Min DOF Photography

Model: Lucifix

Gear: a300, Dt 11-18 (11mm, f4.5, 1/40, ISO 400)

Time: friday, just before the weekend began

Reason: boredom

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Bodybuilder

Double-faced freak

Mr. Forehead handling his “85L”

The bogeyman

Ahhhhh! I wanna get out!

I shot a wedding yesterday, that took place at Kendov Dvorec in Spodnja Idrija. The schedule was tight, by far the tightest I’ve ever had. I arrived at Kendov Dvorec 40 minutes earlier, to check the place out, to find a few nice spots to shoot. And I was limited to indoor spaces, since it was way too cold to shoot outside. To my great disappointment the place had only a couple of places, a room and a corridor, which were barely suitable for shooting romantic shots (after the ceremony). Why barely suitable? Because there were no large windows so that I could shoot without the use of a flash unit, the place was barely lit (I guess that adds to the mood) besides that the spaces were really small, so I had to shoot with the standard zoom lens, 85 mm was way too long. That means great depth of field etc, I had to shoot really differently, since my style of photography (natural light, min dof etc) was totally out of the question in there. The bride had to get dressed before the ceremony, so I couldn’t shoot romantic photos before the ceremony. The ceremony with all the congratulations, group shooting and rice throwing, ended at approximately 12.45 and we had to get to the church at 13.00. In the mean time I snapped (yeah snapped, no time for realxing the models, for working out the poses, face expressions etc) 5 different shots indoors and a few shots outside. I had around 6-7 minutes to do the complete romantic series. The Shot style, if you ask me (but at least they get to shoot pro models). After that, shooting the church ceremony went pretty smoothly, since there was plenty of time. We returned back to Kendov Dvorec, for the “lunch” which officially started at the moment we arrived (14.00). There was time to make a few more outdoor shots, but anyway, I couldn’t do more outside shots (even if I had the time) of the bride, she’d freeze at -7C.

On my way home I thought I blew it. That I didn’t make enough good shots (although bride&groom really wanted just a few romantic shots). Besides that, I wasn’t really sure that the “rice throwing” shots came out good, since I had quite a lot of flash problems (I really miss Nikon’s flash systems for weddings). Is it possible for the TTL to act somewhat differently, less accurate if you use a different lens (I used Sigma 18-50 2.8, which worked fine with my 430 ex on a couple of previous occasions)? Anyway, seeing the photos on my computer monitor was a relief, all in all, they came out pretty good.

I didn’t ask the newlyweds for permission to post photos, so I’m just going to post this one. This time the “spot” window light came in handy, otherwise it was just “burning” the snow-white bride’s dress and messing up the light metering.

Oh yeah, I forgot to write down what I’ve learned yesterday, or better said, I got my assumptions that when one’s pressed with time and works in really hard environment (tight spaces, bad lighting, freezing temperatures outside…) it’s really even worse than what you expect. Pressure is building up, when you see most or none of the things you planned aren’t going according to plan. I did good with some shots, messed up some, but when I look at the selected photos, I’m satisfied with the results (regarding the circumstances). But enough of the excuses (which of course are not really excuses, I just wanted to share my experiences with you), all that the clients are always really interested in, is the end result.

It’s getting cold&chilly. I wish I was a bear and sleep through the winter.

Here’s one from the archive. I don’t want to represent winter with yet one another photo of snowy mountains or a glaze frosted lawn. It’s just not my style .

With open arms. My 6 year old “half-nephew” (cousin’s son) Anže.


BW looks a bit too dark and scary, don’t you agree?

Sigma 8mm f3.5 EX DG circular fisheye. A very nice and sharp lens (at least in the center). And wideeee. If you have ideas on how you could use it and need it, I can only recommend it. Lately I’m thinking about a UWA linear lens. 10-22 to be exact. It’s currently really cheap, priced at 680 EUR -80 cashback (OK that was a limited special offer…), considering the normal 855 EUR price. But I’m not sure I’d use it that much, since I mostly shoot people. Anyway, here are a few 8mm fish samples that I took last year. Click here to see more.

As you can see FOV is really wide.

Woot?

The only thing I really hate about (U)WA lenses is, that it’s impossible to blur the background. This shoot (as well as previous) was taken at its minimal focusing distance (a few cm) at f3.5.

As many of you already know, a few of the photo bloggers attended the picnic yesterday. It was fun, exploring nature, I even took a few nature shots (shocking! ain’t it?) and ofcourse eating chestnuts, drinking new wine and having fun. Since M&M made such a good report of the picnic and a few other bloggers also posted about this picnic (and a few more will in a day or two) I won’t bother you with tons of pics. The other reason is, that I didn’t shoot a lot:). Here’s just one snapshot. I never noticed Matjaž had such a big head .

I went for a walk in the old part of town this afternoon and came across this musician. If one could call him that, since he didn’t have a clue, about what he was doing . He’s probably one of the few Romanians that stayed in Ljubljana. There were hundreds of them “playing” various instruments on pub’s gardens, on the streets and on some of the blocks. They probably left after they found out how cheap Slovenians really are…Anyway I’m glad he decided to stay, so I could snap a few shots. As you can see, he is very shy, so I just snapped a few photos and moved along…

Taken with a combination I’m very fond of, Canon 1Ds mkII+85 1.8. At what f number? Don’t ask stupid questions . Please view LARGER (thumbnail seems a bit underexposed etc).

Canon, Nikon, lens, depth of field, flash, aperture, raw, jpg, Pentax, portrait, portrait photography

I was digging through my archive and decided to make, or better said, to dedicate a post to my friends. I gathered best snapshots that I took over the last couple of years and posted it here. Most of them are spontaneous snapshots during coffee time, some were a part of the photo equipment tests and there was one mini session too - with Fločo in his favourite role, acting retarded. Please view LARGER.

S3to, baldheaded freak:

You can just feel Nikon colours, huh . Taken with D200 and Nikkor 85 1.4

Fločo, the best hairdresser in town:

Both photos taken with Sigma 30 1.4 as a part of the test

Photo below was taken with 16-35 2.8L, a part of the test as well

The photo below is taken with 1D mkII, all the rest (of him) with 1Ds mkII, Canon 85 1.8 was mounted on both cameras.

Radmila:

OG #1:

Nikolaj the drifter:

Jerše:

Žile&Flo:

And I took a few shots (4 to be exact), since I had the camera with me…The photo is a high ISO crop and the thumb is upsized (instead of downsized) - so please don’t whine about the IQ .

Oh yeah, that’s her .

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