Tight Focus Project

AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED lens at 26mm on a Nikon D90. That lens is truly sharp. Significant editing in several applications and a massive crop, the latter turning this into a very small file. Yet it has been instructive in several ways, especially in opening up possibilities for future projects.

I was photographing Pulteney Bridge when this person unexpectedly emerged from the coffee shop, This is a tiny selection from the original photograph rendered in subdued monochrome tones. Photographed in 2010 using a Nikon D50 and 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G lens.

Falmouth, August 1995. Olympus AF-1 Mini (Infinity Mini in the US). 35mm, f/3.5 fixed lens. This is a selective enlargement.

Cropped and greatly processed for an 'arty' appearance, this is a tiny file which could be a disappointment when printed at any size. It probably looks at its best on a computer screen. Canon EOS 40D + Chinon 55mm f1.4 lens.

Shot with a Nikon D2Xs and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens on a TC-16A teleconverter (field of view like 120mm on a full-frame camera). ISO 640; aperture priority set at f/11. The small aperture resulted in a shutter speed of 1/30th; this has given a blur caused by the movement of the girls as they passed. Although a tight composition in the first place, I have cropped it further for effect and presented it in black-and-white because the colours were fighting with one another. The whole picture is entirely accidental. I should have used a lens with a wider angle. the shutter speed ought to have been at least 1/125th, possibly 1/250th. But then it wouldn't have resulted in this picture. Life is full of chance.

A photograph which I bought on eBay. It was not the best of compositions; something like a haystack in the background blended in with the girl's hair disconcertingly. With the aid of the simple editing tools in the Paintbrush application, I attempted to tidy it up. The original photograph was printed on Kodak Velox paper, a very slow printing paper producing a blue-black image suitable for contact printing. As the original print measures 3.25 x 4.25 inches it is reasonable to suppose the negative came from 118 type roll film such as a Box Brownie might need, or a Kodak Model 3 or a Hawk-Eye. All this helps to date the photograph, but the best indicator is on the reverse which has a repeat motif of ‘Kodak/Velox/Paper' in three lines. That dates it to sometime in the 1950s or 1960s, unless the developer was using old stock. Kodak discontinued that paper in 1968. Kodak advertised Velox as ‘the only photographic paper made exclusively for amateur negatives’. The imperfections on this particular print indicate it was not made by a laboratory striving to maintain a business reputation. Later I rendered it infrared via a filter effect, and now I have added a Daguerreotype effect in the Picmonkey editor. Collections of photographs which once meant something to somebody are a staple of house clearances. They are bought in auctions and sold online.

Effortlessly stylish. Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens made sometime between 1992 and 2003.

The first of two photographs, out-of-focus through carelessness on my part, and remedied for the second photo posted earlier. Originally in landscape orientation (which flat-footed the miserly three point AF system) and cropped square with conversion to black-and-white. Shot with a Nikon D40 with a Tamron 35mm f/1.8 lens. Field of view equivalent to a 50mm lens on a full frame camera. 400 ISO; aperture priority set at f/5. Shutter 1/400th.

Waiting for the 16.22. It is late.