Fujinon 55-200mm Zoom Lens Test Run

I don't usually talk about equipment stuff or technical settings on this blog, but today will be an exception. I'm off to a bluegrass festival on Sunday to meet up with some old friends from Nashville who will be performing. One of the reasons I splurged on the new Fujinon zoom lens is to be able to shoot concert and festival performances, so this is the first opportunity to put this puppy to the test in a real life situation. I spent the afternoon today in the Chelsea district an the High Line of Manhattan to test out various functions and settings, and to get comfortable with using the EVF. Most importantly to see how sharp the IQ is at the full zoom distance, and to see just how many stops the Optical Image Stabilization will buy for me. I've got a bit more learning to do with using the EVF and the image stabilization, but I'm really pleased with the results I got today. I examined all the images at 100% and was quite surprised to see that I can easily hand hold the camera at 1/60th second. In some cases down to 1/30th second, and in one example below even to 1/15th second (although in a real life situation I wouldn't go slower than 1/60th second).

All the images below were shot RAW and turned into jpegs in Lightroom with no other processing, so there's some noise in the images shot at faster shutter speeds. I'll be posting some of the individual shots in the next few days after I process them for noise and do my usual b/w conversions. First the individual shots:

ISO 500, 70.5mm, f5.6, 1/250 sec

ISO 1600, 200mm, f5.6, 1/250 sec

 ISO 1000, 200mm f5.6, 1/200 sec

ISO 1600, 200mm, f8, 1/500 sec

ISO 6400, 155mm, f8, 1/500 sec

For the following series I'll post only the shutter speed since these were shot with the intention of testing the OIS. The last image is blurred because I need more practice at being patient and waiting for the camera shutter to actually take the photo before I move on to the next shot:

 1/500s

1/250s

1/125s

1/60s

With this sequence the shutter speeds are the same as the previous:

There are five shots in this next sequence. The shutter speeds are as before with the addition of the last shot at 1/30s. A tiny bit of blurring at that speed:

The next sequence has six exposures. The last one was hand held at 1/15s. I was quite surprised at the results:

The last sequence of four shots is by far the best. The four shutter speeds as the first groups, and all quite acceptable.

A Dog's Best Friend

I've been deeply immersed in a project that I began last year. It was only in the past few months, after returning repeatedly to the same area of Manhattan, that I decided to really concentrate on making it into a coherent presentation. I need to lighten up a little and visit other of my favorite parts of the city just for a change. And so I can get some images to post on the blog.

On Tuesday I received my latest new toy for the Fuji X-Pro1 - the new 55-200mm zoom lens. Translated into FX terms it's about 80-300mm. This is not a focal range that I customarily shoot with, but for concert photography it's perfect, I think. I'm hitting the streets this weekend to give it a spin, and on Sunday I'm hoping to get to a bluegrass festival to really test it out. I shot with it on Wednesday for a little while, but nothing serious, just some test shots. Since I always use the OVF with my current lenses, shooting at the long end of this new lens is going to take some adjustment - I have to use the EVF. I was particularly interested in checking to see how effective the OIS (optical image stabilization) worked so I shot at 300mm with a shutter speed of 1/60th second. That's about three stops slower than what the minimum should be. The OIS is a blessing for an old guy with slightly shaky hands. More to come about this lens after the festival.

I took this image on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village several months ago - with my favorite 14mm lens. I'm a sucker for dogs, can't help it. I never met a dog I didn't like. And in this case his transportation was also easy on the eyes. I'm old, but I'm not dead!

Just Another Street Shot

I've been very involved planning a photography book. Shooting for the collection of photos has been taking all my street time in New York so there's little opportunity to photograph other subjects. Still in all, I'm always looking around me even though my thoughts are wrapped up in where I'm going or where I've been. While digging through my catalog of material for the book, I happened upon this shot taken on Fifth Avenue this past March. After yesterday's and today's 90ºF temps it's hard to imagine someone walking around in a heavy fur coat. The hint of back light is what caught my eye.

Not Waving Hello ....

At the beginning of this past March I took a walk on the High Line. The air was brisk, but it was the first sunny day that had a taste of springtime in the air. That seems so long ago, now that we're heading into 85+ºF temps later this week. I was hoping to get a shot of the attractive woman, but just as she turned her head her boyfriend raised his hand to ask me not to take the shot. I'm always happy to comply .....

I'm hoping to get to Coney Island for Memorial Day afternoon. Lots of great Americana there.

Look Out .... Here I Come!

In keeping with the theme of Gary Winogrand's work which I've been touching on recently, and with the subject of imperfection touched on all too minimally in a recent blogpost by (dare I say it) Eric Kim, to wit:

The frame of reference is tilted - I shot this quickly as I was emerging from the subway at Fifth avenue and 53rd street - and the men on the left and right of the frame are chopped partially. Imperfect, yes. It's a quick capture of 1/250th of a second as I experienced the instability of just having climbed two flights of stairs (at my advanced years) from darkness into bright daylight, into a crowd of people moving in the direction indicated by the arrow at the top of the frame, counterpointed by this imperious woman parting the sea of men. There's no hidden narrative or societally redeeming message, just a street shot that hums. 

Back At It

After a break of one week due to illness, I'm back at it. Writing, shooting, planning stuff, swimming ..... feels good to be back into my life. The downtime gave me a chance to ruminate a bit, which is not always a good thing. But since I didn't have the strength to do just about anything else, I sat in bed and read.

I've become quite interested in Gary Winogrand - his images, his methods, his work ethic. In 1981 he appeared on a show broadcast from the New School entitled Visions and Images during which he was interviewed about anything the MC could get him to talk straight about - quite a chore. The show is well worth the time to watch if for nothing else than to get some insight into the character that drove a man to rebel against so much photographic tradition and 'wisdom'. At a time in photographic development that grew out of the works of the New Deal photographers and the great documentary/war photojournalists of the 1940's, Winogrand chose to specifically not tell a story with his images. He believed that it was impossible for an image to be imbued with narrative. He didn't look for the right scene and the right position to stand so that an image would unfold before his lens - a là Cartier-Bresson and his decisive moment. Winogrand just walked around a location, with no agenda in mind, camera at the ready, and often fired off shots without ever thinking about composition. Winogrand shot hundreds of rolls of film every week, did much of his own processing and darkroom work, and kept little documentation or records of what was on each roll of film. When he died he left behind tens of thousands of rolls of undeveloped film with no clue as to what each contained.

As I read about his efforts and attitudes, I am drawn more and more to his work. The current body of work I've been at for more than a year (in true Winogrand style, I refuse to call it a 'project') is starting to take form and a develop a life of its own. And I find his ideas, of which I've been reading for about the same amount of time, apply very nicely to what I'm trying to create. I won't be posting images from that work here on the blog. But writing about Winogrand and exploring how his ideas resonate with me and affect my work will probably become a major theme for the near future. So I'll have to use images not of the current undertaking with which to demonstrate. I may have to repeat images I've posted in the past to use as examples.

This shot couldn't have been accomplished with a lens other than the Fuji 14mm on my X-Pro1. The wide angle lens gives a perspective to the background behind the woman which is only a narrow city street behind her. The people on either side of her had just crossed the street walking next to her and peeled off one step away when I snapped the shutter. All the elements give a sense of deep space and push the central character, who appears to be having a spiritual moment of listening to some music, out to the front of the frame. The edges of the frame limit the elements in the image and pull them all together to freeze a typical moment of time on today's streets of New York where all the characters are totally oblivious of each other, each in their own closed off, self-centered little world. The gesture of the hand was a lucky grab. I didn't plan it or wait for it, there's nothing decisive about that moment of time. It's just a typical 1/250th of a second that describes the disconnect that our electronic gewgaws allow for in contemporary America.

Where's The Beef?

To continue my Girls With Attitude series, to wit: