Blue and Yellow

Kyoto Japan.

Bull Ant Drifting

A technique we tried at Hollybank called “drifting” Macro.

Pen F 12-100 f4

Morning at Hollybank Reserve

About 10 minutes out of Launceston is an old tennis racket factory, tree reserve, called Hollybank. The factory is long gone, but the regimented trees have been “parkified”, making it a beautiful and soothing place to be.

I have been going there for most of my life, sometimes regularly, such as over the last few years for photography, but always at least once a year or so for picnics etc.

Plenty of regular landscape compositions (if the light is kind). The lack of autumn colour surprised me, as Hollybank often goes off before town, being a little cooler, but not this year.

We chose it today as for our latest photo-group get together for landscape shooters, looking at tele lenses, wide lenses for low near-far techniques and for macro. It can be a tough place to get the perfect shot. The light can be harsh, fickle even, but with a little experimentation, there is lots of potential.

All images 12-100 pro and Pen F.

Haiku #67 Imperial Palace

The Things We Have In Common

Mis identified as a Western Australian tree image, this one was a detail shot from a temple in Japan.

EM5 25mm

More Semi Macro or "Drifting".

All of the above were taken in 5 minutes and within 3-4 feet of each other. The great thing about (semi) macro photography is how much there is easily at hand. Technique is easy. Set the camera to manual focus (usually the closest focussing distance), a wide aperture and “drift” in to focus, shooting as you find something with the right balance of sharpness and blur.

The camera was the Em1, with the 12-40 wide open. This lens has sweeter Bokeh than the 12-100, but is less powerful, giving me 1:3 at half the working distance. With this lens the Bokeh tends to become a part of the image rather than just lost detail.

All of the images are jpeg’s with minimal processing simply because the RAW files I took at the same time, did not offer me anything more than the jpegs except more processing needs. The depth of colour comes from under exposing most of the files by -1 to -1.5 stops, bringing out the rich colour in the highlights at the cost of the shadow areas (expanded dynamic range is often cited as the “cure” for this, but creatively, I like the negative space).

Grrrr. Apple's Sloppy Bokeh Ad

A little grumpy rant here.

If you are a multi billion dollar company, pushing a new (and exciting) bit of photo hardware, then I feel it is incumbent on you to get your basic, basic, basic facts straight.

“Bokeh” is pronounced “Bow” as in bone - “Keh” as in kettle, not “Bokker” as your current Iphone add implies and, while we are on it, it is a term used for the quality of all of the semi or fully out of focus areas of an image not as a term to describe the quantity of blur is applied.

Apparently the phone companies have more people in camera R & D than the camera companies, so you think that someone in this vast network could have taken a tiny peak at the origins of a word before accepting the common “slang” version of it. It is actually a quite recent Anglicising (An American translation to boot, like the ad) of a Japanese language term (Boke Aji), so double bad Apple for not finding either form.

I feel sorry for the women in the ad, they are just doing what they are told, but are now the faces of this stuff-up.

Oh and they use it like a verb also. Bad, bad, bad.

So Apple or Orange or who ever you are, how about you try a little harder.

P.S. I wonder if they stuffed up the Japanese ad?!

Japan Looming

Not long now.

The draw of Japan for my wife and I after so many trips, is the fine balance of excitement of exploring the exotic and a deep feeling of comfort. never somewhere we could tire of, or even feel we fully understand, Japan offers us a sense of familiarity mixed with habitual perfectionism, cleanliness, consideration and generosity.

A Deeper Beauty

I have never considered myself a macro photographer.

Having said that I have almost always owned a dedicated macro lens, whichever format or brand I have been using over the years. Without doubt, macro lenses are generally the best tool for true macro work and often double up a workable portrait lens, so finding justification to own one has never been too hard.

The reality is I am actually a “very non scientific, obsessed with abstraction, looking for something deeper and less literal” photographer. I don’t think they make a specific lens for that.

EM1 12-100

My current weapon(s) of choice are the 12-40 and 12-100 Olympus zooms. These give me 1:3 to life size which it turns out is enough. This once was loosely called “macro”, especially when printed on telephoto zoom lenses, but is really not true macro, not even close (true macro is where you are producing an image on your sensor or film that is true to life size to the subject, which is to say, if you placed your sensor quite literally on the subject they would be the same size).

The question I suppose is, “do you do scientific macro or just artistic macro?”.

EM1 12-100. The silence of the camera in electronic shutter mode adds to the gentle experience.

Scientific macro is tough and unforgiving. It requires often closer than life size magnification, perfect focus, often extended depth of field, which requires special techniques and balanced (read “boring”) light. Science is not interested in beauty unless it for measurement or understanding.

Artistic macro on the other hand is loose and fun. It is not looking to create a scientifically accurate image, nor even a fully identifiable subject, but something deeper. Magnification is anything strong enough to take you out of the world of the real and into a place filled with mystery and emotion. Too much attention to accuracy is the true enemy of this technique. Looseness of style is where the real gems hide.

EM1 12-100. It is hard to express how uninspiring the subject was (a grape vine in cold shaded light, dry, dusty and tired of summer). Getting in low and close, and shooting into the sunlit underside have revealed a gentle beauty. The lens was used wide open at f4, requiring attention to the very thin focus area, but even the mistakes can come to life.

I have vague memories of a childhood filled with a desire to explore these quiet, dark, hidden and often small places. My early, almost forgotten inspiration comes from films like “The Water Babies” or books like “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie” (very Australian), filled with miniaturised and often environmentally exotic protagonists. Modern takes on these themes have little effect, so it was obviously a first impression thing, although when watching films like “Avatar”, there is a longing that stirs in me for forgotten places and times.

How deep does this influence go? When I re-discover it, often triggered by happenstance, there is a feeling of coming home, so I guess pretty deep.

Hands

Handy.

Worship of the Aphid God

Strong light, alternate angles and the wonder of bugs on the roses.

I am getting the hang of the EM1.

The secret is a simple mix of strong processing preferences and a desire to get the best out of the image.