Shadow and Light, Black and White

Canon EOS 30D + Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Tokina SD 50-135mm f/2.8 DX AT-X Pro lens. Drastically cropped and processed in B&W resulting in a very small file.

Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 lens. A sunset in black and white.

Canon EOS 40D and Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM lens.

I have admired the Radić Pavilion from the moment I first saw it. As a subject for a photographer the options seem limitless. I am moving beyond the detail and seeing the shapes. It seems simultaneously soft and stark. Photographed with a Nikon D700 and Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S lens.

I bought a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens and teamed it with a Canon EOS 20D camera; all eBay acquisitions. The Tessar is so venerable (designed in 1902) that it engendered visions of the past when used at Lacock Abbey.

Photographed with a Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S lens on a Nikon D700 camera.

Nikon D2Xs + Sigma 15-30mm F3.5-4.5 EX DG Aspherical lens.

Working with a Nikkor-H Auto 85mm f/1.8 lens made sometime between 1964 and 1972 and on the day I made this photograph rather perversely mounted on a Canon digital camera via an adapter. The field of view was thus more like 135mm in old money. Processed in Lightroom.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Tokina SD 50-135mm f/2.8 DX AT-X Pro lens.

Two couples going in opposite directions photographed using a Nikon D2Xs with a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.

Photographed in the gardens of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, with a Nikon D50 and a Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens. This lens was in production from 1992 to 2003.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera. The chief reason I bought into the Canon EOS system was to use this lens. Fortunately the low cost of secondhand discontinued digital SLR cameras enables such indulgences. The design of the Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm F2.8 Tessar stretches back at least to the 1930's where countless examples exist in different forms, formats, and mounts. This is a fundamentally simple lens of just four elements in three groups with five aperture blades. It is not the best 50mm lens that I own. However, it is certainly the cheapest. So it is something of a mystery why I find it so satisfying to use. It is slow for a 50mm lens at f/2.8. The focus throw is very wide, allowing precision at the expense of fast handling. It seems sharp, but nearly all 50mm lenses are sharp. It performs well wide open; so do many others. Colour rendition is good. Distortion is not a problem. Contrast is strong. You could say the same about practically all 50mm lenses. But I like this particular lens very much.

A fresh edit of a favourite picture.

Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD zoom lens. This lens was in production from 1992-2003.