Sony Sunday pictures of the week / 21 September 2014

[howardstanbury]

<p>Oxford is currently enjoying its first ever photography festival, <a href="http://www.photographyoxford.co.uk/">Photography Oxford 2014</a>. This is an international festival with exhibitions from all round the world, from World Press Photo through to art photography. There's a schedule of talks and movies, including a free drive-in cinema. We're fortunate to have this kind of show right on our doorstep and I hope it is successful enough to return in the next year or two.</p>

<p><a title="Arno Rafael Minkkinen /1 by Howard Stanbury, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5589/15286347765_52d5dd0ea5_c.jpg" alt="Arno Rafael Minkkinen /1" width="800" height="687" /></a><br>

^ Arno Minkkinen giving a talk on his career with samples of his own work behind (NEX-3 and Pentax-110 18mm f/2.8 lens)</p>

<p><a title="Jannatul Mawa / Close distance by Howard Stanbury, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3877/15113459207_7803e82cfa_c.jpg" alt="Jannatul Mawa / Close distance" width="800" height="641" /></a><br>

^ Jannatul Mawa's exhibition Close Distance showed women of Bangladesh with their housemaids (NEX-3 and Pentax-110 24mm f/2.8 lens)</p>

<p><a title="Christobiochemistry by Howard Stanbury, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2941/15262791016_c2c164b846_c.jpg" alt="Christobiochemistry" width="800" height="534" /></a><br>

^ Finally, the old biochemistry building in Oxford is being demolished by hand and has been covered up during the process - it reminds me of those old Christo works that used to be done a couple of decades ago (NEX-3 and Pentax-110 18mm f/2.8 lens)</p>

<p>As ever, please add your selection of pictures taken with Sony/Minolta gear, digital or film, to a maximum of 3 photos.</p>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>That's a great shot of Arno Minkkinen Howard - and I'm surprised you caught all of him rather than only two or three submerged/detached/reflected limbs ;)</p>

<p>How much detail do the Pentax 110 lenses resolve on an APS-C sensor? Does their image circle cover the corners or did you have to crop a bit?</p>

<p>I went looking for desert bugs near Joshua Tree National Park and stumbled upon a patch of a few square miles that had plenty of hawkmoth caterpillars munching on (relatively) plenty of fresh greens germinating after recent rains.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Here's one that started digging its way down in preparation for pupating:</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Aside from the ever present ants and clouds of tiny no-see-ums, there isn't nearly as much other insect diversity around as there would be in spring. Not even many adult butterflies or moths. Here's a longicorn beetle however, it was sitting inactive on a palo verde twig. Maybe wondering what happened to its left antenna?</p><div></div>

[howardstanbury]

<p>I'm going to have to get me a decent macro one day, though I suppose I could revive my Adaptall-2 90mm f/2.5 ... Are you doing much cropping in these pictures, Paul, or are they all pretty much as caught?</p>

<p>You can see some of those limbs in the background photos. That 18mm P-110 lens covers the full APS-C sensor, just, but not very well. The Minkkinen picture is cropped to 7x6 (in honour of his MF film photos) but the picture of the cloaked building is nearly full area and if you look bottom left you'll see how soft it is (you can click through to view larger versions on Flickr).</p>

[randy_cooprider1]

<p>We just got back from a short out of town trip so I am late this week. The hotel we stayed in had an atrium where breakfast and supper were served. In the off hours it had a moody lonely appearance which prompted these two shots.</p><div></div>

[randy_cooprider1]

#2<div></div>

[randy_cooprider1]

On a more upbeat note, the good weather is drawing the Harleys out of the garage.<div></div>