Samomatic

Recently I have been playing with the Lensbaby 2.0 PK mount. It is the poor man’s tilt-shift, those who have a job buys the real tilt-shift: The Hartblei Super-Rotator. The good thing with the lens is I don’t mind experimenting with it, in this case I shoved in a home made square aperature which produce quite a nice effect.

It is frustrating to try and get a sharp shot, but many of the times I don’t find it necessary. The blur effect combined with the vibrant colors gives it different feel.


I have been pretty busy with the 4th year project so my group members often became my test subjects.


The DOF is very shallow at wide open, with the distortion it is very tough to focus accurately.


For the past week I have been working with AJung on the for my AI project, Wumpus World, a 10×10 ‘cave’ where the computer player tries to find gold while avoiding pits or the Wumpus by .

One of the most anticipated lens of this year. I had bought it while I was in Hong Kong and Horace kept telling me how wonderful it is to taunt me.

Took it for a spin in Kensington Market, it took a while to get use to since it is an equivalent of 450mm in 35mm standards. I was literally ‘head hunting’ in the crowded streets.

This lens is a legend and has sinced been discontinued. I was debating between this or the DA*300mm but in the end decided I love the old school look too much.

I was amazed by the details this lens could pull out. The bokeh is also buttery smooth.

The long focal length allowed for some natural candid shots but in some cases some passer-by can right into the picture as well!

Horace and his new Mamiya medium format system. It is exciting taking film photos with full control, it takes many steps to setup for a shot but forces the user to consider different perspectives and factors beforehand.

Here are some of the shots from this camera, click on the thumbnails to enlarge!

A while ago, I said I would stop buying manual focus lenses. But I just couldn’t stop myself from trying the legendary 50mm F/1.2.

Even though it is more cumbersome to manually adjust everything but this lens can make everything seem surreal with its buttery smooth bokeh.

We went to Dos Amigos to celebrate Charlie’s birthday. The service was a little slow but the food was pretty good.

Kenny showing off his pipes to impress the ladies. I think he had a better chance with his ripped pants.

The itch is back, this time I decided to try out a lens with longer reach: Sigma AF 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6 APO Aspherical RF.
Here are a few of the test shots, it is very difficult to get steady shots handheld and not a not very concealable walk-around lens but so far I am pretty happy with it.

Walked around and explored downtown Toronto with my brother on Friday evening. For supper we went to a Greek restaurant on Danforth and had flaming cheese. “Opa!”

Sticking my head out of the car and taking pictures. Risky business :)

Went to Wonderland on saturday with my classmates and it was a lot of fun.
This week I will have to pay for not doing any work over the weekend. blah.