FunctionallyUnfunctional

A couple years ago there was a fire at the Karpeles Manuscript Library here in St. Louis. The building housing the Library/Museum is a historic church building and the contents were priceless. Fortunately most of the contents of the building were saved and the building is soon to be restored thanks to its steel frame.  Taken with the 28mm I wanted to get some images of it before they began the restoration process, slated to start soon. Naturally a broken building demanded being photographed with broken gear right? I had rescued a couple Minolta film camera lenses that were crying out my name. One, the 28mm has fungus in it which is, in old lens terms - totaled. The 58mm lens has oil in the aperture blades rendering the lens non-functional for normal operation.  For this project, I mounted the lenses to my Canon EOS R. Adapting old film camera lenses to DSLRs can get tricky but it due to the design of mirrorless bodies, the adaptation is much easier. And that adds to the fun an...

Lately in my Facebook beginners group I've really been pushing my viewpoint that photography is about light and not about cameras. Anyone that has been around me long or read my posts quickly learn that I am not all about shiny new gear. Granted, I own plenty of it, but frankly I get more enjoyment out of creating images with my old broken down "junk."  So recently I responded to someone asking about what lights to invest in. Now, without a doubt, like anything else, if you invest in heavy duty, solid equipment it will treat you well for decades. This is a fact.  But my response to the post was in another direction entirely because, well, I'm me. I told the author to invest in knowledge, to learn light, to study art, etc. Because with the right skill, a great photograph could be created with a flashlight.  Well, wouldn't ya know it, someone challenged me to prove it? So, I did. I put my money where my mouth is. I needed to update the blog anyway right? There is ab...

In the photographic community few products seem to elicit a more negative response than when the words "kit lens" are spoken.  What exactly is a kit lens? Well, simply put, its the lens that is commonly bundled with a camera body. If you purchase a pro-level camera body that is bundled with a lens, that lens is generally a pro-level lens. While those are technically kit lenses as they're sold with a body as a kit, they aren't the lenses that people generally refer to as "kit lenses." Kit lens normally is used to describe the inexpensive general purpose lenses - usually 18-55mm - bundled with consumer grade, entry level cameras. And oh boy do those lenses get a bad rap! Seriously, many in the photographic community have a hatred of these lenses that exceeds Donald Trump's loathing of the media. And the Donald truly detests the media for anyone that hasn't noticed. I'll leave the rest of that discussion for someone else's blog. A few...

One of my projects during the pandemic has been getting my both my studio and my workshop in order. We heat our home with wood and over the winter I needed to sharpen an ax. I realized my file collection was woeful limited and made it a point to pick up new files now and then. When I purchase tools that I'm not going to use immediately I usually leave them in the original packaging until I actually need them. Its just a quirk. Well, I needed a file and while opening the package decided I needed a file photograph in my product portfolio. I learned a couple important lessons while creating this image, which of course, is part of this project because I used mostly old, broke down gear to create it. The first lesson? When using old-school power pack style lighting equipment, make sure you have things plugged in and powered correctly. You see, the lighting equipment used today is fairly straightforward. When you want more or less power you simply turn the light up or down to cont...

Creating the headphone images for my last post has inspired me to spend a little bit more time in my studio. I'm enjoying the Jazz Fest tribute on WWOZ on those headphones as I write by the way. They sound as good as they look. Having a kid (hopefully) going to camp in a couple months, we purchased a really cool titanium camp spoon/fork combination. Before packing it for camp I thought it would make a good photograph. As I started setting the studio up, I realized that almost everything I was utilizing was either rescued or, minimally, gifted at some point. And, of course, that means it qualifies for this little blog I created. The spoon/fork combo is obviously new. The head of the tripod the camera is sitting upon is new but the tripod is certainly not. It, along with many of the light stands in my studio were rescued from the basement of a retired, and now deceased, photographer. From the camera, lenses and lights down to the work table and even props, virtually everythin...

Yesterday I received the new headphones I'd ordered. I don't really want to talk about why I needed new headphones but my old pair has ceased to exist. Since I work in a brick and mortar retail establishment I try to purchase locally whenever possible but due to our Covid 19 situation I had few options if I wanted a pair any time soon. When I got the box I thought to myself "I should play with some black on black lighting."  Photographing anything against its same color presents challenges. Black against black can be especially challenging because edges can simply disappear. So why not occupy some of my free time with such a challenge? My 7D was at the ready and after a bit of digging through my collection of "broken and junk" lenses I settled on an old Nikon 200mm film camera lens. I had to do a bit of modification to attach it but I made it work. I was pleased with the results of black box against a black background I achieved. Its nothing terribly...