A New Perspective

Recently, I’ve found myself experimenting with some different technical approaches to photography.

I generally use slightly wide lenses—sometimes a “normal” lens. Yesterday, I used my Mamiya RZ67 with a 110mm standard lens. I was shooting it wide open in an attempt to add mystery and depth to the images. While making several photographs, I realized that this lens was probably too perfect to really get at what I was trying to do. I considered trying my Yashica D wide open with its simple, three element lens. The Yashica’s lens creates a “swirly” look when shot at its maximum aperture. I was still looking for another option.

Today, I got the idea to try something completely different. I’ve had a telephoto lens in my closet for about six months that I’ve hardly used. The lens has an extremely fast aperture but it is pretty soft. The lens also vignettes heavily wide open. This imperfection seemed perfect.

I took this lens out to a nearby field today and, although experimenting with different equipment, shot some familiar subjects.

An abandoned Pistachio orchard

A pathway

A tree with multi-colored bark

An old power pole. I found it interesting how the pole in combination with the sapling trees looked like a cross at a cemetery.

An interesting tree

This tree looked as though it was trying to grab something.

Next up will be to make some work prints. I’m still not certain that I’ve achieved what I set out to do but I have some more ideas to add to the equation next time. Hopefully this won’t lead me to large format and wet plate collodion.