The DIY Spider Lightish Thingo

Olympus OMD E-M5 +  Pana-Leica 25mm f1.4  | 320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200

I took the portrait above of a colleague of mine, who rolled into work today with a DIY lighting rig he threw together over the weekend. Made of six under-counter fluorescent lights rigged to a speedring, the light creates some pretty unique catchlights in your subject’s eyes, and the relatively low output means you can shoot comfortably at large apertures. Very cool:

Setting this contraption on top of a light stand drew a lot of attention, so there were plenty of subjects to test the rig on:

We’re trying to come up for a name for this thing, and are at totally at a loss. Hmmm….I guess Spider Lightish Thingo will have to do for now.

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All shots taken using the Olympus OM-D E-M5 with either the 25mm f/1.4 Pana-Leica or the M. Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens.

Analogue Adventures Part II

Image: Fuji X100 | ¹/55 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 

I’m pretty sure I’ve found a camera that will most certainly help me drain my bank account due to film and processing costs. I picked up this Olympus XA at a local used camera sidewalk sale the other week. A tiny, durable little film camera with a 35mm f/2.8 F-Zuiko lens, aperture priority auto-exposure and manual focus using a small RF patch in the viewfinder. It’s smaller and lighter than my Nikon V1 (my smallest digital camera), so there’s always space in the camera bag for the little guy.

The XA really came in handy one morning when the batteries ran out on the digital camera I was carrying. I loaded a roll of Velvia 50 and used it as my only camera for the entire day, and wouldn’t you know, it was the most fun I’ve had shooting in a long time.

Image: iPhone 4s 

Image: iPhone 4s

The last time I shot Velvia I had the film cross-processed, which produced some funky results. This time I went with standard E6, and when I placed the processed strips of film over the light table at the lab (above), my jaw dropped. Not only are the colors amazing, but the camera itself performed beyond my expectations. The following scans do no justice to what I actually saw on that light table, but here’s most of my first roll of RVP50 from my new favorite film camera. It should be obvious from these frames that Suki really tries hard to never look at the camera:

You all know I’m partial to Suki, but I must say, this image I took outside my favorite coffee shop is my favorite frame from the roll:

Hah! Makes me laugh every time I look at it =)

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All images: Olympus XA | Velvia 50 | E6 Processing (unless otherwise noted)

Life in Color, Life in Black and White

Browsing through my image catalogs last night, I discovered lots of random frames I’ve taken lately that I never posted anywhere. Just for the fun of it, I slapped them all together and made a couple spreads. These are all taken with my Oly E-PL2, which I still feel great about even though an X100 found its way into my bag this week. I think the two can actually work well together, but I’ll save that concept for another post.

I tend to just let loose and have fun with the Olympus. You can get some pretty insane results with the built-in filters, like pop art and pinhole:

That larger image of Suki in the car above was actually taken by the wife.  I myself take the blame for the badly framed shot of Suki at the bottom left of the spread, taken from the hip. Gotta give credit where it’s due!

I love how black and whites look straight from the camera, using either the grainy film art filter or just standard monochrome. The E-PL2 definitely has better black and white output than the x100 in my opinion:

That’s it! An image-dominant post. It is a photo blog after all. Happy shooting this weekend!
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Olympus PEN  E-PL2 + Panasonic 20mm f/1.7

A Day in Glen Park

Olympus PEN E-PL2 + Panasonic 20mm f/1.7

Seems like there are more and more farmers markets popping up around San Francisco lately. I found out a few days ago that for the first time this past Sunday, a market would be set up in the small neighborhood I grew up in, Glen Park. Such a big place in my heart for this little neighborhood.

To my fellow San Franciscans: weren’t the clouds crazy beautiful yesterday? My goodness. We never get clouds like this! While the wife perused the market, sampling the local produce, I snapped away:

The Glen Park market was relatively small, so it didn’t take long for us to be done checking it out. All that gazing at food made us pretty hungry….

More clicks on the way to La Corneta, the local neighborhood taqueria. Not the best in the city, but hey, they made a killer quesadilla for us today:

Stomachs full, a little more shooting. Even though I spent so many years of my life in Glen Park, I never get tired of just walking around town in this area. Come to think of it, I’ve never really done a photowalk here o_O

That ugly building on the left is the Glen Park Bart station…why is it so ugly??? Oh well.

Took a coffee break at Bello. This cafe is relatively new for the neighborhood, and I actually hadn’t tried it yet until today. Seems like they’ve jumped on the “individually-hand-brewed-drip” bandwagon that’s become very popular among the city’s elite coffee houses. It was a decent cup, but it still had nothing on a cup of Blue Bottle, Ritual, or Philz.

We left the area for a couple hours, and came back for dinner at Gialina, Glen Park’s gourmet pizzeria. As with many SF neighborhoods, Glen Park didn’t used to be this…hip. Before this place was Gialina, it was one of those greasy, ghetto pizzerias. Times have definitely changed for the better around here =)

Gialina is always packed during dinner rush. I’m surprised we got the best seats in the house, at one of two tables by the window. Yes!

Potato and Pancetta pizza. “Potato!?!?” Was my first thought when I ordered this pie for the first time a few years ago. Crispy carbs covered with thin slices of more carbs? Extremely…delicious…. We also ordered a roast pork chop, perfect with a glass of the house red:

Three scoops of Bi-Rite Creamery snickerdoodle ice cream for the lady, and an afogatto for me. Perfect finish. My Nikon FM came along for the day as well. Still trying to get through a roll of Ilford HP5 that I’ve had loaded in the camera for about a week. Strange that I can completely drain my digital camera’s battery in a single day, but it takes me forever to work through a roll of 36 exposure film.

Good night, Glen Park!

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All Images: Olympus E-PL2 + Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 (all JPEGs)