Tag Archives: film

Photography and COVID-Times

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I feel that I’m a photographer who takes most of my personal favourite shots when outside of my normal day-to-day life. This can include travel, concerts and events, or getting up close and personal with new people. Now that we’re living in greater isolation and travel is a no-no I’ve been forced to adjust. Now I’m not saying that Jenny and I are living as shut-ins. We get out for walks and bike rides, the occasional distanced family visit or patio drink or meal. But we’ve left our 30km radius just twice since March.

It’s wild to think that I’ll go over a year without a real trip. The last two places I visited were the Bay Area and Barcelona (and I’m grateful to have seen both, one now ravaged by fire and the other COVID-19).

So, where does that leave me? How do I get artistic satisfaction from a limited scope while remaining socially responsible? Here’s what I’m trying so far, accompanied by photos taken during these strange Quarantimes:

Getting out of the house and taking the camera everywhere I go

First off, if I go out for a walk or bike ride I bring a camera. As much as possible it’s around my neck instead of stuffed in a bag. I usually simplify to just one body and lens. The X100F has been ideal for this because it doesn’t weigh me down and has the right ergonomics and response to quickly snap a good shot but also the control to encourage me to take my time to get an even better one.

Trying different media or styles

To be honest, I have too much gear. Two DSLRs and the X100F are already enough but then I have three film bodies in rotation as well, including condiment shelf in the fridge full of expired film. When getting out I try to mix it up, sometimes bringing just a film body, other time visualizing in black and white or other colour profiles.

Stepping out of my comfort zone can inspire creativity. Often I don’t get a good result but that’s not the point because the playing around makes me happy and inspires me to keep shooting. My goal for the late autumn and winter is to switch to black and white entirely, or at the very least to envision every shot in black and white first and only switch to colour if it’s a significant improvement.

Frequent returns to the same places

I have a few go-to places in the region that I return to many times a year, especially now that I’m not travelling far. Schneider’s Bush, Health Valley Trail are quick to get to by car and Breithaupt Park is a short walk away. I love seeing how the scenery changes from month-to-month, day-to-day or even hour-to-hour.

A benefit to revisiting the same spots is that I can plan for the future. Certain scenes look ok at the present time but have great potential to be stunning with the right conditions. Take the photo above for example. I’ve walked that part of the Health Valley Trail dozens of times but finally I decided to come at sunset. I rushed to exactly this spot, a 15 minute walk from the car, because I knew it would give me something beautiful if the sky panned out (which it did).

Photography by bicycle

I dabbled in this just a bit this year but I want to start cycling to local photography destinations by default instead of driving. There are many benefits, besides health, to getting around by bike with a camera. For starters, the journey becomes equally as important as the destination. Combining road and trail provides new views on familiar things and the process of stopping a bike and shooting is a lot more efficient then parking a car and hauling out gear.

Our city has invested hugely in cycling infrastructure lately and since COVID came has separated off lanes of major roads for bikes, opening up many new routes to get around. More people should be taking advantage of this opportunity!

My longer term goal will be to set up a lightweight cycling photography kit, either using a handlebar bag or trunk bag or combination of both. In either case it will need to be incredibly durable and well padded so that if I drop the bike I won’t damage any gear. I’d love to be able to leave the house for an all-day photography ride, with a little camera kit and lunch and a coffee. My X100f would be perfect but maybe the D750 with the super light 24, 50, 85 f/1.8 lenses and the little Manfrotto Befree would work too. I’ll keep everybody posted!

People are dealing with COVID-19 in many different ways. These are a few of the ways I’ve coped with having my photographic scope limited but I’d love to hear if any of you have other suggestions.

Blog Week Day 2 – The Many Faces of my Favourite Spot on Three Bridges Road

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For the second post of my blog-a-day week I’ll share what I consider one of the loveliest spots near Waterloo, the crossing of the Conestogo River on Three Bridges Road. Located just west of St. Jacobs and a short drive from where I work, it’s a great spot to go during lunch or at the end of the day to grab a few shots.

In the summer, the river is shallow and slow-moving. In the late winter and early spring with a heavy melt, it’s a torrent and the low bridge is lost completely beneath the water. Regardless of the seasonal changes, I’m still amazed at how many different types of photos I can get at the same place. It just goes to show that you don’t have to travel far to get great shots (or pretty good shots, at least).

I used a wide range of equipment for these photos. The bodies (Nikon D300s, D7000 and N80, Bronica ETRS) were paired with lenses (Nikon 17-55 f/2.8, Nikon 35 f/1.8, Nikon 60 f/2.8G Micro, Nikon 85 f/1.8G, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8, Tokina 50-135 f/2.8, Sigma 50 f/1.4, Bronica MC 40 f/4, Bronica EII 75/2.8). On the self portraits I used Nikon SB-700 and SB-900 strobes with CLS control.

I’ll give a prize to the person who gets the most correct gear-to-photo matches!

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New Batch of Developed Film – Part 4

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In this fourth and final post from the recent batch of developed film I’ll show some scans from a roll of 35mm Kodak Portra 160. I shot these with the Nikon N80, an autofocus film body that can handle the most modern Nikon lenses with AF-S and VR. That means that the lenses I use on my digital bodies are compatible with the N80. Even more exciting is that, since I normally shoot with a DX (cropped) digital sensor, this is my only opportunity to use my FX prime lenses as they were intended. Photos from three lenses are shown in this post. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 and Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8G are both fantastic lenses on both DX and FX digital sensors and here on 35mm film. I also used the AF-S 35mm f/1.8G here and while it is a DX lens the image circle is about big enough to work on 35mm although the corners often vignette depending on aperture and focus distance.

The roll of Portra (as well as the others in the previous posts) was developed at Dwayne’s in the USA. I had them make prints of this roll and it is interesting to compare how my scans and digital editing compare to a standard print. Often they are quite similar in that we both agree on colour balance and brightness. I tend to prefer a bit more saturation and contrast than Portra provides so I enhanced both on many of the images using Photoshop.

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Misty Woods of Belfountain

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This post shows an alternate, and quite different, take on one of my favourite images of 2012 (the other version is here). While the first image I showed was a panorama taken with a DSLR, this version was on film with the Bronica ETRS.

Two pieces of equipment were absolutely necessary for this shot. First, a tripod with the ability to set the legs at independent angles. I had to set the tripod on a pile of rocks and being able to position each leg to follow the terrain helped considerably. Second, a graduated neutral density filter. These filters are divided in half, top to bottom. One one side they are transparent and on the other they block light by a fixed amount without adding any colour caste (hence, “neutral”). The interface between the two halves is a gradient with one fading into the other so there is no sharp transition edge.

Bronica ETRS with MC 40mm f/4. Probably around f/8, 1/8s on Fuji Velvia 100. Scanned with the Epson V500. Colour correction, levels and sharpness in Photoshop CS5.

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