Category: Flora

A closer look at lunch and lens rendition

Some photographers, upon receiving a new (or in this case old) lens, photograph brick walls, test charts and/or newspapers to test a lens. I’ve never done this nor understood the reason for that approach. I prefer to test a lens within the context of a photograph I’ll actually enjoy looking at — to discover the lens’ rendering qualities. Yesterday afternoon a Novoflex-Noflexar f:3.5/105 R arrived.  I rounded up the necessary ring and tube to hang it on my Visoflex III. Today I photographed my lunch with the lens. With only one frame exposed it appears that I will enjoy working with this 40 year old, $50 gem. It focuses continuously from infinity down to filling the M8 frame with a 25mm subject (on the long dimension — at a working distance of 18cm). Both sharpness and bokeh appear quite tasteful.

(click photograph for larger view)

Leica M8, 105 mm R f:3.5 Novoflex-Noflexar on Visoflex

Friday: flower — still life?

The flowering plants have fallen over, wilted, dried, gone to seed. Very little green remains “outside” — only the pines and some grasses. The days have become short and the light, more often than not, overcast, dull and gray. If I continue to produce a flower photograph each Friday it will require more planning; no longer simply a stroll within so-called nature. From now until spring I’ll need to travel to a shop and make both economic and aesthetic choices.

This morning it was 32 degrees F outside so I decided to shift into this new way of thinking about Friday flowers by bringing one of the last blooms from a porch plant inside for visual exploration. As soon as I dropped the bloom into water the photograph appeared.

(click photograph for larger view)

Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo-Macro Elmarit

A conversation with forms of disintegration

Billions of leaves now lie on my little parcel of the planet. Each whispers a different message about color, form, texture, pattern, volume, shape, and line. Each changes by the hour as they disintegrate; no longer able to fulfill their role in photosynthesis. How do I choose just one leaf to visually converse with? Does it matter which one? Probably not.

Sunday: I pick up three leaves. As I tilt and twist each one and observe the light shifting through the Visoflex (with the 65 mm  Elmar at full extension, plus two tubes) it becomes clear that one leaf has much more to say than the other two. So it does matter. I set up a minimal, miniature studio at “my place” on the kitchen table (just the little SD24 flash on a Nikon off-camera cable, and a white reflector). For the next couple hours that leaf and I enjoy a lovely visual conversation. Two thirds into this conversation Ann asks, “all that!? for one leaf?” I chuckle — and think to myself, “oh yes. This one seems to have a lot to say.” How do I explain these fascinating visual conversations to someone who has not experienced this process? Perhaps by quoting visual excerpts from our dialogue. Before continuing its journey toward becoming fertile dirt the leaf had this to say…

(click images for larger view)

Leica M8, Visoflex with 65 mm Elmar at full extension, plus two extension tubes