The Dark Side

This is a shout out to my friend Kristi Castle. Kristi has a new website for her business, Rhythmic Touch Professional Sports Therapy. If you are a local or even visiting the area for a destination mountain biking or skiing vacation, look her up!

So, as you probably can see, I like taking nature photos when I’m wandering around in the local woods around Boulder. It can be challenging to come up with creative ways to take new photos every time, when the surroundings appear to be the same. In the foothills of Boulder, we really don’t have too many big scenery shots other than the standard Foothills landscape. Our local pine woods are generally quite scrubby looking, with lots of visual chaos. I find that the tilt shift can really help in providing alternate perspective, as any ‘Perspective Control’ lens should! As you can tell I’ve really been getting into those lenses lately; they are the ones I go to when I want to just mess around. Too much fun!

This one is for you, Mom! I snagged this little guy during the formals of a wedding that I was second shooting for Chad. He was shooting formals and I was standing around doing nothing, and we were getting buzzed by these little guys. So I pulled out the telephoto lens and managed to catch a nice and sharp little shot. Audubon Society Magazine, look out!

I’ve been trying to be better about doing something other than work lately. But when I do, I still bring my camera. Does this mean that I’m not really getting away from work?

I actually went on a hike the other day. Probably the first one this year! It was a quick little one, leaving from Settler’s Park, up the Red Rocks Trail, and then out and back on the Anemone Trail. It’s a pretty steep hike and you quickly gain elevation over the canyon floor.

Action self portrait cruising down the street on my 1952 Monark Cycle King on a gorgeous summer day.

Right at the edge of town, Boulder has it’s own mini Red Rocks.  A short hike from Settler’s Park, the Red Rocks Trail is a short hike around this rock outcropping that juts up skyward.

I haven’t posted in a bit.  I cracked under the weight of too much work and not enough fun.  So Bobby and I attempted to rectify the situation with a little Nederland riding.  Just to show how mentally cooked I was, I left my riding shoes at home for the first time in . . . well, maybe ever.  Luckily we weren’t too far from Happy Trails Bike Shop where I borrowed some rental pedals with toe clips.  And extra lucky that I was wearing sneakers and not flip flops.  So I was able to ride, old school style.  How incredibly horrible toe clips are!  It’s been a LONG time since I’ve mountain biked with them, I came oh-s0-close to going down when my wheels drifted out from under me on a loose corner and I couldn’t get my foot out . . . but I was really happy to hang on.

After the ride we Ned-itated in the woods and drank some post-ride refreshments and played with my new 85mm PC Tilt Shift lens.  Don’t even think about stealing Bobby’s beer.  He’ll give you the stink eye.

Here is one last shot from my plane ride above Boulder. It’s a simple shot of the Flatirons, but hey, everyone loves the Flatirons. Plus you can see the University of Colorado Boulder campus with all of the red roof buildings.

I’ve waited a while to post these pictures to make it seem as if I’m out riding my mountain bike. Those folks who just glance at the pictures will think, “Wow Steve Z has such an amazing rock star life, shooting photos and all kinds of great rides in the mountains!” But all you 3 people who actually read the posts will know that this is just the 2nd day that I rode 2 weekends ago in Keystone! Ah well, someday I’ll get back in the regular schedule, I hope. In the meantime, this was the final section of the Colorado Trail from Keystone to Breckenridge that I haven’t ridden yet.

This last little piece was a random little spur of barely there trail on the way back to Keystone Ranch. Tilt-shift epic-ness!

Last week I did a fun shoot that is a little out of the ordinary for me. I took my friend Jeff up on an offer to shoot an unusual plane from the air. Jeff’s friend Michael Malocsay hand built himself a Rutan VariEze experimental aircraft and comes into Boulder every so often to fly it. It’s a pretty cool and unusual plane! I wish I had a zoom lens with VR image stabilization so that I could have slowed the shutter down enough to have a full spinning propeller, but I was getting quite a bit of vibration from our own small plane! It was a fun morning buzzing around 1500 feet above Boulder. Enjoy the photos!

As anyone who knows me knows, I really like the tilt shift. The limitless versatility allowed by changing the angle of the focal plane keeps the latent scientist in me entertained for hours. I’ve been using the 45mm version since way back in my Canon days of last year. When I switched to Nikon, I purchased the superior Nikon 45mm PC-E lens. The Nikon version allows for the added feature of being a 1:2 macro lens, which comes in handy for the ring shots and close up shots of eyeballs. The 45 is a standard lens, which means it can be used for landscapes and portraits, it’s right in the middle of the focal range. But it still is a little bit wide angle for a close up portrait, and sometimes I like my ring shots a little tighter, so I’ve been thinking about the 85mm version. But, at $1600, the new PC-E version is quite expensive. Well, I found a used older version of the lens, the 85mm PC on the DWF classifieds. The major difference is that the camera body can’t control the aperture, you have to adjust it manually. But, I figured I’d give the lens a try, and if I really use it a lot I might pony up the cash for the new version someday. Optically, I think they are mostly the same, minus some new lens coatings.

Well the lens came today, and I’m pretty excited about a new lens that I’ve never owned before. I took a couple sample shots here in the office, to compare the 85 to the 45. The differences probably aren’t huge to the untrained eye, but to me they are pretty significant! To me it’s easy to see how the 45 still has a wide angle effect to it, as seen in this first shot of the loose change on the window sill.  In the 45 shot, it looks like the dime and the nickel are at different angles, while they appear more parallel in the 2nd shot.  Interestingly, the lens causes the camera to perceive that the coins are at different angles, as you can see that the amount of reflected light off the silver coins is much different in the 45mm image than the 85mm image.  Also notice how I shot the stacks of coins at an angle, but aligned the focal plane along the tops of the coins, leaving the change below blurred out. This is what I jokingly call using the tilt shift “The Right Way”, when you are intentionally aligning things with the focal plane. Both of these lenses are excellently sharp, even hand held wide open at f/2.8.

left- 45mm .:. right- 85mm

Secondly I took a couple silly pictures of Richie in the foyer. Once again, the 45 has more of a wide angle to it. In this particular composition, I like the 45mm better.  But I’m pretty sure that if I was doing a close in headshot, that I’d like the more flattering flatness of the 85mm. In both these shots I’m using the lens ” The Wrong Way”, where I use the angled focal plane to blur out everything but the eyes.

left- 45mm .:. right- 85mm

Now I acknowledge wasn’t a particularly scientific “test” by any means. I didn’t even do a very good job of keeping the subjects face at the same angle so that you can compare the shots.  This was just an excuse to play with my new toy and to make funny faces for the blog!

Last Friday I went for another plane ride with Barnow. This was an intentional joyride this time. We had special plans to take aerial photos of a special plane. More on that in an upcoming post! On our ascent we passed by a hot air balloon floating over the Boulder Reservoir. I hadn’t really given it too much previous thought, but a sunrise hot air balloon ride sure looks like a good time! I’m definitely going to put that on the to-do list. Can you imagine how many photos I’d take on that little adventure?

The big news in the mountains here in Colorado is the recent destruction that is being caused by the pine beetle. A quick google search can reveal a plethora of articles which cover the subject, but a recent article I read on the subject can be found HERE.

So while on my recent ride in Keystone, I went through areas where the dead fall is quite impressive.  I angled the focal plane of the tilt shift lens in the photo below so that it is aligned with the ground, highlighting all the fallen trees into the distance.  The images below are really impressive viewed at full size; you really get the feel of what it was like to be there.