Using medium telephoto lenses

Nikon FA/MD12 motor drive 2.8/180 Nikkor Ai, f: 2.8 Fuji RDP 100

This shot was taken early september; a model wears a J.P. Gaultier’s dress. 180 mm lens is very usefull in situations like this; a background is nicely blurred, but the depth of field is still preserved, so the image in whole doesn’t  look “flat”.

Nikon FA/MD12 motor drive 2.8/180 Nikkor Ai, f: 2.8 Fuji Provia 100 pushed to ISO 400

A shooting was realized for a fashion designer Iris Vrus, and took place at the shipyard, mid october. The whole production-crew had a lot of fun and were very excited, despite the pretty cold weather followed by occasional rain…a thousands of tons of steel and iron, amazingly coloured by all kinds of rust; a truck wheel-sized screws…again, the 180 mm lens performed very well here, turned ship behind a model into a smooth, creamy  background. Also, pushing film one stop, contributed to contrast and vividness of colours on a “flat”, rainy day..

Nikkormat FT3 2.8/180 Nikkor Ai, f: 2.8 Ektachrome EPL 400

A classic example of a mid telephoto image.. I had a light blue colour conversion filter mounted on a lens, the one that converts between Tungsten A to Tungsten B color balance in order to emphasize the blue colour of a clothing and somewhat “cooler” overall appearance of a photograph. EPL 400, which also appeared to have a neutral to cold colour balance, was along with the EPD 200 and a EPR 64, one of my favourite reversal films for fashion/portrait shooting…those were the days, my friend…

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A weekend at the sea shore

Last weekend I had an assignment at the Kraljevica (Croatian northern Adriatic), shooting some apartments: luckily, there was enough time for taking a few shots for my own pleasure; really enjoyed the day (those images were taken on friday). I couldn’t resist and decided to jump into water just here (first photo)…bad idea, the water was way too cold…a “schnapps” at the near bar helped warming up again, though. On my way back to Zagreb, at sunday, I almost stuck at the mountains, the snow started to fall just like at mid-winter! Nuts!

Can you imagine participating the photo-workshop or a photo tour on a place like this? Because, this is exactly what will happen in not so far future…untill then, enjoy! Nikon D700 Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED VR at 16 mm IQ : RAW

Black and white photography

Nikon F2 Nikkor H 1.8/85, f/1.8 T-max 100 developed in T-max developer

This film is very “scan – friendly”, images are very sharp and have excellent contrast; at that time (1995), I was almost angry because the grain was invisible (“what ? No grain?? It looks “shaved“?!), and none of us figured it what would the future bring.I usually add grain to my personal prints for pictures captured by digital cameras, (at least to portrait  / fashion images), using Alien Skin “Exposure” PS plug-in, which simulates various film types of major manufacturers, from B&W, color slide or color negatives. This is really great tool; I’m an old school, can’t help it…

Nikon FA / MD12 motor drive Nikkor Ai 2.5/105, f: 2,5 T-Max 400, developed in Rodinal, 1:50

I really love this photograph, as it represents my personal view of women in best manner; simple and straightforward. Only, after all this time, I can’t  get away from one thought; 105 mm lens was not the best choice here… anyway, if you look long enough, you’ll see the fence…

Nikon F2 / MD2/MB1 motor drive Nikkor AiS 1.4/85, f:1.4 HP 5, developed in Tetenal Ultrafin, 1:20

You should see the print, really.. this lens has so narrow depth of field wide open, that almost looks as if a picture was taken by a large format camera. And grain, contrast and a tonal range are fine, too… really like HP 5… thank god, it survived.BTW, the photo shooting took place at the old abandoned river swim yard, built at the beginning of the 20th century: A couple of days later, my friend Mario, who also used to shoot there, gave me a phone call:-“Hi, did you read the newspaper yet?“-“No, why?“- “That studio of ours got burned out last night…“So, you’re looking at the last photo taken there, 1992…

Using wide-angle lenses

Nikon D700 3.5/17 RMC Tokina, f:8.0 ISO 200 Picture Control: Standard IQ: RAW

Photographed mid June, a glass reflections looked interesting to me; it’s all about glass, isn’t it?

Nikon D700 AF-S Nikkor 24-85, at 24 mm, f:5.6 ) ISO 800 Picture Control: Monochrome IQ: JPEG

This picture was taken a few frames after that one posted at “Using 85 -105 mm lenses”; the girl is just amazing, I never saw her again, but hope I’ll find her for more shooting. She is not really interested in model career, she said…

Using 85 – 105 mm lenses

Nikon F2 1.8/85  Nikkor H, f:1.8 Fuji Provia 100, cross-processed

Taken mid-spring, at some empty business center (sunday), at the top floor, the sunrays came through not so clean glass overhead; I used no additional light source. “Scanned” years after, using slide duplicator mounted on Nikon D700, reverted back to positive using Photoshop.The 18″ x 24″ print using Canon iPF Prograf printer looks great..

Nikon FA 2.5/105 Nikkor Ai, f:2.5 Kodachrome 64

This shot was taken early september, mid afternoon using gold lightbouncer.

Nikon D700 1.4/85 AF-D Nikkor, f:2.2 (God, I love this one..) ISO 800 Picture Control: Standard IQ: RAW

Photographed late July, on an extremely hot day, round 7 p.m. through a window glass, in a shade, but with a little warm light coming from a lamp inside, reflected from white walls. Sometimes “mixed” light works just fine..