Red bug on green geometry

Red bug on green geometry. Botanical gardens are interesting enough even when the season is not so fully in to show you everything you'd like to see! I visited this garden on the last Arkansas Chuggabug's trip to Parco dell'Orecchiella; There was this small and well kept garden but early May is too early to see anything too interesting in a botanical garden upon the Appennini, even though you are able to recognize blooms and also naked branches. Elena was walking befor me and noticed this little red dot upon the leaves; you are usually frightened by a tiny red dot, well, if you are a spy, or a sniper I mean. This time everything was safe: just a little tricky bug showing us its microscopic tongue... I shot just three pics, and I figured this could be the best, meaning in focus, nice lighting, nice geometry in the bokeh.
I wonder how much time will this camera last, as its lens after the two repairs makes a terrible noise when retracting and if ever it breaks again I fear I won't be able to fix it for the third time. Its swiveling lcd screen is a gods'gift, really.

Copyright 2008 by Alessandro "RonJe" Melillo

Camera: Nikon Coolpix 5700
Film: digital
Focal Length: 100mm
Aperture: 4.6
Exp. time: 1/250
Filter: CPL

Location: Parco dell'Orecchiella
Soundtrack: light breeze
Other: ---

Bug

Here's what I call fun. You got a deep blue Bug, it's got a jolly roger over the back seat, you got good glass, nice reflections and the worst film you could think of: a two-years expired roll of Kodak Elitechrome Gold 100 pushed to 400...!
Nice to see you can safely get good b/w pictures out of it.
Would you have ever thought about it?

Copyright 2008 by Alessandro "RonJe" Melillo

Camera: Pentax MX - SMC M 50mm
Film: two-years-expired Kodak Elitechrome 100 pushed to 400
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: dunno
Exp. time: dunno
Filter: none

Location: Viareggio
Soundtrack: ---
Other: ---

Confidence

What does it stand for? Well, for instance it deals with sudden situations you have to front knowing that you *can* successfully front them.
The first roll of film I shot with my father's Yashica FX-3 was a two-years-expired roll of Ilford FP4+ film, and it was easy because the FX-3 has a light meter. A light meter doesn't necessarily tell the truth, but it can safely approximate it and the vast latitude of the FP4+ film does the rest; you shoot and you get photographs. But starting from the second roll, I began shooting with the Zorki 4 rangefinder, and I hadn't a meter; I simply learnt the Sunny16 rule and started extimating how many stops the light was below than optimal. It's not, as some would think, a matter of memorizing a complex array of times and exposures, you just have to be able to tell how lower the light is than full. Esay enough. You know the starting point, all you need is a sense for dim: one stop below, two, three, oh, it's a heavy overcast, we might reach five-six stops below. Then you need practice for night shots, but it's a matter of a couple of rolls. To be honest, the first photograph I ever shot using this method (on Ilford film and my Zorki) was perfectly exposed; I had an instant confirmation by my Nikon 5700 just a minute after, but it's the neg which said it all, when I processed it and saw the result.
You develop a firm confidence in your sense for light, and a belief in the uselessness of a light meter; no, wait, "useless" is not the right term, I'd rather say "superfluous", that means it's a gadet you got but you can safely do without. Exactly. I don't care if I have to think before framing, it's ok to me, it's part of the process. And believe me as I started shooting digital, so I' not far from that vast group of photographers who rely on their huge digitally-automatized cameras and the neeed for an instant satisfaction: viewing the photograph ass soon as you shoot it.
I'm not saying it's no good; the result is what matters, indeed, and the process to get it doesn't add or subtract value to the photograph.
I just say it's not fun, to me. What's cool in pressing a button? Results can make you blind, man, if I liked to push buttons I could spend my afternoons turning on and off the lights...
And when you find yourself in front of a nice subject and you discover that the meter's batteries have just run out because you accidentally left it on - as I happened to experience a couple of days ago - you grab the camera, smile, take a look around and think: "...mmmhhh... it must be four stops below...", then quickly set the camera, frame and shoot.
It's not a concern; you got confidence.

Tractors

Funny thing: I go out to shoot a building aside my workplace and though I expected not to find anyone, the site was crowded... Yes, I can't shoot masons and think that I won't be punched, so I had to go around it and shoot it from the beach. And the beach was being ripped by a tractor, which traced wonderful dotted lines on the sand. I still don't know why.
This is why I mainly shot the sand.
Oh, and I had to test an old Nikkor AF 70-210 zoom (which digitally turned out to be a powerful 105-315) on my collegue's D50. Yeah, that's overkill, and after all I don't like those bulky DSLR's, but sometimes we all feel somewhat hard-rock with a big gun in our hands...!

Copyright 2008 by Alessandro "RonJe" Melillo

Camera: Nikon D50
Film: digital 400 ISO equiv
Focal Length: 315mm (in 35mm equiv)
Aperture: f/5.6
Exp. time: 1/250
Filter: none

Location: San Vincenzo
Soundtrack: ---
Other: ---

Skyscraper

Skyscraper, Follonica, February 2008
Follonica is a strange place. A small town with a lot of relatively small buildings and condos, narrow one way streets, a messy urban plan and a single unusually weird skyscraper one can clearly notice from the other end of the gulf, i.e. Piombino, my hometown. What's most weird is that you could imagine life around it, I mean shops, people, traffic; well, the truth is that the raw parking lot is almost empty, no shops around, no people, nothing. I decide for an extreme architectural perspective, it's - obviously - starting to rain and though I have a tiltable display pointing the lens upwards ain't the best thing to do. No worries, after all it's only cold and windy too, there isn't light but an iso 200 equiv might work. I need 1/8 s, hold it firmly, man, or you're gonna miss it. Click. Click. Click. Three shots, my lens is covered with tiny raindrops. One will be ok: the one above. Oh, and I was almost sure to find a fine on my car's windshield, which I luckily didn't.

Copyright 2008 by Alessandro "RonJe" Melillo

Camera: Nikon 5700
Film: digital 200 ISO equiv
Focal Length: 35mm (in 35mm equiv)
Aperture: f/2.8
Exp. time: 1/8
Filter: none

Location: Follonica
Soundtrack: ---
Other: ---