Author: travel67

Beach Shoot – Ursula

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Late Sunday afternoon, a small group of photographers, models, a make-up artist and I gathered on the beach in Okinawa for an almost impromptu shoot. Urusla, the wife of photographer Eboh, is simply stunning. She’s a fantastic model who knows how to produce great dynamic shots. I first went wide with the 645D 55mm lens to emphasize her stature. I switched lenses to try out the 67 105mm on the 645D body, while Ursula put on a shawl. I had been wondering if the 67 lenses would be a good match for the 645D body. I was pleased with the results of the test shoot with Bear, but a quick focus check on Ursula’s eye really blew me away. That’s not just a self-portrait of the photographer, but a mini landscape! A big thanks to Ursula for modeling and Kim Clay for make-up. More images from the shoot in future posts…

Pentax 67 lenses on Pentax 645D Body (Part 2)

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Please check out the first part of this post here. I just tried out attaching my 105mm Pentax 67 lens to the 645D body. Adapter works well. Lovely mechanical clicks as everything locks into place. When you turn on the camera the readouts on the viewfinder, rear monitor and top panel all show the aperture reading as blank. The camera is however still metering so when I set the lens aperture to 2.4, the shutter speed automatically adjusted to give the correct exposure (or it’s best estimate of the correct exposure). Found Bear, and took another portrait shot.  Of course not only do you have to manually set the aperture with the aperture ring, you also need to focus as the 67 lenses are all manual focus. Pleased with how this came out. Not having the aperture reading in the viewfinder isn’t a problem, in fact this is the same as when using the Pentax 67II normally. The 67 lenses give a nice bokeh and at 2.4 a very shallow depth of field. I will …

Island Icon – Kyoko Nakamoto

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Dreams of Paradise Kyoko Nakamoto is an Okinawan artist whose paintings of “Paradise” show a world of beauty and vibrant colors where childlike inhabitants live simple, happy, and equal lives. When did you start painting? As a small child, I scribbled and painted all over the walls of our house. My mother never got angry, perhaps because we were living in a rented house. During high school, I knew I wanted to be a painter. However, when I went to university, I set aside my ambitions and chose to study business rather than art. After graduation, I got a job at an insurance company, but three days a week, I kept my dream alive by going to night classes at art school and slowly improving my skills. After ten years, I quit my job selling insurance and began working as an illustrator for magazines and packaging. Two years after that, I achieved my dream and became a full-time painter. Was it hard to suddenly start a new career? Of course, it was a tough decision. …

Shuri Castle Portraits (645D)

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Dropped by Shuri Castle early this afternoon to take some photos. Unfortunately the sky clouded over and scaffolding covered half of the building. I did however mange to get a couple of portraits of the girls in traditional Okinawan costume that pose with visitors to the castle. After a couple of days with the camera I was comfortable enough using it for these opportunistic shots. I quickly opened up the aperture with the thumb dial to blur the background, moved the girls into some open shade and took a couple of photographs of each girl. I just realized that I never showed the girls the preview images after I took the shots. I hadn’t even considered it! It was only 30 minutes later when I sat down with a cold drink that  I even looked at the pictures I’d taken. I think this is a case of delayed chimping. Must remember I’m shooting digital not film 🙂  I will however make a couple of prints and drop them off next time I’m at the castle. …

645D Portrait Test

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Having taken photos of the dog and a quick landscape I wanted to give the camera a bit more of a challenge. I hoped to take a portrait shot that would show all the detail in a person’s face down to individual strands of hair. I knew just the man for the job. Now check out the full size image on Flickr. (Click view all sizes then click full image.)  For those who don’t have the time or patience. Here’s an idea of what you can see. This is John’s right eye. (As a bonus, the shot of the eye also reveals how I lit the photograph, a single gridded beauty dish just above my right shoulder.) There’s a whole lot of detail in the image. More importantly I am pleased with the way the image looks, the gradations in colors look pleasing and natural. If I can take shots like this out in the field, I’ll be a happy man. Thanks to John for being a great model. I’ll make sure you and Martha …

Manza Hotel test shoot.

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The story continues… Attached Kirk baseplate to camera so I can mount to tripod. Drove to Cape Maeda. Set up tripod. Set aperture to F11. Took a photograph of the Manza Hotel. Hung around for a couple of hours chatting to Nate, Luna and Akira. Unfortunately the sky clouded over so there was no spectacular sunset. I learned how to set copyright information, and  change colour space from sRGB to AdobeRGB. Returned home  and copied files. Uploaded small res. image to blog and full size image to Flickr. I am sure most experienced digital photographers will be shaking their heads, looking at the blown out highlights in the cloud by the hotel. I realize it’s a rookie mistake, and with time I will learn to use the histogram, but I am still amazed by the witchcraft that makes my pictures appear instantly on the back of my camera. More confusing  is the purple fringing that seems to be appearing on some of  the windows of the hotel. You will have to look at the full …

First images with the 645D

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The story so far… Charged battery. Turned on camera. Set language (to English), set date, set time. Inserted  32GB SanDisk Extreme SDHC card into each of the two memory card slots. Attached lens. Placed piece of bread behind ear. Pointed camera at Bear (the dog). Took a few photos of Bear until she started barking and lunging at ear. Connected camera to computer with USB cable (Must buy card reader). Copied a couple of images to desktop. Opened in Photoshop. Added file info. Added TRAVEL67 watermark. Resized for blog and added another TRAVEL67 watermark. Uploaded small images to blog and full size images to Flickr. So there you go. The first couple of images from the 645D. I haven’t changed any settings.  This was auto exposure, auto white balance, sRGB, and saving as a Jpeg to both memory cards. Need a cup of tea, and then will head out to get a few non-dog photos. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Pentax 645D arrives!

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Pentax seems to have gone with Apple’s less is more idea for box design. Nice. Inside the box… Japanese manual & Menu Reference. (My bilingual friends wince. They are going to be pestered a lot during the next few weeks.) The camera. Just plugged in the battery charger…

Matsumoto Castle, Nagano Prefecture

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On my final morning up on the Japanese mainland I got up early so that I could take a few shots of Matsumoto castle just after dawn. And from another angle. With a bag full of exposed film I took the train south to Tokyo, and then on to Haneda Airport. It was a great trip. I got nearly all the shots I wanted, and a few extras that came my way. The scanning is now finished. There were 111 shots from this trip that have been scanned and archived. Now I start planning for August.

SMC PENTAX D FA 645 55mm F2.8AL (IF) SDM AW

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The postman just delivered my new 645 55mm lens. The 645D body should arrive in the next couple of days. This is the first autofocus lens I have bought in 9 years. It is also the first lens I’ve ever bought without an aperture ring. The lens does have depth of field markings which are important for me, although it looks like it will be much harder to use them accurately compared to my larger 67 lenses. A big bonus of the lens is that, just like the 645D body, it is All Weather (AW). This is a useful feature for travel photographers, especially those who live in “Typhoon Alley”. Of course the most important thing about a lens is the quality of the images it produces. For that  I shall have to wait a few more days, until then this is an impressive paperweight with a very very long name.