Super wide angles

Wide-angle lenses can be a lot of fun. Super wides are super fun. I liked the Voigtländer 15/4.5 Super Wide Heliar the moment I tried it, and it has since become one of my favourite lenses. It's tiny, sharp, and gives that extremely wide view on film — or a full-frame digital Leica. Using a wide-angle lens is however often quite challenging. They are pretty much the worst enemies of simplification, which is an important tool of good photography. If you have a single point of interest in your scene, a wide-angle lens can easily make it too small and distant. Let's look at a few photographs fresh from the scanner.

In this following photo, the temple entrance is very distant and occupies a rather small part of the resulting photograph. It is however the pseudo-symmetry of this image, the reflections on wet ground, and the leading line of the people that still make it work fairly nicely. I don't know if I like the helicopter in the sky, but I didn't want to remove it as it seems the people are looking at it.

Tokyo, 2010 - Kodak BW400CN

In the next photograph, I wanted to show the size of the fortress. It gets somewhat cluttered, however the clutter is created by repetitive shapes. That's not a no-no in my books.

Iraklion, Crete, 2010 - Kodak BW400CN

Wide-angle treatment can be effective for close-ups, too. You can either put some distance between your main subject and the background, or you can play the clutter card to your advantage. In this photo, I wanted to show the large pile of Hello Kitty's inside this UFO catcher.

Tokyo, 2010 - Kodak BW400CN

This is a nice lens on the digitals, too. Here's a past post featuring a photo with the Leica M8.

The colour and the shape

Three cities, three cameras, three photographs.

Hamburg, 2009 - Epson R-D1, 1/450, ISO400

Paris, 2010 - Leica M8, 1/360, ISO160

Tampere, 2010 - Kodak BW400CN

Amorgos City

Following the visit to Naxos it was time to see Amorgos. This small island, the easternmost part of the Greek Cyclades island group, has a population of perhaps 2,000 or so. Amorgos is a great destination for some peaceful beach life and nice hikes. Here are a few pictures from and around the town of Amorgos (or Chora).

Amorgos, 2010 - Fujifilm Superia 200

Amorgos, 2010 - Fujifilm Superia 200

There are cats everywhere on the Greek islands. This one was a bit annoyed after an invading photographer ruined a perfect moment of relaxation.

Amorgos, 2010 - Fujifilm Superia 200

I believe the alleyway above is pretty much downtown Amorgos. This is however not the peak business hour. During the peak hour you may actually see the cat above walk through here.

Amorgos, 2010 - Fujifilm Superia 200

All these photographs were scanned from the negatives using the Epson V700 scanner. Not much was done in terms of post-processing, basically just some straightening and removal of a few dust particles. No cropping, as you can see from the uneven borders.

Markets, street vendors

Markets are often great places for street photography. Or is that market photography then? Anyway, with people interacting with each other and going on about their business, the photographer is often ignored. The markets are also full of colour and interesting shapes. Sometimes too full which easily makes photographs too cluttered if you don't simplify them enough. Often you however don't have the choice if you really want the shot. It's also worth hanging around street vendors. They are basically small, simple markets, which helps remove some of the movement and clutter while providing good opportunities for interesting photographs.

Paris, 2010 - Leica M8, 1/125, ISO 160

Helsinki, 2009 - Epson R-D1, 1/2000, ISO 200

Tampere, 2009 - Epson R-D1, 1/450, ISO 400

Sometimes it's the advertising that catches your eye:

Tokyo, 2010 - Leica M8, 1/125, ISO 320

The Leica M8 photos were taken with the Voigtländer 15/4.5 Super Wide Heliar and the Voigtländer 35/1.4 Nokton SC, respectively. The Epson R-D1 photos, on the other hand, were with the Leica Summicron-M 50/2 and the Voigtländer 35/1.4 Nokton SC.

Windows in photographs

I often find myself photographing windows and doors. They are the kind of architectural details you will find practically everywhere with many details of their own: locks, knobs, decorations. They also bring a strong human element to photographs with people looking from windows deep in thought or hurriedly coming and going through doorways. Windows and doorways make simple frames and provide lighting. They can essentially be the subject, frame the subject, or light it. And they are everywhere around us in the urban environment providing endless possibilities for interesting photographs. Actually, I think I don't find myself photographing windows and doors anywhere as often as I probably should.

Here are some photographs with windows I chose for this post. The first two pictures feature a window as the main subject. The first one is really about the humorous balance between two halves of the window: one side advertising the store with the text "now open" while the other side suggests the store is under renovation. The second photograph features a window in a lighthouse.

2007 - Canon EOS-300D, 1/125, f/8, ISO 200

2009 - Sigma DP1, 1/200, f/8, ISO 100

In the next two shots the window acts as a frame. The first of the two I took in the same lighthouse as the previous photograph.

2009 - Epson R-D1, 1/2000, ISO 200

2009 - Canon EOS-1D, 1/3200, ISO 250

In this next photograph I really liked the window frame. However, with its nasty reflections the window alone does not make for a very pleasant subject. The man sitting on the bench gives it both a context and scale.

2009 - Sigma DP1, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 400

The last image features an open window, which breaks the pattern or repetition of closed windows. Emphasis is given to the open window by using a tilted lens (essentially this just gives a very shallow depth of field in this example).

2009 - Canon EOS-1D, 1/8000, ISO 320

I used a Carl Zeiss Jena 80/2.8 lens on 1D, a Sigma DC 18-50/3.5-5.6 lens on 300D, and Leica Summicron-M 50/2 on R-D1 for these photographs. The 80/2.8 lens was used with a tilt adapter.