Hands of Time

By PF Staff in Favorite Photos on Dec 31, 2012

I picked this photo for both personal and artistic reasons. These are the hands of my 92 year old grandmother in January 2011.  I had just received my first DSLR for Christmas and this is the first image I took with it that I felt was a "keeper."  My grandmother was very worried at the time as my grandfather was in the hospital, and I think/hope my artistic rendering of the original did justice to those emotions.

Click to enlarge

Budapest Chain Bridge

By PF Staff in Favorite Photos on Dec 30, 2012

I would like to share this photo of the Budapest Chain Bridge with you all. There are two main reasons why I really love this picture. First, I love Budapest, always have, and I have always had a soft spot for this gorgeous structure. The second reason is, simply, because this was the first image that came out exactly as I had imagined it in my head before the shoot, and is also the first image to have gotten serious praise even from pro photographers. So without further ado, the image:

Click to enlarge

By the Light of a Cement Wall

By PF Staff in Favorite Photos on Dec 29, 2012

Back in 1986, back when we used film and called it ASA not ISO, I volunteered at a small, rural preschool in St. Vincent, in the Caribbean. I was 21, and I lived in a small cement brick house with a corrugated tin roof, the tropical rain a cacophony with strangely comforting rhythms. With me was the classic, obligatory Pentax K1000, and a Pentax K 55 1.8 lens. I had some lens cleaning tissue, but that was it. I was young, I had very little money - my camera was a cherised possession that often didn't seem that inanimate.

It was a poor community, and my Pentax and the 5 rolls of tri-X I had with me stayed in an old pot in a cupboard. The lid came off towards the end of my 8-month posting. Like on this day back in ‘86, at the pre-school. The young girl’s name was Kenisha, caught here in the cement-reflected light of the tiny school.  

I took the shot with the 55mm lens, the only one I had with me. It was 400 ASA Kodak tri-x that I developed myself when I got back to Canada. It was all natural light, and in fact the preschool didn’t have electricity.  

Across from the Fulton, 10:00PM

Making of "Prince Street Cafe"

By PF Staff in Favorite Photos on Dec 27, 2012

Of the handful of images I have submitted to various Pentax Forums monthly contests this one has been my favorite. The photograph was made specifically for Contest #69: Night Scene, and the image was composed with an idea I had based on the location and social nature of the scene.

• Camera: Pentax K-5 DSLR
• Lens: Pentax DA* 50-135mm 2.8
• Accessories: Manfrotto 055XB Tripod with Kirk BH-3 Ballhead
• Exposure: 30 seconds
• Aperture: F/16
• Focal Length: 85mm
• ISO: 80
• Shooting Mode: Manual
• White Balance Setting: Fluorescent (Warm)
• File Format: RAW

Jumping - Before and After

By PF Staff in Favorite Photos on Dec 26, 2012

Hello.

Here is the before and after picture:

Before

After