Kilfitt-Makro Kilar E 40mm f3.5 Lens

35mmc just published a short post I did on this lens that I bought fairly recently, after finding it recommended by Mike Eckman on a post he contributed to at Casual Photophile (here).

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote that and I thought I would expand a little on my experience with the lens so far and also some 3D printing.

The post I discovered this on was about favourite lenses and it was an interesting read; especially as people tried to not pick the obvious (perhaps) clichéd choices and avoided the “best” just sticking with the ones they use the most and truly are favourites.  

It was Mike’s recommendation that caught my eye though and it seemed to me that this lens would fit nicely into my small tool-set.  I have been toying with buying a new lens that I could use on my digital and maybe also on a couple of my film cameras too.  This wasn’t quite what I had in mind but it just sounded very useful and might replace an Olympus lens I am thinking of parting with.

A year of photos

It may have been noticed that over the last year my photo output may have dwindled.  There are lots of reasons for this, the majority of which I won’t go into, but the main reason is my daughter who turned one last month.  As is common with new parents (not that I am a new parent as I already have one who just turned 23) you spend a lot of time photographing the baby and capturing those special moments… especially if you are some kind of photographer; and I have been doing just that. 
I don’t usually share pictures of my family here but I though I might share pictures that I guess might be considered a project.  It’s not really a project just a bit of fun my wife and I have been having which hopefully our girl won’t object to too much when she’s older.
To explain the background a little, my wife is bit of a Disney-phile; meaning that she likes all things Disney.  I wouldn’t say she is obsessed, she works for Disney and that was her main ambition when growing up.  As a result we visit the parks quite often and we have quite a bit of Disney merchandise.
So from a photography point of view, after the birth of our daughter we embarked on a schedule of taking pictures once a month each with a different Disney theme.  At the same time we also took a monthly non-Disney photographs as the official monthly anniversaries came along and also marked certain holidays and such (like the featured picture above).  I have not done much (if any) studio photography and I don’t usually do portraiture so this was a bit of a challenge for me and we had to improvise quite a lot especially in terms of lighting and backgrounds.  We worked as a team; my wife the art director and ‘client’ and me the technical side; trying to make it work and capturing the pictures.  Our daughter did her part in posing perfectly for us and smiling as needed.

So here are the twelve ‘Disney’ photos we were able to create

Monarch’s

The previous owner of our house which we bought about a year and a half ago had planted the front to encourage monarch butterfly’s to lay eggs etc. Last year we were too occupied with other things to really take notice of it but we were pleased to see a few butterfly’s around the house.

This February I was able to stop and look and see that we had quite a ‘crop’ of caterpillars on the plants which was nice to see. I was able to snap some decent pictures.

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Just one day

I took this a week or so ago in our garden. We bought the cactus in Phoenix probably about two and a half years ago and it wasn’t until mid to late last year it finally got planted in the ground.

Since then it, along with it’s companions have been doing really well and earlier this month the first flower bloomed.

It was ahead of the other three and I failed to capture it before it quickly faded the next day; you can see it in the middle here.

The other three followed swiftly after and I was ready with the Pen F Digital to capture it.

It’s not the best photo I have taken I should have allowed a wider depth of field but overall I am happy that we have this photo of it’s first flowering, I hope it brightens your day.

Slightly faded

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while’ I’m afraid blogging has been a struggle lately.

This rose bloomed in our garden this week; it was better the day before but I thought it deserved attention anyway… it reflects somewhat how I feel lately too.. slightly faded 🙂

I thought I would love the Pen-F but I don’t

As you may have read, a couple of year’s ago I traded my dSLR for a mirrorless Olympus Pen-F digital and haven’t regretted it one little bit; I simply love it.

(if you haven’t read about it, look here).

This post isn’t about that Pen-F

 

Moonlight Forest at the LA Arboretum

This weekend we went out on a surprisingly cold evening to see the lantern display at the LA Arboretum.  I took my Olympus Pen-f digital fitted with the 7artisans 25mm lens.  (These images are resized for web JPEGs straight out of the camera as I am without photo editing capability this week)

Honolulu architecture

A few more pictures from the trip to Oahu earlier this year; this time  some slightly abstract snaps of a few buildings in Honolulu.

I liked this with the misaligned layers; like some sort of child’s toy

Pearl Harbor

I recently went on a trip to Oahu, Hawaii and we visited the memorial at Pearl Harbor.  Not being an American I wasn’t really sure what to expect; other than a few general facts here and there I didn’t really know very much about it; I am guessing if I had been raised here, much more of that history would have been ingrained in me.

The Theme building at LAX

I had a few minutes to spare on my way to the UK on a recent trip and couldn’t resist braving the heat outside and get a few pictures of the Theme building which is situated at the centre of the LAX airport complex.

This is an iconic building and classic mid-century ‘googie’ design; I’d love to get inside someday.

All pictures shot on Olympus Pen-F Digital

Garden wildlife

while I was working in the garden this weekend, I was excited by this little fella who decided to visit and hunt for a while.

Flame Skimmer

I quickly ran in to get a camera; my Pen-F Digital in this case, which had the kit zoom lens attached.  It’s an auto-focus lens which allowed me to get close enough but I really struggled to get it to focus on the insect rather than the background.  Luckily, he hung around for a while and I was able to make several attempts.  

Pictures of otters!

My wife and I have a certain fondness for otters – sea otters to be specific (although European and fresh water otters are just as nice but less accessible for us in California).  We have seen otters many times in the various aquariums we have visited and love to share pictures with each other we find online.

Last month we planned a visit to Monterey and the Aquarium there, which has a good otter rehab and release program. 

Union Station, Los Angeles

I’ve visited this station just off of downtown LA a few times and I love it features.  It was built in the 1930s and is a mix of Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne styles.

Art Deco clock by the East entrance

Great typology

For this visit I happened to be meeting a friend coming into town and decided it would do no harm to arrive a little early and see what shots i could find; as it was her train was delayed and I had a couple hours to wander around.

Waiting for the Bull

I went to Phoenix for Thanksgiving and we were invited out to see bull riding; which is kinda what an ignorant person like me would refer to as Rodeo.

This was a somewhat casual/for-fun event and it happens every Friday night at the Buffalo Chip Saloon

I didn’t know quite what to expect and definitely didn’t dress appropriately for the cold evening in November, but is was a fun event for sure and worth a visit.  I would advise getting to your seats early if you want a decent view; it is extremely popular and busy.

Of course I took a camera; my trust Pen-F Digital and managed to capture this picture of a young boy with (I think) his Grandfather

Come fly with me…

This is another post from my recent trip to Kauai, Hawaii.

One thing that we promised ourselves when we were planning this trip as a wedding present to ourselves was a helicopter flight around the island.  There are quite a few operators doing this but we chose Jack Harter; firstly they offered the longest flight time (only by about 5 or 10 minutes but enough) second they offered doors-off flights and lastly well with a name like Jack Harter you’ve got to just go with it 🙂