Franken-blad portraits

January 21, 2010

Hasselblad with a cheap homemade lens

One of my experimental jags lately has been using a homemade lens on my medium format camera. The two element design of this lens leaves a lot to be desired: it is sharp only in the center of the image and has severe curvature of the focus plane, which allows only one part of the photo to be truly sharp. But I think the effect can be arresting, especially with casual portraits. Here are three pictures of the fellow photographers I spent last weekend with in Placerville.

Kerik Kouklis, who lives in Placerville

Matt Magruder - an Austinite photographer

'Ike' Eisenlord, a Minneapolis photographer

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Placerville weekend

January 17, 2010

A weekend in Placerville

I am having a great time with four of my photographer friends in Placerville, California. Kerik Kouklis kindly offered both his home and his family’s tolerance for four of us out-of-towners during a fun midwinter weekend. Bill Schwab, Ike Eisenlord, Matt Magruder and I all showed up on Kerik’s doorstep on Thursday [...]

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New year’s eve

January 4, 2010

I decided to work a half day on New Year’s Eve, 2009, and that morning woke up to the first nice winter fog we’ve had in Houston. I drove by Lake Woodlands, and decided it would be worth stopping for a few minutes to take some pictures. The water was like glass. A few members [...]

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Night photography with digital cameras

December 30, 2009

The newer digital cameras are inexorably pulling away from the capabilities of traditional film for night photography. Particularly if you shoot in color, the ability of digital cameras to properly color balance all the artificial light sources is a huge advantage in using digital for taking nighttime photographs. The super-sensitive sensors now available on even [...]

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