I had the urge to shoot some photos this weekend and have pretty much exhausted my backyard flower/bird subjects...so I decided to return to a familiar shooting location and try out some bokeh shots with the Cosina 55mm at f/1.2.

Apologies if you recognize the rusty hay rake and John Deere plow from my earlier SMC-M 50mm series...I gotta quit shooting "local" and take a road trip to Yosemite or something...

Nevertheless, on to the rusty iron objects:

#1 Detail from a Rusty Plow

I shot this notched mechanism before and am rather fascinated with the shadows and texture...man, i have got to get out more, i know.

#2 Sinister Hay Rake

Those sharp tines on the rake just look so evil to me...I applied a little PP to acentuate the "darker side" of farming...woohoohahahaha [goin' for the Hammer Films look a la "Farmer Brown Has Risen From The Grave"]

#3 Spring from Rusty Plow

Watching the spring fall OOF.

#4 Rusty bolts from Plow

mmm, rusty bolts.

#5 Hay Rake - Wheel Detail

The wheel hub from the evil hay rake, complete with authentic evil bird droppings...

I applied some toning to these using Adobe Camera Raw. Joking aside, I hope you like one or two of these. I had fun trespassing.

[MightyMike]

Well done!

Mike, these are the best series of rusty farm stuff ever. I truly am blown away by these. Your eye for comp and the beautiful way the 50 1.2 treats the subject is quite a combination. Throw in some great PP and you got my fave series in a while.

I had a chance to get this lens once and did not pull the trigger... when I see shots with this oof look... I kick myself pretty hard.
But I still would not have your eye for the shot...

Mike, you're coming along in leaps and bounds, you must have got the old K10 mojo.
This is seriously good set of shots, #1 and #4 are my favourites.

[roentarre]

Really creative from this series

Dig the way your blurr things out and the good black and white conversion.

[Stefan Carey]

Really enjoyed the post. Thanks,

Sometimes the story to escape the habits of backyard shooting make good reading.

Maybe we need a guide to : "How to break out of a) writing posts instead of taking photos b) leave the property and venture into the 3D world."

Thought: Probably harder for b) with macro as there are photos to be taken in the same given area

Very pleasing on the eye.

[fractal]

The shadows are great from the first image.

Interesting subjects. I also like the 5th shot, although, i'm not sure how bird droppings can be considered evil?

[mikeSF]

Mike, you're coming along in leaps and bounds, you must have got the old K10 mojo.
This is seriously good set of shots, #1 and #4 are my favourites.

Thanks Gary & that really means a great deal coming from you, as i study your work earnestly in this forum. Maybe there's also a little "K10 mojo", haha.

Mike, these are the best series of rusty farm stuff ever. I truly am blown away by these. Your eye for comp and the beautiful way the 50 1.2 treats the subject is quite a combination. Throw in some great PP and you got my fave series in a while.
I had a chance to get this lens once and did not pull the trigger... when I see shots with this oof look... I kick myself pretty hard.
But I still would not have your eye for the shot...

Much appreciated, Gus! i bought this Cosina55 from jsherman as you recall; he has apparently since decided he cannot be without it and bought himself another copy.

Well done!

thanks mike!!

Really creative from this series

Dig the way your blurr things out and the good black and white conversion.

thanks roentarre. I don't have much experience with BW conversion yet, so basically just using Adobe Camera Raw settings to fiddle with the color sliders until i like the look. I find these rusty pieces have red, orange, blue, and magenta content which allow smoothing out the texture OR amping it up according to how far out i deviate any one slider from the others.

Really enjoyed the post. Thanks,
Sometimes the story to escape the habits of backyard shooting make good reading.
Maybe we need a guide to : "How to break out of a) writing posts instead of taking photos b) leave the property and venture into the 3D world."
Thought: Probably harder for b) with macro as there are photos to be taken in the same given area

True about the macro opportunities - they are there if we look, eh?.
I realize that 96% of all my photos are from my own backyard...0% from the front yard, haha. The rest from my kids' karate practice. I am heading up to Petaluma, CA this weekend and hope to find some fun things to shoot.

[mikeSF]

The shadows are great from the first image.

Interesting subjects. I also like the 5th shot, although, i'm not sure how bird droppings can be considered evil?

i was joking about the #2 photo looking scary and sinister, so the bird droppings naturally must have come from an evil bird...

Very pleasing on the eye.

thanks much.

Much appreciated, Gus! i bought this Cosina55 from jsherman as you recall; he has apparently since decided he cannot be without it and bought himself another copy.


Haha, that does not sound like Jay at all....


Mike if you can, I would love to see the color version of the first shot... the B&W is so good, with its extra texture punch on the front gear and spring flowing into the smoother oof area, I would love to see how far it came to get where it is.

I did not mention it, but the warm sepia-esque tone on the Sinister Hay Rake is a nice touch from the more 'industrial' B&W on the gear stuff.

[mikeSF]

Mike if you can, I would love to see the color version of the first shot... the B&W is so good, with its extra texture punch on the front gear and spring flowing into the smoother oof area, I would love to see how far it came to get where it is.

I did not mention it, but the warm sepia-esque tone on the Sinister Hay Rake is a nice touch from the more 'industrial' B&W on the gear stuff.

Gus, here is my original shot, straight from the camera (attached). using ACR 5.0 I cropped it slightly, boosted contrast, and then applied BW conversion with slight boost of magenta and blue tones, reduction of yellow tones. next i used the split toning feature (also in ACR) to add a blue tone to the shadows and a faint orange tone to the highlights.

that's it. thanks for asking.

[mikeSF]

Here's one that I didn't post where i applied the more brown toning for a warm effect. This shot has cows in the background, but once i started scooting around while clicking, they practically took off running out of my frame. darn.

[PeterAM]

Those are very good. Hope that you are printing some of these;holding a beautiful B&W print in your hand (or hanging it on a wall) beats looking at it on a computer screen (IMHO).

[mikeSF]

Those are very good. Hope that you are printing some of these;holding a beautiful B&W print in your hand (or hanging it on a wall) beats looking at it on a computer screen (IMHO).

thanks!
thus far, only looking at them on the computer - i have yet to attempt printing any photos, nor do i have a decent printer for the purpose. i could put them on a disc and take to Walgreen's and have 'em printed or something