a precarious perch...

wildlandphotos.com

Yes, I've once more upgraded and changed my photo gallery site. This blogspot address will continue to be what it has been lately, with quick photo posts now and then, and some info on equipment etc. The fstop.110mb.com site will continue to exist for now, but it's also depricated, as I finally went about getting a domain name all my own... wildlandphotos.com. For a few days it was pointed at my 110mb account, but I was struggling to put together a sales system which was still gonna be kludgy junk, and I said, "there's got to be a better way"...

Enter smugmug... They are a photo hosting site which offers quality print ordering built into their gallery pages... sweet, and I can point my domain at it and customize to my hearts content.

Over the next weeks and months you'll see some changes to the look and organization of my galleries on the wildlandphotos.com site, but it'll be my site for the forseeable future. BTW, if you have any feedback re. the new site, you're welcome to send it to me at josh (@) wildlandphotos.com. I'd love to hear you criticism of the new site.

Cracked...

Stopped by a dry lakebed a few days ago and snapped these...

click the thumbnail below to see a larger version...

Lightning Show!

We had some nice lightning cells roaming around southern NV yesterday. I went out shooting last night and got these... For some reason, my camera set the color temperature differently for the shots below than the one above. The purples below are typical of other lightning shots I've gotten before, but I like the bluish cast of the above shot as well, so I haven't "corrected" any of 'em.

click the thumbnails below to see larger shots...

What are the odds...

This shot is not manipulated other than normal levels adjustments, and a bit of cropping and a couple degrees of rotation. A co-worker and I were traveling down the road in central NV at about 75mph (Adam was driving), I shot about 40 pics of this rainbow, and finally, the light just worked out like this...



Technical details: Pentax K200D @ iso 600, Pentax DA 10-17mm Fish-Eye @ 10mm f/3.5 1/2000 sec.

Oldschool Zoom Minireview: The Vivitar 85-205 Screwmount Lens

A while ago, L. got me some awesome old m42 lenses at a yard sale - the S-M-C Takumar 50mm f/1.4 and the S-M-C Tak. 28mm f/3.5. Also in the bag was a Vivitar m42 screwmount 85-205 f/3.8 zoom which I've pretty much ignored till now, as it's a bit unwieldy to use, and to carry.




First of all this beast is long and heavy. It seems to zoom internally and keeps a constant f/3.8 throughout it's zoom range, which is pretty fast for a 205mm zoom.

Ironically, the reason I decided to go out and shoot with it and review is that I've decided to sell it (I know it wont bring in much money, but why keep it on the shelf if someone else might shoot with it) If only it were the close-focusing model, I'd have to keep it.

The downsides for use on a Pentax digital body:

• You have to use stopdown metering with any digital camera.
• You have to manually reset the focal length on your camera as you zoom if you want the image stabilization to work, since the camera receives no information from the lens.
• Heavy / Ugly - though this can be an upside I suppose.

The upsides:

• Reasonably fast throughout the zoom range at f/3.8.
• Pleasing bokeh (at least to me, in my limited test run).
• Cheap.
• Burly.
• Doubles as a weapon / doorstop / workout aid.

I've posted a quick album of today's mediocre test shots here (I think I focused poorly on some of them, and motion blur got some others). After you've perused that, you're welcome to download any individual frames at full size here.

If anyone out there has better examples of actually using this lens, let me know, I'd love to link to 'em.

the high desert.

recent shots from southern NV...

click the thumbnail to see a large version in a new window...

The ricoh 2x macro focusing teleconverter on a pentax.

I've seen some great macro work posted using the Vivitar 2x macro focusing tc, but between scarcity and price, I was having a hard time getting one. Then I saw a Ricoh version on keh's site for a good price ($39) but with only a vague description and no picture. I decided to give it a try anyway, as I could always return it if it looked like it wouldn't work on my K200d.

The bad news: It's green button metering only - no "A" mode - but aperature stop-down levers do work. I also haven't been super excited with the image quality so far but this may be due operator error (hand held, shake reduction on, high iso settings, hand held (did I mention hand held?), open apertures, etc), and/or to the lens I've been using so far (M 50/2 with oily blades).

The good news: As far as I can tell this IS the Vivitar tc with Ricoh's name on it. Although it has the "ricoh pin", it is of the spring loaded ball variety, and hasn't tried to get stuck on my camera body whatsoever. UPDATE: A member on pentaxforums.com said that his version of this TC DID GET STUCK on his K10D, so, ummmm, be careful, and consider doing ricoh pin removal surgery before using this device on your camera.

Here are some shots of and from the TC. Most of these macros were actually taken with a bit less than 10 or so extra mm of extension tube (just the male and fm ends screwed together) added to the front end of the TC in order to free the aperture lever of the sticky 50mm and allow me to manually stop down the lens, so the magnification is a bit more than the TC would allow by it's self, but I doubt that IQ has changed much from this. After each full frame shot is a 100% crop to show detail, but keep in mind the above reasons for poor image quality. I'm sure this TC can put out better shots under better conditions. I may update this post if I take some better examples, but since I've a Tamron 90mm/2.8 macro on the way this may go on the block (come to think of it I'll have to post some better pictures if I try to sell it cause this post will probably climb pretty high in googles "Ricoh 2x macro focusing teleconverter" ranking (welcome ebayers of the future) ;-) .

Click the thumbnail to see a bigger version in a new window...

Sigma Mini-Wide II 28mm f/2.8 Sample Photos

So, somewhere on this here web, I saw some photos taken with this lens, and really liked 'em, so I found one for an ok price at keh.com, and got it (then watched one sell cheaper on ebay doh!) Oh, well, it's nice.. I find this lens to be quite sharp wide open, and it has beautiful bokeh.

The lens is billed as a macro, and definitely is close focusing, but at 1:4.5 ratio, it doesn't really compare to a real macro. OTOH, it is superb for closeups of large flowers (roses, irises, whatever these bluish ones are...).

So, I've taken a bunch of shots with my Pentax K200D to demonstrate the lens (actually for fun, but I thought you might want to see 'em). Most are at f/2.8 or f/4, to show off the bokeh, but there's a few stopped down. Sample photos are in this gallery now

In the gallery, you'll see one boring shot with a crop of the sun with a backlit branch. I see no significant CA, however, the lens does tend to suffer from flare, so a good hood is advisable as is keeping the sun out of the frame.

A few samples...

See the Gallery.

edited 1/20/2010 for new links...

año nuevo elephant seals

We had a good time the other day at Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve on the California coast north of Santa Cruz. A walk of about 1.5 mi. takes you to viewing areas within feet of hundreds of Elephant Seals. Very cool - kids would love it. A gallery is here.

A couple samples...