Category: Photography

I just found about freelensing and can’t wait to try it tomorrow during the day. This is the definition of freelensing according to Luke Roberts:

Photos taken with the lens detached from the camera but held in place and moved around to focus. This also lets extra light in sometimes causing light leaks and giving a vintage look and feel.

Also:
* Gives extra bokeh by shrinking the area in focus (aperture is 0)
* Allows for super macro shots
* Delicious light leaks
* Tilt-shift effects

For some cool freelensing samples (better than mine above) click [Here], [Here] and [Here]

Update: Here are some more free lensing shots I took which turned out much nicer. In all the shots except for the last, I had the lens flipped backwards.

I promise this will be the last photography related post for this week but I’ve really been wanting to post this ever since I saw the pictures on Nibaqs blog. Someone Verity Cridland scanned and restored photos they she had taken of Kuwait back in the early 1960’s and then uploaded all the photos onto her flickr account. There are a lot of great pictures there so please check them out. [Pictures]

Thanks Nibaq!

So my plans of getting a Voigtlander Bessa R3A on hold for now. Instead I decided to get a near mint condition Yashica Electro 35 GSN. This rangefinder was produced between 1973-1977 and has a very sharp 45mm f/1.7 lens. I got mine from eBay for around KD20 which is actually considered expensive since most of them go for $20 or less. If you want to see samples of photos taken with the Yashica you can check out the Yashica Electro pool on flickr by clicking [Here]

After taking the picture of “The Almond Tree” with my Sony W300 I decided I wanted to invest in a macro lens for my Nikon D70 and D90. A macro lens would allow me to shoot subjects from extremely close distances. I started looking for a cheap macro lens because it isn’t something I do a lot of (macro photography) so I didn’t want to spend too much money on it. After a bit of research I found the Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro lens. At $255 it wasn’t very cheap but got great reviews and the lens was very sharp.

But as I said, $255 wasn’t cheap and on eBay used ones were still around $150, cheaper but I still wasn’t convinced. Then I found out about “reversing adapter rings” (pictured above). Turns out there is a ring which you fasten to the front of your lens, and that ring allows you to connect the lens to your camera in reverse. When you connect your lens in reverse to your camera you get to shoot in macro. Sounds strange I know, and connecting your lens to your camera the wrong way round is sure to raise some eyebrows but I bought the ring and it works!

Below in the first shot you can see the bushes outside my office building. I took that picture with my 50mm lens at the closest distance I could get before the lens stopped focusing.

In the second picture I shot using the same lens just mounted in reverse using the adapter ring. It’s much more closer and it’s still using the same lens!

I don’t know whats the Canon version of this ring but the Nikon one is called BR-2A. I got mine from Amazon.co.uk for KD10. There is a ring on Amazon.com but it doesn’t mention if its the BR-2A although it looks like it and its selling for KD5.

So if you are looking for an affordable way to get into macro photography this is the way to go. The adapter rings works on both my 28mm and 50mm prime lenses.

Update: Another advantage of this ring is you don’t need to carry another heavy macro lens with you, you just carry this ring.

I recently decided that whenever I travel I want to take a 35mm film camera with me instead of a digital camera. I realized when I have a limited amount of pictures I can take (36 per roll) I tend to take only the shots I really want and not just everything I see. With digital cameras I come back from my trips with hundreds of photos and I spend a lot of time deleting random junk because instead of spending more time taking 1 shot I use that time to take 5 shots of the same thing.

So I decided to stick with film instead of digital. When I went to Munich last year I took my 30 year old Nikon FE and came back with a lot of cool vintage looking shots. [Check here] Thats why I started looking for a new film camera, one that has personality which is something very important for me.

I started first by checking out the Nikon F3, then the Nikon F4, then the Yashica Electro 35 GSN, then the Canon QL17 GIII, then the Konica S2, followed by the Konica S3 until I finally landed on the Voigtlander Bessa R3A which is pictured in this post. Its one of the best looking camera I have ever seen. Its extremely well built and to some people its one of the best rangefinder cameras ever made right behind the Zeiss Ikon. I found one on eBay second hand that came with the fastest 40mm lens ever made, a Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton. Bidding was ending at 4:50AM so I set my alarm to 4:40AM and went to bed at 10PM. The maximum I wanted to pay was $500 since brand new the camera and lens were selling for $940. Sadly I didn’t win the bid. Even though I ended up increasing my budget to $600 the auction ended at $606 and the other person bidding looked like he could have taken it even further.

Now I need to decide what to do but I just wanted to share this camera with everyone now that the auction is over. Its such a beautiful camera!

Breathtaking photos of random people at work. Makes me want to go out and take pictures of people working in Kuwait. [Link]

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Was up from 3AM because we had a 3 hour drive to the middle of nowhere today. I experienced temperatures ranging from freezing 2 degrees all the way up to a hot 20. We had heavy rain, heavy fog, light snow and sizzling heat all in one day! Anyway in one of the locations we were in there was an almond tree. I took a few pictures of it but the one above was my favorite.

Was at a semi-abandoned park today and managed to capture a lot of interesting shots with my Sony W300 which you can check below. I regret not having my D90 with me…

A reader spotted a car on fire early morning in the evening while out cycling and managed to capture some pictures to share it with everyone. Looks like there was a big crowd.

Thanks Hamad!

A reader of the blog sent me pictures of Dean & Deluca so if you haven’t been there yet click on continue below to check the place out. By the way, if you’re a salami fan I think they’ve got the best salami in Kuwait… but thats probably because they don’t have ANY competition!

Some Contrast posted some pictures of the plane a couple of days ago but I couldn’t until I got approval from Wataniya Airways since they are my client. The above and below are pictures of the plane parked in Toulouse, France where Airbus plant is located. Hopefully next month I am going to be in Toulouse for the official unveiling and take some of my own photos but for now here are some of the photos taken by Airbus. The Kuwait Towers are proudly displayed on the tail of the plane and I think it actually looks pretty good. Definitely much better than the new MEA design which I HATE.

This is a new and lavish limited edition book with tons of pictures from behind the scenes of the movie Godfather. The book is limited to 1000 copies and they are all signed. Problem is it costs KD190! [Amazon Link]

Here is a link with information about the book. [Link]

Great shots of Venice’s deepest flood in 22 years. [Link]

Cedric Delsaux is a photographer that is famous for his Star Wars series and his latest portrays Star Wars characters in urban environments. Really cool stuff, follow the link to see some more pictures. [Pictures]

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I took this picture a few hours ago.