Genuine feeling

While often I am drawn to the conventional "pretty features" of people, beauty can also mean something different to me: often not just their physical appearances but their sincerity and genuine disposition
I found that in a very small village on the Coral Coast in Fiji; somehow the look on their faces seems to radiate the altruism that they carry within.



refitted F.Zuiko 32mm f1.7  (from Pen EED)  1/25sec

They share their passion for helping others, would that be trough singing and praying, on a mission that doesn't discriminate religion; all are welcome.
I was invited to their humble premises where I was welcomed to sit on the floor to listen to their beautiful voices accompanied by a guitar.




I didn't notice any shyness and no reservation in me taking a few photographs there. Nobody asked me: "What are going to do with those photographs?"
A very refreshing interaction, so different than the self-image obsession of the Western world.


refitted F.Zuiko 32mm f1.7  (from Pen EED)  1/2500sec

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me, hipster?

It was his expression while looking intently at me that made me think: is he the original hipster that started the trend?


adapted Kodak Cine 102mm f2.7


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French girls

There was a hearty feeling in the air at the French festival; a mild winter day with crisp skies seemed to make people happy.
I noticed that many girls there had a bit of a different look; less pompous, sultry or dismissive. I liked the atmosphere of the place.


Kodak Cine Ektanon 102mm f2.7  1/800sec



Kodak Cine Ektanon 102mm f2.7   1/1600sec




Cosmicar 50mm f1.4  1/4000sec

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Around the stables

My girlfriend is mad about horses, for me is something new. There was a local event that I went to visit on invite from my friends and wondered around the stables not knowing what to look for, photographically.


Nikkor-P 105mm f2.5 RF  1/1600sec

I had to be cautions enough to know when a horse was not happy having my big lens pointed too close to his body.


refitted Sony Precision Projection 60mm f1.5  1/200sec (adapted here)

 I loved the people around the horses: genuine and unpretentious, friendly and approachable. A warm rural atmosphere pervaded the event.


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4   1/500sec 

I was also there walking around with the most ridiculous refitted lens that I have tried to date. It was awkward to handle as it was never intended to be fitted onto a camera but the results I achieved were worthy of the trouble.


refitted Sony Precision Projection 60mm f1.5 (?)  1/1250sec


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Swirly bokeh for portrait

Isolating my subjects from a distracting background has been a quest of mine for some time.
In the past I have mainly used longer lenses or wider apertures to create a bokeh that serves as backdrop, while still trying to give context of the location.
Lately I have been exploring the virtues and faults of lenses that were never intended for my camera, let alone a digital sensor and even less size of format (originally film).
I have been playing with lenses that were designed for 16mm film (much smaller than the sensor in my cameras).


Bell&Howell 16mm film projection lens 2" f1.6 (fixed aperture) 1/250sec

As the image circle does not fully cover my larger medium the edges of the lens render with great distortion. Most photographers would never accept that, myself included, just a few years ago.
Sharpness was absolute priority, anything else had to come second.
Times have changed: I have grown my artistic sense and I am distancing further away from razor sharp modern glass that unfortunately often lacks of character. My auto-focus lenses are gathering dust...
I have shifted from my professional days of capturing a "true" representation of reality where everything must be sharp to something that, through de-focusing fields and adding possibly motion blur, leads to different results. I want my images to create an emotion rather then a recording of a place/event.
Some lenses create a peculiar background blur when the focused subject and background are at the right distance from each other and the lens is often used wide open.
I call it swirly bokeh.


Bell&Howell 16mm film projection lens 2" f1.6 (fixed aperture) 1/1000sec

As I view now photography more art than science I gravitate towards images of a different nature; extreme sharpness has taken a back stage spot.


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Sunday afternoon feeling

A cold beer on the deck watching the sunset is what I associate with the "Sunday afternoon feeling"


Pentax-110 50mm f2.8  1/500sec

As a photographer nut, I repurposed a vintage lens case to serve as beer cooler :-)

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Swirly bubbly world

I am slowly discovering an new way to create dreamy images: from bubbly bokeh to swirly backgrounds.
Majority of vintage lenses, simple in optical design, are often technically riddled with faults, something that modern auto-focus lenses have overcome.
But it's those faults that I really seek to create photographs that offer a certain unusual visual appeal.













And the lens that creates this magic? a diminutive cine lens from 1955 : Kodak Ektar 25mm f1.9

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Man up

A group of men chatting after exercise, outside. No alcohol :-)


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4  @ f2.8  1/2500sec

I am usually too shy to ask strangers for a photo but reading the back of the guy's T-shirt made me do it :-)
I wanted a particular expression from the men chatting and after a minute or so they stopped feeling my presence. I took a few images with a vintage manual focus 50mm lens that provided the visual separation from the background.

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Piercing blue eyes

A unique puppy caught my attention; I could not help but stare at his eyes.


M.Zuiko 40-150mm R   f7.1   1/400sec

Husky/poodle mix.

Vintage portrait lenses

Only recently I have started to explore portraits.
I am not that great with photographing people close-up as I feel that I am bossing them around when I ask to pose a certain way to get the image I want.
Petra however is happy to accommodate my request while I futz with old vintage manual focus lenses: she understands and enjoys manual lenses herself :-)


Jupiter-9 85mm f2 @f4 1/250sec
I could use an auto-focus lens but I am not too fond of the clinical look I get from them: too sharp and the bokeh is often not as "creamy" as old, simpler optical-design lenses.
It's the quirks and faults of the Russian lenses that I seek in some of my images.
The challenge however is to make them work in demanding light conditions as they tend to flare badly in back-lighting.


Jupiter-8 50mm f2  @f4  1/250sec
I often miss the focus since I like to use them rather wide open and the depth of field on longer lenses is very shallow.
There is no way I can get satisfactory images of fast moving subject but for slower type of photography, I enjoy the feel and look that I get from lenses sometimes older than myself :-)

I wanted to see how 4 different lenses perform in similar lighting, time of the day and conditions.
My favorite look comes from the extremely popular Russian lens (copy of the German CZJ Biotar) : the Helios 44-2. At 58mm f2 it is just the right focal length for portrait. Easy to focus (contrasty enough) and the background blur (bokeh) is very much to my liking.


Helios 44-2  58mm f2  @f2.8  1/20sec
The more compact looking (I have a thing for small camera/lenses) but longer focal length of the Jupiter-9 85mm f2 is a very low contrast lens and not that sharp (at least my copy).
I have to work on my images after I shot them as out of the camera they look very milky.


Jupiter-9 85mm f2  @f4 1/1500sec
In the mix of these old Russian lenses I tried also a very long lens: a Vivitar (made by Komine) 135mm f2.8. It was an impulse by on eBay but a very pleasant surprise.
I find it sharp even wide open and the bokeh is rather pleasant even tho not as creamy.


Vivitar 135mm f2.8   @2.8 1/20sec!
Last but not least I do realize that these lenses are easier to use today than when they were designed for film cameras. The incredible image stabilization on my diminutive Olympus cameras allow me to take images with incredible low shutter speeds. At 270mm (film camera equivalence) I shot the above image at 1/20 sec!    If that was on my Nikon camera many years ago, it would have been a total blur, unrecognizable image :-)

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Water Dragon

He allowed me to get pretty close before puffing up just a bit and then running away.


M.Zuiko 40-150mm R   f6.7 1/350sec