S.J.M. Bray shot a few frames of Amos Citadel using the OM Zuiko 50mm lens from his OM-1, attached to the E-P2 with an adapter. The resulting fused image was then given modified bas relief treatment and toned in Adobe Photoshop.
I try to standardise on Olympus equipment these days. If it’s good enough for Bailey, then it’s certainly good enough for me. Currently I’ve five Olympus bodies, if you include my OM-1. The menus of all are similar, but the E-P2 has a few quirks that I’ve yet to assimilate.
This image is one of my favourites this month. I can’t say it was inspired by Irving Penn’s work but I think he may have approved of it. On reflection though it has an element of next month’s featured photographer’s cheekiness.
Street photographers always seem to strike the right balance of high contrast whilst retaining essential tones.
Jane Bown used far less film when photographing many of her subjects, notably Samual Becket, but it seems that established portraitists are often given the opportunity to experiment over several frames as a dialogue evolves.
A cave house near Ortahisar, Cappadocia, Turkey.
Olympus E-3 plus 24mm OM Zuiko via an inexpensive E-Bay adapter. A winning combination!
Olympus E-3 plus Zuiko OM 24mm lens, a grab shot of a six year old resisting bed time.
35 mph up a rutted goat trail in a 4 x 4 my Olympus E-3 delivers a tack sharp image due to its image stabilized camera body.
Uçhisar is trendy, and somewhat expensive. It’s worth a visit there though since there are several craft and leather goods shops that belong to friends and sell hand made articles made locally.
OM Zuiko 50mm, Olympus E-3, ISO 3200. The image looks best if you accept the noise for it has a, somewhat, grain like quality.
I was, somewhat, amazed at just how awful it’s possible to make a photograph when one is seeking perfection in an image.
I like to use old 35mm lenses on my cameras and focus manually. It makes me think about my image and slows the shooting process down.
I’ve started to experiment with a new kind of portrait. The concept isn’t really new but my execution of it is. For years documentary photographers have captured faces in crowds affected by National and International events, such as a State funeral, a presidential inauguration or some other tragedy. Kubrick’s image of a news vendor in [...]
Sometimes a monochrome image better conveys reality than one imbued with full colour.
The Beach Turunç ~ Digital Cyanotype After having brunch, with Lee and Joby, Irem set off to collect Amazon from school. It is Chess Club on Mondays and Amazon enjoys learning about the pieces and how they move. The headmaster thinks she may be of junior tournament standard by next year. Anyway following on from [...]
Lentil Soup ~ E-400 Found Image It’s well known that Henri Cartier-Bresson made most of his photographs with a Leica rangefinder camera. He started with the Leica II, was often photographed using a Leica M3, and is said to have enjoyed the Leica III series, which pre-dated the M series and for a while was [...]
Wonderful natural colour from the E-400′s Kodak Sensor I’ve two Olympus E-400 bodies and I really like this camera. It was the machine that converted me to Olympus Digital photography. A lot of people rave about full frame 135mm sensors these days, and I am sure they have their place but to my mind the [...]
In the old days it used to be acceptable to blow a few highlights. Bailey in ‘The David Bailey Masterclass’ wrote: “Let your eyes roam across this picture. Register the fact that some areas are in deep shadow, or appear to be, and other areas are burnt white by light too bright to allow the [...]
Stormy Skies at Amos Irem and I managed to get down to the beach yesterday and I made a few test exposures with the E-3 and the OM-Zuiko 24mm. I rarely use any of my four-thirds lenses these days preferring the weight and size of these vintage OM system primes. With the superb 1 : [...]
Sometimes we photograph the same scene . . . . . . again, and again!
225cms x 175cms No, this isn’t about the new 12 Megapixel Sensor in the Panasonic G1, or the Olympus E-30. This picture was taken with my Olympus E-3. You may not think there’s anything remarkable about the picture but in fact the image is a little over 1 : 1 in scale. That’s to say [...]
Sometimes I think I would like to have access to a proper studio. I love the idea of soft flat lighting provided by softboxes but not as much as that of gilded models that may be Photoshopped to perfection. But I’m just a street-dog really. Nothing wrong with that. Helmut Newton favoured the street to [...]
Baz takes his shot! The British photographer Jane Bown is renowned for eschewing gadgetry in favour of having an eye for light and an interest in her subjects. Using either a twin lens Rolleiflex, or an Olympus OM-1 each equipped with a standard lens she is able to capture the essence of the situation, and [...]
OM Zuiko 1.8 at 1.8, Processed in Bibble Pro, Lightroom, and Photoshop 7 I am enjoying using these old manual focus lenses and then processing the ORF files using some of the latest software on the market. In the image above I’ve aimed for a delicate pastel quality. The image was taken against the light [...]
Olympus E-3 plus Zuiko OM 50mm This lens produces images with a gritty quality . . . . . . it’s a function of the bokeh, no doubt!
The light, and symmetry between the two boats makes this shot work. Over the last four years I must have taken at least a dozen pictures of this footbridge. All have merit in their own way, even when taken at different times of the day, or year, with alternative cameras and settings. This is the [...]
This sad looking girl seems to have blue hair! In this image of Amazon there is a strange blue fog in the top left hand corner of the image. This is called lens flare and it occurs when shooting into a light source with an imperfect lens, either because of its design, or the materials [...]
My favorite subject . . . Here are two images made under similar conditions within seconds of each other. Both were made with a 50mm Olympus Prime Lens. One lens, however, is the Zuiko 1.8 made for a 1970s OM-1. The other lens is the Zuiko D Macro, a lens made specially for digital photography [...]
A while back I put a film in my old OM-1 and on having it processed I was blown away by the depth, subtleties of colour, and and treatment of highlights afforded by film once scanned into the computer. Later I experimented with using my OM Zuikos on the E-400. This had mixed success. The [...]
Just for fun I put my 1970s OM1′s 50mm 1.8 on the E-3. I am really impressed with the results. Indeed I also carried my OM Zuiko 24mm in a pocket and so had two primes available without the need for heavy zooms or a camera bag. The E-3 has the full image stabilization [IS] [...]
When Olympus stopped making 35mm cameras they wondered about also dropping out of the SLR market but then they reconsidered and developed the Four Thirds System for digital SLR photography. The four thirds sensor is slightly smaller than the APS sensors used by manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon. Also it is considerably smaller than [...]
Man On The Roof The image above was taken on an overcast winter’s day with the OM-1 and a Zuiko 1.8 lens. I love this image because of the way the figures in the foreground appear to be dancing and of course because there’s a man on the roof of the dwellings opposite us. The [...]
So I took the opportunity to try out some different lenses in order to see the subtle differences in the quality of the portraits they produce. Olympus 24mm OM Zuiko at F 2.8 Panasonic/Leica Summilux 25mm at F 2.8 Panasonic/Leica Summilux 25mm at F 2.8 Olympus Zuiko D 50mm at F 2.8 Olympus OM [...]
Back at the boating lake at Carrefour Hurray, after three days of being laid low with a fever I ventured out today to Carrefour. There I escaped without buying any expensive photography tomes but I did take some images with an E-400 fitted with the OM 24mm Zuiko via a lens adapter. I like this [...]
The Giant Lollypop! Amazon is increasingly outward looking. She sees things in the distance and decides that she wants to try them. Earrings, wrist-watches, shoes and other feminine stuff are common targets of her attention. So are sweets. This lolly, found in Turunç, must be pure sugar and artificial food colouring. We let her buy [...]
Amazon Bray, 24mm OM Zuiko on E-400 I like this lens and camera combination. It’s good to experience direct focus again, but is direct focus good enough? This image of Amazon looks pretty good, but it’s her hair and the bridge of her nose that’s in focus, rather than her eyes. You won’t notice that [...]
It Became An Adolescent In Three Weeks!
A Neighbour’s House
I was looking at an old book by Professor Hedgecoe on colour photography recently and noticed that the colours of images reproduced seemed somewhat more muted than those that we are used to today. Initially I put this down to the use of film, rather than digital media, and there may be something in that [...]
Amos Without Tourists, Perfec’ Another image taken with the E-400 and the Olympus OM 24mm lens, via an adapter. The RAW file was converted in Bibble Pro where the colours were optimized before a curves adjustment was made in Photoshop to emulate Kodachrome 25. Kindly note: Photoshop and Kodachrome are trade marks of Adobe Systems [...]
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Amazon had just discovered some chocolate powder left over from an old pack of powdered Capaccino when I decided to see how well a 50mm Zuiko OM lens would work for portraiture on the E-400. It’s pretty good, and if you already have this lens, (the 1.8 version can be bought cheaply), and don’t [...]
Unprinted File From Digital Negative Scan Until recently I thought that the differences in quality between different brands of Photo Inkjet Paper to be exaggerated. No doubt this is because I have been used to using the paper by whatever brand of printer I owned, I have had Canon, Epson and now have pretty much [...]
Scan of Monochrome Image Made On Schoeller Acid Free Watercolour Painting Paper I spent yesterday continuing to attempt to come to grips with the HP B9180. When I purchased it last month there wasn’t any photographic paper in A3 size at the stationers so I bought some large Sulphur Free Watercolour paper for painting manufactured [...]
Cold, Dark, Wet, Miserable, and Essentially Beautiful! I’ve just returned from Istanbul where not only did I find myself teaching for two days, but also consulting at a professor of child psychiatry colleague’s hospital clinic. She would, no doubt, have kept me there all day but I was able to escape for just an hour [...]
Drift Wood On Amos Beach Living a reclusive life on a small estate might appear to provide limited opportunities for photography, especially when the weather is inclement. It’s true that living here does little to further my ambition to make images like the late Helmut Newton, however that aside, there are many opportunities to photograph [...]
There are times when the urge to create original, or novel images can blunt my senses to what is right before my nose. The other day I was walking with the OM-1, and feeling somewhat disappointed because I hadn’t found much inspiration. Suddenly I found myself walking toward home and also immersed in feeling so [...]
Punk Rocker Off Duty! Cross processed, Dear Reader, not cross-dressed, although looking at Irem it isn’t a dress that she wears but a boyish bomber-jacket! This image was taken with my latest combination, an E-400 digital body fitted with an OM to E-System adapter, an OM Zuiko 24mm, (Manual Focus Lens), and a Katz-Eye Focussing [...]
Looking Toward Topkapi From A Bosphorus Steamer When I travel to Istanbul I have taken to using the OM-1 and a roll of 35 mm film. In this case Fuji-Colour Super Reala 100. Taking it through airport security is a bit of a risk, and indeed there are frames on this film that showed signs [...]
“Just pout a little more, that’s good, hold that pose, great!” A few days ago I posted some images of a disused beach booth resembling a bandstand. I took those shots with the E-400. The image above however was captured with the OM-1 on the same day. It must have been pretty obvious to anyone [...]
Amos Beach OM-1 Style It’s been raining on and off for several days now, but yesterday during the latter part of the afternoon I ventured out with the E-400 and the 11-22 Zuiko D Zoom. My aim was to see if I could beat the beach image I took a week or so back with [...]
Last month I compared a number of RAW editors. A RAW editor takes the file made by a digital camera, but before any processing has occurred in-camera, and enables you to manipulate it on your computer. This enables you to have maximum control of the qualities of your final processed images. With film you have [...]
Target Practice! Just over six months ago I was photographing randy tortoises near the spot where I found this old computer monitor. What was it doing here I wondered? And then I saw the pellet marks! It was used for target practice, no doubt by some city kid . . .
Bonsai! This tree is a natural Bonsai. It must be very determined to have set root here! I just knew this image would look good when I made the photograph. In fact I visualised it as a monochrome image. If I really work on it I can make it as I imagined it. At the [...]
Because it was taken on a film, nice innit! Olympus OM1. Kodak Gold 400, processed and scanned in a Fuji Mini-Lab. Pretty good stuff really! No really it is. Far more depth even at an 8 bit bitmap than a 16 bit digital capture. If an OM-1 can achieve this I wonder how a half-plate [...]
At last my original E-400 is back from the Olympus Service Centre in Portugal. It has been fitted with a brand new sensor and is now functioning as brightly and efficiently as my second E-400. I really love the colour rendering of the Kodak sensor in the E-400. It seems to have slightly more dynamic [...]
Amazon On-line! Yesterday evening I was lovingly exploring the history of the Olympus OM-1 on the Internet when from Amazon’s room I heard squeals of delight to the accompaniment of computer noises. She was on-line via our wireless network! When I went to explore I found her on her mother’s computer, logged into Noggin.com, sitting [...]
Just a couple of days ago Dave Beckerman, a master of monochromatic images from New York, was lamenting Kodak’s decision to cease production of a number of professional films including its High-Speed Infrared Film. Just when I was getting back into film too! All these images were taken on discontinued Kodak film stock and then [...]
Kahve At The Cafe Of Illusion If, like me, you thought yesterday’s images surreal then take a look at this one. It’s a shot I wouldn’t have attempted has I not been attempting to use up a slow film in an old Olympus OM-1. The OM-1 is an entirely mechanical camera, although it does have [...]
Man On The Roof! Look carefully at the shot above and you’ll see that there is a man on the roof of the building. He appears to be talking on his mobile phone! Below are some more images taken near the Istanbul’s Egyptian Bazaar, which is sometimes known as The Spice Bazaar. They were taken [...]
Sirkeci is where I spent yesterday afternoon. It’s one of my favourite locations for street-shooting. As you can see it was cold, and wet. Some people seemed to have nowhere else to go! Some May Not Have Anywhere Comfortable To Go! For Others It’s Business As Usual Those in the back-streets are afforded a little [...]
Bibble have now released their long awaited version 5 for beta testing I thought I would give it a spin.
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Difficilis,querulus, laudator temporis acti.
Sepuero, castigator, cesorque minorum
Stephen Jeremy Maxwell Bray lives with his wife Irem, and daughter Amazon at Amos, Turunc near Marmaris, Turkey..
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