POW 21 June 2009

<p>Laurel Falls, Savage Gulf, Tennessee</p>

<p>Camera: Pentax 645, 645 55mm, tripod, cable, TTL exposure said one stop over, CC 85B filter (photo was built as part of a set on filtration examples).</p>

<p>Negative: Ektachrome E100G, Kodak E-6 Single Use Kit 500mL tank processing, normal development times.</p>

<p>Scan: Epson V700 with film scan brackets, Epson Scanner Software; Apple computer, burned to DVD transfered to Apple MacBook.</p>

<p>Postprocess: Aperture 2, "centerlined" adjustments, crop and export.</p>

<p>Field: Camera was positioned on a tripod on a common boardwalk viewing stand that's part of the park facility. Trail was a rugged and rigorous 285 yard downhill stroll from the parking lot. Leave your mountaineering gear at home for this one.</p>

<p>Site reconnaissance revealed that there was no good way to get down the slopes to the plunge pool because the whole cliffside was already at a good 5 to 10 meter overhang on both sides of the creek. Skipped all that, and just photographed it Hollywood from the disgustingly safe observation platform. This photo was a re-shoot of one I did just like it the day before, but trashed through poor photochemistry. Once again, fresh chemical solutions are the key to film processing.</p>

<p>The filter used in the shot is what I normally apply for a strong correction required for a tungsten film called EDUPE, which needs strong corrections. Probably a warming CC was called for, but milder. I used what I had. The orange tone brought out some of the details in the dry rocks. Photographed at about 1700 local. Savage Gulf State Natural Area, near Stone Door.</p><div></div>

<p>More flower shots from my front yard, 200d with 35 LTD macro.</p><div></div>

<p>A rose from the City of Roses...</p><div></div>

<p>Our oldest girl, outside of Creve Coeur Camera in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Taken last Sunday...</p><div></div>

<p>Had an LBA attack last week and got myself a Pentax FA-135mm F2.8 for a price but the results I got so far are very promising. This will be a lens I take to the mountains often and use for panoramic views as well, 3 photos a infinity, 1.5 meter and closest here :-)</p><div></div>

<p>Wet - Pentax K10D & Pentax-FA 135mm F2.8</p><div></div>

<p>at minimum distance - Pentax K10D & Pentax-FA 135mm F2.8</p><div></div>

<p>This is a little play with macro and manual lenses. Left one with Chinon 50mm lens and right one with reversed Helios 58mm.<br>

<img src="http://gmlynek.ovh.org/anio%C5%82ek.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="524" /><br>

<strong>K100D, Chinon 50mm - left, Helios 58mm reversed - right</strong></p>

<p>US Steel<br>

<a title="US Steel" href=" title="US Steel"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/3541/3625037314_511396bcab_d.jpg" border="0" alt="" /> </a> <a title="US Steel" href=" title="US Steel"> </a><br>

K10D, DA 35mm Limited, ISO 100<br>

.<br>

.<br>

Similar shot was posted a few weeks ago (I think) but that was digital from the K10D, this is it's sister shot from the 645N. Personally, I preferred the film shot although I was in love with neither.<br>

<a title="Taughannock Falls - Ithaca, NY (film version)" href=" title="Taughannock Falls - Ithaca, NY (film version)"> <img src="http://static.flickr.com/3327/3630556274_593d8b57f1_d.jpg" border="0" alt="" /> </a> <a title="Taughannock Falls - Ithaca, NY (film version)" href=" title="Taughannock Falls - Ithaca, NY (film version)"> </a><br>

645N, 55mm (35 @ 35mm equiv), Fuji Provia 100F, warming polarizer and 2 stop GND.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>K10D, SMC PENTAX DA 50-200MM F4-5.6 ED, ISO 100 , f10 @ 1/250s, Converted to B/W with ACDSee Pro 2.5.</p>

<p>In the backyard</p><div></div>

<p>Sorry, Photo too large, forgot to resize...</p>

<p>K10D, SMC PENTAX DA 50-200MM F4-5.6 ED, ISO 100 , f10 @ 1/250s, Converted to B/W with ACDSee Pro 2.5.</p><div></div>

Out and about and found this fox den with cubs<div></div>

Aww, so cute! I have baby pictures too.

<p>

Nothing good from me this week photographically, I have instead a novel, interesting use of the DSLR to show.

<p>

 

This is a snail embryo, taken with a K20D + <a href="http://www.martinmicroscope.com/MMSLR.htm">MDSLR adapter</a>, BX51 light microscope, 10x phase contrast objective. Enhanced for contrast in PS. A green interference filter was also used, hence the conversion to B&W.

<p>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/manualcrank/3646322502/" title="IMGP9242 by manual crank, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3646322502_7c3e3b8a74_o.jpg" width="748" height="800" alt="IMGP9242" /></a>

<p>

To take the picture, I transferred an egg in a drop of water from the bottom of a

dish of pond water onto a slide. In order not to crush the egg with the cover slip,

I used a pin to draw a well of Vaseline around the drop of water. I don’t know

the snail’s species. I know it’s a “pond snail” [*] and have observed it develops

from egg to adult form, skipping the free-swimming larval stage that is

characteristic of snails with gills. Therefore it’s probably a pulmonate

that lives in water but needs to surface for oxygen. Or not. I don’t know.

You can see in the picture the embryo’s undergone torsion, to emerge with

the snail’s anus-over-mouth adult body plan. If you look closely you can

see the embryo’s heart beat in <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/manualcrank/3646229248/in/set-72157618462330314/">this little video</a>

I made by flipping the

camera into live view while it was connected to a <a href="http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+DVD+Recorder.htm">Dazzle</a>.

That was a

milestone for me and the K20, in that it was the first time ever that

I opened the left terminal cover on the camera :-) BTW, live view “video”

is terrible, reason #3 why I covet a K7. Sorry about the frame lines, I

didn’t realize the K20 would include them.

<p>

I have access to some pretty high rent equipment, the BX51 can be configured to cost as much as house, but if you’re interested in taking pictures through the microscope, it doesn’t have to be an expensive undertaking. Bausch and Lomb Stereozooms were (are still?) used widely in the semiconductor industry and as a result are ubiquitous on eBay. It is possible to acquire, either separately or together, a Stereozoom body, a simple focusing stand and stage, a fiber optic light source and a ring or gooseneck light guide, all for around $600. This is an excellent value for tried and true equipment (Leica bought B&L and rebranded many of its products). To put the value in perspective, just a single eyepiece for the BX51 costs north of $300 (there are compelling reasons other than cost for why not to get a compound microscope as a first microscope.) I do not recommend buying cheap Chinese zooms available widely on the Internet. They are as toys. Do not even buy one for a child; it will turn the child off from looking through the microscope. The B&L Stereozooms have a continuous zoom range of 0.7-3x, which is adequate for looking at plants and insects as well as less familiar subjects that don’t also require specimen preparation in order to see. 3x is sufficient to make out some protists, single-celled animalcules, albeit as morphologically indistinct specks. You can increase magnification with screw-on auxiliary lenses. A 2x auxiliary lens will clearly resolve things like rotifers, Hydra, nematode worms; zooplankton will appear as monsters.

There are <a href="http://www.zarfenterprises.com/">adapters you can buy fairly

cheaply</a> that will allow you to take pictures with a P&S camera through an eyepiece.

<p>

Here is one such picture taken with a 3MP Coolpix 990. The egg is less than 1mm across along its short axis.

<p>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/manualcrank/3646368990/" title="DSCN0416 by manual crank, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3646368990_27f47825f0_o.jpg" width="800" height="640" alt="DSCN0416" /></a>

<p>

By way of comparison, this last photograph was taken through a much (much!) more expensive Olympus SZX9 stereo microscope. Both pictures can be better but the message is you pay a lot to improve only a little.

<p>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/manualcrank/3646322530/" title="IMGP9285 by manual crank, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/3646322530_2f12515bc1_o.jpg" width="700" height="658" alt="IMGP9285" /></a>

<p>

[*] There’s two species of “pond snails” in my jar of pond water.

The other one <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/manualcrank/3646322632/in/set-72157618462330314/">lays eggs in sheets</a>.

 

<p>Both made on Pentax K10D with DA 50-200mm.</p>

<p>'Two birds, Makara Beach',</p>

<p>and</p>

<p>'Boat heading to sea, Whanganui River'</p>

Another upload attempt...<div></div>

<p>And second one...</p><div></div>

<p>Here is my lone photo of the week. It is a picture of model Tatum Miranda taken on Saturday at the "Lean like a cholo" movie's video shoot. I used the K10D in raw with the 40mm limited. I haven't been using the Pentax that much and had moved away from the 40mm when I just happened to find it in my car's arm rest. This thing is like butter. My retouching was mostly trying to crop out the ugly house behind the car, and bumping the saturation a tad. I used levels and curves, but just tapped auto.<br>

<a title="TSM 2 by Mr. Gosh Darn Wonderful, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackfist2k2/3645644285/" title="TSM 2 by Mr. Gosh Darn Wonderful, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2463/3645644285_d4ab9a1235.jpg" alt="TSM 2" width="357" height="500" /> </a></p>

<p>Pentax istD + Tamaron 500/8. Shot from my balcony.</p>

<p><a title="truckdriveryellow copy by Alex Es, on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3311/3645618950_1fa851bb64_b.jpg" alt="truckdriveryellow copy" width="1024" height="683" /></a></p>

<p>Quite an eclectic group of pics this week so far. I really like Camus's Two Birds. I hope to get back to some shooting this week but I have spent the past week working on the pp part of the process. I would like to post three shots. The first two were taken early last spring along the Brandywine River in Delaware. I can't find the data for the first shot but all three were taken with a K10D and processed in CS3.</p><div></div>

<p>number two</p><div></div>

<p>number three</p><div></div>

<p>The POW is certainly getting more interesting every week! Some really great photos, and technical details..<br>

Camus, how did you manage to get such a blue color from the Wanganui river? It's always brown when I am around! lol<br>

I went wandering in Old Scottsdale one late afternoon..<br>

#1</p>

<p>#1</p><div></div>

<p>#2</p><div></div>