Peninsula Outdoor Painters

1/250 second, F 6.5, ISO 100, Lens Focal Length 35mm APS

Nestled in an unincorporated area of Redwood City, the Emerald Hills Country Club turned a small lake into a "swimmin' hole", complete with a mini-water slide and changing houses. It was here that the Peninsula Outdoor Painters chose to paint landscapes inspired by lake's natural surroundings. The entrance was a little hard to find, but when I did, I was greeted by Sue Mendelsohn, a member of the POP and the subject of an upcoming Journal article. She had just started on a fresh water color when I arrived, so as she worked, I went about adjusting my composition and exposure.

First The Good News: Sue was painting by the water's edge, so a composition that included the painting and her hand was easy. Had she been a left-handed painter the situation would have been different because her arm would have obscured the canvas. The Bad News was the fence that surrounded the little lake had gaps through which the morning sun came shining through.

In these two test shots, you can clearly see the zebra-stripes that crossed her face in the left shot. The stripes were still obvious when I added a single speedlight  and a shoot-through umbrella. It still wasn't exactly what I wanted, so I made some adjustments to the lighting and the exposure. First, I lowered the ISO to 100. This would allow me to reduce the ambient exposure somewhat because I was locked into a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second, the camera' highest flash sync speed. Next I moved the flash to a butterfly position (aligned with the nose) and moved it as close to my subject as possible. 

As you can see, the flash exposure was boosted slightly, and the ambient (sunlight) exposure reduced a bit. The final photo still had highlights created by the sunlight, but they are hard to detect, as you can see in the left sample. Because of its position close to the subject, the flash had no effect on the lower edge of the photo, as you can see by the light-stripes on the bench and easel. 

Next Time: I am not totally without resources if a similar lighting dilemma occurs. I could have used a second umbrella as a "scrim", or light shield, to prevent any direct sunlight from hitting my subject. The "shadow" created by the scrim could then be lit with a flash, which bring the  exposure back to where it belongs, This presumes that I thought to bring a second light stand and a second umbrella, something that I don't normally do. But when I am next called upon to make an outdoor portrait, I will give it some careful thought.

Legacy Lens - 20mm F 3.8 Vivitar

Vivitar A7 with and adapted Sony A7

I had a few false starts in making some sample images using one of my a film-era legacy lens on my Sony A7. Be assured that no works of art resulted from this effort, although I did shoot one assignment for the paper with this across-the-century lens and camera combination. The three street images in t his post were made with a Vivitar 20mm F 3.8 lens. Trust me, nothing here would win me a Pulitzer. 

Possible Inspiration: It's odd that I've always looked at this particular Vivitar lens and felt as though there was something familiar about its focal length, outsized objective lens, and maximum aperture. After reminiscing a few moments, a word crossed my lips: Flektogon.

I remember reading in a photographic magazine (We subscribed to both Popular Photography and Modern Photography) about the Carl Zeiss Jena 20mm F 4.0 super-wide angle lens. I specifically remember the CZJ "zebra" pattern of the focusing ring, which featured bands of brightly polished metal alternating with bands of black enamel grooves. Carl Zeiss Jena was the label that identified the lens as a product of East Germany. Both the label, and the zebra patterned focusing ring were familiar to me, as the first real 35mm camera I ever used was a Praktica, an East German camera that had a CZJ 50mm F 1.8 lens.

Source Posting: Click here.

In many ways that Praktica camera would influence my passion for photography. I "inherited" the camera from my sister when she upgraded to a Nikkormat FTn. I played with the camera until it stopped working and required a lengthy stay at the camera hospital because the importer was Hanimex, the Australian company that handled the repairs. While waiting for its return, I started using my father's Mamiya Flex, a fully manual camera that used spool-to-spool 120 roll film. This proved to be a major challenge, and after learning how to extrapolate the readings from a Weston hand held light meter, I moved on to mastering flash, initially using flash bulbs and culminating with the mastering of the cumbersome but powerful Glaflex Strobomatic 500 flash I borrowed for the City College of San Francisco Photo Department. I remember keeping meticulous notes about my exposures and flash settings because roll film was expensive. The learning process was a slog, but I felt well worth the struggle. But I digress.

These photos were meant to show an exaggerated perspective of a super wide lens. So far as the performance of the lens-body combination, it seems to work quite well. Frankly, it's more fun to use the lens not knowing its sharpness compares with my more modern Fuji and Nikkor lenses. When ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, or a pixel-peeper, as the case may be.

More will follow.