I'm given to understand that as an owner of a 67 105/2.4 I'm contractually obligated to shoot mostly young women in varying states of dishabille, but while trying to figure out how do so without disturbing my domestic harmony, I passed a morning seeing how my Super Tak version played with the Canon 500D close up lens. (About the only thing not to love about the legendary 105 is its pedestrian minimum focus distance.)





In all honesty, our ubiquitous Yellow Trillium shows better in monochrome (unless you're just overly fond of lemon-yellow
) but overall, I think the combination works pretty well.

[Kerrowdown]

I'm contractually obligated to shoot mostly young women in varying states of dishabille

So where are these images... as opposed to this wee yellow jobbie?

[CreationBear]

So where are these images

Hey, I'm the one who keeps requesting shots of Emily Blunt and Kiki Gillan strolling thro' the heather, tousling one another's hair and exchanging vaguely Sapphic looks. And you call yourself a professional....

[Kerrowdown]

Emily Blunt and Kiki Gillan strolling thro' the heather

But these are both non native to these parts... which makes things a little more challenging.

[oculus]

It's always tempting to go bok-crazy with these larger formats, but macro isn't the place to do it especially at this aperture. Go at least f/8 and maybe f/11 and you will still have bokeh-to-boot

[CreationBear]

You Tube

You Tube

Ha, thanks! As you might imagine, I'm still getting a feel for just how slender DOF is on medium format--although shooting the 105/2.4 in particular at anything less than "dead red" seems immoral somehow. (Call it the Sapir-Whorf theory of photography...)


If nothing else, though, poncing about with the 67 this Spring has really revealed just how much slop has worked itself into my "process" (to use a laughable term considering my output so far)--backgrounds, especially, are my nemesis in this part of the world...I'll aspire to a bit of blank verse, with the tennis nets intact if not ratcheted tight.

[oculus]

Not my middle-gray! Haha.

But seriously, I assume you desire consilatio and not mere conlaudatio. One must unlearn nearly everything about snapping pretty pixels. At ASA 100 in the shadows I would have gone 1/8 or 1/4 for exposure time. Then again your subject seems to be the pristine frond's percolating teardrops, which does catch the light nicely. But then the bokeh gets craycray. The lesson learned (exposure seems right on) for me, if I had made this photograph, would have been not to have made it in the first place given this particular format and lens. But that's just me. My assistant will send you a bill.

Food for thought: think less about taking a picture of something. Think more about the whole, about making a picture, about all of its components. Here it seems you saw the nice leafy sharpness with dewlet drops and neglected the rest of the frame. Take more time to ask yourself whether the whole frame is compelling. That last bit is gratis.

[CreationBear]

consilatio and not mere conlaudatio

Ha, I've initiated enough people into the Little Sisters of the Divine Severity that I have to laugh at that Big Wheel (of karma) keeping on turnin'. Very good advice, especially in the last paragraph, though of course sifting the natural world for Forms and Emanations might set off the Ahab-ish part of my personality that nobody seems to like.


At any rate, BTW I was thinking you ought to bundle your portfolio with a new translation of Book Six of the Aeneid (or maybe a new Pharsalia for the Acela Corridor)...ought to sell like hotcakes.

[FozzFoster]

I'm given to understand that as an owner of a 67 105/2.4 I'm contractually obligated to shoot mostly young women in varying states of dishabille, but while trying to figure out how do so without disturbing my domestic harmony, I passed a morning seeing how my Super Tak version played with the Canon 500D close up lens. (About the only thing not to love about the legendary 105 is its pedestrian minimum focus distance.)





In all honesty, our ubiquitous Yellow Trillium shows better in monochrome (unless you're just overly fond of lemon-yellow
) but overall, I think the combination works pretty well.

Nice shot! love the water drops!