https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts daily 0.75 2023-04-07 https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/3d-printing-a-5-x-4-camera monthly 0.5 2023-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/48112a04-d761-4805-80ec-c53ef4d3d566/IMG_1009.jpeg All Blog Posts - 3D Printing a 5” x 4” Camera - 3D Printing is not what you would describe as fast! Printing the Rear standard - about 7 hours in! I’m using red PLA to print the first parts because that’s what I bought with the printer. The red is not opaque enough to use without modification to eliminate light leaks so will need to be painted matt black on some of the internal surfaces. For the lens board and the rear rotating film and ground glass mounts I am using a black PETG filament which was claimed to be mechanically better than PLA. I would also like to try the copolymer that Dora Goodman uses but will have to save that for the next camera which will probably be a wide angle snapshot version. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e6e717f1-cfb5-467c-9786-0e1ccd510d2a/IMG_0990.jpeg All Blog Posts - 3D Printing a 5” x 4” Camera - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/mornington-peninsula-project-part1 monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/78c9d0cb-7176-4936-9e97-76548c0ee990/PeninsulaArchitecture_0021.jpg All Blog Posts - Mornington Peninsula Project Part1 - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/3b9afdbc-66d6-426a-a7b7-1a1ff6fcb8a7/PeninsulaArchitecture_0004.jpg All Blog Posts - Mornington Peninsula Project Part1 - Make it stand out Watts’ Cottage Sorrento Erected 1869/70 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1658389091068-8IN3OZ4T72XLNIUTQ8A2/PeninsulaArchitecture_0003.jpg All Blog Posts - Mornington Peninsula Project Part1 - Make it stand out Small motel on Point Nepean Road. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/daaca5ef-6a15-4968-af06-15ce533685a9/PeninsulaArchitecture_0019.jpg All Blog Posts - Mornington Peninsula Project Part1 - Make it stand out Rye Hotel annex separated from the main building. https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/and-then-there-was-ondu monthly 0.5 2022-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1658032757516-OKBCYFGI5J25QYMPBT11/OnduProduct_0007.jpg All Blog Posts - And then there was ONDU - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/8b497c40-1e00-45d9-ae8e-456a8f80f5e9/ONDU_Pinhole-2.jpg All Blog Posts - And then there was ONDU - Make it stand out Glasshouse 10 sec exposure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1657970545410-5HVW3RNYUPMPBAG0ALCW/ONDU_Pinhole-1.jpg All Blog Posts - And then there was ONDU - Make it stand out Garden shot into the light 3 min exposure https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/16th-beach-at-rye monthly 0.5 2022-08-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e9536135-0689-42f8-a959-475016a04e25/16BeachRye-2.jpg All Blog Posts - 16th Beach at Rye - Make it stand out Canon 5D Mk2 ISO 100 1/200 sec @f11 50mm focal length no ND filter https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/c37d6798-713d-420f-b6ac-651ad66846d8/16BeachRye-1.jpg All Blog Posts - 16th Beach at Rye - Make it stand out Canon 5D Mk2 ISO 100 1/100 sec @f6.3. 84mm focal length no ND filter https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1657924415980-CW4M08CZLU74UXS93UH8/rye+copy.jpg All Blog Posts - 16th Beach at Rye - Make it stand out Canon 5D Mk2 ISO 100 5sec @f10 82mm focal length with 3 stop ND filter https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/return-of-the-blad monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1657416490597-2AOUY62JF1M4AG0MA8HZ/Hasselblad_H3D_camera-1.jpg All Blog Posts - Return Of The Blad! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/first-post-m7h94 monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1655360610817-U3VGWQG84XKZ7PE0OPS4/WintonMSCA-1.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Pentax Spotmatic + Ilford HP5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1638226549182-WKGXZKEFNE0Q4GGK50AW/WintonMSCA-2.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Pentax Spotmatic + Ilford HP5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1638226554646-7EGYO8UVK2BX9YWLI89Y/WintonMSCA-3.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Pentax Spotmatic + Ilford HP5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1636504902599-0MKC6R0KAMBH5MXBSO61/filmRuined.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Make it stand out Hasselblad and film back https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1637216156767-2V08CDH1ULXMQMCQN6F2/WintonMSCA-1.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Canon EOS M100 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1637216009745-97DA5VWKCXQQIGRX4UQC/WintonMSCA-2.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Canon EOS M100 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1637216043636-8VMQP15HS4EO9MFY9VUS/WintonMSCA-3.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Canon EOS M100 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1637216053915-PTN8RM4JHEJLB3IV3Q4Q/WintonMSCA-4.jpg All Blog Posts - I loaded the film backwards! - Canon EOS M100 https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/exploring-nkbwb monthly 0.5 2022-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/b9e092e7-7006-4088-93c7-35e0159d3c62/IMG_0738.jpeg All Blog Posts - Auxiliary Shutter Error https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/category/Film monthly 0.5 https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/category/Digital monthly 0.5 https://www.myphotography.life/all-blog-posts/category/Pinhole monthly 0.5 https://www.myphotography.life/home daily 1.0 2023-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/48112a04-d761-4805-80ec-c53ef4d3d566/IMG_1009.jpeg Home - 3d Printing a 4x5 View Camera https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1657416490597-2AOUY62JF1M4AG0MA8HZ/Hasselblad_H3D_camera-1.jpg Home - Equipment https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/8df707fc-dd03-4d02-b8fb-ca6692fc488c/Blad_05_2.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/dfbde306-92ae-4000-9976-59b8c0af511a/rye+copy.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/41212efe-dfbc-4d62-8a38-03db873a92fa/ONDU_Pinhole-1-2.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/91a83829-61da-4fbe-8011-66fdad061a7c/_MG_7751-Edit.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/00fbf6cb-8772-4489-bfd7-58acab76277d/PeninsulaArchitecture_0003.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/5163aca6-ecfc-4ffa-b1e4-efc193e9b2c0/HasselbladH3DHero.jpg Home https://www.myphotography.life/about daily 0.75 2022-07-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1630903696862-FGQC60ULGL1RM5FEL52G/koalaCorrectedText.jpg About Hi, and welcome to My Photography Life. My name is Peter Harrison and I am re-igniting my passion for photography. Wow, what an interesting time to pull out the camera gear and get back into photography. In addition to a long corporate career in scientific instruments and data system sales I also owned and ran a modestly successful commercial photography business for about 10 years up until 2015. Now retired, I have the time to pace myself and enjoy the experience of photography without the pressure of doing it as a business. Why is this timing so different from the early 2000’s when I started a studio business shooting with a mix of film and early digital SLRs? Well the simple answer lies in the quality and diversity of available camera devices and a massive explosion of image and video sharing in social media. I have worked with film, digital and mobile devices in my photography business and ultimately realised that I also needed to adapt and add skills in video production in order to stay relevant as that technology started to encroach on traditional areas of photography and imaging. To that end we will be looking at adventures in video as well as still imaging since it is an important direction for photography in the future. Photography has always been a place for lively discussions and varied opinions about what is right and real and worth doing. Discussions about film vs digital still carry on and now we can add computational imaging and mobile technology to continue to feed endless debates. Well, I enjoy all of them and they all have their own place in the modern world of photography. Over time we will play with as many of them as we can. This site is for you if you love the idea of image creation, increasing your skills and having some fun. Much of this is new to me now as well so there is lots to learn and experience. In addition to this site I also have an instagram feed for postings from exercises and activities and I will split some of the blog information between this site and our Youtube channel since it is easier to understand some ideas via video than just with words in text. Social media links are at the top and in the footer of each page. Have fun, now let’s go and shoot some stuff! https://www.myphotography.life/overview daily 0.75 2023-07-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/4cb5d3de-547c-4c14-a5ee-74d2384d04a6/_MG_7759.jpg Overview - What toys do we have to play with? Tobias Keene, D.D.S. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Tobias Keene brings a bit of unabashed Southern hospitality to all his patients. He moved to Washington, D.C. over thirty years ago as a freshman at Ivy College. Right after graduation, he attended World University’s School of Dentistry. Before opening Keene Dental in 1994, he worked for free clinics and some of the finest practices in the District. He is part of the 123 Dental Association and stays up-to-date on the latest dental discoveries. When not striving to keep his patients happy and healthy, he’s enjoys hiking with his family in Rock Creek Park. https://www.myphotography.life/pentax-spotmatic daily 0.75 2022-07-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/b0824097-feb7-480c-a815-fac8e63fe9c1/_MG_7753.jpg Pentax Spotmatic - Pentax Spotmatic 1962 History This particular camera belonged to my late uncle Bill. He encouraged me to follow my interest in photography as a young boy and even lent this camera to me when I was about 14 years old which was just mind blowing for me at the time. The camera was left to me when he died along with a Pentax S3, his assorted Takumar lenses and a Gossen Lunar Pro light meter. The Spotmatic is still in great working order after all these years and is a good, practical example to look for if you want a light weight, easy to use and well featured analog camera with great optics. The accompanying video will take you through the Spotmatic’s features, operation of controls and lenses and we will also look at a couple of accessories that might be of interest as well. For a quick overview of the camera without the video, please read on below. The gallery contains some images shot with this camera in the past and we will add to this as I build up the blog contents over time to show how usable this camera is even today. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/5b3efc07-2375-4713-b9e9-9d4021e407ce/_MG_7756.jpg Pentax Spotmatic - Spotmatic Top Controls The top view shows controls from left to right as follows. The film rewind knob This is a dual function control. The circular black knob is pulled up to open the camera back to access the film for loading and unloading. The silver lever in the centre flips up and requires the operator to push in a button on the bottom plate of the camera to enable manual rewind of a film. Surrounding the rewind lever is a rotating dial that acts as a visual reminder to indicate if the camera is empty or contains Black and White or Colour film (daylight or tungsten balanced). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/0c748cb1-5561-43fe-8612-e948fee98bb1/_MG_7745.jpg Pentax Spotmatic - Spotmatic Front Controls Self Timer This lever rotates anticlockwise 180 to reveal a small button underneath the top of the lever. The correct operation is to compose the photo and set the exposure with the camera ready to fire. The user then winds the self timer and presses the small button. The lever rotates back to its home position and fires the shutter. Light Meter Switch This is pushed up to activate the internal light meter. When you switch this on it automatically closes the lens aperture so it is useful to focus first or else the viewfinder may be too dark to see clearly. The light meter needle is visible in the viewfinder. Flash Sync sockets The top socket is for Focal Plane (FP) sync which was commonly used with flash bulbs. The bottom one is the more commonly used one for X sync at 1/60th Sec and is used with electronic flash. The camera does not have a hot shoe on the top of the pentaprism. A generic accessory shoe is available but any flash used needs to have a connecting cable to suit the “pc” type connectors in the camera front. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/7868f82b-018f-4498-aee1-3244c8d01078/_MG_7758.jpg Pentax Spotmatic - Pentax Lenses The Pentax Spotmatic has a thread mount lens system. The lenses we have to shoot with are Super Takumar auto diaphragm lenses - 50mm f1.4 and 135mm f3.5. There are also a couple of older auto-Takumar lenses - 35mm f3.5 and 135mm f3.5. The auto-Takumar lenses feature an aperture control at the back of the lens. After taking a photo the lever must be operated to re-open the lens diaphragm. All lenses feature a focus distance scale in feet and metres and a depth of field or focus scale of selected aperture settings. The apertures can be set to either automatic or manual on the Super Takumars. https://www.myphotography.life/pentax-spotmatic-1 daily 0.75 2022-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/82953971-457e-4158-af64-298abce40ca3/OperaHouseKodachrome.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Sydney Opera House Kodachrome Jan 1980 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/3296ca51-215d-41e2-82f7-1d19cd21d0aa/BoatHarbourKodachrome.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Rose Bay -Sydney Kodachrome July 1981 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/7b34e9cb-9e99-498c-9402-427d59bd653d/Egg_SpoonKodachrome.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Family Picnic Kodachrome April 1978 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/5da9fc09-13a7-4e97-9440-d0d2b87727eb/LandscapeKodachrome.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Wison's Promontory Kodachrome Feb 1975 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/a5d05970-9399-4e4b-81e9-980bfd537cd7/BeachKodachrome.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Squeaky Beach Kodachrome February 1975 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/5b833ebb-8596-4ae0-b315-2ab4b6ace2ca/surfingKodakEB3.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Portsea Back Beach Kodak Elite Chrome 100 (EB3) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/31a34afa-b435-4fc3-aaba-611d8f2d455f/PentaxHP5_4.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Heronswood Dromana Ilford HP5+ Nov 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/2a1ac2be-eafa-4e4b-972a-bff8d59c0aea/PentaxHP5_8.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Heronswood Dromana Ilford HP5+ Nov 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/d9e8ddbe-f622-4f1e-b50a-c2c1fb89f7fa/PentaxHP5_12.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Heronswood Dromana Ilford HP5+ Nov 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/90464346-7d43-456c-9947-3fe105616a10/PentaxHP5_20.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Heronswood Dromana Ilford HP5+ Nov 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e090f54a-37c5-4e65-9399-af055755c173/PentaxHP5_23.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Heronswood Dromana Ilford HP5+ Nov 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/263223d6-7f86-46e9-87b7-c5ad6e822f68/WintonMSCA-1.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Winton Raceway Ilford HP5 Oct 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/a1942991-18ca-42bf-b167-b4aedace97a7/WintonMSCA-2.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Winton Raceway Ilford HP5 Oct 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/4b179cd8-dc31-45cb-958f-ec14aa4f8a93/WintonMSCA-3.jpg Pentax Spotmatic Winton Raceway Ilford HP5 Oct 2021 https://www.myphotography.life/canon-g9 daily 0.75 2022-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/f9e9afaa-3f2f-490e-8ad7-486ecf89a0d5/housing.jpg Canon G9 - Canon G9 Accessories The G9 has a bottom 1/4” tripod mount and a ttl hot shoe that supports its use with Canon speed lights or even radio triggers for off camera strobes. The underwater housing WP-DC21 is pictured at left and above. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/814e0aac-9502-4e97-972b-fd4799cd6f72/_MG_7767.jpg Canon G9 - Canon G9 Underwater Apologies to the non-divers with this section since this might all sound like blah, blah, blah, water… For anyone interested in underwater cameras please read on. As mentioned above coloured sensor noise is quite evident at low light with the sensor above ISO 100. At the time I purchased this camera I had hoped to use my existing Ikelite 100A analogue strobe light since the G9 only has a small on camera flash. The housing does have a clip on diffuser but the flash can be too direct for clear images in water that is almost always full of suspended matter where I dive. The WP-DC21 housing does no have enough space to allow the use of a hot shoe TTL or optical trigger adapter so up until now lighting has been a problem. You can see this in my early gallery images. Where the flash has fired the lighting is flat and it takes some work in post to create a bit of contrast and get some life in the pictures. Moving forward 10 or 11 years, technology has come to the rescue with a possible Ikelite optical slave solution and also an extremely bright, multi-segment, LED style underwater light. Since I plan to shoot video underwater with my Go Pro camera the LED light will serve for both cameras at this stage until we see what sort of image quality is possible. There are some older images in the Gallery and I will add new ones as I get back into using this rig again in the coming warmer weather. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/cf131c22-f411-48b6-93df-6f8bda491a76/_MG_7760.jpg Canon G9 - Canon Powershot G9 History I purchased this camera around 2009 along with the Canon WP-DC21 underwater housing. The intention was to replace the very difficult to use Pentax Spotmatic in an Ikelite housing with a more modern digital alternative that could also produce video clips. It was also to replace an early 2MP digital camera that I flooded and destroyed very quickly in only 3 metres of water under a local pier. It’s amazing how badly the batteries react with salt water!! There is a comprehensive review of the G9 at this link for all the technical specs and comparative information. https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong9 For now I thought I would revisit this camera and talk about its usage in general as well as for underwater use. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/218e8dfe-0d68-40b4-b00c-af74971fcbc1/_MG_7761.jpg Canon G9 - Canon G9 General use As I mentioned in the previous section the controls are comprehensive but not all that intuitive to use at times. For underwater use this gets more difficult due to the fact that is it difficult to read the button labels when the camera is inside the housing. Thankfully with regular use it becomes a bit more natural in its operation. The rear screen is a good size and combined with the optical view finder make it easy to use even in bright sunlight. The G9 is a compact 12 MP digital camera with a fixed but retractable 7.4 to 44.4mm - f2.8/4.8 lens. Minimum aperture is f8 in both wide angle and telephoto ranges. It does feature a built in Neutral Density filter which can be useful given the limited aperture range available. ISO is settable from 80 to 1600 and video quality is a maximum at 1024 x 768 - 15fps. This is one of those cameras that thrive in strong lighting but produce fairly pronounced noise at modest ISO settings above ISO 100. It’s a handy size and not too heavy so fits the bill for travel and probably best for snap shot type images these days but honestly my iPhone 12 Pro would be better all round for that type of use. I am looking forward to using it again underwater with some better lighting options and plan to rely on my Go Pro camera now for underwater video. Keep an eye out for these adventures in future blog entries. https://www.myphotography.life/canon-g9-1 daily 0.75 2022-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/56a78c49-cfbe-487d-b9ad-8a3b74554399/CanonG9-1.jpg Canon G9 "Old Wife" Mornington Pier 2009 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1306c69c-00f5-438d-a007-65812596787a/CanonG9-3.jpg Canon G9 Deck Chair under Rye Pier 2009 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e949a40c-63c8-43a1-95cc-14e7b2d89052/CanonG9-2.jpg Canon G9 Bull Ray Mornington Pier 2009 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e0f1f525-80db-4561-b9b5-773a0322c3fc/CanonG9-5.jpg Canon G9 Pot Bellied Sea Horses Mornington Pier 2009 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/4916f8cc-89ec-4b70-ae83-46cfd66d9161/IMG_0619.jpg Canon G9 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/be376853-7872-41da-92b7-53a0138aa7fb/IMG_0622.jpg Canon G9 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/7e4f6a31-ddba-4f34-a1e7-40708bef56fd/IMG_0624.jpg Canon G9 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e31edbee-f27e-4ac5-a5f9-68f60173cc45/IMG_0627.jpg Canon G9 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/ae8d1629-bdf2-4b5b-8ec7-8ec98c8b6bd2/IMG_0635.jpg Canon G9 https://www.myphotography.life/canon-eos-5d-mkii daily 0.75 2022-07-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/602dfacd-c644-4f7f-a675-0cc1aefd23dc/Canon5DProduct_0002.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII - Canon EOS 5D MkII History I started my commercial career with a second hand Hasselblad 500 C/M and a new Canon EOS 33 film camera in my kit. This was replaced by my first Canon digital SLR which was a Canon EOS 20D. In hindsight, for a first or second generation digital SLR the 20D was surprisingly good. The combination of the smaller EFS sensor size and noise at moderate to high ISO values in the 20D and a subsequent EOS 40D led me on a natural upgrade path which was the 5D MkII. Whilst the 5D Mk II is no comparison to current cameras for sensor noise and speed, for most uses and in the studio it has been absolutely reliable and done a huge volume of work over the years. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/20ff4fe4-a9cb-4eb7-a894-9a429f3644ad/Canon5DProduct_0006.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII - Canon EOS Accessories Rounding out the equipment breakdown, the other additions to the kit are the usual cable release, circular polarising and ND filters and two 580EX Speedlights. My backup camera for the 5D MkII was the Canon 40D that had preceded it so given at one stage I was shooting a lot of indoor sport and real estate it was essential to have a redundant flash available. They were also handy in that you can set them up in a master/slave configuration allowing one of them to be positioned off camera to balance lighting which is very useful in real estate shoots. So the 5D Mk II is still going strong today and we can talk more about it in operation in the future. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/b1464898-5b5b-4c20-a35c-c8008a12883e/Canon5DProduct_0003.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII - Choosing a Canon Digital SLR I started my professional journey when I studied for a part time certificate in commercial photography at the International College of Professional Photography, ICPP in South Melbourne in 2003/2004. I remember the entrance interview where we discussed what cameras I had and looked at the likely limitations of sticking with a Pentax consumer film SLR. As ICPP rightly pointed out, I was going to find the lens choices and performance pretty limiting and so I chose to upgrade fairly quickly with the only realistic choices in 2003 being Nikon or Canon. I had half an eye on where these two were up to with digital SLRs and the final thing that swayed my decision was previous experience with Nikon menus and ergonomics. Not saying they were bad, but the Canon operation and logic flow just clicked better with my brain and there was no downside to their lenses, accessories or support in Australia. So Canon it was with an EOS 33 film camera and the start of a lens kit that has evolved since. The reason why I mention the menus and logic flow is that as a working Pro you need to be able to operate the camera quickly, almost intuitively, for anything other than maybe still life images taken in a studio. I could and still can drive the 5D just about in my sleep and the other critical issue has been its unfailing reliability for many years of continuous use. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/34708480-5e83-44b2-9982-b3315abd7281/Canon5DProduct_0004.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII - Canon EOS Lenses The choice of Canon for me was always going to be a lifetime commitment. As a working professional there was not much opportunity or reason to switch brands easily once you buy into a significant amount of kit including decent lenses. The first lenses I started with were the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 and an EF 200mm f4 since at the time I could not afford the very nice EF 200 mm IS f2.8. Later I added the EF 24-105mm f4 and the 17-24mm f4 zooms, an EF 14mm f2.8 and the EF 100-400mm IS f4.5-5.6 telephoto zoom. These lenses cover just about anything you could want to shoot except extreme subjects where an f2.8 or faster lens would be better. Anything that I couldn’t cover with these lenses could be managed by hiring a lens if required. I have only had one lens failure in 10 years and that was with my workhorse 24-105mm zoom which had an issue with the aperture diaphragm that had to be fixed by Canon in Melbourne. Given the high usage rate of this lens it was not a surprise. As with the Hasselblad H3D Mk 11 it was great to have such good local support available and Canon were fast, not expensive and very helpful at the time. https://www.myphotography.life/canon-eos-5d-mkii-gallery daily 0.75 2022-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/555d51ac-e4d7-447e-902d-f1624326599a/Engagement_-25.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/6550ecc1-3f86-401f-99f6-e62dc2dd78a6/Engagement_-29.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/d75197da-f36f-4341-ad17-7036e13c58bf/mowog_block.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/2d1dde4f-f21f-4d3f-994d-52160c0b11b9/buddies.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/fc45f692-d52e-4020-89b0-a35d0f605662/studio.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e26fdd8f-cb54-46db-9ea9-a8199f1a8923/TrofeoEstate-7.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/54f6dc50-c54f-462d-8701-42ca23850727/SeaWinds-6.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/2f242d18-e11d-496d-9e36-526a66c0bfb5/penjam_update-2.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/89df9bdc-9cc0-4ab0-aae3-b4987132a184/_MG_1237.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/e2f09534-29bd-410a-9e6e-e0ac68ec7962/_MG_1284.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/85df2767-0a49-4a88-9190-4c1911a03388/_MG_0878.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/4a37cfed-a07b-466b-a836-0b99e50e76c7/_MG_0885.jpg Canon EOS 5D MkII https://www.myphotography.life/pinhole daily 0.75 2022-09-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1657970545410-5HVW3RNYUPMPBAG0ALCW/ONDU_Pinhole-1.jpg Pinhole ONDU 6x12 Fujicolor Pro 400H 3 minute exposure https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/7b33af4e-25e1-4554-8370-73528fea87d3/ONDU_GardenSeat-1.jpg Pinhole https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/2e72dcde-b98e-43f5-93ec-d78cc41189b5/ONDU+Banner-1.jpg Pinhole https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/8b497c40-1e00-45d9-ae8e-456a8f80f5e9/ONDU_Pinhole-2.jpg Pinhole ONDU 6x12 Fujicolor Pro 400H 10 sec exposure https://www.myphotography.life/mornington-peninsula-project daily 0.75 2022-07-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1658389091068-8IN3OZ4T72XLNIUTQ8A2/PeninsulaArchitecture_0003.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/daaca5ef-6a15-4968-af06-15ce533685a9/PeninsulaArchitecture_0019.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/78c9d0cb-7176-4936-9e97-76548c0ee990/PeninsulaArchitecture_0021.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/3b9afdbc-66d6-426a-a7b7-1a1ff6fcb8a7/PeninsulaArchitecture_0004.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/4c454f80-1302-415e-875e-c38ead7d8d05/PeninsulaArchitecture_0023.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/6b0e0c5e-8b45-492e-8639-4c93137be2ce/PeninsulaArchitecture_0024.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/bb616c2f-b6f5-402d-87df-4ea682c35bf4/PeninsulaArchitecture_0026.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/ca82f10e-6baf-44cc-a69e-fa0faf520a9f/PeninsulaArchitecture_0029.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/37d11fa3-89f5-49e7-8482-ed5dcf1c5883/PeninsulaArchitecture_0031.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/9384fa83-37d2-4590-b8f7-3d55ddf053d7/PeninsulaArchitecture_0034.jpg Mornington Peninsula Project https://www.myphotography.life/hasselblad-h3d-39-ii daily 0.75 2024-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/f9078c0e-c3b8-4007-92c3-abdc45352e6b/Hasselblad_H3D_camera-1.jpg Hasselblad H3D 39 II - Hasselblad H3D 39 II History I have always loved Hasselblad cameras! I can’t really explain why. Perhaps it came from watching the moon landing on TV at school as a child. Seeing modified Blad’s in space in the 60’s and the awesome images that came back with them. Anyway, I was using my second hand Hasselblad 500 C/M 6x6 film camera occasionally to shoot higher resolution transparencies in my studio. The other main camera was either my Canon 20D or the later 40D. Both had crop sensors and since I was shooting cars in the large cyclorama with a moderately wide lens I found I was getting a lot of lens aberration issues. Purple, red and blue fringing towards the edge of the frames around contrasty surfaces like black tyres against the white background. Tedious stuff to remove manually in post and hard to hide in large poster size prints. At the time there were no lens corrections built into apps like Lightroom and I was wanting to do more high end architecture, product and automotive work so I started to consider alternatives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/18f47b05-e0cc-4dcc-acb4-891d5356b06b/BladWebImage-2.jpg Hasselblad H3D 39 II - Shooting with the Hasselblad The Hasselblad is an SLR style camera but it is not fast (read that as it is very slow). Auto focus is not one of its strong points either compared to my Canon 5D for instance. Now I bought the Blad to do mostly highly detailed studio work and architectural, tripod mounted shots, not F1 and sports action. The Canon 5D Mk II is the go to camera in my kit for that kind of immediate action work. Now I am retired I am starting to do more table top studio type work and hopefully macro shots. I shoot with the H3D camera tethered to my older 17” MacBook Pro which I keep for just that purpose since it is the only computer I have with an old style firewire connection available. The H3D rear display takes some time to build the review image and its resolution is not really high enough to make critical assessments of focus on the run. Tethered to the MacBook I can control all the camera settings, trigger the shutter and drill into the images for detailed evaluation of focus, composition, lighting etc. So its more like shooting a large format film camera than run and gun with something more modern. I am using the H3D for more outside work these days and it is fun. It is reminding me to visualise my compositions more carefully and look at the lighting variations in a scene before I blaze away. Can you easily walk around and take snapshots or do street style captures with it? Of course you can. It just won’t be as fast to use as a more modern medium format camera or a smaller, lighter 35mm style SLR or rangefinder unit. If you ever get the chance you should try one - “it is so choice!” (Apologies to Ferris Bueller) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/757c7902-0669-4de9-93f6-5e744a9c6af8/BladWebImage-1.jpg Hasselblad H3D 39 II - Choosing a Hasselblad Who buys a Hasselblad medium format camera??? Well in my case it was a straight forward business decision. In 2012 when I bought my Hasselblad kit there were only a few choices for a medium format digital camera. They were all expensive and most were putting a sensor onto an existing medium format film camera body or view camera with lens technology that was designed for film. I could not afford the newer 50 megapixel version so the 39 megapixel sensor was my best pick. Now like any camera purchase for a working professional you need to also commit to lenses and accessories consistent with your intended usage which is why its a huge decision! I have all prime lenses - 35mm, 50mm, 120mm Macro and the 80mm standard lens as well as the tilt and shift adapter. Being a small business and still building I had to take out a finance lease to pay it off over 5 years. I’ll never regret the decision. In business you have to always push yourself to get work, build experience and ability and get the gear you need to produce the best imaging outcomes possible for your customers. The world wasn’t producing images for instagram and solely computer screen viewing in 2012. My work was aimed at large format print outcomes demanding very high resolution. The image quality and colour rendition of this camera is just stunning. Sure other camera technologies may have caught up to it but it’s 12 years old as I write this and I can still enjoy it with my new projects today. https://www.myphotography.life/film-only-articles daily 0.75 2022-07-28 https://www.myphotography.life/digital-only-articles daily 0.75 2022-07-28 https://www.myphotography.life/pinhole-only-articles daily 0.75 2022-07-28 https://www.myphotography.life/hasselblad-h3d-ii-39 daily 0.75 2022-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/cd7413dc-7aba-490a-821e-e0cded363384/FogAugust2022_0011.jpg Hasselblad H3D II 39 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1661932718754-CXT7M5XVICZLZ2PTCSK0/FogAugust2022_0005%2Bcopy.jpg Hasselblad H3D II 39 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/fd9a1762-9037-49fc-ad9f-3ad2cd764b74/BlossomAugust2022SharpenedCropped.jpg Hasselblad H3D II 39 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/8deddf18-a5a0-4639-8d46-50f39b564ff1/FogAugust2022_0015+copy.jpg Hasselblad H3D II 39 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/12de63ae-09d2-44e3-a501-5bf86fed3236/MorningtonRailway.jpg Hasselblad H3D II 39 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/05e494c0-7cfc-4097-9eb2-ca7bfc3adbd6/jedi_crop.jpg Hasselblad H3D II 39 https://www.myphotography.life/ondu-pinhole-camera daily 0.75 2022-09-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/53168b6d-e446-4b66-b8d3-15a67214c88a/pinhole+theory.jpg ONDU Pinhole Camera - ONDU Multiformat 6 x 12 Everything old is great fun again! Shoots medium format film complete with red light leaks, almost sharp, strongly vignetted, ultra wide 6 x 12 format and I just feel a little bit weird but in a good way. To be fair I think the light leak happened outside the camera. It appeared to me that the roll of film was kind of lumpy looking and not wound tightly enough when I opened the back of the camera. Since it was my first roll of film in the ONDU I have noted this as an “opportunity for improvement” in my next adventure. Pinhole is one of those things that you will either love or just won’t get it. It’s a bit like playing vinyl records versus digital audio streaming. If technical perfection is a key requirement from your camera gear then take a look at the Hasselblad H3D sections in this website. If like me, you are intrigued by the unique image quality and want to put some effort into creating a sense of intrigue and strangeness into your images then this is worth a try! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/7b33af4e-25e1-4554-8370-73528fea87d3/ONDU_GardenSeat-1.jpg ONDU Pinhole Camera - Shooting with a pinhole My ONDU sat on the shelf for about 3 months before I found enough time to load it up with film and get out for some shots. That’s when I didn’t stop to think and loaded up some Fujicolor Pro 400H colour negative film. With only bright daylight subjects to shoot I realised very quickly that this was not the best choice, especially since I didn’t have a suitable ND filter to get a long enough exposure time to be practical. To get around this I had to wait for late afternoon and decided to pick some areas in our yard once it was not quite as bright and managed exposures from 10 secs to 3 minutes. I metered using my incident meter and a couple of spot readings for good measure to check. The ONDU conversion guide was used without any other calculations and it proved to be quite accurate. My conclusion was that I would shoot mostly Ilford FP4 plus B&W in the future but the colour images have such a “different” personality about them that I will no doubt shoot some more in the future. I have also acquired a variable ND filter and just need an adapter for it to fit on the ONDU so ISO 400 film will be practical in the future. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/1658032757516-OKBCYFGI5J25QYMPBT11/OnduProduct_0007.jpg ONDU Pinhole Camera - Pinhole! Are you crazy? I had been looking for trends and inspiration in my social media feeds, mainly Facebook group postings and following people into Instagram or checking out their websites. Anyway a number of pinhole posts started to pop up and eventually a couple of really nice, sharper images appeared and I started to get interested. This led me to ONDU as a fairly recent entrant into the manufacturing area for pinhole cameras. They were well priced and the reviews were good. A number of regular shooters were contributing on social media so I could see that they were consistently getting good results with these interesting little wooden boxes and so I took a closer look and ultimately decided to buy the multi-format 6x12 version. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6122fb88f7b71d68dc83ba32/f7bf1e21-798e-49ea-88e4-d883d0a4ea6a/OnduProduct_0006.jpg ONDU Pinhole Camera - Multiformat 6 x 6, 6 x 9, 6 x 12 The ONDU takes medium format 120 roll film. Internally it can be configured to change the film format using wooden inserts that slide in to produce 6 x 6, 6 x 9 or 6 x 12 cm negatives or slides if you’re shooting transparency. The shutter control is a sliding panel and the pinhole has a fixed aperture of f160. The camera body is hand made from wood and is a work of art by itself! The back and film winding knobs are held in place by strong magnets which do the job well and feel solid. The shutter slide moves smoothly and easily so short exposures at around 1 sec are easy enough without worrying about camera movement on the tripod. https://www.myphotography.life/store daily 0.75 2025-03-07