as good as the old Takumars.

What I found: There’s dirt on the sensor again! Yes, a higher resolution sensor would enhance landscape scenes and a live view LCD would be helpful for framing/composing. I would not call it a failure, though.

I intend to try some more shots, using the 50mm Super Takumar, when I can get to it. Once again the weather is about to turn on me and I’ve got about one more good day which I will use up getting a little work done around here.

Laking

Oh boy am I not having fun here at the lake. The temperature keeps dropping to freezing and sometimes it snows. This is making work difficult and unpredictable, even when the water system doesn’t break down unexpectedly.

The logs there I dragged in from the road. There’s more of that to do, but …

The weather (and work) is interfering with photography too. It usually isn’t sunny enough to take a good picture, and if it is I have to take advantage of it and do work.

That bit the bird is floating on is from the dock, which has been destroyed.

So here I am trying to get things done with no time to enjoy the environment I’m in.

So much work to do and no sign of improvement in the weather.

C’est la vie.

Farewell lake, 2020

On Tuesday I made what was probably my last trip to the lake for this year. There is more I could and should do out there, but the weather is against me. I only say this because they changed Tuesday’s forecast from sunny to mixed precipitation and then back to sunny in the course of 12 hours. It was sunny when I went out. By the time I got there it was sprinkling. While I cut wood it turned to snow. On the way back I drove through every variety of precipitation possible. Needless to say I don’t trust the forecast to be right for 5 minutes anymore.

In other news the government that is supposed to maintain that wretched road (nearly 2 hours travel time each way last trip: it should be 45 minutes) has decided I should pay them more money for doing nothing. This is what they do during a pandemic. It is also what they do when there isn’t one, so at least they’re consistent. I really like shelling out ever increasing amounts of my fixed income to pay for services I don’t get. They could at least re-open the share sheds; no virus is being transmitted there I’m sure.

What this latest dunning means is that my camera plans have been knocked into a cocked hat. The only progress there is that I’ve secured a new lens, which will get a write-up as soon as there’s some decent weather to take pictures in (I’ve only taken a couple of snaps with it and so far am quite satisfied).

Meanwhile, some lake pictures from the Fall season (all taken with the Nikon P610).