aperture | little home by hand

Having discovered serious photography only a couple of years ago I really only know digital. I did have a much-used analog point and shoot since age 14 though and have always loved shooting black and white film.
I knew my dad had some analog SLRs somewhere and on my begging got them out for me. So here’s my newest toy:

It’s the Olympus OM-2N, an analog SLR from the late 1970’s and I am in love with it. Now don’t be fooled by its relatively small size and vintage look…this baby was the height of technology in its day and is still a serious and professional camera. But oooh, isn’t it cute, too?
And the even better news: there’s more where that came from! My dad not only has two more models of the OM-series but also a set of lenses in every size imaginable, most of them prime lenses! He was planning to be a professional photographer in his youth (guess it kind of runs in the family).
I chose the OM-2N because it comes with aperture priority as opposed to only full manual, which I thought would be easier as I am still figuring out the various knobs and manual focus. For starters I also took along a 50mm 1.4 and a 180mm 2.8 lens (sigh).
I shot the first test roll of film today and will be taking it to be developed tomorrow (provided I figure out how to rewind the film and get it out of the camera first). If the photos turn out anything close to how awesome it felt to shoot them I predict this Olympus and I are going to be very fast friends!

It’s funny how automated you become when you shoot a lot…the first couple of photos I found myself quickly looking at the black back of the camera and wondering immediately after why I was doing so. Then I understood I was looking for the (nonexistent) preview picture to see if I’d gotten it right first try.
I will be shooting mainly black and white film I think and I am so excited to get to know film in general and this camera in particular better. That said, I am still loving the digital world…I googled the camera just for fun and the first thing that came up was the complete manual as a free pdf – thank you internet!

I am working like crazy to finish that d*** thesis and because I have nothing else to talk about I thought I’d to a very ‘technical’ photography post for once. I hope I’m not boring y’all too much, but I will put some pretty pictures in here for compensation 🙂

I just love shallow depth-of-field and bokeh. It’s not easy to achieve without a DSLR though.
Before I got my 50mm 1.4 lens I used to always shoot wide open, that is, opening up the aperture to its biggest opening/smallest number. With my Canon 450D that depended on the lens I was using (f4.5 on the kit lens 18-55mm and the 70-300mm and I think f3.5 on my dad’s 28-135mm). Before I got my DSLR however, I had a Fuji S5600 (a bridge camera) and even though the smallest f-stop was 2.8 it wasn’t easy getting that lovely bokeh.

There are a couple of tricks of course but for those great macro shots of flowers and such I opted to buy a snap-on macro lens, the Raynox DCR-250. Wow, that opened up a whole new world!
This shot was taken on my balcony, it shows raindrops in a spider web:

Those macro lenses reduce your area in focus to nearly a pinpoint so they take a LOT of practice. Your first 100 or so images will be blurry, trust me. But when you get to know that lens a little, boy, will you have fun!
This one was taken on the same rainy day, on the bamboo which since has not survived my gardening skills (seriously who manages to kill bamboo? they’re like the most undemanding plants ever):

I have a lovely close-up of ladybugs somewhere on another harddrive but since I am too ~~lazy~~ busy to search for it (and dying to get back to my thesis…kidding here) I will safe that for another day and leave you with a picture of my sweet kitty’s nose…it kind of sparkles in the sun…vampire kitty anyone??