After years of tinkering, finally, yesterday, I, more or less, perfected the prototype, swing/shift/tilt, platform for digital, mirrorless bodies

Based on a Leica M Bellows, disassembled, and carefully hacksawed, a Novoflex Castel Q focusing rail, 2 Chinese Rotating quick release clamps, and both Really Right Stuff and Chinese quick release plates. The device goes together and comes apart in a minute or two; and allows for swinging and shifting both lens and body, and tilting the lens; to achieve changing the plane of focus on the sensor. Here we see the platform with Leica M 240 body and a 1970 Leitz Wetzlar 1:3.5/ 65 mm Elmar. The next 2 photographs show the results.
(click photo to view larger)Test Photo 1 – The flower image below was taken without swing or shift and wide open @ f:4. You can see the everything behind the point of focus quickly falling out of focus. Test Photo 2 – By swinging and shifting the lens you can see, below, those elements, behind the point of focus coming more into focus, even including some of the distant, sunlit background. The camera did not move. The aperture did not change its only the effect of swinging and shifting the lens. This “look” can only be achieved “optically.” It cannot be achieved digitally in post processing. Here we see the degree of swing and shift used to achieve the look in Test Photo – 2.

Today I also checked to make sure the contraption will work the Leica SL body.Below we see the result achieved with this body, and same 53 year old Leitz lens, on the platform; with a bit more time spent considering composition . The result of a threesome:
a Leica SL digital body,
a 1970 Leitz Wetzlar 65mm lens,
and a contraption I’ve
been developing over years;
just to stay in touch with
“the optical bench”
that was the “view camera” experience.
The 65mm Leitz Elmar sits among the ‘bokeh’ royalty; in my occasionally humble opinion.

Friday: about flowers and lenses

So I “needed” a backup… second body to photograph an upcoming wedding. I scanned eBay over a month or two to get an idea of market prices; finally went for a kit which included what appeared to be a low mileage 5D body, genuine Canon Backpack case, a few batteries, charger, a remote timer/trigger, some miscelaneous filters, including +1 and +2 Hoya Closeup lenses, an next newer version of my 580 speed light, with IR trigger unit, and a very inexpensive, though relatively well reviewed, Quantaray 19-35mm f:3.5-4.5 lens. All this for the super righteous price of $450. The lens sells, used, on eBay for $46 – $90; which is remarkable because it sold new for $150 a half dozen years ago. So on to testing this mildly used equipment to find out if I received anything that I can actually use for this upcoming wedding. It all works perfectly; as designed. The lens actually performed shockingly well.

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Canon 5D, Quantaray 19-35mm with Hoya +2 Closeup Lens attached

iPhone photography: personal and immediate

As a photographer who has always had a camera nearby, within reach, or at least within a few steps, certainly in the next room anyway — I’ve definitely always used my 35mm and digital cameras for very personal observations and documentation. The bigger cameras, the medium format, 4×5 – 12×20 view cameras, demanded far more deliberation; tripods; more time; more light, etc. Without doubt the iPhone camera provides more immediacy and more accessibility than any other camera I’ve ever owned. Because of the fact that, if it is not actually already in your hand, serving some other purpose, it can be making a still or motion image in less than a second, means that the images have a spontaneity and immediacy significantly different than a larger device “over there.” Or so it seems to me. Perhaps I’m feeling this way because the novelty has not yet worn off. I’ve only had the thing for a month and a half. Does the diary or memoir have aesthetic value? I think it can… if well crafted… i don’t know… it’s personal.

Quite obviously the larger culture has grasped this up close and personal and immediate nature of walking through life with a camera, quite literally, in your hand at all times. The ‘selfie’ is just the honeymoon phase. The first on the scene news documentation we see often replacing “professional” news footage is another testament to the immediacy as well as potential importance of this tool; even in the hands of the ‘amateur.’

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img_0381At the hand surgeon’s contemplating causes of pain. iPhone 6s

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Walking past… condensation on a window… iPhone 6s

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Halloween makeup starts to appear on the streets. iPhone 6s, iPro 2x lens

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Contemplation… those having coffee next to me. iPhone 6s, iPro 2x lens

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Hot out of the oven. I continue to marvel at these edible sculptures. It’s like opening up a ceramic kiln when remove the cloche after 40 minutes at 475 degrees Fahrenheit.  iPhone 6s, iPro 2x lens, bipod support, with reflector

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These objects have so much esoteric, mystical, and personal value… iPhone 6s, bipod support

Friday’s flowers with iPro 2X Tele and .45X Super Wide

Curiosity drives exploration.
The ProCamera app, and many others, on the iPhone 6S, allows manual control of ISO, Shutter Speed and more.
And what about these other two lenses in my pocket?

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iPhone 6S, iPro 2x Tele, ISO 32, 1/15, f:2.2

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iPhone 6S, iPro .45x Super Wide, ISO 40, 1/15, F:2.2

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iPhone 6S, iPro .45x Super Wide, ISO 25, 1/350, F:2.2

The Free (and the phoenix)

For the past ten days I’ve been clearing 45 years of accumulated “stuff” out of my 1600 square foot quonset hut. This includes long forgotten “projects;” 40 year old client files from the days of reproduction art on illustration board; silk screens and squeegees; potters wheel and kiln; sculpting clay and tools; frames and glass; stuff left behind when my daughter moved out; old studio props; my own and others artwork; lumber and hardware from when I built the house; stuff stored for “others;” the list goes on endlessly, amazingly and ridiculously. Three large trailer loads of what in the end no one wanted. Memories have been tickled and tears have been shed (over damage to “keepsakes” from improper packing for the storage conditions). The trailer now sits loaded with half a ton of metal headed for the recycler next week.

This necessary “clear-out-the-crap” occurred because I’m closing my rented studio/office. The economy no longer supports the expense. Next week will be more of the same process – discarding a lifetime of commercial work and reference files, tens of thousands of dollars worth of obsolete software, phones, printers, computers, professional cathode ray monitors, keyboards, et al – scrap. Whatever can’t be let go of will end up on ebay and craigslist. This cleansing process brings a bit of melancholy along with a sense of relief and the potential for rebirth.

Haven’t had time to photograph much; though made these few documents while working through the clearing and organizing process.

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Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph