Photo Shumi: Pentax K10D

Showing posts with label Pentax K10D. Show all posts

Thursday, 4 September 2008

The Lonely Unicycle

Super Takumar 105 mm 2.8 : f/2.8 : ISO - 400 : Shutter - 1/350 sec

I was just walking up a flight of stairs and noticed this very cute and lonely child's unicycle. The photo is out of focus but I feel it adds to the loneliness of the subject as if it's been forgotten.

Tuesday, 2 September 2008

Day 2 : Part 2 - Osaka

A crossing for people and people crossing each other.

Stranded, she once felt alone.

The storm, she come and floods areas where I am not.

The same crossing but one for mechanical serpents.

A meal and mirror and we can smile.

A friend in this place.

Under ground but not too deep.

We jump to touch the ceiling or the surface.

Sky Building shows me where I am and want to be.

The city and the skyline come to meet me, high above the rats below.

Together we howl at the stars.

Deep down to an oblivion, we search for ourselves.

Monday, 1 September 2008

Day 2 : Part 1 - Nara

Who will today bring?

A temple which houses her.

Purification Ritual

A door, splintering grain.

Buddha, never hiding.

Buddha, a flame for so many

A stone garment that sways.

Guard this place, your soul depends on it.

Games for good luck.

I say goodby to this place and reflect on what I've seen.

A monk, a wish, a man, the heat.

Sunday, 31 August 2008

Day 1 - The Freeway to Osaka

A truck crashes on the highway, spilling oil. Rescue Crew arrive.

Contemplating the work ahead.

People, curious and frustrated

The media, reporting to the masses from above.

The landscape as boredom sets in.

Sleeping, waiting.

Back in the land of the moving, the city awaits us.

Performers, he's playing just for me.

Yoko, playing with light at the end of a long day.

Enough playing, it's time to sleep.

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Sayurichan

Super Takumar 55 mm 1.8 : f/2.8 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180

My friends recently had their first born and I offered my humble photographic skills to take some photos of baby Sayuri, mum and dad. This was also a great opportunity to test out the Vivitar 285HV, on and off camera. This photo used some nice ambient light coming through the window and I bounced the flash with the diffuser to light baby Sayuri's cute little face.

Techie shit aside, I really like this photo as it captures wonderfully what a new parent must feel. Here, new dad emits love, warmth and protection.

Wednesday, 27 August 2008

From the Haze

Super Takumar 55 mm 1.8 : f/1.8 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/500

Just showing off the beautiful bokeh created by the Super Takumar 55mm 1.8, though the subject is nothing to drool over, it's easy to get lost in the creamy background.

Monday, 25 August 2008

My Beauty Queen

Lensbaby 2.0 : f/2.8 : ISO - 400 : Shutter - 1/45

Over at PentaxForums there are threads on different lens clubs, eg; Takumar Club and the Soviet lenses Club and recently there's a new Lensbaby Club. After looking through the thread and adding my thoughts and images I realised how little I actually use my Lensbaby. This image isn't actually new but it's an ode to my Lensbaby and a pledge that I'll use it more often.

Friday, 22 August 2008

Pinhead

Super Takumar 55 mm 1.8 : f/2.8 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180

Testing out the Vivitar 285HV flash on the Pentax k10D, this photo had some ambient light and the Vivitar was bounced from the ceiling. I boosted the brightness contrast a little but nothing too dramatic. To speak the truth, I don't really know what I'm doing with the Vivitar but it's pretty easy to get some decent shots out of it. The colour codes; yellow, red, blue and purple start from lowest to highest power and I take a few test shots with the desired aperture and adjust from there. When using an open shutter, I use either yellow or red and for apertures 4 to 8 I use either blue or purple, pretty simple. I guess in time I'll learn how to use the exposure dial more effectively or be able to judge the scene I'm shooting anf control the light from there.

I also recieved the Cactus V2s remote trigger / receiver today and tested a few shots with the Vivitar 285HV and Pentax K10D on Mr.Pinhead. Out of about 30 test shots, the flash fired 100% of the time, although the flash was no more than 40cm from the camera. The reason I say this is that I've read that the Cactus V2s can be somewhat unpredictable and shoot approx 8 out of 10 times as they are a little on the cheap side, depending on the distance.

Here's one shot where I used a lamp to cast the elongated shadow and the off camera flash which was bounced off the ceiling as a fill light. The lamp casts terrible yellow light which I kind of fixed in post but still, the colours are pretty shitty.

Super Takumar 55 mm 1.8 : f/5.6 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180

This is the same image as above with a little post tweaking to really give it that creepy, horror touch, just how Pinhead likes it!

Thursday, 21 August 2008

Super Takumar 35mm f/3.5 - Lens Test

After having this lens for a few days, I haven't had the chance to take a lot of photos with it but a few things I noticed is one, it's really small (more so than the SMC Takumar 28mm f/3.5) and two, it's very sharp, even wide open (f/3.5). Here's some size comparison shots to my other Takumar lenses.

In order of appearance : Super Takumar 135 3.5, Super Takumar 55mm 1.8, SMC Takumar 28mm 3.5 and Super Takumar 35mm 3.5

To make this a complete picket fence happy family, I'll need to adopt the 35mm 2, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.9 and the 105mm 2.8.

Super Takumar 35mm 3.5

I did mention she was sharp right? Check out the 100% crop below (unedited).

Nice threads huh?

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

The Selves

Super Takumar 35 mm 3.5 : f/5.6 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180 sec (bounced off the ceiling)

(view large)

First real setup self portrait shot, others didn't really work out too well, especially when using a manual lens. I was also testing out my newly acquired Super Takumar 35mm f/3.f lens which I bought over at Pentax Forums Marketplace. Sorry about the model subject, I didn't really feel like taking photos of mundane things around the appartment and I was the only willing subject around :)

Photos were taken with the Slik Pro 330 DX, Pentax wireless remote, Pentax K10D, Super Takumar 35mm 3.5 and Vivitar 285HV.

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Vivitar 285HV - First Impressions and Test Shots

So...The Vivitar 285HV came today and of course, like a little girl when she gets her first boyfriend, I squealed in delight as my wife shook her head. First impression...BIG! Man this thing is huge, it actually dwarfs the K10D as if it were a little point and shoot, check this out.

So, after the initial shock of it's gargantuan size, I, unlike other barbarian men, actually read the manual. Then, after not understanding a thing, attached it to the K10D and started firing away until I kind of figured out what was going on. Then, I went back to the manual, did a little cross referencing and before I knew it, it was producing acceptable photos. Photos below were shot in RAW and are 100% unedited, click images to enlarge.

Super Takumar 35 mm 3.5 : f/8 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180 sec (bounced off the ceiling)

Super Takumar 55 mm 1.8 : f/2.8 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180 sec (bounced at 60°)

Super Takumar 55 mm 1.8 : f/2.8 : ISO - 100 : Shutter - 1/180 sec (bounced off the ceiling)

Above image at 100% - Just showing off the Super Takumar 55mm sharpness (check out that dust!)

So after an hour or so of playing about the Vivitar 285HV I came to the conclusion that I'm going to thoroughly enjoy taking my photography to a hopeful next level. And next week, when the Cactus V2s triggers come, it will be even more fun! I'll have a more thorough review/test in a few weeks.